Wizards begin by accessing the Inspiration panel.

Chapter 188 Entering Grey Fern Town

The spider women continued their pursuit for some distance, encountering several trade caravans along the way, but all came up empty-handed.

Even though Flitty used her nasal powers multiple times, she couldn't smell anything about Fingart, as if he had completely disappeared from the Green-Shelled Lobster Man's caravan.

This infuriated Frietty, who exclaimed, "Sister Grace, is there really no other way?"

"Didn't the mistress ever give you any magical artifacts or anything like that for tracking, so you could directly locate the other party?"

Grace also had a gloomy face. Although she had ordered the pursuit to the west, she herself was not entirely sure that the other party was heading towards Grey Fern Town.

Moreover, as the team leader, she obviously bears the greatest pressure.

Upon hearing Fritty's question, Grace shook her head and said, "Normally, the tracking compass given by the mistress should be able to easily pinpoint the exact location of the Nightmare Mirror."

"But the other party used some method to almost completely isolate the aura of the Nightmare Mirror, and now the tracking compass is completely unresponsive."

Grace pulled a small, palm-sized round compass from her bosom. The compass was marked with various sizes of graduations, and in the center was a short strand of hair about ten centimeters long.

As Grace channeled her mental energy, her hair became even blacker and shinier, seemingly possessing some kind of magical power, and began to rotate 360 ​​degrees continuously, as if trying to point the way.

But after spinning for a while, the hair gradually slowed down.

Nothing was gained!

Just as the two were at a loss, Irene, who had been mostly silent, thought for a moment and said, "It seems that the other party has used some kind of witchcraft that can isolate smells, or it may be some kind of isolation artifact."

"By the way, Grace, you have a strand of the Mistress's hair here. If you just take a little bit, you can use the Bloodline Tracking Technique to track all the Spider Women under the Mistress. Why don't you let me try the Bloodline Tracking Technique?"

Grace hesitated for a moment before agreeing. Her hesitation stemmed from the fact that casting the Bloodline Tracking spell would consume the Mistress's hair.

One minute later.

The three men stared solemnly at their mistress's hair, which had grown to nine centimeters long.

The bloodline tracking technique yielded nothing!

The view shifts back to the open field near the Green-Shelled Lobster Man trade caravan.

Richard, his servant, and his companion waited quietly for all the spider women to leave.

Only then did Stephanie and Fingart dare to speak. Fingart softly exclaimed in praise, "Master, you are truly wise. Without your foresight, your lowly servant Fingart might have met with disaster."

"Fingart is absolutely right, Master, your wisdom is truly remarkable," Stephania said sweetly, looking at Richard with seductive eyes.

"Stop! That's enough, you two. Stop flattering us. We have more important things to do."

After saying that, Richard, with the two men under the cover of their cloaks, retrieved Stephanie's hair and the pale green patterned box from the pile of goods near the first and third unicorn lizards.

Although the two still couldn't understand the meaning behind Richard's actions, this time they had no doubts whatsoever.

After all, the arrival of the three high-ranking Spider Women had just proven that Richard's judgment was entirely correct.

"We can't let our guard down yet. Even if we go at full speed, it will still take us two or three days to get to Grey Fern Town." Richard's original plan was to come to Grey Fern Town.

Under the cover of their cloaks, Richard and his companions continued their journey toward Greyfir, overtaking many trade caravans heading to Greyfir and encountering several groups returning from trading in the town.

"Fingert, another scale."

"Yes, Master."

"Stephena, give me a drop of blood, and put it on this strand of hair."

Following Richard's instructions, the two handed over the scales and strands of hair to Richard.

Richard placed the scales, the bloodstained hair, and the pale green patterned box in three separate convoys that were heading east and then returning.

Half a day later

Looking at that drop of bright red blood, Grace and the other two women trembled with rage!

This...this time, we've been tricked by our opponents again!

This is even more painful than killing three women!

If they encounter a powerful enemy who overwhelms them in strength, they are more likely to accept it. But this time, they are being intellectually crushed.

This was something they really couldn't accept.

Half a day ago, both Fritty's Spirit Nose Technique and Irene's Spider Woman Bloodline Tracking Technique pointed to the other party being in this location.

So, they spent half a day speeding back, only to get this result.

This almost made Grace, who is usually good at controlling her emotions, explode!

-

As he watched the spider women speed away once again, Richard finally felt relieved. Gray Fern Town was not far ahead, and the spider women probably wouldn't dare to chase him into the town of the gray dwarves.

In less than half a day, after the three of them crossed a small hill, a small town located in the plains came into view.

