The spider women continued to chase for a distance and encountered several trade caravans along the way, but they found nothing.

Even though Felidi used her clairvoyance many times, she could not smell any scent of Fingart. It seemed that this person had completely disappeared at the place where the green-shelled lobster man convoy had happened.

This made Felidi so angry that she said, "Sister Grace, is there really nothing we can do now?"

"Didn't the mistress give you any tracking magic tools or something like that that could help you find the other party directly?"

Grace also had a gloomy face. Although she was the one who ordered the pursuit all the way west, she herself was not 100% sure that the other party was heading towards Grey Fern Town.

And as the team leader, she obviously bears the greatest pressure.

Hearing Felicity's question, Grace shook her head and said, "Normally speaking, the tracking compass given by the mistress should be able to easily locate the exact location of the Nightmare Mirror under normal circumstances."

"But I don't know what method the other party used to almost completely isolate the aura of the Nightmare Mirror. Now the tracking compass is completely silent."

Grace took out a small round compass the size of a palm from her arms. There were large and small scales marked all around the compass, and a short piece of hair about ten centimeters long was placed in the middle.

As Grace input her mental energy, her hair became increasingly dark and shiny, and as if with some magical power, it began to rotate 360 ​​degrees non-stop, as if trying to point out the direction.

But eventually, after spinning for a while, the hair slowly slowed down.

Nothing! Just when the two were at a loss, Irene, who had been silent, thought for a moment and said, "It seems that the other party must have cast some kind of magic that can isolate the smell, or it may be some kind of isolation magic weapon."

"By the way, Grace, you have the hair of the mistress here. If you take a little bit, you can perform the bloodline tracking technique. You can track all the spider women under the mistress. Why don't you let me try the bloodline tracking technique."

After a slight hesitation, Grace agreed. The reason for her hesitation was that the bloodline tracking technique would consume the mistress's hair.

A minute later, the three of them looked at the mistress's hair which had grown to nine centimeters long, all with solemn expressions.

Bloodline tracking also yielded nothing! The view turned back to the wilderness near the green-shelled lobsterman trade caravan.

Richard, his master and his servant waited quietly for all the spider women to leave.

At this time, Stephana and Fingate dared to speak, and Fingate praised softly: "Master, you are so wise. If it weren't for your foresight, your humble servant Fingate might have met with misfortune."

"What Fingart said is absolutely right, Master, you are so smart and intelligent," Stephanie said in a soft voice, looking at Richard with seductive eyes.

"Stop! Stop it, both of you, that's enough of your flattery. We have more important things to do."

After saying that, Richard took the two of them, under the cover of the concealing cloak, and retrieved Stephana's hair and the light green patterned box from the pile of goods at the first and third horned lizards.

Although the two still couldn't understand the meaning of Richard's actions, this time they didn't have the slightest doubt in their minds.

After all, the arrival of the three senior spider ladies just now has fully proved that Richard's judgment is completely correct.

"We can't let our guard down now. This place is far from Grey Fern Town. Even if we move at full speed, it will probably take another two or three days." Richard originally planned to come to Grey Fern Town.

Under the cover of the concealing cloak, Richard and his two companions continued to rush towards Grey Fern Town. Along the way, they overtook many trade caravans heading to Grey Fern Town, and also encountered several teams returning from trading in Grey Fern Town.

"Fingart, another scale."

"Yes, Master."

"Stephanie, drop a drop of blood on this hair."

Following Richard's instructions, both of them handed their scales and hair to Richard.

Richard placed the scales, the blood-stained hair and the light green patterned box in three convoys that were heading east and returning.

Half a day later, looking at the drop of blood, the three Graces were so angry that they were shaking all over!

This... This is another time I was fooled by my opponent!

This is even more painful than killing three women!

If they encountered a strong enemy that crushed them in strength, they would find it easier to accept. But this time, they were crushed in terms of intelligence.

This was really hard for them to accept.

Half a day ago, Felitti's nose technique and Irene's spider-woman bloodline tracking technique both pointed to the other party being at this location.

So, they spent half a day rushing all the way back, and got this result.

This made Grace, who was usually able to control her emotions, almost explode! ——After watching the spider ladies speed away again, Richard finally felt relieved. Grey Fern Town was not far ahead, and the spider ladies probably wouldn't be so bold as to chase into the town of the gray dwarves.

Less than half a day later, after the master and his two servants climbed over a small hill, a small town located on the plain came into their sight.

The town was surrounded by several-meter-high rammed earth walls, which surrounded the entire town.

