The thief Amal was surprisingly a master tracker and soon led everyone to the realm of ancient ruins. With the exception of the female druid Camilla, who volunteered to stay behind to guard the manned balloon, the other five participants in the adventure were here.

Hearing the female druid's statement that she did not want to enter the ancient ruins, Muhadi immediately became suspicious. After all, she was King Tessian's assistant, and the king and the Coral Witch were almost at odds. But if this is said in person, it may destroy the already small trust between adventurers.

The Psychic Warlock looks at the Coral Witch to see how she can solve this thorny problem.

"It's not safe. Satili said with concern. "No one can say what kind of danger lurks in this area. It's not appropriate to stay alone, I'll cast a spell to create a simulacrum clone to help you. ”

Seeing that the Coral Witch had solved this puzzle with an understatement, what could the Psychic Warlock do other than lament that magic is really omnipotent.

According to Ammar himself, as a thief, he is targeting far more than people think. For him, tomb robbing is also a type of theft, except that tomb robbing steals dead people instead of living people. He himself called this an alternative robbery of the rich and helping the poor, robbing the past and relieving the present.

There are quite a few ancient ruins, all of which contain guardians or deadly mechanisms. Ammar, like the other antiquity hunters, has developed a knack for detecting these ancient mechanisms, and it's the best of the best.

At first, the thieves led a few people around, as if they were scurrying around aimlessly. But after a while, he spoke up excitedly, gesturing to everyone to signal the clues to his current ruins.

The remnants of the Azure Age were mostly buried in the ground by sand during this era, so they often formed huge underground spaces. Some insects that like to grow in gloomy caves nest and breed in these underground ruins. Amal found almost imperceptible traces in the sand, guiding them to the approximate location of their ruins.

After walking for a while, more clues appeared. The halfling civilization of the Teal Age had extremely advanced biotechnology, and they did not build buildings made of stone, but instead of cultivating a large number of polyps in a targeted manner, made of coral. Coral, an ancient gemstone found on Atas, is characterized by its difficulty in preserving and being destroyed when exposed to a slightly acidic environment, while emitting a small amount of gas.

After the complete desertification of Atas, the composition of the atmosphere has also changed considerably. Mohamad estimates that the decrease in oxygen and the increase in carbon dioxide levels are probably due to the decline in greenery. Dissolved in groundwater, the water becomes sour. For this reason, the coral skeletons of Ancient Halfling buildings tend to deteriorate, and the gases released can sometimes leave a palpable geological phenomenon.

The thief Amal may not have understood these things, but he can trace the slightest traces in the soil, and can even determine the location of the ruins by means of a loose soil. In a short time, the adventurers came to a strange red mist, where the temperature dropped strangely, as if isolated from the desert heat.

At this time, the dark sun has sunk into the sea of sand, and the dim twilight covers the desert, and the night is approaching.

"This is the entrance. Seeing the red mist, Amal said firmly. "The relics of the Azure Age are all this virtuous. These red mist are said to be remnants of red tides...... But Satili is a better student of history than I am, and she would explain it better. ”

The Coral Witch stared at the red mist with fascination, her voice beautiful. "In the blue age, the halfling civilization wanted to double the carrying capacity of the ocean for living things, so it created red tides. ”

"The essence of red tide is an algae – a tiny marine creature that is extremely capable of reproducing itself, can survive with only a few nutrients, and can thrive in any harsh environment. Halflings hope that this red tide will provide a richer source of food for a wide range of marine life, making their world more prosperous. ”

As a result, the red tide lost its control, and it multiplied wildly, squeezing out the nutrients in the seawater and killing other creatures. One by one, the sea turned red, and that was the color of blood, the color of death. ”

Later, the surviving halflings built a Pure Fortress on a small island, drawing the sun's energy to control the ravages of the red tide. But by this time, the halfling civilization had been severely damaged, and their kingdom had fallen apart and lost its glory. When it came time for the Purification War, the ocean was steamed, but the remnants of the red tide were not completely dead, and they turned into this red mist, which many halfling ruins have. Be careful, they are poisonous. ”

"Toxic?" Mouhadi repeated.

"The biotechnology of halflings in the Teal Age was unimaginable, and many of the legends that seem fantastical today were possible at that time. The toxins secreted by red tides can interfere with people's minds, and they may even cause hallucinations when they are strict. Satili warned. "This toxicity is especially pronounced in halflings. ”

Muscle Daddy took a step back, "What then." ”

Amar shrugged, "It's not that strict, the red mist is all in a mess, it won't fill the entire ruins, and you can get out of most of the foggy areas by holding your breath." Secondly, its toxicity is not strict, and most of the time it just makes people dizzy and short of breath. There's not even a need to use magic to defend against the red mist, it's worth the cost. ”

The thief held his breath and walked forward, quickly disappearing into the mist. The rest of the people glanced at each other and followed one by one. Muscle Daddy strode to the front, making a triumphant and fearless look.

