Chapter 16
Neither the stars nor the moon, obscured by heavy clouds, could point anyone in the way, and cold snaps whistled by, carrying annoying winds and sand, as if to destroy a qiē on the ground.
Traveling in the dark of night like this is definitely not a good idea for the average traveler or adventurer.
But there are people who are struggling on the road in a hurry on such a night.
Archmage Aqiman, wrapped in black robes that symbolized evil magic, took the lead, carefully marking the path ahead. The scars on his body were at least half as high as when he returned to the dungeon half a day ago, and it was the punishment given to him by the two companions behind him, because he had lost half of the rent he had paid to the landlord of Tor Volcano, Caesar the Red Dragon, at the poker table, and the rest was robbed by the two dark elves.
The only light the group could see in the darkness was the milky white glow emanating from the Trist staff in the archmage's hand. This light color was somewhat incongruous on the face of the Dark Knight Salas, who was immediately behind the mage, because the light was scattered wantonly on Salas's pitted mask, which added an eerie aura to the Dark Knight, who already had a strong smell of death. Walking on the ground in full armor was not a comfortable thing, but under the strong winds of tonight, even the Dark Knight, who had lived on the back of a war horse all his life and fought on a skeleton horse after his death, could not sit comfortably on the back of the skeleton horse Tuxis.
"Bastard mage, are you in the right direction?" "Demon Amtils, who followed the skeleton horse following the Dark Knight and carried a giant scythe on his shoulder, began to lose patience with the endless groping in the darkness, and began to find a punching bag to vent his anger. It's just that the goblins weren't following. After discussion, it was decided to keep him to watch the family. The demon pointed the finger at the culprit who had to hurry in such a dark night: "Lost the rent." Do you lose your head as interest?"
Under the scolding of the dungeon lord, the archmage looked extremely helpless. The demon's scolding was not unreasonable, they could have comfortably traveled to the small village in the wilderness where the two dark elves were located with the help of the mage's transfer technique, if the mage had set up a spatial signpost at the target location of their trip.
It's just that the mage didn't forget to set up the space marker. But......
――――――――――――――――――――――――
Half of the final homestay was destroyed by the reflected fireballs, and screams and cries for help filled the air warm by the flames. The inhabitants of Thor City, who had arrived at the news, poured water on their basins or barrels in an attempt to extinguish the flames that were still spreading among the countless pieces of wood that were still on the ground, otherwise the remaining half of the final lodge would be doomed to ashes. The hostesses, who finally returned to the hotel, were busy dragging the wounded lying on the ground away from their places and dressing them in a preliminary attempt to save their lives before the nearby priests arrived; First the bombardment of fireballs from the mages and then reflected back by the Ice Mirror of the Dark Elves, then the fractures or contusions caused by the collapse of the inn, several of the guests found that they were barely breathing after the men struggled to remove the floor on the second floor of the inn that had been pressed against them.
Almost everyone lost their usual calm and leisure, and the extreme chaos of the scene was flooded with an air of madness, except for two people.
"Uh...... Mr. Mage, although ...... Well, how to put it, you've also suffered a monetary loss...... "The owner of the inn who witnessed the mage lose a small amount of money at the table, and then was robbed of more gold. With a long bill in his hand at the moment, he cautiously approached Archmage Aqiman.
In the last two hours, the archmage has been hit a lot one after another. Still standing still. Although under the protection of the Trist Staff, the archmage's body was not greatly damaged, but he was deceived by the cheating tricks of others, lost a lot of money in a row, and then was returned to him the magic he cast, which broke the archmage's heart heavily. Especially that fireball, any mage would consider it a great insult when faced with such a situation, and Aqiman, the premier necromancer on the Vestal continent, was no exception. The angry mage had no intention of letting go of the two dark elves, only to see Aqiman take out a small crystal ball from his pocket and whisper a spell, and a faint smoke emitted from around the crystal ball, and then slowly dissolved into the air.
Seeing the staff in the mage's hand and the black qi on the tattered black robe on his body gradually spread to his face, the innkeeper swallowed the next words back into his stomach in a daze. Despite the fact that the all-encompassing bill in the boss's hand listed at an alarming speed, including the destroyed half of the inn and the associated qiē loss, the boss decided to withdraw the idea of provoking the increasingly dark-faced mage in order to avoid an accident for the remaining half of the inn.
So the mage took the Triste staff and left the scene without any hindrance.
It wasn't far from Thor, but the archmage had never heard of a thief guild living in the ruins of the house in front of him. The barren field was covered with the remnants of several houses, and the trees around it looked scattered and scattered, and the air could only give the mage a message of desolation. One of the very large houses was also so badly damaged that not only was the roof gone, but even the walls on all four sides were about to collapse. It was just a faint glow oozing from the cracks of a few patches of the floor. The mage who had staggered all the way was now standing in front of this house.
The enchanted crystal ball revealed to the archmage the whereabouts of the two dark elves, who had disappeared in front of the ruins, and if the ball had not failed, it must have been protected by some enchantment.
