The sun finally slowly showed its radiant face from the eastern hillside, and the demons were able to take a good look at their surroundings. The ruins, which seemed so deep at night, were now covered with golden light in the sunlight, and the wind, which had weakened much more than night, was powerlessly stirring the yellow sand on the ground, trying to cover the passage with these tiny particles of the ornate ceramic tiles. The leaves on the surrounding trees have long since fallen away, and only the yellowish trunks remain, which match the hue of the trees next to them.

If the demon is not mistaken, this was originally the residence of a group of wealthy farmers, as evidenced by the delicate tiles that were baked and the various utensils scattered on the ground that could still be seen in their original delicate appearance. What was the reason for them to leave the area in such a hurry that they were unusually in a hurry, or did they simply leave the world?

The demon stared silently at the plate on the almost decayed table in one of the ruins, questions running through his mind until a screeching sound drew his attention back to his goal.

The floor, the doorway to the basement, was pushed open from the inside, and the orcs who had easily destroyed all six of the mage's skeleton soldiers last night jumped out of the basement. The mage had another chance to take a closer look at the orc's appearance. The feet of the half-orcs are **, this is the habit of the half-orc race. Along the muscles of the muscular legs, an animal skin coat was pitifully taut against the orc. The orc's unusually thick shoulders carried a massive stone axe, which had no ornamentation or metal edges, but by its own weight, it was already a formidable weapon to fear his opponents in battle. Long brown fur is found all over the orcs' bodies. Two pitch-black eyes scattered light through the hair.

The orcs didn't know that someone was spying on his every move. Then the orc's companions, the two dark elves, leapt from the basement to the ground. The dark elf thief named Ness wore a small, delicate black leather armor. This common light armor is often the armor of choice for thieves or archers. A long dagger with an outer sheath painted the same color as leather armor was hanging from the Dark Elf's waist, reflecting the Dark Elf's snow-white skin, which was actually quite eye-catching. But the elven bow she had seen last time in the hotel, and she didn't know where it had been thrown away. However, thieves usually don't carry such a long weapon with them, except when they need to disguise themselves as ordinary forest elves.

The other dark elf, who was able to perform magic, wore a black cloak with a blood-red lining. If what the mage learned in the Archmage's Tower is correct, it must be a vampire's cloak. The dark elves behind Ness looked unusually similar to Ness, and if the two of them had switched their weapons and equipment, she would have been asked to perform those esoteric elven magic, or the dark elves who were now following Ness out of the basement to use their stealth skills.

After the two dark elves jumped out of the basement. A few words to the orcs. Since there was still a considerable distance in the basement of the magic circle that the mage used to hide everyone's figures, no one could hear what they were saying, but it also proved that the mage's magic was quite effective, and at least the three enemies in front of them seemed to be completely unaware that Archmage Aqiman, who had escaped from his injuries last night, was now watching them not far from them.

Although he didn't hear the conversation between the dark elves and the orcs clearly, the next actions of the orcs illustrated the dark elf's plan. I saw that the orc suddenly let out an angry roar, and the heavy sound even stimulated everyone in the magic array laid by the master.

Suddenly, a group of Iron Hoofs ran up to the Orcs and the Dark Elves from a distance. One by one, the beasts covered in extra-thick scale armor and often used as mounts for people gathered around the dark elves and orcs.

The Dark Elves and Orcs each jumped onto the back of the Iron Hoof with ease, and then hurried out of the sight of the people in the mage's magic circle, but they seemed to be heading in the same direction as the demon, mage, and dark knight had come.

The demon, determined to avoid a confrontation with the thieves' guild as much as possible, made a gesture lightly, and the mage walked back in the direction of the basement entrance to the house. Or maybe last night's aura was depleted, and neither the mage, the demon, nor the dark knight were hindered in any way before entering that basement.

The doorway to the basement. And a few small traps set up on the stairs down the room, none of which could stump the demon who took the lead in breaking into the basement that was now unguarded. So they immediately saw the money bag on the table, and in addition to the mage, even the one that the demon had lost in the library of Thor.

In the empty basement, the yellowish light lit up the two money bags full of gold coins on the long table. The mottled wooden walls, devoid of any ornaments, looked even older than they really were, and there were no other amenities or necessities in the basement except for a few woolen blankets spread out in the corners. It was only a temporary residence for the members of the Thieves' Guild, and Archmage Aqiman, who was carefully probing every corner of the room with his probing magic, had come to this conclusion.

