Arcane Journey

Chapter 15 The Crow of Vengeance

Because where are they needed?
In Santilla's view, this explanation was too simple and perfunctory for her to understand.

If she's serious, she'll be a drow with a knack for analyzing overtones and motives.

So she took a deep breath, raised her head, and looked into Brian's eyes seriously and intently.

For a moment, Santilla caught a glimpse of fleeting sadness in the battle mage's eyes, like chunks of obsidian suddenly glistening in the darkened Underdark.

It came and went so quickly, Santilla wondered if Brian wasn't even aware of it.

A strange person with a contradictory heart, she secretly made an evaluation of him.

It is hard to imagine that a person can simultaneously accommodate many complex qualities such as compassion, compassion, kindness, cunning, wisdom and ruthlessness.

"To be honest, I envy you adventurers who can travel everywhere." Santilla was silent for a long time, sighed, and said in an envious tone.

She spoke while stroking her thick long hair.

The white hair hanging down to the side of her face silently covered the weird smile on her pretty face and the shimmering cunning eyes.

"What is there to envy."

Brian didn't notice, or he didn't pay attention to the expression of the drow wizard at all, "You are a wizard, and when you grow up, you can learn many portal spells that you can cast freely. As long as you use them properly, you can go wherever you want. anywhere."

"useless."

Santilla shook her head, "Teleportation spells are as precious as magic gems. In Ancient Orens, magic secrets were carefully kept and shared. This is not just a matter of greed, but for survival.

The masters of the sorcerer's college who teach this spell carefully control any knowledge of it.Moreover, they are all treacherous guys. Many portals have hidden requirements and secret restrictions, and they cannot enter and exit casually on a whim. "

"I see." Brian nodded thoughtfully.

It can be seen that the other party has probably thought of this method a long time ago, but has been unable to put it into action.

As Santilla said, many portals have hidden requirements and secret restrictions. If you are not careful, you will lose your life or fall into the trap of others.

What's more, the ancient Orens city is still a drow city full of conspiracy and betrayal.

It can be seen from this.

This rebellious and willful drow is more cunning and smarter than imagined. Apart from the invisible deterrence of her father, the Chief Archmage, her ability to live until now has a lot to do with her own behavior.

Thinking of this, an immature idea emerged in his mind.

"After my bar mitzvah, I guess."

Santilla said sadly, "My free and unfettered life is likely to end. They will definitely let me go to the Warlock Academy to learn the true way of drow."

"Is their opinion important to you?" Brian asked tentatively.

"To be precise, it's important for my survival." Santilla replied with a straight face.

Brian glanced at her and was silent for a while, before speaking quickly, "You don't have other choices."

"Go to the surface?" Santilla raised her head, flicked her long hair, and smiled sarcastically.

"That's really good, but what's next? What will the dawn bring? I will be hated by every human and elf under the sun, and I will be rounded up by them. With my current strength, it is impossible to protect myself, so what is the search for?" Lost Temple of the Walk."

"That's true," Brian agreed dryly.

He somewhat sympathized with what happened to this bright-hearted drow girl.

In fact, she is not the only drow who yearns for the surface world.

In the city of Menzoberranzan in the north of the mainland, a drow elf once escaped from the ground and successfully integrated into the life of the surface world.

However, this kind and bright drow ranger is much luckier than Santilla.

Because when he left the ground, his strength was close to the legendary level, and his profession was not a wizard with a lot of restrictions.

All he needed to do was adapt to the sunlight on the surface, hacking and chopping with two machetes, and he was done.

Drow wizards are different. The Underdark region is permeated with a special magical energy called the radiation of the veins by the drow.

This arcane power of unknown origin can be traced back to an ancient elf magic when the drow were exiled from the earth world.

Drow and other creatures of the Underdark use the properties of leyline radiation itself to defend their settlements, or to cast spells and craft magical equipment.

This also means that when drow wizards leave the underground world they rely on for survival, their spellcasting methods affected by the radiant energy of the leylines will also be severely restricted in the surface world.

"Look at this." Sandy stretched her hand and grabbed the hem of the cloak to show him.

"As long as in the surface world, the magic power of magic equipment is dimming every moment, away from the radiation of the leylines in the dark area, its magic power will disappear quickly, and the spells I rely on for survival will also be greatly weakened.

Here, I can walk quietly, no one can see me, under the sun on the surface, I am fragile, anyone can see, my weapons, my armor, and my spell-casting materials will all be Melted by the sun. "

"Then you can try to learn a new way of survival." Brian suggested to her cautiously.