Since Richard and the other two were on a small hill, looking down from above, they could clearly see the houses in the town lined up in rows, with several main roads exposed. The roads were bustling with people coming and going, and it was quite lively.

The architectural style of the houses here is quite simple, solid and practical. They are all built with processed hard rocks, which is in sharp contrast to the elegance, complexity and beauty of the night elves.

This was also the first time that Richard had seen the gray dwarf-style architecture.

After entering the town, Richard realized that the people he saw in the distance were not humans in the ordinary sense. There were not only gray dwarves and ordinary humans, but also many strange-looking races. Fishmen like Fingart were also relatively common, as well as lobster people, lizard people, and so on.

Almost all the races unique to the Underdark can be seen in the town, which opened Richard and Stephanie's eyes.

From this point, it can be seen that the overall atmosphere in the area controlled by the gray dwarves is relatively open-minded. At least on the surface, the gray dwarves are open to different races.

This also makes the trade in Grey Fern Town, which is only a small town, relatively prosperous, with a variety of goods for sale.

In contrast, the night elves have strict level barriers.

Even though a murloc like Fingart has the strength of a third-level wizard apprentice, in terms of status, he is just a vassal race, far inferior to a spider knight of the same strength, and even inferior to an ordinary shadow hunter.

This immediately made Richard feel a certain liking for the gray dwarves. Such a free environment was very suitable for him to settle down in a short period of time. At least the pressure of integration would be much lighter.

Since Greyfern Town is an area controlled by the gray dwarves, Richard paid special attention to the appearance and characteristics of the gray dwarves.

For example, the gray dwarf guards in chain mail were only as tall as Richard's chest, but they were all strong and sturdy, and most of them were armed with heavy weapons.

And along the way, I heard from Fingart that the gray dwarves were a branch of the surface dwarves ten thousand years ago. Later, after a series of major events, the gray dwarf race came into being.

Their racial characteristics are great strength. The strength of an adult gray dwarf is several times that of an ordinary human. They also have strong resistance to dark elements, which is the same as most species living in the Underdark. They also have an elemental affinity second only to the night elves.

Therefore, the probability of wizards appearing among the gray dwarves is also very high.

Compared to the dwarves on the surface, the gray dwarves are also proficient in forging, but each has its own characteristics. The gray dwarves are proficient in rune forging.

This made Richard raise his eyebrows, and he asked with interest: "Fingart, are you talking about rune forging?"

"Yes, Master."

"Pick what you know and tell us about it."

Although Richard had seen the introduction of the gray dwarves in the Ignis School before, the specific content was only briefly mentioned, such as rune forging, which was only mentioned briefly.

After listening to Fingart's story, Richard basically understood the rune forging technique, which is that during the forging process, some witchcraft runes with specific functions are engraved on the rune. Obviously, the more advanced the skill, the more witchcraft runes can be engraved, and the more powerful the weapons or armor will be, and the more diverse they will be.

Simply put, the rune forging technique of the gray dwarves combines forging and engraving witchcraft runes, and has evolved over at least thousands or even tens of thousands of years to become a special skill.

After a while, Fingart brought the curious Richard to a blacksmith shop in Greyfern Town.

I saw that people were working in full swing in the shop. The sound of "ding ding dang dang" was heard continuously. A short gray dwarf dressed as a blacksmith's apprentice was controlling the blower, while several shirtless and strong gray dwarf masters were vigorously forging weapons, armor and some daily iron tools by the furnace.

The entire blacksmith shop was divided into two parts, most of which was used for forging, but a small area was used for engraving runes. A white-bearded gray dwarf was carefully engraving burning runes on the sword blank of a knight's longsword.

Although in Richard's eyes, it was not difficult to draw this burning rune, but it was drawn on a flat surface, such as the ground. But to engrave it on a knight's sword like the other party did and have a continuous effect, he could not do it at present.

Because the sword will wear out and need to be sharpened with a whetstone, if the surface of the knight's sword is painted with ethereal ink, obviously, as the pattern is destroyed, the burning rune cannot be used.

But the gray dwarves are able to do this using the special skill of rune forging.

This is just an ordinary blacksmith shop in a gray dwarf town, but it has such strength.

Li Jue felt that if he could thoroughly study the mysteries of it, it might be of great benefit to the production of alchemical bombs and low-level magical weapons.

After a while, she noticed that there were many weapons engraved with runes hanging high around the walls of the blacksmith shop.

This almost blinded Stephanie.

You know, if these were on the surface, they would all be low-level and mid-level witchcraft props.

