From Hogwarts to Strixhaven.

Chapter 392 The Truth about Phase Spiders

"That's wonderful! Apart from making a deal with the devil or performing surgery on both our soul and brain, is there no other way to get rid of the little bugs in our brains?" Asdeln shouted somewhat self-destructively.

"Or we can find a mastermind that can control the Mind Flayer tadpoles and have it order the larvae to commit suicide, thus solving the problem once and for all." Ivy answered the question without much thought. Since the Chosen of the Three Gods of Death can use Netherstone to control the mastermind, then they can certainly order the mastermind to end the Supreme God's plan.

"What a feasible plan! It's almost as easy to implement as kidnapping a devil!" Asdeln said sarcastically, "If we can really do it, I'm willing to spend half of my time every year telling our great story to everyone who passes by Baldur's Gate!"

"What about the other half of the time?" Xie Nian asked with amusement.

"To commemorate all the comrades who died." Asdeln answered viciously.

"You forgot that the gravekeeper can revive you, and it only costs 200 gold coins." Ivy said jokingly, "There is no better deal in the world than this."

"That's right, it's fair to everyone, you deserve to experience it once." Gail gave the gravekeeper a thumbs up.

"Okay, friends, share with us what problems you have encountered since you separated last night." Ivy was about to end his joke.

Xie Nian nodded and told the part he knew, which was what happened before he went crazy: "...After leaving the Red Mage's basement, Gale and I decided to look for the amethyst under the well. Will and Kalak responded to us without hesitation - they had just rescued an underground dwarf... But Yingxin and Asdeln had their own ideas."

"Underground gnome?" Ivy almost forgot about this part of the story, a poor guy tied to a windmill by goblins and played with. And when Ivy was playing this part, he accidentally pressed the "release brake" button, turning the already dazed underground gnome into a pool of meat paste.

"His destination was the Underdark, in order to find his friends. After getting off the windmill, he decided to travel light, so he threw his backpack to us as a reward. The backpack was extremely heavy, filled with smoke powder." Kalak said with lingering fear, "The flames on my body almost blew up the entire windmill. Damn, who would go to the Underdark with a backpack of smoke powder? Is he planning to open up a new road leading to the underground?"

"This means there is an entrance to the Underdark nearby... Perhaps the drow in the Supreme God's army came from there." Ivy thought of the adamantium furnace buried deep underground, especially the construct golem hidden in the magma pipe. If they could find a way to get it, then the research on constructs would definitely be improved by leaps and bounds.

If there was enough time during her travels, Ivy would like to take a trip to the Underdark.

"I went to the school and saw the ogres' murder scene. A poor tiefling was eaten by them..." Shadow Heart said, "I found out that this village originally belonged to that old woman Selune who was full of lies. So it deserved to be in such a dilapidated state."

"We won't comment too much on your beliefs, but please don't bring up the feud between Shar and Selune into our conversation..." Gale said, "Whether Selune is full of lies or not, her followers have sheltered many homeless people."

Yingxin wanted to say something else, but Asdaelon stopped her in time: "Let's put aside those high gods. Now we have fallen into this situation. Apart from struggling and the help from our companions, we have never received the favor of any god... Let's continue the conversation. There are new adventures waiting for us."

"As many of you have guessed, I am a vampire spawn..."

"Vampire?" Kalak asked in astonishment, "But I saw you moving in the sun!"

"Correction, vampire spawn! That means I am a pathetic slave... Kazador controls everything about me. In the past many years, I have been nothing more than a puppet who obeys his orders and a tool for him to realize his ambitions... Until that magical little worm got into my brain..." Asdeln took out a broken mirror, but the mirror reflected a heavy shadow instead of his pale and handsome face. "For some reason, I feel that I am no longer under his control. Even the sun can't burn me to ashes... This is almost a good deal, if we don't become a mind flayer in the end... During the time I traveled with you, I felt the long-lost freedom... No matter where fate plans to take us, at least we are still alive and plan to continue living... If you can let me drink some blood, I can play a greater role."

Perhaps Arsdalen's last words were the key, but no one in the camp was prepared to give their blood.

