Once we had rummaged through the dungeon and collected everything to sell to the Merchant, who once again whistled and gathered his Shadow Mice to crawl out of the darkness to carry everything off, I beckoned my spirit beasts over to teleport them back to the dungeon.
"Thanks for the help," I told the Merchant. "It's been a pleasure doing business with you."
"Same," the Merchant replied. I could almost sense that he was smiling. "Honestly, you're one of my best clients. I enjoy doing business with you more than other customers or suppliers. You don't haggle, and you are humble and polite."
"Some may view that as a bad thing," I muttered, already reading the comments from the existences from beyond the fourth dimension. "I thought humility is a virtue, and it's good to be polite, but apparently people are equating humility and politeness with being weak and a pushover. They are ridiculing me for being a 'Japanese' main character even though I have a Chinese name. whatever that means."
The Merchant snorted. "Ignore those edgy juveniles. They have bought into the toxic culture of cultivation web novels. I can tell you that I've done business with a lot of different customers and suppliers, and the Chinese and Korean protagonists are the worst and most arrogant. They are rude and condescending, and always rip us off. Not to mention, they seem very entitled and always trick us out of our best products at the lowest prices. It's difficult doing business with them."
"I sympathize. I'm sorry to hear that."
"See? This is what I mean. It's much better speaking to a polite person than a rude and arrogant one who treats us Merchants like trash." He rolled his eyes. "Oh, and the Chinese protagonists in particular. They look down on us for being 'capitalist' even though Hua Xia is one of the biggest capitalist countries in the world, thanks to Deng Xiao Ping's reforms. Anyway, you should take the 'Japanese' main character label as a compliment. I prefer to deal with humble and polite Japanese clients more than the arrogant and condescending Chinese and Korean ones. There's a reason why the Rising Sun Nation remains the world's third largest economy even after so long."
"Um, let's not turn this into a national measuring contest or something. Let's keep politics out of it."
"Hey, it's not that I want to turn this political, but the commenters are the ones who turned it national with their whole pathetic weak beta 'Japanese' main characters versus strong, ruthless 'Chinese' main characters nonsense in the first place. apparently, the only way to be a so-called 'alpha' is to be a misogynistic serial cheater with a harem of brain-dead heroines all falling in love with the protagonist for no reason other than because he's a special snowflake. Apparently, it's okay if a guy cheats on a girl with multiple girls, but if a girl has more than one romantic partner, suddenly they start screaming NTR and sending the authors death threats."
"Um…wow. You really have a lot on your chest, don't you?"
"Oh, sorry about that. I'm just sick and tired of reading all the inflammatory comments and reviews on my Merchant website. We sell books, novels and manhuas too, and every time I see a product rating get 0.5 for no reason other than because the readers hate the so-called beta main character and want harem, ruthless and cruel protagonists, it just drives me mad. I'm trying to sell a product here, for crying out. and these edgelords are ruining my businesses! The worst thing is that they are a vocal minority, but because they are vocal, they tend to be the only ones leaving these 0.5 rating reviews and driving away all the normal readers who would otherwise purchase the books!"
Oh, I didn't know the Merchants had to experience such problems as well. interesting. Well, it wasn't as if I was a writer, so I didn't have to worry about satisfying readers' desires and writing a good story. That said, I was still being harassed by the comments from beyond the fourth dimension because of the system.
The system was a sadist.
"Anyway, if there's nothing else, I'll leave first. You can have everything in the Flood Dragon Dungeon. Now that I've dismantled and taken the core, I assume the Celestial Labyrinth will probably swallow up this place."
"That's correct. But new dungeons are always constantly being born and created all over the Celestial Labyrinth, so don't be surprised if a new one spawn near your Deep Sea Palace one day. After all, your own dungeon was created only a year and a half ago."
"I actually found it as a deep undersea cavern. I also happened to have a dungeon core on hand."
"Yeah, that's usually the circumstances upon which dungeons are created. Without a core, this will turn into another subterranean cavern or passageway. Well, given the forest, swamps, rivers and waterfalls, I think it will just be a region for feral Flood Dragons to live in, but since it is no longer a dungeon, other spirit beasts will move in and populate the forests before long. It'll just become part of the vast wilderness endemic to the Celestial Labyrinth."
"I…I see. It looks like a lovely place, though."
"The palace, on the other hand, will be consumed by the forest and destroyed naturally. It's like your Deep Sea Palace – you didn't actually have the palace, gates and towers until after you inserted a core and turn it into a dungeon, correct? So without a core, the palace and artificial structures will vanish. But the ecosystem will remain."
"That's good to know." I looked over the teeming, vibrant life in the verdant forest, flowing rivers and rushing waterfalls. "I might return here once in a while. Seems like I might be able to catch some spirit beasts or resources here."
"Yeah, resources in the wild areas belong to no one, so you're free to collect them. Assuming you or your spirit beasts who do the collecting survive. Don't forget, there will still be feral Flood Dragons and other predators in here."
"Understood. Anyway, thanks for everything. It's great doing business with you, and I hope to see you again."
I was about to teleport back to my dungeon after confirming the invoice, but the Merchant had one last thing left for me.
