"[Swift Battle Preparation], [Extinguishing Light], [Lesser Spider Form], [Spider Form], [Advanced Spider Form], [Shadow Elf Form], [Magic Recoil], [Shadow Veil], [Double Shadow], [Devouring Terror]... The dark elves who have lived in the Underdark for more than 10,000 years have indeed created some very interesting magic."
After Zuo Si finished flipping through two spell books, an amusement expression suddenly appeared on his face.
Among these spells, [Quick Preparation] allows the recipient to obtain a small amount of information about the enemy and be fully prepared for the upcoming battle.
[Extinguishing Lights] can extinguish any non-magical light source, creating the most favorable combat environment for the drow who like to launch sneak attacks in the dark.
The three spider forms allow the caster to transform into a medium, large, and giant purgatory spider respectively. Like transforming into a spider elf, they are very suitable for the complex underground world.
[Magic Recoil] can instantly cause the enemy who is casting a spell to suffer backlash damage. The higher the level of the spell cast, the greater the damage.
[Veil of Shadow] allows the drow who are afraid of strong light to cover themselves with darkness, which can not only protect them from blindness and weakness caused by strong light, but also provide a certain concealment effect.
【Double Shadow】 creates a hazy phantom that is similar to yourself to attack the enemy. If the opponent believes it, then this spell will cause corresponding mental damage and may even cause mental death.
[Terrible Devour] is basically equivalent to creating a gelatinous monster to devour the target, causing it to die from suffocation or strong acid corrosion.
Perhaps because their dark skin has a strong resistance to magic, the spells created by the Dark Elves generally tend to be in the areas of transformation, conjuration, prophecy and illusion, with almost no enchantment or evocation.
Especially [Magic Recoil], which does not require any spells at all and can be released to the enemy who is casting a spell with just a gesture.
If it is a high-level spell, the backlash damage caused may even interrupt the enemy's concentration, causing the enemy to fail in casting the spell.
It is simply the most practical type of magic in spell duels.
And it only takes a second-level spell to memorize it.
"How about it, are these two spell books valuable?" asked the dwarf Ruger interestedly.
Zuo Si smiled and nodded: "Of course. If nothing goes wrong, they can all be sold for more than 10,000 gold coins. But I suggest that you take them to the Tower of Order to participate in the weekly auction. There are several unique dark elf spells among them, which should be of interest to high-level wizards, so they will pay a high price to buy them."
"Hehe! I understand this. Those high-level wizards don't care how much money they have to spend to get what they are interested in." The dwarf grinned with a cunning smile.
"How much have we earned so far from this adventure?"
The poet Kels also came over at some point, his eyes glowing with wolf-like green light.
"If the dark elves' equipment hadn't depreciated, it would have been worth more than 100,000 gold coins."
The dwarf roughly calculated the spoils he had gained along the way and quickly gave a relatively conservative figure.
no way.
After all, it is difficult to accurately estimate the value of spoils of war before actually selling them.
Because the buyer may offer a price much higher than the original price of the item for his own reasons, or deliberately lower the price, causing the adventurer to sell it at half price.
"Hundreds of thousands? Damn! So we're going to make a fortune this time!"
Kels excitedly made the classic "fly rubbing hands" gesture, as if he had already seen himself taking a large sum of money and seducing all the married ladies he had previously targeted.
As one of Faerûn's leading scholars has quipped, many bards are "animals" who think with their lower bodies.
Among them, the men are either showing off their "prowess" in bed or on their way to the next bed.
Women are also either seducing someone they are interested in or looking for their next prey.
Seeing Kels' hopeless look, the dwarf immediately rolled his eyes and said, "Don't expect too much. Most of this money belongs to Soth. He contributed the most in the adventure and saved the team from danger more than once, so he deserves to get the lion's share. As for you... you still owe more than 5,000 gold coins plus interest."
"Ah! I would have forgotten if you hadn't mentioned it! Oh my God! Doesn't this mean that I won't get much money at all?"
The poet's mood instantly fell from heaven to hell.
Although he is considered a high-level adventurer, due to his hobbies and chaotic private life, he has been living on foreign loans, and the monthly interest rate is as high as more than 30%.
In other words, in a place like Furen, any loan is 100% usury with compound interest.
No one would want to take on such heavy debt unless the business is in trouble or life is really difficult to sustain.
