Looking at the magnificent city walls, Qin Lun slightly narrowed his eyes and raised his palm to block the scorching sun overhead.
The walls were entirely made of huge piled stones. The city gate in the middle was five meters wide and about eight meters high. On both sides, there were towering arrow towers guarding the gate like sentinels. Patrolling warriors could be seen everywhere on the high walls.
In front of the gate, there was a stone arch bridge connecting it. The bridge spanned the moat where the Sword Sea flowed into this inland area, reaching far to the city’s port district. At the very front, there was a huge lighthouse built on black reefs, facing the sea.
This fortress gate in front of Qin Lun was the most famous Baldur’s Gate on the Faerûn continent. After leaving the Tower of Durlag, their streak of misfortune seemed to finally come to an end. Although they still encountered some low-level undead along the way, they did not face any dangers they couldn’t handle. Four days ago, they successfully arrived at Baldur’s Gate.
Baldur’s Gate was named after the legendary navigator and pirate—Balduran. He often adventured across the Sword Sea and built a tall tower by the sea in his name to guide ships home.
Because of pirates like Balduran, this Sword Sea port, originally a small fishing village, gradually prospered and attracted many merchants and inland farmers to settle there.
Later, the merchants and the coast patrol formed by farmers built walls to protect their goods from external dangers. However, they deliberately left the port area, where the pirates were active, outside the walls and charged the pirates and merchant sailors a fee to enter the city.
The captains were angry about their selfish behavior and refused to pay the entry fee. At the time the walls were being built, Balduran was out at sea and didn’t know about this. When he returned and found that the pirates were locked outside the walls, unable to withstand attacks from orcs and barbarians, Balduran was furious.
In his rage, Balduran led the captains to kill all those selfish and arrogant merchants and farmer captains, and dissolved the council formed by these wealthy farmers. At that time, only four members of the entire council survived because they had not supported the council’s decision.
After the incident, Balduran paid for and ordered the construction of an outer wall, building a gate bridge in the port area again. This was the origin of Baldur’s Gate. Combining strong military power and solid defense, the orcs were finally defeated. Balduran appointed those four men as dukes to remain in Baldur’s Gate.
After all this, Balduran set sail to find the legendary island of Angomey and never returned.
To this day, this port city, founded by pirates and surviving through chaotic times, had become a free nation. Humans, elves, dwarves, barbarians, nobles, farmers, merchants, adventurers—all kinds of people could be found here.
Together with Deepwater City in the north, Calimport in the south, and Athkatla, the capital of Amn south of Baldur’s Gate, they formed the commercial chain along the entire Sword Coast.
These four Sword Coast ports each had their own characteristics. Among them, Deepwater City in the north was the most accommodating to various continental cultures. In that city, it was said that even the Drow, enemies of the continent, and orcs could appear in public without being specifically targeted.
Athkatla, the capital of Amn, had the strongest commercial atmosphere. Due to its central location in the entire Sword Coast trade circle, it attracted all those who worshipped gold coins. Of course, such an atmosphere also made the city full of undercurrents, never lacking in conspiracies and betrayals.
As for Baldur’s Gate, located between Athkatla and Deepwater City, it combined the advantages of both cities. It had Deepwater City’s racial tolerance policy and also gave preferential treatment to merchants traveling north and south, rarely imposing heavy taxes.
Due to historical reasons, this city was the port on the Sword Coast with the most tolerance for pirates. Because of this, Baldur’s Gate’s fleet had strong combat power. Not only Deepwater City and Amn, but even the naval fleet of the continental power Calimshan found it hard to defeat them.
“Let’s go, we’re returning to the Bilenda Residence!” Qin Lun pulled up his hood to cover the pointed ears of his Moon Elf appearance and instructed Emily and Lorlin behind him.
The two of them quietly passed through the city gate and headed towards the noble district in the inner city. The architectural styles of the Lower City in the port district of Baldur’s Gate and the Upper City where the merchant nobles resided were very different.
The port district mostly had Bagat architecture, with a wild and unrestrained style that was very eye-catching. The Upper City, occupied by the council nobles and major merchants, had more Victorian-style buildings, dignified and elegant in appearance, full of aristocratic atmosphere.
The residents of the port district were mostly commoners, as well as merchant sailors and pirates coming and going. The Upper City was originally the stronghold of merchants and council nobles. Although centuries ago, Balduran had largely broken down the barriers between the two districts, today, the division between the two classes had once again become the main theme.
