Chapter 303: Act 70 – The King of the Underground (Part 21)
“Ah—!”
The pained voice of the young girl, Snow, came from the dark tunnel. The dwarf who had just crawled out of the pit had to turn back. He saw the Little Romain coming out from below, holding her head with tears in her eyes.
“What happened?” The old dwarf swatted away the Merchant Miss’s left hand and, seeing Little Romain’s teary face and the red mark on her snow-white forehead, couldn’t help but widen his eyes and say unkindly, “How did you hit your head again? Didn’t I tell you—this tunnel is specially dug for me, so of course, it’s going to be a bit lower than you,” Odum unwillingly mumbled, “So watch out when you come in and out!”
“You didn’t say that later!” Little Romain hugged her head and muttered with a furrowed little brow.
“That shouldn’t require constant reminders, young girl!” The dwarf sighed and reached out his hand to pull her up from the pit, “Alright, how is it? Still hurting, young one?”
“Of course it hurts!” she replied without hesitation.
“You have to endure the pain; us dwarves wouldn’t make a sound even if we hit iron plates.” Odum stood on the hillside looking down, where the path into the mine was located, “Alright, we’re in, hurry and wrap your scarf around your head!”
But Romain was obviously more interested in the old dwarf’s previous statement, “Really?” She widened her eyes, “Even if you hit an iron plate you wouldn’t say a word… that?”
“Of course,” the old dwarf suddenly saw the disbelief on the girl’s face and, widening his eyes, angrily said, “What a joke! A dwarf my age has a beard longer than your hair, would I really deceive you!”
However, he soon opened his mouth wide in surprise as he saw Little Romain curiously rummaging through her backpack and taking out a dark object.
“What is this?” Odum asked with intense suspicion.
“It’s an iron plate!”
“What for?”
“Just to try it?” The Merchant Miss asked curiously, her eyes wide.
“Go away, how could a noble dwarf like me do such a boring thing!” The old dwarf’s expression suddenly changed: “By the way, young girl, how do you have this in your bag!”
But his face quickly turned strange.
Because the Merchant Miss was tilting her head, smiling at him, her onion-like fingers tracing across her cheek, “Shame, boasting! Aunt didn’t lie to Romain after all; she said dwarves all love to boast!”
“Who said that?!” Odum shouted angrily, clenching his fists, but then suddenly remembered that the other party was just a girl—an old dwarf like him shouldn’t argue with a young girl’s aunt—finally, all his unwillingness turned into a cough: “Ahem, who told you that? Let me tell you, young one, it’s only witches who would say that!”
Odum didn’t realize his words would come true, but he thought for a moment and decided he should maintain some of his dignity, “The reason I won’t try it is that there’s no need. This is a mine, you know, we sneaked in here. If we make any noise and get discovered, it wouldn’t be good!”
“Really?”
“Of course! Young one, do you think someone like me, with status, would deceive you? I’m not like those cunning humans!”
But before he could finish speaking, he heard a low shout from outside the forest:
“Who’s in there?”
The old dwarf’s words were instantly cut off. He turned stiffly and saw a patrol of knights had appeared on the main road outside the forest, clearly having heard the loud conversation between him and Romain.
“Bad news.” Odum frowned, putting his short, thick fingers to his lips and making a ‘shh’ gesture to Romain: “Don’t make a sound.”
He seemed worried that Little Romain wouldn’t understand and even added an extra sentence on purpose.
But the Merchant Miss seemed to understand very well and nodded obediently, though her curious eyes glanced around, as if feeling some instinctive excitement about the environment.
The two stowaways in the forest didn’t speak, but that didn’t mean the people outside would think the sounds they heard earlier were a hallucination. The knights exchanged glances and shouted louder, “People inside, don’t hide anymore, come out, we’ve seen you!”
As they prepared to pull out their handguns from their saddles, they gestured inside, “If you don’t come out, we’ll attack.”
Little Romain immediately cast her gaze at the old dwarf; although she seemed a bit confused, she had experienced a few battles with Brendel and understood that those knights were not making empty threats.
She looked at Odum with an interesting expression—what to do next?
But the old dwarf didn’t have time to answer the Merchant Miss’s question. As soon as he heard they were going to shoot, he suddenly jumped up from the bushes, nervously raised his hands, and shouted, “Captain Mader! It’s me, don’t shoot!”
