Book 11: Chapter 53: Nice-Mai City

“Time!” Almost immediately after Miryrm finished speaking, Qin Lun answered her with an expressionless face.

“Do you have to be so quick? You didn’t even think about it! This makes me look like I have no talent for setting questions!” Miryrm stared with wide eyes, looking speechlessly at Qin Lun.

“Ah, ah, ah! Life is so boring!” The silver dragon ghost’s two small claws waved frantically for a moment. With a ‘pop’, her figure vanished from the spot.

“Hey, Lady Miryrm, what about the prize you promised?” Lynda completely ignored the silver dragon’s deeply bruised little heart, adding insult to injury without any courtesy.

“Ding!” In the darkness, a shiny gold coin dropped out from the spot where Miryrm had just been. It rolled and rolled, all the way to Qin Lun’s feet, leaving everyone speechless. This silver dragon really had a very high level of cheapness!

“You should be content. If gold coins weren’t the lowest value item in Miryrm’s collection, she might have only given you a copper coin.” Laini pushed up her glasses and picked up the gold coin from the ground.

But after just one look at this coin, she took off her glasses in surprise, wiped them, and looked at the front and back again. She then shoved it into Qin Lun’s hand. “Hahaha, before that idiot Miryrm realizes her mistake, let’s teleport away quickly. She actually threw out a Lucky Gold Coin.”

“Maybe this was the prize Lady Miryrm specifically intended to give?” Lynda widened her beautiful eyes in rebuttal.

“Do you think that stingy dragon has the noble quality of accepting defeat gracefully?” Laini covered her mouth and giggled. “This is absolutely a coin she just randomly grabbed when she felt so humiliated just now. Lynda, your friend got a huge bargain. Hurry up, or else if she comes to her senses, we won’t be able to leave again.”

Qin Lun didn’t care much about whether it was a lucky coin or not. Hearing the female Mage say that the silver dragon might come back, he immediately pulled Iristin into the Teleportation Array.

…

After a spell of dizziness, when Qin Lun’s eyes could see again, he found himself in a huge underground cavern. Behind him, his companions appeared one by one after flashes of magic, all cautiously observing their surroundings.

The ground they stood on was also inscribed with a small Hexagram Array. But at a glance, there were no guards protecting this array inside the cavern.

“Candlekeep has limited manpower. It’s impossible to staff all the Teleportation Arrays in various places. Therefore, the locations we choose are relatively hidden, mostly underground. The cave entrance will have illusion arrays and some trap mechanisms to prevent the Teleportation Array from being destroyed.” Seemingly sensing everyone’s confusion, Lynda explained with a smile.

“Have you been here before?” Iristin asked softly.

“I haven’t been to this particular array, but don’t worry. I have a diagram of this cavern’s mechanisms. We won’t run into trouble.” Lynda took out a grey parchment scroll from her bosom and waved it at Iristin.

About half an hour later, the team came out of the underground cavern. Lynda hadn’t boasted; the mechanism diagram in her hand was indeed very detailed and had been a great help along the way.

After exiting the cavern, everyone found they were in a wilderness area near a large river.

This wilderness was called the Everlasting Wasteland, also known as the Dragon Bone Wasteland. It was once a battleground between a Red Dragon and a Hill Giant.

During the Fifth Crown War, there was a city here belonging to the Vyshaantar Elven Empire. Towards the end of the war, this city was magically attacked by the allied forces of the Kaeldomo Elves, causing it to become Ruins.

Since then, the ecological environment here had never recovered, which is why it was called the Everlasting Wasteland.

The Ruins discovered here by Candlekeep scholars were suspected to be that very city of the Vyshaantar Elven Empire. Its archaeological value was immense, so Candlekeep had always maintained the Teleportation Array here.

Near these Ruins, there was also a medium-sized city with many races, called Nice-Mai. Nice-Mai belonged to the Silver Marches. However, it was very close to the controlled area of Neverwinter, making the situation quite complex.

As for the large river nearby, its name was the Serpentine River. It was actually the same river as the one that runs through Deepwater City.

This great river originated upstream in the snowy Spine of the World mountains. Its downstream flowed from north to south, passing through the Silver Marches, the Neverwinter region, the Golden Plains, and finally entering the Sword Coast at Deepwater City.

Qin Lun and the others were now on the southern bank of the Serpentine River. They would travel upstream, following one of its east-west tributaries to reach Silverymoon.

“Should we find a ferry directly and take a boat to Silverymoon?” Qin Lun turned and asked Mastashia.

Although Qin Lun had performed well on the journey and held the title of Moon Elf Prince, making him the nominal leader of the team, regarding the route, they basically had to follow the arrangements of the Highland Elf.

“Hehe, don’t rush. It’s getting late today. Let’s find a place to camp first!” Mastashia laughed and waved her hand.

Qin Lun thought about it and agreed. They had first ridden flying mounts for hundreds of kilometers today, then teleported thousands of kilometers from Candlekeep. It made sense to rest. They were already within the borders of the Silver Marches, and the Silverymoon Celebration was still over ten days away, so there was plenty of time.