"Hang on, before you go, I think you can have this artifact. Among the treasures of the Flood Dragons, this is probably the only one that you can use for your dungeon."
Surprisingly, the Merchant had one last gift for me. He placed a wooden flute on my hand. I gaped at him.
"Huh? What is this?"
"That's…that's a flute made from the bark of the World Tree!" Sylvie immediately recognized the artifact. She flew over, her fairy wings flapping, to stare closely at the flute with wide eyes. She held out her hands for it and I passed it to her, watching as she turned it over. "It's also imbued with powerful natural wood qi. Where did you get this from?"
"Ah, of course the young fairy lady would recognize this." The Merchant chuckled and bowed his cowled head. "It's the Harmonious Flute. Anyone who possesses it can communicate with sylphs."
"And sylphs typically populate the upper reaches of the World Tree," Sylvie concluded, her eyes still wide in awe. "That's why a flute made from the bark of the World Tree has such affinity with them."
"I believe the Flood Dragon King came into possession of the Harmonious Flute when he plundered one of the many dungeons he invaded. He just didn't know what it was and tossed it aside with his other pile of treasures." The Merchant shrugged. "But considering that you're a summoner, I believe you can make better use of this flute than the Flood Dragon King ever could."
"Oh, thanks. Um, how much…?"
"Don't worry about it. I've already deducted the cost of the Harmonious Flute when calculating the sum that I owe you." The Merchant seemed to smile mysteriously, but as usual, I could never see his mouth. "I was confident that you would accept it. Particularly because you're growing your own forest in your dungeon, with a core based on the World Tree."
"Thanks."
"Don't mention it. Anyway, I should get back to work. You should rest and tend to your dungeon."
"Sure." I nodded, and then teleported myself and all of my summoned spirit beasts back to my dungeon. In a flash of light, we were back in the middle of my Deep Sea Palace. From the looks of it, the Construction Crabs and other spirit beasts had almost fully repaired everything.
Excellent.
"You can have the Harmonious Flute," I told Sylvie with a smile as she continued to cradle it. "I think you'll make better use of it than me."
"No." Sylvie shook her head and returned it to me. "It's a pity, but I can't use the Harmonious Flute. Fairy spirits can't use this artifact. It was made for elves to use. And I believe humans can use them too, since as a species, you're closer to elves." She smiled. "Don't worry. Fairies like me and Silvia can already communicate with sylphs and other elemental spirits without the use of such artifacts."
"Elemental spirits, huh? I think I've heard of them. Sylphs are elemental spirits of the wind. That means we also have gnomes, undines and salamanders."
"Oh, I've heard about undines!" Myria jumped in, staring at the flute. She paused and listened to us as we filled her in on what we found in the Flood Dragon Palace. She then nodded in understanding. "I see, so that's how it is. Yeah, I've heard about undines, but they aren't usually found in the sea. I heard they prefer freshwater rivers and lakes."
"That's correct. Undines make their home in the lakes and rivers surrounding the World Tree," Sylvie confirmed.
"I don't think big sis and I have ever met any of them before, though," Silvia complained as she sat down on a newly repaired chair. She frowned at Sylvie. "Why do you know so much?"
"The question is why do you not know about them? The chief taught us about the four elemental spirits back in the village, remember?"
"Ah…ha ha, I never paid much attention to those lessons. I never thought there would come a time when we would venture out and explore the outside world."
Sylvie sighed and rubbed her forehead. I patted her head sympathetically before she turned to me.
"Jun Wen, if possible, you should use this Harmonious Flute to communicate with the sylphs and maybe make a contract with several of them. I believe they will be very helpful in nurturing the forest you are trying to cultivate in your dungeon."
"Okay. But we'll have to climb the World Tree to find them, right?"
"Yes."
"That sounds like an adventure!" Myria rubbed her hands gleefully. "Count me in! I always wanted to visit this World Tree!"
"Of course, big sis and I will be coming along too!" Silvia chimed in. "You'll need big sis to guide you up the World Tree anyway."
"Yeah, Sylvie is reliable," I agreed. "But I'm more surprised that we can't count on you to lead us up the World Tree."
"Ugh!"
"You can leave your dungeon to me, my lord," Wang Long said with a bow. "The repairs are almost complete, and I'm confident everything will be back to normal by tomorrow night at the latest. I will alert you if there are any changes or urgent news, but I suspect it will be a while before another dungeon master tries to attack us."
He then grinned.
"With your newly evolved spirit beasts and the addition of five new siege towers – especially after their firepower has been upgraded immensely – I believe we will be able to repel any invasion attempt."
"Excellent. Thanks. I'll be relying on you then. That said, you don't have to worry. This is the World Tree we're talking about here. It's in northwest Europe, and we need to do an awful lot of preparations to get there and climb it. Not to mention, we have to book flight tickets too…"
The thought of organizing an expedition was already giving me a headache, but I decided that it would be worth all the trouble.
After all, the sylphs were one of the four major elemental spirits. They would be an amazing addition to my army of summoned spirit beasts.
Assuming I was able to make a spirit contract with them, of course.