Chapter 683

In the hot cave, Raistlin and his party moved forward quickly.

The terrible high temperature was like a sea of ​​flames, and everything in sight was crimson. Everyone was blessed with ice shields or water bubbles. Raistlin also blessed everyone with high-level fire resistance to resist the ubiquitous heat and flame.

After a while, the temperature gradually dropped, and he was about to leave the cave.

"Wow..."

The magma pool beside him suddenly churned, and a several-meter-long lava salamander rushed ashore, opened its bloody mouth, and sprayed flames at Raistlin and the others.

A dark green ray shot from Raistlin's fingertip.

call out!

This legendary-level lava salamander, with its rock-like solid and strong body, seemed to have been weathered, turning into large flakes of flaming red powder and floating away.

The team moved on.

From the beginning to the end, Raistlin didn't give it a second look, and the timing of the spell was just right, as if it jumped out to hit the Disintegrate on purpose.

This was not the first time that everyone had been attacked, every time Raistlin shot, and the method was exactly the same, killing the enemy with a disintegration technique.

Even so, the teammates marveled at Raistlin's vigilance.

As an archmage, Kuilu's magic knowledge and eyesight are far superior to ordinary people, and she can even see how superb Raistlin's spellcasting skills are.

The dissociation technique originally only had a sixth level, but Raistlin not only raised it to an eighth level, but also compressed the casting speed to within three seconds. The upper limit of the spell's power, even if it is replaced by myself, it can't do better.

Every time I watched Raistlin perform disintegration, in Kuilu's eyes, the process was like an art!

If she hadn't seen Ren with her own eyes, it would be hard for her to believe that Raistlin, who has such a superb spellcasting ability, is just a clone, and his body is a battle wizard!

Kuilu's mind was fluctuating, and she frequently looked at the staff in Raistlin's hand.

She had already seen through the mithril layer on the surface of the staff and the red flame stone on the head of the staff that it was just a disguise, and its true face must be a legendary staff!

Any legendary staff has a lot of background, it is impossible to appear out of thin air.

However, Kui Lu has not yet recognized the origin of this staff, and she is very curious, which is too attractive for a great mage.

I finally left the lava cave, and it was dark all around.

The teammates breathed a sigh of relief.

No matter how disgusting the oppressive environment of the Underdark is, it is more comfortable and less dangerous than the harsh high temperature of the lava cave, which is like the elemental plane of fire. Shortly after walking out of the cave, the temperature dropped rapidly and quickly became low temperature.

This is the characteristic of the lower layers of the Underdark, either extremely hot or extremely cold, switching between the two extreme environments.

Raistlin, who possesses the key to the door, is very sensitive to spatial location.

He walked all the way, and based on the rocky soil and temperature where he lived, he speculated that the straight-line distance from the lower layer of the dark region to the surface was more than a hundred miles. In his previous life, this was an incredible depth.

The lower underdark is the smallest and most dangerous.

There will be attacks every few miles. The underground creatures that attack the team are much stronger than the middle and upper layers. Legendary level is not uncommon. There are many strange creatures that everyone has never seen before. It is hard to guard against. The other soul hunting team entered the lower level, and they would be wiped out without going far.

The terrain of the lower layer is also very complicated. Kuilu and Izzet have both been to Elaento, but they have also lost their way many times.

After two detours, I finally found the right direction.

"Stop!"

Kui Lu's voice rang in everyone's heart.

The Dancer of the Moon stopped in her tracks, turned her head and gestured to everyone. Almost at the same second, Raistlin also noticed something strange, and the voice of all things heard the movement coming from ahead.

Jingle...

This is the sound of metal colliding with rocks, drifting from the wind one after another, mixed with rough scolding, it can be easily recognized as a dwarven language.

"Slave of the gray dwarves." Kui Lu whispered, "I have never been in Elaento, but I just observed it once from a distance. It was originally a city of gray dwarves, which was conquered by a group of illithids hundreds of years ago. The duergar of the city are their slaves."

Raistlin and the others nodded in understanding.

His voice of all things traced the source of the sound, and heard more voices of gray dwarves. As expected, there was a mine of gray dwarves in front of him.

