Chapter 191: Dark Elves Appear

Cecile paused for a moment: "You mean you will give criminals a chance to atone?"

"No."

Rod, utterly bored, took out the black slime and rolled it around in his hand.

"You can even consider them dead; after submitting to me, they are merely burning out their final embers. In reality, everything they do is my will."

Not long ago, he had played with this black slime alongside Tally.

The succubus shaped it into a hollow cylinder, then rubbed it against the sky-rocket to charge it. However, its volume was limited and could not completely envelop the powerful sky-rocket; the top portion required Tally's mouth to handle.

Unfortunately, the judgment of 【Elibert's Quaint Love Manual】 failed; this breathing technique still determined that Rod was engaging in training with Tally.

It could not achieve the exchange of spiritual energy.

Afterwards, the two tried various methods, but none succeeded.

After a week of effort, Rod basically gave up and decided to seek help from 【Growth Spirit】.

Add points! Give me a path!

【Growth Spirit usage successful】

【Special Body Slime (Unnamed) acquired skill: Mucus Ball】

【Details: Growth Spirit activated the innate spiritual technique not yet mastered by the Special Body Slime (Unnamed). The slime can consume its own moisture to synthesize and spit out a mucus ball within its body, causing a slight slowing effect on the enemy.】

【Remaining Growth Spirit: 62】

Fine, fine, fine.

Trash skill.

What made it even more frustrating was that this thing was actually counted as a sentient race, and every point addition cost 10 points of Growth Spirit.

As a qualified universal lover.

While looking at the skill details, he kept an eye on the girl beside him.

Hearing these words, the tiefling Cecile fell silent.

Her identity and race were right there; she must have had unspeakable difficulties.

But Rod would not explore that for now; their relationship had not reached that stage yet.

If it were Lady Kali and Dimia, it would be fine; those two were already considered acquaintances.

Ahead.

The shouting and scolding at the negotiation table grew increasingly intense.

No one knew what they were saying, but the people of Coral Bay were red-faced and flushed, obviously falling behind.

They then called for a red-hooded mage from the rear to come forward and support them; the sound of the argument continued to escalate.

Tally: "Wow, so shameless, actually calling for outside help."

Meanwhile, Lady Kali frowned.

Rod noticed: "What's wrong?"

"That red-robed mage is a dark elf."

Lady Kali's gaze was sharp, staring tightly at the dark mage on the distant negotiation table, completely concealed by a red robe.

Who knows how she could tell, but she was not the type to speak recklessly.

History is written by the victors; she was a traditional elf of the Naturalist faction and loved knowledge.

In the elven history she had always read, the dark elves mentioned were all somewhat stigmatized.

Although at that time they had only split due to ideological differences, most traditional elves, including Lady Kali, believed dark elves were irredeemably evil and chaotic.

Dark elves, huh.

Rod glanced again at the tiefling girl beside him.

Falshad had once said that the dark elves they encountered were related to this tiefling brother and sister.

Furthermore, this group of dark elves were servants of an Infernal Duke beneath the earth.

Recently, demon events have appeared frequently; could the master mentioned by the demon Artu be this Infernal Duke?

Rod shook his head.

Not necessarily.

The nine layers of the Inferno each have at least one Duke, and their methods of interfering with the surface world differ.

He decided to test Lady Kali's reaction first: "What would you do if you encountered dark elves?"

"Kill them."

The elf's answer was direct and full of coldness: "However, unlike traditional elves who prefer to act alone, dark elves are creatures that move in groups. In past travels, if I encountered them, I would naturally find a way to kill them..."

Rod finished her sentence for her: "But because you now live in the forest, to avoid endangering your forest companions, you can only endure for now."

Lady Kali did not deny it; her expression was sour, and she let out a cold snort.

"As long as you know you are dragging us down."

Aren't you only at the sixth tier yourself?

"Speaking of which, aren't you already several hundred years old? Why are you still only at the peak of the sixth tier?"

Hearing that elf girls were not as sensitive about age as human women, Rod asked directly.

Lady Kali was expressionless as she replied: "It is naturally fair. When elves are bestowed with the innate spiritual technique 【Long-Lived Race】, the speed at which they absorb and accumulate spiritual energy is greatly suppressed, just like the price paid for an extremely long lifespan."

"And you humans are different; although your lifespan is only a short hundred years without intervention, your magical and spiritual talents are among the strongest on the entire continent."

Speaking of magical talent.

Rod thought of his good friend, the halfling Lily, whom he had met in Emerald City; her spell talent and combat fundamentals were quite good.

When they went to save Dragon Long Hun Nao Lin, just after reaching the early stage of the sixth tier, she was able to completely suppress a sixth-tier advanced student from Bahadur Magic Academy.

As they chatted idly, time flew by.

The first hour of negotiations had already passed, and it was now the time the leader had arranged to trade with Aemil.

Apart from Cecilia, Rod and his group slipped away in secret.

Ikku Hillside.

The leeward slope, a hill away from the negotiating table.

An aged tiefling with red skin and demon horns on his head, leaning on a staff, slowly made his way across the grass underfoot.

His clothes were neat, and his pale hair was combed back without a single strand out of place.

His expression was calm, carrying the composure of one about to enter the grave.

A moment later.

He stopped before a small hillside that bore the marks of an old landslide, then lightly tapped the ground with his staff; ripples of magical power immediately spread out from where he stood.

Until those magical ripples touched the brown earth of the landslide.

【True Sight】.

A spell that could see through ordinary, magical, and dark secret doors — not only that, but also invisibility, illusions, and shapeshifting.

Of course, the prerequisite was that the caster's skill and level were high enough.

As the magical ripples pulsed, a secret door concealed by a magical illusion appeared in the earth of the landslide before him.

The aged tiefling flung open the door and stepped forward.

A chaotic and filthy spell laboratory came into view.

He looked helplessly at the middle-aged human beside him: "Aemil, as an old man I must give you a piece of advice — one of the main points of spell research is keeping things tidy. Only by excluding outside influences can you obtain more stable experimental results. You specialize in the microscopic level as a plague mage; I shouldn't need to tell you how complex the spores on bacteria and dust are, should I?"

"Actually I don't really understand. Not only is plague mage just my side job, even being a mage is one too. What are you here for, old man Lu Lu Xiusi? I don't recall having an appointment with you."

Aemil spoke flippantly; though he was a middle-aged man with a scruffy beard, he always carried an unreliable air about him.

"The negotiations with Mad Wind City have begun."

The tiefling Lu Lu Xiusi cast a 【 Mage Hand 】, sweeping the clutter off a wooden stump onto the ground, then used a 【 Prestidigitation 】 to clean its surface, and only then sat down to rest.

As an old man, naturally he'd rather sit than stand.

(End of chapter)