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In the Year of the Clouds (DR1282), Samaster, who thought he had regained control of the Dragon Cult, inadvertently revealed his whereabouts. The Harpist organized a team of legendary paladins to march straight into the Gates of Hell, and at the cost of nine paladins, they killed Samaster in his lich form once again.
Ironically, they left themselves with a loose end once again. They failed to destroy Samass's phylactery or find the original "Book of Dragons," which contained the secrets of the dragon lich. They then assumed they had completely solved the problem, allowing the disorganized Dragon Worship Cult to continue wreaking havoc across the continent!
Why should the true dragon race bear the burden of the problems created and left behind by you, the goddess of magic and the harpist?
In this matter, Casalos had absolutely no liking for the chosen ones of the Goddess of Magic and the harpist.
Many people are drawn to the harpists because of their "kindness," overlooking their chaotic nature. In fact, they are extremely unpopular throughout many countries of Faerûn.
Their favorite thing to do is to interfere in the normal internal affairs of other countries under the guise of goodwill, incite internal strife and create chaos to overthrow the current rule, and then ignore the problems left behind afterward—the civil war in Tesser today is inextricably linked to them—whatever their motives, judging from their behavior, the Harpists are essentially a Faron version of a reinforced NGO.
Casalos was determined to drag one of the "culprits" into the conflict with the Dragon Cult.
44. Public opinion
It's impossible to drag the Harpists down with just a few rumors. The Harpists are the number one producer of rumors in Faerûn. At least 80% of the rumors circulating on the continent of Faerûn are spread by the Harpists, thanks to the extremely high proportion of bards among their members.
There are no official media outlets in Faerûn, nor is there a convenient universal network for information exchange. While mages and warlocks have convenient magical means of communication, their messages are not as publicly available as those of the general populace of Faerûn.
Wandering bards, who travel the world and spread news of everything happening in every corner of the continent through poetry, are the only information dissemination network and public opinion controllers on the continent of Faerûn that are open to the general public.
Bards possess their own unique network of relationships—a bard is a magical combat profession, and Faerûn's magic is mysterious and noble. Aside from naturally gifted spellcasters like warlocks, all other magical combat professions require systematic learning and training to master magical power. This means that every bard undergoes systematic instruction. However, the nature of the bard's profession dictates that they cannot follow the secretive apprenticeship path of mages. Academies and specialized educational institutions are the best training grounds for bards.
In fact, every bard on the continent of Faerûn must have come from some bard academy. Of course, these bard academies may not necessarily have the name "academy," but essentially there is no difference between them. As far as Casalos knows, most of these bard academies are businesses supported by harpists.
While studying at the academy, bards need to establish and maintain good interpersonal relationships with their classmates, seniors, and juniors. This is the guarantee for their future careers. Interpersonal relationships form their unique information channels and communication networks. This network is constructed with each bard as a node and the inherent interpersonal communication between bards as the information channel, forming a huge blockchain-like structure that influences and even controls public opinion in Faerûn.
As a great man once said, if we don't occupy the battleground of public opinion, the enemy will.
Why would the Harpists go to such lengths to support the bards' expansion in Faerûn? It's all about controlling public opinion. While the Harpists appear to be a loosely organized group, Casalos knows perfectly well who the key figures are behind the scenes. That old codger Elminster, since retiring to Shadow Valley, has been frequently traveling to Earth—who knows what kind of Earth this is, but what that old man has learned is definitely not simple, unless he's encountered an idiot on Earth.
Even considering only the continent of Toril, the fact that the continent of Faerûn is in such a backward social state is clearly the result of some kind of uncontrollable force.
Those matters at the level of "world laws" have nothing to do with Casalos. Casalos only took a liking to Kenneth's identity as a bard and his unique talent for "journalism," intending to use this as a breakthrough to build his own system of public opinion control on the continent of Faerûn.