“Looking at the map, Nice-Mai City is just over thirty li to our east. Should we go directly into the city to rest and reorganize?” Lynda glanced at the map in her hand and suggested to everyone.

“Hmm, that’s fine too. I also need to find a place to send messages to some companions.” Mastashia nodded in agreement. Reaching the Silver Marches was one thing, but thwarting the Zhentarim conspiracy was another. They needed the intelligence support of the Harpers Alliance.

“Are there any noteworthy aspects about Nice-Mai City?” Hill asked Mastashia carefully.

During the previous adventures, due to various misunderstandings and mishaps, everyone had made many dogmatic mistakes. This time, engaging in an Epic Plot in a city full of spies required extra caution.

“Nice-Mai is a multi-racial city. Dwarves make up over 50% of the city’s population. The remaining half consists of Humans and Elves, with a small number of Gnomes and Half-Beings.” Mastashia thought carefully for a moment before speaking.

“This city borders the area controlled by Neverwinter, so it serves as a semi-commercial transportation hub. Its main characteristic is that it has a lot of blacksmith shops.”

“A city known for its blacksmith shops?” Everyone found this somewhat novel.

“Yes, it’s very close to the Spine of the World mountains. It’s less than a hundred li from Mithril Hall, established by the modern Dwarf Warhammer Clan. The mountains are full of mine shafts left by the Shield Dwarves, allowing iron ore to be easily transported to Nice-Mai. Combined with the large Dwarf population in the city, this characteristic formed.” Mastashia explained with a smile.

“Don’t underestimate Nice-Mai’s city size. It provides twenty percent of the Silver Marches’ military standard equipment. The lord here is a Shield Dwarf, though he doesn’t belong to the Warhammer Clan. He has now joined the Lord’s Council of the Silver Marches.”

“It’s less than a hundred li from Mithril Hall here?” The three Apostles’ eyes flickered, and they exchanged glances. They suddenly remembered another Epic Plot that Qin Lun had previously been involved with – Mithril Hall.

When Qin Lun was retracing the Ancient Path, he encountered some Snowpeak Dwarves. One of them, a Dwarf Prince named Lorlin, was responding to the call of the Shield Dwarf King, Bruno Warhammer, to go north and participate in the mission to exterminate the Shadow Dragon in Mithril Hall.

Judging by the timeline, the Shield Dwarves seemed to be preparing to attack Mithril Hall around this time. Perhaps they still had a chance to participate in this larger Epic Plot based on Qin Lun’s friendship with Lorlin.

After all, the task of thwarting the Zhentarim conspiracy was just a branch of the Silver Marches’ nation-building quest. In terms of task importance and Exploration Rate, it absolutely couldn’t compare to the Mithril Hall plot.

“Let’s not worry about that for now. Let’s handle what’s in front of us first. Eyeing the pot while eating from the bowl risks ending up with nothing.” Rand was steady and reminded the other two in the Team Channel.

“Mastashia, you said the Dwarf city lord of Nice-Mai is also a member of the Silverymoon Lord’s Council?” Iristin’s eyes suddenly shifted, realizing something, and she asked softly, “If that’s the case, can we approach Lady Elastor of Silverymoon directly through this Dwarf lord and inform her about the Zhentarim conspiracy.”

“We can try, but it probably won’t have much impact.” Mastashia nodded and said thoughtfully, “The Zhentarim are already enemies of the Silver Marches. It’s normal for them to have conspiracies targeting the Silverymoon Celebration. If we can’t find the rats hiding in the shadows, just warning them won’t accomplish much.”

“That’s true too. The members of the Silverymoon Lord’s Council definitely have guards around them, and they themselves are quite powerful.” Qin Lun agreed with Mastashia’s judgment and said calmly, “Since the Zhentarim are confident about causing trouble at the Celebration, they must have a way to bypass the guards. The best method is to find and eliminate them. Relying solely on verbal warnings has limited effect.”

While discussing, the group traveled, and finally, before the sky turned completely dark, they saw the hazy high city walls ahead.

After entering the city, everyone discovered it was exactly as Mastashia had described. They could see blacksmith shops with tall chimneys everywhere, and Dwarves walking back and forth with their characteristic wide gait.

There were Humans too, but most of them were mercenaries and merchants wearing leather armor with weapons at their waists. Because it was already late and the city would soon have a curfew, everyone quickened their pace and found an inn to stay at near the outer city.

The owner of this inn was Human. However, he had very little mercenary aura about him, appearing warm and hospitable. Furthermore, the food and drink in the inn were very cheap, completely different from the money-first customs of Baldur’s Gate.

“Qin Lun, take out that Lucky Gold Coin of yours and let’s have a look!” Upstairs in the guest room, Rand moved closer to Qin Lun and asked with a grin. Hill on the other side also looked over, clearly both of them were very interested in the special coin mentioned by the Great Sage Laini.