As she spoke, as if worried her previous words hadn't shocked her father enough, Nidalee raised a hand, gently covering her lower abdomen—the meaning was unmistakable.
Upon hearing this, the Archdruid's voice was almost gnashing with fury: "Who is it?!"
He paused, then suddenly seemed to realize something: "Could it be… him?"
Nidalee nodded. "Exactly. It's just as I told you before—the one who can purify the corruption on our Earth Dragon, Nigel Charles the Priest."
"I've fallen in love with him. And for the sake of this love, he agreed to cleanse the Earth Dragon's corruption for us, with no thought of payment."
"Foolish girl!" the stag roared in rage. "You've been deceived! You actually believe he can really purify the Earth Dragon's corruption? Use your head! If he truly had such an ability, why would he have fought you for the Holy Sword Fragment?"
"He doesn't have such power at all. He's lying to you, hoping to gain the secrets of our tribe—so he can sell them to our enemies and make a fortune!"
Nidalee lifted her chin, meeting her father's eyes without a trace of fear. "No, Priest is not that kind of person! I trust him, Father. Now that the Holy Sword Fragment is consumed, his power is our only hope left."
The stag reared up in fury, hooves pawing the air, as if ready to crush her. Yet, even as Nidalee clashed so boldly with her father, her mind was perfectly clear. The moment he raised his hooves, she sprang aside, instantly morphing into leopard form and fleeing into the distance at breakneck speed.
"Come back here!" the Archdruid thundered, but made no move to pursue. "Return to the tribe at once!"
Nidalee, however, never looked back. Her voice rang out as her footsteps faded away, "I'll only return once you've agreed to my two conditions…"
As she said this, her silhouette vanished deep into the forest, gone without a trace. Behind her, the stag stamped twice in impotent rage. Yet soon enough, its wild glare faded, replaced by the innocence of a true deer. It spun, darting into the depths of the woods.
At that very moment, just outside the Mountaineer tribe's camp—
The Archdruid Ilarode sat cross-legged, eyes closed, attuned to the distant senses of his stag avatar, conversing with his daughter far away.
Beside him stood Torun, the minotaur, face tense with worry and anxiety. He dared not speak, afraid of interrupting a spellcasting so profound.
Suddenly, Ilarode's chest heaved violently, as if something had deeply aggravated him. After a few heavy breaths, his eyes flared open—blazing with wrath.
Seeing this, Torun felt a deep foreboding, but still wasn't brave enough to speak.
The Archdruid soon closed his eyes again, taking a long, deep breath to quell his anger. Only then did he slowly rise, weariness written across his face.
Finally, Torun dared to ask, "Archdruid, my lord, may I ask… how is Nidalee now?"
Ilarode paused, then spoke in a voice as placid as still water, "Ah, she's quite well. Her having lost contact for a few days was nothing but a small mishap."
"But it's created a little extra trouble. She now has a new task to accomplish, and likely won't be returning to the tribe for some time."
His feelings were a mess, and he dared not reveal the truth. Mostly, he didn't know what the minotaur would do if he found out his intended bride had eloped.
After all, the image of Torun's near-fanatical zeal about Nidalee was still fresh in his mind.
With these words, the Archdruid's tone even held a faint apology. "Torun, if you wish to see her, I fear you must wait a while longer."
Upon hearing this, Torun couldn't hide his disappointment, but quickly forced a hearty smile. "So long as she's unharmed, I'm not in a rush, Archdruid. Since you have promised her to me, I will wait as long as I must."
He had been told by his own kin that Ilarode was the most powerful and respected spellcaster in all the mountains. He thus trusted this Archdruid's word implicitly.
Ilarode nodded slightly, Torun's deference much to his liking—yet it only deepened his frustration toward his daughter. "I assure you, once this matter is resolved, she'll return at once and marry you properly."
"Thank you," Torun replied, inclining his head before hefting his massive greataxe. "Well then, I'll set out. Once I take care of the problem at The Tide Caverns, perhaps those Mountain Dwarves will finally join our alliance."
He was ever the optimist, and Ilarode nodded again. "Let's hope that after this, those dwarves abandon neutrality and truly stand with us."
There was, after all, a Mountain Dwarf force in these highlands. They weren't indigenous to the region, but had migrated from some distant dwarven kingdom to mine the mountains.
Their group was called the Mountain Dwarf Mining Company. Though not a massive power, in these mountains their strength was not insignificant. What mattered most—they possessed advanced ironworking, able to craft quality arms for the otherwise primitive mountainfolk alliance.
As a druid, Ilarode naturally despised metal. He far preferred to create enchanted weapons of oaken wood for his warriors.
Still, practical as he was, he knew his spells could not arm every fighter. Not every warrior could wield a magic wooden axe—while every combatant like Torun needed a reliable weapon to reach their full strength.
Thus, if these expert dwarven smiths could be brought into the alliance, their strength would leap forward by an order of magnitude.
