Chapter Sixty-Five: The Drow Matron!
2015-10-02
Author: Floating Tower (诸生浮屠)
(Sigh. Let the previous book be closed. Changing it is quite annoying, so I’ll focus on writing this one. Starting the day after tomorrow, I’m going to add updates.)
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Soren gradually approached the interior.
Suddenly, it seemed he sensed something and quickly dashed forward in a certain direction.
The perception of deities is extremely sensitive; they possess remarkable capabilities to sense external elemental energies, various fluctuations of spells, and even abnormalities in the environment. As soon as he entered the mountains, Soren immediately felt the abnormality of the ley lines’ energy; the fire element was too concentrated and bursting forth. The density of this element had exceeded the normal range, and he could even feel the terrifying power of the fire element deep underground, even with his eyes closed.
“What on earth is happening?”
Soren’s expression grew serious as he muttered, “Could history have skewed somehow? I don’t remember such a remarkable anomaly here!”
In the past, Soren rarely paid attention to the ancient red dragon.
Though he knew there was one in the area, no one would dare challenge it for no reason, so he didn’t really understand the situation inside the mountains.
The closer he got, the more evident the abnormality of the fire element became.
Soren was almost certain that the lair of the ancient red dragon was just ahead, but he still didn’t know exactly what was happening.
Lava!
Soren saw something quite unreasonable.
Lava is hard to come by in nature; due to environmental factors, lava cools down quickly. However, the lava before him was flowing out from a peak ahead, and the nearby temperature was alarmingly high; the lava had actually gathered into a pool.
“Unreasonable!”
Soren pressed his palm against the ground and murmured, “Is this a live volcano? Impossible! The geographical environment here has no volcano!”
The reason was unclear.
A live volcano had actually emerged inside these mountains. Although it hadn’t fully erupted, Soren finally understood the key to the abnormal energy of the fire element.
This was artificially created.
Thus, nature was very resistant to the energy here, and the deity’s perception of all this was also evident.
A massive force was brewing inside the mountains.
Soren expanded his perception limit, capable of detecting deep underground, closer to the depths of the Underdark, where a tremendous fiery power awaited eruption.
Once it erupted, a dreadful volcanic explosion would sweep across hundreds of kilometers.
Luckily, there were no cities nearby.
Otherwise, this could directly destroy half a kingdom. However, if the volcano really erupted, nearby creatures would undoubtedly face catastrophe, with the Mire and Misty Forest suffering severe impacts.
“Was it the work of that ancient red dragon?”
Soren couldn’t confirm this, but he was sure that few beings in the entire Material Plane had the ability to do such a thing. Besides the divine saints, only a handful of beings with a biological level above 30 could manage that. The ancient red dragon liked to inhabit areas near volcanoes; there shouldn’t have been one here, but suddenly a volcano on the verge of eruption appeared. Soren felt there was a huge secret hidden in this.
And it could be related to the Underdark.
Because he had seen traces of Drow!
Yes.
Drow.
The real Drow, unlike those mixed-blood Drow in Modo, Soren saw pure Drow before him. Therefore, he was not surprised to notice a female Drow priestess wielding a Snakehead Whip, mercilessly whipping another male Drow. The other stood frozen in place, not daring to move, letting the barbed whip strike his back. After just a few strikes, his back was already a bloody mess, looking extremely gruesome.
“Useless!”
The strikingly beautiful yet dark-skinned female Drow priestess furiously scolded, roaring, “So many people and you can’t catch a single surface elf! What if Madam Matron’s plan leaks out?”
“Damn it!”
“What’s the use of raising you useless lot?”
Soren quietly approached; he found these Drow a bit strange. They seemed to exhibit mild albinism, so they weren’t afraid of the sunlight of the surface world.
A cold-faced Drow warrior slightly bowed his head, saying, “High Priest!”
“That’s a powerful Druid!”
“He excels in tracking and stealth; we need more skilled Rangers to find him. However, he’s injured and shouldn’t have escaped far. I’ll send someone to continue searching immediately.”
The female Drow priestess’s chest heaved, stating solemnly, “Then hurry!”
“What are you all doing standing there?”
“Or do you want me to send you to feed the lizards?”
The other Drow warriors immediately sprang into action, dispersing in all directions as if searching for a certain stealthy Druid.
“Could there be others who have noticed the anomaly here?”
Soren’s figure stood in the shadows, observing the Drow ahead before turning to approach a certain location.
