Chapter 670 Ronda Rockwhistle

Two days had passed since Xia Nan met Zanfrey and Winsor in the Underdark.

To repay Xia Nan for his crucial help, the third young master of the Shield of the Silver Lake family had taught him the training methods and nuances of the [Returning Wave Shield Stance] without holding anything back, asking for nothing in return.

Still, Xia Nan was a decent person with a relatively high moral baseline.

He couldn't just learn the combat technique and ditch them as dead weight.

On a practical level, even if Zanfrey didn't ask for it, Xia Nan continued to honor their prior agreement.

He kept Zanfrey and Winsor by his side while searching for an exit, using his Perception to scan for any traces left by Ake, the guard from their party.

At the same time, he had to admit that there was a massive gap in strength between him and these two inexperienced youths.

Trailing behind him, they were absolute dead weight.

To avoid any trouble stemming from poor communication, he had laid down the ground rules with the two young men the moment they set out two days ago.

He established exactly what they should do in an emergency to maximize their chances of survival, preventing any chaotic, panicked reactions from making a bad situation worse.

Those instructions ultimately boiled down to a single rule: follow Xia Nan's commands.

There was no need to panic, and no need to show off their courage.

If he felt they could fight, they would stay; if he felt a situation was too dangerous, all three would immediately retreat.

Simple obedience was all he asked.

Their current situation was a perfect example.

When his sharp Perception picked up a massive commotion deep within the tunnel ahead, Xia Nan immediately threw up a hand in warning.

Zanfrey was still wrestling with turbulent emotions—a mix of intense pride from defeating the strongest opponent of his brief adventurer career and lingering remorse for a careless mistake that had nearly cost them dearly. Yet the moment he saw Xia Nan's signal, he snapped to attention.

The excitement instantly drained from his face. Without a word of nonsense, he and Winsor took a few quick steps to hide behind Xia Nan.

"Grrr!"

Winter Wolf Fanny crouched low beside Xia Nan, baring her fangs in a vigilant growl.

Xia Nan, meanwhile, tensed his body. His pitch-black eyes fixed on the tunnel opening ahead as he pushed his Perception to its absolute limit.

A cacophony of bizarre screeches rolled out from the depths of the tunnel, compounding into a massive roar that echoed off the stone walls. Paired with light footsteps and the rustle of rubbing feathers, the sound struck a familiar chord in Xia Nan's mind.

His pupils contracted slightly. Using the faint light of the Underdark's glowing moss, he peered as deeply as he could in the direction of the noise.

He could just make out a blurry shadow formed by a massive swarm of individuals, rushing toward their cavern at breakneck speed.

His Perception provided the answer faster than his conscious thought.

Even without catching any clear, defining traits, his outstanding Perception fed him the enemy's identity almost like an instinct.

—They were about to face a massive flock of Dire Corbies, with numbers approaching triple digits!

Without a shred of hesitation, Xia Nan spun around the moment he realized this.

Shooting both arms out, he scooped up Zanfrey and Winsor, tucking one tightly under each arm.

Winter Wolf Fanny showed perfect synergy. Though her Perception was slightly weaker and she hadn't yet identified the enemy, she trusted Xia Nan implicitly. Without needing a single command, she dropped her aggressive stance and retreated right on his heels.

Truthfully, facing enemies like Dire Corbies—creatures with low individual strength that fought in swarms—was something Xia Nan's current combat technique repertoire could handle with ease.

To put it simply, activating [Fang Hunt] and carving through their ranks a couple of times, amplified by the [Night Mother's Gaze] feat, would probably wrap up the battle.

But as mentioned before, the Underdark's Dire Corbies were frustratingly difficult "mechanic monsters." If their Terrifying Shriek stacked, even Xia Nan's level of Perception might not be enough to withstand it.

To play it safe, avoiding the fight was naturally the best choice.

Of course, if push came to shove, he still had a "Deafness Potion" left over from the banshee quest in his pouch. The only problem was the limited dosage—it wasn't enough for everyone present to drink.

