Your Majesty's money, why don't you engrave my name on it?

While underground gnomes were a traditional source of slaves for the Dark Elves, since the Evans family had even changed their tradition of living underground, let's just let this little disagreement go.

Of course, most of the credit for this progress goes to the dark dwarf clans that Raslaufer and the others had never seen before. If it weren't for the profound impact of his enslavement in their hands on Grip Stone Shield, he probably would have been like most of the underground gnomes, completely unable to believe in the dark elves.

"...Finally, I took advantage of getting my master drunk to steal his obsidian shield, which smashed my shackles and the old fool's head in the process," Glip recounted to the crowd his escape from the dark dwarf slave owners. "From then on, I changed my surname to that shield—Glip Stoneshield, that's me."

He raised his shield and, after Daisy finished elaborating on the translation, showed his weapon to the audience: the lower edge of this heavy shield was sharpened to the point of being as sharp as a blade, and combined with its already considerable weight, it could easily decapitate someone with a single downward strike.

The very end, still seemingly seeping with sticky blood and brain matter, was rarely used to open skulls anymore. Instead, it was used to insert into solid soil and rock, as a barrier or shelter, or simply as a shovel, pickaxe, or axe. According to Glip, if he hadn't encountered those crow people who suddenly changed their migration route, he almost thought he would never use this murder weapon again in his life.

But in the end, things didn't go as planned.

“But it’s really strange,” the dwarf muttered to himself, stroking his smooth chin with a hesitant expression, “the Crow People’s routes have always been fixed. What could have forced them to change? I thought something had happened in Chou Li City, but it turns out the order of the two is completely reversed.”

“It’s probably just a rock face collapse somewhere; these things happen sometimes,” Halewin said. “We were just unlucky this time.”

"Do you believe that, Halewin?" Glip looked up at his collaborator. "You're not from the Evans family, and you've always lived underground. The scale of what we encountered that day was definitely not something as simple as 'somewhere.' If we have to talk about a collapse, it must have been at the intersection of the migration routes of several Arakkoa settlements."

"But we both have to admit: each of those intersections is a well-tested safe zone with a very solid structure. Whether it was the dark elves, the subterranean gnomes, or the dark dwarves, when they first lived underground, they even built these places as settlements, and some of them are still in use today. How could they possibly collapse so easily?"

"Then what else do you want?" Halewin was quite displeased with Grip's attitude. She raised her hand and pointed to the underground river that they had been walking down. "You're not going to say that something came out of here and did this, are you?"

These underground waterways are dark and unfathomable; no one knows what lies within them or where they connect. Only the enormous skeletons of creatures occasionally washed ashore speak of their horror. Some scholars believe that if one were to dive deep into the water, one might even reach the River Styx in the Plain of Abyss, the highest level of the endless abyss.

Of course, no one has ever confirmed this, so these underground water systems have become the culprit for all the inexplicable phenomena underground. All abnormal phenomena can be irresponsibly attributed to them, since it is neither possible to prove nor disprove them.

Glip turned away in a huff, ignoring his old friend, and began to mutter loudly but indistinctly to himself.

"Language comprehension has failed?" The bard looked over, somewhat puzzled, and tapped behind his ear. "Why can't I understand what he's saying?"

“Don’t pay any attention to him, that’s just how he is sometimes,” Halewin’s clear voice dispelled Daisy’s doubts. “He just wants people to be frustrated because they can’t understand what he’s saying.”

"Don't worry about him, he'll get better on his own in a little while."

"I would never do that!" The dwarf suddenly turned around, feigning extreme anger. "You're spreading rumors! I'm breaking off all ties with you!"

However, the dark elves simply shrugged indifferently at this "threat," as if a similar situation had occurred many times before.

With the addition of these native inhabitants, the group was able to better avoid the dangers along the way, and the risks that would have otherwise come looking for them were greatly reduced. No longer needing to extinguish their lights and travel in the dark, nor needing to remain silent, the revitalized atmosphere undoubtedly boosted morale, causing everyone to quicken their pace considerably.

Moreover, these subterranean dwarves were also an unexpected bonus for Reslaufer and his companions: this race had parted ways with their surface counterparts because of their love for minerals. They were natural miners and craftsmen. When the group reached the place they had originally planned to reach, where they would need to carve through rock walls to continue, the dwarves' pickaxes increased their speed by more than double. In addition, there were the subterranean Los beasts used as pack animals. These animals, weighing several hundred kilograms, had sturdy horns and were also very good at chiseling through rocks and clearing paths.

