Artificer Adventure Guide.

Chapter 262 There is One More

"Hmm~, the people from the Rose Cult are afraid that we don't know there's something fishy going on here!"

Looking at the tunnel leading to the black dragon beast's lair, Carl crossed his hands over his chest, looking as if he had seen through the other party's evil plan.

In front of the team, some monitor lizards were lying leisurely in the mud, ignoring the army of constructs around them.

Along the way, Carl had never seen any group of wild beasts that could see his team without panicking.

The calm behavior of these monitor lizards clearly puts the label of "problematic" on their faces.

"Well, it may actually be because these giant lizards have the bloodline of the black dragon beast in their bodies. You know, giant dragons have a wide range of aesthetic tastes, and they have no reproductive isolation from any race."

On the side, Bain expressed another possibility based on his own understanding.

It's not that he really wants to fight, but he doesn't want to give up the possibility of leaving from the Black Dragon Beast when he knows that the enemy will set an ambush at the Earth Gate.

Seeing that Carl wanted to present facts and reason to him, Bain, who didn't want to give up, said quickly:

"Let Scorpion and I go check out the situation! You guys wait here. If anything goes wrong, it won't be too late for you to rescue us."

Scorpion responded to Bane almost immediately, grabbing a handful of Carl's latest rune stones and heading out of the truck.

They did not bring Thorin with them because the dwarf warrior's movement speed was a bit too slow.

Whether it was Bane or Scorpion, they both had enough means to quickly escape back here after being attacked.

Now that things have come to this, Carl couldn't continue to stop him. After all, Bain wanted everyone to leave as soon as possible.

After rummaging through his dimensional bag, Carl took out two sets of tightly packed bullets and handed them to Bane.

"If we really run into that black dragon beast, use this."

Those bullets were incendiary bombs made by Carl using white phosphorus and were difficult to preserve.

Fortunately, the quiver he made for Bane could directly call out the bullets inside, preventing a series of problems that might be caused when installing bullets.

At the same time, the space inside the dimensional bag and the quiver can isolate the air very well, so as not to cause problems for the bullets.

After listening to Carl's explanation, Bane put the white phosphorus bullets into his quiver at almost the fastest speed in his life.

"Why do you always like to hide things?"

After confirming that the bullets did not leak white phosphorus and spontaneously ignite, Bane raised his head and teased Carl.

Carl also seemed helpless about this matter.

"Isn't this because the fire dwarves are too resistant to fire damage? Okay, both of you, be careful."

Patting the two men on the shoulders, Carl whispered some instructions and watched Bane and Scorpion cross the quagmire where the giant lizards lived and walk towards the deep tunnel.

……

Walking forward along the long and narrow tunnel, Bane and Scorpion could clearly feel the air around them becoming gradually heavier.

A rotten smell permeated the air around them, with a sour and rotten feeling.

This is a common problem faced by black dragons and their descendants. Their physique will gradually change the quality of the surrounding water sources, causing it to be contaminated by the dragon beasts.

With extreme caution, Bane and Scorpion passed through the long and narrow tunnel and came to a cave with an even stronger sour smell.

Although it is called a cave, there is actually a passage slanting upwards.

Bane and Scorpion were able to see the long-lost blue sky through this straight passage.

However, this passage is too far away. At a long enough distance, the passage, which should be as big as a football field, is actually as small as a toy.

Looking around, the black dragon beast with the body size of an adult dragon was not here.

This discovery made Bane and Scorpion happy, and they felt that they had finally gotten lucky.

"Let's see how steep the passage is! Maybe we can drive the construct up there directly! A truck might be a little risky, but once we reach the surface, Carl can summon it back."

Taking out a climbing rope with two sections tied to heavy objects from the dimensional bag, Bane called his wife and walked towards the passage.

The closer they got to the mud in the middle of the cave entrance, the stronger the smell of corruption became. As a last resort, the two men had to put on Carl's special underwater breathing caps to let the bubbles block out the unpleasant smell.

"This level of smell is even more terrible than a sewer. The air around here is actually poisonous to some extent, right?"

Scorpion took a breath of fresh air through the bubbles and patted his chest with lingering fear, as if he wanted to expel what he had just breathed in.

Bane, who was walking in front, couldn't help but find Scorpion's look a little funny.

"I remember when I first met you, you could even lie in wait in the swamp and be bitten by mosquitoes for two days and two nights. How come you can't even stand this little smell now?"

"Hmm~, why torture yourself when you can feel better? Look, the mud is fermenting and bubbling. God knows what that black dragon beast has done here."

Pointing at the dark green bubbles that occasionally rose from the bottom of the mud, Scorpion suppressed his nausea and tried not to look at it directly.