As one who possessed the divine profession of “Wanderer,” these Drow could hardly detect Soren. He now had two choices: one was to personally enter the volcano’s mouth to investigate what was happening, but there was likely an ancient red dragon inside, which posed a bit of risk. The other option was to directly find the Druid they mentioned; that Druid might know what transpired, and Soren just needed to find him before them to understand the full situation.
Tracking.
Stealth.
These were Soren’s strengths, and he quickly discovered some traces, rapidly advancing south along the mountains.
A faint scent of blood.
Though masked by others, it couldn’t escape Soren’s eyes.
He spotted a natural, low cave within a pile of rubble near the halfway up the mountain, where there was a very weak breathing sound, faintly mingled with the scent of blood.
“Who?”
Just as Soren stealthily approached, an alert voice rang out.
Clearly surprised.
Soren hadn’t expected the other party to actually notice him; it appeared their stealth ability was really impressive.
A black bear.
Soren also saw the corpse of another black bear. This made him smile slightly, looking at the other with some appreciation, slowly saying, “You killed the black bear in this den? Then directly disguised yourself as it to hide?”
“No wonder they couldn’t find you.”
“Quite a clever strategy!”
The divine pressure was staggering, and upon seeing that Soren was not a Drow, the black bear suddenly transformed into a robust middle-aged elf, realizing the gap in their strengths. Soren could easily erase his existence. The middle-aged Druid’s complexion was very pale, and his breath was quite weak, indicating he bore serious injuries. He slightly bowed, saying, “May I ask who you are?”
“I am Bolo-the Cheetah, a member of the Druid Council of Misty Forest.”
“There has been an elemental anomaly here.”
“I was ordered to investigate the cause of the environmental disruption, but I did not expect to encounter Drow here. Their Matron is colluding with a red dragon, seeming to plot some terrible conspiracy.”
“Sir!”
“I am severely injured. Since you are a surface dweller, you surely wouldn’t wish to see the schemes of evil beings from the Underdark succeed.”
“Could you help me pass this message to the Misty Forest and Silver Moon Councils?”
Very candid.
In the face of the overwhelming disparity in power, the Druid before him made a very wise decision.
“The Drow Matron?”
Soren’s brows furrowed as he focused on the other, asking, “Which Drow Matron? Mazzoberranzan? Shadow City? Or Cattaloros?”
The Drow Matron was actually colluding with the ancient red dragon.
This information was quite significant. Even Soren couldn’t gauge it precisely, as there might be the shadow of the Spider Queen-Ros in the background.
“I don’t know.”
The pale-faced Druid shook his head, his voice hoarse as he said, “But just beneath this mountain lies a Drow city.”
“There is a passage inside the volcano that directly connects to the Underdark.”
An entrance?
The entrance connecting to the Underdark was actually inside the volcano?
No wonder Soren couldn’t find it everywhere!
Clearly, there were creatures from the Underdark here, but Soren couldn’t locate the passage to the Underdark. Creatures from the Underdark wouldn’t just emerge for no reason, and now he finally sorted everything out.
“Okay.”
Soren didn’t contemplate for long. He nodded quickly, saying, “Tell me everything you know, and I will relay it to the Misty Forest Council and Silver Moon Council.”
As one who had lived in the Underdark for a while, Soren was well aware of how serious the conspiracy involving the Drow Matron was.
The shadow of the Spider Queen-Ros was certainly behind this.
For the Matron to personally intervene was either to please the Spider Queen-Ros or to fulfill a divine command conveyed by her.
The Saint’s Cataclysm was approaching.
The Spider Queen was the most terrifying and evil hunter; her schemes would undoubtedly cause horrific destruction.
Moreover, her long-standing ambition was to have the Drow counterattack the surface. Soren wasn’t sure what conspiracy was hiding here, but since he knew about some things, he couldn’t wholly stand by.
Creating some trouble for the Spider Queen would be beneficial for world peace.
——”Heal Serious Wounds!”
With Soren’s ability, he could easily cast a ‘Restoration’ spell, as he possessed the powers of a level 20 priest and could cast most divine techniques, although this would cost his divine power value. However, if he did that, his identity as a divine saint would be exposed. So, Soren could only pretend to activate a high-level piece of equipment and cast a ‘Heal Serious Wounds’ divine technique for the other.
Accompanied by the radiance of divine technique.
The Druid before him visibly healed many of his injuries, looking at Soren in surprise, slowly saying, “Here’s how the events unfolded.”
………………(To be continued ~^~)
