My name is Akatosh,

Arthur is going into the dark.

—4E, 201, Moon of the Fire, 17th, 21:50 —

After passing through the ruins of Eltanvod, Arthur's team entered a dark and damp underground cavern.

Unlike the wasteful practice of the dwarven ruins littered with magic stone lamps, illuminating the dark underground space as if it were daylight, in the deeper and deeper underground caverns, only some kind of strange plants in the form of clusters with a faint red glow at the top provide illumination, barely enough to see the ground beneath their feet.

They tried asking Septin to cast a light spell on everyone, but they had to give up because they couldn't walk because of the state of "only their own light" and "their vision was still pitch black except for themselves".

Although Septin implied that throwing a magic light at the cave wall every other way would solve the problem, they couldn't afford to ask a veteran old mage to do this kind of pure repetitive work.

"T-" Sophie's rabbit seemed to be very afraid of the dark and kept struggling to escape, but how could it possibly earn a dragon?

"Why are you taking Rabitt with you?" Arthur asked suspiciously, "We have to fight this time, such as the centurion last time, if there are one or two more of them, we will have to show our 'real skills', and we will not have time to take care of rabbits." ”

The so-called "true skills" are naturally the release of the [Sword of Oath and Victory], the transformation of the werewolf, and the various powerful spells implied by Septin, it is really not possible to have two dragons, but what if the means are all at the beginning and encounter a more powerful enemy later?

"No, Rubbitt is a hare, last time I went with my father to find the Harpy Witch and left it in the snowman, and it didn't know me after I came back." Sophie raised her hand and pressed the rabbit's struggling head.

"Hmm...... All right. Arthur doesn't have time to sympathize with a rabbit right now, and he has to be ready to deal with the lurking snow elves and the giant insects they raise.

The three Wilcas brothers once strayed into a dwarven ruin, and had a fierce battle with this well-named but unusually ugly monster community, so they explained it to Arthur in great detail afterwards, about weaknesses or traits or something.

However, this information does not seem to be accurate, such as "because I have no eyesight, my hearing is very developed, and I often hide in the dark to attack adventurers who accidentally make noises", after entering the underground cavern, they did not deliberately lower their voices, but in the surrounding darkness, there was no expected snow elf assassin jumping out.

"Sophie, grandpa is going to make a trick, do you want to see it?" Septin suddenly asked the girl holding the rabbit.

"Hmmm! Want! Sophie nodded repeatedly.

Here it is again, Arthur sighs, and Septin implied that he and the prophet of the Brothers-in-Arms, Krako Whitemane, hit it off at first sight, and they talked happily, and by the way, they also regarded themselves as Sophie and Ria's grandfather, and this relationship was calculated, and Arthur became a son for some reason, and there was nothing to say about it.

Septin snapped his fingers, and a small fireball flew towards a clump of "lighting plants" that grew irregularly.

Boom - crackle - boom - boom -

When the fireball touched the red light at the top of those strange plants, it suddenly ignited the entire clump, and they immediately erupted upwards with dazzling light, mostly bright white, with occasional bright red and bright yellow, and the whole looked like a giant tree composed entirely of light and flames.

"Wow...... Disastrous. Sophie holds the rabbit in one hand and her face in the other.

"Wang! My eyes! Barbas covered his eyes with his front paws, thought for a moment, and then fell to the ground and began to roll.

Arthur naturally didn't look at the fire trees, but he noticed that the plants at the bottom were getting shorter as the light poured out, so he began to observe his surroundings while they were still gone.

This is not an underground cave at all, the roof of the cave is not a rock, but a layer of blue to black ice, and it is not without the ambush of the snow elves along the way, but those traps and traps are all in a triggered state, and many black leather huts in the corners look as if they have been completely destroyed by a great force and collapsed, and there are strange weapons used by the snow elves scattered around them, but there are no corpses to be seen.

The strange plant erupted, leaving only a short root, but no one moved, waiting for their eyes to regain their adaptation to the darkness.

"Hey, I said how could the ruins from before have such a big pool, and it was originally connected to an underground lake?" Ella spoke first.

"Since the ruin guards will replenish themselves, I don't see anything in the ruins, and here," Ladia continued, "the original snow elf lair should have been emptied by Master Septin's Inspiration, and it doesn't look like a new resident is moving in." ”

"Hmm...... It seems that there were survivors," Septin implied without denying it, "I found the other tribes and asked them to sort out this place and never came back, probably." ”

Back then? Arthur thought back to the traces of the battle he had just seen, and sketched in his mind a gorgeous scene of "the much younger Septin implying himself facing the eyes of the shadows alone, and then calmly igniting the strange plant and starting to wash the floor with magic", although he couldn't do it himself, but he probably would have to fight ugly, maybe he would have to transform into a dragon or something.

