Arcane Journey

Chapter 87 Gray Ghost
Duergars, also known as Durgars.

They live in the wonderful city deep in the dark region, relying on the knowledge of the ancient dwarves and countless slaves, tirelessly expanding their underground kingdom.

In fact, duergar were once just ordinary dwarves.

Their voracious and endless digging beneath the surface eventually led to contact with mind flayers.

After being enslaved by mind flayers for ages, the duergar were finally freed with the help of the evil god Radug.

But years of slavery have forever changed their character and alignment, making their blackened spirits as evil as the former tyrant masters.

Because of this, the duergar who have won their freedom become sullen, pessimistic, and suspicious.

In Brian's impression, these gloomy, boring, and always busy gray dwarves have simple and straightforward principles, believe in law, credit, and hard work, and despise other non-dwarf races.

They are also a group of pragmatists, but although they are rational and ruthless, they will not commit unreasonable cruelty.

Although the gray dwarves look down on adventurers, they never think about killing people directly. Instead, they try to enslave and use them in order to generate the greatest benefit.

The durgar are called duergar for more than just because of the color of their skin.

Gray also represents their monotonous life style.

The living habits of the gray dwarves, except that they don't spend time looking for fun, their culture is as prosperous and complex as other races.

This is especially evident in the city of Odus.

Because the City of Blades is full of workdays, the duergar pride themselves on perfection and efficiency, and despise carelessness and extravagance.

Under their merciless servitude, the derro dwarves and other slaves can only bear hardships and hard work.

It was their character that made Brian, who was walking on the street, clearly feel the influence of the demon lord on this place.

He found that many pedestrians showed various abnormalities: body twitching, habit changes, abnormal behavior.

For example, he heard with his own ears a certain patrolling guard bragging about his corrupt behavior to his companions, a small number of people began to dress up for decoration, and some people even talked about a certain gray dwarf betraying his family.

All these abnormal performances are explaining to him the changes that have taken place in the city of Odus.

At this moment, he heard the quarrel coming from ahead, he was aroused by his curiosity, he motioned to Weitz, the gray dwarf who was leading the way, and rushed over together.

"Damn Chad, betrayed his family, and even betrayed his clansmen, he is a heretic who is bewitched by the devil!"

"Kill this demonic heretic!"

Two gray dwarves dressed as guards pressed a gray dwarf businessman to the ground on the street, brandished hammer-like fists, and beat him frantically.

The latter could only hold his head, curled up on the ground, and howled in pain.

The melon-eaters onlookers clearly knew the truth of not meddling in their own business. They were pointing and laughing, but no one was willing to make a move.

"These two gray dwarves are members of the defense team. We'd better not meddle in our own business."

Weitz persuaded the crowd: "If outsiders interfere in the affairs of our race, they are likely to be rounded up or killed on the spot."

Brian nodded slightly. Even if the other party didn't remind him, he wouldn't help with a sense of justice like a paladin.

Then he heard someone among the spectators say that the reason why the gray dwarf guards abused the businessman was because he found a gold brooch in the businessman's coat.

As far as Brian knew, in the society of the gray dwarves, violent beatings of the same race for decoration seemed to be uncommon.

This made him realize that the violent law enforcement by the guards seemed a bit unusual, and it was probably a sign of the madness of the city of Aldus.

Seeing the two guards leave the unconscious businessman and leave, Brian thought for a while, and then walked up to the gray dwarf businessman under the strange eyes of the melon-eating crowd.

He took a closer look at the merchant's palms, and sure enough, he found the same traces that he saw in Yuehu Fortress: a small bump protruded strangely near the thumbs of both hands.

"Let's go." He didn't stay long, got up and signaled Weitz to lead the way.

"stop!"

On the busy street, there was a sudden shout and the sound of dense footprints pouring in, causing Brian, who was thinking, to look over vigilantly.

A mob of 20 or more derlos rampaged through the streets, half of them directed at them.

On this street big enough for five carriages.

The Dillo dwarf thugs who rushed over had no nonsense, and five of them raised the crossbow in their left hand while sprinting, and shot strong arrows.

The nimble thug who took the lead jumped up, and the sharp dagger in his hand slashed at his neck fiercely.

Seeing this scene, the crowd screamed in unison, and gave up a wide fighting field for them.

Facing the mob's surprise attack, Brian unhurriedly released the "Arcane Barrier". While resisting the galloping crossbow, he took two steps back and avoided a throat-wiping attack in time.

Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed that Hesaiah, who had drawn out the rune sword, had already engaged three Dilro dwarves hastily, and at her feet lay two thugs who were twitching.

Obviously, this group of thugs underestimated the strength of the Sword Mage, so that they laid down two of them as soon as they handed over.

Weitz, who was leading the way, mingled into the crowd. As for the goblin copper block and the dillo dwarf Jeep, they had disappeared from his sight strangely.

Brian's expression turned cold, and he looked at the Dillo dwarf thug who was holding a sharp dagger in his backhand and lowered his body slightly, like a poisonous snake ready to go, one meter away from him, ready to show his fangs.