As for the influence of Kenneth being a bronze dragon… that would further benefit his Faerûn propaganda control plan. Casalos's propaganda control naturally needs to penetrate deep into the true dragon society of Faerûn, as halflings have few ways to spread propaganda among the true dragons. And a bronze dragon must have some connection with the Golden Dragon Court, the nominal leadership organization of the metal dragons in Toril.
Just like the message released this time, it would normally have to pass through several hands in humanoid society before it could be heard by a certain golden or silver dragon that had infiltrated humanoids. Then, because its content was related to dragons, it was likely to spread into the Golden Dragon Royal Court.
Now, Kenneth has directly spread the same message to several dragons he knows well, presumably some dragons in the Golden Dragon Court have already begun investigating the rumors about the ancient dragon god's return to Faerûn.
It's just a question of how many of today's metal dragons would still be interested in those truths that have long been buried by history.
The 400kg of gems Casalos paid Kenneth wasn't just a commission for spreading a few rumors; it was made very clear at the time that it was funding Kenneth's initial activities. Casalos hoped Kenneth could establish a propaganda apparatus under its control across Faerûn, and this small bards' guild was merely the beginning.
Although Kenneth currently has few bards to recruit, and none of them are renowned legendary poets, as long as Casaloz continues to provide "gem" funding, this small enthusiast group will soon spread among bards, attracting more and more high-ranking bards to join, becoming a "private" organization no less powerful than the Silvermoon City Poets' Guild, vying with the harpists for dominance in public opinion across Faerûn.
Casalos has no say in the specifics of the operations and won't interfere. As long as it controls the source of the "funds," Kenneth will handle everything perfectly. If it can't manage, it can simply replace the person or the dragon.
Casalos believed that there would be no shortage of dragons on the continent of Faerûn interested in the super gems he produced—gems, as a consumable item for spells, were not susceptible to inflation.
As for itself, after a period of monotonous training and teaching, it began its second trial after the Dragon Treasury was upgraded.
It was still that strangely gravity-bound Astral Silver Stream Island, still the powerful, godlike Artanis who shared the same name as the Archbishop, and still the vortex-shaped portal through which Casalos was thrown into a certain area of Artanis's original world amidst the dizzying spin.
What came into Casalos's view
Chapter 128
It is a swamp shrouded in miasma.
The smog containing certain high-energy particles reduced visibility to less than five meters. After landing, Iron Dragon, with half of its body submerged in the mud, learned from its previous experience and did not fly up to cause trouble again. Instead, it spread its wings to catch the mud and increase its contact area with the ground so that it would not sink into the swamp. Then, it slowly pulled out its limbs, turned over, and lay flat on its back with its limbs facing up.
Thus, its enormous wings became reliable webbed feet for walking in the mud, while its limbs were completely freed up to become efficient melee weapons. The dragon's long neck allowed it to turn its head and observe its surroundings from a normal perspective. Apart from its somewhat ugly posture, it had no other drawbacks.
The miasma obscured the light of the sky, making everything in sight dim; sounds were absorbed by the bubbly swamp and the excessive particulate matter in the smog, leaving only a profound silence. The calm did not last long, as surging shadows began to appear from afar.
45. Grinding reputation is essential for unlocking dungeon options.
With a single tail, Casalos smashed four insects; with a swift, alternating swing of its two front claws, it tore apart three more; with each of its hind claws, it crushed one; then it sprang its head out, closed its beak, and bit the last one that came close. Casalos spat out the slightly fishy-sweet crumbs in its mouth, watching the still surging black shadows in the smog.
The battle has been going on for half an hour.
Just as it had anticipated, due to the unique limitations of the gravity environment, as long as it didn't recklessly take to the air, the swarm of insects wouldn't follow it, and it wouldn't fall into the same predicament of being overwhelmed by endless insect swarms as before. The intensity of the battle it needed to face was much lower.
