Yarra’s Adventure Notes
Chapter 1356 - 142: Canyon

Chapter 1356: Chapter 142: Canyon

The mountains in the Realm of the Dead are colorful, which was another unexpected sight. When the adventure team bid farewell to Necromancer Kenseth’s caravan and hurriedly rushed to the foot of the mountains, they finally saw the full view of these mountains, thanks to the faint moonlight. Contrary to everyone’s imagination, in a world where ordinary plants cannot grow, the mountains were not barren. Many low-light plants thrived between the rocks and soil, covering a large part of the mountains. Unlike most mountain plants in the outside world that are uniformly green, the plants here came in different colors: red, blue, gray, white, black. The richness of these colors made one marvel and exclaim that aside from green, plants could have so many strange colors.

Following the route drawn on Kenseth’s map, they traversed the rugged canyons between the mountains, with towering cliffs on both sides. In the crevices of the cliffs, one could always see resilient climbing plants poking their heads out, manifesting their existence to the world. If one looked closely, they could see that these plants, mainly surviving by absorbing the Energy of Death, were growing very lushly. Beneath the dense and tiny leaves were full seeds, showing that even in this silent world, as long as there was an opportunity, life could still stubbornly continue to propagate.

"Wait, what did I see?" Catherine suddenly slowed down and pointed at an exposed cliff, "Did you notice the color of that cliff?"

"Yes, it has a bit of dark red," Pannis nodded, "And we passed by a light blue one just now, but because the light was too dim, it wasn’t very obvious, so you didn’t notice it."

"Colored rocks," Catherine mused, "Doesn’t that suggest something to you?"

"Minerals, byproducts of metal ores," Pannis said matter-of-factly. "Although I can’t be sure, there’s a high probability that these mountains are rich in mineral veins."

"That’s strange, though; I’ve seen that most of the tools used by the Undead are made of bone, and a very few are made from the woody parts of Bone Mushrooms, but I’ve never seen tools made of metal." Catherine said, puzzled, "So I always thought that these minerals didn’t exist here. Now it seems there are quite a few minerals, so why don’t they make metal tools? Even copper tools would be better than bone ones."

"How would you make them?" Pannis countered, "Have you thought about that?"

"Of course by forging..." Catherine’s mouth hung open, but she couldn’t finish her sentence. Indeed, the knight-girl had overlooked the most important point: in this world of large trees, there was no coal underground, nor was there any suitable wood for charcoal on the surface. This meant that even if there were minerals, it was impossible to smelt them at high temperatures, let alone forge them into shape. Catherine sighed and shook her head with a wry smile, "Alright, I’ve been considering the problems here with the common sense of the main world again. Indeed, this world is not suitable for making metal tools."

"No, someone has made them," Ava, who was accustomed to silence, suddenly spoke up, "Along the way, I saw two places that looked like mineral veins and had traces of manual mining, albeit on a small scale. But this shows that metal items had been made here before."

"The only ones capable of doing this must be the necromancers, I guess. Skeleton mages, unless they’re of Legendary Rank, are unlikely to have the control and endurance to complete the refining and forging of minerals." Vivian immediately found the method to forge metal in this world; it could only be done by using fire-attribute magic, which could forge metals even without any fuel. However, the young mage eventually shook her head. "Even with my current strength, maintaining a high-temperature environment for an extended period is quite difficult. I’m afraid the only ones who could smoothly do this are those magic-using undead of Demigod Rank."

"The ratio of demigod undead is pretty high, even higher than the ratio of demigods among elves. Of course, they’re still not as numerous as the Guardians, but even though they’re relatively plenty, demigods are still a minority, and those specialized in magic are even rarer. They can’t possibly be so bored as to forge metal tools every day, right?" Pannis shrugged and continued, "So, if we can’t produce on a large scale, metal tools won’t become widespread. At best, they’d make some for their own use. It’s unrealistic to think that millions of undead would each get to use them."

"However, if someone is mining, it at least means the undead aren’t completely ignorant of metal tools." Her Highness drew a small dagger from her waist and flicked the smooth metal surface, saying, "If both sides could truly sit down and negotiate, then in the early stages of coexistence, metal and wooden goods would both be great trade items."

"What, it looks like you also want a piece of the action," Catherine said, half teasingly. "I thought you didn’t care about that."

"As a daughter, I have to consider my father’s interests. How could I not care about opening a stable revenue channel for the Guild?" Freya wasn’t bothered by Catherine’s teasing and replied with a meaningful smile, whispering, "Don’t forget, the Sighing Desert is no easy journey, and getting through the Country of Sand smoothly is hard as well. Opting for the Beastmen Prairie route comes with its own grave dangers. Without the support of the Adventurers’ Guild, I doubt that the efforts of merely my lord father’s trade convoy will easily dominate the bulk share of this new trade route."

"Hey, aren’t you two planning a bit too far ahead?" Pannis, rubbing his temples with a headache, felt helpless with these two women who suddenly turned into merchants and lords. He could only sigh and say, "We can’t be sure about anything yet, don’t you think it’s too early to be discussing trade?"

"Is it too early? I don’t see it that way." Catherine and Freya looked at each other and simultaneously beamed a bright smile, joining hands, as if they had already struck a cooperative deal. Only after this did the knightly girl turn to Pannis with a smile, "The deeper I go into this world, the more confident I feel about the possibility of living beings coexisting with the undead. I believe that, as long as the undead maintain their current state, the chances of coexistence are at least seventy percent."

"But don’t forget why I came here," Pannis sighed. "Do you think that after carrying out deicide, their attitude towards the living will remain the same?"

"That is not their god," Catherine countered with a shake of her head. "As long as you bring back the appropriate evidence after fulfilling your plan, they will be grateful to you, not hateful. Are you saying that you would rather leave us at the mercy of angry undead and discard the comfort of the entire Yarran World and Lady Nellie’s efforts, than come back and meet up with us?"

"Hey, stop arguing and come over here," Lina, who had been shepherding the two youngsters, called out from the front of the group. She suddenly turned back and shouted, "We’ve made it out—look over there, that’s the capital!"