This also means that Elaineto is not far away.

After stopping in place for a while, Kui Lu waved her hand: "Go on, but be careful."

Izzet was at the forefront.

His figure was almost in the shadows, and the two war blades in his hands reflected a faint green light, like two groups of moving ghost fire.

Athena followed behind the demon hunter.

Then came Quilo and Raistlin, with Barack and Daunthos at the back of the line.

Not long after walking, the voice of the gray dwarf miner was getting closer and closer. Turning the corner of a tunnel, a huge mine suddenly appeared in front of him.

Hundreds of gray dwarves dug tunnels on the rock wall. They laid rails in the tunnels. The depth of the tunnels was unknown. From time to time, mine carts were pushed out along the rails, filled with ore, and pushed to the middle of the mine. into a larger minecart.

Most of these duergars wore only a rag around their waists, their faces were numb, and their eyes were empty.

They are working like walking dead.

Only when he was pushing the mine cart to the middle of the mine, did he have a trace of vitality in his eyes, but it was an expression of fear.

The object of their dread was a humanoid floating beside a large minecart.

Illithids!

The pupils of Raistlin and the others contracted, and the moment they saw the illithid, they immediately looked away. That glimpse had already left a deep impression on him.

This illithid is exactly the same as that recorded in the "Strange Memo". It looks like a half-human with an octopus head. It has no hair on its head, its skin is smooth, and there are four winding snake-like tentacles around its mouthparts. .

It was about the height of a human being, wearing a black and purple magic robe, and its natural levitation technique allowed it to float half a meter above the ground, and its long back hem hung down, covering its feet.

The faintly flowing air around his body made his robe flutter without wind, which was the fluctuation emanating from the huge spiritual power.

Its perception is extremely keen.

Raistlin and the others glanced at it from hundreds of meters away, and were immediately noticed by it. They turned their heads and looked back, but saw nothing.

Its figure flashed and appeared in front of it, only tens of meters away from Raistlin and the others.

Mind jumping!

The illithid scanned the corner, but still couldn't find it.

Doubt flashed across its gray and white bubbling eyes, and the tentacles of its chin twitched unconsciously. Suddenly, it raised its claw-like palm with four curved and sharp fingers, and released it towards Raistlin and others' hiding place. A scouting technique.

However, there was no change in the corner, and nothing was detected.

The illithid stared at it coldly for a few seconds, finally let go of his doubts, and returned to the middle of the mine through a mind jump, continuing to supervise the work of the duergar slaves.

At the location it searched with the probing technique, six figures were hidden under a transparent force field.

This is the invisible force field displayed by Kui Lu.

An archmage's attack is definitely not something that only a legendary low-level illithid can see through. The stone hanging in the hearts of the teammates fell to the ground. However, Kui Lu remained vigilant, did not act rashly, and sent a message to everyone: "Don't move, wait a little longer."

She maintained the cloaking field, neither moving nor teleporting away.

Everyone didn't go to see the illithid.

There is only the sound of the gray dwarves digging in the mine, and everything is as usual. However, a few minutes later, the illithid suddenly disappeared again and jumped closer.

It's back!

One after another mental spell landed in this area to search continuously, and also expanded the search range.

Raistlin's heart was awe-inspiring. The book of strangeness recorded the character of illithids in detail. Almost every illithid is suspicious by nature, cunning and cautious. If there is any abnormality or trouble, it must be investigated to the end. Let it go easily.

As they are to things, they are also to enemies.

Now I finally see it.

Fortunately, the strength gap between this illithid and Kuilu was huge, no matter how suspicious and cautious he was, he would not be able to see through the tricks of an archmage.

Looking back for the second time, it still didn't get any results, so it went back to continue supervising.

"Walk."

Kui Lu's voice resounded in everyone's hearts, a burst of extremely obscure magic fluctuations, and an additional layer of sound-proof force field inside the invisible force field, everyone felt their bodies floating up and moving involuntarily in mid-air.

When the people moved, they didn't make the slightest sound, not even the air was disturbed.

The Moon Dancer controlled the whole team to avoid the illithids, passed through the mine near the edge, and entered a wide tunnel.

The whole process took a few minutes.