Asdeln, who was not particularly disappointed, shrugged and continued, "Anyway, I was planning to look for any hidden humans in the village and borrow some blood from them. So I pried open the locked door of the blacksmith shop, but I didn't find anything particularly useful except a weapon design drawing. If you are still an inventor, it might be useful to you, bard."

Ivy took the High Cliff blueprint handed over by Asdaelon and unfolded it in his hand: "We need special materials from the Underdark, the bark of the Whispering Tree..."

"It is a tree that continuously releases an anti-magic field. Its flowers and bark have the same effect, but the anti-magic effect of the Whispering Flower is stronger." Gale reminded, "There are very few books on the market about the Whispering Tree. If you are not a race from the underground, you would not know about the Whispering Tree, let alone think of using it to make weapons."

"So, the young blacksmith apprentice mentioned in the Red Robe Wizard's medical journal might be a drow elf?" Ivy couldn't help but feel that this small village was really full of hidden talents. Not only were there the Red Robe Wizard and his apprentice from the Far East, but there was also a drow blacksmith apprentice who ran from underground to the surface.

"That's indeed very possible." Asdeln took out another piece of strangely shaped iron from his bag. "The blacksmith apprentice tried to use this piece of iron as a forging material, but she couldn't melt it. There was also a piece of paper next to it with the source marked, which was also from the Underdark."

"This is Hell Iron, and it comes from Avernus. I will never make a mistake." Kalak took a closer look. "Hell Iron from different levels of the Nine Hells has different properties. For example, Hell Iron weapons forged in Avernus can cause fire damage, while Hell Iron weapons forged in the third level, Minauros, can cause diseases and toxins."

"In short, when I was counting the harvest, I suddenly heard a lot of movement coming from behind the wall of the blacksmith shop. There was a huge crack on the wall, and behind the wall was a man-made passage." Asdeln continued to describe what happened last night, "The first scene I saw after entering the passage was the wizard drinking a healing potion... but I didn't expect that the next scene would be him falling to the ground with his hands on his throat and dying." "Who would have thought that there was such a large underground space under the well, and that there was also a Phase Spider Queen and her evil offspring hiding!" Xie Nian couldn't help but complain, "There are spider webs everywhere below, and our mobility has been greatly reduced. The Phase Spider Queen's ability to appear and disappear at will has made us miserable! And without Ivy and Shadow Heart, the only means of recovery we can use in battle are healing potions... So, Gale is just simply unlucky..."

"Thank you for your understanding..." Gale, who had been poisoned twice, rubbed his face with his hands. "Besides the amethyst that can open the 'Tome of Celtic Necromancer' and the diary of the red robe wizard's apprentice, what else did we find in the well?"

"It seems that someone has always lived in the hollow below the well," Will took out a number of old-looking journals and scrolls from his backpack, "I didn't read anything from these books except deep blasphemy..."

Gail and Ivy each took a few books and flipped through them quickly.

"A high elf who believes in the Spider Queen Rose? How rare." Ivy looked at the book that was almost completely soaked in blood. This was a holy book from underground. Later, someone used blood as ink to write down many regrets for the past "degenerate" life.

"This spider wizard summoned Rose's gaze underground..." Gale looked at the diary with pages stuck together by spider webs in his hand, "In the end, he turned into a phase spider alive... What a madman..."

"The gaze of the gods is powerful, and it will also have a subtle influence on everything around it..." Yingxin thought of the dark lady Shar whom he served devoutly, "Perhaps this is why children living in this village often go missing... The spider's nest under the well..."

"Oh, by the way, the three black-armored soldiers mentioned in the red wizard's diary might be the Night Judges...at least that's what the apprentice's diary said." Gale took out the diary wrapped in a red book cover from his bag again. "I was ambushed by the Itter monster when I was checking it...It's so strange. I've never seen Itter monsters and phase spiders living together..."

"Are you sure they are the Dark Night Judges?" Ying Xin shook his head. "I don't feel the power of Ms. Shar here..."

