Lord of the Oasis

The Ent’s expression froze. He jumped and took a few steps back.

After seeing the fire elf setting himself ablaze, Devitt immediately commanded the Caradia soldiers to retreat.

Truth be told, he had never seen flames of this color before. Even from afar, they could feel the extremely high temperature of the flames.

“You are something,” the Ent lowered his head and said.

“Let us go, otherwise we will raze the entire forest to the ground!” A fire elf bellowed.

“Alright. I’ll let you go,” the Ent gave a slight nod. “But before that, let me test the power of your flames!”

He then conjured up a wooden stake that weighed over a hundred pounds. It hovered in the air, then charged straight at the forehead of the leading mage.

“Be careful!” Someone cried in warning.

Just when everyone thought the fire elf could not avoid the heavy blow, he gently placed his hand on the tree rings of the wooden stake and uttered, “Ha!” The wooden stake was burnt to cinders instantly.

“Take this!” Five fire elves charged forward and hurled the fireballs gathered in their hands at the Ent who was rooted on the spot.

The Ent made a grasping gesture with his right hand. Right away, the leaves on the ground twirled and bunched up into a giant floating ball in front of him. The leaves blocked the combined attack of mages but were turned into ashes as a result.

“Alright. You can go,” he said nonchalantly as he dusted the ashes off his body.

Abel signaled for the fire elves to leave, then he walked up to the Ent and said, “We’re just passing by your territory border. Since you have agreed to let us leave, then please keep your promise and not make things difficult for us anymore.”

“Okay,” the Ent smiled. Ignoring everyone, he walked into the depths of the forest.

Claremont stared at the Ent’s retreating back as he left. Warily, he walked to Abel and suggested, “Let’s set off immediately. It will be disastrous if the entmen come for us.”

“Let’s go!” Abel gave orders to the soldiers behind him.

Instead of creeping stealthily like before, they decided to sprint down the mountain as fast as they could.

An hour later, they finally walked out of the Ent’s estate. They collapsed in exhaustion at the foot of the mountain to rest.

“Let’s continue with the journey after ten minutes of rest. We want to reach the Dwarf Clan’s boundary before nightfall,” Claremont announced to the soldiers.

The Dwarf Clan was one of the few races on the island that was willing to leave adequate leeway for communication with nomads and the other races. Before Devitt’s group arrived on the island, Raphael had personally gone to the Dwarf Clan to work things out with them, requesting that they not make things difficult for the reconnaissance team that would be passing by.

The Dwarf Clan’s nomads dealt with almost every race on the island. In their town, one could easily buy any information about the island. The more covert the information was, the more expensive it would be.

When Raphael sent them off in the early morning, he suggested to Devitt, “If you want to know about the characteristics of the Snake-women and the other races, you can check with the Dwarf Clan’s intelligence.”

“Is there any difference between the Dwarf Clan and the Midget Clan?” One of the soldiers asked his companions in a low voice as they hurried along on the plains.

“I heard that the dwarves’ personalities and life characteristics are similar to humans. Same like the human world, there are both good and bad people within the race,” another soldier replied.

“Whereas the midgets tend to withdraw from the society. I also heard that the hands of the midgets were given to them by God. They are quite different from humans,” a third soldier added.

They chatted as they walked halfway across the plain. The fifty-man reconnaissance team finally arrived at the city of the Dwarf Clan just as the sun set.

There were dwarf soldiers standing sentry at the city gate. After checking their identities, the dwarf soldiers let the reconnaissance team pass through the gate without a word.

“It feels so easy to enter the city,” said a soldier.

When they walked to the commercial street leading to the main city, what they saw was beyond their imagination. They were expecting to see dwarves that were less than half the height of a human, instead, the crowd milling on the street was filled with people from all different races.

“The main city of the Dwarf Clan should be the trading center of the island,” Claremont surmised as nomads from different races brushed past him.

“According to Raphael, because the Dwarf Clan has developed a really good service industry in the main city, almost no one dares to cause trouble here,” Abel said. After walking in the wilderness for a whole day, he was in high spirits when he arrived at the prosperous and bustling commercial street.

“It’s better not to stare at the pedestrians on the street.” Devitt shook their shoulders. “Everyone here is a good person. Just be careful not to get into trouble when you walk out of the city gate.”

“Okay,” Claremont averted his gaze and said to Devitt, “Let’s quickly find a hotel to stay in. There are quite a lot of people here. We might not be able to find rooms to stay for the night.”

“Claremont is right,” echoed Abel.

“I think we should find a hotel on this street. After all, it’s close to the city center, it will be more convenient to ask the Chamber of Commerce for information after dinner,” Devitt reasoned after mulling it over.

Claremont and Abel nodded in agreement.

The three of them then led the soldiers from hotel to hotel in search of vacant rooms for their accommodation. Finally, they found an inn, The Art Pavilion, which had eight empty rooms that could accommodate fifty people.

Devitt leaned on the counter and heaved a huge sigh of relief, “We finally found rooms.”

“Eight standard empty rooms for eighty silver coins,” a dwarf perched on a high stool said to Claremont after doing some calculations on his abacus.

“Ten silver coins per night for one empty room?! Are you serious?” Claremont exclaimed incredulously.

The dwarf who was in charge of accounting curled his lips and didn’t say anything else. He just glanced at the door meaningfully.

Claremont was angered by his silent mockery. He pulled Devitt’s arm and said, “Captain Devitt, he is just out to cheat us. Let’s find rooms elsewhere.”

Ten silver coins in Drondheim were equivalent to a month’s reward for a high-ranking officer. It was too extravagant to spend it on a night’s stay.

“Forget it.” Devitt shook his head and said, “It’s almost dark now. I don’t think we can find any empty rooms elsewhere. It’s most important to let the warriors rest well.”

Hearing that, Claremont could only take out handfuls of silver coins and counted out the correct amount to the dwarf at the counter.

“Go to the second floor,” the dwarf said after receiving the money and thrusted a bunch of keys into Claremont’s hand.