Divine Kingship

Chapter 609 A Letter from the Vanilla Governor
Three months have passed since Elsa returned, and it's winter.

Rand received another important message from the Elf Forest at Crescent Moon Harbor.

The Vanilla Archon has officially declared war on the Elven Royal Court and the Third Restoration Faction in the name of vying for the throne.

After the vanilla established the first elven town to rule in a gradual manner.

Vanilla quickly spread this pattern to the surrounding elven towns and even cities.

In just one year.

Vanilla has already taken control of more than 10 cities of varying sizes in the surrounding area.

Today, the reformists are still weaker than the other two factions, and on the surface they don't even have 1/10 of the strength, but their potential has already been demonstrated.

Clearly, Rand Nicholas's plan for the Elf Forest was a success.

Now, the reputation of the Vanilla Archon has spread throughout the Elf Forest.

"Governor Vanilla hopes you will return to the Elven Forest. She has many questions regarding the current situation and needs your assistance." Olenna handed the letter to Rand.

Rand opened the letter.

The message reads: "Your Majesty, help! They are disturbing me even while I'm on vacation. I can't take it anymore. I strongly suggest strictly enforcing the system of separating work hours and rest hours."

And that was it.

In short, Rand needs to go to the Elf Forest to help Vanilla escape her predicament of working all day and to plan her work schedule.

Of course, there's no such thing as an 8-hour workday in the world, and Vanilla didn't expect to work only 8 hours a day, but she really needs Rand's help now.

Vanilla didn't write anything more in the letter, but Rand could easily guess what wasn't written there.

In short, it's time to set off again.

There's no rush to set off in a day or two; Rand can still handle some kingdom affairs.

There are indeed some urgent kingdom affairs that need to be addressed.

The king and queen of the dwarf kingdom are coming to visit today.

Feeling somewhat guilty because Rand had made their eldest son do a lot of hard labor, he came to greet him early this morning.

Of course, there's nothing inappropriate about a king like him welcoming a king from another kingdom.

The dwarves' ships have reached the shore.

Dwarves are skilled in forging and have relatively outstanding research in engineering, which is an innate trait born from their life among the rocks.

The land of the dwarves is mostly barren mountains. The dwarves are skilled in forging, using scorching metal to carve out their living space, and some suitable machinery is also essential for mining.

Their expertise in metallurgy and machinery has long been a part of their culture, which has led to the current stereotypes about dwarves.

However, there are other stereotypes about dwarves, such as that they like and are good at brewing ale.

The reason is also very easy to understand: physical labor such as mining, metallurgy, and forging can cause fatigue and damage to the body. At this time, alcohol is needed to soothe such damage, otherwise the sore body may make sleep quality very poor.

The reason it's ale and not wine is that if dwarves wanted to make wine, they would need to overcome their height to pick the grapes from the vines.

Dwarves did try to make wine, but in their language, wine means "tall trap," because they broke more ladders than they made wine while gathering raw materials.

The dwarf king and queen disembarked and bowed to Rand.

They had no choice but to bow and nod to the dwarf king and queen.

Queen Ellie of the Moon Phase Kingdom, who was standing next to Rand, also nodded in greeting.

The port was specially decorated to welcome the dwarf king and queen, after all, they were the ruler of a country coming to visit, so they had to be treated with the highest honors.

Rand even had some small flowers that only bloom in winter collected and placed nearby to show how much importance she placed on it.

"Would Your Majesties like to rest at Crescent Moon Harbor first, or go directly to the industrial zone to see His Highness the Prince?" Rand asked with a smile.

The dwarf king and queen must have come here to rescue the dwarf prince and bring him home.

Rand, of course, had absolutely no reason to keep the heir to the throne in his own territory as a chief engineer and metallurgist.

Now that the dwarf prince has been captured and taken back, it won't have a significant impact on Rand anymore.

It would be best to have this genius dwarf prince conducting research in the territory, but if that's not possible... Actually, the Moon Kingdom and the Dwarf Kingdom have gradually established a friendly relationship.

When they first sent ocean-going ships to the Dwarf Kingdom, the Dwarf Kingdom was merely a northern human lord who wanted to acquire some dwarf artisans.

At that time, Rand's status in the Frostmoon Kingdom was already quite high, but to the king of a dwarven kingdom far away on the other side of the ocean, he was just a duke from another country.

Things are completely different now. The dwarf prince has come to work in the Moon Phase Kingdom, and many dwarf craftsmen have also come to exchange and learn. The dwarf king has realized the difference between this place and other human territories.

The two sides now have a real foundation for cooperation, which is not one side giving charity to the other, but genuine cooperation.

Of course, Rand also coveted the ancient technology of the Elf Forest, but he would never give up his own territory and the development path he had laid the foundation for.

Otherwise, things might have turned out like primitive people using firearms as walking sticks.

The dwarf king and queen looked up at Rand: "Your Majesty Rand, let's stop strolling around and go see our good-for-nothing son."

In fact, the dwarf prince was very capable, but he was not really interested in the throne. It was only when he came to the Sanctuary to report on his duties from time to time and saw how bored Rand was that he became more determined to make his previous choice.

The dwarf king and queen rode in a centaur carriage.

Both of them were already familiar with some of the unique features of the Moon Phase Kingdom, so they weren't particularly surprised by the fact that centaurs were pulling carriages. After all, there were beings in the world taller than humans, so they weren't too surprised by it.

The centaur carriage traversed the smooth brick road and arrived at the Burning Land, the industrial center of the Lunar Kingdom, in less than half a day.

The dwarf prince was already waiting there. He didn't go to the port to greet them, fearing he'd be immediately captured and taken home by the dwarf king and queen as soon as they disembarked. The dwarf king stroked his handsome beard: "This dwarf engineering master, could you perhaps tell us, this old couple, about your achievements over this period?"