"Viper Camilla has threatened that if you can't pay the money within three weeks, she will send someone to take you to her shop to sell your butt. It is said that some wealthy businessmen with special hobbies in Waterdeep are already eager to try. So I suggest that you better not think about refusing to pay or running away, otherwise the consequences will be very, very serious." The half-orc Korra reminded kindly.
"Okay, okay, I'll pay off the debt as soon as I get my share, okay?"
Kels was obviously frightened and couldn't help but shiver, covering his butt.
Seeing his appearance, the two "bad friends", the dwarf and the halfling, immediately burst into laughter, and the air was filled with a happy atmosphere.
But soon, Zuo Si brought the topic back and asked directly: "How much do you know about the situation on the eleventh floor?"
"The eleventh floor?"
Ruger stroked his thick beard and thought for a moment, then quickly replied, "I just heard from Dunan that the eleventh floor of the ground maze city is mainly inhabited by a large number of lizardmen.
There are also Dark Elves who attempt to capture them and use them as slaves and cannon fodder.
The latter is most likely the Evander family we met before.
In addition, there are trolls who feed on troglodytes and a green-footed dragon snake.
But that was several years ago, and no one knows if anything has changed since then.”
As we all know, the monster passages in the underground maze are not static.
Just the opposite!
Whether it is the mad wizard Halaster Blackrobed, his apprentices, or invaders from the depths of the Underdark, each level will cause drastic changes every once in a while.
This means that all intelligence and information about the underground maze city often has a certain timeliness.
Any information older than one or two years can only be used as a reference.
If you really prepare according to the description above, you probably won't even know how you died.
In addition, starting from the eighth to the ninth underground floor, portals and teleportation devices leading to other levels are hidden in some inconspicuous corners.
If it is touched accidentally, a living person will be teleported from a familiar level to a completely unfamiliar level in minutes.
Since prophecy magic is forbidden, the person being teleported has no way to reach his current position and depth.
"It sounds like there shouldn't be much danger. Why don't we take a short break and set off as soon as possible to finish this floor within four hours." Zuo Si suggested, glancing at the passage leading to the eleventh floor.
The dwarf nodded quickly: "No problem! I'll listen to you."
Needless to say, Zuo Si has completely won the 100% trust of his teammates due to his outstanding performance and keen judgment along the way.
Ruger would immediately adopt any suggestions he made without saying a word.
In this way, the team rested near the entrance for about half an hour.
When his strength was almost recovered, he stood up and went to the next floor.
Just as expected, not long after entering the eleventh floor, they discovered an outpost built by the dark elves, in which about two dozen captured Lizardmen were imprisoned.
On the gate of the outpost hangs the emblem of the Evander family.
Without any hesitation!
Zuo Si used the same trick again, first using [Deep Darkness] to plunge the outpost into complete darkness.
Then he used stones with silencing magic to make the entire area silent.
Finally, the Shadow Legion attacked and killed all the dark elves and lizardmen inside without leaving a single one alive.
Because neither of these two races is good.
The so-called lizard man is actually a kind of lizard that is about 1.5 to 1.6 meters tall, has intelligence and walks upright.
As their name suggests, they are a group of savage, brutal and reckless creatures by nature, and will treat all creatures, including their own kind, as a source of food.
Therefore, Zuo Si had no psychological burden when he was killed.
After the battle, the attentive halfling Korra found some jewel-studded badges, rings and ceremonial daggers from the corpses.
It is estimated to be worth more than two thousand gold coins.
In addition, there were four or five boxes containing weapons, equipment, crossbows, bottles of poison, and military rations specially made for the dark elves that had not yet been distributed.
You don't need to ask to know that these things are supplies prepared for the patrol teams and hunting teams.
Just when the poet was curious and picked up a piece of military rations to taste, Zuo Si immediately warned him: "If I were you, I would not touch any drow food. Because when food is scarce, they occasionally put some intelligent creatures into their menu."
"What? You mean... there might be human flesh in these things?" Kels widened his eyes in disbelief.
"That's right! Some dark elves are extreme pragmatists. The food shortage in the Underdark means that if they want to survive here, they must learn to be cold and cruel. They don't care about ethics and morals. As long as the food is nutritious and delicious, they will eat it without hesitation."
Zuo Si stared at the biscuit-shaped dry food made of shredded meat, mushroom powder and a small amount of moss, and said meaningfully.
With the help of the Eye of Knowledge, he could easily see that a large proportion of the fibers in the meat should belong to humanoid creatures.
