Gathered in the main tent, three men, two of whom were experienced merchants, proceeded to a conference with the head of the mercenaries who accompanied them.
"I think we should go route B." Opening the map, a man with a large scar on his unshaven face pointed at it.
"But then we will be two weeks late, this route is sixty miles longer," said a plump merchant of about fifty-five indignantly.
"Calm down, my friend, in front of you is the best mercenary in this desert, he knows what he's talking about," the second, even more elderly merchant said soothingly clapping his colleague on the shoulder, "Please tell us why route B is, we really don't want to lose money and go the longer way.
- On route "B", there are a lot of stone "islands", near which there are almost no worms, which is why the chance of an attack is lower there. Understand, your caravan is too big, no matter how carefully we go, in the last month we have taken the worms away from you ten times and this is with all the precautions. We are attracting too much attention, and I can't imagine how we will pass such a crowd through the high-risk zone located in the center of route "A". So I recommend... No, I insist on the B route.
The merchants wanted to add something, but, seeing the serious face of the mercenary, they decided to just agree.
None of them ever knew that at that moment another person was present in the tent, carefully studying the map.
The shadow spirit, although it could read mental impulses with ease and perfectly understood what these people were talking about, was useless when it came to reading a language that was not familiar to it. He did not understand absolutely any of those squiggles that were written on the map, but at the same time he could remember everything that he saw on it with perfect accuracy.
In fact, he was sure that if you combine everything he saw and heard here, along with what his brothers would reconnoiter, then you would get a completely adequate map near the lying area.
* * *
One of the great advantages of the dark vessel, thanks to which the shadows were called, was that with its help it was possible to contact any of them at any time.
To do this, it was necessary: a) To be a summoner, and b) To have the ability to mentally transmit a thought impulse.
And of course, Kaisar, possessed both.
Standing near the vessel and concentrating on its light emanating from the neck, he received a lot of useful information, memorizing everything in detail, so that later he would not lose face in front of his great master.
Having remembered everything necessary, the king of the fallen decided that it would be best to immediately report everything he discovered, and not waste time. This will not only avoid omissions between him and the Lord, but will also save them from unnecessary mistakes.
Therefore, without wasting time, Kaisar went to the teleportation gate located on his level.
* * *
The ocean of blood - this is how the inhabitants of the empire called level 76 among themselves, where the throne room was located.
The fact is that this "floor", which was a cube narrowed to the bottom, was ¾ filled with the blood of a monster tree, whose real dimensions were simply colossal.
The blood of the tree monster was quite special and combined the seemingly incompatible properties of vegetable juice and blood.
The composition of this liquid was completely subject to the tree, which, by manipulating its composition, could turn this liquid-blood into both a healing nectar and a strong poison.
The seventy-sixth floor was huge, but dwarfed by the size of a tree that could fill it with its blood three-fourths of its volume. From which came the simple truth that the main body of the monster plant was outside the pyramid and only partially enveloped the seventy-sixth "floor", which was literally included in the general blood flow of the huge plant.
The blood from this level continuously circulated, flowing either into the tree or out of it. It could be said that this "floor" was a kind of checkpoint where hundreds of tons of blood were constantly pumped in, and from where they were constantly pumped out, while regulating its composition.
As for the throne room, on this "floor" on a huge platform, which was kept afloat by the roots of a tree, there was a hundred-meter white marble pyramid, to the entrance of which there was a carpet path emanating directly from the teleportation gates, through which persons requiring an audience could get to this floor.
The only exceptions, which could do without a spatial gate, were only those creatures that owned the highest forms of teleportation, thanks to which they could bypass the protective barrier located here.
In addition to the platform floating in the ocean of blood, in the center of which there was actually one single pyramid building, there was something else on this floor, or rather, someone ...
In the depths of the bloody abyss lived the giants of the sea, brought by the Lord from all the seven oceans of the world.
The ruler was very fond of the underwater inhabitants, with whom he spent most of his life in the true body. And of course, he could not leave them to the mercy of fate in the oceans boiled from monstrous radiation.
Therefore, he moved all his dearest pets here, ordering the monster tree to fill this level with its blood and maintain here a special composition necessary for the life of these cute creatures.
In fact, for the largest living creature on the planet, which was this tree, the task was not difficult, the ruler was only required to place an underground pyramid-country near the base of the plant trunk, which naturally could not move.
Yes, this monstrously old tree has always been and will always be here, it was impossible to move it anywhere due to its exorbitant size.
By the way, this tree was the only creature that lived all these two million years without any suspended animation or protective barrier. Although its upper parts perished, its large internal infrastructure survived the radiation quite calmly, not to mention several million years, which were a trifle for one of the oldest creatures on the planet.