Chapter 121: Big Problems for Little People – Part 3

Chapter 121: Big Problems for Little People – Part 3 Announcement

02/09: Early chapter release because I'll spend the weekend somewhere with difficult access to the internet.

Also, an announcement: next week will be Side Story Week, so no main story release. I'll only write chapters for the side story for the patrons and possibly work on other side content that I've been neglecting if time allows.Nêww chapters will be fully updated at novelhall.com

Sandoro separates from us to coordinate with our men. After walking past a few colorful corridors, we leave the castle and finally have a good view of the city.

Gify suddenly pops back into existence on my shoulder and gazes at the city with wonder like I was about to do.

"Oh? Finally deemed it time to grace us with your presence?" I gently tease her.

"Gih," she tells me to shut up so that she can enjoy the sight.

I chuckle and follow her lead. We're at the center of the caldera, near the highest point of the town, and we have the perfect view to see how it spirals down under us.

We're right under the opening of the caldera, allowing us to see the dark blue sky of twilight as the sun begins to rise, but just those few rays of light make the area around us considerably brighter than the rest of the town. Gnomeria has so many little sources of light that the atmosphere gradually shifts from being cute and colorful around us to gloomy and cozy deeper down, and it reminds me of the lower levels of Escanso due to the permanent scarcity of sunlight.

The gnomic houses themselves are incredibly cute and just as colorful as the clothes they wear. They're all spherical and tilted in such a way that it looks like multiple rooms have been haphazardly stacked on top of each other, straight out of a fairy-tale, which can be taken literally since the extended Tale of Creation for the gnomes and pixies claims that they simply came out of childrens' fairy-tale books.

Their whole theme is to be childish and whimsical, and they very visibly show it through their architectural style and sense of fashion.

The gnomic road network seems a bit nightmarish, though, since there are a dozen suspended highways crisscrossing the skies, and there's even floating arrows that pulse with light, held up by cartoonish carvings of pixies that indicate the air lanes for flying vehicles.

But wait, there's more. For some reason, there are giant dandelions, spinning flowers, and glowing mushrooms spread out across the sky. None of us know what they might be for, aside from decoration.

"First time in Gnomeria?" A cute female voice graces my ears, and I turn around, only to see Tinkerbell in a blue dress staring at... Lina.

"Y-yes, it is. It's such a... different city," she awkwardly replies, caught off-guard by the pretty, young pixie.

Soul InfoNameBelind KrunigrihirRacePixieLevel98HP50MP8,680Magic Power4,390Strength6Endurance8

First Princess Belind is one of the few with an innocuous name, but she has a strong happy-go-lucky air to her that makes up for that, though she was completely silent during the previous meeting. "You can say what you're thinking; the gnomes are pretty weird," she cheekily states and giggles. "We're mostly concerned with the Enchanted Forest, so we let the gnomes run things over here, and they just can't help themselves." Then she motions to the town under us.

"Sister..." the Second Prince grumbles and frowns at his older sister.

She grins as she slowly floats towards him without flapping her butterfly wings. "Well, Looklwind isn't weird, he's just boring."

"I'm just more mature than you," he dryly replies.

She flicks his pompom, but his hat is firmly secured to his head, so the pompom merely bounces a little, but it still amuses her. "Like I said, boring, which is something, considering he's a gnome."

He refuses to look at her as he asserts, "You should be more respectful of our guests and not bother them with your foolishness."

"I'm merely lightening the mood and relieving the tension," she replies matter-of-factly.

"We appreciate the thought. Being overly stiff and formal doesn't suit our family," Yunia gracefully interjects, and the Princess gives her brother a smug glance.

But he just rolls his eyes and confesses, "Pixies are simply a lot more free-spirited than we are, so it's quite difficult to get them to do anything."

Belind shrugs. "Well, I find it just as hard to pull you out of your numbers and letters."

"Algebra?" Lina coos curiously. "I've been trying to learn it for one of our projects."

The Princess shakes her head and dramatically cries, "Oh, no, you're just like him."

"She's a dwarf, so of course she'd be like that," Looklwind replies with a snort.

And Tinkerbell giggles out loud as she holds her stomach. "I can't escape the gnome curse no matter where I look."

"The what, now?" I mumble confusedly.

She dries the corners of her eyes as she explains, "Gnomes and pixies are fated to fall in love, no matter how different they are, so 'gnomic' traits will always be attractive to us."

But Ciel takes issue with her wording and concernedly remarks, "That doesn't seem like much of a curse, really. The God of Creation wouldn't be so cruel as to make two races hate one another when they each depend on the other to procreate."

