Chapter 213 - 207 : Black Grill’s History || The Man Who Scammed All

Black Grill's Cave is an extremely huge 'infrastructure' whose origin and creation are unknown by the general populace. This means that not only the players but also the NPCs, don't actually know the history nor origin of this place. 

The earliest tales of the Cave system was that of its discovery. Back then, the Fallen Heart Kingdom had yet to exist and there was only a low-level independent settlement of humans close by. The humans in the settlement decided to explore the grounds but in the process of doing so, they lost a lot of men. Eventually, they left the lands unclaimed and unexplored, focusing on their usual daily lives and activities. The only noteworthy achievement the village did was tagging the site as a forbidden ground.

With the passage of time, Black Grill's Cave -which didn't have this name back then- was slowly forgotten and the hands of modern civilization began to spread out. Merchant caravan began to wander far and wide in search of customers and tribal specialties. It was during this period that the uncultured settlement was discovered by a not-so-popular merchant caravan, and trade began to flourish for both sides. As the tribesmen got closer with the merchants, they began to share some of their knowledge with them and this included the information about the cursed cave, the name the villagers labelled the cave system with. 

The leader of the merchant caravan speculated that the cave system might either be a monster settlement or might house the legacy of a deceased legendary-class warrior or an ancient civilization. No matter which route he thought from, the cave system represented gold in his eyes; the only difference being at what cost and its worth. Stirred by his greed, the leader then hired a bunch of mercenaries and together with a few villagers to lead the way, headed to explore the cursed cave in hopes of getting a legacy of a deceased warrior strong warrior or an ancient civilization. Of course, he didn't really participate in the expedition; only watching from a safe distance. The result was nothing short of expectations with only 3 mercenaries out of a whooping 30 men surviving the expedition. 

Knowing that he couldn't make a fortune out of this due to his limited abilities, the caravan head was left with two options. The first being to team up with a few other powers at his level to explore the sight and the last being to sell the knowledge of this place to other. From the narrative of the 3 surviving mercenaries, the caravan head eliminated the thought of the cave system housing the remains of an ancient civilization or race and settled on the idea that it held either a monster settlement or the remains of a very strong warrior, though the chances of this was low. After weighing the scenarios of cost to reward especially with the added fact of the cave system most likely being a monster horde settlement, the merchant caravan head decided to sell the information to others.

Returning back to the village, he gathered his men and set out. As his caravan was similar to a wandering merchant's, the caravan head had visited various towns and settlements. Each time he did so, he always 'inadvertently' mentioned about a 'legacy sight' over a glass of wine[1]. To make the conversation more believable, he cursed his deficiency in not being able to organise a large company of men for the exploration but always avoided to mention the location. All these was done in the evening or night times, under the 'influence' of alcohol.

Actually, the caravan head was a heavyweight in drinking but no one knew this since he hid the fact well by avoiding alcohol or, in cases when he couldn't do such, pretending to be drunk after 3 cups. For this scam, he drank a few cups where ever he went to and pretended to be drunk fooling everyone.

For those interested in his 'spilled beans', they would confront him the next morning when he was awake and subtly ask for more information. 'Shocked' the caravan head would try to deny this and say that it was a lie but the 'intelligent' folks would deny him the chance, threatening him to speak up or there might be some 'issues' in their trade clause. Some would adopt the notion of forcefully buying but most did both, utilizing the logic of 'sticks and carrots go hand in hand'. For a legacy inheritance of a great ancient figure, nothing was against the options.

Of course, the merchant caravan head, in order to protect his business would 'unwillingly' sell the information at an 'appropriate price'. A legacy of a great figure was more than enough to change the power distribution of a certain region. Legacies of Grand-masters were enough to make a a top level faction while those of Saints figures could even give birth to a kingdom. As for those of Infinite Mortals or demigods, those were enough to give rise to an Empire level faction or a true Empire! The Caravan head made sure to paint the description of the 'legacy hideout' with absurd descriptions and ideas leading others to speculate its worth to be about that of a Grand-master figure's, at the very least, and maybe even a Saint figure's. For such legacies, no matter how outrageous the price was, it was worth it. As such, the caravan head made a killing of this information.

