The Era of Gods

Chapter 565 - 565 Cave-dwellers

Chapter 565: Chapter 565 Cave-dwellers

Or perhaps, when a stable territory is established in the future, I could transport beer in large quantities from the outside to trade with the Grey Dwarves.

Just ten barrels of beer could be exchanged for fifty sets of Dwarf Delicate Armor, which is nothing short of a huge profit.

At this time, most of the beer brought by the Marlin Trade Delegation had been sold. He left the remaining work to his nephew to help him gain some experience and came to Lin Xiao’s side, saying:

“I apologize for neglecting your presence, Master Enigma, due to being preoccupied with business.”

Lin Xiao waved his hand and said:

“Don’t mention it. I’m preparing to visit the second and third floors of the Dark Territory. Could you help me find a guide?”

When Ma Lin heard this, he exclaimed in shock:

“Master Enigma wishes to go to the third floor of the Dark Territory? That’s far too dangerous. That place is the domain of the Zorel Elves. If you encounter…”

He didn’t finish his sentence, but Lin Xiao understood his meaning. Clearly, even as a Senior Magician, it would be very dangerous to run into Zorel’s patrol teams or powerful Warcraft.

Lin Xiao showed no intention of arguing but simply slammed his magic wand onto the ground, and a faint aura spread from beneath his feet. Ma Lin’s eyes bulged in surprise as he exclaimed:

“Magic Aura! Are you a Grand Magician?”

In this world, a Mage who reaches the Professional Level of fifteen or above will naturally possess such a Magic Aura. Such Mages are known as Grand Magicians.

Just like the Mage system in the Toriel Multiverse, the Professional System of this world is divided into twenty levels; Level 0 to 4 for low-level professionals, Level 5 to 9 for mid-level professionals, Level 10 to 14 for high-level professionals, Level 15 to 19 for top-level professionals, and above Level 20 are Legendary professionals.

From this, it can be seen that professionals above Level 15 are extremely powerful and can go anywhere without courting death, not to mention the Master of Law, which is an advanced profession.

When Lin Xiao displayed his power, Ma Lin found himself at a loss for words.

Soon, a Minotaur warrior named Jonila expressed his willingness to be his guide. According to Ma Lin, this Minotaur warrior had been to the third floor of the Dark Territory during his coming-of-age trial and had personally slain a Zorel Elf.

This Minotaur named Jonila was two meters and sixty-seven centimeters tall, clad in thick Steel Half-body Armor, carrying a massive Steel Giant Axe on his back, with several small hand axes tucked into his waist belt, and was armed to the teeth.

He had a copper ring through one of his nostrils; the other was damaged—according to him, it had been cut off during a scrap with a Zorel in his coming-of-age trial.

Even Ma Lin praised Jonila, stating that when he went Berserk, he could contend with a Level 14 warrior. With his actual combat ability, decent equipment, and his Professional Level of 13, he barely met Lin Xiao’s requirements.

Jonila appeared to be quite simple and honest. Faced with Ma Lin’s praise, he turned slightly red—a hint of redness that Lin Xiao, with his sharp eyes, could detect on Jonila’s face, which was covered with dense fine hair. This revealed how red the young Minotaur’s face really was.

This easily elicited a good impression, as people who blush and are shy tend to be obedient, and such simple-minded subordinates are reassuring to work with.

After bidding farewell to Ma Lin, Lin Xiao set off for the second floor of the continent with Jonila.

It has to be said that having a local as a guide proved to be quite convenient. After leaving Stonehammer Castle with Jonila, they quickly reached a passage leading to the next floor and entered it, encountering very few monsters along the way.

After several days of travel, Lin Xiao realized that being too shy is not always a good thing.

Take eating, for example. Though Minotaurs have six stomachs and can store a lot of food at once, they still get hungry and consume a lot.

Of course, this wasn’t an issue for Lin Xiao, who had prepared an enormous amount of food, but the headache was that after Jonila, the Minotaur, finished all his own food and was hungry again, he was too shy to ask Lin Xiao for more. So, on the second day, the Minotaur fainted from hunger before Lin Xiao, somewhat amused, realized what had happened.

Therefore, he had to ask the Minotaur Jonila the same question at regular intervals:

“Jonila, are you hungry?”

Fortunately, once the two became more acquainted, this situation no longer occurred. Aside from being shy, Jonila proved to be a very reliable little Minotaur.

Knowing that Mages are generally physically weak and unable to withstand strong blows, he would take the initiative to rush into any encounter with monsters and fight fiercely. After downing the beasts with a few swings of his axe, he would turn to Lin Xiao with a goofy smile, wanting to show his worth and that he deserved the food he had consumed.

Traveling this way, stopping and going, they set foot on the land of the second floor of the continent after half a month, via a long, rotating stone staircase.

The first impression that the second floor of the continent gave Lin Xiao was that it was high and vast. The space here was much taller than that of the first floor, and the terrain was somewhat flatter, allowing one to see farther when looking from a higher vantage point.