"Your 'gentle approach' doesn't look too bad. After entering, he closed the door with his hand, and then the Dark Knight Salas, who sat comfortably in a chair at the long table, spoke his thoughts. The chairs in this basement were not as fragile as the handiwork of the goblins who were now staying in the dungeon, carrying the full set of heavy armor on the Dark Knight's body, but showing no signs of falling apart. Looking at the blank space on his breastplate that had once been carved with a rose mark, the Dark Knight couldn't help but think about it. No Holy Knight escapes battle, either alive or awake from the mists of death, but the life and death seen in his more than 200-year mercenary career has made the Dark Knight lose interest in useless combat, perhaps this is the positive effect of the necromancer who summoned him from his grave to regain his own mind after his death.

Hear the words of the Dark Knight. The mage couldn't help but let out a "snort" in his nose. Just because of what he was looking forward to, the battle with the dark elves. It was by no means meaningless to himself. He had hoped to use his magic to make the dark elf who had won a small amount of money from him by cheating, and then snatched all the remaining gold coins to pay the price, but this wish seemed to be impossible to achieve for the time being.

"Isn't that good? You don't have to get blood on it, you don't have to waste your precious magic to solve the problem. The demons who insisted on the "gentle method" were very much in favor of the Dark Knight. A pointless battle will only make things more chaotic and difficult to manage, and the legend has it that humans were provoked to attack the elves, and the resulting melee of the gods is a prime example.

"If that dark elf was lying at my feet right now, it would be what I would have liked to see. The mage, who had finished his exploration of the room, sat down at the table. "So shouldn't we grab our money bags right now and go back to our dungeon to take stock?"

"Just count them here. Even if we're missing too much gold, we don't need to waste time going back here to find the dark elves to pay it back. "Make up your mind. If the gold in the purse was really missing a large proportion, the demon who had been sitting here waiting for the Dark Elf to come back and ask for it occupied the third chair next to the long table, and then pulled open the thin hemp rope that tied the opening of one of the purses.

A dazzling pile of gold coins poured out of the purse and scattered on the long table with a clattering sound. The archmage, whose face was full of golden luster from the gold coin, couldn't help but turn his head away from the dazzling light.

The dark eyes of the demon Amtils were unaffected. I saw him easily dance his unusually flexible ten fingers, and in the blink of an eye, he piled up the gold coins on the table into fifteen piles of equal height, and the number of ten gold coins in each pile showed that what he had just opened casually was the money bag he had lost in the library. After counting the gold coins that could at least pay the rent demanded by the red dragon this time, the demon seemed to secretly breathe a sigh of relief, and then reached out and swept the gold coins on the table back into the money bag that had been emptied of the gold coins and dried up beside them.

With a ding, a gold coin fell to the floor and rolled to the feet of the Dark Knight. The Dark Knight bent down. Although it is extremely inconvenient to make such a movement while wearing heavy armor, there is no muscle hindrance on the body. The Dark Knight's body, which was only made of bones, could still be barely completed. The Dark Knight sat up straight and raised his right hand, heavily protected by armor, golden light flickering between his fingers, the rose motif behind the coin reflected in his eyes.

The gold coins struck by the Principality of Sumerand have always been popular with merchants everywhere because of the high purity of the gold, and the rose pattern surrounded by four-leaf clovers is not only a characteristic of the gold coins of the Principality of Sumerland, but also the mark of the Holy Knights of the Vestal Continent, who have been famous for their crusade against evil creatures everywhere for hundreds of years. One such gold coin can be exchanged for a hundred silver coins, and each silver coin can be exchanged for a hundred copper coins. At the list price of the last lodge in Thor, a fairly rich but by no means extravagant lunch costs four copper coins, and a copper coin is required to exchange the sour cider for the in-house cherry wine.

In a border town such as Thor, where the income of an ordinary citizen is only about two or three gold coins a year, what is spread out on the table can be regarded as a large amount of wealth.

The Dark Knight calculated the price of having to exchange his armor for money one day, and threw the gold coins he had picked up from the ground into the demon's purse.

After tying the bag again, the demon poured out the gold coins from another money bag and began to count the gold coins in the same way as before. However, this bag of gold coins was obviously almost lighter than the previous one, and the result of the count was the same: there were only eighty-five coins left in this bag.

The demon looked up, his vicious gaze resting on the mage's face as he began to try to hide in the shadows where the light could not reach. "Bastard mage, why is this bag of gold so much less?"