Hiding behind the half-cut wall of another house, the mage put the crystal ball back in his pocket and twisted a few pinches of black sand out of it, and held it in the palm of his hand and held it in front of him. After taking a look at the surroundings. The mage gently blew the sand from his hand in the direction of the suspicious ruins.
"Zi~Zi~" After a few small sounds. The sand blown by the mage turned into sparks. After a flash, it disappeared into thin air, which also confirmed the mage's suspicion that the place was indeed protected by an enchantment, and I was afraid that I would not know what fate would fall into it.
Naturally, the small enchantment could not stump the archmage, not to mention that there were still stolen gold coins in the ruins that were constantly giving the mage strength. I saw the mage take out a few teeth that seemed to be left over from his pocket and gently threw them on the ground: "O O Exalted Dis, please answer the call of your followers and give them tough bodies." And to be my strength. ”
A puff of smoke came out of the eyes of the skull on the Trist staff in the mage's hand, and immediately enveloped the human teeth on the ground that the mage usually collected from the graveyard, and the "click" sound of the bones colliding showed that the mage's magic had worked: six skeletons in full armor appeared in front of the mage.
Whether they were armoured, shields, or knives, six skeleton soldiers, all made of bones, walked to the light-leaking floor in the ruins under the mage's orders. The skeleton soldier's feet stomped on the ground with only bones, making strange noises that echoed through the silent wilderness as the wind swept through the skeletons' ribs.
As if sensing the approach of these evil necromancers, the barrier reacted: a golden aura of ruins surrounding the house appeared in front of the skeleton soldiers. A piece of the house in front of the ruins, believed to be the original house, was accidentally knocked down by a skeleton soldier, and then flew towards the halo with the movement of the other skeleton's foot. Then it began to burn right in front of the mage's eyes. The mage hurriedly recited a spell that had been repeated many times in his head, and a powerful chain of lightning flashed from Trist's staff. Beyond the pace of the skeleton soldiers, it slashed directly at the aura that protected the ruins.
As if echoing the mage's lightning magic, the originally cloudless sky was suddenly covered by dark clouds, and after a few thunders, huge raindrops began to fall on the heads of the archmage and the skeletons. I saw that the lightning chain sent out by the mage quickly jumped on the aura, and the power of the aura and the lightning chain weakened by one point with each flash. Eventually, the aura vanished completely, and the last wave of the lightning chain struck powerlessly on the floor that was leaking light.
Then there was a screech, and the floor was pushed open from the inside, and a huge black shadow jumped out of it. It was evident that there was a basement inside, and from the perspective of Archmage Aqiman, a large mahogany table could be clearly seen, and the light of the oil lamp on the table was reflected on a money bag, which was the rent that the mage had been robbed of and was going to pay to the dragon.
The mage, who was sure that he was not in the wrong place, gave a loud whistle, and the skeleton soldiers hurriedly stepped on the mud on the ground and rushed towards the black shadow that jumped out of the basement. It was a half-orc, and the sharp teeth, heavy stone axe, and brown hair all over the body all explained this to the mage, and the brute strength and ferocity of the half-orc have long been "famous" throughout the Vestal continent, and these skeleton soldiers will definitely not be able to win favor with the half-orcs, and the mage knows this very well. However, the skeleton soldiers summoned by the mage had neither the ability nor the interest in distinguishing the race of the opponent in front of them, and they only knew how to obey the orders of their master, that is, the archmage Aqiman, and fearlessly swung their swords forward in pairs and swords.
To the mage's surprise, the battle between the orcs and the skeleton soldiers ended almost instantly. With a single swing of his hand, the orc's stone axe split the two skeleton soldiers who rushed in front of him, along with their shields and armor, and then swung the heads of the other two skeleton soldiers into the air with his backhand. The remaining two skeleton soldiers couldn't help but glance at each other, even the necromancers would have a sense of fear that was too much stronger than their own, but such a fear would not help what was going to happen next. The orc's fist knocked one of the skeletons apart, and the other skeletal soldier noticed that the orc's thick calf was pulling out of his ribs, and it collapsed with a thud. The skeleton soldier's broken ribs had created a few small white marks on the orc's rough skin, the only wound the orc had suffered in this disparity of strength.
Archmage Aqiman naturally would not sit idly by and watch the skeleton soldiers he summoned be easily destroyed by the orcs and remain indifferent. The mage, who was secretly cursing that there was not even a visible corpse in the ruins, had completed another magical spell. Two vague black shadows appeared on either side of the mage, each of which looked like a layer of black robes covered in a pair of sharp claws. And there will be no reaction to physical attacks. They are the best choice against orcs who only know how to attack their opponents roughly.
It's just that the orcs didn't fight these clawed ghosts. Or rather, there is no need for this at all. "Graceful wind elves, obey my summons and blow these ghosts from the Netherworld away!" As the archmage's incomparably familiar voice resounded in the basement, the wind that had been scattered across the wilderness suddenly gathered around the mage, and the two clawed ghosts were immediately blown apart until they disappeared into the night sky. At the same time, a cold light flashed behind the mage!