The town was surrounded by rammed earth walls several meters high, which enclosed the entire town.

Since Richard and his companions were on a small hillside, they could clearly see the town's houses lined up one after another, revealing several main roads. The roads were bustling with people, creating a lively atmosphere.

The houses here are built in a simple, sturdy and practical style, constructed from hard rock, which contrasts sharply with the elegance, complexity and beauty of the night elves.

This was also Richard's first time experiencing the gray dwarf style of architecture.

Upon entering the town, Richard realized that the people he had seen in the distance were not ordinary humans. There were not only gray dwarves and ordinary humans, but also many strange-looking races. Fish-men like Fingart were quite common, as were lobster people, lizard people, and so on.

Almost every race unique to the Underdark could be seen in the town, which greatly broadened Richard and Stephanie's horizons.

This shows that the overall atmosphere in the Grey Dwarf-controlled area is relatively open-minded; at least on the surface, the Grey Dwarfs are open to different races.

This also made Grey Fern Town, which is only a small town, quite prosperous in trade, with all kinds of goods for sale.

In contrast, the Night Elves have strict level barriers.

Even though a fish-man like Fingart possesses the strength of a level three wizard apprentice, in terms of status, he is merely a vassal race, far inferior to a Spider Knight of equal strength, and even lower in status than an ordinary Shadow Hunter.

This made Richard feel a certain fondness for the gray dwarves. Such a free environment was very suitable for him to settle down in for a short period of time, and at least the pressure of integration would be much lighter.

Since Grey Fern Town was under the control of the Grey Dwarves, Richard paid special attention to the appearance and characteristics of the Grey Dwarves.

For example, the gray dwarf guards, clad in chainmail, were only up to Richard's chest in height, but each was burly and powerful, and most of them carried heavy weapons.

Moreover, according to Fingart's introduction along the way, the Grey Dwarves were once a branch of the surface dwarves ten thousand years ago, and only after a series of major events did the Grey Dwarf race come into being.

Their racial characteristics include great strength; an adult grey dwarf is several times stronger than an ordinary human. They also have strong resistance to dark elements, which is the same as most species living in the Underdark. In addition, they have elemental affinity second only to the night elves.

Therefore, the probability of a wizard appearing among the gray dwarves is also very high.

Compared to the dwarves on the surface, the grey dwarves are also skilled in forging, but each has their own unique characteristics. The grey dwarves are skilled in rune forging.

This made Richard raise an eyebrow, and he said with great interest:

"Fingart, are you talking about rune forging?"

"Yes, Master."

"Tell me what you know."

Richard had seen information about rune forging from the Grey Dwarves at the Ignis School, but the details were always brief, with rune forging itself being mentioned only briefly.

After listening to Fingart's explanation, Richard basically understood the rune forging technique. It involves inscribing specific magical runes with particular effects on the forging process. Obviously, the higher the skill level, the more magical runes can be inscribed, and the greater and more diverse the power of the weapon or armor will be.

Simply put, the rune-forging art of the Grey Dwarves combines forging and inscribing magical runes, and has evolved over at least thousands or even tens of thousands of years into a unique skill.

Before long, Fingart led the curious Richard to a blacksmith shop in Greyfern Town.

Inside the shop, a bustling scene unfolded, with the sounds of clanging and banging filling the air. A short, grey dwarf dressed as a blacksmith's apprentice was operating a blower, while several shirtless, muscular grey dwarf masters were vigorously forging weapons, armor, and everyday ironware by the furnace.

The blacksmith shop was divided into two parts. One part was used for forging, but a small part was used for engraving runes. A white-bearded gray dwarf was carefully engraving burning runes on the blank of a knight's longsword.

Although Richard thought it wouldn't be difficult to draw the burning rune, that would be on a flat surface, like the ground. He couldn't currently do what the other man did—engrave it on a knight's longsword and have it continue to work.

Because longswords wear down, once they are sharpened with a whetstone, if the design is drawn on the surface of a knight's longsword with ethereal ink, the burning runes will obviously become unusable as the design is damaged.

However, the Grey Dwarves are able to do this using the special art of rune forging.

This is the kind of power that a blacksmith shop in an ordinary gray dwarf town possesses.

Li realized that if he could thoroughly study its mysteries, it would greatly benefit the creation of alchemical bombs and low-level magical artifacts.

Stephania watched with great curiosity the group of gray dwarf blacksmiths busily working in front of her.

Before long, she noticed that many weapons engraved with runes were hanging high around the walls of the blacksmith's shop.

This almost blinded Stephanie.

You should know that if these were on the surface, they would all be considered low- or mid-level witchcraft items.