It would be even better if the sound and vibrations they create didn't attract enemies.

“I think our work has alerted the nearby Deinonychus clan,” Glip said, slamming his shield down again that day, but this time it wasn’t breaking through the rock, but rather the gap between the carapace and flesh. “How many is this? The tenth, or the twelfth?”

Beneath his feet lay the enormous, recently deceased creature with a head like a vulture and a body like a giant beetle, along with an exoskeleton adorned with spikes and bony protrusions. Its name, like that of the Deinonychus, came from the terrifying, curled claws at the ends of its limbs.

However, Black Claw's hind limbs are clearly more specialized, while this creature has all four limbs that are long and powerful.

The sounds of dwarves and miners chiseling at the rock walls with their tools rang out again, but many in the group could hear them. Along with the sounds of the Loss Beasts ramming their heads against the rocks, there were also the rustling and scraping sounds of other hard objects echoing through the cave.

"Stop your little tricks!" Glip shouted angrily. Other creatures could hardly understand the meaning behind the Deinonychus's communication, but after several attacks, even the Mud Monsters knew what they were up to.

"The rock is on top, and we're about to break through the rock strata. We'll be leaving soon, and before we go, we'll still have time to bring you a fresh, juicy, and hot dumpling!"

Chapter 519 Devilclaw Monster

"Ow—!"

As if they understood the dwarf's insult, immediately, more than a dozen angry monster shrieks rang out all around. They seemed to be responding to Glip's words, but a more plausible explanation was that they were summoning their companions!

"If you shut up, no one will think you're mute!" Sylvia, whose injuries had mostly healed, growled angrily. "Those freaks' voices can be heard thousands of meters away. Do you want to expose our whereabouts?"

This has been her biggest worry these past few days. The previous ambush left her with a lot of lingering trauma, and now, without any of her own kind to command in this group, the dark elf feels extremely insecure.

"Thanks to Lord Reslaufer, we were able to avoid the timing of those families in Qiuli City. Now there is only one last obstacle left, and I don't want all our previous efforts to be in vain!"

“No one will give up halfway, Sylvia.” Just as Black Lewin was about to erupt and argue with this priestess of Rose, Raslaufer, who had been sitting on a protrusion next to the cave, holding his greatsword and conserving his energy, suddenly opened his eyes.

"If it exists, it must not be human, or even a 'humanoid' creature."

The word carries a somewhat discriminatory connotation, but considering that Raslaufer is not a scholar, and no one expected him to come up with a better term to encompass all the members of the team—but that's not the point.

The key point is that Dubler looked up into the deep darkness in the distance, grabbed a handful of pebbles from the ground, and threw them in that direction. The pebbles fell to the ground with a clatter, but soon, these things, about the size of grains of sand, began to bounce again, once, then again.

“Bigger ones are coming,” the druid glanced at it and knew what that meant, “or more—if some of them can keep pace perfectly.”

"These freaks are really planning to make our meal?!" Christian was slightly taken aback upon hearing this. "Don't they know how many of us there are? I thought we were enough to make them back down!"

While the pathfinders toiled away, those not involved in the labor weren't idle either. Every day, they laid layers of traps around the area to deter any troublesome creatures, as evidenced by the carcasses of the Deinonychus monsters scattered far from Grip and even from the entire group's encampment. However, even these precautions couldn't prevent them from being targeted.

“Those were just tests; they were assessing our strength…” Sylvia drew her dagger and shifted her position as the soldiers led by Erwin formed ranks, standing cautiously but proudly to the side, slightly forward.

She didn't consider herself comparable to Raslaufer, but she was much better than the average Doppler and could easily fill the vacancy left by previous losses.

"Maybe it's more than that—" The gravel on the ground began to bounce more violently, a sight that made everyone hold their breath. Behind them, the miners quickened their pace, trying to help everyone get rid of the trouble in their own way.

"They've sent a suicide squad!" The mages, led by Sophia, nearly snapped their magical artifacts in two. At the edge of their vision, a large swarm of enormous arthropods of all shapes and sizes seemed to be driven by something, charging towards their position. "Hurry and do something! They're almost at the edge of the guard runes!"