To give himself a way out, the merchant also added that he wasn't really sure whether if it was a legacy sight, adding in that he had tried exploring the area but most of his men died as a result. He told them this because it was inevitable that these powers would discover this from the original villagers that settled close to the cave system. He wasn't afraid that the villages and tribes would give up because of this as curiosity and hope was a very dangerous part of man.

While some tribes would love to monopolise the information, they couldn't hold the merchant from leaving for too long neither could they kill him, only having to make quick preparations before the information spread. With no one being able to stop him, the merchant had successfully sold this information to a wide group of communities. He avoided strong individuals because those ones wouldn't be scared of eliminating him to prevent the 'secret' from spreading, after all, unlike tribes and villages, individuals didn't really have a headquarter or designated site.

Because of the importance of the information, any tribe that go a hold of it would hurriedly mobilise their forces. At that point in time, everyone could notice that most of the towns, villages and tribes were making huge movements as if they were planning to go to war so for a period of time, there was a sense of urgency and nervousness.

As the minor powers scurried towards the cave system and began their exploration, they discovered that they were duped. Not only did they lose a lot of men, but they didn't even discover the end of the cave system. Though they felt that the chances of it being a legacy was true, with their abilities the various powers realised that they wouldn't be able to get it.

The only ruling powers in existence close by were the Reiss kingdom and a fallen power known as Drawelt, of which one was to the west and the other. Back then, Black Grill's Cave was within the lands that bordered Reiss Kingdom and the Drawelt Empire. 

After news of the discovery had spread wide and far by the merchant head, he still wasn't satisfied with this especially after he heard that the various powers couldn't find the end. This was understandable since those guys were nothing more than bigger ants in the eyes of a Grand-master or Saint figure. Getting such an inheritance would be difficult, if there was any to start with. Because he wanted to know what laid within the cave system, the merchant wasn't satisfied with the lower powers' achievements and decided to aim higher. That lead to him going to one of the major powers that bordered the area, the Drawelt Empire.

Being subservient to the Brahman Empire, the Reiss Kingdom was a lot weaker when compared to the Drawelt Empire, having to rely on their backer to survive. Since the merchant had connections with the Drawelt Empire, he decided to offer them this 'opportunity'. Using his means, he managed to relay information about the 'inheritance location'. This lead to the Drawelt Empire sending a scout team first to confirm the news. Within 2 weeks, a reply was gotten and so the Drawelt Empire reacted properly by sending in a specialized team for the expedition.

Unlike the previous explorers, the expedition team were much stronger and organized, going past the last stop of the others and stepping into uncharted territory. However, just as things looked easy going and smooth, an unexpected incident occurred. The details of this incident were lost to time but one particular effect of it that was never forgotten. This was the resulting fall of the Drawelt Empire. 

Yes. Because of their exploration of the cave system, the Drawelt Empire had fallen. This isn't a kingdom or anything like that but a freaking Empire! A land born from the toughest of blood and iron wars. An invincible existence that can last for up to a thousand years! And one such existence had fallen just by exploring a cave system.

The resulting fall of the Drawelt Empire lead to the rise of the Orioma, Ashelot and the Fallen Heart kingdoms. Actually, Drawelt was slowly being gobbled up by the Reiss Kingdom but most of its civilians fought their way out. Because of certain reasons and differences in opinion, they separated, with the Fallen Heart Kingdom and Ashelot kingdom, the two biggest leftovers of the Drawelt Empire, going their separate ways. The Orioma kingdom, on the other hand, was the land of the Drawelt Empire captured by the Brahman Empire using the Reiss' Kingdom's forces.

It was because of this drastic example of the fall of an empire that Black grill's Cave had yet to be fully explored. The rumored site of the occurrence of the incident was the Inner region while the upper regions -Outer and Middle regions- were safe. As such, high level combatants are banned from entering the cave system but it was used a training and adventure zone for low-level combatants.

As for the merchant who sold off the information of this Empire-death trap, he went missing just before the fall of the Drawelt Empire but was still forever known in history. This was because in accordance with a clause in the sale of the information regarding the cave system to the Drawelt Empire, it was to be named after him. 

In other words, the merchant caravan's head was the one known as Black Grill.

[AN : Wanted to post a 3rd one but its late so I will leave it for tomorrow morning. I might also make it bigger than usual if I got time.. Also, I will try an reply your comments as soon as possible.]