Maybe it's a goblin, maybe a gray dwarf, or maybe an orc or a kuo-toa.
Even the mushroom powder might be ground from the corpses of mushroom people.
The latter is a kind of plant intelligent life similar to a large mushroom, which is widely distributed in the underdark.
"Damn it! I'm glad I didn't put it in my mouth."
The poet cursed under his breath and immediately threw the dry food in his hand to the ground.
After looting the outpost of all valuables, the team continued to move through the intricate tunnels in the dark.
Since Zuo Si completely released the Shadow Legion, he killed indiscriminately within the range where he could extract mana and life energy.
Therefore, there were almost no encounters along the way.
Most of the enemies were killed by countless shadows before they even noticed the approach of the adventure team.
Even if a spellcaster occasionally succeeds in casting a protective spell to resist attacks from incorporeal creatures, the shadow assassin Yelinya will take action personally and stab the opponent's neck or back with a sharp dagger containing a deadly poison.
With this snowball-like expansion, the number of the Shadow Legion has reached an astonishing 15,000.
Unless they are hit by high-level positive energy magic and die in large numbers, their numbers will continue to increase.
With the mana he harvested, Zuo Si continued to make the newly learned spells into magic cards.
He was even prepared that once he mastered the Seventh Ring Magic, he would immediately use the [Enlightened Undead Creatures] recorded in the Book of the Dead to give some high-level shadows wisdom so that they could become more powerful through learning and training.
After searching for a long time along the intricate maze, the team finally found the most powerful monster on the eleventh floor in an area full of broken bones in the southwest corner. It was a green-footed dragon snake that they had encountered in the Kalin Desert.
After the two sides met, they started a head-on battle without even a word of nonsense.
Zuo Si directly issued an attack order, letting the huge lava element take the lead in charging.
Feeling the heat wave coming towards it, the green-footed dragon snake did not dare to delay and immediately opened its mouth and spit out a breath of lightning that was very similar to that of the blue dragon.
Snap! Along with a dazzling white electric light, a large hole appeared on the lava element's body.
But unfortunately, this amount of damage was obviously not enough to destroy it, nor could it even hinder its charge speed in the slightest.
Realizing that its attacks could hardly kill such a huge elemental creature in one go, the Green-footed Dragon Snake immediately activated the arcane mark left on itself by the Mad Mage.
Suddenly, one of the scales flashed with a dazzling arcane light.
The next second...
Its entire huge body disappeared.
[Invisibility]! Obviously, this was not a spell-like ability that the Green-footed Dragon Snake should have, but was granted by the scar-like mark.
However, given Qingzu Longse's weight, it was obviously impossible for him to move as silently as a thief in an environment full of broken bones.
As it began to flee to the side, there was an immediate series of crackling sounds, accompanied by the sound of bones being crushed and scattering everywhere.
So the lava element immediately changed direction and chased after it.
Zuo Si and the poet began chanting almost the same spell almost at the same time.
After just a few seconds, a large ball of oil flew out from their fingertips and directly fell under the feet of the green-footed dragon snake, which remained invisible.
Due to the sudden decrease in friction, the huge monster immediately fell down with a thud.
The giant lava element took the opportunity to pounce on them and crush them like a mountain.
Boom!!!!!!!!!!!!! Surrounded by the splattering hot magma, the Green-footed Dragon Snake screamed in pain, and while frantically using Lightning Breath and Sharp Teeth to fight back, it also released energy rays like the [Colorful Jet].
Needless to say, all these spell-like abilities originate from the mark engraved on the scales.
In order to prevent the overheated magma from burning the scales with the mark, Zuo Si quickly stopped the lava element from attacking and immediately threw a [Curse] with the Chosen Ability over.
This monster, whose intelligence attribute was not very high to begin with, was instantly turned into a fool with only a little intelligence left.
At this moment, the Green-footed Dragon Snake could not continue fighting, and even its self-awareness and awareness of the surrounding things had probably disappeared. It just stood there motionless.
Seeing this scene, Zuo Si skillfully took out a blank card and sealed it.
At this point, the road to the twelfth floor was finally opened.
In the pit behind the Green-footed Dragon Snake's lair, the adventure team also found a pile of gold and silver coins and gems that looked like they were minted in the Underdark.
In addition, there are some magical items and gadgets.
