Overlord: Start from the Goblin Lair.

Chapter 64: The former Green Swamp Town
"258th year of the Hailan Empire - this is the time when the Hailan Empire began to decline. Under the leadership of Baron Saran Ryan, we came to this place, ready to open up new territories and leave a spark of survival for the empire."

"It seems that they knew that the Hailan Empire could not last long - the first large-scale resistance and slave uprising against the Hailan Empire was after 281."

"It is said that elves are not sensitive to time. This may be the reason," Ron stroked his chin. "Perhaps their leaders have already noticed the problem earlier, but they did not take action until then, and the rebels are even slower."

"Who knows? I have to ask my mother. She must know better than me."

"Then there is the following paragraph - we arrived here in early autumn. In order to conceal our whereabouts, we did not choose the safer outer area, but chose to go deep into the Delusion Land. Although life here is a little difficult, no other races or opposition parties will find us here."

"In the early 260th year, we established Green Swamp Town as the new territory of the empire. In order to avoid being discovered, we did not choose to use spellcasters on a large scale to build the town. Instead, we adopted the old method. This made us put in twice as much effort as expected and also cost some manpower sacrifices. But it was all considered worth it."

"This land is too far from home, but it hides many secrets. If we can unearth them and find out why all the forces that set foot here eventually fell into ruin, we might be able to deduce a way to prolong the empire for thousands of years! Baron Sarah is one of the main advocates of this idea, and the only one who has personally practiced it. May his name live on in future generations!"

"This one is definitely hopeless," Ivy looked at the words with a smile, "He wants to hide his tracks, but he also wants to be remembered for generations. He's the only one who has taken all the good things in the world, right?"

"Do you have any impression of this Baroness Sarah Lane?" Ron asked.

"A little, but not much," Ivy thought for a moment, "Lyan is the royal family of the Hailan Empire, and their emblem is the double lion crown. They once had a genius child prodigy named Sarah."

"But that Sarah was very short-lived. She died when she was probably in her eighties or nineties. Although the elves mature physically at a similar rate to humans, adult elves must not only mature physically but also have mature experience in dealing with the world. Therefore, elves are generally declared adults when they are around a hundred years old."

"So don't look at me like that. Elves, that's how it is. Sarah did die young in official records, but now it seems that it has been deliberately concealed."

Ivy continued to interpret the text on the stone tablet line by line. It was very simple for her, and she did it faster and better than those human scholars who studied the Elvish language, or the Elf scholars who studied the Human language.

Because she had three native languages ​​since birth: Elvish, Human and Common. These languages ​​​​did not cause any obstacles for her. She could easily switch back and forth between these languages ​​at any time and find the most accurate and easy-to-understand translation.

These stone slabs roughly tell the following story: A group of elves from the Hailan Empire foresaw that the empire might be overthrown, so they tried to use a powerful, mysterious and unknown force to fight against the tide of history. So they came to the land of delusion and brought some of the empire's treasures with them, hoping to suppress the power here and tame and reverse it.

These treasures were divided into three batches: one batch was brought in 258, one batch was sent at an unknown time in the middle, and the last batch was sent by the empire's supporters when the empire was about to fall - the stone tablets and the keys, as well as magical items including the preface to the weaving.

"So, those things are not the Hailan Empire's trump cards, but the 'trump cards' they hope to use to activate their trump cards." Ivy even found it a bit confusing to say it herself.

"Look at the back. The words carved there are obviously more hastily than the previous ones: We shouldn't have used that slate. The Baron was too clever for his own good!" "All forces on this land will enter a period of rapid development, no matter what the reason. But there is only one result: they will become nutrients for the darkness underground! When civilization is judged to be edible, those beings will wake up, turn the entire land over, and begin their feast, leaving only leftovers in the end!"

"We have failed the Empire and the High King, Baron..."

Ivy's voice suddenly stopped. She looked up at Ron with regret: "There's nothing more to come."

"I was wondering, when we first came here, could that ancient tomb be the burial place of this genius prodigy Sarah Lane?"

"We can't rule out this possibility. In just a hundred years, the two barons should be the same person."

"But if it is true as the stone tablet says, then why would there be time to build a mausoleum?" came the voice of Aik'Zuri.

"Don't look at me like that. I don't speak Elvish. I have been reading these stone tablets by guessing over the years. Today is the first time I know the specific contents." The young black dragon looked at everyone and muttered.

So what did you claim to have learned before?

Yes, you are a dragon, you are amazing, you can live for two thousand two hundred years, okay?

Brief mistakes and deviations were nothing to the Axuri; even a young dragon could laugh them off.

However, a few years of incorrect learning can be enough to cause lifelong consequences for short-lived races - such as a misperception such as a typo or a polyphonetic character.

"Generally speaking, elves wouldn't even build a very luxurious mausoleum, let alone build a mausoleum in a very dangerous location at a very dangerous time. And a 'genius' like Sarah Lane, who is touted as such, should not make such a mistake. So I am more inclined to believe that he had a reason for doing so."

"Like protecting the slate or something like that."

"But just like the tradition of Delusion Land, the various forces here rise and fall, and his mausoleum cannot withstand the test of time and various plunderers, not to mention that there are fellow tribesmen like Mindatis inside."

"So when we go there a hundred years later, there will be nothing left. Only the stone slab escaped because of its hiding place and coincidental landing point."

(End of this chapter)