The sun started to rise above the trees and I was woken up by my alarm, Alexa.
After a healthy breakfast and some stretching I got on my horse ready to leave.
I had to go around the enemy camp since the Gravel City was in that direction.
Luckily there wasn't a problem on the way there, and after 2 days I arrived in the City.
Once there, I could see why it was called this since it was surrounded by huge mountains made of gravel.
The city was at the bottom of the valley, so I could see everything inside from my location.
It was much smaller than I expected, making me wonder if this was a town instead of a city.
There were walls surrounding it, but not as tall as I expected.
Even the streets had fewer people on them than normal, most of the space was open and had little facilities for entertainment.
Could I even find enough people in those walls?
I slowed down as I got closer to the gates, not knowing if I should enter this place officially, or sneak in.
In the end, I decided to enter normally since I didn't want to spend a lot of time looking for the person in charge.
Once the guards saw me up close, they got really tense and ready for a fight.
"Who are you?"
One of them gathered the courage to ask.
"Who I am, does not matter. I'm here to warn you about the upcoming attack from the pillagers, bring me to your leader."
The guards looked at each other not knowing what to do.
In the end, one of them went inside to tell their boss about the situation.
"Uh...please wait until we'll get a response."
"I shall not wait outside like a criminal. Bring me to your office and get me some refreshments."
Not knowing how to reject me, they followed my command without checking me any further.
It was fun from time to time to act like a noble, but it was pretty tiring most of the time so I did it only for special occasions.
I was led into a room that must've been used as the break room and got some bread and milk as snacks.
I had better food on me, but I wasn't going to turn down the hospitality.
Half an hour later, the guard came back with another guard but this one was equipped with a mix of iron and diamond armor.
"Are you the one who wanted to see the Mayor for an attack from the Piligers?"
"Yes, my name is Trader and I found their camp while I was on my journey. I came here to report for its location so it could be dealt with once and for all!"
Everyone's eyes went wide.
"Follow me then, and don't get any funny ideas."
I just nodded my head and followed the guard into the city.
Once inside I saw that the houses were much smaller and simpler than what I saw in the distance, making me wonder why would anyone want to live in such a place.
But soon I got my answer as we passed the translation entrance.
Once we were underground, everything changed.
The people were all over the tunnels, sole had tall hats while others long beards.
Then the tunnel led to an opening where multiple buildings were built like an underground city.
The reason I saw so little activity on the surface was because everyone lived underground!
I don't know why, by the city looked amazing, like It was built by dwarves.
We continued to walk along the busy streets, and I had to stay close to the guard otherwise I would've been lost.
We walked unit we reached the tallest building.
It wasn't really a building, but more like a pillar from the ceiling to the ground filled with tinted windows on all sides.
We entered the place and saw a fancy lobby filled with people who laughed like they were born from emeralds.
I looked from side to side, studying the people who were playing some games that I couldn't recognize while putting emeralds in a pile.
Some of them even looked with interest at my Alexa, but didn't dare to approach.
Then I realized, I was in a casino!
Why would the mayor be in this place?
"Please don't lose focus and come after me."
The guard reminded me of my original goal, so I followed him silently.
After we claimed a few floors, I couldn't see any more rich people, only serious-looking guards, all the way to a huge opened door.
Beyond the door was a huge room with fancy blocks, and a huge window to the city.
On the red couch stood two people, one in a black suit and the other one in something similar to underwear.
It was an unpleasant sight to see.
"Wow, you're a scary-looking guy, I'm guessing you don't look often in the mirror. "
The man in the underwear spoke mockingly.
"You're right, sometimes even my reflection tends to forget my existence."
Everyone was confused at what I said.
"So I heard you know that the Iligers will attack us next."
"Are you perhaps the Mayor?"
I asked in confusion, causing the man in the underwear to laugh out loud while the man in the suit got embarrassed all of a sudden.
"That was a good joke, but no, the Mayor is the man sitting beside me, we just like to work together if you get what I mean."
The Mayor caught and looked another way embarrassed but not denying what he said.
They don't even bother to hide the corruption, what a mest up place.
Was it the right thing to leave this important mission in this guy's hands?
"I don't know when they will attack, but I know the location of their camp and possibly more."
Both of them suddenly got serious.
"Are you sure about that? This could be a huge thing for us If it's true."