Archmage Archmage Akiman knew exactly where the missing gold coins were going, and at the final homecoming inn, the dark elf Ness put every gold coin she had won from him in her pocket. However, the mage did not dare to tell the truth about the fact that he had embezzled the rent of the dungeon to gamble. Enraged demons will not hesitate to put their scythes on the mage's neck. Then in the most brutal voice, inform the mage to make a threefold compensation in a short period of time. This was the lesson the mage had learned last time he had lost all the money the demon had intended to buy the dungeon's murals.

Last time, I was lucky enough to settle the compensation problem at the table in a short period of time, but this time I may not have had that luck. Countless excuses flashed through the mage's mind to explain where the gold coins' were going, and then singled out one of the plausible hypotheses: "Or did they take some of the gold with them when they left here today?"

The mage's explanation was hardly convincing, and the demon, who had already understood the mage's nature, immediately guessed that the mage was not telling the truth, and his eyes widened and he was ready to start a more severe "interrogation".

"Someone is coming. The Dark Knight Salas suddenly stood up softly, drew his sword beside him, and turned to face the basement doorway. Before coming into the basement. Salas instructed his mount, the skeleton Mataxis, to hide in the nearby ground, keeping an eye out for any moving objects in the wilderness, and if anyone approached the basement, he would stomp on the dirt near his body, a sound that was almost completely inaudible on the ground, but quite clear to the Dark Knight and the others in the basement who were also underground.

At the same time, the archmage who heard the warning of the skeleton horse, Archmage, did not care to deal with the demon staring at him, but waved his hand to signal to turn back, and then began to silently recite a complex incantation, laying an invisible wall of force at the door of the basement, and the demon began to prepare to cast a summoning spell while picking up the scythe leaning on the edge of the long table, in case the other party was overwhelmed, several Marfa demons from the Abyss Demon Domain would appear in the basement.

Outside the door. The voice of the dark elf thief Nessy rang out.

"That idiot mage's dwelling isn't bad, but the gate looks eerie and annoying. That little green guy...... Fugg and so on. Someone ......"

Ness's reminder slowed down, and the basement door was pulled open from the outside, and Fugg, a tall, quick-moving orc, appeared outside the door, the blood on the stone axe he had stuck in his waist was not yet completely dry, and Nice, the dark elf behind Fugg, was still trying to stop the orc from opening the door to the basement that looked like someone had broken into.

Seeing that the mage who had already inflicted his own humiliation twice began to prepare to unleash those offensive spells that he had been preparing for a long time.

"Not awake yet?"

"Not yet. ”

"Another bucket of ice water. This time, if she doesn't wake up, she will just bury it. ”

A bucket of ice water that appeared out of thin air poured down on the Dark Elf and the thief Ness. The ice slag in the water streaked across Ness's face, and the Dark Elf screamed unconsciously and opened her eyes.

In the basement, which is not too large, the long table that used to occupy most of the space is gone. Awakened from a coma stimulated by the icy water, the Dark Elf lies in the middle of the basement, trying to figure out who is the culprit who is now soaking wet. As far as the eye can see, everything is covered by a soft milky white light, but this light does not bring even a trace of warmth. In the corner of the basement, the orc Fugg, with a large mass of rags in his mouth, was trying to break free from the strips of cloth that bound his hands and feet, but it seemed that the strips of cloth had been magically enhanced, and the struggle of the orcs, known for their brute strength, had no effect at all.

"The Dark Elves are really a rare race, and the Dark Elves who belong to the Thieves' Guild are even rarer. ”

A black-robed mage walked up to Niss, the top of the staff in the mage's hand looked like a complete human skeleton, and at this moment the milky white light that had shone through the entire basement was pouring out from the skeleton. Archmage Aqiman looked at his captives condescendingly, which filled his heart with the thrill of revenge.

"So, what is the purpose of these Xihan visitors visiting our dungeon?" The dungeon lord and demon Amtils sat on a platform made of the remains of cracked tables and chairs, their giant red wings fanning the basement air one by one.

The archmage bowed his head, "I think this dark elf Miss Ness will be able to give us an answer that is enough to satisfy us." Do you say yes? ”

"Humph!" knocks people unconscious and then tied them up, a way of chatting that is certainly not acceptable to the haughty dark elves. Ness snorted slightly, closed her eyes, and began to think back to the battle.

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―――――――――――――――――――――――― (To be continued......)