And the Prince heartily agrees with her, "Yes, it's not a curse unless you're a pixie contrarian." Then he shoots his sister a brief glare, but the Princess just giggles softly and flies in circles around him, completely unashamed.

"I like her," I comment through [Bind].

"Of course you do," Ciel dryly replies.

"Is that jealousy that I hear?!" Roxanne mockingly exclaims.

"Only Ciel may pamper our little dwarf," Alissa states with an internal nod.

And Ciel shouts annoyedly, "T-that's not it!"

"She seems fun," Aoi innocently comments, completely ignoring the banter going on.

"But we've taken up enough of the Ryders' time, so let's head to our assignments," the Princess gently declares and points towards one of the horseless, pumpkin-like carriages behind us, then she grins adorably. "If you don't mind, may I take a ride in your carriage? My assigned tunnel is near yours."

"We'd be delighted to have you with us for a little longer," I politely answer before Ciel can say anything.

"I wasn't going to!" Our angel exclaims indignantly in my soul space.

We enter the carriage and notice that it has a very strong [Warp Space] enchantment on it, making me a bit nervous about our safety since the gnomes have a fondness for explosions, and when this enchantment fails it, uh... explodes.

Once we're comfortable, the driver activates an enchantment, and the carriage takes flight, which makes me wonder why it has wheels if it can just fly wherever.

As we fly down and around the town, Belind points out all the exceptionally weird buildings as we pass them, then explains their history, which appeals to both Lina and I. The town is under alert, so there should be fewer people on the streets, but there's still considerable traffic, though Alissa detects quite a high density of people inside their homes.

As we near the bottom, the number of soldiers patrolling increases exponentially. We see gnomes marching in lockstep while chanting "hoi, hoi, hoi, hoi," with their weapons floating beside them as if they were possessed by ghosts. Pixies are flying in formation while holding long lances upwards, and their weapons have such a wide handguard that they could almost use it as an umbrella.

Then we reach the bottom, where the smooth, dark stone of the volcano's wall meets with the town... except it doesn't. The entire town is actually floating.

"Impressive," I coo in wonder.

And the bland Prince shows quite a lot of pride as he brags, "The halflings got the idea of turning Auri Yorei into a floating city from us. Granted, theirs only floats when the flood seasons starts."

But the Princess obviously thinks differently, "We don't even need Gnomeria to float, so I don't know why we use so much mana on it."

"It's for safety. Better to be floating than wishing it was," the Prince flatly replies.

As we chew through the line, we finally find the one variety of bug that can climb the slimy walls by slamming stake-like feet into the rock. The Spitter is like a dog-sized cockroach that spits acid, and, apparently, it can fly. That also wasn't mentioned in the information we received.

It's an easy target for Alissa, though, so it doesn't give us any trouble, but then she spots a red barrel with legs scampering towards us at an incredible speed, and the sight of it gives me dread.

She fires an arrow at it, and it explodes, causing dust and glowing red fluids to fly everywhere.

The force of the explosion is amplified in these tunnels, pushing all of us back and making us temporarily deaf, but Hana suffers the worst of it since she was at the front, and her whole body was badly hurt by the blast wave.

Aoi roars in pain as some of the fluid gets through the eye slit of her helmet, but I can't hear anything.

"KILL THOSE THINGS FIRST!" I shout through [Bind] and take Patrono out of Hana's hands, then I throw it and make it spin with [Telekinesis], turning the Heavenly Weapon into a flying blender.

Another explosion throws the Weapon out of my magical grasp, but I just re-[Equip] it again and repeat my attack after checking that it isn't damaged.

The golems follow my lead and throw heavy metal balls up ahead, crushing everything, but theirs get slowed down by the heavy Trains in the way.

Ciel's [Holy Spirit] touches each of us to [Heal] our ears, but then we basically become deaf again as a horrified screech comes from down the tunnel.

Alissa fires off a few arrows and manages to kill the now-named Witch, then a pink tongue shoots out from underneath the bodies and sticks to her bow. She doesn't even have time to react before it's ripped out of her hands, but she just re-[Equip]s it, negating the now-named Frog's attack.

Ciel reports that Aoi's left eye is busted. [Heal] isn't enough to restore it since it was melted away by the magical acid, so she'll need a few days of [Regeneration] or [Regrowth] to get it back, neither of which are options for us right now.

Alissa kills another Red Barrel, and the blast wave makes us all grunt in pain.

"SHIT'S FUCKED! RETREAT!" I shout through [Bind], then I open a [Gate], and everyone jumps through it.

Yunia immediately goes to Sandoro to report our encounter while I comfort my dragon and use [Regeneration] on her.

I really don't like how this battle is progressing.

Announcement

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