The cave was dark, with only the dim light emitted by the fluorescent moss. Lucien, however, had the Moonlight bloodline, which gave him the ability to see in the dark. As long as there was some light, he could see everything clearly.
In his dark pupils, the soul of Angwoods was reflected. Like a candle that had run out of tears, the soul of Angwoods flickered and finally went out.
"The main general has come back?" Lucien repeated in a low voice. This was the most vivid memory of Angwoods, except for its anger.
Angwoods' emotions fluctuated violently when it heard this. It was full of reverence, piety, excitement, and joy.
"Something is really happening in the World of Souls … Is the real immortal being coming back?"
Of course, Lucien did not believe that the "Lord" mentioned by Angwoods was the God of Truth of the Church. He was sure that the senior-rank spectres in the World of Souls worshiped the God of Truth. However, Lucien did not know whether the "Lord" was a real god, or an existence similar to Alterna, the ancestor of vampires, or a symbol of some changes in the World of Souls.
Without the ability to control souls and memories like the Lord of the Undead, Lucien could never get all the details from the "mind" of a senior-rank spectres. Since Lucien was not much weaker than Angwoods, and he was not good at this kind of magic, Lucien could not even get a little bit of the memory. The only thing he was sure of was that great changes were happening in the World of Souls. If the changes were allowed to develop, the consequences would be very bad.
The intelligence dispelled most of Lucien's suspicions about Rhine. However, he still had the attitude that he would not force himself to do it. After all, he was only a senior-rank sorcerer, and it would be too much of a stretch for him to get involved in such a legendary event that could overturn the world. If it was too dangerous, he might as well take the risk and submit it to the Highest Council. With seven grand arcanists and eleven legendary sorcerers supporting him, he would feel much more reassured.
"This senior-rank specter is Felipe's summoned creature …" Lucien smiled and shook his head. In addition to the message about the return of the general, the deepest memory of Angwoods was laughing at Felipe's arrogance and stupidity, and cursing another senior-rank specter named Adol to be purified by the Saint Truth and killed by a legendary sorcerer.
Thinking about that, Lucien couldn't help but sneer, "It seems that the Hand of Paleness did know about the existence of the World of Souls, but they concealed the information and wanted to explore it on their own. Unfortunately, they seemed to have been used and deceived by the senior-rank spectres."
"If we can't finish the mission this time, we have to find a way to trigger the senior-rank spectres from the World of Souls inside the Hand of Paleness and expose the existence of this strange world to the Congress of Magic. However, if we do that, we'll be offending Thanatos and the Demigod-lich. If we have other options, we shouldn't take such a risk. "
Of course, it was much safer than Lucien directly reporting to the Congress of Souls when the Highest Council was in the meeting.
Lucien slowly clenched his right hand, and a bright flame appeared in his palm, burning up the remaining spectres of Angwoods. Then, Lucien carefully cleaned up the traces of the battle nearby, in case other senior-rank spectres from the World of Souls could find them.
After that, Lucien continued to move deeper into the underground with the help of Spying Eye.
In the darkness, Lucien walked for more than ten minutes in the numerous forks. Gradually, the air became warmer, and he heard the sound of the underground river flowing.
Knowing that he was close to the underground city of the dwarfs, Lucien became more cautious. He carefully turned around the forks, and the scene in front of him suddenly became bright.
It was a huge tunnel, about seven to eight meters high and twenty to thirty meters wide. The ground and the walls on both sides were covered with large gray stone bricks. Dark stone pillars stood in the middle of the tunnel, supporting the ceiling. The tunnel was divided into three parts. At first glance, Lucien felt that the tunnel was magnificent. The dwarfs had dug such a huge tunnel underground. Lucien wondered what their city looked like.
According to historical records, the dwarfs in ancient times did not know any magic, nor did they have powerful bloodlines!
Patches of fluorescent moss grew on the ground and on the walls on both sides, illuminating the tunnel with a dim green light. It was hazy and hazy, as if a corpse or a ghost would crawl out at any moment. The whole place was filled with a quiet and gloomy atmosphere.
After carefully exploring with Spying Eye, Lucien stepped into the tunnel. His footsteps were very light, but they were clearly audible. Tap, tap, tap, tap. The echoes spread out in the tunnel. It was empty and quiet.
Controlling his body, Lucien sped up. The sound of his footsteps disappeared. He was running fast without being out of the range of Spying Eye.