She finally understood why the seemingly weak grey dwarves could fight the night elves for thousands of years without a clear victor.

Richard believed that the widespread adoption of this rune-forging technique gave the Grey Dwarves, whose number of wizards was significantly less than that of the Night Elves, a different way to utilize elemental energy, thus enabling them to contend with the Night Elves, who were stronger overall.

Over thousands of years, the application of these runes has become very widespread and practical, which greatly interested Richard.

This reminded Richard of a saying from his past life: one should read ten thousand books and travel ten thousand miles.

The path of a wizard is the same: by encountering different races and civilizations, one can broaden one's horizons and continuously increase one's knowledge, which is of great importance.

After thinking for a moment, Richard turned to Fingart and asked, "By the way, what currency do the Grey Dwarves use?"

"Master, we have a currency unique to the Grey Dwarves here, but please rest assured, magic stones are universally accepted here."

Richard nodded. It seemed that the acceptance of wizards and other supernatural powers was higher here than on the surface. Magic stones could be used for trading in daily life, which was probably due to the harsh living environment of the Underdark.

In contrast, ordinary humans on the surface of the earth live more like they are in a garden well protected by wizards.

Richard casually bought a knight's longsword engraved with burning runes and observed the runes with great interest, wondering why they were called runes instead of witchcraft arrays.

That's because a magic array is generally composed of multiple runes, and array patterns must be drawn as energy supply channels. It usually requires external energy supply, such as high-level magic stones or the core of extraordinary creatures.

Since runes have a single function, they are generally triggered directly by the holder's mental power and do not involve issues such as energy supply.

"Master, I still don't understand after listening for so long. What is the difference between this rune forging technique and the making of our witchcraft items? It sounds like the process of making witchcraft items."

"We also need to smelt metal, but unlike the gray dwarves who use forging techniques, we human wizards mostly use alchemy techniques to smelt metal."

Richard looked approvingly at Stephena, who had raised the question, and explained, "Yes, in general terms, they are similar, but the biggest difference lies in the inscription of the magic array."

Richard pulled the Frost Guardian from his waist and handed this masterpiece from the Northern Elf craftsmen to Stephanie. He then handed her the newly purchased knight's longsword engraved with burning runes.

"Take a close look and see what the difference is."

Stephania first carefully examined the Ice Guardian, a weapon made entirely of cold iron mixed with a trace of gold essence, which was said to be the standard weapon of the Elf Queen's personal guard.

As a top-tier sorcery tool, there is a sorcery circle on both the front and back of the sword hilt, which respectively imbues the sword with the ice-type level zero sorcery Deep Winter's Chill and ALS. In the center of the sorcery circle is a small pale blue frost stone that supplies energy, while the sorcery circle is also slowly absorbing the free water element particles around it.

Previously, when Richard was merely a wizard apprentice, his mental acuity was not sharp enough to detect this, but now, he could clearly sense that the two magic arrays at the hilt of the Ice Guardian sword were constantly absorbing water element particles and converting them into ice element particles.

"Hey, I noticed the difference, the positions of the magic arrays are different," Stephana said excitedly.

"That's right."

"We usually design the spell array on the hilt of the sword, but the gray dwarves' rune forging technique involves engraving the runes onto the blade itself—it's a unique skill. Anything else?"

"Although the triggering methods are the same, the gray dwarf's knight's longsword is more focused on the wielder's own mental strength, while the Ice Guardian can unleash the power of a top-tier sorcery item as long as it can be triggered," Stephania said with a frown.

Richard nodded. This was just the surface. Although Stephena had said so much, she hadn't really gotten to the point.

"That's right, so there's a very big difference between the two."

This is why Richard was so interested. For someone like him with an inspiration panel, as long as there's a clear path to improve his rune crafting skills, becoming a master rune crafter is just a matter of time.

After the master and his two servants left the blacksmith shop.

"Fingart, find a hotel. Let's rest for a day, and then we can explore the area tomorrow," Richard said, turning to Fingart beside him.

"Yes, my master! There is a Delicious Spore Inn here, which should be the best inn in Greyfern Town," Fingart replied respectfully.

"The specialty of this restaurant is braised salmon with spores, which is exceptionally delicious. I recommend that you try it."

Fingart was quite familiar with Grey Fern Town.

So, after listening to Fingart's introduction, Richard immediately nodded and said, "Okay, let's go with this one."

Despite their superior physical condition, the three of them, who had endured wind and rain and slept outdoors, still needed to rest from time to time.

Before long, the three arrived at a two-story stucco house with the words "Delicious Spore Inn" (in Grey Dwarf script) hanging on it. As soon as they entered the inn, Richard and the others smelled a special and tempting aroma.