That's not a magic array that can be set up with cheap materials; it requires a significant amount of diamond dust! Using it to deal with these ordinary animals would be a huge waste!

However, the beast tide surged in from several surrounding caves like a real tidal wave. Faced with such an impact, it was already a good thing to be able to hold the line. Who would dare to lead the line forward? In the blink of an eye, a giant beetle, big enough to fill half of the passage, charged towards them!

It and other creatures like it are not blind to the enemies ahead, nor to the dead end further ahead, but when faced with the pressure from the ferocious predators behind them, they have no choice!

The mages had no other choice either.

"No—!" a mage cried out in pain. At the same time, the outermost magic circle was detonated with a bang. The temperature inside the cave plummeted. The warriors at the front breathed out white vapor from their mouths and noses, and even their beards and eyebrows were covered with a thin layer of frost.

These magic circles were all set up with runes that channeled frost magic, partly to prevent a more violent explosion from collapsing the entire cave, and partly to collect the materials from the dinosaurs as intact as possible, thus replenishing the spellcasters' resources. It was originally a very good idea, but now—

A swarm of giant beetles, giant centipedes, and giant spiders—these things are everywhere on the ground! We probably won't even recoup the cost of the rations we used to replenish the energy spent setting up the runes!

But as the first engraving was detonated, the remaining engravings also exploded under the impact of the beasts. After freezing dozens of giant underground insects into ice sculptures, more creatures behind them crushed these truly "poor worms" who might not be completely dead into dust and continued to rush forward.

"Ready!" Erwin shouted, raising his spear. The young man stared intently at the approaching horde of beasts, estimating the distance between them.

One hundred steps, fifty steps, twenty steps!

"Attack the enemy! Maintain formation!"

The hard exoskeleton opened up wide due to the high-speed running, and spears were raised and thrust at the weak points. The weight of the numbers made it hard for the soldiers to breathe, but as the entire line retreated two steps, they finally stabilized their formation.

The massive shells of those creatures now served as a good shield, preventing the more ferocious attacks from the later creatures. However, the protection offered by these barriers, which were already dead and only had a few consciousnesses struggling haphazardly, was limited. In just a few minutes, the limit was once again approaching the soldiers.

But how similar this scene is to the battles that the Dopplers usually have to deal with.

A greatsword swung upwards, slicing the still-writhing giant centipede vertically. Beside Raslaufer, accompanied by a flash of eerie firelight, Sylvia easily dismembered another giant beetle embedded in a spear. Although she used only a dagger, its effectiveness was in no way inferior to the greatsword in Raslaufer's hands.

"Everyone else, maintain the line!" Leslaufer's gaze swept around, roughly assessing the situation. "Spellcasters, provide support to the front! Remember, this line must not fall for at least five minutes!"

Several beams of golden holy light shone on the soldiers in front who were already exhausted, and power surged from their feet again, helping them to hold up the line. Raslaufer called for his companions. Among them, Daisy and Bella were more useful here, while it was safer for Angrita to stay here.

“Mary, come with me! We need to kill all those Terrorclaw monsters to end this problem at its root!”

His response was a pink sword light that burst forth from the fragments of the arthropod.

Chapter 520 How Much Deception?

This clan of Deinonychus numbers around seventy to eighty members, led by a female and her mate. At this moment, under the leadership of the Deinonychus's "servant," more than forty hunters are cunningly lurking behind the beast horde, waiting for an opportunity to advance and kill the prey that are hiding in this cave for some unknown reason after crossing the swarm of insects.

These prey possessed magic, which caused the deaths of many of their scouts, and they eventually devised this method.

However, they chose the wrong opponent this time.

"Scratch, scrape." The sound of massive, hooked claws scraping against the rocks filled the air. A Deinonychus, mingling with the herd, was relaying a message to its companions behind it, indicating that everything was going smoothly. Suddenly, however, the sound abruptly stopped, replaced by several more harsh, meaningless scraping noises!

It's dead!

The largest and strongest Deinonychus immediately raised its head, trying to figure out what was happening, but soon it didn't need to do anything.

A strange will-o'-the-wisp flashed past it; it was a spider radiating a dark greenish-yellow glow. Although it looked somewhat different from ordinary giant spiders, the Devilclaw monster's intelligence led it to ignore it. At that moment, the beast horde in front parted like a tide, and half of some animal's tail was hurled at it. As the Devilclaw monster swung its claws to defend itself, a huge metal sword suddenly attacked from behind the severed tail!