Xia Nan had already made up his mind: if the situation truly devolved to the worst-case scenario, he would have Fanny lead Winsor and Zanfrey away temporarily while he downed the Deafness Potion and stayed behind to fight.

Thinking this, he sprinted forward with the two youths for a short distance.

Suddenly, a short arm darted out from the shadows of a narrow crevice in the adjacent rock wall—a fissure barely wide enough for a single person to pass through.

As if sensing Xia Nan's sweeping gaze, the arm first waved vigorously in greeting. Then, turning its palm downward and keeping its four fingers together and slightly curved, it made a beckoning gesture.

His Perception picked up no obvious malice, while the screeching of the Dire Corbies behind them grew increasingly ear-piercing. The faces of the physically weaker Zanfrey and Winsor were already twisting in pain.

Hesitating for only a second, Xia Nan made his decision, rushing toward the crevice with the two youths and the wolf.

Even in this emergency, he maintained considerable vigilance. Keeping his Perception extended at high intensity, his muscles remained tightly coiled, ready to spring into action against any sudden threats.

To guard against danger, he was the first to squeeze into the fissure. After shuffling forward just two steps, the narrow stone walls abruptly opened up, revealing a fairly spacious cavern about a quarter the size of a basketball court, with a ceiling of about three meters.

At the same time, the owner of the short arm that had beckoned them from the shadows appeared before Xia Nan.

An adult male gnome.

Standing just over three feet tall, he would only barely reach Xia Nan's hips even on his tiptoes. His build wasn't stocky like a dwarf's, but rather lean, with clear muscle lines faintly visible beneath the skin of his forearms.

He was likely from the surface like Xia Nan, not a native creature of the Underdark. The gnome possessed the brown hair and turquoise eyes common to his race, and a small forked beard on his chin that should have looked refined, but now appeared entirely unkempt, surrounded by stubble.

Yet the most striking detail was the loose cloak currently draped over his back, made from Dire Corby feathers.

Seeing that the gnome bore no hostility, Xia Nan asked, "Who are you?"

Acting as if he hadn't heard, the gnome waved a hand at him, then tilted his head and pointed a finger at his own ear.

Only then did Xia Nan notice that small wads of cloth were jammed tightly into the gnome's ears. The fabric had clearly undergone some special treatment, showing a sticky sheen that kept it firmly in place while sealing off the entire ear canal.

Coupled with the Dire Corby feather cloak on the gnome's back, a flash of understanding crossed Xia Nan's eyes even before the other party could explain.

The situation was urgent, and the gnome hadn't had time to explain much to the group.

He shrank back a few steps in fear when he caught sight of Winter Wolf Fanny, but his psychological fortitude seemed quite strong, and he suppressed his fear a second later.

Once the three humans and the wolf had all entered the cavern, the gnome hurriedly unclasped his Crow-Feather Cloak. Stepping forward on his tiptoes, he draped the cloak directly over the entrance fissure.

It looked incredibly crude and somewhat shoddily made, but the cloak seemed to possess some special sound-isolating ability.

Just a second ago, the increasingly sharp and ear-piercing screeches of the approaching Dire Corby flock had been echoing off the cavern walls.

But the moment the gnome pinched the corners of the cloak and lightly draped it over the gap, it felt as if everyone in the cavern had instantly plunged from land into water. The shrieks echoing in the air were reduced to dull, buzzing rumbles.

It didn't completely erase the noise, but it was finally no longer maddening.

Without communicating with the group, the gnome simply stood there holding his feather cloak, blocking the opening.

He waited until the Dire Corby footsteps and screeches outside began to fade, as if they had already departed.

Only then did he visibly heave a sigh of relief. He threw the cloak back on and plucked the soundproof wads of cloth from his ears.

He greeted Xia Nan and the others. "Hello, I'm Ronda Rockwhistle, but you can just call me Ronda."

"Are you guys from the surface too?"

Xia Nan's gaze instinctively swept over the two Short Daggers at the gnome's waist. Thanks to his keen Perception, a brief observation was enough for him to roughly determine the other party's strength level and class type.