Casalos was still unsure if his strategy was correct. With the insects no longer flying, the number swarming at any given time was significantly reduced, and since he only needed to defend on a two-dimensional plane, his stamina consumption was much lower—even slower than when he collected loot to strengthen and recover. Even though the insects' attacks never ceased, his stamina remained consistently high.
However, if the insect density doesn't increase, it can't quickly stack up the layers of blazing flames, and the frequency of loot drops is much lower, so its growth is also slow.
It doesn't know whether the monster strength increase mechanism in the new dungeon increases automatically over time, or whether it has to wait until it kills a certain number of low-level insects before higher-level ones appear.
If it's the latter, then conserving its energy and slowly killing its way through is definitely the right strategy. However, given Casalos's limited understanding of the Vault, perhaps the probability of improvement over time is higher... If that's the case, slowly killing bugs like this will definitely not allow its growth to keep up with the speed at which the bugs' strength increases. Perhaps it won't even see the boss before being bitten to death by some high-level bugs.
And I didn't even get many gold coins after I died.
"Should I fly up to lure the monsters?" Casaroz wondered, the memory of being torn apart by the endless swarm of insects flashing through his mind again, and he couldn't help but shudder. "Let's observe for a while. What if it's a kill-count-leveling mechanism? It's not too late to make a decision after the insects' strength changes for the first time... Did I last that long last time? The battle intensity was too great, and I completely ignored the passage of time. I'm missing a crucial reference point, which is really troubling for a dragon. Let me think of something else I can use as a reference... Hmm, right, gold coins. Last time when the insects' appearance changed significantly, my gold coins had already jumped to four figures."
While pondering this, Casalos glided through the swamp like a shallow-draft catamaran, charging towards the densely shadowed areas in the fog, slightly increasing his monster-killing efficiency.
It was soon disappointed; with just over a hundred coins remaining, multiple types of upgraded bugs broke through the fog, mixed in with the basic bugs.
Because the bugs are in such good condition, they are not yet able to pose a threat to Casalos, who has acquired 4 spell-like abilities, 3 pieces of equipment, and 2 feats that have increased his HD by 1. However, the increase in the bugs' strength means that the mechanism of increasing based on the number of monsters killed that he was looking forward to has been shattered.
"The creator of the Dragon's Treasury really doesn't want users to improve easily."
Continuing to dawdle and slack off would only backfire, so Casalos could only mentally prepare himself before turning over, breaking through the clouds, and roaring like a dragon.
The buzzing vibrations broke the silence brought by the smog, and countless shadows rose up, obscuring the already dim light, and the sky formed by the swarm of insects descended once again.
Casalos lowered his head and exhaled a breath of dragon breath, using his Stone Shaping spell to create a stone barge in the swamp. He landed on it and flapped his wings to propel it forward. The true battle of training had only just begun…
Having endured the second agonizing experience of his body being torn apart bit by bit by the swarm of insects, Casalos slowly opened his eyes, his body covered in scales, and saw Artanis sitting quietly in front of him, waiting. He let out a long sigh of relief.
it is finally over!
The new survivor dungeon put far more pressure on it than the original room-based dungeon; each trial felt like it was crushing and draining its soul. Casalos suspected that if he hadn't witnessed the annihilation of the Atheros during his whelping stage, and if he hadn't strengthened his will in the first phase of the Dragon Vault, he definitely wouldn't have been able to persevere.
The Miracle Light's statement that "this will not be the last user" is true. Given the general character of the Ferenlong, once they have experienced this, very few would enter the Vault a second time.
What's the use of the power to advance from a true dragon? Aren't dragons powerful enough already?
"How's it going?" Artanis asked calmly after Casalos stood up.
"I found some methods, much better than last time, but I still haven't been able to see the Dark Serpent's subordinates." Casalos glanced at the extra 3000 or so gold coins on his panel and secretly calculated what he could upgrade.
