Dane and the others had been walking in the cave for several hours, and the more they walked, the more oppressive the atmosphere of the whole team became.
"This... is this still a hole?" It was Golobo who asked. He is also a veteran mercenary with a lot of adventure experience. Although caves are not very common in Schindler's plains, he still has some experience in cave adventures. But he has never encountered a situation like this cave.
At first, when they entered the cave, it was just a narrow passage. The more they walked, the more spacious the passage became, and there were many side roads that didn't know where they led. Until now, they could no longer see the surrounding walls.
No one had ever seen such a cave, and during the hours of marching they knew nothing but until they were going all the way down, south. They even had a feeling: this is no longer a hole, but more like a whole underground world!
It was Delin who made this guess. He said: "Didn't we enter the Underdark by mistake? What if there is something like a dark elf in front of us..."
To be honest, not only did he think so, Dane even made such a guess. There is no other reason. The environment they are facing now is too similar to the legendary Underdark.
According to legend, there is also a huge world underground in the world of Orodik. In that huge world, it is also full of various creatures, and there are corresponding underground races, such as drow, gray dwarves, cavemen, black goblins, mind flayers, illithids and so on.
I have never heard of monsters like the Faceless in the Underdark, but the mysterious Underdark is so big, who can know it
However, in the end, Dane ruled out this idea: "It's across the sea! We are now alone overseas, so it shouldn't be possible to enter the Underdark, right?"
He wasn't very sure about his guess, he could only hope it wasn't.
…
the next day.
In fact, Dane and the others couldn't be sure whether the whole day had really passed. In the pitch-black underground world, who knew that the sun would rise in the east and set in the west? The way they can measure time, besides feeling, can only rely on the connection between the two barks between Fal'ol and Sacco. Every hour, Sacco would write something on the bark, and Falor would reply. Relying on this method, Dane and the others finally have some concept of time.
During the whole day, their exploration in the underground world did not yield much results. Apart from the occasional scatter of Faceless Men, they hadn't found anything new—until now he found this place.
He carefully observed the two traces at his feet, and his face was very ugly.
"What are you looking at?" Faro asked curiously.
Dane didn't answer, but Delin next to him gave the answer: "He was looking at the traces left by someone passing by here."
Delin is a ranger, he has a certain foundation in tracking and judging the traces, of course he knows what Dane is doing. In fact, after seeing these traces, Delin himself had a rough answer in his heart, but he wasn't sure.
Dane stood up and said, "It's a two-wheeled vehicle, and there are quite a few of them, and they are heavy-duty."
De Lin said: "I agree with this opinion. Moreover, the ones transporting these two-wheeled vehicles should be the Faceless Ones. The traces left by their footsteps are very similar, and the depth of the traces is also consistent with their weight."
Golobo was confused: "What are you two talking about?"
Lancelot translated for him from the side: "Dane and Delin mean that not long ago, a convoy of faceless men just passed by here."
Farao also understood: "Besides, there are two-wheeled vehicles, loads, and a lot of people... These monsters are really as I expected, they are civilized. Here, there may be one, or even more, infinite monsters." The underground city of the face, otherwise it cannot explain the existence of traces that are very similar to the transport team."
Dane gritted his teeth and said, "No matter what, this is just a guess. If there really is an underground city of the Faceless, it must be our future enemy. We must find out the situation a little bit, I plan to follow the traces and investigate in the past to see what's going on, what do you think?"
"Listen to you." Everyone had no opinion.
Dane and Delin, who are quite proficient in trace detection, led the team in front, and a group of nearly twenty people marched along the traces they found. Knowing that there are likely to be a large number of enemies ahead, everyone's vigilance has also been raised to the highest level.
In the middle, they also encountered some faceless people. However, they did not rush to attack. Generally speaking, if they could dodge it quietly, they would dodge it. If they couldn't dodge it and insisted on fighting, they would choose the fastest and most stealthy way to resolve the battle.
When they followed the trace and walked for about a day, they found the target who left the trace: indeed, as they guessed, it was a transport team.
About 30 faceless men drove a black beast that looked like a wild boar but had no tusks, dragging a two-wheeled cart forward. The things on the two-wheeled vehicle were far away, so they couldn't see clearly.
Golobo asked: "Boss, what should we do now? Should we go up and kill them?"
Dane thought about it, and said: "I don't need it for now, just follow up and have a look. I want to know what they are transporting and where they are transporting to."
After making a decision, Dane took his people and followed the transport team for almost another day, and finally arrived at the destination. And at this moment, they were all stunned by the scene before them.
"Oh, my God... this is really an underground city!" Delin murmured, his eyes full of disbelief.
What appeared before their eyes was indeed an underground city. From a long distance, everyone saw the parapet outside this majestic city.
It was really a circle of real city walls, made of black stone, higher than Lysom, the capital city of Schindler that Dane had seen, reaching at least ten meters. And at the top of the city, from the 'ceiling' of the underground world, there are many huge rocks hanging upside down, shaped like stalactites, with buildings of different styles hanging one by one. At the core of the city, a majestic palace stands proudly like a city within a city.
The whole city looks very prosperous, small convoys come in and out of the city gate. During the short time that Dane and the others were observing outside the city, there were probably hundreds of Faceless Men entering and leaving the city gate!
—————
The last chapter discussed the first question, and this chapter discusses the second.
Regarding the setting of devouring the traversers at the beginning, I really didn’t think of Castle Heart at the beginning. Someone in the book review area said it before I suddenly realized it—fuck, Castle Heart was indeed written before me (and much earlier!). However, the difference in style between me and Shen Duxing is quite obvious, whether it is writing, story, plot, setting... all aspects are very different, but there will be places in the book that pay tribute to the heart of the castle, after all, it is my big brother back then. Love, it depends on whether the old drivers can see it!
In addition, Shen Duxing's work, "Castle Heart" is highly recommended! Although the style is different from my book, it’s a little worse than what I wrote (I’m so stinky and shameless, anyway, he is reluctant to hit me, after all, we don’t insist on writing this kind of works much, and we still make funny expressions ) But it’s definitely a good book, a western fantasy novel about knight lords, with an invincible base, it’s quite comfortable to read, a must-read for Laobai!