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

These spellcasters were more cunning than the mages who locked themselves in their towers, but they weren't cunning enough. It was one thing for Raslaufer not to know how profitable this business was, but since he did know, wouldn't it be a loss not to take advantage of every opportunity?

Having another person to share the money is certainly not a good thing, but since they had come to Leslaufer for help, the mages were naturally prepared for this. Soon, the Soul-Eating Spider, whose next meal had been taken away, let out a ghostly roar of dissatisfaction. Unfortunately, its protests were in vain. Before its mission was over, it could not harm the object it was supposed to protect. It could only watch helplessly as the Terrorclaw monster's corpse, with only a third of its flesh remaining, was thrown to the mages. There was no way it could get it back.

“Actually, they can make a profit no matter what,” Bella muttered under her breath as she saw Raslauver clap his hands and return. “Raslauver, do you mercenaries ever go to the trouble of getting extra pay just because your weapons or armor are damaged?”

"Yes, why do you ask?" Leslaufer paused in his work. Wasn't this a matter of course?

"...It's okay, never mind."

Sometimes, druids feel that returning to the anti-war zone isn't such a bad option—of course, this is just a joke.

After two more days of camping in this cave where the dinosaurs were no longer a threat, the miners finally made a breakthrough: a passage that allowed the dwarves' loth beasts and wagons to pass through was finally opened, and another vast cave, similar to but not exactly the same as this one, appeared before them: they were one step closer to meeting their target.

This is almost certainly the penultimate or final step.

After traveling for about three or four more days, as the team set up camp, several miners agreed to go to a place a little further away from the camp to explore for minerals. This was something they had been doing all along. Compared to the soldiers who needed to be on high alert at all times, they, who did not need to participate in combat and had little adventure or combat experience, relaxed a bit as they approached their destination. This time, they went a little further.

"Look, there's pyrite here!" A miner, holding a torch, discovered something unexpected in the rock strata under the light. "Thomas! Come and see!"

“Okay, I see it,” For some reason, Big Thomas felt uneasy. He couldn’t figure out the source of this feeling; perhaps it was just his imagination. “Let’s go, we’ve gone too far. I can barely see the camp lights anymore…”

“That’s because our cave has two bends,” the companion holding the torch said, showing no intention of getting up but instead moving closer to the rock formation. “I’m telling you, are you deaf? What I just said is, there’s pyrite in this place! Do you know what that means?”

“Not all pyrite is surrounded by opal!” Growing increasingly uneasy, Big Thomas emphasized, “Don’t bother. If you really want to see, let’s go call those dwarfs. They’re much faster than us!”

"Thomas, are you crazy?! That's an opal! An opal!" His companion was extremely dissatisfied with Thomas's attitude. He stood up, turned around and glared at the captain they had elected. "We chose you to make us rich! Of course—heh, heh heh—"

A splash of blood landed on Big Thomas's face. He stared in horror as his torch fell to the ground. Somehow, a knife tip had been protruding from his throat.

Chapter 522 Allied Obligations

"How long have Thomas and the others been gone?"

As the food in the cooking pot began to emit a less appealing aroma, Pastor Christian ended his prayer and frowned as he spoke.

In the past, the miners would have returned by the time he finished his prayer, but today he didn't hear their commotion until he swallowed the last verse of his prayer.

“Perhaps they were distracted by some rare gem,” Erwin walked to the nearest pot, looking at the large stew inside, made of various dried rations, fungi, and meats. He was certain this stuff wouldn’t kill anyone, but as for how delicious it would be, it was best not to expect. “Didn’t they get two pieces of star rose quartz before?”

Those rose-colored transparent gemstones, which usually have a white star in the center, are not particularly rare underground, but they are quite valuable on the ground. Having tasted the sweetness of success, they gradually began to extend their rest and outing time, which is understandable. Any organizer with a bit of humanity would not prohibit such behavior.

Perhaps they're planning to mine something again today, that's about it.

"Anyway, hmm?" The young man's eyes suddenly flickered. He turned his head to look around, but there was nothing unusual about him.

"What's wrong?" Christian asked quickly. "Nothing, it's probably just the wind, after all, we're starting a fire—Miss Sophia, did the warning magic react?"

The female mage, who was counting her spellcasting materials on the other side, shook her head: "The warning wasn't set up for the three of us. If we set off, you could hear us even if you were sleeping like the dead!"

Unless everyone is deaf, those traps must not have been triggered.

Hearing this, Erwin breathed a slight sigh of relief. However, just as he was about to bend down to taste the saltiness of the pot, he heard a gust of wind rushing towards the back of his head—it couldn't possibly be the sound of the flames blazing!

