Mushroom Lord in the Underground City

Chapter 572 - 562: Craftsmen

When the delegation manager Ronan followed the guide dwarf soldiers to their quarters, his face instantly turned ugly.

The stone house was clean but low and cramped; the door required bending over to enter, and inside, the space was narrow. The tall guards could hardly stand straight, and even for Inanna, who had a relatively petite stature, it felt tremendously confined.

"Isn’t this a bit inappropriate?" Ronan suppressed his anger and questioned the dwarf official in charge of reception, "This doesn’t seem like suitable accommodation for humans."

The dwarf official showed no expression, his attitude firm: "This is the dwarf territory, and all the buildings are like this. If there’s anything you find inappropriate... please bear with it."

Ronan pointed to a human silhouette passing at the other end of the alley: "What about them? How do they live?"

The dwarves accepted quite a few refugees from the humans’ side fleeing, so Ash City naturally had their presence.

The dwarf official glanced and spoke without any ripple in his tone, "That I don’t know, but the lord’s mansion certainly doesn’t have accommodations specially prepared for humans."

After speaking, he nodded slightly and turned away, leaving the delegation to face this humiliating arrangement.

Even more unbearable was the fact that not far from this row of stone houses was Ash City’s largest public forging area.

Even at nightfall, it remained brightly lit, the huge bellows roared, and the sound of forging clanged incessantly through the night.

On the first night, Ronan attempted to go out to seek human merchants or prominent figures residing in the city, even willing to spend a fortune, at least to find Miss Inanna a slightly peaceful place.

But before he could act, Inanna gently called him to stop.

"It’s unnecessary, Ronan." The girl’s voice was clear amid the noisy background. She cradled the round, plush No. 4 Puki in her arms, "Little Four said it has a solution."

No. 4 Puki’s so-called solution was to block the ears, but to be honest, it worked!

It extended two soft and extremely resilient mycelium tentacles, gently probing into Inanna’s ear canal, filling all spaces tightly.

In the next moment, Inanna’s world sank into a deep-water-like tranquility; aside from her steady breathing and heartbeat, Inanna could barely hear any sound.

The only slight disturbance throughout the night came from No. 4 Puki itself.

In its boredom, it would unconsciously start playing with Inanna’s hair, the movements small but sporadic.

Yet, once adapted, this tiny interference became a sort of reassuring companionship, quickly lulling Inanna into a dream.

The other members of the delegation managed to shut their eyes in the noise based on their own skills.

But Knight Puki did not sleep.

Indeed, since becoming a mushroom, Lin Jun no longer needed sleep.

Knight Puki stood atop the roof, within its sensory range, it detected several dwarf sentries, specifically watching over the delegation’s residence.

However, they were merely watching and seemed to have no intention of further action.

They noticed Knight Puki too, after all, Lin Jun had no intention of hiding.

But Knight Puki simply stood there, doing nothing, so no dwarfs stepped forward to confront it.

Meanwhile, Lin Jun, through Knight Puki, observed the nearby public forge.

Or rather, observed the dwarves coming and going within.

Upon close thinking, indeed the Fungus Castle was lacking the ability to produce equipment of its own.

The Northern Territory wasn’t short of mineral deposits.

Though far from the abundant veins in the mountains, it was likely enough to supply the needs of the Northern Territory itself.

Lin Jun wasn’t short on mining methods either; mining the veins in permafrost was difficult for other forces, but not so for the Mushroom Garden that could mass-produce Drilling Puki.

The true scarcity lay in the forging talent skilled in smelting, crafting, and tempering raw ores into fine armors and blades.

The various tribes absorbed by the Northern Territory were not worth mentioning. In their lives, they might never have grasped a hammer, and even if wearing armor or weapons, most would be old goods trickling out from the Empire’s interior.

The human side did have craftspeople skilled in forging, but such craftsmen were prominent figures wherever they went, and most served the lord.

For such craftsmen, Lin Jun couldn’t simply and crudely take them like supplementing "D Level personnel".

