Mercenary Wars

Chapter 116 Petrified Statue
A few seconds later, a dark passage appeared before Gaucano.

He looked at the location of the passage, a deep surprise appearing on his face. He had already checked the place, but had not found any gaps. Moreover, the passage opened with very little noise, which showed the superb craftsmanship of its construction.

The kobolds definitely don't have this level of craftsmanship. Considering the dwarven black steel lock, it's probably a dwarven creation as well.

After a moment's thought, Gaucano pulled out the key, then activated the illumination spell and stepped into the dark secret passage.

For safety's sake, he activated Earth Skin as soon as he entered the passage.

With the activation of Earth Skin, his skin immediately took on a rocky sheen, exuding a solid and weighty texture.

As it turned out, his decision was absolutely correct.

He had only taken a few steps when a "crack" sound suddenly rang out, and a dense cluster of steel spikes emerged from the ground, piercing the soles of his feet.

Fortunately, the Earth Skin protected him; otherwise, he would have been severely crippled.

Even so, Gaucano paid the price with a pair of shoes.

After retreating from the location of the spikes, he searched the vicinity and eventually found two levers in a hidden corner, with a keyhole between them.

Insert the black key into the keyhole and try pulling the two levers respectively.

One of the levers is the mechanism for controlling the trap; when it is pulled, the spike trap immediately retracts and closes.

The other lever controls the passage entrance, allowing it to be closed or opened.

After closing the entrance, Gaucano continued deeper into the passage.

The passage was very narrow, no more than a meter at its widest point and only about half a meter at its narrowest. He even had to turn slightly to the side to pass through.

In addition, the passage was quite long, several hundred meters, and entirely downhill. Considering the mine was located underground, Gaugano couldn't help but wonder: was this passage truly the so-called "mine exit"?

He continued along the passage, taking a short break to recover the energy depleted by the Earth Skin and to maintain peak condition.

After a rest, we'll start again.

About half a minute later, just as Gao Jiano felt he was about to walk out of the passage, a deep voice suddenly came from ahead: "You are not Silver Fang."

At the same time, five blue lights suddenly shone in the darkness ahead.

Five orbs of blue light, four small and one large, upon closer inspection, turned out to be five eyes.

Gao Jiano was startled and immediately withdrew his illumination spell, using the dim light emitted by the five eyes to observe.

He quickly got a clear look at the creature with five eyes.

Observer.

A low-level eye demon, level four to seven.

In short, the Observer's appearance is a huge and ferocious floating head with a giant eye in the middle and four tentacle-like eye stalks on its sides, each with a small eye at the top.

Of course, the so-called "small eyes" are relative to the giant eyes in the middle; their actual size may be larger than Gaucano's fist.

At the end of the passage was a circular room, where the Observer Eye Demon was currently suspended, its five eyes fixed intently on Gaugano outside the room.

"Human, what's your name?" he suddenly asked.

The question seemed a bit odd, but it was normal for an observer, since it was common knowledge that observers suffered from mild madness, or perhaps not so mild. Gaugano blurted out, "Taf."

“Taf, not a bad name.” The Observer tapped one of his eye stalks, then changed the subject, “Where’s Silverfang? He hasn’t come to chat with me in ages.”

Gaucano: "He's busy with work."

“Okay, I completely understand.” The observer sighed. “In that case, could you talk to me for a while?”

“Of course,” Gao Jiano said. “How did you and Silver Fang meet?”

Observer: "It's been a while. Back then, Silver Fang received a prophecy that told him to dig hard, so he and a few friends dug and dug, and that's when he met me... But his friends were very vulgar, so I ate them all. Only Silver Fang and I got along really well. To be honest, I'm quite old now, but I don't have many confidants like Silver Fang."

Gaucano then asked, "What are you here to protect?"

"More or less." The observer's eyes darted to a statue beside him. "My mission is to keep an eye on him."

Gaucano looked at the statue.

The statue is entirely yellow, depicting a naked elf—it appears to be a drow elf—with incredibly rich and lifelike details, and a resentful expression on its face.

"This is... a petrified statue?" Gaucano asked, somewhat uncertainly.

"You got it right!" The observer burst into laughter for no apparent reason. "This guy was chased to the brink of death by my master and had to drink a bottle of fossil potion, turning him into a statue that is almost impossible to move or destroy, and he has stood here ever since."

He paused for a moment, then continued, "My job is to prevent anyone from rescuing him, to let him be worn down by the years and turn into a real stone!"

Gao Jianuo nodded in understanding.

The observer then suddenly went off on a tangent: "Ah, Taff, let me ask you a question—how do you save someone who has drunk fossil potion?"

As a pharmacist, Gao Jiano certainly knew the answer: "The simplest way is to simply recite his full holy name in front of him, and he will be restored to his physical body."

“Absolutely correct!” the observer exclaimed dramatically, then sneered at the petrified drow elf. “However, these dark and narrow-minded creatures like drow elves probably only know their full holy names!”

He changed the subject: "And you, Taf, does anyone know your full holy name?"

“I…” Gao Jiano was truly stumped by the question.

"Looks like there isn't!" the Observer laughed heartily. "Neither do I, nor does Silver Tooth! If we ever have to drink the fossil potion, we'll probably just have to wait to die. How hilarious! Hahahaha!"

Gao Jiano was silent for a moment, then asked, "Why is your master hunting down this drow elf?"

“This is a complex and interesting story,” the observer said slowly. “Of course, I can tell you, but you must answer one question for me first.”

“Okay.” Gao Jiano nodded.

The observer stared at him: "You can't lie anymore."

Gaucano remained expressionless: "When did I lie?"

“At least Taf is definitely not your name.” The Observer grinned. “No one knows your full holy name, which shows you are a human full of secrets. Someone like you would never even tell me your common name.”

Gaucano remained noncommittal: "What is your question?"

The observer stared at him for two seconds, then asked, "Did you kill Silver Fang?"

(End of this chapter)