chsdbacks Chapter 138 Building the Castle
Chapter 138 Building the Castle
Chapter 138 Building the Castle
With the arrival of the dwarven craftsmen, the construction project at Wind and Cloud Peak officially commenced.
The dwarves displayed their professional skills, constantly surveying the terrain from the mountaintop to the foot of the mountain, and then continuously designing blueprints.
"We plan to build a large castle covering the entire mountaintop, centered around Amonsur Tower," Bahrain said, pointing to a complete set of blueprints.
"In addition, I also suggest that an underground passage be carved out inside the mountain to serve as the back door of the castle, leading directly to the swamp at the foot of the mountain, and then the swamp be dug out to form a lake that surrounds Fengyun Peak."
"This not only forms a natural barrier, but also allows access to the lakeside dock via an underground passage should the front entrance be blocked."
We left directly by boat.
Dui nodded repeatedly in agreement with Bahrain's suggestion.
Baling's design perfectly matched his ideas, making it even more like the Hogwarts Castle he remembered.
"Then let's do it your way, Bahrain," Dui decided. "I trust your judgment!"
Upon hearing this, Bahrain smiled and patted his chest, promising, "I will definitely build you the most magnificent castle!"
Dui was also very much looking forward to it, and at the same time, he was planning in his mind how to squeeze more money out of the dragon.
After all, while the dwarves had promised to help him build the castle, it wasn't for free.
The building materials and tools needed to construct a castle represent a huge expense.
Not to mention the dwarves' food expenses, especially their consumption of alcohol, which was a considerable expense.
"Agh! Master, you might as well just kill me!"
In the cellar, Smaug let out a mournful wail, so heartbreaking that even the death of his parents wouldn't have caused such grief.
He used his massive body to press down on the treasure, refusing to budge like a dead pig.
"Our treasures were already dwindling, and now you're using them to build a castle. How many coins will be left? You promised me I'd be lying on a mountain of gold, but now I haven't seen a mountain of gold, and I have to keep throwing gold coins out! Why am I so unlucky!"
With those resentful eyes and that shrill voice, anyone who didn't know better would think that Du Yi had done something to him.
Dui rolled his eyes, then kicked him impatiently, "Get out of my way!"
Smaug clung tightly to the treasure, not moving an inch, and even used his tail to secretly pull the coins to the other side of his body.
Dui laughed in anger, narrowed his eyes, pulled out the divine spear Aiglos from his spatial bag, and poked it threateningly.
Feeling the stinging pain from the spear tip, Smaug's body stiffened, and he could only reluctantly move half of his body away.
Dui expressionlessly put away the spear, then put the gold coins into his spatial bag.
As Smaug watched the gold slip away, his heart bled with pain.
"Master, stop rummaging! I'll help you with the work! Please leave me some gold!"
Dui paused, looking at him strangely: "You're going to help me with the work?"
"Yes, Master, I'll help you build your castle. I can move boulders from far away, flatten hills with my tail, and melt steel with my dragonfire. I'm definitely much more useful than those greedy dwarves!"
In order to save gold coins, Smaug was prepared to go all out.
So in the days that followed, in addition to the dwarf craftsmen, a dragon was added to the team building the castle in Dui.
Building a castle requires hard stone.
The dwarves found suitable granite for building a castle in the Wind and Cloud Hills, north of Wind and Cloud Peak.
The dwarves quarried blocks of granite, piled them up, and handed them over to the dragons to be transported by air to the top of Wind and Cloud, where the dwarves then built them up like building blocks.
Smaug even flew thousands of miles to the Troll Forest, uprooting ancient and sturdy giant trees to use as building materials. Smaug's busy figure could be seen every day.
With the help of the dragon Smaug, the efficiency and speed of castle construction were greatly improved.
According to Bahrain's estimates, the time originally planned for the castle construction has been shortened from more than a year to just three months.
Even the most expensive materials, stone and wood, were taken care of by Smaug. The biggest expense became the cost of wine for a thousand dwarf craftsmen: the wine at the Prancing Horse Inn was almost entirely taken care of, and the innkeeper, Mr. Butterbloom, was practically beaming with joy.
Therefore, Smaug's gaze toward the dwarves was filled with malice, since every penny the dwarves spent was now being deducted from his treasury!
If it weren't for his master's strict prohibition, he would have wanted to swallow all these drunken dwarves whole right now.
Just as Smaug's gaze became increasingly undisguised, Dui struck him hard on the forehead with his staff, making Smaug's eyes clear again.
The dwarves finally breathed a sigh of relief.
The pressure of working with this dragon is too great; if this continues, they'll all want to go on strike!
Luke, the village chief of Hogsmeade, offered to build a castle for Dui on a voluntary basis, but Dui refused.
Aside from Smaug, that stingy dragon who's always complaining about running out of money, that one-tenth of the Lonely Mountain treasure is actually enough to build countless castles.
Therefore, Dui is not short of money at all, nor does he need the villagers to do voluntary labor for him.
They simply hired the villagers to prepare meals for a thousand dwarf craftsmen every day.