"Mary, stop the others!"

As he felt the blade of his sword clashing with the claws, Raslaufer roared and flipped over, landing directly into the horde of startled Direclaws. Margaret immediately responded, swinging the Blade of the Sea Song and piercing the long, curved neck of a nearby Direclaw.

Meanwhile, on the other side, the Soul-Eating Spider suddenly leaped up and landed on the head of another Terrorclaw Monster. This creature, which they had just ignored, extended its venomous fangs and plunged them into the skull of its prey!

The sudden attack left the leader of the Deinonychus hunters momentarily stunned. It instinctively tried to rally its kin to fight back, but before it could even let out a shriek, Raslaufer's greatsword was already upon it once more.

"Worry about yourself first!" Doble's greatsword attack faltered, and he immediately switched to a defensive stance. As the monster's forearm claws caught the blade, he suddenly flipped from left to right, deflecting the Devilclaw Monster's force to one side. Its opponent had no time to react to this change and hurriedly lunged to bite and claw again, unaware that its entire side was now completely exposed to Raslaufer!

The greatsword swept through the horde of monsters in a bloodthirsty arc, slamming into the exoskeleton of the Devilclaw monster with unparalleled force. A sharp crack echoed as bone fragments flew, flesh tore open, and several blood vessels were severed. The pained Devilclaw monster became ferocious, attempting to gamble its entire body on the odds, hoping to turn the tide with its superior weight and number of claws. Little did it know, this was exactly what Reslaufer wanted.

His left hand, covered by a gauntlet, slid down to the middle of the sword and then straight to the end. The blade of the greatsword was held firmly by the two front claws. As he caught sight of the monster raising its hind claws, Dobul suddenly released the force, pulling the unbalanced Deinonychus monster towards his arms. His head, however, slammed into the side of the monster's head, which had a long, vulture-like beak, like a warhammer!

"Bang!" The dinosaur leader completely misjudged Reslaufer's strength. His body, which had left the ground, was struck hard on the head and fell to the right. Reslaufer took the opportunity to pull back his greatsword, a cruel smile appearing on his lips.

The overturned Deinonychus stretched out its neck, whether trying to stand up again or trying to peck out Raslaufer's eyeball before it died, but in Dople's eyes, this action only meant one thing.

Such a fine neck, it would be such a waste not to cut it off!

The headless Devilclaw fell to the ground, its body completely stiff, and the group of headless Devilclaws immediately descended into utter chaos. In their simultaneous charge from the inside and outside, Raslaufer and Mary left behind eight or nine corpses. Just as the two were preparing to press on, a long, piercing scream suddenly echoed from the depths of the distant cave.

"What's going on?" Not only did Reslaufer hear the voice, but the people on the other side who were resisting the beast horde also heard it clearly, and they were all stunned.

"Where is that sound coming from!" Raslaufer slashed down a dinosaur and approached Mary. However, the girl, who was dealing with a dinosaur, could only shake her head. Taking advantage of her opponent's momentary lapse in concentration, she precisely pierced the dinosaur's eye socket with her rapier, turning its brain into a mess.

But more and more of the Deinonychus gave up fighting them. These creatures let out all sorts of strange cries, turned around, and fled into the distance. In no time, they disappeared into the intricate cave.

This clan of dinosaurs was a local tyrant. Having suffered considerable losses, they immediately chose to retreat, abandoning the corpses of their companions.

“I thought the one we just killed was their leader,” Dubul snorted, glancing at the corpse on the ground. “About a quarter of them, which could be considered a ‘valiant army’.”

Most of these corpses were his doing, and very few were intact. The two that Mary killed were almost completely damaged. In addition, there was a Terrorclaw monster corpse that had been dragged deeper and was already half-eaten, with the Soul-Eating Spider feasting on it.

This "Rose's Messenger" does not obey anyone's orders. The reason it attacked just now was simply because it was hungry. Therefore, after killing one, it refused to take any more risks and only cared about filling its own stomach.

“I’ve forgotten to feed it these past few days,” Leslaufer clicked his tongue. In fact, he had no idea that this thing needed to eat. He stopped worrying about it and said, “Alright, since they’ve given up, let’s go and meet up with them to clean up the rest.”