For example, there is a scorpion brooch that looks like it was made by a gray dwarf, which can poison the wearer's weapon once a day; there is an ancient elf-style music box, which can play different music by gently tapping the green gems inlaid on the box; and finally, there is a steel helmet that can make a person's eyes emit a terrifying red light when worn.
Of course, this helmet does not have any other magical power attached to it. It is simply used to scare people, making the wearer look like some kind of lower-dimensional creature or undead.
"Hahaha! This is why I like adventure. There is nothing more satisfying than finding the treasure it has collected after defeating a powerful monster. Look at these shining coins, they are worth about seven or eight thousand gold coins in total. Those gems, music boxes and magic items can also be sold for a lot of money." The dwarf laughed happily.
"I totally agree..."
Zuo Si stared at the creature card he had just made in his hand, a meaningful smile appearing on his face.
Because these three temporary teammates had no idea that the most valuable thing in this trip to the underground maze city had already been taken away by him.
Compared to these creature cards and a lot of mana, those little gold, gems, and magic items are insignificant.
Take the Green-footed Dragon Snake for example. The mark on its scales should be the arcane mark left by a mad wizard, which gives this guy the ability to cast [Invisibility], [Colorful Jet] and [Sleep] with just a thought.
Although they all look like low-level spells, the magical knowledge and techniques contained in them are definitely worth spending time studying.
Once the research is successful, Zuo Si will be able to add some additional spell-like abilities to all summoned creatures, even himself and Wilmes, that can be released with just a thought, without the need for spells or gestures.
At this moment, he finally understood why the Underworld was so dangerous, and why so many adventurers were willing to come down to explore it every year.
Nothing else!
It's simply that the profits are too high.
Warriors can find the magical equipment and countless treasures they have always dreamed of, while spellcasters, especially mages and warlocks, can gain all kinds of magical knowledge from it.
Since the enemies and monsters on this floor were basically killed, the team quickly cleared out a space in the Green-footed Dragon Snake's lair.
After simply washing his hands and face, Zuo Si directly released the six-ring magic [Heroes' Banquet], creating out of thin air a long table filled with all kinds of delicious food and drinks, as well as a dozen chairs.
Obviously, with his current spellcasting level, one summoning can feed more than ten people.
Looking at the delicious food on the table that was unprecedented and made people drool, the dwarf immediately licked his lips and exclaimed: "No matter how many times I see it, this magic is so shocking."
"Yes! But is it really okay to use high-level magic to satisfy your appetite? I heard that other priests are often very cautious when using magic, for fear of causing dissatisfaction from the gods they serve." The half-ling Korra asked in an uncertain tone.
"It's okay. The goddess who gave me the magic is very generous. She won't mind these little things."
Zuo Si shrugged indifferently, sat down first, tore off a roasted chicken leg and started eating it with relish.
After all, compared with the divine power and various powerful abilities of the elect bestowed by Talona, a mere six-ring divine hero banquet is probably not even a drop in the bucket.
What's more, he has already found the God of Knowledge Oghma as the "next buyer", so he is not panicked at all.
Compared with those ordinary priests who served God with trembling fear, Zuo Si was undoubtedly an outlier among outliers, and he did not have the slightest fear of God.
"Are you really the favorite of God? Your life is really enviable."
The poet muttered something quietly, then sat down and began to enjoy the food and wine.
After finishing the whole bottle of wine, he wiped the wine stains from his lips and beard, and said with satisfaction, "It's really enjoyable! I guess no one would believe that such a luxurious banquet can be enjoyed in the underground city."
"Of course! The Heroes' Banquet is a sixth-ring spell. The chief priests of some small local temples may not be able to reach this priest level. What's more, even if they have reached it, they will not be willing to use the precious sixth-ring spell slot to memorize a spell specifically for eating and drinking." The half-ling Korra explained while sucking her greasy fingers.
Just when the dwarf was about to say something, the ground beneath his feet suddenly shook slightly for some reason.
Immediately afterwards, the entire underground maze began to shake violently, as if an earthquake had occurred.
Boom boom boom!
The people who were only halfway through their meal were thrown all over the place.
The long table was overturned in an instant due to the violent shaking, and food and drinks were scattered all over the floor.
"Damn it! What's going on?" the poet asked loudly in horror.
"I think there are only two possibilities. One is that a large-scale collapse occurred below, and the other is that the madman Halaster Black Robe is making large-scale adjustments to the structure of the underground maze." The dwarf gritted his teeth and expressed his guess.
