It was noon, and the darkness and lights literally turned the atmosphere into night.
Unlike the four members of Tumbleweed who behaved like tourists, Godwin and Debbie stood very quietly in the shadowed corner. No matter who came to negotiate, the escort has no position to participate.
Although the tumbleweeds didn't come forward to join in the fun on such a serious occasion, their curiosity was still very strong. Oliver, who was not far away, was the first to react. He quickly retracted his gaze towards the top of the town and turned his gaze to the owner of the voice—
Then he grunted and swallowed.
The creature who spoke out was extremely short, and Oliver almost didn't find him at first glance. The creature was less than half the height of an adult, and wore a short robe of strange decoration. Its head is twice the size of a human, shaped like a full-bodied broad bean, with the bulging back of its head hanging down toward the ground. There are no hairs and scales on the scalp, just layers of folds.
There is only one giant eye on its face, and two slits like snakes under it, only nostrils, no nose. That thing's mouth was smaller than a person's, and it was almost buried by the overly vigorous beard, which looked a little uncomfortable. Its body is not much similar to that of humans - the upper body of this creature is very long, the spine is bent like a shrimp behind the back, and the upper limbs that are bent in two almost touch the ground.
Oliver had seen this creature in a picture book.
A one-eyed dwarf who lives underground all year round. They are extremely resistant to sunlight and generally have higher IQs than humans. Although dark-loving by nature, the one-eyed dwarves are genuine surface races, and one of the intelligent races with their own glorious civilization. If there is a race on the surface that is best suited to explore the abyss, the answer will definitely be these paranoid and xenophobic guys.
They are not good at hand-to-hand combat, and they are also dismissive of the human adventurer system. Oliver has never seen a real one-eyed dwarf in his hotel. He clung to Nemo, who was still lying beside the fence, and concentrated on listening to the conversation in the center of the wooden platform.
"Praise the fire." The preceptor bishop squatted down and gave a strange salute. "Dear Lord Lugo."
"Praise the firelight." The dwarf snorted perfunctorily, half-squinted his giant eyes, and tapped the ground with his weird crutches. "The Humans of the Mooney Cult will be here in the morning. I know very well that you will not deal with them, but I don't want to see any stupid conflict - this is the abyss, and I am the only commander."
"Yes." Bishop Discipline responded with a good temper.
"I'll leave you some time for supplies, and find a place to eat and rest by yourself. At three o'clock in the afternoon, select a few people to investigate the first damaged circle."
The one-eyed dwarf's tone was harsh and unpleasant.
"The first large teleportation formation that was destroyed is in the Rotten Stone Forest. It's not far from here, so it's relatively safe. Remember, at three o'clock in the afternoon, call your chosen person here. You don't need too many guards, three are enough. Dragon Race Two dragons were sent out to participate in the investigation, and this time they will choose one to go together."
"Understood." Discipline Bishop Felix sounded relieved.
"Nimo, we can see the dragon." Oliver slapped Nemo excitedly, and Nemo shuddered, almost throwing the dazed grey parrot on his shoulders into the abyss.
"Really." Bagelmore's voice was still crying, "What are you excited about, huh?"
"With dragons?" Nemo gasped, trying to hide the excitement in his voice.
"…I hate you," the grey parrot murmured somberly.
"Then are you staying here? I think Mr. Dylan will take good care of you."
"I'll go with you, I'll just go with you!"
As Nemo guessed, Adrian and Jesse were clearly not interested in dragons, and Jesse seemed to want an adventure in Returntown. He hugged the knight commander's arm affectionately, without any intention of letting go.
There were two fewer contenders for the spot, and Oliver was very satisfied.
On the other side, after seeing the expectant and pleading eyes of the two tumbleweeds, Godwin wiped his face fiercely: "... Stop looking at me like that, both of you go. I'll be with you." There's a real dragon in the Horizon Mercenaries, and Godwin is kind of thankful he didn't reveal it.
"Captain!"
"Debbie, this is just the first stop, your big brother can't be lost."
After confirming that they could watch the dragon together, the head of the tumbleweed found the tavern with satisfaction, and devoured a few plates of fried mushrooms together with Nemo. They didn't even want to go shopping, and they started to wait on the wooden platform after eating.
Then they figured out why the Discipline Bishop was going to breathe a sigh of relief.
In addition to the three guards, the Rad Sect only sent three more. A trial knight, a mage, and the eccentric choir. The Mooney religion only sent one knight, and the one-eyed dwarf who looked at the command obviously did not intend to let the two major religions on the surface act evenly.
