There were no guards guarding the empty palace, but the marble floors and pure white stone pillars were as bright and clean as new.

Controlling the secret eye mechanism, Carl flew towards the center of the lobby.

From this angle of view, one can just see the entrance to the hall. There are no dragon beasts lurking around, only a blocked wall.

'It seems the crisis has been resolved for now.'

Controlling the mechanism to fly back, Carl opened his eyes and described the situation outside to everyone.

Ying and Xie looked at each other, then sneaked out.

After a while, two voices were heard outside.

"No problem, come out!"

Hearing this, everyone walked out carefully.

"It looks like we can use this place as a temporary base from now on."

Looking up at the high dome, Bane was full of admiration.

He had never been to such a luxurious place before. Although he lived in Sharn when he was a child, he lived in the lower class area. Apart from the Silver Flame Church, which had not been repaired for many years, he had not seen the world.

"Indeed, but why would the secret passage lead here? If this is the place for an important meeting, wouldn't this put the key figures right under the assassin's nose?"

Carl admitted that the trap was indeed dangerous, but no matter how dangerous it was, there would always be someone who could break through it.

The war between giants and elves was quite fierce at the time, so it was not impossible for the elves to send out legendary assassins.

"Who knows? Maybe the giants think that doing so is unbecoming of a strong man? This palace is quite strange. Apart from that secret passage, there are no other exits in other directions. I don't know what this design is for."

Seeing that Bain and the others were chatting enthusiastically, Scorpion and Shadow walked back from a distance.

Before he even stopped, Scorpion began to complain about the unreasonableness of this place.

However, after listening to Scorpion's words, Carl keenly discovered some problems.

"Wait, you mean, this space is sealed? The only secret passage we came in from leads to here?"

Who would build such a palace behind a seemingly unnecessary secret passage? Could it be that the giant knew they were coming here today, so he built this place many years in advance?

It was obvious that Carl was not so arrogant.

"Go check if there is anything loose behind other locations with similar stone carvings! I suspect this is the center of all the secret passages. Through here, we can use the secret passages to travel back and forth throughout the Giant Ruins!"

After hearing Karl's words, everyone suddenly understood.

After picking up their weapons and tools, everyone ran behind each stone sculpture to check if there were any mechanisms.

As expected, everyone found several problematic stone carvings and even a hidden door lock.

"Are we so lucky?"

Even Carl was hit hard by this sudden falling pie.

He himself began to doubt whether he really had some kind of strange luck as Master Moore said.

'It is said that people who travel through time have a natural aura of great luck. Could it be true?'

Even in a materialistic world, if a person has continuous good luck, he will doubt whether he is the one chosen by destiny.

What's more, Eberron itself is not an ordinary world.

Fortunately, Carl has not been overwhelmed by this delightful reality, because he has not forgotten that there is a dangerous dragon beast wandering around the entire giant ruins.

"As long as we don't go up, we won't encounter the dragon beast. We entered the ruins at the foot of the mountain, and the dragon beast's lair is almost at the top of the mountain."

Drawing a three-dimensional map of the Lonely Mountain ruins in his mind, Kalbi compared his group's route and discovered that they were still a long way from the top of the mountain.

"Do you want to explore other secret passages now?"

It is still early now. Even the dragon beast that Carl jokingly calls Smaug will not get up for more than six hours.

And if we can find the secret passage leading to the outside at this time, then everyone will have peace of mind.

Carl's proposal was supported by everyone, and they worked together to open another secret passage opposite the previous secret passage and moved towards an unknown area.

What was somewhat surprising was that this time they saw a suspected exit not long after they walked, and there was even a fork in the road inside the secret passage.

It seems that this secret passage does not lead to only one place. The secret passage they came in from is actually quite different.

Based on the principle of proximity, Carl opened the first fork in the secret passage.

What made everyone a little embarrassed was that this place seemed to lead to a secret compartment in a bathroom.

The hot spring in the bathroom had long dried up, and the person who was supposed to take a bath here had been dead for who knows how many years, but this secret compartment has remained.

"Humph! It seems that giants are not that different from humans. They can actually do such things."

After closing the door of the secret passage, Scorpion commented with disdain on the palace owner's bad taste.

Carl found that the elder sister became more aggressive after coming to the giant ruins. He didn't know whether it was because she remembered that her own tribe used to be the assassination tools of the giants, or for some other reason.

"Let's keep going. There are so many secret passages here. There must be one that leads to the vault or the armory, right?"

