Mercenary Wars

Chapter 122 Mushrooms
“Where exactly is this place?” John asked.

“Silver Fang’s secret passage.” Gaucano said as he walked deeper into the secret passage, “At the end is a dark region. Perhaps we can use the dark region to return to the surface.”

“The Underdark!” A hint of unpleasant recollection appeared on Hilgon’s face.

Ryan: "What's inside? Drow elves?"

“There is one drow,” Gaugano said, “but there are mostly grey dwarves.”

Upon hearing that there were grey dwarves, Hilgon's expression darkened further. He pursed his lips and remained silent for a long time.

Until he noticed someone in the line: "Why is there a supervisor here?"

These dozen or so people were almost all Grey Eagle mercenaries, and most of them were acquaintances of Gaogano. Only two of them were not mercenaries: one was the miner Barons, and the other was the foreman.

Being a foreman has always been a disreputable profession, and most mercenaries do not want to have a foreman teammate, especially in the current situation. Obviously, having all their own people is the ideal scenario.

At this point, Thomas said, "Daniel is not a bad guy, and he is very capable. He is a senior overseer of the Gavin Chamber of Commerce and has five holy names."

After hearing Thomas's words, people's attitude towards the overseer improved.

But someone still asked, "Daniel, can you tell us about your abilities?"

The foreman, Daniel, calmly said, “I have the blessing of ‘trickery and illusion,’ you should have heard of it.”

"Loki's blessing, the god of mischief?"

"Yes."

"Wow, that's amazing! I wish I could have this blessing too... Does it come with any prophecies or something?"

Daniel did not answer the question.

Regardless, everyone reacted positively upon hearing that he possessed the blessing of illusion, as it was indeed a versatile ability.

Barons didn't know what a trick illusion was, but he treated Daniel well.

Because Daniel was a senior overseer—or "overseer's overseer"—he had almost no direct conflicts with the miners, but rather some conflicts with the overseers.

As the saying goes, the enemy of my enemy is my friend, so Barons said, "I remember you, you beat up the overseer Narg!"

“That’s right,” Daniel said. “Narg is a complete idiot.”

"That's absolutely right, well done!" Barons exclaimed excitedly. "That guy whipped me the most!"

"Are you a miner?" Some people then realized that there was actually a miner in the group.

They didn't exactly dislike the miners, but in a place like the Underdark, the miners were clearly too weak, even a burden.

Sensing the questioning gaze, Barons quickly said, "I also have a holy name and blessing—the Guardian! I can place invisible Guardians, and wherever the Guardians are, my line of sight can see them!"

At this point, Gao Jiano asked, "How many sentries and guards did you set up in the mine?"

“Two,” Barons added. “I can only fit two.”

Gaucano nodded: "Those two sentry guards will remain at the mine for now. If you see any unusual activity from the Dibutons, please alert us immediately."

"No problem!" Barons assured him, patting his chest.

After chatting and resting for a while, the group, led by Gao Jiano, headed deeper into the secret passage.

"How did you find this place?" Hilgon asked.

“Some luck and chance,” Gaugano said without elaborating. Hilgon then asked, “So that’s why you asked me about the grey dwarves?”

“That’s right.” Gao Jiano nodded, then changed the subject, “You should also understand some of the language of the gray dwarves, right?”

Hilgon sighed, “Of course, those vicious slave owners enslaved me for five whole years.”

A moment of silence fell.

Before long, the group arrived at the end of the passage.

Gao Jiano had already obtained some darkvision potions, but he didn't use them. Instead, he turned to ask, "Besides Ryan, who else has darkvision?"

“I have it,” Hilgon said.

“You should observe the situation in the Underdark,” Gaucano said, opening the door. “Be careful, the Grey Dwarf town isn’t far from us.”

Hilgon observed for a moment: "It's alright now. It's nighttime in the Underdark, and most of the Grey Dwarves are already resting. They shouldn't be able to spot us."

“How are ‘day’ and ‘night’ divided in the Underdark?” John asked.

Hilgon pointed into the distance: "See those tiny specks of light? They are 'bright-topped mushrooms.' The intelligent races living in the Underdark use their changes in brightness to distinguish between day and night."

John nodded.

Ryan said, "This Underdark is quite large; I guess it's about the size of Southshore plus half of Stoneclaw Valley."

Hilgon added, "In my experience, the population of this grey dwarf town should be between one thousand and two thousand—not counting slaves."

"What if we include slaves?"

“That’s hard to say,” Hilgon thought for a moment. “It depends on the color of the beards of these grey dwarves. If they are all red-bearded grey dwarves, then they may not have a single slave. If they are all white-bearded grey dwarves, they may have more slaves than their own population.”

In the short time that followed, Hilgon and Ryan observed the situation in the Underdark while reporting back to the others, with Hilgon occasionally introducing the situation of the Grey Dwarves.

“Let’s head north along the edge,” Hilgon suggested. “There seems to be a road to the north that might lead to the surface.”

Without objection, the group immediately entered the Underdark. Guided by two Dark Sight users, they carefully avoided the possible sight of the Grey Dwarves and headed north counterclockwise along the edge.

This is a rather long journey.

Especially in the first half, because they were close to the gray dwarf town, they had to be very careful and use various concealment spells to avoid being discovered.

Fortunately, the mushrooms provided them with some help.

Most plants and trees cannot grow in dark areas; instead, various mushrooms take their place.

For example, the Giant Stone Mushroom, a common mushroom whose size is comparable to that of trees on the ground, has a huge cap that can provide excellent cover, preventing people from being completely exposed to the Grey Dwarf town.

For example, the stem mushroom.

The most distinctive feature of the stem mushroom is its extremely plump stem, which is edible. Of course, Grey Dwarves can eat stem mushrooms raw, but humans usually need to cook them.

For surface creatures, stalk mushrooms are a relatively rare food source, but in darker regions, they are quite common.

Therefore, during the break, everyone ate a meal of grilled mushroom stems.

After finishing their meal, they continued on their way. After walking for a while, Ryan's eyes lit up: "Look there, there's a cave entrance!"

(End of this chapter)