Today, they too are going to their deaths.

The underground alien race dug a secret passage leading to the seventh new district of the Royal Academy of Sciences.

The dwarf Adams Heavy Tax put down his personal excavator, drank a whole bottle of strong liquor, and let the power contained in the liquor invigorate his body.

Rowena, who was waiting anxiously, knew that in this day and age, alcohol was a vital fuel for dwarves' actions, and preventing them from drinking was tantamount to killing them.

But she couldn't help asking, "How much longer will it take us to dig up the Royal Academy of Sciences? Does this road really lead to the Royal Academy of Sciences?"

Adams Heavy Tax let out a burp and casually replied, "Don't question my navigation skills, and don't question our exploration record. This place does indeed lead directly to the Royal Academy of Sciences; we almost came face to face with those excavating robots back then."

"But you know, in order not to attract the attention of the humans, we eventually sealed off the passage."

"By now, those excavating robots should have dug deeper. Just be careful, follow the passage up, and don't expose yourself to the monitoring equipment; you shouldn't be detected."

"As for how to obtain an identity within the Royal Academy of Sciences, that's up to you."

"By the way, why did you go there?"

Rowena lied without batting an eye, saying, "A friend of mine told me that the Royal Academy of Sciences has a plan recently. They intend to abstract research projects into investable projects and then solicit investment from everyone, instead of just accepting help from a few investors as in the past."

"This plan is called 'tech stocks'."

"But I'm worried that normal tourist routes will only show fakes, so I'm going to go and see for myself what they're really like."

Adams Heavy Tax exclaimed, "People on Earth are starting to play financial fraud too? We definitely need to investigate this thoroughly! Oh, and remember to take a look at all the competing technologies."

"I also invested when I was young, but who would have thought that the efficient mushroom wine production technology would be completely defeated by the water and soil wine-making magic? They even went into the fuel industry and wiped out my other stocks as well."

"I used to be a very wealthy man, but now I have to take on these private tour guide jobs."

Upon hearing this, Rowena couldn't help but think more highly of Adams Heavy Tax. She knew all too well the feeling of falling suddenly from a great height; every now and then she would receive news of people jumping off buildings or lying on train tracks.

Oh, I almost forgot, he's a dwarf. He's too short to climb to a height high enough to fall to his death, or even be hit by a car.

"Achoo." Adams Heavy Tax sneezed, spraying alcohol and snot all over the wall in front of him. "Strange, is someone cursing me, or is the air quality around here so bad that even my beard can't stand it?"

Adams Heavy Tax dared not linger any longer. He quickly picked up the excavator and continued working until the area in front of him was completely dug through.

Rowena looked out of the secret passage.

They had lighting equipment that could illuminate the secret passage, but as soon as the light appeared, it seemed to be swallowed up by some monster, and it couldn't illuminate the surroundings at all.

There was also a chilling silence here.

Just a moment ago they were still immersed in chatting and the sounds of excavators, but now only the sound of heartbeats and blood flowing remained. Even the sounds that were made clearer by the silence gradually faded away until they finally disappeared into nothingness.

Yes, there was no sound at all, not even the sounds that could prove people were still alive. It was so quiet that it felt like a world belonging only to the dead.

"Am I dead?" The thought suddenly flashed through Rowena's mind.

The next moment, a strong will to survive surged within her. She grabbed Adams Heavy Tax and desperately retreated while using magic to seal the leaking hole.

As darkness was once again blocked by earth and stones, and light filled the secret passage, she finally breathed a sigh of relief and collapsed to the ground.

"Phew! That was close. Heavy Tax, do you know what happened just now?"

Adams did not answer her; his body convulsed, causing the earth and stones above him to fall.

The light that had just filled the secret passage began to dim, as if an invisible diner was closing in from the end of the passage, enjoying the light.

Rowena retreated repeatedly before the approaching darkness, not even bothering to grab the equipment on Adams Heavy Tax. Then, as darkness swallowed Adams Heavy Tax, the lighting equipment shut off, plunging the secret passage into complete darkness.