Bane in front shook his head and smiled, then swung the climbing rope and threw it out.

The heavy object tied to one end of the rope made the action of throwing the climbing rope easier. The rope drew an arc in the air and then fell on the sloping rock wall passage.

The passage was still five or six meters above the ground. After the climbing rope was thrown up, Bane activated it with a command, causing it to automatically find solid protrusions around it and wrap itself around them. This process took more than ten minutes, and Bane and Scorpion waited patiently until the climbing rope automatically shrank to the appropriate length.

This is a sign that the other end has been fixed.

After looking at each other, Bane and Scorpion tightened the climbing rope and gave the command to retract.

The climbing rope slowly contracted, driving Bane and Scorpion gradually upward.

Soon, the two crawled into the passage.

"This arc... As expected, only the construct can move forward. The truck can't climb up."

He tried to crawl up for a distance, but the steep slope was difficult even for someone of Bane's size.

"Okay, let's go back and inform Carl and the others. Maybe we can leave before the dragon beast comes back. In fact, even if we run into the dragon beast, it shouldn't be a big problem. Its return means it is full. In this case, as long as we keep running forward, it shouldn't chase us too closely."

Just as Bane was about to take Scorpion back, suddenly, the sky at the end of the passage seemed to be covered by something.

The two people who were about to leave had their heartbeats quickened and their pupils contracted at the same time.

Looking towards the other end of the passage, a dark shadow was falling rapidly downwards.

"Damn it! That dragon beast is back!"

Grabbing the climbing rope, Bane quickly recited the command to extend it, then slid down the rope with Scorpion.

Without even waiting for the climbing rope to be untied, Bane and Scorpion took a step forward, ready to flee towards the tunnel.

At this moment, the quagmire, which had always seemed very calm, suddenly began to waver.

The familiar feeling of shuddering arose in the hearts of both of them again.

Immediately afterwards, the mud suddenly bulged upwards.

"puff--"

Along with the mud and water all over the sky, a black dragon beast of the same adult size surfaced from the depths of the mire.

Above its head, a drow with a blue halo all over his body was holding the dragon horn of the dragon beast tightly, trying hard not to be thrown out by the opponent.

After a quick glance, Bane, who was the first to come to his senses, grabbed his wife and ran towards the tunnel.

But the dragon beast just lay down and rolled over.

The huge body immediately blocked the way back for the two people, and the other dragon beast also poked its head out from the passage.

There are actually two dragon beasts in this cave instead of just one!
"Damn it, this is so unlucky!"

Cursing under his breath, Bane quickly pulled out his revolver, changed the bullet type to white phosphorus, and fired at another black dragon beast that was attacking from behind.

They ignored the dragon that blocked their way because the drow seemed to be trying to defeat it as well.

If you act rashly without the other party explicitly asking for help, it would be fine if you hit the Black Dragon Beast, but if the attack affects the other party, then it would be difficult to deal with.

If it were someone more ruthless, they might not care so much at this time, but Bane is a man of particular concerns.

While her husband was attacking the dragon beast, Scorpion turned around and shouted to the drow: "Friend! Do you need our help?"

Before the drow could answer, the white phosphorus bullet landed on the black dragon beast on the other side.

As the bullet head and the dragon scales rubbed against each other, the compressed white phosphorus exploded from the bullet, and phosphorous fire quickly spread over the dragon beast's body. The intense burning even caused the temperature in the cave to rise slightly.

Even though the dragon beast was rolling in the mud, the phosphorous fire did not diminish in the slightest.

Scorpion and the drow fell silent for a moment. This kind of attack was obviously not suitable for helping.

If the Black Dragon Beast rolled one more time, the phosphorous fire would even spread to her body.

“Not for now! You guys try to attract the dragon beast’s attention first, I’ll try to get this guy to clear the way!”

After saying this, she condensed an extremely solid psychic blade in her hand, and then inserted it into the dragon beast's body.

The power of psychic energy penetrated into the dragon beast's body. The dragon beast, feeling the pain, spun around and actually crashed its body into the rock.

Fortunately, the drow teleported away in time through psychic teleportation, otherwise she would have been smashed into pieces by this blow.

Just when the three were about to reunite, the other black dragon beast, which was in great pain from being burned by the phosphorous fire, suddenly opened its mouth.

A pale green mist surged out of its throat, a sign that it was about to use its breath.

At the critical moment, Bane took action again.

Amid a series of gunshots, several white phosphorus bullets hit the mouth and neck of the black dragon beast, completely igniting the dragon head that looked like a skull.

But this also angered the dragon beast.

With a loud dragon roar, it put aside the pain in its body and flew straight towards Bane.

(End of this chapter)