Amal was right, they couldn't go far before they came out of the fog. In front of me, a broken tower pierced out of the sand, and the upper part of the tower formed a hole four or five feet in diameter, less than three feet above the ground, and it is estimated that wild animals entered and exited the ancient ruins from here.

Similar to other ancient halfling buildings, this tower is also of a coral structure, and after thousands of years of torture, it looks very gloomy in white. Amal walked around the tower and tapped his fingers on the wall. "Yes, the ruins are in a good state of preservation. ”

"What's so good about the ruins?" retorted Muscle Daddy.

"Some ruins, so weathered that they could collapse at any time, are the most dangerous. Amal rubbed his chin. "At least our current ruins seem to be in good condition, and there are no dangerous geological activities such as volcanic earthquakes in this area, so there should be no collapse. ”

"However, it also means that the mechanisms or guardians of this ruin are also well preserved. So it's still necessary to be vigilant. ”

"What kind of mechanism do you have?", "What kind of thing is the Guardian?" two voices rang out at the same time. Khwarazmi asked the previous question, and Muscle Daddy asked the second question.

"The halfling's mechanism is nothing more than pressure-sensitive machine-driven crossbows, catapults, and so on. The older the ruins, the more aging the machinery becomes, so most of these traps are not strong enough, but they can be poisonous. Primitive rolling stones and explosive traps are rarely encountered, so don't worry too much. It is said that there are more threatening mechanisms, but I have never encountered them. ”

"As for the guardians, most of them are self-propelled figures made of metal, usually with swords or spears. ”

"Golem. Muscle Daddy nodded, indicating that he understood.

"Not a golem!" Amal denied. "Where did the magic come from in the Teal Age? There are no golems in the halfling civilization, they are mechanical people, powered by gears and steam - at least it seems. But these agencies aren't very powerful. After all, the ancient metal smelting technology was not up to speed, and their swords were not as good as today's metal weapons. ”

Thinking of that warhead, Muhadi wondered if the halfling's metal smelting skills were really not up to par.

"Except for the Mechanics?" Kharazimi's expression looked like he was going to be excited and fanatical, and he couldn't wait to rush into the ruins right now to grab a Mechanic and disassemble it for research. "Are there any other guardians?"

"Some ancient creatures. Amar said. "It's a stretch to say that they're guardians, but these creatures are actually pets or weapons made by halflings in the Azure Age, and their owners are dead and they're trapped in the ruins. ”

"However, if you have been trapped for thousands of years and have not died. The thief smiled amusedly. "Most of these creatures are unusually tenacious, and they're very hungry, quite bad. ”

"What's so scary about ancient creatures?" Muscle Daddy disagreed. "The most terrible ability they can possess is that their meat is particularly unpalatable. It's sick to their stomachs - and that's the only way they can hurt their muscular daddy. ”

"Since you're so fearless, then you should go down. The thief said.

"I was thinking of being the first to come down. Muscle Daddy bragged. "Do you think I'm going to cower back? ”

Next, Muscle Daddy throws a sturdy rope with the upper end tied to a large rock. Really the first to climb through the gap in the tower, followed by the thief Ammar. Then there were Khorezmi, Muhadi, and Sadiri.

The tower was higher than al-Muhadi had imagined, and he had been climbing along the rope for a long time, but he had not reached the end of it. The Psychic Warlock took out a worthless clay coin from his pocket and threw it down, but for a long time, there was no sound of landing.

It was pitch black in the tower, and there was no light source. That's when the psychic magician suddenly realized that everyone else was gone.

Just moments ago, Muhathir could sense the three people crawling below him and Sadiri following behind him with synaesthetic vision. The distance between the few human beings was not far, and the Psychic Warlock thought that he could see the pure white mage robe of the Coral Witch as soon as he looked up. But now, without noticing anything unusual, he suddenly saw that the others were gone.

What should I do? Muhadi hesitated slightly, then decided to continue the climb. He speculated that something in this ancient ruin might be interfering with his synaesthesia, and when he descended to the ground, he should be able to visually identify the others, so there was nothing to worry about. Moreover, Lyra had long since removed his sense of fear, and Muhathir did not know what fear was.