The attack came so quickly that Erwin had no time to react, not even turning his head more than sixty degrees before danger struck. As the sound of shattering ice shards filled his ears, this chosen successor of Dahl almost closed his eyes and awaited death.

But as time ticked by, he opened his eyes in confusion. There seemed to be a lingering chill and stinging sensation around his ears, but apart from that... it seemed he was still alive?

He finally had a chance to turn around. Raslaufer's tall figure stood in front of him with his back to him, completely devoid of the oppressive feeling he had when they first met. At this moment, Raslaufer was raising his right hand, large chunks of ice crystals enveloping his five fingers, wrist, and half of his forearm, radiating a bone-chilling cold.

"Lord Raslaufer!" For a moment, Erwin's mind went blank, and he almost fell backward into the pot—this living legend, the immortal "Death," had actually saved him—

What happened to him?!

"Quiet down, don't embarrass your foster father." Raslaufer's voice reached Elwin's mind, and at the same time, it caused a commotion throughout the camp. Everyone shouted to prepare their weapons, but Raslaufer sternly stopped them.

"Don't move!" Dobul's low growl quickly turned into a strange, sinister laugh, as if he had remembered something interesting. "Some things are easy to forget if you don't use them."

"You like ice, huh? Let's light a fire—here it is!"

In an instant, Raslaufer's eyes turned the blood red of a dark elf, and with his shout, an eerie green flame suddenly rose from a barely perceptible patch of darkness not far away, accompanied by the attacker's terrified and desperate wail!

The spellcasters' eyes widened in surprise. They had never seen Raslaufer cast such a spell before, but this Dople could even transform into the appearance of a dark elf and make Soul-Eating Spiders follow him. What else could be surprising to them?

Compared to this surprise, what astonished them even more was the humanoid creature engulfed in flames, rolling on the ground as it escaped the darkness. As the Sea Song Blade, imbued with the Daylight spell, approached the attacker in Mary's grasp, the magical darkness instantly melted away like summer snow, revealing even more hidden enemies in the area.

Meanwhile, Big Thomas, the miners' leader, was bound and bleeding profusely to the side. His hands and feet appeared to have been severed by sharp weapons, and his wounds were mixed with gravel and dirt. He was struggling on the verge of life and death.

He was captured by a group of dark elves, numbering around twenty or thirty, likely a reconnaissance squad.

"How could there be a dark elf here?!" As a native of the underground, Grip Stone Shield was quite shocked. He subconsciously looked at Black Lewin, but the dark elf from Elesteid was even more confused than he was.

This should be a transitional zone between the two cities; no family from either side should be here! Even if they did enter, they would usually retreat quickly to avoid conflict—so why are these dark elves so brazenly attacking?!

Neither she nor Sylvia concealed their presence; these people must have seen them and confirmed their identities as one of the leaders!

Why did they dare to do this? What gave them the right to do it?! Almost all of these dark elves were male!

"Stop! Stop!" Sylvia stood up as well, looking equally astonished, because she saw a familiar family crest on those unfamiliar dark elves.

"You're members of the Pirnane family?!" She drew her dagger and swiftly approached them. "What are you doing?! Look at me! I'm Sylvia from the Evans family. Get your steward out here and speak!"

Amidst the screams of the attacker still engulfed in flames, the other dark elves remained silent. They parted to reveal a strong man who sized up the disheveled Sylvia, who was disheveled from her journey and the unexpected incident, and a contemptuous sneer appeared on his lips.

He still bowed to Sylvia, but very perfunctorily: "You can tell just by looking at her eyes. Only the Evans family has eyes like that."

"You mean, you attacked my team knowing who we were?" Sylvia's eyes narrowed, her tone extremely hostile, but the man opposite her seemed to take it all for granted.

“I am the new servant of Mistress Pirnane,” he chuckled coldly. “My predecessor didn’t remember to tell me the specifics before he died, so as the vanguard, I must make a judgment and assess whether our ally is truly worthy of our help. This is a matter of responsibility to the family and to Mistress.”

Sylvia felt she couldn't grip the dagger any tighter; the other person's rudeness shocked her so much that she almost forgot to be angry: "...So what's your conclusion?"

“The Evans are an insignificant little family, and the allies you’ve found are…” came the humiliating sneer.

"Please order that armored sorcerer to stop, and I will return your miner slaves to you—oh, by the way, we didn't know it was your group at the time, so we didn't show any mercy, and only this one of them is alive—I think my mistress will compensate you with a satisfactory amount."