Jonila took the initiative to explain that this layer was even more barren than the first and third layers of the continent, with fewer monsters, with only small creatures that survived by stealing the crops cultivated by the cave-dwellers. Aside from the biannual grand sweep by the Zorel Elves, the place was relatively safe.

As soon as the Zorel Elves were mentioned, Jonila seemed to become a different person, shedding her reserved image for one of a gritted-teeth, furious youth.

Lin Xiao understood; along their journey, they had discussed terrible deeds committed by the Zorel Elves.

These Zorel were far more vicious than their counterparts in the dark territories of the Pharrell Main Material Plane within the Toriel Multiverse. The Lord of Darkness of this world was a pure Evil God, even more cruel than the Spider Queen Lolth, and under his rule, the Zorel Elves were a wholly evil race.

After a victorious battle, all adult males would be slaughtered and used as material to summon Bound Soul Bodies while women and children would be taken as slaves. The bodies of the fallen Zorel were treated the same.

Not just to Jonila, but in the eyes of other subterranean races as well, these Zorel belonged in the Abyss.

There was still a long time to go before the next grand sweep by the Zorel, and the wide continental plains were dotted with cave-dwelling tribes of various sizes. These small cave-dwellers, barely over a meter tall, were incredibly timid; at the sight of Lin Xiao and Jonila approaching from afar, sharp whistles sounded, and in a flurry of chaos, the cave-dwellers tending to their crops near the geothermal springs scattered like field mice, each burrowing into their own holes.

The Minotaur laughed:

“These little dwarfs are very timid; the slightest rustle will send them scurrying into their holes. Last time I passed by, one of the cave-dwellers didn’t escape in time and ran into my shin, knocking themselves out.”

Lin Xiao turned around in surprise; the Minotaur was actually cracking a joke?

“How far are we from the passage to the Fifth Level you visited last time?”

“We’re almost there; I set up a marker there last time.”

Oh, since there was a marker, finding it should be easy.

However, over the next three days, Lin Xiao watched as Jonila repeatedly examined various large rocks in a specific area, muttering to herself:

“I clearly remember it being here?”

Lin Xiao keenly sensed traces of battle nearby and guessed that the marker had been destroyed.

Definitely unable to find it now, he grabbed Jonila and headed towards a nearby cave-dwelling tribe; at this time, the best method was certainly to ask the locals.

With Jonila’s appearance scaring off a group of cave-dwellers, Lin Xiao had to step forward himself. He took out some delicious food from the Magic Cube, slowly heated it, and the aroma of roasting meat wafted through the air. Additionally, he cast a charm similar to the Human Charm Technique on himself, gradually dispelling the cave-dwellers’ fear.

Two hours later, these cave-dwellers were already treating Lin Xiao as their best friend and he easily obtained the location of the passage to the Fifth Level from them.

In the meantime, he had tried the cave-dwellers’ food—it really was almost like moss, horribly unpalatable, but extremely precious in the food-scarce underground, with even the Zorel Elves relying on it to stave off hunger when they didn’t have enough food.

Eating these moss-like foods day after day, the sudden taste of delicious roasted meat and pastries was like a treasure, with each cave-dweller who received some savoring small bites for a long time. Many cave-dwellers danced excitedly as if celebrating a festival, although their dancing was quite unseemly; this was certainly the most delicious food they had ever tasted in their lives.

This showed the extremely hard and difficult conditions of the cave-dwellers, who were said to have an average lifespan of no more than five years. They might evade one massacre by the Zorel but not a second. Had it not been for their strong reproductive abilities, they would have gone extinct long ago.

In these cave-dwellers, he saw kindness, gentleness, and… quite good potential.

Because of this, Lin Xiao did not immediately descend to the Fifth Level but chose to stay in this cave-dwelling tribe for a while, touring the continent with Jonila and specifically inspecting the different tribes of this race.

Before his arrival, Lin Xiao had considered incorporating the cave-dwellers into his plans.

Or to say, among the Wise Species in the Dark Territory that could offer the Power of Faith, there were only a few, and most already had masters. Among the several races Lin Xiao had considered, the Zorel Elves were at the top of the list, with the cave-dwellers actually at the bottom, purely because the race was too weak and offered little Power of Faith.

But after seriously observing this race for some time, he had moved them up several ranks.

Next, he would continue to investigate the Zorel Elves, and then he would decide to choose a race to spread faith, accumulate enough followers using this incarnation as a foundation, and begin the path of conquest in this world through Divine Enthronement.

Although the Zorel Elves were evil and vicious, they were not beyond change.

In the Toriel Multiverse, in addition to the Spider Queen Lolth, the Zorel Elves also worshipped the Dark Maiden, a benevolent goddess.

However, taking a portion of the Zorel as followers from the mouth of the Lord of Darkness carried a great risk, and he needed to assess on-site whether it was worth the danger to himself.

Two months later, under the guidance of a few cave-dwellers, Lin Xiao and the Minotaur Jonila arrived at a passage leading to the Fifth Level. Before leaving, he dug a hole near the cave-dwelling tribe, set up a magical Array to mask their presence, and left a teleportation coordinate. If they encountered any danger, they could activate the coordinate to teleport back immediately.