She finally understood why the gray dwarves, who seemed to be weak, had been able to fight the night elves for thousands of years without a clear winner.

In Richard's opinion, the widespread popularity of this rune forging technique has given the gray dwarves, whose wizards are obviously less numerous than the night elves, a different way to utilize elemental energy, allowing them to compete with the night elves, who are more powerful overall.

Over thousands of years, this rune has been widely used and practical, which makes Richard very interested.

This reminded Richard of a saying from his previous life: one must read thousands of books and travel thousands of miles.

The same goes for the path of a wizard. It is very important to broaden your horizons by getting to know different races and civilizations, and thus continuously enhance your knowledge.

After thinking for a while, Richard turned to ask Fingart: "By the way, what is the currency used by the gray dwarves?"

"Master, here we have the currency unique to the gray dwarves, but please rest assured that magic stones are universal here."

Richard nodded. It seemed that the acceptance of wizards and other supernatural powers was higher here than on the surface. Magic stones could be used for transactions in daily life. This situation might be caused by the harsh living environment in the Underdark.

In contrast, ordinary humans on the surface are more like living in a garden that is well protected by wizards.

Richard casually bought a knight's sword engraved with burning runes, and observed the runes on it with great interest, wondering why they were called runes instead of witchcraft arrays.

That's because a witch array is generally composed of multiple runes, and array patterns must also be drawn as an energy supply channel. It generally requires external energy supply, such as high-level magic stones or the cores of extraordinary creatures.

Since runes have a single function, they are usually triggered directly by the holder's mental power and do not involve issues such as energy supply.

"Master, I still don't understand after listening for a long time. What is the difference between this rune forging technique and the making of our witchcraft props? It sounds like the process of making witchcraft props."

"We also need to smelt metals, but unlike the gray dwarves, we human wizards use alchemical techniques to smelt metals."

Richard looked at Stephanie, who asked the question, with approval and explained, "Yes, in general, they are similar, but the biggest difference lies in the engraving of the witch formation."

Richard took out the Ice Guardian from his waist and handed this masterpiece from the Northern Elf craftsman to Stephanie. Then he handed her the newly bought knight's sword engraved with burning runes.

"Look carefully for yourself to see the difference."

Stephanna first took a close look at the Ice Guardian, which was made entirely of cold iron mixed with a hint of gold. It was said to be the standard weapon of the Elf Queen's personal guard.

As a top-level witchcraft prop, there is a witchcraft circle on the front and back of the hilt, which respectively add the ice-type zero-level witchcraft Deep Winter Chill and Gradual Freezing to the sword. There is a small light blue frost stone in the center of the magic circle to supply energy. At the same time, the magic circle is also slowly absorbing the free water element particles around it.

Before, when Richard was just a wizard apprentice, his mental power was not sharp enough to notice this, but now, he could clearly feel that the two wizard arrays on the hilt of the Ice Guardian were constantly absorbing water element particles and converting them into ice element particles.

"Hey, I found the difference. The location of the magic circle is different." Stephanie said excitedly.

"That's right."

"We usually design the magic array on the hilt of the sword, but the rune forging technique of the gray dwarves is to engrave the runes on the sword. This is a special skill. What else?"

"Although the triggering methods are the same, the gray dwarf's knight's sword is more dependent on the holder's own mental strength level, while the Ice Guardian can exert the power of a top-level witchcraft item as long as it can be triggered." Stephanie said with a frown.

Richard nodded. This was just an appearance. Although Stephanie said so much, she actually didn't get to the point.

“Yes, so there is a very big difference between the two.”

This is why Richard is quite interested. For me, who has an inspiration panel, as long as there is a clear path to improve the rune forging technique, then becoming a master rune forger is just a matter of time.

After the master and his servants walked out of the blacksmith shop.

"Fingate, let's find a hotel and rest for a day. We'll go around tomorrow." Richard turned and said to Fengate.

"Yes, my lord! There is a delicious spore inn here, which is probably the best inn in Greyfern Town." Fingart replied respectfully.

"The specialty of this restaurant is dark-scale salmon stewed with spores. It is extremely delicious. I recommend that the owner try it."

Fingart was quite familiar with Greyfern Town.

So, after listening to Fingart's introduction, Richard nodded immediately and said, "Okay, let's go with this one."

They had to sleep in the open air all the way, and although the three of them had physical fitness far exceeding that of ordinary people, they still needed to rest from time to time.

After a while, the three of them arrived at a two-story plaster house with the words "Delicious Spore Inn" (in gray dwarf language) hanging on the wall. As soon as they entered the inn, Richard and others smelled a special fragrance, which was quite tempting.