"It should take a long time for the grass to grow back, and if it doesn't have to, it won't be lit again," the old mage threw a magic light and stuck it to the cave wall in front of him, "Let's go, Blackfall." ”

——22:47——

Although Septin's tone of inspiration was loud, as if there was a black entrance ahead, in fact, after passing through the pitch-black cavern, the group had instead arrived at a dwarven ruin.

As always, various mechanical guards poured out of different mechanisms.

"Here...... What seems to be the difference? Arthur slashed over a metal spider that pounced on him, asking his companions with some confusion.

"Is there one?" Ella looked around with her bow and arrow, then shook her head and let go of the bowstring, "nailing" a spherical guard who was about to jump out of the trap.

"Yes." There were no more threatening shield-wielding guards appearing, and Lydia observed for a moment before concluding, "Those snow elves' leather tents and suitcases shouldn't be here." ”

"That's right." Ella shot another arrow through a metal spider: "There are no of them in the ruins next to the surface. ”

Judging by the information obtained from a maid of the Red Guard Tavern.

All of the snow elves' nests, containers, and even weapons and armor are made of the skin of a giant insect called "Zerus", which can spew venom to attack, and the relationship between Zerus and the snow elves is roughly similar to that of hunters and hounds, so it is impossible for them to kill insects and peel their skins, and those cortices are all "molts" left over from the "evolution" of Zerus.

The reasons and conditions for this evolution are unknown, but according to the descriptions of adventurers who have seen it, Zerus will wrap himself in a sac of the same material as the shell when he "evolves", and after successful evolution, he will become a kind of "flying Zerus", which is almost indistinguishable except for an extra pair of leather wings, and those "molts" will be used by the snow elves to be processed into various items.

The most peculiar thing is that this kind of flying Zerus will also wrap itself in a sac after reaching the end of his life or being seriously injured, and the last thing that breaks out of his shell is an ordinary Zerus who can't fly.

So how much does this insect owe to the snow elves and hasn't paid it back? —Satya's note

"It's not surprising, when I first came here, those snow elves attacked me together with the forging guards," Septin implied, "The snow elves here are slaves of the dwarves, so the ruins center has attached a 'no attack on the snow elves' when producing guards, probably." ”

"Slaves?" Sophie tilted her head for a moment, then held Rabbit up to her face and stared.

That rabbit is your slave, well, that's right. Arthur thought as he smashed over the mechanical guards whose numbers were beginning to dwindle.

"According to the historical records of the Brothers-in-Arms, Skyrim was first ruled by the snow elves on the surface and the dwarves underground, and the Nords who landed from the north established a city 'Sattar' near present-day Winter Castle, but they were driven out by the snow elves who mobilized heavy troops, which is known as the 'Night of Tears'." Ella continued to unleash her bow and arrows to clear out the remaining machinery, as she explained.

"Then, Lord Sgrammer led five hundred heroes, the original group of comrades, to kill and wipe out almost the entire sky, and finally these elves had to ask for help from distant relatives in the ground, and the dwarves were very arrogant in demanding that they become slaves." Ladia flattened a spherical guard that had sneaked over, and then continued, "This arrogance angered [Lady Azula] soon after, and the whole clan disappeared, and these elves did not dare to return to the surface after losing their masters, and finally became the ugly form they are now under the age of living underground in adulthood. ”

"How ugly?" Sophie shook the Rabit.

"Uglier than me, Wang!" Barbas casually blackened himself.

"Isn't that tasty?" The girl looked a little disgusted.

"Don't eat it!" Arthur realized why Sophie had to come with him, the rest was an excuse, and it was true that he wanted to taste the snow elves that he couldn't meet on the surface!

"Obviously, the owner of this dwarven city is more 'kind'," Septin, who did not participate in this simple encounter, implied a quotation mark: "He allowed the snow elves to participate in the defense of the city, so he deliberately changed the guard orders, instead of treating them as slaves, as is the case with most other ruins, and forbidding them to leave their place of work or enter the core of the city, otherwise, they would be killed." ”

Well, to sum up, there were originally snow elves here, but they were swept away by the inspiration of Septin a few years ago, and no one dared to come back to live until now.

"Now that we've cleared the dwarven guards, would you like to take a break?" Arthur subconsciously looked up: "It should be late at night, right?" ”

Although it is not easy to judge the time underground, it is almost midnight in terms of the time it takes to kill all the way, after all, you have to be underground for a long time, and if you mess up your own routine, your combat effectiveness will easily decline, and you will make unexpected mistakes in battle.

Moreover, compared to a pitch-black cave, it is safer to rest in the bright ruins of forging Mo.

"You're the captain," Ella replied with a nod, "I have only one request, stay away from those disgusting leather tents." ”

"Then, go to the place where I stayed last time," Septin replied implicitly, "The temple where these dwarves worship their so-called 'god of steam' should be clean, a little dust at best. ”

"I'll open the enchantment and keep vigil for the first half," Ladia said to Arthur, "Please rest well, Baron." ”

"I'll keep watch for the rest of the night—" Sophie raised her hand.