Rowena's other combat personalities immediately entered the standby area, ready to forcibly control her body and fight the enemy.

Then, Adams turned the lights back on and said to Rowena with an unusually serious expression, "In my time of need, you actually abandoned me! Do you know how much psychological trauma your actions have caused me?!"

"I will never forgive your inaction unless you double the reward!"

Rowena exclaimed in shock, "You're alright!"

Adams Heavy Tax shook his head, his face stern. "How can you say I'm alright? I was convulsing and being swallowed by darkness. If I didn't have some hidden skills, I would have been dead long ago! Do you know how many dwarves the plague has killed!"

"The plague has struck!" Rowena exclaimed in surprise and disbelief.

During her interactions with the underground alien race, she had heard of this word, but they all held it in great taboo, so although she had heard of it, she had never understood it.

Adams Heavy Tax nodded vigorously, and in a tone mixed with fear and awe, he described the force that had just attacked: "What just attacked us was the plague, the curse from the depths of the earth, the inviolable end, the darkness that devours everything."

"In the distant past, the dwarves dug ever deeper into the earth in search of treasures. We slew the terrible Balrog, stopped the eruption of magma from the earth, defeated the army of the Broodmother, built outpost after outpost, and finally reached the permafrost, and then broke through the curse."

"The light was constantly swallowed up, and darkness spread with it. The plague destroyed one outpost after another, advancing along the dwarven lands and swallowing up the settlements that had not yet been evacuated."

"Tens of thousands of dwarves silently dissolved into the darkness, leaving behind only an empty, dead city."

"Neither alchemical potions, purification rituals, nor rune armor have any effect on it. Only earth and stone, which also originate from the earth, can isolate the plague and allow us to hold onto the last glimmer of life."

"And now, we've encountered this terrible disaster, so you absolutely must pay more."

Rowena touched her forehead, gathering her thoughts, and then retorted, "Wait, aren't you alright? And the Royal Academy of Sciences seems to be fine too."

Adams tried to change the subject: "That's not the point. The point is you almost killed me."

Rowena immediately pointed out the dwarf's logical flaws: "You seemed to have foreseen from the beginning that the Royal Academy's excavation robots would keep digging, didn't you? You knew this would happen, and you might have been putting on an act just now!"

"I'll double the amount at most to buy intelligence on protection against the plague."

Adams Heavy Tax immediately broke into a broad smile: "If you're willing to pay more, that's fine."

"The Plague is not only a terrifying supernatural force, but it also involves miasma and poisonous gases. The new generation of dwarven bearded men, infused with magic, possess extremely strong resistance to poisons, allowing them to endure the Plague for a considerable period. And the way to dispel it is simply through 'the light within one's heart'."

"As long as you are not afraid of the plague and fully activate your spirituality, you can dispel this darkness."

"The reason why the plague was able to cause such great harm at the beginning was mainly because we were frightened at the start."

"The first harm caused by the deadly plague was the fear of not being able to detect its source, as if it were a given."

"At first, we only fled and did not resist, which made the plague worse. But as long as we have the will to fight back, even if we continue to explore while facing the plague, we can at least block and isolate it."

"You don't have a dwarf beard, but you can increase your survival time with a full-body protective suit."

Rowena reviewed what had just happened. Her strength wasn't bad; judging from the initial signs of the plague, it was less than a casual spell she could cast normally. She shouldn't have been afraid.

This power, capable of so easily distorting the mind, is truly terrifying.

Rowena pressed the dwarf, "Then how did the Royal Academy of Sciences resist it?"

Adams Heavy Tax speculated, "We're probably currently under a buffer zone, and if you want to get to the Royal Academy of Sciences, you'll most likely have to break through a layer of soil and rock."

"If it's not too far, I can climb up to the Royal Academy of Sciences' isolation zone and dig a hole for you, but if it's too far, I suggest you pay me more money to have me dig a sloping road uphill."

