Chapter 22: Elves

"That doesn't depend on me. I've always been a good Mr. Nice Guy."

Rod walked into the mine shaft.

"Yes, yes, I understand."

Citi hurried to follow: "They'll give the Wing Crystal Clan face. The most important thing is to coexist peacefully."

Rod shrugged.

He stepped into the mine shaft.

At first, the interior environment was no different from an ordinary mine shaft in the world outside the labyrinth.

But as footsteps sounded.

The lighting fixtures on the cave wall above triggered with a snap.

They looked just like lightbulbs back on Earth, except they glowed a ghostly blue, stretching all the way down into the depths of the pit.

Humanity's instinctive fear of pitch darkness was instantly dispelled by this faint lamplight.

After Rod put on the 【Guardian's Veil】, he already had the 【Night Vision】 ability to begin with.

"What is this?"

"An alchemical lamp made by a kind dwarf gentleman. Hmm… actually I'm not entirely sure whether that one was a gentleman or a lady, since both dwarf men and women have the trait of growing long beards."

Tally suddenly burst out laughing.

Citi scratched his head, showing an awkward expression.

"Sorry, I spoke too harshly. I shouldn't be discussing a respected dwarf companion like that."

"No, it has nothing to do with you."

Tally said to Rod with a smile: "It's one of my great-aunts. When she was young, she once set her sights on a dwarf, only to find out after pulling off his pants hahahaha—"

Her character setting collapsed, and she couldn't even finish her sentence, just clutching her stomach and laughing uncontrollably.

Rod and Citi exchanged glances.

Indicating they didn't really get the succubi cold jokes.

Tally came on fast, and pulled herself together fast too.

Her expression turned disdainful, her character setting restored.

"Two small fry. What are you looking at! Get up there and scout the way!"

A moment later.

The group finally encountered the first aberrant monster.

It was a giant green-skinned lizard.

About the same size as a Komodo dragon back on Earth.

But since crystals mostly grew out from high up on the cave walls, their hind limbs were broader and larger, capable of walking upright.

Additionally.

Several parts of their bodies were very different from ordinary lizards.

Where the snout should have been was a protruding, cloudy eyeball, while from each eye socket grew a scaled tentacle, with a mouth full of fangs at the tip.

Somewhat disgusting.

At this moment it clung to the cave wall, its two tentacle-mouths gnawing on a crystal. The eyeball below rolled once and fixed on Rod.

"Mr. Rod! It's coming!"

Citi shouted in panic.

Rod drew the 【Sacrificial Body Sword】 and simply layered on one 【Lei Guang Blade】.

The monster before him only had spiritual power around the fourth tier, not worth wasting spiritual energy on.

On the gradient-gold blade of the 【Sacrificial Body Sword】, blue arcs of electricity rose.

This sword still fell within the category of a one-handed sword, but compared to a standard steel sword it was considerably thicker.

In midair, a sword-shadow of interweaving gold and blue swept past.

Sizzle—

A single simple sword strike, and the monster's head was separated from its body.

"Careful!" Citi shouted.

Although he had already warned Rod that the monsters at this aberrant point would erupt the toxins within their bodies upon death.

When actually facing it, he still couldn't help himself.

Rod's left hand swept, and the 【Guardian's Veil】 instantly fanned away the incoming toxic blood.

Not a single drop of blood on his body.

"Are you alright? Citi."

He sensed something off about the fairy boy's emotions.

This was only a shallow-layer fourth-tier monster.

Just over half a month ago, Citi had dared to slip past the stone gate under the protection of the sixth-tier Father Owen.

"Sorry, being here always brings back some bad memories." Citi's face was pale.

He voluntarily flew over to the side of the corrupted rotten flesh.

In a short while he dug out a stomach sac glowing with blue light.

Rod placed it into his spell pouch.

"I'm planning to head deeper. Are you still up for it, Citi?"

"Lady Kali."

Farshad called out to his companion ahead.

The other party gave no response.

The Light spell on the staff had reached its limit; the dazzling, gentle Bai Guang gradually faded.

Along with the mine tunnel environment sinking into darkness went the silhouette of Lady Kali.

The dwarven alchemical creations had long fallen into disrepair; deep within the mine, lamps were spaced far apart, so they could only rely on spells and primitive means of illumination.

Farshad exhaled deeply.

"Lady Kali, my mana is running low."

The footsteps ahead stopped.

A wisp of spiritual thread flew out from the darkness and gathered on Farshad's staff.

The orb of the Light spell shone brilliantly once more.

Lady Kali's exquisite, beautiful face appeared once again.

"We should purchase a treasure to resist the venom," Farshad said.

The self-destruct venom of the magical beasts was stronger than he had imagined.

If he kept relying on spells to defend each time, his body's mana would soon be unable to hold out.

Unexpectedly, Lady Kali shook her head.

"External objects only breed dependence, Farshad. What matters is restraint and control."

Elves were a race that disliked using treasures.

They followed nature, and all their tools were taken from nature.

Perhaps precisely because of this, elves were all prodigies at spellcasting.

However.

After the massive expansion of the human cities, many of their views had changed.

Some elves believed the ideas they held were too primitive and should move with the times.

Other elves believed that, being born of nature, they should merge completely into nature, and that all man-made treasures were sacrilege.

Farshad shook his head inwardly.

Although he belonged to the Nature faction, in practice he also agreed with the theories of the Freedom faction.

"How much longer until we're outside?"

He braced his knees, struggling to steady his rapid breathing.

He had originally thought it would be a simple trial, never expecting to be stuck here for three days.

"We're almost at the shallow layer. Someone's here!"

Lady Kali suddenly became alert.

Farshad even held his breath.

A moment later.

A party of two humans and a winged crystal being stepped out from the darkness ahead.

"Hey! Lady Kali, long time no see!"

Citi hurriedly flew forward.

His movements were exaggerated, doing his utmost to draw the elf's gaze onto himself.

"How have you been lately? I heard you're getting married. Look, behind me are the experts I invited to clear out the magical beasts. How about it? Looking forward to married life?"

He spouted a stream of words, yet failed to shift the elf's gaze in front of him by even a fraction.

Rod noticed that the other party's eyes had been fixed on Tally the whole time.

So he stepped to the left, shielding her behind him.

The female elf's brow furrowed.

"Human. Do you know what she is?"

Lady Kali had a fiery figure; her green-and-white tight-fitting clothes of unknown material perfectly outlined her curves. Not to mention the classic long ears and golden hair, her gaze was unusually sharp, and combined with the elf's trademark sour expression, she gave off the air of an iceberg.

"Of course. A harmless little succubus, nothing more."

Citi hurriedly flew over and positioned himself between the two.

"Haha, this is Rod, the Forester of the Kingdom of Etheron, his female companion Ms. Tally, and this is Ms. Lady Kali. The one beside her is, um! A new face!"

"I'm Farshad, Lady Kali's close friend, and also her fiancé."

Farshad stepped forward and said.

(End of this chapter)