The knights of the Mooney religion were surrounded by four or five one-eyed dwarves, and there was a hint of lovelessness in their expressions—
The influence of the dragon is amazing, and everyone is obviously very relieved about the fighting power of the dragon. The three investigation teams, which are not small in scale, only selected less than twenty people.
The railing on the edge of the wooden platform was lowered, and the dark abyss opened its arms. A hurricane rose, and a not-so-giant red-brown flying dragon rose from the abyss, turned around, and attached its tail to the wooden platform.
The first step he stepped on the dragon's tail, Oliver was so excited that his whole body was shaking: "Although the dragon doesn't seem to be as big as I thought, but this—"
"They have shrunk their bodies, otherwise the pathway would have been completely blocked by it." Godwin pointed out calmly, "When moving with humans, they usually shrink to about three meters."
Nemo carefully sat down on the dragon's back. This dragon hastily tied a few ropes around his body, which was considered to provide them with a temporary grip. Godwin's eyes always swept over intentionally or unintentionally, he didn't dare to say a word, he could only desperately express his excitement with his eyes.
If it weren't for Godwin, he would have wanted to give Oliver a high five.
Unfortunately, when the dragon flew up, the excitement vanished.
The dragon's back is more terrifying than they thought, and this dragon doesn't intend to be considerate of your traveling experience at all. It flew freely, swooping close to the rock formations full of huge crevices. After diving for less than ten minutes, it made a sharp turn before the widest gap, nimbly drilled in, and then made an emergency stop.
Oliver, who couldn't even adapt to the teleportation array, almost died of it.
Considering that Godwin already knew the relationship between the two, Oliver put an arm on Nemo's shoulder without hesitation and leaned on it. He closed his mouth and tried to regain his strength, suppressing the tumultuous river and sea in his stomach.
Godwin would have been completely misled by his useless performance if he hadn't been aware of Oliver Ramon's true strength. In fact, someone did get misled.
"Unfortunate." The Radical Mage jumped off the dragon's back and steadily passed the two men on the tumbleweed. He lowered his voice specially. "Don't dishonor the glory of Chenni, sinner."
But when he turned to Godwin, his demeanor visibly softened.
The knight of judgment who was walking with him took a half step awkwardly, but after all, he didn't say anything. The youth in the choir floated closer in his chair, nodding apologetically to both of them.
"Hmm." Nemo raised his eyebrows at the back. "You're right, Mr. Lopez, we're not welcome."
Heizhang itself is notorious, and after so many experiences, they don't care about such trivial matters.
Godwin frowned and said nothing. He looked at the back of Teacher Ladd with interest for a while: "Keep up, the investigation is about to begin."
The appearance of the rotten stone forest is not much different from its name. Black and red stalactites can be seen everywhere, and the upper and lower parts are uneven. From a distance, it looks like a blood-stained monster's fangs.
But it's not dark here.
Large pieces of shimmering spar were exposed from the high ceiling, and artificially placed magic lamps illuminated this vast space. It can be seen that there are often people walking around here, and the stones on the passage are very smooth by the soles of various boots.
Godwin drew his holy sword and walked vigilantly in front of the group, with the two rear tumbleweeds at the back of the group—both looking around, occasionally looking at the scaly dragons in the group.
"There's no demonic breath here," Nemo muttered, his eyes glued to the wings on the dragon's back.
"Yes, I can only feel the smell of insects and small animals." Oliver stared at the tip of the dragon's tail dragged on the ground. "There will be no danger."
"Are you on vacation? Don't talk about the remuneration, you two should look for the money from the Rad Sect." The grey parrot nervously plucked his feathers with his beak, reminding coolly. "Don't look at that dragon, the person in front has stopped!"
Oliver and Nemo quickly looked away.
At first, the two of them didn't realize that there was anything wrong with the scene in front of them.
A circle of magnificent stone pillars surrounds a huge teleportation formation. The formation is sleeping, the lines are dull, and there are traces of brutal destruction in one corner. The ones other than the stone pillars are obviously small teleportation formations made by individuals, which are much rougher in comparison, but many still exude magical fluctuations, and they should have been functioning normally not long ago.
The one-eyed dwarves moved extremely fast. They neatly broke through the sealing spell between the stone pillars. A swarm of bees gathered in the destroyed corner of the teleportation formation. Their slender fingers rubbed the soil next to the formation, and they squeaked strangely from their messy beards. sound. The Radish mage took out a pair of glasses and adjusted his sleeves. Making sure that the corners of his clothes would not be soiled with soil, he took off the small luggage on his back, and took out a set of tools with no discernible function next to the magic circle.