“That’s normal. You’re still very young. As long as you persevere, you’ll succeed eventually.” Artanis gave Casalos a completely insincere encouragement, then changed his tone and asked with a touch of nostalgia, “Do you need some effective advice related to the internal workings of Aiur?”
Hmm, a side quest? Did I unlock some achievement or gain reputation? It seems that the early stages of this dungeon will mainly revolve around this godlike being.
Despite the complaints, Casalos certainly needed Artanis's advice. It nodded its head like a chick, afraid of accidentally bumping into something and missing the "plot point".
"No matter where you end up after entering Aiur, don't stay in one place. Explore the world. Our war against the Night Serpent Dander took place throughout Aiur. Among my people were many powerful individuals who were overwhelmed by the swarm during the war. The armor and weapons we bestowed upon them with the authority of archons were scattered throughout the world. Those armors and weapons are manifestations of the laws of the Aiur world. By the standards of your realm's celestial realm, they are high-level artifacts, capable of providing you with very effective assistance now."
A high-level artifact! That would be incredibly helpful! The question is, how do I find it?
Casalos was excited but had a question. Before it could ask, Artanis answered, "El is different from the Celestial Realm. Since those high-level artifacts are manifestations of El's development, they are always accompanied by large-scale natural phenomena after they lose control."
Thunder, blizzards, hurricanes, volcanoes, earthquakes… if you're nearby, you can easily spot them.
At this point, Artanis raised his hand and conjured a rune that shimmered with a strange silver light. With a casual wave, he cast it into Casalos's body.
"With this... rune, those artifacts formed from the laws of the world will recognize and accept you. Once you find them, you can use them at will—only within the world of El."
46. Arrival
The laws of the world, extraordinary phenomena of heaven and earth? They sound so ancient…
Casalos, of course, wouldn't voice his true thoughts after listening to Artanis's...
Chapter 129
Upon hearing the introduction, its intuition told it that the overwhelming smog during the recent training was one of the environmental effects of the advanced artifact Artanis had mentioned... It felt like it had missed out on a fortune.
Despite the感慨 (gǎnkǎi, a feeling of mixed emotions, implying regret or regret), the dungeon mechanics remain unchanged; without sufficient "reputation," the relevant functions cannot be unlocked. Even if Artanis manages to find the correct location of an Aiur artifact without providing runes, it cannot approach the entities formed from the laws of the world.
"You're still too young!"
If Artanis, who is waiting to save the world, isn't in a hurry, why should Casalos be in a hurry?
Assuming that the upgrades to the Dragon's Treasury occur across age ranges, Casalos could linger in this dungeon for a very long time—the time span from infancy to adolescence is much longer than the time span from hatchling to young dragon, giving it ample opportunity to witness everything in the world of El.
The crucial question remains how much actual growth it can gain from each trial in the Dragon Treasury.
Although we still didn't see the boss in this dungeon, Casalos learned from the first experience and didn't completely miss the initial growth stage. It managed to farm 3512 gold coins by killing mobs, which was enough for it to have a phase of growth.
After careful consideration, it chose to upgrade its Elemental Master level.
It's not that Bloodscale Frenzy level 2 Dragon's Fury is weak; the main issue is that Casaroz doesn't have the Barbarian class rank. Dragon's Fury requires Frenzy as a foundation, and its closest equivalent to Frenzy is Dragon's Wrath. Dragon's Wrath is an uncontrollable state, so enhancing its power at this stage is clearly inappropriate.
While the abilities provided by a Level 2 Elemental Master are slightly lacking in "strength," they can greatly facilitate Casalos's next plans.
Energy replacement and level one elemental summoning are the new abilities Casaroz gains after upgrading his Elemental Mastery to level two.
Energy Replacement allows Casalos to replace all "energy-related" effects in his spells, including dragon breath, spell-like spells, and arcane spells, with the energy form he harmonized at the first level of Elemental Master. Casalos's harmonized energy at that time was electricity in his breath; meaning he can now convert his breath and all other energy-type spells into lightning.