Descending down the rope for a while, the Psychic felt a smell of blood and rust in the air around him. It didn't smell like human blood, and Muhadi thought, could this be the red mist in Amal's mouth?

Thinking that it was a red mist, Muhadi climbed faster. The mist was said to be poisonous, and he didn't want to stay too long.

Finally, his feet touched solid ground. The Psychic Sorcerer let go of the rope and stood still on the ground, it was still dark, but it wasn't much of an obstacle for him as a synaesthesia.

The coin that was thrown out fell not far from the rope and miraculously did not break. The ground here is weathered coral, the surface is crumbled, and it feels like small gravel in the Gobi Desert. It's just that the sand is yellow, and the broken coral is white.

Other than that, there was no one around, not a single figure.

This is strange, Muhadi thought, where have they all gone?

The Psychic Warlock walked around casually, and now there was an empty lobby with doors on all sides, but they were all small, and at first glance they were for halflings. Other than that, there was nothing in the lobby, some wildlife footprints and droppings on the ground, and some strange plants that could not be named were breeding in the corners.

After waiting for a while, but no one came down from the rope, and then there was an unusual noise behind a door that caught Muhadi's attention.

The halfling door is not made of wood, and appears to be made of some kind of non-gold and non-stone. It is not square like the doors of modern architecture of Attas, but rather round, somewhat similar to the moon gates of the courtyards of the Far East on Earth. At this point, the noise behind the door grew louder and louder, as if something was banging on the door. Clang, clang, the hinge that held the door panel in place was deformed and dislocated by the impact, and the door seemed to be about to fall.

The Psychic Warlock concentrates and decisively unleashes his psychic blast ability in the direction of the door. This worked, no matter what monster was behind the door, after eating this one, it was much more honest and stopped banging on the door.

Muhati stepped forward to open the door, and saw that behind the door was a faint ordinary meat lizard, this creature is usually very docile, here I don't know how to faint and hit the door.

Behind the door was an open space, in the middle of which was a fountain-like place, but the spring had long since dried up. The fountain seems to be carved out of marble, with intricate and delicate patterns, and there is a statue in the middle of the spring, which is placed in the middle like a moon held by the stars, and it looks like a beautiful woman.

Around the clearing, there were still some buildings, but the ancient ruins seemed to hinder the psychic man's senses, and he could not "see" the appearance of those buildings clearly, and could only vaguely distinguish an outline.

Maybe I should stay where I am, Muhadi thought, and wait until I find someone else before I start exploring. But when he turned around, the door he had just passed through was mysteriously shut. When I opened it again, the scene behind the door changed completely. What appears to be the interior of a dwelling has been transformed, with low tables and chairs, as well as broken porcelain and empty picture frames.

Great, the psychic thought depressedly, this kind of thing happened again. The lack of fear has helped him a lot since he was transformed by Lyra, but it has also repeatedly put him in dangerous situations.

Muhadi stepped forward to look at the fountain statue, the halfling carver could not catch up with the dwarves of later generations, but it was still extremely delicate, and there was a different kind of beauty. The statue of a woman in the middle of the fountain presents a lifelike image of a female halfling with a skillful knife technique, she looks exactly the same proportions as a human body, and she looks like a small human beauty in a long dress.

The modern halfling of Atas does not look like this noble temperament and good facial features, at least as far as the modern halfling that Muhadi has seen is concerned, whether it is a strong-hearted halfling, a full-footed halfling or a sharp-mouthed halfling, they all have a very vicious face, looking like a cannibal. According to the female druid Camilla, this is the result of evolution.

While Muhadi was looking at the statue, there were scattered footsteps all around. Judging by the light and heavy voices, it is not a companion of the Psychic Warlock.

Three or five sneaky figures rushed out of the shadows, shouting loudly. Muhadi summoned hordes of crystal shards and fired his right hand at his enemies. Those figures didn't dodge or dodge, and the crystals all hit, but they didn't slow down even a little bit of movement.

The Psychic Warlock backs away as he unleashes his ability to change gravity and make the enemies that emerge fall on it. However, no matter who came it, they obviously had a lot of experience fighting psionics, and immediately clung to the ground and crawled on all fours.

An enemy leapt and pounced, and Muhadi drew his scimitar and slashed it at its head. The blade sliced through the skin and bones, but no blood spewed out, replaced by a warm gas that smelled like blood and rust.

This was the red mist, and the psychic warlock was keenly aware of it, and immediately dispelled the idea of this group of enemies fighting. He retreated to a dwelling-style building, opened the door, rushed inside, and shut the enemy out.