The dragon yawned with a huge spark, and stared at the glowing spar on the rock wall at the top of the cave.
As the dwarf in command said, the environment here is peaceful and extremely safe. But Nemo always felt that something wasn't right. It wasn't intuition, it was some kind of weirdness that really existed.
But he couldn't tell for a while.
After patting Oliver beside him and making sure that his body was not affected by the abyss, Nemo closed his eyes.
The flow of magic power instantly unfolded in the darkness in front of his eyes. Those thin, messy flows of magic power came from the self-built teleportation array, and they twisted into a ball and barely connected to a certain direction in the depths of the abyss. The magic flow trajectory of the large teleportation array is much more regular, and the loop is smooth and clear, connecting to a very distant point.
Not right.
According to his understanding, in order to allow time for rest and replenishment, the large teleportation array will not teleport too far at one time. In a sense, this circle has indeed been destroyed - its destination has been changed to an unknown point in the depths of the abyss.
On the other hand, the flow of magic power above the magic circle is also very strange. It turns rapidly, as striking as a firefly in the dark night.
A spell is in effect.
"Get out of there!" Nemo said immediately, "Now, now!"
The four one-eyed dwarves suddenly turned to look at him. Although they had doubts, they undoubtedly cherished their lives even more. The four little dwarfs bounced on the spot and rushed out from between the stone pillars. The Radish mage frowned, looking like he had no intention of obeying.
The dragon outside the stone pillar circle yawned again.
Godwin, who was closest to the mage, reacted very quickly. He shot a silent spell and directly blasted the mage away from the range of the teleportation array.
"I'm halfway through my test!" the mage growled angrily, barely protecting the test tube with a little liquid in his hand.
Nemo approached and pulled the test tube out of the mage's hand. He shook the dirt at the bottom of the test tube and handed it to Oliver beside him.
"Testing the soil properties on the strokes of the magic circle is the first step in the safety inspection."
"And it's almost done." The wizard gritted his teeth and pointed to the yawning dragon. "I also didn't see any danger nearby."
"Oli, stand inside the teleportation array and continue to heat it. If the liquid turns black, it has been affected by abyss magic recently, and the opaque white represents surface magic. If it hasn't been disturbed in any way, it should be clear. Bright purple."
"Bullshit—"
Then the mage froze in horror, and the beards of the four one-eyed dwarves exploded in an instant, fluffy in a big circle—
The test tube in Oliver's hand was filled with a beautiful bright purple liquid.
"This… "
"Because Ollie trusted me with all his heart." Nemo curled the corners of his mouth. "Now you know what's circling there now. Ollie, you can come out."
"What's the matter?" Oliver shook the crystal test tube containing the bright purple liquid.
"I just lied, if it hadn't been disturbed, it should be clear and colorless." Nemo tapped the test tube in Oliver's hand with his fingertips and watched it become as transparent as water. "Wow, Ollie, you really trust me."
"Advanced illusion." The mage's expression was very ugly, "Overlay reality with cognition, Chenni is on top..."
"Translate." Oliver, still holding the test tube carefully, bumped Nemo with his elbow.
"The corner that was physically destroyed is just a cover." The relaxed expression on Nemo's face gradually disappeared, "Someone rewrote the destination of the teleportation array and covered it with advanced illusions. Ollie, you think, if everyone simply repaired the teleportation array , and the experienced inspectors got all 'normal results', what's next?"
"Start the teleportation array and teleport to the vicinity of the next teleportation array. Verify the availability, and continue to repair the next one by the way."
"Yes. Once the professionals are backed by a 'clear conclusion' that there is no problem with the repaired teleportation array, just a few of us escorts can't stop the next teleportation. This goes back to the original question, I It is believed that the destination of this teleportation array has been changed."
Standing a few steps away, Godwin froze behind his back.
Before Nemo made a sound, even he didn't notice anything unusual.
"So what's the real result?" the head of Horizon asked in a low voice.
The wizard took the test tube back from Oliver. He frowned and drew a complex illusion isolation circle, and then placed the test tube in the center of the circle emitting white light.
The liquid in the test tube was pitch black like a void.
Black represents that the circle has recently been affected by abyss magic. Nemo rambles about the "unaffected" response, but it's true.
There is no doubt that it is a demon who is doing things.