The knight raising his gun was taken aback for a moment but soon relaxed, “Odum, it’s you, you old rascal, sneaking in again. But perfect timing—Lord O’Kins is looking for you.” He glanced at Romain, asking with some confusion, “Who’s that?”
“… She’s my relative.” The old dwarf, despite being thick-skinned, felt a bit embarrassed. He hadn’t expected to run into these people: “What does O’Kins want with me?”
“Relative?” The riders immediately wore expressions of ‘we understand’ and chuckled, “Didn’t expect the old fellow to have an illegitimate daughter out here,” but the leading knight quickly interrupted them, replying, “There’s a big trouble in the mine, Lord Kuran has gone in, and of course, Lord O’Kins is looking for you because you’re the only one who can help him—”
The mention of the secretary didn’t seem to come with much respect.
Odum snorted through his nose. The gold dwarves and mountain dwarves were the best miners in this world (of course, except for the residents of the underground world). Growing up in the gold dwarven tribe, which had deep ties with mountain dwarves, he quickly got a grasp of the situation at the Schafflund mine.
What he did was originally to better execute his plans, but unexpectedly, his reputation was quickly inquired about by that affected secretary—this incident actually helped him immensely, earning him a relatively good position in the mine.
The benefits brought by this position need not be mentioned, and it was evident that Odum liked this convenience.
“What’s going on in the mine?”
“Seems like someone has breached the lower levels again, causing monsters to come out and injure people. But thanks to Martha, it wasn’t my turn to be on duty today—” the knight captain said, clearly lacking military awareness, visibly relieved, “Later, as you saw, there was an earthquake, and it’s a complete mess inside.”
The old dwarf’s heart leaped upon hearing that someone had breached the lower levels, but the information about monsters made him frown, “Earthquake?” he asked, “So how is the condition of the tunnels down below? The emergency passages A4, A12, and B3 are fine, right? How’s the lift over there working?”
Odum was familiar with Schafflund mine like he was with his own palm and quickly sorted out a few passages leading to the fifth level that were likely to be the least damaged during the earthquake.
“I don’t know.” Mader shook his head, “I dare not go in there now; you can ask for yourself. But old fellow, you’re not really going to go in, are you? You need to consider, there are monsters down below; you don’t have to risk yourself for that ‘Lord O’Kins’!”
“Hmph, what do you know.” The old dwarf retorted curtly.
“I certainly don’t know; I’d rather you hurry up and kick the bucket, old fellow,” he shot a glance at Romain behind, “But don’t worry; I’ll definitely take care of your illegitimate daughter for you.”
“Get lost!” Odum yelled furiously.
The riders immediately laughed and walked away.
The old dwarf grumbled and turned back, but his old face immediately lost composure when he saw the Merchant Miss looking at him with an indescribable expression, half curious and half smiling.
“Actually, it’s nothing, grandpa,” Little Romain nodded earnestly, “Romain understands; Romain won’t laugh at anything!”
Odum was instantly petrified, feeling as though his lifelong reputation was ruined in an instant.
…
Brendel and Medisa slowly descended back to the central sandy area of the arena. As they lowered in height, the young man quietly advised the silver elf girl beside him, “Next should be the arena battle. In arena battles, one side chooses the venue and the rules, so be sure to listen carefully to the rules later; violating them will get you disqualified.”
Medisa bowed her head and listened carefully, then quietly nodded and asked softly, “Lord, what should Medisa do?”
“No need to worry too much; the rules won’t be complicated and are mostly mandatory. I’m just here to remind you.”
The silver elf girl raised her head to look at her summoner, and a hint of curiosity flashed in her pale silver eyes, “Lord, you’re the most knowledgeable person Medisa has ever met.” She complimented in a low voice with a uniquely suited elven attitude.
Brendel was taken aback.
“The knowledge of the Black Tower wizard is inherited from the silver alliance Bud.” He thought for a moment and deliberately explained in a vague manner.
Medisa smiled slightly at him and nodded. She originally thought this young lord would not explain, but Brendel’s attitude gave her an unexpected surprise and clarified the doubts in her heart.
If Brendel’s knowledge came from those craftsmen wizards who claimed to possess all the literature in the world, then everything he knew no longer seemed so strange.
The silver elves were descendants of silver, but the craftsmen wizards were the same.
The two landed on the ground, and all eyes were on them. However, Brendel saw Kuran running towards him, but the elder was blocked by an invisible air wall after running a few steps. He stood outside the wall, calling out, “Kid!”
Brendel raised an eyebrow slightly and looked over in that direction.
……