The spacious hall was almost full of guests, with only a few tables still empty.

Fingart, speaking fluent Grey Dwarf language, ordered his food at the counter.

Before long, a large plate of some kind of plant tuberous root that smelled strongly of roasted sweet potatoes was served.

Fingart explained, "Master, this is one of the staple foods of the Grey Dwarves, called Purple Leaf Sweet Potato, a crop that can grow well with only a small amount of light."

Richard nodded. Purple Leaf Sweet Potato, the name sounds similar to sweet potato. He picked up a fist-sized Purple Leaf Sweet Potato tuber, and the moment he broke it open, a fragrant aroma filled the air. Taking a bite, the texture was similar to sweet potato. It is rich in starch and can be considered a large and filling staple food.

Before I could even take a couple of bites of the purple sweet potato, a gray dwarf woman brought out an iron basin the size of a washbasin. Inside, I could clearly see a dark-scaled salmon about half a meter long, sprinkled with countless cherry-sized spores.

Spores are the seeds of ferns, and the spores in front of me look incredibly tender and green, seemingly quite delicious.

Richard took a sip, his eyes lit up, and he felt his taste buds being enveloped by a deliciousness he had never tasted before. This deliciousness seemed to be a mixture of the pure fragrance of spores and the freshness of fish, producing some kind of strange chemical reaction.

Once the main course was served, the group immediately began to eat. Perhaps because they hadn't had proper food for a few days, the three of them devoured the food like a whirlwind.

Finally, mushroom soup was served, with various kinds of mushrooms such as round mushrooms, stalk mushrooms, and fan mushrooms floating on top, which was also extremely delicious.

Richard discovered on his first trip underground that green plants were extremely scarce in the Dark Regions, and most of them were plants that did not require a light source or only needed a small amount of light to meet their growth needs.

Many underground plants have evolved various forms of energy conversion processes. Richard has seen many tall, unnamed plants growing lushly near geothermal hot springs. This is a typical example of using geothermal energy as light energy, which can be considered as finding the energy source for their own growth.

Although the food underground and on the surface are very different, they each have their own unique characteristics in terms of deliciousness.

"(Grey Dwarf's words) This is amazing! I haven't had this dish in ages!"

Richard hadn't paid much attention at first, but the other person's call immediately drew his attention because he sensed a subtle fluctuation of mental energy, which, though subtle, was very concentrated.

At a nearby table, a dwarf old man with a bulbous nose had also ordered a pot of stewed dark-scaled salmon with spores and was eating it with great enthusiasm.

Accompanying him were two identical twin grey dwarf girls, young and pretty, who were quite attractive among the grey dwarves. They were feeding the old grey dwarf, one spoonful at a time.

Richard was surprised when he glanced at the old man. He hadn't expected that this unassuming old man was actually a formal wizard. Although the old man tried his best to hide it, Richard could still sense the extremely condensed spiritual energy fluctuations that the old man was exuding.

You should know that I had just been wandering around Greyfern Town for a while and only encountered one wizard-level expert. Moreover, according to Fingart, it was a grey dwarf leader stationed in the town.

Richard casually turned his head as if nothing was wrong, but he could sense that the other person's identity was probably not simple.

However, although Richard withdrew his gaze, the old man with the bulbous nose next to him secretly stared at Stephena.

Since entering Grey Fern Town, although Stephania has always worn a hood and half-mask, her curvaceous figure and exposed bright red lips have attracted the interest of many.

However, after sensing the aura of the fishman Fingart, who was at the level of a third-level wizard apprentice, no one dared to bother him.

Richard had been watching the old gray dwarf man's every move. Considering Stephena's special status, and especially since this was a gray dwarf-controlled area, Richard didn't want to cause any trouble. He said, "Well, if you're full, let's go back to our room to rest."

Seeing that Richard and his companions seemed about to leave, the bulbous-nosed, gray-haired dwarf could no longer contain himself and immediately stood up and addressed the three of them:

"(Grey Dwarf) Wait, my friends!"

However, Richard obviously pretended not to hear and continued walking forward, while Stephena and Fingart were slightly taken aback when they saw their master acting this way, but they also ignored him.

"(Akkadian) Please wait a moment, unfamiliar wizard."

Richard was taken aback, stopped, and turned around to carefully observe the unfamiliar gray dwarf wizard in front of him.

Clearly, the old gray dwarf wizard with the dark red bulbous nose seemed to have realized his strength, and it would be inappropriate to continue pretending to be deaf and dumb.

(End of this chapter)