With the threat of the Deinonychus hunters gone from their rear, the remaining beasts were nothing short of a rabble. As Raslaufer and Marie returned, and Erwin led his soldiers to slowly advance the front line, the beasts offered almost no resistance before scattering in all directions, disappearing in a flash after leaving behind a trail of corpses.

However, what was lost here was not just the lives of these creatures—Sophia and the other two mages looked at the insects frozen into ice sculptures with worried expressions. These creatures, which together cost less than two thousand Essen (less than 120 Imperial Gold), had consumed nearly ten times their value in Diamond Dust.

Did they really lose a lot of money...?

As their somewhat dazed gazes drifted into the distance, the three spellcasters' eyes immediately locked onto the two Terrorclaw monster corpses that Mary had killed.

Chapter 521 The Lost Miner

As everyone began cleaning up the battlefield, three mages, who usually didn't participate in this kind of work, started handling the corpses this time.

“One of its eyes is gone, and its brain is failing too,” Sofia lifted half her body to look to the other side. “What about the other one?”

“Several arteries and veins are bleeding heavily, and the trachea and esophagus are also severely damaged. It’s foreseeable that the lung lobes and sacs will not recover either. In short, it’s much more serious than it looks,” a mage shook his head with some regret. “But it’s still better than those over there that can’t be pieced back together.”

“Lord Raslaufer was too ruthless,” Sophia sighed. “If only his and Miss Mary’s martial arts styles were the same—”

“Or we could do what that Soul-Eating Spider does,” another mage chimed in, glancing cautiously at Dubul in the distance. “Of course, it would be great if that eight-legged creature would share the bones it gnawed on with us.”

"It's decided, I'll send you to negotiate with it!" Sophia pointed at her companion and laughed angrily. "I've read in some books that talking to these guys is almost like facing the Spider Queen directly. You've practically faced a god!"

"I think you two just want to keep these two specimens for yourselves! If there's one less person, you can each have one, and there'll be no need for a traveling exhibition!"

Yes, although the corpses of these dinosaurs wouldn't easily make up for the materials they lost, the three scholars were quick-witted and immediately found a way to "recover" after discovering two relatively intact corpses.

“Stretch out your arm (referring to taking the risk), and use this hand to collect admission fees!” a mage scoffed. “If we could have another skeleton specimen, the more the better, but I bet you coward wouldn’t even dare to consider it.”

"How dare you underestimate me!" The enraged spellcaster stood up angrily, and then... then he went to discuss things with Raslaufer.

In any case, this gentleman is much easier to talk to than that Soul-Eating Spider, isn't he? He's a mage, not a fool!

"So, you plan to turn these things into specimens for exhibition?" Leslaufer looked at them in surprise. For a mercenary, this way of making money was still beyond his comprehension. "How much money can you make from this?"

“Heh, heh, you don’t know this,” the mage said, rubbing his hands awkwardly. “These kinds of creatures that live underground are very rare. The gentler ones like the Subterranean Lost Beast are fine, but for creatures like the Devilclaw Monster, researchers have very few samples to refer to, and ordinary people have never even seen or heard of them. They just treat them as stories or legends. If they were exhibited, there would definitely be a huge number of people coming to visit.”

“We’ve already thought it through. We’ll put them in a dimly lit room, and the surrounding scenery will simulate the underground environment. We’ll pose them around... If you want to visit, you’ll have to pay one Essen coin to go inside for five minutes. If you want more time, you’ll have to pay more.”

"Add more time?" Leslaufer found it somewhat amusing. "Isn't this something that can be done in a couple of glances? Who would want to add more time to watch it?"

Angelita glanced at the mage who was traveling with the mercenaries. The way of thinking of these people was indeed different from that of the "academic" like Paul: "Ordinary people will just watch the show, but experts will see the details, Uncle Raslaufer. For those mages, they will definitely want to take a closer look."

“But if you’re someone who specializes in researching related fields…” the mage chuckled smugly, “it’s not enough to just glance at them. They might want to touch them a few times and test them with tools—that would be a different price.”

If they raise the price on the spot, let alone ten times, even a hundred or a thousand times the price, people will still be willing to pay! Otherwise, why not go down underground to find a live Deinonychus? That's not a matter of how much money it costs.

"So, what you need now are those bones from the Soul-Eating Spiders." "That's exactly what I mean."

Having understood the whole story, Leslaufer nodded, then smiled at the mage: "Very well, I'll help you get it, but..."

"So how much money are you going to give me?"