On both sides of the tunnel, there were two black metal tracks, which seemed to be for special vehicles to transport goods. Lucien moved forward quickly along the tracks, and soon, he vaguely saw the exit of the tunnel.
Lucien slowed down his pace subconsciously. From the information sent back by the Spying Eye, Lucien could see that there was a cluster of dead buildings in front of him. They were located in a huge man-made cave.
The rock walls and stone pillars that were left behind to support the ceiling of the cave naturally divided the cave into more than ten blocks. The tall stone houses, which had collapsed or were covered with weeds, overlooked the streets that had not been inhabited for thousands of years.
What was even more frightening was that there were metal pipes connecting these stone houses. They extended from all parts of the houses and converged in the huge metal pipes on the ceiling of the cave. They then extended to the top of the tall buildings with countless chimney-like objects, and then climbed up and pierced into the ceiling of the cave. No one knew where they led to.
Walking on the cold and dead street, Lucien saw bearings, springs, pistons, gears and other familiar metal objects on the ground from time to time. It was as if he had returned to Earth and entered a machinery factory.
A faint light flashed in the black grass ahead. Lucien bent down and picked it up like an archaeologist. It was a huge steam rifle as thick as a rocket launcher. Although the gears were rusted and corroded, it was still very complicated and delicate. It was also connected to a steel high-pressure steam backpack half the size of a man.
Stroking the cold but rusted body of the gun that was about to break, Lucien sighed softly. This represented the disappearance of an ancient civilization.
Before the development of human beings, the dwarves, who were good at crafting, had invented all kinds of steam engines and established a glorious steam civilization.
Compared with their small stature, the airships that covered the sky, the steam ships that sailed on the Storm Strait and the Boundless Ocean, the terrifying cannons that could fit several people, the powerful steam rifles, the steel smelting factories that spewed out black smoke like monsters, and the machinery factories that were so huge that they seemed to be made for dragons.
The dwarves did not have any profound theoretical guidance. With only their talents in smelting and the accumulation of experience, they magically developed the steam civilization slowly and magically. They had all kinds of knowledge in mechanical forging and design. Even the magic steam train improved by Klaus, the legendary alchemist, and the airships used by the Church and the Congress of Magic were partly based on the heritage of the dwarves, except that they were powered by magic and divine power instead. The enormous airships and steam trains were reduced to the normal size, which was more practical and cheaper.
It was a pity that this civilization had been lost. If Lucien hadn't read the records in the advanced arcana and magic library, he wouldn't have known about it at all. Even Lazar, a knowledgeable sorcerer who grew up in the Congress of Magic, had never heard of it. He believed that the steam train was the first invention of human beings and it was used to transport goods. Of course, the steam train was indeed invented by Klaus.
Without someone like Douglas to raise the question, the dwarves' invention of steam stagnated after reaching a certain stage. The periodic expansion of the magic creatures in the Dark Mountain Range taught the dwarves a lesson. Those terrifying senior-rank magic creatures were completely different from the middle-rank and low-rank magic creatures that the dwarves had bullied before. It was impossible for them to fight against those senior-rank magic creatures with only steam rifles and cannons. In less than twenty years, the once glorious steam civilization retreated to the underground world.
However, the underground world was not suitable for the development of the steam civilization. Also, there were many monsters and hunters. After the reign of the dragons, the rise of the elves and the werewolves, the steam civilization completely died out in the early stage of the ancient Magic Empire. Only the dwarves left on the ground, after being modified by the crazy sorcerers, had the Blood Power and spiritual power, and developed a country again.
However, compared with the dwarves in the past, the dwarves were fundamentally different. Although they were still good at smelting and could easily produce master alchemists, they were still fundamentally different.
"Without the power to protect their own civilization, they could only disappear in the river of history. Except for the learned sorcerers, the immortal vampires, and the dragons, who would still remember them?" Lucien sighed with mixed feelings.
The water of the river of history seemed clear, but under its surface, countless glorious civilizations and powerful figures had been drowned.
Putting down the huge steam rifle, Lucien kept moving forward. From time to time, he bent down to pick up the relics of this lost civilization. There were silver coins with strange patterns of hammers and gears on them, and there were also dwarf books such as "Elementary Mechanical Forging", "How to Make Steam Rifle", "Detailed Explanation of Several Types of Steam Engines", and "Anatomy of a Steam Engine Ship". There were also all kinds of unique mechanical creations.
