Chapter 420

Anser cast Teleport, vanishing in a flash and reappearing above Baldur’s Gate.

The next second, he used Wild Shape to transform into a bird and surveyed the city below, braving the fierce winds at high altitude.

There was still plenty of daylight left. The wind had swept away the clouds, leaving visibility excellent.

It had been a long time since his last visit, and Baldur’s Gate looked even more dilapidated than before.

The Underdark creatures hadn’t come here to rebuild the city. Apart from a few Upper City districts occupied by the drow, which were relatively clean, the other districts were filthy, chaotic, and falling apart.

The duergar loved wandering around with pickaxes, reshaping the city to suit their own tastes. As a result, they’d made a complete mess of many areas.

‘They have absolutely no sense of aesthetics.’ Anser shook his head inwardly.

Seeing human civilization treated so carelessly left him somewhat displeased. After all, this was his territory now.

If things were already this bad on the surface, the underground portion of Baldur’s Gate was probably riddled with labyrinthine tunnels by now, having become a battleground where the deep gnomes and duergar fought bitterly against each other.

After a few silent complaints, he gradually descended, carefully observing the distribution of Underdark creatures.

Baldur’s Gate was unusually quiet during the day. Most Underdark creatures either stayed underground or hid inside buildings on the surface. Very few ventured out into the sunlight.

‘Can’t tell much from this.’

He decided to wait.

The sun sank toward the horizon, and the sky gradually darkened.

One by one, Underdark creatures emerged from underground and from buildings, wandering through the streets and alleys. Their numbers steadily increased.

As evening approached, the duergar began distributing food. Some even brought their meals up to the surface to eat.

Meanwhile, goblins and other slaves fought viciously over mere mouthfuls of food, leaving each other battered and bleeding.

Their duergar masters watched the spectacle, sometimes even clapping and cheering. Clearly, they regarded it as a form of entertainment to accompany their meals.

The drow appeared considerably more civilized, maintaining a quiet, orderly environment. Their soldiers patrolled and stood guard both day and night.

‘They actually still have food?’

Looking at the salted fish in their hands, Anser had a pretty good idea where it came from.

The kuo-toa had turned themselves into fishermen, treating the resource-rich River Chionthar as their own backyard and exploiting its bounty without restraint.

In terms of natural resources, the surface was vastly richer than the Underdark.

‘There seems to be some tendency to gather together, but it’s not particularly obvious.’

After observing for a while, he still couldn’t be certain. He simply shifted into the Ethereal Plane and quietly descended into the city.

His Truesight extended over seventy meters, which was more than sufficient. Buildings frequently obstructed his view anyway, preventing him from seeing that far.

There wasn’t much else worth examining on the surface, so he headed underground again.

This time, he didn’t disguise himself or kill anyone. He merely wandered around, observing.

He soon noticed something unusual. The formerly narrow underground passages had been widened considerably. Judging by the footprints and other traces, the duergar had actually seized the deep gnomes’ territory.

When two races skilled at digging tunnels clashed, the duergar had ultimately gained the upper hand.

He continued exploring the surrounding areas and deeper underground, discovering that the duergar and drow weren’t attacking each other on sight. Although their looks toward one another were far from friendly, both sides exercised considerable restraint and maintained a limited degree of cooperation.

‘Oh, this is bad!’ Anser realized something was wrong.

The drow and duergar had actually joined forces again. No wonder the deep gnomes had been defeated so quickly.

And for these two groups to set aside their past grievances and unite again, they must have a bigger, more tempting objective in mind. That would explain why they wanted to free themselves from the deep gnomes’ interference as quickly as possible.

But on second thought, Anser realized this wasn’t entirely bad news.

If the Underdark creatures really were preparing to invade somewhere else, wouldn’t that give him the perfect opportunity to retake Baldur’s Gate?

There would be no cover out in the wilderness. A few volleys of Meteor Swarm would be enough to crush the Underdark creatures and send them running home crying for their mothers.

He continued searching and eventually discovered traces of the deep gnomes beneath Dusthawk Hill.

They weren’t doing well. The atmosphere was oppressive, their numbers seemed to have dwindled considerably, and all they did was keep their heads down and dig.

They had a way to retreat, but they weren’t willing to give up so easily.

‘They’ve really got it rough. I’ll give them a hand later,’ Anser thought.

The deep gnomes might be ugly, but they were kindhearted.

Once he reclaimed Baldur’s Gate, he intended to entrust them with managing the intricate underground labyrinth and the passages connecting to the Underdark.

But the time wasn’t right yet.

Anser continued wandering underground, even venturing close enough to take a look at the Temple of Lolth that the drow had converted.

The former Temples District had been taken over by a bunch of dark-skinned creatures. He wondered whether the gods whose temples had been usurped were angry about it.

Two hours passed, and night enveloped the land.

Suddenly, several deep horn blasts shattered the nighttime silence.

Squad after squad of drow and duergar emerged from underground onto the surface, carrying provisions and weapons as they assembled with remarkably little noise.

Anser perked up. Remaining concealed within the Ethereal Plane, he watched their every move.

The drow and duergar didn’t gather together. Instead, they kept their distance, behaving as though each group wanted nothing to do with the other.

Before long, the drow had organized themselves and their numerous slaves into two formations, each containing approximately three thousand individuals.

The duergar also gathered in dense masses, forming two even larger forces of at least three to four thousand each. Most were slaves, including quite a few humans who had been enslaved and forced into service.

‘There are actually this many of them!’ Anser was somewhat surprised.

Between the two races, they’d casually assembled an army of over ten thousand. Even if sixty to seventy percent were expendable slave cannon fodder, it was still an extremely formidable force.

And that wasn’t even everyone. Both races had left an unknown number of troops behind to defend Baldur’s Gate.

With that thought, he immediately flew toward the banks of the River Chionthar.

The river seemed to be boiling. Countless kuo-toa were riding the surging waves, rushing upstream in dense swarms.

Water glittered as the waves roared past.

At the same time, the drow and duergar began moving.

The drow split into two forces and marched north, while the duergar surged northeast. All four armies poured into the wilderness in a vast procession.

Anser transformed into a bird and circled in the night sky, watching them gradually disappear from sight.

‘Where are they going?’

An army of over ten thousand was certainly substantial, but divided into four separate forces, it wasn’t nearly as impressive. Even Paros could comfortably handle any one of those armies.

Splitting their forces wasn’t exactly a wise decision.

But wherever they were going, they were definitely up to no good!

Anser spread his wings and shot straight into the sky, closely following above one of the duergar armies.

This force of three to four thousand consisted of numerous races. They weren’t moving particularly quickly, and the farther they traveled, the noisier and more scattered they became. They looked increasingly like an undisciplined rabble.

‘Do they have a specific target in mind? Or are they simply trying to coordinate with the orcs, stir up trouble, and force certain people to divide their attention between multiple fronts?’ Anser was puzzled.

If he wanted to, he could unleash another meteor shower right now and scatter this force of Underdark creatures.

But the duergar had mixed more than a thousand human slaves into their ranks, which made things rather troublesome.

When the disaster first struck, it had happened so suddenly that tens of thousands of surface dwellers had been unable to escape and were forced into slavery by the Underdark creatures.

Nobody wanted to be a slave, but they lacked the strength to resist. If they ended up dying in the fighting like this, they would truly be innocent victims.

‘Sigh…’

Anser sighed inwardly. He ultimately decided to take action, but he couldn’t be as heavy-handed as before.