Because this is not the first time something like this has happened.
For adventurers, besides various traps and monsters, the Mad Mage himself is the most dangerous thing in the Underworld.
After all, this huge maze-like area formed by magic network nodes was built by him.
Therefore, the latter can often expel a person or a team directly with just a thought, or teleport them to any corner of the dungeon.
In addition, Halaster Black Robe can also modify the structure of any one or several levels according to his own wishes.
Since he is a complete lunatic, he did not consider the safety of the various creatures and adventurers inside when making the transformation.
Zuo Si, who possessed the ability to "walk in the air", had already lifted his feet off the ground and was standing in the air about one meter high, carefully assessing the possible impact of the violent vibration.
But before anyone could figure out anything, the ground leading from the eleventh floor to the twelfth floor suddenly reversed.
The dwarf, halfling, poet and Davian all accidentally fell into the black hole and disappeared into the darkness in the blink of an eye.
“Fuck!”
Zuo Si quickly canceled his Flying Sprint and rushed in to catch up with his teammates and summoned creatures.
He was not sure whether the poet had memorized the first level of [Feather Falling Technique] today.
If I didn't remember and I didn't catch up in time, the four people who fell down might have been killed.
I kept free falling like this for several minutes. I could even hear the whistling air flow and the roars of monsters when I passed certain levels.
Zuo Si finally saw the four people who had just successfully performed the [Feather Fall Technique] and landed on the ground.
He also quickly took out a card and cast the [Feather Fall Technique] on himself, falling down lightly like a feather.
It has to be said that using [Feather Fall] when falling from a height is a great test of the caster's psychological quality.
The tricky thing about this spell is that it cannot be released too early or too late.
If it is too early, if the height from the ground is still too high after the spell ends, there is still a danger of falling to death on the spot or becoming seriously injured or disabled.
As we all know, people fall at very fast speeds.
Almost a hundred meters was gone in the blink of an eye.
Therefore, if it is too late, one will accidentally miss the best opportunity to use [Feather Fall Technique] and fall directly to the ground and turn into a pool of bloody and fleshy mixture.
It is usually used when it is about 20 meters above the ground, so that it can land steadily.
Fortunately, the poet, who usually seemed a little unreliable, performed exceptionally well at the critical moment and saved all his teammates.
His face was pale at this moment, and he was lying on the ground vomiting continuously. It was obviously a stress reaction caused by being too nervous.
Of course, the others weren't much stronger either.
The dwarf's legs were shaking uncontrollably, and he could only stay standing by holding on to the wall.
The half-orc Korra was lying on the ground with her back facing up, swallowing her saliva continuously, her eyes revealing the deep fear from the bottom of her heart.
Only the fearless Dragonborn Knight Davian adjusted his state immediately, walked straight to Zuo Si and asked, "Master, where are we now?"
"I don't know. Judging from the time of free fall just now, this place is at least ten kilometers away from the eleventh floor. It should be a deeper level of the underground maze. And I can begin to feel the amazing energy emitted by the nodes of the magic network." Zuo Si narrowed his eyes and replied.
Yes!
After wandering in this huge underground maze for several days, he finally reached the level where the magic network nodes were located.
Because of the extremely close distance, the sparks can even absorb amazing magical energy from the surrounding air.
It can be predicted that if this land card is successfully made, the mana it can provide will definitely not be comparable to any previous one.
"In other words, this floor is the end of this adventure..."
Davian subconsciously glanced at the crystallized walls, ceiling, and floor in front of him, as well as the bright and colorful magical light.
Unlike any previous level, this place doesn't look dark at all. Large amounts of valuable crystals can be seen everywhere. It's like a maze transformed from a crystal mine.
And at the entrance stands a three-meter-tall crystal construct, emitting bright and dazzling light all over its body, and its appearance is a bit like a Githyanki warrior.
"Be careful! I think the main enemies on this floor are most likely the Githyanki and their mortal enemies, the mind flayers." Zuo Si reminded in a low voice.
He didn't really care about the crystal golem guarding the entrance.
Because this inferior construct has no redeeming qualities other than the ability to emit strong flashes of light that temporarily blind the enemy.
The crystal that makes up its body is also of very poor hardness, and adamantium weapons can shatter it into a pile of worthless fragments in just a few hits.
"clear!"