Rowena looked back at the darkness that had just passed.

In that situation, she couldn't see anything and had no way of confirming whether there was a quarantine zone above, and she had absolutely no desire to be submerged in the plague.

So she sought the dwarves' wisdom: "Is there any way to confirm the location of the firebreak?"

Adams Heavy Tax responded to Rowena with a sly smile: "Madam, some real food is needed to rouse the dwarf's rock-hard mind."

"Your brain is pretty rigid!" Rowena wanted to curse the dwarf in front of her, but given his reliable performance so far, she reluctantly took out a valuable enchanted ring from her small bag.

Adams glanced at the spirituality on the ring, nodded in satisfaction, and his smile became even more sincere.

"Just shout upwards. The plague will obscure vision and muffle those tiny sounds, but it cannot stop a powerful shout."

"As a skilled dwarf, I have earned many certificates and mastered many practical spells, including ultrasonic spells used by architects. I can deduce the surrounding structure by observing the echoes of sound waves."

"If you, Ms. Rowena, do not appreciate this unladylike behavior, I can do it for you for a fee."

Rowena said irritably, "Then there's no need. I can handle this myself."

"Prepare to face the deadly pandemic again."

After saying that, she took out a small steam-powered armor model from her bag and stuck it onto her body.

Before the dwarves could react, Rowena was encased in a full-body, modern enchanted armor, making her look much tougher than before.

Once Adams was sure Rowena was ready, he swung the small hoe hanging from his waist and swung it forward with a sudden blow.

The rubble that had blocked their path from the plague was cleared away once more, and Rowena leaped out of the secret passage, shouting at the top of her lungs with the help of a megaphone.

"ah!!!"

A sound like a banshee's shriek rang out, making the dwarves' ears ache. But the sound did not bounce back from above; instead, a shrill tenor voice rang out from above.

The dwarf remembered the voice.

The piercing voice, so harsh it seemed to extinguish his very sanity, came from the devil.

The veteran, who had been through many battles, recalled the fierce war against the Balrog.

A heatwave hotter than magma, hot enough to ignite even rocks, surged from imagination into reality through the medium of the plague, crashing head-on into the dwarves.

Adams's hair was burned away in an instant, followed by his eyes, ears, and flesh. The intense heat burned through his protective gear inch by inch.

"Is he dead?" the dwarf wondered.

He may have already died, in the war against the Balrog, and everything that followed was just the fantasy of a dying dwarf.

His wealth and decline, his joy and sorrow, everything he loved and everything that loved him were meaningless, because he, who could perceive all of this, had long been swallowed by death.

He was just fantasizing that someone would be willing to give up their life to push him away...

wrong!

He remembers that shout, he remembers the force that pushed him away, he remembers the bewilderment and fear he felt at that moment, and the regret he can never forget.

The woman who had promised to have eight children with him was burned to death in front of him.

Her once healthy face was now charred, her powerful arms, which could have swung a hammer in a blur, could no longer flex their muscles, and her legs, which could have crushed rocks, bent and she knelt on the ground.

Immediately afterwards, she was engulfed by the power of the Balrog.

He survived.

If he is dead, then who is alive?

The dwarf knew all too well how domineering his fiancée was. Even if he was just a toe away from death, she would definitely grab him, pull his ear, and yell at him.

But in this scalding, burning death, no one made a sound in his ear, no one held his arm.

Adams saw it as a worthwhile trade, a life for a life, and he didn't mind accepting death. But he couldn't accept his loved one dying before him, and then wasting that life himself.

"Plague, demons, get out of here!"

The dwarf hero who slew the Balrog and repelled the plague now tears off his disguise and roars with uncontrollable rage.

The most powerful spells of the dwarves, spells even hailed as divine, are now displaying their true power.

"A god has descended to earth!"

His spirituality overflowed from his body, activating the earth power buried deep within the dwarf's bloodline, transforming his body into a divine stone capable of blocking magic and supporting mountains, making him tall and majestic.