Laughing, Carl took the lead and walked forward.

At this point, the situation in the secret passage began to become more diverse.

Some meander upwards, while others continue downwards.

Considering that the dragon beast was right above, everyone explored the bottom first.

Carl guessed that this was probably because they were slowly approaching the magma area.

Sure enough, as everyone worked together to push open a door, hot, sulfur-smelling air hit them in the face.

Surprisingly, however, the people who adapted best to this environment were the ladies in the team.

Hope is a tiefling, so it goes without saying that he can adapt to this environment.

But Carl didn't expect that the two drow elves could adapt to this place.

Even the dwarf Thorin was defeated by the pungent smell of sulfur.

"You'd better wear it. It's safer."

Carl suggested to everyone to activate the magic pattern of the air bubble.

The smell of sulfur was secondary. Who knew if there were any other toxic substances in the air? Everyone was obedient. After all, except for Hope, even Shadow and Scorpion could only barely adapt, and could not do it like a fish in water.

The "value" of this area is much higher than the previous one.

Not far ahead, Carl saw a strange machine that used magma to forge and smelt metal.

Even after such a long time, these tools are still in good condition.

Next to some forging tables, huge giant weapons were scattered on the ground in a mess.

Everyone seemed to be able to restore part of the history of that year from the scene before them.

"Put all these weapons away. Although many of them are ordinary stuff, re-melting the materials of these weapons will cost a lot of money."

Should we say that he is worthy of being a giant? Even the worst rune engraved on one of them is made of an alloy mixed with a lot of fine gold.

No wonder Scorpion said before that the giants mined most of the world's refined gold. Judging from this usage, this statement is indeed worthy of the name.

Even though today's mining technology has made many innovations and is able to dig to much deeper areas than before, the output of refined gold is still insufficient.

They deftly put the weapons into the giant dimensional bag they had harvested earlier, and everyone's enthusiasm was finally aroused by this harvest.

After the floor-licking cleaning was completed, everyone continued to move forward, but found a giant mine cart that reminded Carl and Hope of a certain memory.

This minecart is not in good condition.

The collapsed rock pillars on the upper level hit it, squeezing and deforming its body.

The lava covered most of its body, and it looked like a lot of lava had also filled its interior.

Compared to it, Carl's mecha looks like a little chicken.

“Maybe the giant minecart fell into the lava river from here, and then accidentally entered the underground city.”

Looking at this giant mine cart, Carl and Hope were filled with emotion.

If they hadn't found this thing, the two of them might have had to stay in the underground caves of the dungeon for a long time.

Unfortunately, their capabilities were limited at the time and they were unable to bring the mine cart out.

As for the one in front of me...

“Forget it, let’s continue exploring other areas, this thing is just too big.

Even if I can use the characteristics of the Arcane Knight to summon things to my side, but such a big thing... I can't summon it even if I become a Legendary!"

Although Hope looked at Carl with longing, Carl had to reluctantly reject this tempting idea.

The activation of the characteristics of the Arcane Knight also requires sufficient intelligence and magic power.

The maximum flow rate of magic power that a machinist can mobilize in the magic network is only at the fifth ring level. Even with the secret characteristics of Arkanix, there is no way he can summon a creature of this size.

Although this mine cart is called a mine cart, don't forget that it also has a series of spaces such as dormitories, kitchens, storage rooms, etc. Even if it is built according to the human body size, such a thing is not small, not to mention that it is built according to the body size of a giant.

Hope lowered her head in disappointment and followed Carl away.

Walking up the stairs, the air finally became less hot.

But everyone was more careful than when they explored the smelting area below.

No one knows whether they will face the dragon face of Smaug after opening the door.

If they fail to close the door in time and are sprayed with dragon breath by the opponent, Carl and his companions might have to carry their companions' bodies back to Storm Bay to resurrect.

Finally, a metal door appeared in front of the group.

Carl exchanged a look with everyone else, then slowly inserted the key into the door lock.

After turning it gently, the door lock opened, and Bain and others pushed the door open together.

Another friction sound was heard, and Carl threw out the Mystic Eye mechanism, intending to do some investigation.

But his body suddenly froze in place.

"Outsider, listen to my last words. This is the revelation I saw before I died. The prophecies of the ancestor dragon are being fulfilled one by one."

In the room behind the door, the shadow of a storm giant with disheveled hair sat cross-legged on the ground, reciting his final prophecy in fluent giant language.

A prophecy made ten thousand years ago.

(End of this chapter)