477 Commercial Collaboration (1/2)

In the dark forest, a few Orcs surveyed the environment to see if there were any gamers from Victoria City moving around.

The Orcs were Arthur and his comrades.

\”They should be pillaging the Duke's Castle. I don't think there's anybody here in Victoria City.\”

Peasant looked at the surroundings and didn't discover any Human activity.

After arriving from the Teleport Portal, they didn't approach Victoria City. Instead, they traveled in the opposite direction. There were many rocks and steep cliffs, so it was a suitable location for a secret Stronghold.

Arthur and his comrades were building a Stronghold so that they could have a resting place on the Surface World.

Their plan was to log the trees secretly. The nearest location for selling wood was at the crossroad intersection outpost. However, the outpost was a good distance from the Surface World.

If they had a Stronghold near the forest, the gamers wouldn't have to travel to the crossroad intersection outpost that frequently. They could log the trees for half a day and store the wood in the secret Stronghold before returning to the crossroad intersection outpost. Even if the gamers of the Surface World attacked them while they were logging, they wouldn't lose all their wood.

The secret Stronghold was a good place for them to go offline.

They weren't aware that they were the first batch of Underworld creatures that returned to the Surface World after thousands of years.

…

In the Eternal Kingdom Dungeon.

When Sherlock returned to the Dungeon from the Merchant Alliance's manor, he conducted a friendly interview with Frangipani.

However, Frangipani didn't know much since he was recently released from his imprisonment.

The Ancient Gods army was using a similar mental connection to the connection between Sherlock and the gamers. That was why when the Ancient Gods army attacked Winterfell, all of the Ancient Gods believers from around the world rushed to Winterfell.

Frangipani was part of this collective mental connection of the Ancient Gods.

When Frangipani was brought back to Eternal Kingdom, he was like a mole for the Ancient Gods army. Sherlock wasn't aware of this fact.

After carefully treating him to reduce the pain, the half-dead Frangipani was rid of his mental connection with the Ancient Gods.

The parrot and the black kitten witnessed the entire process and got to know the \”gentle\” side of Lord Sherlock.

However, it was only the beginning.

…

The Orc Cherry sat in his office. After a series of events, he was promoted from Garrison Guard Captain to the Chief of the Winterfell Garrison Guard Station.

He was able to be a Chief at such a young age because of his excellent performance in solving the Volcano case and strong support from Lord Sherlock and Lord Nicholas.

Cherry had a bright future.

Even though he was a Chief, he still handled everything himself instead of just giving orders in his office. For example, the Winterfell officials reported a shocking incident to the Garrison Guards.

The wood in Forest No. 4 was all gone. It had become a barren desert. There weren't even any rocks.

\”What's going on?\”

Cherry looked at the desert, perplexed. He inhaled the smoke from the metal stick that was in his mouth.

\”Zi, zi, zi…\”

His mouth emitted sizzling sounds and charred smoke.

It mirrored his mind, which was in turmoil.

\”Chief, could all the trees be logged by Eternal Kingdom?\” his colleague, who was holding a document folder, asked Cherry.

\”Don't worry about your thoughts. We have to be bold in our thinking, speculation, and conclusion,\” Cherry said to his colleague.

\”Yes!\” the colleague said proudly. He opened the document folder and said, \”From my records, the forest was leased to Eternal Kingdom four months ago. The lease was for a year, but it was returned to us a few days ago. Eternal Kingdom requested a refund of eight months of lease. I'm thinking that they cut down all of the trees in four months and returned the land to us to save the remaining eight months of lease.\”

The Garrison Guards at the side inhaled cool gusts of air. They were in disbelief.

That was Eternal Kingdom, the most promising and powerful Dungeon with the highest number of warriors. Dungeon Lord Sherlock attended the banquets of the elites and was a notable socialite. Would such an influential character return the forest to save on eight months of a lease?

\”I heard that Eternal Kingdom returned the forest because the trees vanished. They were thinking of asking for compensation.\”

The worker in the forest disagreed. He took out an application form and said, \”This is the form filled up by Lord Sherlock. It states the sum that we're required to compensate him.\”

Cherry remained calm. He took the form and examined it carefully before saying, \”Hmm, from the form, Lord Sherlock is correct. Our lease is for a year, but the trees vanished after four months. It's reasonable for Lord Sherlock to demand compensation.\”

\”Wait a moment, Chief.\”

The Orc Garrison Guard, who accused Eternal Kingdom of logging all the trees, said, \”If they simply logged all of the trees, we won't have to pay any compensation.\”

\”That's impossible!\” the worker in the forest immediately shouted.

\”How many creatures are there in Eternal Kingdom? The forest is huge and requires special tools for logging. Not to mention that the logging staff has to be specially selected. We have a collaboration with the largest prison, Bankazia, but Eternal Kingdom and Bankazia didn't cooperate. How could he have a large logging crew? It's impossible to cut down the trees within four months.\”