In human city-states, even a normal departure by a craftsman required reporting to a guild or lord; should they suddenly vanish, official investigations would ensue.

One or two might be concealed, but once the numbers grew, secrets would be challenging to keep.

And a mere few craftsmen, in today’s Fungus Castle scale, were a drop in the ocean.

Thus, Lin Jun had yet to successfully "recruit" a sufficient number of craftsmen from the human side.

But things were quite different on the dwarf side.

According to Knight Puki’s observation, among those busy in the public forge were dwarves, from simply dressed commoners to elaborately decorated wealthy individuals, from thick-bearded males to admirably strong females.

Though it would be exaggerated to say all dwarves were adept at forging, clearly over seventy percent of dwarves possessed basic forging experience and skills.

This meant, within the dwarf community, "craftsman" was not a rare or special status.

This undoubtedly showed Lin Jun an opportunity, he could confidently recruit a group of people from here.

Of course, those legendary craftsmen among dwarves who could create enchanted equipment or skill weapons were sure to be closely monitored and protected.

But they weren’t Lin Jun’s target anyway.

Lin Jun needed was ordinary craftsmen who could mass arm soldiers and Puki.

Yet, how to recruit, and how to transport these people to the Northern Territory had to be well thought out, given the Empire stood between the sides.

...

The next morning, Inanna, holding No. 4 Puki, bent over to step out of the stone house. She stretched her body in the fresh morning light, breathed the air tinged with a slight coal smell, showing no sign of fatigue, instead appearing spirited.

However, the rest of the delegation weren’t this fortunate.

Most had clearly visible dark circles under their eyes, their expressions weary.

Within the entire delegation, aside from Inanna, only No. 4 and Sword Saint Puki appeared spirited.

No. 4 had diligently blocked Inanna’s ears throughout the night.

And Fourteen had trained with his sword all night as usual.

Fourteen now increasingly felt turning into Puki was a fortunate matter. No need for sleep, no need for food, just one bottle of magic potion could restore all energy.

Were it not for having to travel during the day, he wished he could immerse in the honing of swordsmanship all day.

He even thought, had he turned into Puki earlier, his skills might have climbed even higher.

...

The dwarves sent someone before the delegation again, but this time it wasn’t an unknown individual; it was the son of the local lord, Little Badri.

Although called "Little", his build, a size bigger than the average dwarf’s, was far from small.

He approached and instantly demanded a re-examination of the delegation members’ identities, using multiple specialized detection magic, claiming it as a measure against mingled spies.

And the first in line for inspection was Inanna!

How could this be allowed?

Ordinary soldiers, even Ronan himself, accepting inspection might be tolerable, but Inanna’s status? How could she reveal all the magical items and methods as her trump cards?

Yet, no matter how Ronan explained, Little Badri maintained a stance of either accepting inspection or returning the way they came, clearly picking a fight.

Since entering the city yesterday, they’ve repeatedly faced unexplainable obstructions, even with Ronan’s patience, his temple veins pulsed, anger barely containable:

"Hindering an ally’s delegation privately, how will you explain this to the higher-ups later?"

Little Badri chuckled: "Don’t just throw accusations; you’ve made peace with the Demon Race, but we dwarves are still fighting up front, naturally we must guard strictly against spies. How can you call it obstruction? As for allies... heh."

Ronan gritted his teeth but was helpless.

A conflict was naturally unthinkable; they came to negotiate. If a conflict erupted, regardless of being right or wrong, this task would largely fail.

Entering the mountains wasn’t necessarily dependent on proceeding through Ash City; at worst, they could detour and enter via other border towns.

Yet, this would cause delays in timing.

In Ronan’s difficulty, Inanna first nodded to herself then stepped forward two paces, facing Little Badri directly, her pink eyes locked onto him, speaking each word clearly:

"I feel you’re insulting me, hence, I challenge you to an honor duel! According to the mountains’ tradition, you either apologize, cease your obstructive behavior, or accept the challenge."

"Of course, as nobility, I’ll send a representative to fight..."

With that, Inanna positioned Sword Saint Puki right before a flabbergasted Little Badri...