'The creation of a permanent portal...how the hell did the ruler of the Elves generate enough energy to let it slip through by Jundra's natural planetary security?!?' Nial wondered in shock.
The God of Darkness had not shared the memories with Nial in their entirety. That was why Nial had no idea what the hell was going on.
'I thought the portal would just disappear, and that the Elves would have to recreate it after they collect all the necessary resources...'
However, while Nial had no idea what was going on, Silvian was exhilarated. He had only seen the unempowered portal for a quarter of a second.
But this quarter of a second was already more than enough for him to understand what exactly he had just seen.
"The Manifested fragment of the Empress' Divinity!" He blurted out at the sight of the portal but immediately bit his tongue.
Luckily, no one was around, and not a single soul had heard what he had blurted out. Even if someone did, nobody would understand what he meant, let alone the importance of the manifested Fragment of a Divinity!
'Did she really manifest her divinity just to be able to send over more Elves and resources as long as the portal receives enough energy? The Empress went all out, didn't she?' Silvian asked himself rhetorically.
He could clearly perceive that the Empress was leaving no stone unturned.
Under normal circumstances, it was not necessary to manifest the Fragment of a Divinity to manifest a portal to other planets.
The use of specific runic constellations and the supply of the planet's mana were more than enough to do so.
Permanent portals were a slightly different matter, but even they usually didn't require a manifested Fragment of a Divinity to work.
But what about a planet that had yet to awaken its mana? It definitely needed to be stabilized, and the mana of the descending plateau was far from enough to stabilize the permanent portal.
'So Jundra is of high importance even to the Empress of the Elves? She is actually willing to gamble her own life and that of her race on it...' Silvian thought in shock.
Even to him, it would be insane to gamble the existence of their entire race just to gain a chance of being a few steps ahead of everyone else in the race of claiming Jundra.
The planet was definitely important, but was it really worth the gamble the Empress took? Her race was flourishing and growing. They had more than enough planets to live for eons, even more so because their population didn't increase that rapidly.
Thus, Silvian had only one particular question in his mind.
'What exactly are you looking for on Jundra?!'
As Silvian asked himself this question in an attempt to figure out the most likely answer, the Forest of Life began to rustle.
Suddenly, without any prior intimation, close to 1000 Elves shot out of the forest. They were flying in all directions, propelled by strong wind currents that were holding them in the air.
Even the weaker Elves seemed to fly through the air without any issues. It was as if they were born as an aerial race, instead of a terrestrial race living with nature on the ground.
-The wind and nature are the friends we're born with.- Valvian signed to Nial when he saw him flinch upon sensing the wind affinity and seemingly endless power of the close to 1000 Elves, all of whom had moved at once.
They had merely waited for the last one to arrive on Jundra before starting to scout the area.
While the weaker Elves scouted the nearby area, the stronger and faster Elves researched the surrounding area in a bigger radius.
'Their innate affinities are the wind and nature, I see.' Nial thought, nodding his head.
He was not actually interested in their innate traits of affinities. Rather, his interest lay in the question of what exactly the Elves planned to do on Jundra, what was their stance with respect to the human race, and if it was possible to create an alliance in which both sides would benefit.
Alliance might be too big of a word, but Nial hoped to be able to make a business deal with the Elves. At least, that was the plan he had come up with as he recalled that Elves were great Runiciers and Alchemists.
Time slowly passed and his discussion with Valvian became more deeper and interesting. The topics slowly changed, and they became more serious.
Nial was not someone who knew everything about the human race. However, from the experiences he gained in the last year, it was possible for him to precisely gauge mankind's stance against the hordes of dungeon beasts, and the threat of dungeon portals.
Nonetheless, it was not as if he would reveal everything to the Midnight Elf. After all, he had yet to figure out their plan!
-Can you teach your language to one of our Elves?- Out of nowhere, Valvian dropped the bomb.
A gasp of relief escaped Nial's lips but he quickly put on a neutral expression so as to hide his smile.
'So they don't plan on eradicating us...that's great.'
There was no need for the Elves to learn the human language on Jundra if they were going to kill all of them, either way.
That reassured Nial quite a bit and he didn't think twice before nodding his head.
-"Of course, I can teach the human language. Well, I can, at least, teach our spoken language. As for the written language, I might not be the best teacher because of my condition."-
Valvian had long since noticed that Nial was blind. However, he never perceived that Nial was hampered by his condition in any way.
But it was not as if that mattered a lot to the Midnight Elf.
