The orange-red sun had sunk behind the distant peaks, leaving only half its face visible, but the piles of supplies in front of the two great cavern entrances were still growing. The armory on the left was more than half empty, while the granary on the right showed no sign of running out.
The Argent Dawn could not possibly abandon the grain. At this rate, there was no way they could withdraw before dark, and it seemed Pulhart would be unable to honor his agreement with the Dark Lady on time.
Even if Pulhart insisted on withdrawing for the sake of his reputation, the others would not agree. How to face the Dark Lady's wrath was a problem he now had to consider.
After taking in the scenery for a while, Unas and Erigor returned to the two cavern entrances, where many soldiers had begun lining up to collect grain.
The two went straight into Bessarius's granary. Under the orders, they too had to carry twenty kilograms of grain, and that was why they had come.
As usual, a man in charge came to attend to them, and as usual, Erigor offered him a few gold coins. Unexpectedly, the man flatly refused. Only after making sure the man truly would not take them did Erigor reluctantly put the coins away, looking thoroughly rebuffed. His money offensives rarely met with resistance.
Unas snickered to himself. It seemed there were still upright people around.
The two followed the upright man down a side passage. In a small room at the end were piled some better-quality provisions.
On his way in, Unas had seen nothing but coarse grains like wheat, corn, and soybeans, but this little room was filled with all kinds of dried meat, smoked fish, and nuts. There were even several barrels of wine.
Sure enough, "noble" Paladins got to enjoy higher-grade spoils.
In front of the upright man, Unas behaved very uprightly himself, taking only five bags of dried meat and five barrels of wine. Apparently that was still over the limit, though, because the upright man glared at him.
Erigor also had a storage artifact. He took one portion of each kind, which added up to quite a lot.
The upright man finally could not hold back. "You can take as much grain from outside as you want. Anything over twenty kilograms belongs to you personally, but the food here is allocated to the officers of the entire army. You need to know when to stop."
The two slunk out of the room. Although they were in the wrong, they were still rather unhappy about it.
Sure enough, though everyone admired upright people in their hearts, only when they actually spent time with one did they discover how difficult such creatures were to deal with.
In the great cavern outside, people were busy carrying out bags of grain. Stronger people could shoulder two or three bags, but most could only carry them out one at a time. It really was inefficient.
Unas remembered moving rocks underground to block the Undead. There were still plenty of empty slots in his backpack, so it would be a waste not to use them.
With a spatial backpack in hand, I'm the greatest hauler there is!
In games, identical items could be stacked in a backpack. Usually, one slot could hold a stack, or twenty items.
Unas could stack items in his backpack too, but he had discovered a capacity limit. Wine, for example, could only be stored five barrels to a slot at most. Each barrel held about two hundred liters, so by that calculation, each slot was roughly one to two cubic meters in size.
More than twenty small items could be stacked together. For example, the various sabers, spears, swords, and halberds he had looted earlier numbered over twenty, but they could all fit in one slot.
Unas tried it out and found that each slot could hold six or seven bags of grain. He still had over fifty empty slots, meaning that one trip for him was worth three hundred trips for one person.
I could make a fortune as a hauler in the future!
Unas could not help smacking himself on the head. How unambitious of him—to have a treasure like this and only think of becoming a hauler.
He put the thought into action and began sweeping up the grain around him.
Erigor watched, dumbfounded, as bag after bag of grain vanished beneath Unas's hand. His own storage ring was already full after holding just a little refined grain. He could not help asking, "Brother Unas, just how big is your storage space?"
"Keep watching and you'll find out, won't you?" Unas was showing off.
Unas swept up grain for five or six minutes before stopping, leaving nothing behind in his wake. The haulers around him were all stunned too, while Erigor had gone numb. "Could it be that you received a gift from an Archmage?"
"That's a secret." Unas continued showing off.
He strode out of the cavern and piled up the grain from his backpack. It soon formed a small mountain, drawing another chorus of gasps and even bringing the upright man in charge of the grain over.
This time, the man smiled at him. "Many thanks to you... I still don't know your name, my lord?"
"Just call me Unas."
"So you're the hero the soldiers have been talking about, the one who killed the Dreadlord!?" The man's voice suddenly shot up.
"I'm no hero. I was just lucky, hahaha!" Unas was modest aloud, but inwardly he was overjoyed. It seemed the heroic legend of the "Demon Slayer" was about to begin.
"There's no way you could have killed such a powerful and cunning demon through luck alone," the man said, growing even more respectful. "And with your help, my lord, we'll be able to finish before dark."
Unas knew what concerned him most. "I'll do my best to help."
After several trips back and forth, the great granary cavern gradually emptied out. But the sun had also set completely, starlight covered the land, and torches had been lit all over the island for illumination.
Unas ran back and forth, constantly loading and unloading grain. He looked busy, but it actually took little effort.
Once again, he filled his backpack and ran out of the cavern. Just as he was about to unload, a soldier came racing toward him from the distance, shouting while still far away, "Are you Lord Unas-Lawugade?"
Unas froze for a moment. Only when Erigor nudged him did he hurriedly raise his right hand, like an elementary school student called on by his teacher.
The soldier reached them, gasping loudly. "By Lord Pulhart's summons, Unas-Lawugade is to report immediately to discuss military affairs!"
Discuss military affairs? Me? Unas looked at Erigor in surprise, but Erigor looked even more astonished. "What on earth happened?"
"Both of you, come with me first. I'll explain on the way."
As it turned out, it still concerned the agreement with the Dark Lady. It was already completely dark, but the Argent Dawn showed no intention of setting out, so Sylvanas had released another prisoner—this time without a horse, instead throwing him straight into the icy lake.
The unlucky fellow had been threatened not to climb onto the ice, or he would get a taste of a Dark Ranger's Frostbolt.
Fortunately, he seemed to be a good swimmer, and the Undead beneath the water had long since scattered. He had quickly swum across, bringing the Dark Lady's rebuke and threat even as he shivered from the cold: if the Argent Dawn did not get lost, one wounded person would be thrown into the lake every minute. Of course, she would no longer deliberately choose humans who were good swimmers.
Pulhart was alarmed. The icy lake water would worsen the wounded people's injuries, and anyone who could not swim would drown outright when their turn came.
But preparations for the retreat were nowhere near complete, so he had no choice but to send someone over to request new negotiations. The other side had actually agreed, sending a Dark Ranger to the middle of the ice causeway.
Pulhart went to meet the ranger in person, only to be turned away. The ranger had specifically asked to see a Paladin with black hair and black eyes, refusing to negotiate otherwise.
With no other choice, Pulhart sent a messenger to find Unas. He had long since noticed the unusual-looking newcomer, who was also said to have dealt Bessarius the final blow.
The messenger explained matters along the way, giving the two a general understanding of what had happened. But another question arose in Erigor's mind, and he asked his black-haired, black-eyed companion, "Why does that Dark Ranger want to see you and you alone?"
Unas sighed inwardly. That rotten peach blossom luck has come back to haunt me...