Otherworld Advance Team
Chapter 1096 - 1089: The Unconventional Night Elf

Chapter 1096: Chapter 1089: The Unconventional Night Elf

Take Wadulan, for instance. Because of the Advance Team, his ship was wrecked, lives were lost, and all the cargo was gone. If it were someone else, they would have been cursing in the streets long ago. But Wadulan could see an opportunity in this; he exchanged a ship and its full cargo for Luo’er’s favor, turning it into a high-risk investment in relationships.

As long as the gamble paid off, he couldn’t claim to have reached the heights overnight, but at the very least, filling a basin to the brim was not out of the question.

Of course, his daring to make such bold investments was also based on his valuation of Luo’er’s character. He was convinced that Luo’er was a man who kept his word, kind and honest, which is why he dared to place his capital on Luo’er. Had it been someone heartless, he wouldn’t have gone out of his way to curry favor with Luo’er when heading south.

Some time passed, and the female Elf Captain finally returned, instructing Luo’er and his companions to take a carriage on the road. The Night Elves had built a road around the island, stretching about a hundred meters from the beach inland.

This was not the traditional muddy dirt road, but rather one paved with stones and sand, with parts of the surface even treated with concrete. However, being far from the trade centers of Earthlings and Otherworlders, Xia Yue Island struggled to acquire many industrial goods from Earth, making do with what was available.

Indeed, as a trade-open island, Xia Yue Island’s demand for industrial products from Earth was immense, which was why merchants loved to flock here. A ship full of industrial goods from Earth could be traded here for almost an equal weight in gold, which then could be taken to Yazhi City to purchase more of Earth’s industrial products.

For Earthlings, the fact that Otherworlders were willing to trade gold for Earth’s industrial goods was incredibly profitable. Some financial nations, envious of the profits of some industrial giants, attempted to introduce financial products and concepts to catch the attention of the Blaiqi people. Embarrassingly though, for the Blaiqi people, their interest in commodity trade far exceeded that in financial trade.

While there were Blaiqi individuals involved in Earth’s finance sector, most Blaiqi people, or rather Otherworld merchants, placed more value on commodity trade. This led to a new industrial revival on Earth, with many countries moving from virtual to real, restarting production lines to rejuvenate their industrial development in exchange for the Otherworlders’ gold.

However, it’s worth mentioning that Xia Yue Island not only had an unfavorable geographical location, but the island itself also lacked mineral value, preventing it from exporting Magic Crystals or Kedal metals to Earthlings like Ilanadale could. Therefore, it had to seek other avenues to alleviate the severe trade deficit of the island.

Thus, Xia Yue Island began to vigorously develop its handicraft industry, creating handcrafted products with exotic Elf flair to sell to Earthlings. Unexpectedly, these handcrafted products became wildly popular on Earth and quickly entered the luxury goods market.

This was primarily due to marketing and the fondness Earthlings had for the Elf Race.

If you were to ask which group from the Otherworld was most popular, without a doubt, it would be the Elves, whether the solitary Wood Elves, the lively and passionate Night Elves, or the aloof Snow Elves from the northern Snow Domain. They were all highly attractive to Earthlings.

This situation was quite normal, since beauty was common to both Earthlings and Otherworlders. After all, the Elf Race was created by the Ancestors according to their own aesthetic ideals, and they possessed great allure to others.

These products, crafted by Elves from the sacred lands of the Elves, uniquely styled and hand-made, were hugely compelling, especially to those Earthlings passionate about Elves—thus, selling them at high prices was hardly surprising.

Thanks to luxury manufacturing, Xia Yue Island swiftly achieved trade balance within the last decade. However, transportation had always been a limiting factor, continually restraining the island’s development and keeping it in a bottleneck period, difficult to overcome.

Several carriages were parked on the road, and to Luo’er’s surprise, the female Elf Captain had even prepared carriages for the sailors, apparently considering them part of Luo’er’s team as well.

The coachmen of the carriages were not Night Elves but rather people of other races, mostly from the Ancient States and Bobulu, and there was even one from Aud.

The group boarded the carriages and, escorted by the Night Elf cavalry, headed towards Kalenisa—the largest port city on the island. The journey was not very long; it took just over an hour to reach this port city of the Night Elves.

Even under the cover of night, Kalenisa was still bustling with activity, the city ablaze with brilliant lights, lively even at night.

Unlike the Human Race’s port cities, Kalenisa was relatively small in scale, generally only somewhat larger than Luscaque in the Snow Domain.

Perhaps because it was a city on an island, the walls of Kalenisa were almost segmental and lacked the capacity to defend the city, resembling a series of watchtowers more than actual walls.

However, Luo’er expressed understanding, as such a style of wall also accorded with the concept behind the name of Kalenisa.

In Elvish, Kalenisa means openness and inclusivity, but this is a distorted word, for openness and inclusivity in Elvish actually have only two syllables. The appearance of four syllables is likely related to the grudges between the Night Elves and the Wood Elves.

As previously mentioned, when the Elf Race names individuals or places, they generally adhere to the two-syllable rule, although three syllables are also used. Usually, two to three syllables are most common, four are rare, and more than five are even rarer.

Thus, the Wood Elves, who consider themselves the true heirs of the Elf Race, especially revered this system. For example, their newly established port city, New Asia, uses the term ’new’ to distinguish it from the old city, much like New Delhi is to Delhi, or New York is to York.

The actual name of this port city has only three syllables, Asia. The reason for adding ’new’ is that Asia was originally a deserted city in the inland of Ilanadale, and now the Wood Elves have given this name to a new port city to distinguish it from the old city, thus naturally adding the new prefix.

Generally speaking, the Wood Elves hold this system in the highest regard, and the Snow Elves, who branched off from the Wood Elves, largely adhere to this theory. Inside the Snow Domain, only a few places, such as Luscaque, have names over four syllables.

However, the Night Elves appear to be quite different, seeming to oppose the Wood Elves simply for the sake of opposition, especially when it comes to naming places.

Take Kalenisa, for example. According to the actual pronunciation according to Elf Race standards and the Wood Elves’ naming principles, it would ordinarily be called Hanisa, or simply shortened to Nisa. But the Night Elves refuse to name it so and insist on adding the prefix ’Ka’ to make it Kalenisa.

The syllable ’Ka’ has no meaning, although some scholars from Earth believe that Ka should mean city. However, this kind of noun inversion is rare in Elvish, especially in names.

For example, the Wood Elves’ Divine Wood Down is literally translated. In Elvish, the word ’down’ does not precede ’Divine Wood’ nor is it pronounced as ’Ka’, indicating that the use of ’Ka’ by the Night Elves to distinguish their relationships with the Wood Elves is deliberate.

Similarly, the capital of Xia Yue Island, Antenisivia, has a name length that is not only rare among the Wood Elves but also uncommon across the entire Elf Race.

If it were up to the Wood Elves, it would generally be called Nisia, but the Night Elves insist on adding the prefix ’Ante’ to the name, turning ’Asia’ into the suffix ’visia’.

Generally, scholars from Earth believe that ’visia’ is a distorted pronunciation in Elvish for cities and settlements, which can be either ’Asia’ or ’visia’. Thus, Divine Wood Down could also be translated as Divine Wood Visia, but these hybrid transliterations always sound quite odd.

However, no matter how they try to justify it, they can’t understand the prefix ’Ante’, as this syllable, like the syllable ’Ka’, has no meaning, and is solely added to extend the syllables of the name.