The enemy was merely a reconnaissance vanguard; the main force was behind, and the Matriarch was among them. Sylvia forcibly suppressed her anger, preparing to negotiate with the Matriarch later. She turned to Raslaufer: "Bring Big Thomas here to treat his injuries, then spare that idiot."

"Things of this caliber are doomed to fail sooner or later."

The Pirnane family was never a long-term ally; they were merely disposable sacrifices used to please Rose. Sylvia didn't intend to break ties with them so soon—they were still useful, and soon they would be.

Sylvia didn't want to go too far, and Raslaufer refused to fight amongst themselves. He nodded to the eldest daughter of the Evans family, casually shattered the ice on his body, and the next moment, he raised his hand, picked up his greatsword, and walked straight towards the dark elves.

"Oh ho, how dare you transform into our likeness in front of us?" The head servant watched as Leslaufer transformed into a dark elf in a few steps, and laughed in fury. "Fool! You can never truly become like us. Step aside!"

His eyes were fixed on the broadsword in Dobul's hand, wary of any possible sudden swing—he was not so careless as to be unprepared in this situation.

However, Raslaufer seemed to have no intention of making a move at all, but only wanted the weapon to bolster his courage. He stood in front of his opponent, looking down at the chick-like dark elf in front of him, and spoke in the other's language: "What is your name?"

This human wizard can speak Dark Elf? The servant was slightly taken aback: "Marco! Remember my name, for you will hear it again and again in the war to come! And who are you?"

Doble looked at Marco and shook his head slightly: "You don't need to know, because you won't hear Daisy even once during the upcoming war?"

The dark elves' specially crafted lyre resonated with a unique melody throughout the camp. The next moment, out of Marco's sight, a melodious voice called out his name:

"Marco!"

The psionic spear immediately whistled through the air, while the man in front of Marco turned around and swung his sword at the other dark elves beside him.

"The vanguard of the Pirnane family was switched by a rival family, and the Evans family is fulfilling its obligations as allies!"

Chapter 523 The Return Journey

Siforn's eyes twitched, and with her spiritual vision, she could also see her new favorite, Marco, standing—or rather, floating—in front of her.

But he was expressionless, not looking at her, nor anywhere else, and unresponsive to any external stimuli. He would never respond to her again, never say those sweet nothings again.

At Marco's feet, the protective necklace lay shattered, and a corpse that resembled him was missing its limbs.

He's dead! The cause of death was excessive blood loss! Although the puncture wound in his chest was serious, it was far from fatal!

he died!

However, Sifne was unable to avenge him. She had never believed it before, but now there was nothing more painful than this: between her and the enemy who killed her beloved servant, there was an insurmountable chasm.

A giant spider with eight cold eyes stared at her, as if it were examining her on behalf of its true master.

"What's wrong? Are you going to make a move?"

The enemy uttered the coldest and most merciless irony from the underground.

Leslaufer, with the still-dripping greatsword on his shoulder, sneered: "Mother Siforn, after looking for so long, you should be able to recognize whether these are your own people or not, right? Or do you not even know what your own bedmate looks like?"

“…No,” Sifne Pirnane heard a voice that didn’t sound like her own dripping from that mouth, “They’ve all been switched, they…are not my subordinates.”

"I have to 'thank' you, thank you for eliminating the spies who infiltrated my family!"

Looking at her mistress, who was gritting her teeth, Sylvia suddenly chuckled: "You don't need to be so agitated, Mistress Sylvia. This is our duty—you look like you're about to cry from emotion."

Was she telling the truth? Was she really about to cry? Siforn didn't know.

But she knew that if she didn't swallow this anger today, she would soon be taking her last breath.

The other party is carrying Rose's will to defeat the five families of Qiu Licheng. This will is not some name, reputation or anything else vague. Behind the Soul-Eating Spider with its mission, there is a real, powerful, ancient and unfathomable goddess watching everything the dark elves do.

Even though she and the other members of the Pirnane family had their red eyes withdrawn, the shadow of the Queen of Gods still loomed over their heads, feet, and everywhere else.

Even the deities they converted to trembled and groveled under her magic net—this was the state of almost all the deities in the Dark Elf pantheon.

Aside from the Dark Maiden Elestristris, but that is an evil faith that the Dark Elves should despise, for she and her followers are said to be surface elf spies infiltrated among the Dark Elves, preparing for a war of extinction.

Therefore, when the people chosen by the Queen of the Goddess killed her husbands and other family warriors, she not only could not seek revenge, but also had to endure their slander and swallow the bitter pill. Her god, the goddess Sinvares, carefully handled her relationship with Rose, and if she refused to remain silent in this matter, she would likely be abandoned by both goddesses.