His level was around Level 3 or Level 4, and definitely no higher than Level 5.

As for his class, factoring in the residual shadow energy he had detected upon entering the cavern and the weapons the gnome used, he judged it to be a [Rogue] or a related variant class.

Although the gnome's motives were unclear, he had undeniably just bailed Xia Nan and the others out of a tough spot.

Always polite, Xia Nan expressed his thanks and, in return, introduced everyone in his own group.

Beside him, Zanfrey's curiosity was practically overflowing. The moment Xia Nan finished, he immediately chimed in, "Yes, exactly! We all came down from the surface!"

"We were doing perfectly fine on our quest, but then an earthquake suddenly hit. The whole ground just seemed to cave in."

"By the time we opened our eyes again, we were already in this hellhole!"

Hearing Zanfrey say this, the gnome Ronda couldn't help but nod thoughtfully.

"An earthquake? No wonder the nearby tunnels are blocked off by fallen rocks. Your luck is truly rotten."

Catching the implication in his words, Zanfrey paused in surprise and asked, "Are you familiar with the terrain around here?"

The gnome nodded at the blond youth in front of him.

"Of course."

With a wealth of adventuring experience, a single glance was all he needed to tell that this fair-skinned youth, who seemed to have grown up pampered, was a newcomer to the business.

Having an agenda of his own, Ronda naturally had the patience to explain. He shot a glance at Xia Nan, then broke into a smile, taking the initiative to show goodwill and explain his own situation to the group.

The Underdark, the subterranean kingdom located beneath the continent, was a uniquely treacherous environment. Because of this, it was even more dangerous than many monster hives dense with magic particles.

At the same time, its vast reserves of rare ores, precious materials, and the legacies of predecessors offered opportunities that matched its danger, attracting countless fortune-seekers to venture deep underground.

And Ronda Rockwhistle was just one unremarkable member among those adventurers attracted by the Underdark.

A class level of Level 4, placed in any ordinary town, could easily be called a "powerhouse." If ordinary people fought them, they would likely lose their heads before they even registered the strike.

But down in the Underdark, a Level 4 [Rogue] like him was, in some ways, probably only slightly better off than a forest goblin.

He had to stay on high alert at all times; any slackening would result in him becoming nothing more than fertilizer for this wicked land.

However—adventurers could always find a way out.

By fully utilizing his [Rogue] class in the dim environment of the Underdark, and driven by a deep inner thirst for its wealth, Ronda soon found a few like-minded teammates to form a permanent squad.

And through secrets revealed by the squad leader, they found a relatively stable avenue for making money in the Underdark.

Ronda didn't explain the specifics too much to the group in front of him.

But by combining the Crow-Feather Cloak on the gnome, the special cloth wads jammed in his ears, and the information Xia Nan had gathered from listening to adventurers boast in taverns, he already had a guess about this so-called "moneymaking avenue."

Dire Corbies were accustomed to flocking together. Amplified by their numbers, their Terrifying Shriek was enough to force even powerful monsters to retreat in pain.

At the same time, they shared the migratory habits of birds, constantly traveling along fixed routes.

This meant that as long as someone could grasp a Dire Corby flock's migration pattern, they could accurately pinpoint their path of travel and current location.

From there, they could trail the flock from afar to scavenge the "leftovers" the Dire Corbies left behind, picking out valuable materials and equipment. Alternatively, they could lure exceptionally dangerous monsters directly into the flock's inevitable path, letting the Dire Corbies handle the threat for them.

For adventurers operating in the Underdark, either option was a guaranteed, risk-free profit.

"My squad has been shadowing this Dire Corby flock for nearly three years," Ronda said. "There are even a few Dire Corby chicks in there that I practically watched grow up."

Ronda Rockwhistle, who prided himself on being intimately familiar with this Dire Corby flock and had indeed amassed considerable wealth from these monsters, had noticed a bizarre change in the Dire Corbies two months ago.