Mercenary Wars

Chapter 118 The Dark Region
Gaucano then used a "pseudo-cooking technique" to process these meat strips, removing their odor and turning them into jerky that could be preserved for a long time.

The processed Eye Demon jerky had a surprisingly good color, making Gao Jiano even want to try a piece.

But it’s just a thought.

Monsters can improve their spirit and intelligence by consuming bewitching flesh, but humans who eat it will only suffer from relentless nightmares. Therefore, one of the less common uses of bewitching flesh is to create "nightmare potions"—although no one knows the exact purpose of such a potion.

After putting away the several hundred pounds of Eye Demon jerky, Gaucano got up and carefully looked around the circular room.

Apart from the entrance we came from, there was only a statue and a black door in the room.

He walked up to the elf statue and reached out to touch it.

[Race: Fararo Drow Elf]

[Level: Level 6]

[Status: Secondary Fossil Mixture]

……

The fossil compound can turn a person into a petrified statue that is almost impossible to move or destroy. Gaucano already knew about this, but this was the first time he had seen it with his own eyes, and he couldn't help but feel a little curious.

He first tried to move it.

But it feels like it weighs at least 10,000 pounds.

No matter how hard he tried, the statue remained motionless.

In reality, the statue may not actually be that heavy. The reason it remains motionless is largely due to the spatial magic effect of the fossil potion, which prevents its center of gravity from shifting significantly horizontally.

Because of spatial magic, the statue cannot be teleported, nor can it be put into any spatial magic container. If it is forcibly put in, the container will be destroyed.

As for violent destruction, Gaucano also tried it. He took an ordinary iron sword and slashed at the statue repeatedly. As a result, even after the iron sword was smashed to pieces, there wasn't a single mark left on the statue.

Indeed, it cannot be moved or damaged.

At least with Gaucano's power, there's nothing he can do about this statue.

Either find the full holy name of this drow elf and recite it to his face to break the petrification; or you can only leave him standing here, and after a long time he will turn into a real stone—a very valuable kind of stone.

Pity……

Gao Gano was a little disappointed, after all, if he could, he wouldn't mind ridding the people of this scourge—the drow elves were notorious, and he could also gain some experience points along the way.

He stopped paying attention to the elf statue and walked to the black gate.

Unsurprisingly, this door is made of dwarven black steel, solid and heavy.

There was no lock, only a bolt.

Upon opening the door and looking outside, Gao Jiano's face immediately showed a hint of surprise.

Outside the black door lay an extremely vast underground space, possibly no smaller than that of Nanhai Town, with a vertical height of at least a hundred meters.

With a gentle breeze blowing in his face, even without dark vision, Gaucano could roughly sense the astonishing vastness of this underground space.

"The Underdark..."

He was certain it was a dark and gloomy place.

The term "Underground" is a general term for large underground spaces, and there are many Underground Spaces in the world of Farallo. If the underground is likened to an ocean, then the Underground Space is like a "large island," characterized by its ability to accommodate at least a town.

There was indeed a town in this dark region, which Gaucano noticed almost immediately.

He was standing on a cliff face, about several tens of meters above the ground below, connected by a narrow path. Looking down from here, there was a town a few hundred meters away.

There were several fires in the town, and figures could be faintly seen moving among them, standing out conspicuously in the darkness.

Gaucano uses his Eagle Eye technique.

With the help of Eagle Eye Technique, his vision improved significantly, and the blurry figures beside the firelight suddenly became clear.

They were short and stocky, with grayish-white skin, and most of them were bald. These distinctive features allowed Gaucano to immediately identify their race as the Gray Dwarfs.

Having seen many dwarf artifacts, Gaucano wasn't entirely unprepared for this, but seeing so many gray dwarves still made him frown.

Unlike the respected mountain dwarves, the grey dwarves who live in the Underdark are notorious, and are comparable to the drow elves in many ways.

In terms of their relationship with humans, the grey dwarves and drow elves are basically on par with the trolls.

Gaucano had seen grey dwarves before, but the scene was a slave market, the legal kind of slave market.

This was the first time he had ever seen a non-slave grey dwarf.

Aside from the stereotypical aspects, these grey dwarves also had some aspects that were beyond his previous understanding.

For example, beards. In his previous impression, the beards of gray dwarves were basically the same color as their skin, gray or white. But in this town, there were gray dwarves with red beards, and quite a few of them, roughly the same number as those with gray and white beards.

In addition, Gaugano discovered that the firelight in the town was actually composed of fire elementals, who appeared to be enslaved by the gray dwarves—used as tools for smelting and forging. This was not entirely unexpected, given that the gray dwarves were one of the most ardent advocates of slavery.

Gao Jiano didn't observe for long before quickly looking away and closing the door again.

Grey dwarves all have dark vision, so if he stands there, he will be easily spotted.

After closing the door, Gao Jiano pondered for a while.

What should we do about this gray dwarf town?
After much thought, he felt that there was nothing he could do, nor was there any need for him to do anything, because judging from the geographical location, this Underdark was probably located within Dibuto and had nothing to do with Nordanron.

As for whether the Dibutons would enter the mines, Gaugano thought it was possible, but unlikely.

After all, the Grey Dwarves do not distinguish between Mosa and Yemen. In their view, whether they are Mosa or Yemen followers, they are all foreigners and heretics.

Let alone the gray dwarves, even Gaucano himself couldn't figure out what the difference was between Mosa and Yemen, apart from their different names—the similarity between their doctrines was so high that they couldn't even pass a plagiarism check.

He shook his head, bolted the door shut again, and then returned to the mine the way he came.

He found Ryan and said, “Ryan, I remember that some of our mercenaries were slaves of the Grey Dwarves?”

“That’s right.” Ryan, who was still practicing lock picking, nodded upon hearing this. “Many years ago, Captain Lucius rescued them, and they became Lucius’s first followers.”

Gaucano then asked, "Are any of them people you are familiar with?"

“I know them all pretty well,” Ryan countered. “Do you need to see them for something?”

Gao Jiano nodded and pointed to the dwarf black steel lock in his hand: "I've recently become somewhat interested in the gray dwarves and would like to learn more about them."

“Go over there and find a guy named ‘Hilgon,’” Ryan pointed. “He’s a ranger with dark brown hair and a beard.”

(End of this chapter)