Such a replacement does not enhance the strength of its spell effects, but it greatly increases its applicability. For example, other dragons that were originally fire-elemental could be immune to half of its breath damage, but now, if it replaces the energy attribute of its breath with electricity, its immunity to fire is no longer a concern.
As for the blue dragons and bronze dragons that are immune to lightning... why would the iron dragon give too much thought to whether those dragons, who are inherently weaker than itself, are immune to its dragon breath?
Even Kenneth, a fully grown bronze dragon with the rank of a level six bard, couldn't withstand a single pounce from Casalos. Blue dragons are weaker than bronze dragons, so what if they're immune to half of Casalos's breath? The only chromatic dragons that iron dragons consider adversaries are red dragons and the seemingly extinct purple dragons!
The Level 1 Elemental Summoning ability is not an ordinary elemental creature summoning spell. This ability grants Casaroz the power to summon a medium-sized elemental creature corresponding to his breath using his breath weapon. The power of this medium-sized elemental creature is equivalent to that of the elemental creature summoned by the Level 5 Summon Allies spell, and it has a casting level equal to Casaroz's Elemental Master level.
Using this ability to breathe fire will not affect the normal effect of the breath. The summoned medium-sized elemental creature will appear directly from the embers of the breath and attack the target of the breath.
With these two abilities, Casalos's disguises are no longer limited to other fire-elemental dragons; bronze dragons, blue dragons, or even song dragons can all become its disguises to ensure a certain level of power. When necessary, it can even disguise itself as a high-level lightning elemental creature. This will definitely be of great benefit to its upcoming journey through the Sword Coast.
With enough gold left to buy one and a third of a new feat, Casaroz, adhering to the principle of improving as much as possible, invested it into the two super-breath feats, Breath Power and Breath Storm. This further enhanced his breath weapon and laid a necessary foundation for unlocking the talent tree of three divinely gifted classes in the future.
After bidding farewell to Artanis and leaving the Dragon Vault, and with the soothing power of magic, enduring the agonizing experience of being torn apart by the swarm for the third time in his sleep, Casalos returned to the Rift to make some preparations.
The Dragonvein Warlock used illusion and divination spells to disguise an elite half-dragon, a goblin, as the red dragon "Cersita," and sent her to the summit of the snowy mountain to oversee the battle. The responsibility of supervising Isis's studies was temporarily entrusted to the most loyal dog, Eisen. The Iron Dawn was fitted with a magnificent wooden sailing ship hull in the style of the Forgotten Realms. Then, they waited for Kenneth to use teleportation to deliver the magical ship docking permission from Waterdeep. Casalos transformed into a robust male dragon, and with his guards transformed into magic scales, boarded the ship, officially arriving at the eye of the storm in the Forgotten Realms, Sword Coast.
To avoid arousing suspicion about his identity, Casalos first had Iron Dawn teleport him to a remote corner of the Astral Sea. Then, following the "rules and regulations," he teleported him to the Sword Sea, more than a hundred nautical miles outside the glorious city of Waterdeep. He activated an illusion barrier against enemy aircraft that was only effective against civilians. After confirming that no ships were nearby, he slowly descended onto the sea, dispelled the illusion, and sailed towards Waterdeep in the form of a perfectly normal sailing ship.
Sword Bay truly lives up to its reputation as the most bustling place on the Forgotten Realms. Before even covering half of its short journey of about a hundred nautical miles, the Iron Dawn encountered three waves of pirates, large and small. The Royal Guard, transformed into Falins, stripped these incompetent bandits clean and threw them back into the sea, leaving only their leader tied to the statue on the bow of the ship, finally scaring away the other restless creatures.
"What is Kelburn Black Staff doing? Waterdeep is the face of Faerûn, and they don't even care about the many pirates entrenched in the outer sea. They've truly disgraced Faerûn!"