"In fact, that's exactly what I fear."

Santilla whispered in despair, "You don't understand at all, let me abandon my talent, forget the drow culture, give up the drow spells I have learned for more than 20 years, and then start again on the surface world. It's kind of brutal."

"Each of us has to walk the path we choose."

Brian criticized her gently, "Since you have regarded walking the temple as a great mission in your life, then you must go forward.

Don't forget, the magic we master is a mysterious and powerful force that makes countless arcane seekers spend their entire lives hard to understand.Believe in the power and knowledge of the arcane, it will help you overcome all obstacles. "

"Remember, in the vast starry universe, there will always be a star dedicated to you, which will guide you through the unknown darkness."

As he spoke, he came to Santilla's side.

Then he stretched out his hand, and the magic shackles, keys, maps and scrolls all fell into his hands.

Unknowingly, the two had chatted for a long time, and he had to leave.

"Thank you, Brian."

Santilla raised her head, stood up, stared at him with sky blue eyes, and gave him her most charming smile, "I'm really sorry, I took advantage of your overflowing sympathy again."

As soon as the words fell, Brian suddenly felt the magical shackles he had just put on, and in the sound of jingling, there was an indescribable magical energy gushing out.

He felt an unparalleled weakness rushing through his body, and finally his whole body went limp, and he fell powerlessly on the soft bed.

She had tampered with it, and that was the first thought that crossed Brian's mind.

Thinking of this, he flipped his palm, and immediately took out the key, trying to open the shackles that restricted magic.

However, to his disbelief, the key turned out to be a fake.

This also means that from the moment Santilla entered the room, she had already begun to calculate herself.

Brian cursed in his heart that he was negligent, so he raised his head with difficulty, and looked at Santilla with force and composure.

The drow girl sat in front of him, met his gaze proudly, and let out a clear and sweet laugh, mocking but harmless, "Relax, dear Brian, I finally let you fall into my hands, It's not about killing you with a fireball."

Brian relaxed because he was having a hard time gathering his strength at this moment.

This made him realize that not only was he banned from magic, but he was also hit by a debilitating spell that lost his power.

Fortunately, he could sense that the crafty drow girl was harmless.

he thought comfortingly.

"Now, do you still think" Santilla said in a flirtatious tone next to Brian, "I'm a stupid crow who can't even sing well?"

"Do not."

Brian shook his head slightly and said with a smile, "At this moment, you look more like a vengeful crow spitting on passers-by."

"So what?" Santilla carelessly stroked the hair on his forehead, then blew into his ear, and said softly, "It's the nature of our drow to hold grudges."

Brian shook his itchy hair by his ear, trying to stop her harassment.

He was too lazy to chat with her, and went straight to the point, "I have something to say."

"That can't be done, I can't take you so cheaply." Santilla seemed to remember something, her pretty face was flushed with purple because of anger, and she said angrily:
"Don't forget what you did to me in the tunnel in the wild, so as a vengeful crow, I'm sorry, I have to return it untouched."

"I did it to make you trust me."

Brian smiled wryly when he heard the words, and muttered to defend himself: "You saw it too, but I was actually joking with you. If you listened to me honestly, how could there be so many things."

"But I'm serious." Santilla stared at him with an eager expression, which really scared Brian.

"What exactly do you want?" Brian lowered his head and whispered pretendingly weak.

"To be honest." Santilla seemed to enjoy his current appearance, she put away her frivolous expression, raised her chin, and said seriously in a haughty tone:

"If I wanted to, at the blood sacrifice ceremony five days ago, just one face-to-face would kill you instantly."

"Of course I know." Brian admitted frankly.

He wasn't arrogant enough to resist a magical equipment that could kill even a wizard whose strength reached the fourth level.

"But in fact, I didn't choose to do this." Santilla continued: "The reason for this is because I have a good impression of you."

"Come on, save these words to lie to your Rose's eighth leg." Brian deliberately showed a disdainful expression, and retorted:
"I'm afraid you have ulterior motives. In my opinion, you just don't want to kill me with your own hands. That's why you want to severely wound me, then use the bottle of capture to catch me, and then throw it in front of your magician. Hands, complete your own ceremony. Don’t think that I will be grateful for it, it’s simply wishful thinking.”

Santilla opened her mouth in surprise, looking at Brian in disbelief.

"You don't believe me?" When she noticed his strange eyes, for some reason, seeing this slightly disdainful eyes, an inexplicable panic hit her heart.

