It wasn't until Su Lin finished listening to Lawrence's long-winded speech that he finally understood why the development value accumulated so rapidly.
Sometimes, it seemed that having aggressive subordinates wasn't necessarily a bad thing... but Su Lin still hoped that certain Elves understood that aggression and terrorism were two completely different ideologies.
"You, you must be badmouthing This Queen in your heart again, aren't you?"
Aelita suddenly turned her head, gazing at Su Lin dangerously.
"Gah! How did you know?!"
"Hmph hmph! This is talent! The same talent as your innate ability to run away! I can sense some of the emotional thoughts people around me have towards me!"
"Is that so..."
Su Lin narrowed his eyes slightly, smiling meaningfully.
"How about you try sensing again now?"
..."Pervert! Lecher! Freak! Go to hell!!!"
Aelita bristled like a hedgehog, launching a "Nature is truly suffocating" at Su Lin's face.
Casually swatting away the wooden thorn, Su Lin was greatly surprised.
"There's really such a talent?"
This was unscientific, but very magical... A moment later, Su Lin brought up his arrangements with Lawrence again.
"The Nether Fortress has been explored. Send people to take turns managing it. All the necessary resources are in the manual."
"I understand! With this, we might be able to start researching the mass production of alchemical potions."
"..."
His role as boss seemed a bit redundant... How was it that this guy already knew the next work priority before he even opened his mouth?
Were they the guides, or was he, Su Lin, the guide!
"So, we'll have more confidence when we go to war with Doragon later, right?"
Aelita also withdrew her resentful gaze from Su Lin, asking curiously.
Lawrence nodded uncertainly.
"If Doragon doesn't go all out against us, with our current armed forces, we can easily defeat them."
"If the mass production of alchemical potions can be achieved before the war starts, even if they go all out, we'll still have confidence!"
Aelita felt relieved.
She didn't understand the Elven Kingdom's development over the past three days, but as long as it meant they could now take down Doragon, she understood how much the Elven Kingdom had grown.
"Su Lin..."
Aelita looked at Su Lin a bit awkwardly; deep down, she was still very grateful to Su Lin.
Despite their squabbles and antics, no matter how much she and Su Lin bickered, she couldn't ignore the opportunities Su Lin's appearance had brought to the Elven Kingdom.
It was also Su Lin who gave her the chance to realize her dreams, and even become an Elf hero.
Taking a deep breath, Aelita looked up and met Su Lin's eyes.
"No matter what, thank... Bastard! Pervert! Freak! At such an emotional moment, you're still thinking!"
"Tsk..."
Su Lin shook his head with a look of emotion.
Aelita's peculiar talent was truly effective, but wouldn't this make it even easier for him to tease Aelita?
Just as he was contemplating something even more stimulating to open Aelita's eyes, Beixi came in, hands behind her back, smiling.
"Grandma Beixi!"
Hilulele happily rushed over.
"Grandpa Lop told me about the Elven Kingdom's development; everyone is so amazing!"
"Were you surprised?"
"A little... But I'm still very happy. The Elven Kingdom will definitely become great again in our hands!"
"So, Hilulele, you agree to us transplanting the Ancient Elven Tree now?"
..."Don't say such outrageous things during such a happy moment!"
Beixi smiled as she stroked Hilulele's head.
Speaking of outrageous... Hilulele, who constantly wanted to feed the Ancient Elven Tree some artificial Jin Kela, should have more say, right?
"Just kidding. I have something to say, and it's good that you, Hilulele, are back too."
"Frontline reports indicate that Doragon's Verdan Base has been taken over by Chris, that peerless general of the empire. Doragon has also been frequently moving troops recently, so they might be going to war with us."
Instantly, the entire room fell silent.
Hilulele frowned as she took the intelligence report.
The frontline situation was more severe than she had imagined.
Large-scale deployment of magical golems and alchemical cannons, transport of magically coated armaments... and even an unknown number of strange troops, escorting large quantities of iron cages, had arrived at the front.
All signs indicated that Doragon seemed to be getting serious.
"Are they treating our Elven Kingdom as a chicken to be slaughtered to warn the monkeys?"
Hilulele was clever and quickly understood this point.
Beixi nodded approvingly, hinting:
"It's said that the war between the Trien Federation and Doragon has reached a stalemate these past few days with the support of the Magic Dynasty..."
"Hmph! Then let them come!"
Hilulele crumpled the intelligence report and crushed it.
"Our Elven Kingdom isn't to be trifled with! We've grown much stronger these past few days with the feedback from the MC Dungeon. They want to kill a chicken to warn the monkeys, but we want to test our swords on them!"
"These next few days, have the soldiers from the MC Dungeon make more trips to deploy the MC Dungeon's strategic resources at the front in advance."
Hilulele stepped onto the table with one foot, chest out, head held high, and waved her arm, the strong vibration making Su Lin's eyebrow twitch involuntarily.
"This time, I'm going to turn all those guys who invaded the Verdan Eternal Forest into Jin Kela!"
A small body, a great ambition.
At this moment, Hilulele truly gave off a sense of reliable security.
"Pervert! Freak!"
But at this moment of surging battle intent, Aelita shrieked, jumping onto Su Lin's back to apply an invincible naked choke.
"It's come to this, and you're still thinking about those things!"
"Please, this kind of thing is hard to control, alright? Besides, I wasn't thinking about you!"
..."Then that's even worse!!!"
Now this was a mess.
The good pre-war mobilization atmosphere was broken again.
Lop sighed quietly.