Davian had already learned how to deal with golems, and after his master had bestowed upon him a host of strengthening spells, as well as the [Veil of Shadow] that could protect him from blindness caused by strong light, he immediately rushed forward and took the lead in launching an attack.
This time, he did not use his standard +2 flaming sword, but instead took out the magical adamantium hammer that he had previously used to knock over the lich's life box.
Bang! With a muffled sound, the Dragonborn Knight jumped high after finishing his charge, raised his hammer and smashed it hard on the head of the Crystal Golem.
Crash!
The latter's head shattered on the spot, with most of it turning into crystal fragments and flying everywhere, and the remaining half of the face was covered with dense spider-shaped cracks.
Obviously, with his strong muscles and the amazing power attributes brought by magic, Davian is now like a human Tyrannosaurus Rex, and he cannot be resisted by a mere crystal golem.
Although the latter released a strong flash of light at the moment it was attacked, its huge body was like an extremely large strong light bulb, making it impossible for people to open their eyes.
But unfortunately, the [Shadow Veil] developed by the drow elves can offset it.
As a result, the man and the golem fought fiercely at close range for half a minute. The crystal golem finally lost its ability to move and fell to the ground, turning into a pool of worthless broken crystal.
Zuo Si unceremoniously absorbed the mana contained in it, turned around and asked the other three temporary teammates: "How is it, do you feel better now?"
"Ugh—no! I don't feel well at all."
The poet's stress reaction seemed not to have passed yet, and he immediately began to feel nauseous as soon as he opened his mouth to speak.
The dwarf was in a similar situation, he had no strength in his legs.
The thief Korra seemed to have lost all perception of the outside world and did not respond at all.
"Okay, then you guys just rest here for a while, and Davian and I will go in and explore first."
After saying that, Zuo Si stepped directly over the wreckage of the crystal golem and entered the colorful hall at the back.
Because all the crystals are glowing, and the color of the light changes every once in a while.
Therefore, the first thing you need to face when exploring at this level is the astonishing light pollution.
Zuo Si rummaged through his bag for a few seconds, then took out a pair of sunglasses and put them on.
This thing was originally prepared to deal with the strong direct sunlight in the desert when crossing the Karin Desert.
I didn't expect it would come in handy again now.
When you enter the hall, the first thing that catches your eye is the tunnels that extend in all directions around it.
After a simple investigation, it was found that the four passages led to the pits on the left and right sides respectively.
The left side looks like a training ground or something, with several targets in the shape of mind flayers placed there.
If nothing unexpected happens, this should be the place where the Githyanki are training.
In the entire multiverse, no creature hates the mind flayers more than these guys, and they hunt them down in every dimension.
In contrast, the right side is much more lively. Four Githyanki warriors are working in groups of two, boxing each other to kill time.
"Go! Kill them!"
Zuo Si directly gave the attack order to the Dragon Knight beside him.
In his opinion, the astral bandits Githyanki are essentially no different from the dark elves. They are all crazy people who want to conquer and enslave other races including humans, and have completely forgotten their own tragic experience of being enslaved by the mind flayers.
For those guys who turned from dragon slayers into evil dragons, it's always a good idea to kill them one by one when you see them.
"As you wish!"
Without further ado, Davian changed his weapon to a flaming sword and immediately charged, appearing in front of the four Githyanki at lightning speed.
Before the opponent could react, he killed every kid with one sword.
In the blink of an eye, the four unlucky guys all fell dead in a pool of blood.
Two of them were beheaded with a sword, and the other two had their hearts stabbed through.
One of the guys even tried to raise his arm with an arm guard to block, but his entire arm was chopped off and dark red blood splattered everywhere.
Because the killing was so fast, they didn't have time to make any sound or alarm.
Next to the huge pit, Zuo Si saw a carving of a Githyanki riding a red dragon.
Needless to say, this piece of art is meant to depict the most famous red dragon rider in the Githyanki Empire.
It is said that their queen had reached some unknown deal with the dragon god Tiamat, so the Githyanki could recruit relatively young red dragons to join their army.
In this collaboration, the relationship between rider and dragon is equal.
Young red dragons can also use this opportunity to hone their combat abilities, and follow the Githyanki to plunder and gain a lot of treasure.
But as the dragon grows older, it will choose to leave on its own.
After all, red dragons are born tyrants and it is impossible for them to serve a certain person or force for a long time.
Just as Zuo was about to check the surroundings to see if there were any secret compartments or doors, Davian, who had already walked into the front room, suddenly exclaimed, "Master! Look! There are twelve skulls of mind flayers here!"