"Thankfully, the dwarven language is well-preserved. Today's dwarven language is not much different from these words." Lucien browsed through a few books and saved them into the Library of the Soul as usual.
After walking for a few more minutes in the lost civilization, Lucien saw an enormous metal golem lying on the ground, half leaning against a tall factory. Lucien stopped and carefully observed the exposed internal mechanical structure.
"Golem", the last hope of the dwarves of the steam civilization.
They wanted to create such a powerful war weapon to defeat the horrible magic creatures. However, the slow golem did not work as they wished. Instead, it inspired the later sorcerers to develop all kinds of powerful golems.
Suddenly, a sharp sound was fed back into Lucien's soul, and a part of the crystal ball in his hand suddenly dimmed.
A Demonic Peeping Eye had been killed!
Woo! Woo!
Lucien looked up and saw many thick pale tentacles reaching out from a factory far away. Then, a disgusting monster crawled out.
Its upper body was like that of a plump old woman, fat and ugly. Its two small, slit-like eyes flashed with a ferocious light. Its huge naked body was densely packed with black and white eyes, while its lower body was like that of a white octopus, with many tentacles with suction cups growing out of its body.
"Nest Mother"!
This was the horrible and disgusting "Nest Mother".
One nest could create thousands of fallen monsters, and if there was not enough food, the fallen monsters would eat each other or move to the ground.
Under its call, the fallen monsters came from all directions. It was hard to count the number of fallen monsters. There were even many archers and talented sorcerers who could attack from a distance.
Lucien raised his right hand and rubbed the badge on his chest. Suddenly, a glittering halo spread to the surroundings and soon developed to a range of five hundred meters.
A terrible blizzard was set off, and frost was condensed on the bodies of the fallen monsters. Then, under the fierce wind, they were shattered into pieces like ice sculptures.
As soon as the bone arrows entered the range of the frost halo, they were frozen into layers of ice and fell to the ground powerlessly.
The incoming missiles, spider webs, rays, and other spells were either directly crushed by the blizzard or diverted by the interference.
Lucien moved forward quickly, and the halo moved with him. The tall buildings of the dwarves were frozen by the frost, and the fallen monsters fell to the ground like grass in the wind.
The Nest Mother sensed that something was wrong. It stretched out its tentacles and began to climb and jump. The dense black and white eyes shot out acid, spider webs, fog and other things.
But these supernatural forces froze and fell to the ground as soon as they entered the range of the frost halo and shattered into powder.
A few seconds later, Lucien caught up with the Nest Mother. Its movements immediately slowed down, as if its tentacles were frozen into ice.
At the same time, under the effect of the blizzard, cracks appeared on its body, and the black liquid that flowed out turned into ice.
Bang! Thirty seconds later, the struggling Nest Mother was completely shattered.
When Lucien stopped running, the effect of the frost halo disappeared. The whole dwarf city was covered with frost, both black and white. It became empty and silent again.
"The effect of this spell is really good, but it can easily hurt teammates." Lucien nodded and then shook his head.
…
After searching for more than ten minutes, Lucien finally found the space node in a hall of the dwarf city.
It was a twisted space crack, and the dwarves clumsily set up something that looked like a magic circle or an altar.
"It seems that at the end of the steam civilization, the dwarves also started to learn from magic creatures like human beings. But under the effect of 'inertia', the effect was not great." Lucien sighed again. Witnessing the loss of civilization, for a knowledgeable arcanist, it was always complicated.
Looking at the clumsy magic circle carefully, Lucien took out the materials and drew it again. At the same time, he was worried that if he entered the alternate dimension with this kind of magic circle, he would be lost in the space turbulence.
In the alternate dimension occupied by the Congress of Magic, the ninth-circle magic circle, Portal to Alternate Realm, was set up near the nodes, which could facilitate the stable transportation of a large number of people and materials. The worst teleportation circle using the space crack was at least middle-rank. Therefore, seeing this seemingly low-rank magic circle, Lucien was a bit worried.
After studying it carefully and making sure that the space crack was stable, Lucien took out the materials and rearranged the teleportation circle. At the same time, he felt lucky that he had foreseen this worst-case scenario in advance.
The whole process took him three days. Lucien stood up and stretched his body. Then he put on layers of defense for himself, because he did not know what would happen on the other side after he was teleported. After all, Rhein had not used this node for hundreds of years.
After getting ready, Lucien stepped into the alternate dimension that was once occupied by the dwarves but soon conquered by the vampires — Night Highland!
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