After Qin Lun’s group arrived at Baldur’s Gate without major incident, Milleras immediately visited one of the current council leaders, Duke Bilenda. The title of Duke Bilenda was not a conventional noble rank but a permanent position in the Baldur’s Gate council, originally established by Balduran after the turmoil and still in use today.
Duke Bilenda had always been friendly with the Elven Race. Of course, he did not distinguish between Moon Elf and Sun Elf. In fact, the disagreement between Moon Elf and Sun Elf was about leadership within their race; their attitudes towards humans and other races were not very different.
Upon learning of Milleras’s arrival, the duke immediately arranged accommodation for them in the noble district and notified the council of the visit of the Elven Race envoy.
This way, even if the Zhentarim spies learned of their whereabouts, they probably wouldn’t be able to act before the group left Baldur’s Gate, which was also Milleras’s intention. As for what would happen after that, Milleras didn’t think much about it, and Qin Lun didn’t plan to ask either, since he had already decided to leave the Toril World from Baldur’s Gate and return to the Shattered Starry Sky.
The reason he and Lace, the two Apostles, were still staying here was that they were waiting for the remaining members of the Lost and Fortress teams. Although they couldn’t contact any of them due to the long distance, Qin Lun and Lace still had a list of living team members in their Apostle Soul Marks.
Of course, this team list had now shrunk considerably. For the Lost team, including Lace, there were only four names still lit up. The other three were Kelly, Robin, and the Rogue Barth.
The Fortress Team also suffered huge losses. Apart from the Divine Caster Nicole and the Rogue Longer, the names of all the others had disappeared, which surprised Qin Lun quite a bit. Whether it was Philip or Stark, the young man had previously felt they had a chance of survival.
Although the Fortress Team members didn’t have as powerful a reserve of high-rank items as the Lost Team, in this world, Nicole, whose abilities were almost enhanced to high-rank status, together with the second-order veteran MT Stark and the second-order Mage Philip, should have been able to fight their way out through the disorganized undead.
Although Milleras thought it was unlikely for Kelly and the others to survive, the shrewd Sun Elf Prince did not question the decision to stay. This didn’t just concern Qin Lun alone; Lorlin and Emily also had companions and teachers trapped in the Valley of the Undead. They also wanted to know about the Mage Angelo and the Dwarf elder Loier.
After Iristin arrived at Baldur’s Gate, she had been confined to bed these past few days. The backlash from the spiritual world had weakened a lot, but because she had sung the Elven Song in the Valley of the Undead and forcibly used the high-rank magic—Pale Forest, the side effects had now started to appear. She now ate, drank, and relieved herself in her own room, often eating and then sleeping, sleeping and then eating, looking very sickly.
Milleras also did not go out. He readily agreed to everyone staying in Baldur’s Gate, temporarily giving up on continuing the Ancient Path, certainly for his own reasons.
Milleras’s room was specially arranged in a large hall. In the center of the hall was the Uvellen Obelisk that Qin Lun had uprooted. The Sun Elf Prince now wished he could split himself in two to get more work done. After Duke Bilenda provided him with a batch of magic crystals, he began copying the heritage texts of the Uwelun Elf from the obelisk day and night.
Qin Lun had only promised him one copy. If he missed copying even one text during these days of waiting, Milleras would not forgive himself. Sometimes, having too strong a sense of responsibility was not a good thing.
Apart from Qin Lun, basically no one dared to enter Milleras’s room now. Not to mention the Sun Elf Prince’s increasingly irritable temper due to lack of rest, but the sour smell of sweat filling the room was really unbearable.
“Milleras, stop copying. You should go out for a walk. Baldur’s Gate is a good city!” Qin Lun pushed open Milleras’s door, waved away the smell, and frowned at the Sun Elf Prince.
But he soon froze. The obelisk in the hall was still emitting a faint glow. At its base, magic crystals formed a Magical Array, continuously supplying magic power to the obelisk so it would keep showing the rune texts inside.
Milleras, who should have been bent over writing at the desk behind the obelisk, was now nowhere to be seen. Only piles of neatly stacked parchment could be seen—these were the books the Sun Elf Prince had already copied.
Qin Lun shrugged and looked around the obelisk with interest. He had no interest in the Elven heritage and was just looking casually.
This thing was useless to Apostles. Even the magic books inside required a lot of time to study and master. Apostles didn’t have that kind of time; as long as the laws allowed, they could instantly master a magic spell, only needing to practice using it later.
“You’re blocking my view!” A tired voice suddenly came from behind the pile of books.
“Crash!” The stacked parchment on the desk scattered to the floor. Milleras’s messy, bird’s-nest-like head popped up from behind the desk.