Yet gaining them would not be easy.
Dwarves were traditionally allies to humankind—but that was only on matters of great import. When faced with apocalyptic threats—undead scourges, demonic invasions, rampaging Old Gods—the dwarves would stand firmly with men.
Ilarode had hoped that cleansing the demonic corruption from the mountains would win them over, but the dwarves clearly saw this alliance as aimed against Liberl Port, a mere alliance of self-interest.
For a war of such origin, the ever-neutral dwarves had no interest. Their only concern was business. They wouldn't risk offending any party.
Torun, for his part, wouldn't give up so easily. His excursion to The Tide Caverns was to help the dwarves resolve a crisis, hopefully curry favor, and at last draw them into the alliance.
Ilarode was only too happy to support him. "It's a hard task, but the dwarven might is vital. If we gain their support, our odds for anything ahead will increase by at least twenty percent!"
...
Within the Rockseeker camp.
While Nidalee was busy trying to convince her father, Charles and the other three were also busy. They ran back and forth in the guild-hall of the Adventurer Guild for a whole morning before forming a new team and preparing to conquer The Tide Caverns.
By noon, all formalities settled, they returned to the hostel.
No sooner had Charles entered his room than he saw Nidalee already waiting. Her face was full of guilt.
At once, he had a bad feeling. Sure enough, the girl stepped forward and said, "I'm sorry, Master. I've made a mess of things."
Charles raised an eyebrow. "What happened?"
"My father… He refuses to let you enter the tribe, on the grounds that you're from Sein," Nidalee replied. "He said letting you in would only create misunderstandings among our tribal allies."
Hearing this, Charles was stunned. "Wait—seriously? Even a thing like that matters…"
He looked down at his white hair in disbelief, never expecting his ancestry would cause such trouble.
Nidalee bowed her head, guilt filling her eyes. "I'm sorry, Master. But I'll keep trying to convince him. After all, this truly benefits the whole Mountaineer tribe. Father can't resist forever."
Charles gave a wry laugh. "I agree, no need to rush. After all, it's not our Earth Dragon who's gone mad, nor our territory that's corrupted first."
Seeing her avert her eyes anxiously, his curiosity grew. With a frown, he realized there was something more. "What is it? Is there something else?"
"It's just…" Nidalee's gaze fell. She bit her lip. "Actually… I have a fiancé. The heir of one of our allied tribes. Although I dislike him—it was all my father's arrangement. Recently, my father's been pushing me to marry him as soon as possible…"
"And just now he urged me to hurry home and marry. In a panic, I told him I'd already given everything—body and soul—to you, Master…"
Charles froze. "Wait—what?!"
Such news made his scalp tingle. Remembering every wild thing he'd done to Nidalee, a wave of guilt washed over him, and the thought of facing Ilarode suddenly filled him with dread.
Damn… Her father already knows what I've done!
His expression was a mixture of guilt and distress. Beside him, Andny's eyes widened in curiosity—she didn't fully understand all the complicated relationships, but she was deeply intrigued.
Off to the side, Theresa bit back a grin; her eyes sparkled with mirth at Charles's helpless, flustered state.
"Well, that means, uh…" He scratched his head, finally forcing out an awkward conclusion, "We'll have to wait for the Archdruid to cool off a bit, I suppose…"
He couldn't help but grumble inside: if only things had happened in a different order—if he'd purified the Earth Dragon first and only then revealed their relationship, perhaps her father would have accepted it more easily.
But seeing Nidalee's shame and confusion, he realized he couldn't blame her. He didn't know what pressures she'd faced, how powerless she must have felt with such a domineering father dictating her life. He couldn't find it in himself to reproach her for not achieving some perfect outcome.
Oh well. If the Earth Dragon stays corrupted, the loss is theirs, not ours.
"We'll set the matter aside for now. When your father can no longer keep the Earth Dragon under control, he'll come looking for us sooner or later."
He exhaled deeply, gaze a touch absent. "Until then, we have something more urgent to handle."
After all, he couldn't ignore Anno's safety.
"We're making a trip to The Tide Caverns!"
...
The Tide Caverns lay in the southern part of these mountains. Go much further south, and you'd see the open sea.
Because of the tides, the surf crashed endlessly against the outer rocky cliffs. Rolling thunder echoed through stone, reverberating inside the empty mine tunnels—thus their name, The Tide Caverns.
The copper ore mined here was essential for crafting Mountain Dwarf signature weapons—Storm Warhammers. Copper was cheap and highly conductive.
However, ore distribution inside the mine was scattered and difficult to extract. Annual output remained low, and the yield was not exceptionally high quality. Thus, the Dwarf Mining Consortium never assigned their elite teams here—only a squad of older miners working at a slow, steady pace, extracting copper at low cost and low risk of overmining.
Of course, this also conveniently offered late-middle-aged dwarves new employment—a genuine "silver-haired bonus" to the Mountain Dwarf community.
Ahem.
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