"If I didn't believe you, how could I have ended up like this." Brian shrugged his shoulders with difficulty, sighed, and said helplessly:
"Actually, if you really want it, you can just say it. You don't need to do this. You just need to ask. I usually won't refuse such a thing."

"That's true." Santilla breathed a sigh of relief, thinking that what he said was not unreasonable, so she nodded slightly, and stretched out her hands to undo his shackles.

She had just stretched out her hand halfway, as if realizing something, she quickly retracted it.

"I was almost fooled by you." Santilla looked at him rejoicingly, showing a playful smile, "As I said, there are some things that I have to return intact."

"...Finally learned to be smart." Brian murmured depressingly.

"Then it's up to you." He lay directly on the soft bed, looking like he was being slaughtered.

"You don't want to resist?" Santilla was surprised by Brian's actions.

"And then, you say 'the more you resist, the stronger I become'?" Brian glanced at her angrily, expressing the little thought of the other party.

"It's okay, your surrendered look is more useful to me."

Santilla smiled slightly and said happily, "You also gave me this sentence, and I will return it to you now."

"If you have anything else to say, just say it together, don't waste everyone's time." Brian turned his head to the side, secretly began to gather strength, and prepared to fight back.

The drow girl sitting on the bed bent over, her blue eyes fixed on Brian.

She reached out to caress his face, her soft fingertips outlined his tight lips, and a faint smile floated on the corner of her mouth.

Feeling the breath close at hand, Brian was finally frightened by Santilla's actions. He said strong and calmly, "May I make a request?"

"Yes." Santilla nodded slightly.

"The posture must be changed." He boldly and blatantly made his request.

"no!"

Santilla sternly refused, and raised her chin proudly, "This is my bottom line."

"Forget it, I reject this deal." Brian rebuffed forcefully: "This is also my bottom line."

"But you say no, but your body is very honest."

Santilla's slender fingers slid down gently, and teased: "Oh, I almost forgot, you gave me this sentence at the beginning, and now, I will return it to you intact."

"Honestly, I am amazed at how fickle you are." Brian no longer resisted the drow girl's intimacy.

"That's right." Santilla smiled.

"Didn't you tell me what life is like? Instead of resisting, why not enjoy it. You also said that fickleness is the nature of our women, and their faces change faster than taking off their clothes. I don't know what I said. etched in my mind deeply.”

"Do not worry."

She looked into his eyes and said softly, "Dear Brian, this is my first time, so I will be very gentle with you. As you think, this sentence was also given to me by you, and now I gave it back to you again."

"." Brian was speechless.

In my heart, I secretly regretted that I was in a tunnel in the wild, why did I deliberately tease her.

Just when Sandy stretched his hand towards his chin, Brian, who was waiting in battle, froze, and his body bounced like a flexible fish.

He stood up in an instant, stretched out his arms locked by the magic shackles amidst the jingling of the chains, and firmly wrapped them around Santilla's upper body from behind, while cutting off the attack she was trying to push back with her elbows. route.

Brian's legs wrapped around the opponent's legs, making him lose the ability to pedal.

However, what made him depressed was that the weak magic in himself had not fully recovered, so that his strength was a bit difficult to control Santilla's tenacious fighting spirit.

In this unfavorable situation, the girl who was caught off guard quickly regained her composure. She first threw her head back and tried to attack Brian.

Fortunately, Brian had already laid his head intimately on her shoulder in advance, and this attack was obviously useless.

Then, Santilla immediately chose to use both hands to break Brian's arm, and her chin was also pulled back as hard as possible.

Feeling the pain from his arm, Brian suddenly felt a bad breath in his heart.

Because his strength at this moment has been greatly weakened, so that he can't even compare to a weak drow girl.

In the standoff against him, he saw Santilla throw her thick white hair across his face, then lower her head and bite into his arm.

"hiss!"

A sharp pain hit, and Brian gasped.

He cursed in his heart that the other party was a dog, and he slapped him so harshly, then he shrank his head wisely and bit the other party's shoulder.

"Um"

Santilla groaned in pain, and quickly withdrew her mouth, giving up resistance.

Naturally, Brian was too embarrassed to continue biting.

"I'm really not attractive to you at all?" Santilla rubbed her shoulders and said softly in a weak and resentful tone.

"That's not true. To be honest, you are very attractive, but you just use the wrong method."

Brian smiled and said, "Give me the key and I'll show you what to do."

Santilla glared at him, waved her hand with a slightly hot face, and the key automatically fell into Brian's hands.

(End of this chapter)