Chapter 314: Chapter 214: You Can Try It First
"Beastmen?" David immediately recalled the fragments of the Divine Realm’s collapsing shadow he had seen shattering and falling from the sky over the Skanis coast, and this possibility sprang to mind.
In Elariya, or rather, in the known Multiverse, the prominent intelligent species were limited to: Humans, Elves, Dwarves, Beastmen, Dragons, and even Giants who had migrated from the main material plane.
It wasn’t that other races lacked power. On the contrary, many less common races were just as formidable, such as the Heart Snatchers or the Abyssal Demon Fish.
The problem was, the more powerful an individual or group, the less inclined they were to worship deities.
For instance, the Heart Snatchers were dedicated to restoring their ancient civilization. The Abyssal Demon Fish, on the other hand, could absorb and retain the memories of creatures they controlled, achieving a form of near-immortality. In other words, they weren’t exactly quality ’cash crops.’
The stronger the individual, the more this held true. Therefore, Dragons, to some extent, also weren’t ideal devout followers.
This was clear enough from the fact that almost all Dragon Gods possessed only weak divine power.
And any race that could threaten the Dwarves, who count many legendary warriors among their ranks, must surely be one of these major powers, David thought. Especially since he had personally witnessed fragments of a Divine Realm fall upon the Old Continent as well.
However, to survive such a catastrophe, only a god could have intervened.
So, had the Beastman gods, led by Geush, the God of Destruction, also entered the fray?
This shouldn’t be too surprising, David mused. After all, that piece of Beastman land within Tempas’s Divine Realm is practically an indelible green stain—a constant humiliation—for the Beastman pantheon, something they can never ignore. While Beastmen probably don’t care much about being metaphorically ’cuckolded,’ seizing the opportunity amidst the chaos to trample upon the War God Faction—which holds most of the divine portfolios for war and combat—and reclaim some Beastman faith is undoubtedly a worthwhile endeavor.
As more of the ’masterminds’ behind the scenes were revealed, David finally understood why Tiamat had been so confident in using Pafila as bait to sound the horn for an offensive. Truly, the world has suffered under the War God for too long!
Then again, it’s to be expected, he thought. Always stirring up trouble on others’ territories, poaching their followers and people. They tolerated it because Tempas was a greater divine power and a formidable fighter. But the moment a weakness appeared, wouldn’t the other gods jump at the chance to gang up on him, deliver a thorough beatdown, and even swipe his underpants on their way out?
To this, David could only think that the War God Faction had it coming!
What surprised David, though, was that he was only half right.
"The Beastmen who fell into The Dark Mountains and took root there are indeed a latent threat," Supreme King Temur said, "but compared to them, the bigger problem for us right now are those long-eared relatives in the wilderness beyond, emerging endlessly like rats from underground..."
"Damn Drow!" He practically spat the name, his teeth clenched.
"Ah?" David’s mouth fell open slightly.
This was a possibility he truly hadn’t considered.
Perhaps it was because, in his wyrmling days, he had ventured into the Gloomy Region beneath Granyel on the New Continent to trade with the Drow. After being tricked by them, he had angrily invoked Tiamat’s divine power to obliterate Spider Nest City. Since then, the Drow had always seemed rather lackluster in his eyes. For this reason, he had never truly considered the Drow a significant threat.
But then again, their ability to enslave the old Dragon Christoph for so many years, and now to stubbornly withstand its campaign of vengeance, suggested this group of Drow wasn’t as easily dealt with as he’d imagined.
Furthermore, if he wasn’t mistaken, these Dwarves were likely facing close relatives of the Elves from Eternal Gathering Island—Drow who also hailed from Toriel. After all, the Drow of Elariya only came into being about a thousand years ago when the Elves migrated to Granyel on the New Continent, connected with the faith of the Spider Queen Rose, and began their degenerate transformation.
From this perspective, these Dwarves had truly drawn the shortest straw: simultaneously caught between two waves of ’illegal planar immigrants’ attacking from both front and rear. Oh, and there was also that contingent of ’greenskins’ who had returned to the fold of the Beastman pantheon. It had directly escalated into a four-way free-for-all centered around their Dwarven brethren.
It was a good thing he, as a Red Dragon Lord, wasn’t predisposed to conquest and plunder; otherwise, a new version of the ’Battle of Five Armies’ would already be unfolding on Skanis.
As the banquet progressed, David finally found the answer to his question from the mouths of the Dwarves, who were well into their cups thanks to the Purgatory Wine: Why did the Skanis Dwarves, who had inhabited these mountain crevices for millennia, seem so hamstrung and even show signs of faltering against the Drow?
"Those damn Drow have much better vision than us on the subterranean battlefields."
David and the other Dragons suddenly realized they had overlooked a crucial detail: while both sides possessed Dark Vision, its effective range differed.
The Dark Vision of Dwarves and Beastmen only extended to eighteen meters.
And the Drow and Dragons? Theirs extended to at least thirty-six meters, if not further.
As for David, with his Perception score of 41, he could keenly detect movements from hundreds of meters away even in pitch-black subterranean environments.
This was also why, in his younger days, he had been able to traverse the Gloomy Region without fear of the Drow or other subterranean creatures—it was the very basis of his confidence.