Amid Casalos's complaints, the seven-masted giant sailing ship, painted entirely white and adorned with gilded and gem-encrusted reliefs on its railings and masts, slowly sailed into Deepwater Harbor, immediately attracting a large number of onlookers. Such a huge and magnificent ship was rare even in the entire Forgotten Realms, which was actually the fundamental reason why the Iron Dawn attracted so many pirates. Casalos was absolutely unaware of this.
It ascended to the high platform at the bow of the ship, basking in the admiring gazes of thousands, and let out a refreshing and long dragon roar.
"Ferren, I'm here!"
47. Welcome
Waterdeep, the glorious city, the crown of the North.
Regardless of whether the various factions in Faerûn acknowledge it or not, Waterdeep's supreme status on the continent remains widely known.
It is a vast and magnificent, inclusive yet not extreme, vital transportation city where you can find people of all friendly races, including dragons; you can also witness a variety of exciting and amazing works and achievements. Waterdeep is the cradle of invention and innovation, surpassing all other cities on the Sword Coast in this respect, and perhaps even leading the entire continent of Faerûn—judging solely by the fact that Waterdeep is the only magical ship port on Faerûn, there is indeed no city on the continent more advanced and superior.
Baldur's Gate, which claims to be the largest port in Sword Coast, is nothing more than a rural place compared to Waterdeep.
Casalos stood at the bow of the ship, gazing into the distance.
The side of Deepwater City away from the coast rises high, forming a cliff tens of meters high. The entire city's structure tilts towards the sea. Except for the area obscured by the towering Deepwater Peak, the entire city's appearance is exposed towards the sea. Various buildings are built around the mountain in a well-organized manner, and the streets are bustling with people. Compared to the modern coastal metropolises of my previous life that are gradually fading from my memory, Deepwater City does not seem to be inferior.
The Iron Dawn crossed an invisible barrier.
Chapter 130
A barrier, a mysterious power, lingered around Casalos for a long time before slowly dissipating and disappearing into nothingness.
Casalos knew that it was the Agalon Dragon Barrier set up by the dragon wizard Marel. Without Marel's permission, no dragon... or more precisely, no dragon that did not conceal its true dragon identity, could enter the barrier.
Fortunately, Kenneth had already reported the Iron Dawn and its captain's identity to the Lords' Alliance. A robust dragon who had traveled to various worlds and a cargo ship full of "otherworld" treasures were certainly worthy of Maril's leniency upon hearing the news.
Before even entering the breakwater gate, two small, high-speed triangular sailboats equipped with ballistae emerged, trailing white waves, and together with dolphins playing in the waves at the bow, guided the Iron Dawn around the naval base of Fukasui Island, into the port through the southern gate of Storm Bend Island, and moored at the T-shaped berth at the northern end of the port area, close to the breakwater of the naval closed port.
In the administrative divisions of Waterdeep, this area is not part of the notoriously dirty and chaotic port district, but rather part of the central castle district of Waterdeep. It is an exclusive docking area for registered magic ships, large caravans, and diplomatic vessels.
Whether it's the Iron Dawn's true nature as a registered magic ship or Casalos's public appearance as a true dragon "merchant," both are qualified to dock here, thus avoiding the many troubles that may arise in the port area.
This is one of the advantages of having Kenneth lead the charge to use the gems to open the gates of Waterdeep.
Even so, the berths in the port area, not far away, were still crowded with onlookers, all eager to see what kind of person had arrived in Deepwater City aboard a magnificent giant ship.
When they finally saw the giant dragon standing on the bow platform, the entire port area erupted in excitement.
Those nobles who knew the Iron Dawn was a magic ship, and merchants hoping to find an opportunity to forge a business partnership with the dragon, waited early outside the berth in their own carriages. The kobolds disguised as magic scales went aboard and, working with the port staff, completed the mooring of the Iron Dawn, lowered the boarding ladder, and then the carriages and horses arrived in an orderly fashion.