"You can go and confirm it yourself." Will's soul was affected by hell, and his single eye turned into the same scarlet as the devil. It was now emitting flickering light in the morning light. "Those corpses have turned into skeletons, but their clothes are still intact. A red-robed wizard and three soldiers in black armor. The number matches... but the bodies of the two apprentices are missing."

Yingxin left the campfire without saying a word and went towards the well.

Ivy took over the apprenticeship from Gale and flipped through a few pages, then opened the last tattered diary. A smile gradually spread across his face. The stories that happened in the abandoned village were very interesting. "It's really interesting. This connects everything..."

"The red-robed wizard who wanted to revive his lover came to this village of Selune's followers with his apprentice who was bound by an oath, and lived in anonymity disguised as a pharmacist."

"During this period, the Red Mage relied on his 'old acquaintance', the Quasai demon pet, to help him get corpses as research materials. At first, the Red Mage apprentice was able to stick to his oath, but later he became more and more impatient and more and more eager to return to Cyre."

"During the period when the Red Robe Wizard was studying necromancy, a drow girl joined the village and became the blacksmith's apprentice. She knew a route to the Underdark, which was most likely the tunnel behind the wall of the blacksmith's shop."

"While the red-robed wizard was studying necromancy and the drow blacksmith was studying Whispering Tree weapons, a high elf follower of Rose who had been captured by the drow also came to the bottom of the well through the secret passage. Her desire for Spider Queen Rose did indeed attract the attention of the gods."

"The power of the Spider Queen has affected everyone in this land. The Red Mage has become cowardly and selfish, his apprentice has become impatient and blind, and the Drow Blacksmith Apprentice wants to complete the weapon he designed despite being injured..."

"During this period, the red-robed wizard was ambushed by three black-armored soldiers and was seriously injured. His impatient apprentice saw hope because of this. He believed that his mentor would not live long, so he prepared the supplies needed for a new life in advance. He put his diary and supplies into a backpack and threw it to the safe route he learned from the blacksmith girl - that is, under the dried-up well."

"The apprentice originally wanted to wait until his mentor died completely before taking all his belongings and running away. However, the red-robed wizard gradually recovered under the effect of the healing potion. The development of things made the apprentice feel desperate, so he wrote down his murder plan in this "Recipe of Healing Potion". The bottle of poisonous healing potion that Gale drank was prepared by the apprentice for his mentor." Ivy showed the alchemy book found in the pharmacist's hut.

"After leaving the poisonous potion to their mentor, the apprentice stole the amethyst key and disappeared under the well with the blacksmith's apprentice. But what greeted them was not a new life, but a high elf who had gone mad because of Rose's crazy belief. This high elf regarded the two apprentices as gifts from Rose and conducted a completely inhumane magic experiment on them - completely transforming humanoid creatures into spiders."

"Half a month after the Red Robe Mage was attacked, the Black Armored Soldiers he met visited the village again and took away everyone here. Two days later, the Red Robe Mage saw black smoke rising from the horizon. Fearing another conflict with the Black Armored Soldiers, he chose to escape along the same route as his apprentice, leaving from under the well."

"But the three black-armored soldiers caught up with him and died together with the red-robed wizard under the well. At that time, the high elves who were studying spider magic had not yet completed their research, which is why you can see their intact bodies. I think the high elves' research has been going on for a while before they transformed the two apprentices into monsters such as itter monsters, which also belong to the spider category. In the process, they accumulated experience and finally turned themselves into phase spiders." Ivy finished telling the whole story, "Now there is only one last question, what are the identities of those black-armored soldiers?"

"They are not Lady Shar's Night Judges. Neither the armor they wear nor the weapons they hold are what Lady Shar likes." Yingxin has returned from the well and told her about his findings. "There are no masks on their helmets, and the weapons they hold are not maces. So they can't be Lady Shar's weapons, and they are not her tools to eliminate unbelievers."

"It seems that the mystery of their identities has not been solved yet... But there is a tunnel leading to the Underdark under this abandoned village. Perhaps you are interested in exploring it? After the fall of the Mind Flayer Empire, a large number of Mind Flayers went deep underground to establish their own tribes. Perhaps we can find a way to fight against the Mind Flayers in our minds there?" Ivy suggested.

(End of this chapter)