For a converted clergyman, there could be nothing worse than this: when she and her family lost Rose’s favor, no one could use any magic, and the catastrophe nearly destroyed her family, which is still far from its former prosperity.

Doing it again is completely unacceptable.

“Well then,” Raslaufer shoved the Soul-Eating Spider aside with his foot, then turned to Sylvia. “The rest is up to you. Let’s rest a bit and then prepare to head back.”

With over a hundred arcane and divine spellcasters, this force was enough to help them erase some of their disadvantages and even establish an advantage.

The deaths of those family warriors will further entangle the Pirnaen family in their web of intrigue. They seem unaware of their fate, unaware of what will happen if these hundred spellcasters, whose magic is nearly exhausted, are trapped among two or three thousand warriors.

That would be absolutely terrible.

Thomas was rescued, but he will probably never be able to swing a pickaxe again for the rest of his life. As Sylvia and the matriarch negotiated, they finally understood why these "allies" were here.

The chaos in Chouli City had a far greater impact than anticipated. Matriarch Siforn could no longer tolerate it, so she dispatched her attendant to lead a group of family warriors as the vanguard, while she led the remaining family members to follow behind, setting off ahead of schedule towards Chouli City.

The good news is that the routes of both sides coincided perfectly; the bad news, of course, is that the rendezvous between the two sides was not pleasant—but this matter should be in the past now.

At least that's what Matriarch Siforn thought. She and Sylvia reached an agreement that the warriors would be treated as if they had died on the battlefield, in exchange for a share of the spoils after the victory.

Of course, Sylvia never intended to fulfill her promise.

Despite losing many miners, they were no longer needed as they were returning via the same route, and their familiarity with the path undoubtedly increased their speed. They returned to the caves surrounding Qiuli City in approximately 70% of the time.

Under the cover of the spellcasters, the people near the city could see that the giant mushroom was still emitting a faint light, as if the bloody battle that had taken place beneath it not long ago had never happened.

“Chou Li City…” Siforn’s eyes were fixed on the surrounding stone city walls. “According to your intelligence, it is almost impossible to win by forcibly attacking the city.”

“We need some inside agents to infiltrate, but that could take months or even longer.”

“So we try not to attack the city,” Sylvia said with a snort. “Don’t worry, as I said before, those five families have fallen out with the other families. Perhaps they are already reconciling, but at this time, it is impossible for Madam Larembas to make the whole city share the burden of the war for her.”

"When we get back, I will suggest to the matriarchs that we lure them out of the city to fight by sending a large caravan. The two matriarchs of the Larembass and Mara families will most likely not leave their temples to weaken their forces. In that case, our chances of winning will be much greater."

"We don't need to wipe them out completely through one or a few decisive battles. What we want is profit. It's enough to bring them to their knees. On the contrary, if we give them some small favors after the victory, our trade routes will become more secure."

Siforn turned her head, her brown eyes fixed on the profile of the young priestess Rose. Perhaps she should be sober; Lilindra was still young, and for at least several centuries, she wouldn't need to worry about scheming against her.

Chapter 524 This Rise and That Fall

When the team quietly returned to the entrance leading to the surface, they hadn't even seen the entrance yet, but they already saw the brightly lit front line—the extremely cautious advance had finally completed their initial mission, establishing a mature base underground.

However, Bella couldn't share the joy of the others. Looking at the desolate environment that had been cleaned up, the druid couldn't help but shake his head and sigh.

“Don’t worry, Miss Bella, this place will be restored once the war is over,” Dahl said, seeing through the young druid’s thoughts. “Even if we forget about it, and no one repairs it, it will probably be back to normal very soon.”

Both his warband and the men Dieter brought were mercenaries; no one would stay here to guard the place—unless there was money to be made—but unfortunately, no one would offer them that reward.

“Father!” Erwin stepped forward from the crowd and bowed to Dar. “I have returned!”

"Not bad," the old mercenary, known as the Lion, gave his adopted son a strong bear hug. "Your arms and legs are still intact, good, very good!"

"Tell me about what you've seen and heard these past few days. I'm afraid I'll never get as far as you in my entire life."

“If you would like, I would be more than happy to show you,” Elwin said with a smile. “As for how I was able to return unscathed, it is all thanks to Lord Raslaufer. If it weren’t for him, I’m afraid my allies would have blown my head off.”

He gestured to the back of his head to show that he was telling the truth. Dahl was not surprised to hear this, and simply nodded to Leslaufer beside him.

"Thank you, I knew I would have to thank you again this time."