The empty hall was almost full of guests, with only a few tables left empty.

Fingart spoke the Gray Dwarf language with familiarity and ordered the food at the front desk.

After a while, a large plate of some kind of tuberous rhizome of a plant, which exuded a rich burnt aroma and looked similar to roasted sweet potatoes, was served.

I only heard Fingart introduce: "Master, this is one of the staple foods of the gray dwarves, called purple-leafed potato, a crop that only needs a trace amount of light to grow well."

Richard nodded. Purple-leaf potato, the name sounds very similar to sweet potato. He picked up a fist-sized purple-leaf potato tuber and the moment he broke it open, the aroma filled the air. He took a bite and the taste was similar to sweet potato. It was rich in starch and could be considered a staple food that was filling and filling.

Before I had taken two bites of the purple-leafed sweet potato, an iron basin as big as a washbasin was brought up by a gray dwarf woman. A dark-scaled salmon about half a meter long could be clearly seen in it, and it was covered with densely packed cherry-sized spores.

Spores are the seeds of ferns. The spores in front of us look extremely green and seem quite delicious.

Richard drank it in one gulp and his eyes lit up. He felt that the taste buds on the tip of his tongue were surrounded by a deliciousness he had never tasted before. This deliciousness seemed to be a mixture of the pure fragrance of the spores and the deliciousness of the fish meat, and produced some kind of strange chemical reaction.

After the main course, everyone started eating immediately. Maybe because they hadn't eaten proper meals for a few days, the three of them devoured the food like whirlwind.

The last dish served was mushroom soup, with various kinds of mushrooms such as round mushrooms, stem mushrooms, fan mushrooms, etc. floating on top, which also tasted extremely delicious.

As early as the first time he came underground, Richard discovered that green plants in the dark area were extremely rare, and most of them did not require light, or only needed a small amount of light to meet their growth needs.

Many plants underground have evolved various forms of energy conversion processes. Richard has seen various unknown tall plants growing densely next to more than one geothermal hot spring. This is a typical example of using geothermal energy as light energy, which can be regarded as finding the source of energy for their own growth.

Although the food underground and on the surface are very different, the taste is different in their own way.

"(Dark Dwarf) It's so delicious! I haven't had this dish for a long time!"

Richard didn't care at first, but the other party's call immediately attracted his attention because he felt a subtle fluctuation of mental power, which was subtle but very condensed.

At the table next to me, an old gray dwarf with a red nose also ordered a pot of dark-scale salmon stewed with spores and was eating it with great noise.

With him were two identical twin gray dwarf girls, young and well-behaved, considered quite pretty among the gray dwarves, who were feeding the old gray dwarf one spoonful at a time.

After taking a quick glance, Richard was surprised. He did not expect that this plain-looking old man was actually an official wizard. Although the other party tried his best to conceal it, Richard could still sense the extremely condensed mental fluctuations of a formal wizard that were slightly leaked from him.

You know, I have just been wandering around Greyfern Town for a while, and I only met a wizard-level master. And according to Fingart, he was a gray dwarf leader stationed in the town.

Richard turned his head casually pretending nothing had happened, but he could feel that the other person's identity should not be simple.

However, although Richard withdrew his gaze, the old man with rosacea on the side secretly stared at Stephanie.

Although Stephanie has been wearing a hood and a half mask since entering Grey Fern Town, her curvy figure and exposed red lips have attracted the interest of many people.

However, after most people sensed the aura of the third-level wizard apprentice from the murloc Fingart, no one dared to harass him.

Richard had already seen every move of the old gray dwarf with rosacea. Thinking of Stephanie's special identity, especially since this was a gray dwarf-controlled area, Richard didn't want to cause any trouble. He said, "How about it? If you're full, let's go back to the room and rest."

Seeing that Richard and the other two seemed to be about to leave, the rosaceous gray dwarf seemed to be unable to hold back and immediately stood up and said to Richard and the other two: "(in the gray dwarf's language) Wait, these friends!"

However, Richard obviously pretended not to hear and continued walking forward, while Stephanie and Fingart were slightly stunned when they saw their master like this and ignored him.

"(Akkadian) This strange wizard, please wait a moment."

Richard was stunned, stopped, turned around and carefully observed the strange gray dwarf wizard in front of him.

Obviously, this old gray dwarf wizard with a dark red rosacea seemed to have seen his own strength, and it would be inappropriate for him to continue to pretend to be deaf and dumb.

(End of this chapter)