-It would be best if we can learn both the written and spoken language as quickly as possible. It would make conversing with your brethren much easier.- Valvian revealed before asking,
-Is there someone in your group, who you trust?-
Nial couldn't help but feel a little bit astonished. 'What exactly are they planning? And why is it important whether I trust someone or not? Valvian shouldn't trust me enough to trust the person I trust...weird.'
Even if the turn of events were a bit weird, Nial nodded his head.
-"A friend of mine joined me to reclaim the shelter we had to abandon due to specific circumstances. Well, reclaiming Juna is not possible anymore, but either way."- Nial didn't even think of blaming the Elves for destroying Juna.
It didn't matter the slightest bit to him. The descending plateau and the appearance of the Elves was a much bigger opportunity than a reclaimed shelter.
-Then bring him over. But let me warn you. If someone unworthy enters the Forest of Life, the forest won't sit still. The Forest of Life is more dangerous than most Elves are!- Valvian cautioned before he waved his hand.
Behind Nial, a small path opened up, leading the way out.
'Mathias, use this opportunity well!! Suck up to them if necessary...' Nial joked inwardly, trying to hide how nervous he was about bringing Mathias to the Forest of Life.
He knew that Mathias was very excited about the Elves' arrival on Jundra. It was especially because of this excitement that Nial was worried. Mathias had to keep his calm and not behave like a 12-year-old, overly excited kid when speaking to the Elves.
Turning around, Nial began walking on the path Valvian had opened for him. The Forest of Life felt a lot different than before to him.
Right now, Nial was not forced to use his entire focus on trying to communicate with Valvian in sign language and making no mistake in understanding or replying to him.
As he could focus on the Forest of Life better, it allowed him to perceive much more than before.
However, even before he could perceive everything he wished to, Nial had already emerged outside the Forest of Life.
Many Originals turned in his direction the moment they heard the faintest rustle. Upon seeing Nial, many wanted to approach him.
But Nial was already on his way to Mathias.
"Mathias, come here. We need to go back inside." Nial said out loud, ignoring everyone else as he began to smile craftily.
He knew that many eyes were trained on him, but it was not as if he cared about the others, to begin with.
"Wait, why is he allowed to go with you? Wouldn't it be better to have someone who can represent mankind instead?" All of a sudden, one of the Prometheus Originals appeared next to Nial.
He grasped his shoulder and prevented Nial from moving.
"Well, you can try to enter the Forest of Life with me, but I was told to bring someone I trust with me. I don't know you, and I don't trust you. The Forest of Life might kill you because you were not invited."
Nial didn't think that it was necessary to hide anything. Thus, he was straightforward and blunt.
The Prometheus Original looked at Nial with squinted eyes. He was already enraged that this blind young man had gained the favor of the Elves, even before they had the chance to speak a single word with them.
However, even if the Prometheus Original hoped that Nial was lying to him, he could tell that this was not the case and that it was truly dangerous to enter a place filled with several dozen Prometheus ranked Elves.
Each Prometheus Elf appeared to be stronger than an ordinary Prometheus Original. Thus, the middle-aged man didn't want to take the risk.
'What is Damian's plan?!' Silvian wondered while intently looking at Nial, who was dragging the dumbfounded Mathias behind him.
"Ah, by the way, the Elves want to learn our language. So, I believe that their plan is to communicate with us and potentially befriend us. If possible, I guess it might even be possible to make business deals with them in the future!" Nial announced, using mana to enhance his vocal cords, to let everyone hear him.
Not waiting to see the reaction of the astonished humans, he and Mathias swiftly appeared in front of the Forest of Life. It opened right in front of them, and Nial led his friend through the mana-rich forest.
"Woah, is that forest really alive?" Mathias mumbled in a shaky voice.
Nial just smiled and instead of answering his question, he told Mathias what his mission was.
"Mathias, you have to stay calm. I will be speaking to the Midnight Elf using their traditional sign language. They won't understand you, after all. But be careful to not offend them in any way.
There are a few things you have to pay attention to. However, the most important thing will be that you don't act too excited. Even if Elves can be considered rather calm and patient, they don't exactly like overly excited beings.
As for the rest, just listen to me..." Nial gave him a few pointers before revealing everything Mathias had to know.
Mathias was not sure how Nial had become so knowledgeable about Elves, but he didn't question it either. He merely listened to his friend with gleaming eyes before he exclaimed in a low voice.
"So...we will become their teachers?! That's insane!"
**
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