It seemed that Mr. Su Lin, like the Hilulele sisters, was a genius exceptionally skilled at pouring cold water on a fervent atmosphere.
Also... "Your Majesty, why did you tear up the intelligence report for no reason? We haven't read it yet."
"Eh? Grandpa Lop, don't you think it was very cool?"
"..."
Today's Elven Kingdom still had a worrying future.
---
After a brief rest.
The focus of their discussion returned to the development of the MC Dungeon.
Upon learning about the impending war, Aelita, who had just returned from the Nether and was clamoring for a break, was once again full of vigor.
"Since we're going to war with Doragon soon, we need to make enough Beacons even faster."
"Beacons?"
Hilulele looked at Aelita curiously, who replied seriously:
"Su Lin said that it's a special multi-block structure that, once built, can continuously provide various positive buffs to a large number of allied soldiers."
Hilulele understood.
In essence, it was a super-large, continuously operating buff magic array.
While such things weren't uncommon, they were rarely used in actual combat, as the formation of a magic array wasn't an overnight process.
The elders of the Council of Sages could do it, but they couldn't all maintain the magic array and not participate in the war, could they?
They definitely needed to hurry and make a batch of Beacons.
"Not just Beacons, we also need to search for The End on the third floor of the MC Dungeon."
Hearing this, Lop paused, looking at Su Lin hesitantly.
"Mr. Su Lin, is there such a rush? We just returned from the Nether..."
Not to mention the upcoming war for the Elven Kingdom, the Nether hadn't been thoroughly explored either. Surely they should wait for the Elven Kingdom to develop the Nether a bit before talking about the third floor?
But all hesitation vanished after Su Lin's next sentence.
"The End has countless Endermen. We can create an Enderman farm to farm a massive amount of Ender Pearls."
Understood!
"Exploring The End, it's our bounden duty!"
Lop vowed righteously.
No one understood the terrifying expressive power of spatial magic in war better than him.
If every Elf on the battlefield later had Ender Pearls as a tool for spatial movement... this battle would be a complete rout!
They split into two groups.
Su Lin took Aelita and Hilulele, along with a group of Council of Sages elders, to the mine to deal with the Wither first.
Lop took a group of soldiers to find The End Portal.
Their goal was to open the fourth floor of the MC Dungeon in the shortest possible time.
The town visibly bustled with activity, as large numbers of Elf Soldiers crossed the Nether Portal to gather resources.
After seeing Lop off, Su Lin also inspected the equipment of Aelita and the others.
For this single effort to harvest multiple Nether Stars, he had emptied all the key resources the Elven Kingdom had recently collected.
Everyone was clad in enchanted diamond armor.
"Isn't this a bit exaggerated?"
Hilulele uncomfortably tapped the blocky armor on her body; she had always disliked armor.
In Hilulele's view, anyone who could get close enough to harm her either hadn't been born yet or was family from the Elven Kingdom.
Armor?
Completely a hindrance!
"It's very necessary."
Su Lin glanced at Hilulele.
"The Wither, as a BOSS in the MC Dungeon, is far more outrageous than any powerful monster you've ever seen. If not handled properly, it could even become a disaster."
"When the battle starts, listen to my command, otherwise if you get hit... the attached Wither buff will be more painful than your period."
"Hmph hmph!"
Hilulele smiled triumphantly, proudly puffing out her chest.
"As perfect Children of Nature, the Elf Race never gets periods, you know!"
..."It's not important. If I tell you to wear it, you wear it. If you really don't like it, just silently think 'hide'."
After also bringing some milk, Su Lin finally led everyone to the mine.
"Have the soldiers in the mine been evacuated? If the Wither spawns later and isn't dealt with in time, it could destroy the entire mine."
Beixi, who was beside him, first nodded, then retorted:
"Since the Wither's destructiveness is so terrifying, why don't we summon it in Doragon's territory?"
For Beixi, she would rather destroy all of Doragon's territory than see any damage come to the MC Dungeon, the hope for the Elven Kingdom's rise.
Moreover, Doragon wasn't that weak. After they exhausted themselves dealing with the Wither, couldn't Lop just teleport over and snatch the Nether Star? That would be The End of it.
Making enemies work for oneself was the ultimate pleasure.
These words again struck a chord with Aelita.
"Grandma Beixi! Great minds think alike!"
"Is that so? Haha! I knew little Aelita was a lot like me!"
"Allow me to interject... as Elves, can't you be a bit more peace-loving?"
"Mr. Su Lin, peace is fought for!"
Su Lin clearly didn't have the patience to debate with two extreme radicals at once.
Ignoring their outrageous statements about peace, he quickened his pace towards the mine.
But before Su Lin even walked out of the town gate, he ran into Lop, who was hurrying back.
"What happened?"
By all accounts, Lop probably hadn't even gone two li, had he?
"It's a long story... Mr. Su Lin, what did you say the sign of finding The End Portal was earlier?"
"The Eye of Ender drops vertically... Wait!"
Su Lin felt a bit exasperated.
"No way..."
Lop remained as dignified and calm as ever.
"In fact, we hadn't even gone three hundred meters out of the East Gate when the Eye of Ender dropped vertically, Mr. Su Lin. It seems we're quite lucky."
"..."
Su Lin again discovered a rare characteristic of this particular Elf Race, similar to Elves in other worlds.
As darlings of nature, the Elf Race was a people blessed by the Goddess of Fortune.
His employees were top talents, possessing both luck and strength.
The even better news was that the construction of the fourth floor of the MC Dungeon could be brought forward.