After entrusting everything to Chief Luke and Edward, Dui went to the meditation room on the seventh floor to meditate every day.
It was bustling outside, but none of the noise reached the meditation room.
In the meditation room, Dui was either meditating, researching magic, or studying alchemy.
One day, the owner of the Leap Horse Inn brought Dui some good news: he had found a rooster that was seven years old.
Dui perked up and immediately went to the Prancing Horse Inn through the fireplace.
Where's the rooster?
When the innkeeper, Huang Youju, saw Dui, he was full of respect and enthusiasm.
After all, this is a big customer!
He quickly bowed, "Lord Duir, please rest assured, the rooster is very healthy, I'll bring it to you right away!"
He turned around and ran quickly to the backyard, brought back a cage, and placed it on the table.
Inside, there was a large rooster.
The rooster has a bright red comb on its head, its neck feathers shimmer with a metallic sheen, its body is strong, its tail feathers are like colorful fans, its beak is sharp and its claws are sharp, and it looks majestic.
Dui lowered his head and observed carefully.
Fearing Duy might not believe him, the innkeeper quickly assured him, "Lord Duy, please rest assured, this is definitely a seven-year-old rooster. I bought it from an old hobbit in the Shire. He's kept it as a pet for seven years. I wouldn't and wouldn't dare to lie to you!"
Dui neither confirmed nor denied it, pointing his wand at the rooster and shooting out a beam of white light.
The rooster shook, and a glowing number 7 appeared on its comb.
This confirmed that the rooster was indeed seven years old.
Dui showed a satisfied expression.
Ordinary roosters don't even live to be seven years old. Even if they do, they are very old, with sparse and dull feathers.
The one in front of us was clearly well cared for; even at seven years old, it was still robust and its feathers were gorgeous and glossy.
Having obtained the rooster he wanted, Dui then asked, "How's your collection of the other materials going?"
The innkeeper replied, "We have collected a batch, but the materials you need are too special and are a bit troublesome to collect, requiring more time."
"It's alright, give me what you've collected first, and we'll collect the rest later," Dui said.
"Please follow me, sir. There were quite a few of those things, and they were rather frightening, so they're all kept in the cellar," the innkeeper said, leading the way.
He explained with a hint of helplessness.
The materials that Dui wanted were too strange and bizarre. If it weren't for the generous reward and Dui's reputation, he wouldn't have dared to accept the commission at all.
The two made their way to the cellar and found the potion ingredients that Dui needed.
Among them were all sorts of strange and wonderful things, such as crocodile hearts in large glass jars, bat hearts, eel eyeballs, frog brains, salamander spleens, pufferfish eyes, and so on.
No wonder the innkeeper didn't dare show these things to people; if the guests saw them, they would probably be too scared to come back.
Dui was quite pleased to see that he had collected so many.
He waved his wand, storing everything into his spatial bag, then said to the innkeeper, "Keep collecting more materials for me. Don't worry, I won't complain. Send as much as you can to Fengyun Peak, and I'll give you a satisfactory reward!"
He then handed a bag of gold coins to the other party.
"Is one thousand gold coins enough?"
"That's enough! Thank you, sir!" The innkeeper beamed with joy. "Thank you! I'll definitely help you collect even more materials!"
Even if the materials are strange, he will definitely complete the employer's task.
With the innkeeper's farewell, Dui returned to Wind and Cloud Peak with the rooster and the potion ingredients.
After asking Edward to take care of the rooster, Dui went up to the eighth floor.
He waved his wand and conjured potion storage cabinets on three walls.
Then, the potion ingredients were sorted and placed in their proper places.
With another wave of the wand, the room was kept at a lower temperature.
Then he took out all the potion-making tools, including the potion cauldron.
Arriving at the door again, I gently tapped it, and a golden plaque engraved with "Potion Room" appeared on the door.
After making the arrangements, Dui left the potions room and found the dragon Smaug.
With a wave of the wand, a giant syringe appeared.
He said to the dragon with a gentle expression, "Come, Smaug, let me draw some of your blood."
Smaug looked at Duy's gentle smiling face and the syringe, and instinctively shuddered.
"Master, may I refuse?"
"No!" Dui refused without hesitation.
"Okay, don't be afraid, it's just a little bit of blood being drawn, it won't affect you at all."
Then, under Smaug's irresistible command, he could only watch helplessly as Dui came to his chest, inserted a syringe into the scaleless opening in his chest, and drew out a large tube of dragon blood.
The syringe piercing the dragon was no different from a mosquito sucking blood, but it left Smaug with a psychological trauma.
Thus, the first dragon in the Central Plains that was afraid of injections was born.
Even the moment his owner smiled and took out the syringe became a persistent nightmare for Smaug.
The dragon's blood was as hot as magma, and Dui dared not touch the syringe with his hands. He could only use a levitation spell to control it and put it into a heat-resistant glass bottle for storage.
He then returned to the potion room with the dragon blood he had retrieved.
This time, he was going to make a very unusual and complicated potion.