The dark elf and thief Ness, who had come behind Aqiman under the cover of the wind, did not seem to show the slightest mercy to the Archmage who had been gambling with her for half a day. Had it not been for the wind summoned by the other dark elves that swept the archmage to the ground, the owner of the Trist Staff would have been reduced to a corpse with a long scar on its back, but the thief's backstab cut a long crack in the archmage's already tattered black robes.
But neither orcs nor thieves were about to let go of lying on the ground. The archmage with a large piece of snow-white skin on his back exposed, two sharp daggers and a huge stone axe flew towards Akiman at the same time. Unwilling to be nailed to the ground, Aqiman hurriedly rolled to the side, but unexpectedly rolled directly into the wind that had just blown away the claw ghost and was still circling wildly. So the necromancer of Vesta's continent followed a spiraling trajectory, flew into the air with the help of the wind, and then planted on the ground a full fifty or sixty yards away. Even the orcs and dark elves who were intent on destroying the archmage here were completely unaware of the archmage's move, and a burst of laughter came from the basement that made the archmage doubly sad.
The dagger and the stone axe fell on the same place where the archmage had fallen just now, but the archmage had no courage or confidence to continue fighting, especially when the Trist staff, which had been blown into the air with him, had fallen to his head impartially, after the archmage himself landed on his shoulder.
――――――――――――――――――――――――
The archmage who hurriedly used the movement technique to escape to a distance that was safe enough, and then rested for half a day before he had enough strength to return to the dungeon, naturally he did not have the time to set up a space marker. If it's not a place that I'm very familiar with, and I don't have a space sign as a guide. Movement does not produce the correct effect, after several failed attempts to move. The mage acts as a guide and brings demons and dark knights to the wilderness.
The members of the Thieves' Guild had never lived in one place for long, and since the mage had discovered their hiding place last night, they would have left the area as much as they could, so despite the bad weather and the fact that it was the middle of the night, the members of the dungeon persisted on their way in the hope of retrieving the stolen gold coins.
However, if you get lost here, not only will the rent not be paid, but you will also become a laughing stock. The demon knew this, so he once again roared at the mage at the front of the group: "Bastard, if you can't find it in ten minutes, I'll ......"
The mage in charge of guiding the way suddenly stopped, and the Dark Knight who followed closely behind also covered the demon's mouth in due time. The moon, which had finally shaken off the entanglement of dark clouds, covered the wilderness with a layer of silver-white clothing. Under the moonlight, a few glimmers of light gently penetrated through the cracks in the cracks of the few scarred floors in the ruins of the houses not far ahead.
"How long are we going to wait here?"
The Dark Knight Salas was gently wiping down his armor, the place where the rose mark had been carved on the breastplate had now been bulldozed, and the Dark Knight had been thinking about what to put on it. Behind him, the skeleton Mattaxis, was lying on the ground and snorting, snoring.
"In another hour or so, the sun will be completely illuminating the neighborhood. Demon Amtils pulled a pocket watch out of his pocket and glanced at it. The watch had been found two days earlier from the pile of corpses made by Caesar the Red Dragon in Neil Canyon, and without the brilliant gold rim and splendid diamond decoration, it was completely impossible to attract the attention of the red dragon, and the demon who found this in-house exquisite pocket watch did not hesitate to carry it into his pocket. After determining the time again, the demon added, "When the time comes, we may be able to get our gold back in some milder way." ”
Holding a book of magic in his hand, Archmage Aqiman, who was trying to memorize the magic inside, had no intention of expressing his opinion. Although he was bent on revenge for the humiliation inflicted on him by the two previous dark elves, the demon Amtils's statement to avoid further conflict was not unreasonable, after all, the thieves' union was not so easy to provoke.
The Thieves' Guild on the Vestal Continent has been rumored to have existed since the era of the Gods War, and it has been passed down to this day, and it has a great influence on the Vestal Continent. There is a liaison office of the Thieves' Guild in any major city on the surface of the Vestal continent, and anyone who needs help such as assassination, theft, or other similar things will be enthusiastically served by the Thieves' Guild as long as they can afford to pay the corresponding remuneration;
After all, the creatures of the underground are much more formidable than the races of the ground. The mage thought silently, and then became more focused on remembering the magic in the spell. In the last two battles, the archmage who was not prepared for the battle suffered a loss, and he no longer dared to take it lightly, if there was a blank paper and quill around him, the archmage was even willing to copy a few magic scrolls that he was usually unwilling to do, these scrolls can greatly save the mage's magic power, spell casting time and memory space in the brain.
The group of people who had come from the dungeons of Thor's volcano sat in a circle that the mage had drawn with Trist's staff, and the powerful stealth spell obscured their figures, and the mage was convinced that the magic circle with four layers of nesting would be enough to keep their tracks from leaking out. (To be continued......)