With a strong wind behind him, Muhadi turned around and slashed out without thinking. The scimitar slashed the attacker in two, the blade slicing through the side of the neck and the waist and abdomen, and the slimy evil heart spilled all over the ground, and a few wisps of red mist floated out of the corpse.

This enemy and the attacker outside seemed to be of the same type, and the psychic sorcerer crouched down with bated breath to examine the corpse and came to this conclusion. He turned the body over and examined it carefully, despite the stench.

This guy looks like a halfling. The body proportions are about the same as that of a human, but the limbs and torso are one size smaller, less than five feet tall. The dead halfling had a distorted face, white eyes, and red varicose veins like plant vines. If you cut open the skull, you can see that his brain tissue is no longer there, and it is covered with fungal softness.

What's going on? Muhadi covered his mouth and nose and pondered. These strange halflings are not very strong, at most at the level of ordinary sand bandits, but this situation is strange and unsettling.

The Psychomancer leaves the corpse and concentrates on revealing his abilities, revisiting the past of the place, hoping for any useful clues.

Since Muhati is not sure of the exact date of this history, he can only go back little by little, starting from thousands of years. For a long time, the ruins remained ruins, gloomy and barren, and unchanging. After wasting a lot of energy and almost squeezing his abilities to the limit, Muhati barely managed to get a blurry image in his mind.

This is clearly the scene of the Teal Age, when halfling civilization was at its most glorious. It was like the sun that was about to fall, with its last bit of light and heat, followed by a dark night.

In the specimen of the vision, the Psychic Warlock saw the best of this great city. It sits in a shallow sea, with huge coral structures like mountains rising from the bottom of the sea and reaching into the sky. These coral buildings are alive and colorful, with rounded and graceful shapes, like solidified music. It's like a fairyland to see blue, green, or purple buildings rising tall and steaming up the city, casting a mist over the city.

The city has no streets, and the sea flows between the buildings, like a river. Ancient halflings paddled gondola through coral buildings. Muhathir saw two tall statues, a man and a woman, each a thousand feet tall, standing opposite each other. The two statues stretched out their hands and put themselves together in the air, forming a volley arch bridge. The statue of the woman was a bit like what I had seen in the fountain.

Large mangrove forests dot the middle of the city, clustered with translucent egg-shaped buildings, as if they were some kind of park. A number of white seabirds flipped between the buildings, occasionally swooping into the water and swallowing a fish in their mouths.

This scene was so beautiful, Muhati couldn't help but sigh. Especially when he saw the tragic scene of the next scene, this emotion became even more meaningful.

On the horizon, red tides appeared. First a little red in the distance, and then like a drop of red ink poured into a bucket of water, the red color spread rapidly, and the concentration did not decrease. Soon, every street in this glorious city turned the color of blood, and the fish in it died and floated to the surface of the water, giving off a fishy smell.

The halflings riding Gondora tried to enter the building to take refuge, but their boat moved more and more slowly after falling into the red tide, and finally the oar was stuck in the water and could not be pulled. The red tide was like a sticky paste, trapping one of them.

And when the sea turned red, strange rain began to fall in the sky. The rain was mixed with frog-like animals and other dead objects, and the smell was terrible. Lice and flies the size of beans were proliferated, and sores were inflicted on cattle and halflings, and they died...... The red tide has brought ten derivative disasters in a row, destroying the vitality of the country.

Ten plagues.

After ten plagues, this glorious city has died. What was once a colourful coral building has become a lifeless and miserable white. A sea of red emitted a red mist that enveloped the body of the halfling.

The corpses, Muhadi saw in amazement, trembled when they came into contact with the red mist. The mysterious algae microorganisms that make up the red tide live on these corpses, living on the nutrients of the dead and slowly growing. Those ancient halflings have become strange enemies who have only attacked them.

It seems that the red mist can not only parasitize on the corpses of halflings, but the psychic warlock has also seen many strange creatures unique to the Teal Age also infected by the mist, turning into half-dead bloodthirsty monsters, roaming this great dead city.

I see, Muhati thought, explains where the strange enemies come from in this ruin. But he still understood how he was trapped here, and more importantly, how to get out.

Enduring mental exhaustion and physical discomfort, the Psychic Warlock continued to maintain his abilities, and he saw that the red tide continued to spread, and in order to defend against this catastrophe, the core of the halfling city opened up some kind of defense system. In an instant, the red color stopped spreading, and everything fell into stagnation.