Rand thought to himself, "So even dwarves can be sarcastic."

The prince scratched his face somewhat awkwardly, causing his rock-hard skin to dent.

He also had something to say. If he really went back to visit his family, he might be imprisoned in the dwarf kingdom and never be able to escape again. The risk was just too high.

So the dwarf prince pretended not to notice the sarcastic tone in his father's voice: "Let me introduce the cooperative project we agreed on earlier, alchemy."

"Father, Father, are you listening to me?" the dwarf prince called out.

Only then did the dwarf king come to his senses, his gaze having been drawn to the industrial landscape of the Burning Lands.

The industrial architecture of the Burning Lands is quite barbaric, with many towering chimneys and buildings that look like furnaces densely clustered together, and dwarven and human craftsmen blasting freshly produced metal blanks with forging hammers.

In the distance, coal sorting and washing equipment that provides energy can be vaguely seen.

Apart from the capital of the dwarven kingdom, the dwarven king had never seen such a high degree of industrial integration anywhere else.

The experienced dwarf king could clearly see that this place would gradually be developed into an industrial center integrating mining, metallurgy, forging, and engineering.

Then the products here can be transported to Crescent Moon Port, and then sold to various countries by sea, or consumed internally via internal roads.

This was undoubtedly amazing. The dwarf king had already learned about the form of the Burning Lands' industry from Rand's introduction, but seeing it with his own eyes still captivated him for a long time.

"I heard that. Hasn't alchemy already taken shape and has a specific system?" the dwarf king asked.

“That’s true, but in the past, alchemy focused more on the creation of potions and magical items, and had little interest in equipment, weapons for war, or even siege equipment,” the dwarf prince said eloquently. “Dwarves, on the other hand, tend to focus more on metallurgy, mechanical structures, and forging techniques, and have similarly had little interest in the study of magic.”

“Previously, His Majesty Rand commissioned me to research staves, and after collaborating with the alchemy workshops of the Sanctuary, I have achieved results.” The dwarf prince introduced his masterpiece to the dwarf king. “This is a standard stave. Although it is far inferior to those extraordinary staves that can be called magical items, it is cheap, cheap enough to be issued to the mage legion.”

“But we dwarves have very few spellcasters, so we probably won’t need such a thing,” the dwarf king said thoughtfully.

Of course, if such cooperation were to take place, the Dwarven Kingdom could also manufacture some special items to sell to humans or elves. However, if the Dwarves themselves cannot use these items to enhance their own national strength, then such items, which would only increase the strength of other races, might not be worth the significant investment in researching and developing.

“That’s not what I meant. What I meant was that by collaborating on research using dwarven technology and magical alchemy, we could create many things that are both practical and have development potential, things that even those of us dwarves who don’t have magical talent could use.” The dwarven prince began to introduce his second creation.

"Take this piece of equipment, the Rune Battle Axe, for example."

Before everyone stood an ancient-looking battle axe.

There are mysterious magical patterns on it.

"We still have no way to create a device or tool that can store energy, but there are actually quite a few things in this world that naturally contain energy. Magic ores buried in the ground, or the body parts of some powerful magical beasts, have been used in the past to make magical items or to refine potions."

"If we incorporate these materials into a weapon in a special way, does that mean we can obtain a weapon that can apply magical effects a limited number of times?"

To put it bluntly, it's just a degraded version of those magical weapons.

Those magical weapons that can be used permanently are often created by master craftsmen who use a large amount of materials and then perform exquisite forging.

For example, those legendary artifacts.

These items can produce effects in ways that are hard to understand, such as Orenna's Swift Sword Dawn, which can break magic, or Bolan's artifact Abyss, which can store water.

Some magical equipment can also increase the wearer's speed or enhance resistance to a certain attribute.

For example, Elsa's Assassin King can improve the user's various physical attributes to a certain extent in a short period of time.

To this day, no one has been able to make Elsa use the power of this artifact.

Whether it's these divine artifacts or magical equipment with much weaker effects, these items are all extremely expensive and rare.

These magical artifacts are even rarer and more expensive than those non-standard, custom-made staves.

But what if these permanently used pieces of equipment could be degraded and used occasionally, producing unexpected results at crucial moments?

This is what Rand hopes to cooperate with the Dwarf Kingdom on next.

The current research is still in its early stages. It has taken a lot of effort to produce this sample rune battleaxe, and the materials used so far are not much less than those used to make a real magical weapon.

But Rand had already seen the potential in this kind of thing.

The power of the world's strongest is quite limited.

There is only one human life in this world.

Even if these degraded pieces of equipment can only be used once in their lifetime, as long as they are deployed and used together at a critical moment, they can defeat many invincible enemies or even determine the course of a war.

And often, many people's fates change at a certain turning point.

The dwarf king picked up the rune-inlaid battle axe.

Olena took half a step forward, getting a little closer to Rand.

Olena wasn't actually worried about Rand's safety, nor did she think the dwarf king would suddenly attack Rand; it's just that these actions were somewhat subconscious.

The king was a master blacksmith and a combat expert in the past. Although he had become somewhat rusty after becoming king, he still possessed many skills ingrained in his instincts.

The dwarf king quickly mastered the trick: when he swung his weapon, the rune axe would flash with lightning, instantly transforming the seemingly plain axe into a dazzling weapon.

The lightning quickly disappeared.

The dwarf king shook his charred hands: "This thing can even electrocute itself?"

The dwarf prince explained somewhat awkwardly, "The product still has many technical flaws, and this is the best we can do for now."

These magical equipment items with limited uses should only be usable by dwarves in the early stages. Dwarves naturally possess a certain level of magic resistance and resistance to various attributes, which can prevent them from being harmed when using the weapon.

(End of this chapter)