Not long after entering the tunnel, Raistlin sensed that the illithid jumped again, appearing at the location where his group had previously hidden, and began to cast spells to search, as if to search the entire mine.

"It still refuses to give up!" Raistlin sighed inwardly.

After staying away from the mine, the sound of mining gradually became inaudible.

Kuilu confirmed that the illithid did not catch up, and there were no magic traps or ambushed enemies around, so she withdrew the spell.

"It's really troublesome, why don't you just kill it?" Barack muttered.

The Moon Dancer glanced at the Paladin and was about to speak when Raistlin spoke first.

"All the individuals of an illithid community are connected to the master brain, and they have a collective consciousness, like each finger on the palm of the hand." Raistlin explained: "An illithid sees us, so every illithid The monster suckers have seen us."

The teammates were all stunned.

Kuilu looked at Raistlin with admiration, and said with a smile: "You know so much about illithids, not many people in the Underdark know the relationship between the mastermind and illithids."

"It's also the first time I know." As if to confirm her words, Izzyt shook his head, "No wonder I only met one illithid back then, but as soon as I approached the city, ten illithids chased it down. "

Raistlin replied: "I want to get the mastermind's demon soul, so naturally I need to do some research first."

"Is Elaine coming?" Athena asked.

"Soon."

Izzet pointed to the front of the tunnel, and said with lingering fear: "Go forward for a while and you will see Elaineto. Back then, I just took a look from a distance and then ran away."

Kuilu casts a spell to make the team invisible, and then move on.

This is a long and winding tunnel.

Every few hundred meters, there will be a fork in the road. There are two forks or three leading to different directions, some up and some down, intertwined and spiral, like a huge three-dimensional maze. Izzet couldn't remember the route back then, but Kuilu couldn't be bothered. Through the footprints on the ground and magical fluctuations, he found the right direction easily.

After advancing in the tunnel for more than half an hour, there were bursts of rumbling noises ahead.

The further you go, the louder the sound.

Raistlin could tell that it was the sound of a large amount of water splashing from a high place, like a waterfall, but it was accompanied by huge explosions from time to time.

Gradually, the red light ahead entered the tunnel.

When everyone walked to the end of the tunnel, their vision was blocked by a large white mist, and just a gust of air blew their fingers, and their eyes suddenly opened up.

This is a huge rift valley with no end in sight.

I don't know how high it is above the head, at least thousands of meters, like the real sky.

Countless cold rivers poured down from above the rift valley and fell into the lava lake at the bottom of the rift valley, forming a waterfall with a drop of nearly a thousand meters.

The river collided with the lava, and the cold and heat clashed, and the continuous mist floated up, moistening the shimmering moss on the cliffs on both sides of the rift. When the energy accumulated to a certain level, the lava lake at the bottom of the rift exploded, engulfing the billowing magma and erupting spectacular pillars of fire.

A city is located on the cliff of the rift valley. Hundreds of caves have been dug out of the black rock walls on both sides. They are connected with each other by tunnels and stairs. A rock bridge was built to build a three-dimensional city.

The exit of the tunnel where the six Raistlins were located was in a cave.

The cave is located at the bottom of the middle layer of the cliff, and there is a wide platform in front of it, connected to a stone bridge leading to the opposite cliff.

They walked to the edge of the platform in invisibility, and were immediately shocked by this magnificent city.

"This is Elaineto!"

Izzy sighed softly.

It wasn't the first time he and Kui Lu came here, but they were still shocked by it.

Raistlin quickly scanned the city built on the cliff, and soon discovered more information. Most of the people living in those caves were gray dwarves, as well as stone-blind people and underground gnomes. There were as many as 70,000 to 80,000 people. , They are all slaves of the illithids, each performing their own duties, and the whole city operates like a sophisticated machine.

However, illithids are rare.

Occasionally, one or two illithids can be seen coming out of their hidden residences. They live on the upper floors of the city. When they travel, they use the levitation technique to fly in the sky, or directly teleport to their destination.

According to the introduction in the Book of Strangeness, the higher the status in the illithid city, the higher the residence.

And the main brain must be in the core area of ​​the illithid city.

Raistlin looked up and found his target immediately!