Did you inadvertently touch the defense mechanism of thousands of years ago?, Muhadi thought, and then he was randomly teleported and lost contact with the others. So how can I get out now? Ram's Prince Corwin seems to have been to this ruin too, so why hasn't he touched any defense mechanisms?

The Psychic Warlock was confused, and the only thing he knew for sure was that waiting in place was not the best way to disarm the Ancient Halfling's defenses.

He walked around the ancient halfling's dwelling, and there was nothing useful to show of it, mainly ancient furniture that was not useful. There was originally a painting hanging on the wall, and the paint had almost disintegrated, and it was faintly visible that it depicted the scene of the bottom of the sea. Muhadi reached out to take it, but the painting turned to ashes under his touch, and it no longer existed.

There are also bodies of halflings in places, and almost without exception in such places, there is a red mist that neither spreads nor fades, like some kind of trap.

He exited through the back door of the house and ascended the spiraling coral staircase into another large room. It also appears to be a dwelling, with a lot of short beds that are not suitable for human use. Muhadi found some strange metal objects that appeared to be weapons, but they were rusty and unusable.

The next few buildings that the Psychic Warlock entered were empty dwellings with nothing useful. In one building, Muhadi was also attacked by another group of ancient halflings parasitized by the red mist. These "things" seem to be completely intellectually devoid and act purely by instinct for food and nutrition. It didn't take much effort for the Psychic Warlock to take them all in, but there was little he could do with the mist they spewed when they died.

This terrifying city of the dead is full of parasitic weirdos and eerie mist, and the psychic warlock doesn't want to waste his spirit to create a strong wind to blow the mist away. He had tried it once, but it didn't work well. This is because the terrain of this underground ruin is very narrow, and there are a lot of building ruins. Blowing doesn't bother to blow the fog far, it's always condensed, as if there is a force behind it.

Muhadi blindly spun several hourglasses and repelled more than a dozen waves of ancient halflings infected by the red mist. Although he does not fear or feel pain, he will still be tired when he should be tired, and the spirit energy consumed in battle cannot be restored without rest.

There are several waves of enemies that are not just parasitic ancient halflings, but also parasitic ancient creatures of the Azure Age. Once, while leaving a building, Muhadi encountered an infected two-headed snake dragon. The thing had a long, smooth body, very similar to the body of a snake, extending to an incredible length. The large body has two elongated necks like sea serpents, each ending in a rough and craggy dragon-shaped head.

The halfling civilization of the Teal Age had advanced biotechnology, and the two-headed snake dragon was their synthetic wurm. Compared to a real dragon, the two-headed snake dragon had only two forelimbs, and its wings were completely vestigial, meandering and crawling like a snake.

Through the dim glimmer of light from the other man's body, Muhadi could see that the terrible creature had black and gray scales, and the glimmer of light emanated from under the scales, making it appear to be flickering. Red vine-like stripes spread all over the body, and a mushroom-like red fungus grows on the head.

This monster is incredibly powerful, spitting cold air and flames, but also immense, agile, and immune to all kinds of psychic abilities. Muhadi wrestled with it for a while, and now that it was extremely difficult to deal with, he used his ability to create a large noise to distract it, and then escaped through a round door into a larger, more sturdy building.

This building is different from other buildings, not like a house, but like a workshop. It was littered with gigantic ancient machinery, disproportionately large gears and planetary wheels exposed, making Muhadi feel like an ant who had strayed into the land of giants. Many pipes also converge here from all directions and flow into the lobby inside the building.

Bang, bang, several rusty mechanical figures that were originally embedded in the walls of the building like sculptures are all moving at this time. They put on a simple formation that appeared to be trying to prevent Mohammad from entering a particular room.

The psychic warlock drew his scimitar, and the mechanics attacked as if they had received some signal. They wield scepter-like weapons and rely on bars and gears to drive the joints throughout their bodies. Muhadi had consumed too much aura in his quest before, and he wanted to fight at this time. He focused on his abilities, his palms erupting into flames. These ancient traps were already inflexible, and the joints in their bodies were even more stuck after being heated, and the psychic warlocks took the opportunity to destroy them all one by one.

He opened the door, which was guarded by the authorities, and behind the door was a room similar to a control room, with many joysticks of different lengths and broken glass, and the white bones of a halfling man fell in the middle of the room, dead for I don't know how many years.

A translucent ghost noticed the Psychic Warlock's presence, and the ghost floated over. "After thousands of years of waiting, can I finally break the curse on myself?" the ghost lamented in an ancient language that was rarely seen.

――――――――――――――――――――――――

The "Dead Money" side line opens.

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