Through the test just now, he judged that the other party was a wanderer whose strength was at least around level 10.

At this time, he naturally wouldn't foolishly ask why the other party attacked him.

Because the Dillo dwarf rogue had rushed over again, and the five companions who shot cold arrows in the distance also cooperated with the other party to attack him under the hint of sign language.

——"Colorful spray!"

The moment Brian raised his hand, a dazzling beam of light scattered out in a cone shape, covering the wanderer who was attacking in front of him.

The wanderer looked startled and wanted to turn around and dodge.

But Bryan's magic was released very fast, and the distance between the two was too close, so that he still couldn't dodge the attack and was enveloped by the light.

Brian knew that this one-ring spell could not control the opponent at all, at most it could only slow down his pace.

Due to his understanding of the rogue's reflection attributes and escape ability, he did not choose to continue the pursuit.

Instead, he raised his finger without hesitation, and five missiles made of magical energy shot out from his fingertips, hitting two Dillo dwarf thugs holding crossbows in the distance.

——"Arcane Missile!"

"Pfft! Pfft!"

The chests of these two thugs seemed to have been hit by large-caliber sniper bullets, and the blood burst suddenly, and then they fell straight on the cold floor of the street, and they were killed instantly.

The other three Dillo dwarves beside the thugs were all stunned, looking at the fallen corpse like a wooden man, with shock in their eyes.

The rogue who recovered from the "Colorful Jet" naturally noticed this situation, and he chose to retreat without hesitation.

"Catch this group of damn rats, go ahead and block the exit, and hand them over to us!"

At this moment, not far from the street, cold words accompanied by heavy footsteps approached rumblingly.

Seeing a group of huge figures approaching quickly, the wanderer locked his pupils tightly and said, "It's the Caravo cavalry, our mission has been completed, retreat quickly!"

The tone of the dylo dwarf rogue was full of panic and eagerness.

At this time, he naturally ignored Brian and was about to run away.

"Want to leave?" Brian shouted coldly, "It's not that easy!"

——"Four Rings Spell: Dimensional Anchor!"

A green ray shot out from Brian's hand, hit the rogue's body, and instantly interrupted his attempt to escape through the shadow jump.

——"Psychic explosion!"

Brian concentrated his thoughts, and a silent ripple spread to the wanderer's body, making him stunned in place on the spot, motionless.

——"Arcane Missile!"

Immediately afterwards, he raised his hand and pointed, and five missiles made of magical energy left five bloody holes on the wanderer's body, and he fell on his back, lifeless.

With the death of the rogue, the remaining Dilo dwarf thugs, except for the three thugs holding crossbows who were far away and escaped by chance, were all beheaded by Hesaiah and the gray dwarf reinforcements who came.

Just when the three thugs were about to disappear from Brian's sight, there was a sound of galloping through the air, and all three thugs fell to the ground with arrows.

A group of gray dwarf cavalry riding tarantulas appeared in Brian's sight and began to clean up the battlefield while maintaining order.

"That's Caravo's heavy cavalry, most of them are from the Sinton clan who are good at taming tarantulas." Weitz emerged from the chaotic crowd and explained to the two.

"What are the identities of these Dilo dwarves, and why did they suddenly attack us?" Hesaiah put away the rune sword and expressed his doubts to Brian.

"It's the 'grey ghosts'. This is the only real thieves' guild in the entire city of Ordus. It was established by the dwarves of Dilo. The main members of the guild are the dwarves of Dilo and a few exiled gray dwarves. ’” Brian told her, “and some scattered slaves who escaped.”

Not only did he know this, he also knew very well that the dragon eggs of the 'Dragon Blacksmith' who lived in the city of Aldus were stolen by these thieves.

If he wanted to retrieve the dragon eggs, he would have to deal with these thieves.

"Strange, why are the copper block and Jeep missing?" Weitz suddenly realized something was wrong and asked curiously.

Sisaiah looked at Brian meaningfully, pursed his lips and smiled, but did not answer.

"Don't worry about them, just take me to see your boss as soon as possible." Brian didn't answer his doubts, but urged with a straight face and feigned impatience.

The destination of their trip is to meet Weitz's boss, the prince of the gray dwarf in the city of Aldus, the only legal heir of the King of the Deep.

This meeting will be related to whether he can form an alliance with the gray dwarf prince and reach a strategic partnership with him.

Naturally, he didn't want to waste his time here, let alone have any intersection with the Cavola cavalry that just appeared.

Because he knew that the appearance of this group of Dillo dwarf thugs was actually to create an opportunity for Jeep to leave the team.

Evidently, Kip had sensed the sense of surveillance and control he was deliberately exuding.

So they used some means to make the gray ghosts create chaos and wait for the opportunity to escape.

So, Brian did what he could, and let the copper block stare at Jeep ahead of time.

In this way, he may be able to find the secret base of the 'grey ghost' and the lost dragon egg from Jeep.

(End of this chapter)