"Yes, I've seen it with my own eyes, and I even have a compass that would point you towards it. Just be careful since they have prisoners and a few powerful weapons."
Theoretically, Undying totems are not weapons, but they are still powerful.
While I said that, I also placed the compass on top of the table.
Both of them studied it before nodding their head.
"Well have to send someone to verify. If what you said is true you'll be rewarded handsomely, you can have some fun downstairs until then."
"I don't need any reward, I just want to have this taken care of so I can be free."
Both of them looked at me with a confused face, already not expecting this.
"If you only wanted to drop this information then we thank you...you can still wait and get a reward if you want. We won't be frugal when it comes to this."
"Unfortunately I don't have time to stay in one place. Just deal with this problem and it would be enough of a reward for me."
Then I turned to leave the room before stopping right at the door.
"Oh, and I expect you to treat the prisoners like humans, otherwise I'll come after you and you'll regret it."
I continued walking without turning back to see their reaction.
I was already feeling bad leaving those poor guys one more day with the Piligers, but I had to move fast.
This city looked wealthy enough to fight against the camp, so my mission was done here.
On the way back, I was a little confused, but I managed to get back to the lower floors where I was met with a lot of people who almost bumped into me since they couldn't see me.
I don't know if the men sent spies after me, but just walking through the first floor should be enough to make them lose me.
I walked along the busy streets looking from side to side occasionally to appreciate the city.
Unfortunately, I couldn't stay here for long so it wasn't a lot of what I could do.
Once I got to the surface, there were fewer people, and the guards didn't see me as I passed them.
But I couldn't find my horse, so I had to talk with one of them.
I wondered why Alexa was so quiet all this time.
Turns out it was distracted by all the new shiny toys, I wonder if anything caught Violet attention.
Maybe I can also buy a gift from here.
"If things don't spire out of control, we can come back to check this place out."
I have a feeling things will get very chaotic in this battle, too much happened in such a short amount of time.
And I still have to get to the wedding.
I hope everything is well and good at the Stone Palace.
We galloped like this for a few days, making me wonder if I would get there in time.
I was also thinking of ways I could win in this predicament.
Unfortunately, the only way I saw, was to take the ship on the water and call the army to deal with the problem.
But there's a chance they wouldn't wait and instead, take a normal wooden ship if things don't go as they planned.
After all the General still has the map to the temple.
This is not good, I still have a day unit I get there, and I don't think they'll wait for too long once the Shadow Lord gets there.
It sucks that we can't use the Nether because of Violet tracker. We didn't even have enough time to think of a solution for this.
I know she is faster than me anyway and I could go alone with Alexa, but I don't think she'll be too pleased about that option, especially since this isn't urgent for her.
Then that only left me to overwork the poor horse.
I'll give him plenty of treats later, I promised him.
I should probably breed my own horse since I keep finding myself in those kinds of situations.
-----
I started to see the city getting closer, but it didn't look as I expected.
Smoke started to rise beyond the walls and screams of people were all over the place with the gate being overwhelmed by the amount of people trying to get out.
"Oh no, they already started the attack. Alexa, what do you know about the Monster Lords?"
More people started to pour out making it impossible for me to get through the gate.
Should I ditch my horse and start climbing the walls?
No, it's still faster with the horse, I should make a new gate instead of towering up.
I went a little further from the gate where there weren't people on either side, and I took my pixake to brake the wall.
A minute later, the wall was broken, and nobody seemed to noticed it.
I quickly got on my horse and started to sprint towards the shore, and as I did, I saw more people getting out of their houses in a hurry to run away.
Before I could wonder why this was happening, I saw a huge platform in the air with pistons and TNT dropping all over the place.
Not only that, there were some evokers that were fighting the soldiers on the ground, keeping them at bay with their annoying ghosts.
Everything was in chaos, and I didn't see anywhere the Genral or the Shadow Lord.
Then it hit me.
"The Iron Ship!"
They wanted to distract everyone while the big guns were dealing with the crew!
I'm sure half of them either ran or was fighting the Iligers in the city.
What should I do now, fight the Iligers to save as many people as possible, or go and save my friend with her ship?
Time was ticking, and I was almost at the battlefield, when all of the sudden I heard a boom from behind me.
A TNT block flew towards the platform, exploding on impact.
"That's a hit! The hero is here people, you will be saved!"