"What?"
Zuo Si was stunned for a moment, then hurried over to check.
Just as the Dragonborn Knight had described, the twelve mind flayer skulls were lined up on a table fashioned from crystal.
Through simple identification, he immediately found that these skulls were all necromancy magic items without exception, and they were a complete set.
If someone breaks one of them, the remaining skull that has not been destroyed will emit a psychic scream, causing extremely terrifying and large-scale psychic damage.
"Interesting... Is this the work of a Githyanki spellcaster?" Zuo Si showed an interested expression.
Because this is not an ordinary skull at all, but the soul of the killed mind flayer is imprisoned inside.
The principle is also very simple! Connect all the mind flayer souls together through the power of magic.
In this way, when one of them is broken, its soul will suffer unimaginable pain.
The pain will be shared along with the soul connection, and all other mind fliers will feel the soul pain that cannot be described in words, thereby stimulating the remaining mental power in their own souls to produce shrill screams.
Only the Githyanki, who hate the mind flayers so much, could do such a cruel and cruel thing.
Because even after death, they hope to make their mortal enemies feel the ultimate pain.
Carefully putting the skulls into the bag he carried with him, Zuo Si and Davian continued to explore.
After passing a huge crystal stalactite, he saw a large cloud of silver mist hanging over the pit.
Through the wall, one could vaguely hear someone not far away talking in dragon language.
"Desira, listen to me and give up. No matter how many mind flayers you kill, that cunning fellow will never give you what you want."
"But Ashland Sachs, what if we don't even try and someone else gets there first?"
"Ha! Let anyone who wants to be a fool do so. Believe me, Achaiya will never give those precious books to anyone. I think she probably wants to read them herself to get the benefits."
"Really? Then why did she make the promise?"
"Humph! It's just to trick a naive knight like you into fighting the Mind Flayer. Do you know that several young warriors didn't come back alive last week. If nothing unexpected happens, they have either been implanted with tadpoles by the Mind Flayer or their brains have been eaten clean."
…
Since Zuo Si and David could both understand dragon language, they both showed surprised expressions after listening to the conversation.
They knew very well that one of the two people talking was definitely a young red dragon.
The other is a githyanki knight.
"Master, do you want to take action?" Davian asked cautiously in a low voice.
Zuo Si hesitated for a moment, stroking his chin. Soon, he raised the corner of his mouth and revealed a chilling smile: "Of course! Although I am not interested in making a too young red dragon into a card, it can be used to upgrade you and improve the purity of your dragon bloodline."
"Understood."
Davian quickly put away the flaming sword and took out the magic adamantium hammer again.
Against a red dragon, fire-enchanted weapons obviously have no effect at all.
On the contrary, a pure increased hardness adamantium hammer is more powerful.
Zuo Si used the invisibility wand to cast invisibility on himself and the Dragon Knight, and moved forward quietly.
After a while, they saw a female Githyanki sitting astride the back of an adolescent red dragon at the edge of the pit.
Judging from the voice of the latter, she is probably also a female.
Since Zuo Si had the [True Knowledge], he could always see Davidian's location.
After the other party arrived at the designated location, he immediately activated four magic cards - [Ice Storm] without hesitation.
This is an ice-based group-killing magic that can cover a radius of twelve meters.
It can cause amazing extra damage to fire-type red dragons.
The moment the card was activated, countless biting hail and icicles fell from the sky like raindrops.
Before the red dragon and her knight could react to what was happening, they were hit on the head.
The female Githyanki, whose vitality was not strong enough, was instantly smashed and seriously injured. Then she was frozen in place by the biting cold and lost the ability to move.
The red dragon, which was also seriously injured, quickly raised its head and breathed out flaming fire in an attempt to save its knight.
Unfortunately, the young dragon's breath might be effective against one or two [Ice Storms], but it is clearly beyond its ability to fight against four.
Although the scalding breath also successfully evaporated some hail and icicles.
But when the breath ended, hail and icicles fell again as densely as raindrops.
The water vapor formed by previous evaporation quickly condensed into ultra-low temperature ice chips in the air under the influence of the new round of cold air.
The red dragon just took a breath of such air and immediately began to cough violently and non-stop. Blood slowly flowed out of his nostrils and mouth. It was obvious that his lungs were frostbitten.
(End of this chapter)
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