Chapter 47: The Underdark 1

“Pah! Pah! Pah! You damned fool! Who are you calling gnomes? We’re dwarves!” the short warrior snapped. “I’m Hark. These are my younger brothers, Harry and Hani. The three of us are all apprentice warriors. And this is Daphne, a dark elf and an apprentice archer. Are you human? How did you get down here? Are you a fire mage?”

Hark was the warrior who had just been wrapped up in spider silk. He was short, but his equipment was surprisingly good: chainmail boots, a plate breastplate, a helmet that left only his eyes exposed, and two axes hanging at his sides.

As he spoke, Hark pushed up the front of his helmet and began circling Kent with obvious curiosity. He answered Kent’s earlier question with some irritation, all the while looking him up and down carefully. Then, as though one question naturally led to another, he simply kept asking without pause.

Kent stared at the fellow in front of him, speechless for a moment.

Hark did not even reach his armpit, yet his personality was every bit as straightforward and blunt as the records described dwarves to be.

With a helpless smile, Kent replied, “Yes, I’m human. I come from the Alliance Empire. My name is Kent, and I’m a Level-One Mage. But more importantly, do you have anything to eat? I’m starving.”

“So this is the legendary human?”

The moment Hark and the others heard Kent confirm that he was human, they all crowded around him in fascination.

They poked at him, touched his arms, and even pulled up the legs of his trousers to feel his calves, as though he were some rare creature they had only ever heard about in stories.

Kent hurriedly backed away two steps.

“Hey, can we find something to eat first?” he asked in exasperation. “I’m seriously starving.”

Hark and the others gave him strange looks when they heard this.

Then the three dwarf brothers turned around and began collecting the spoils from the dead spiders—silk, pieces of carapace, venomous fangs, and anything else that seemed useful.

Kent watched them for a while and quickly realized that they were clearly doing this for the first time. They handled everything clumsily, making a complete mess of the process.

“Here. This is food.”

The archer standing nearby reached into the leather pouch she carried with her and took out two things, handing them to Kent.

“Thanks.”

Kent accepted them and looked down. One was a piece of dried meat, while the other was a metal canteen.

After thanking her, he began eating while quietly studying the dark elf beside him.

According to the stories and records Kent had read, dark elves were notorious for their highly uninhibited and promiscuous nature. But as he looked at Daphne more carefully, he immediately noticed something different.

The dark elves described in the records were supposed to have black skin.

Daphne, however, was clearly very pale.

The distant glow of the volcano made it difficult to see every detail clearly, but Kent was still certain that he had not mistaken her complexion.

“How did you get down here?” Daphne asked curiously as she studied Kent in return.

“I don’t know,” Kent replied. “I was originally in a forest. One of my enemies opened some kind of scroll, and then the next thing I knew, I was down here. Where exactly is this place?”

“The Underdark,” Daphne answered. “This is the Underdark.”

“The Underdark?”

“You don’t know?”

“......”

After talking with them for a while, Kent finally began to understand what the Underdark actually was.

It was home to many of the races that humans on the surface referred to as the exiled races—dark elves, gnomes, dwarves, goblins, black dragons, and many others. There were even humans living here.

People on the surface generally regarded these races as evil.

Kent also learned something rather surprising about his new companions.

Daphne was already forty years old, but dark elves could live for as long as a thousand years. By the standards of her own race, she truly was still little more than a young girl.

Hark and his brothers were all around twenty years old, yet dwarves could live for at least two hundred years.

Strangely enough, although Kent was the youngest among them in terms of actual age, he was proportionally the oldest when their ages were compared with the natural lifespans of their respective races.

After all, for an ordinary human, simply living to the age of sixty was no easy feat.

Among commoners who spent their entire lives struggling to survive, the average lifespan did not even reach fifty years.

Only professionals—those who had become warriors, mages, or other extraordinary practitioners—could extend their natural lifespans beyond that of ordinary people.

And this was only the first level of the Underdark.

According to Daphne, the Underdark was divided into three levels.

The first level was inhabited mainly by dwarves, gnomes, dark elves, goblins, and large numbers of low-level magical beasts. The second level was home to intermediate-level magical beasts as well as various indigenous races native to the depths below the earth. As for the third level, that was the domain of black dragons, Flame Lords, and other high-level magical beasts.

The three levels were connected by countless tunnels and underground passages, forming an enormous and complicated network beneath the earth.

The tunnel Kent had emerged from happened to lead toward the territory of nearly two hundred Level-Three Crimson Flame Demon Spiders. The area was also said to contain fire-element magic crystals and various valuable ores.

When Kent heard this, cold sweat broke out all over his body.

Two hundred fire-element magical beasts—and in their own territory, no less.

If he had actually run into them, there was no doubt that he would have died.

Fortunately, Daphne told him that the spiders’ territory was nearly half a month’s journey from where they were now. Thinking about it, Kent realized that even if he had tried to travel in that direction, he would probably have starved to death long before reaching the place.

“Come on, let’s go! Let’s go!”

Kent had been getting along surprisingly well with Daphne during their conversation.

In truth, Daphne was still rather innocent, almost like a young girl. How could she possibly be a match for Kent when it came to conversation?

It did not take him long to coax quite a bit of information out of her.

Kent learned that there were actually quite a few mages in the underground world, but true alchemists were extremely rare. The people here had so-called enchanters, but there seemed to be no profession equivalent to gem-setters, nor was there even a clear concept of alchemists as Kent understood them.

As for potion-makers, one of the branches of alchemy, Daphne had never even heard of such a profession.

By this time, Hark and his two brothers had finished gathering their spoils. Looking immensely pleased with themselves, they called out to Kent and Daphne.

“Hark, are the three of you really brothers by blood?” Kent asked.

He had noticed that the three dwarves seemed to be around the same age. Yet dwarves were supposedly not very fertile, so he could not help feeling curious.

“Not exactly,” Hark replied. “Hani and I have the same parents. Harry has the same father as us, but a different mother. Still, the three of us are the closest brothers in all of Muan City.”

Hark walked at the front of the group with the shell of a giant spider balanced over one shoulder.

The sight was almost comical.

But Kent knew better than to underestimate him.

Hark was also carrying two one-handed axes, each weighing around twenty kilograms. That was no laughing matter. In terms of raw strength, these apprentice warriors were actually somewhat stronger than Level-One warriors from the surface world.

“Oh, oh! Look who’s back—our little warriors!”

Kent and the others had just crossed a stone bridge.

It was clearly not a natural formation.

Beneath the bridge was a bottomless abyss, so deep that nothing could be seen except endless darkness. The bridge itself was also remarkably large, stretching dozens of meters across.

The moment they reached the other side, Kent saw a patrol approaching.

Each member of the patrol was mounted on a Terrorclaw Beast.

The creatures looked somewhat like the ancient dinosaurs Kent had read about. They walked upright on two thick, powerful hind legs, while their forelimbs were much shorter. Despite their size, those front claws were strong enough to tear through steel.

They were Level-Three magical beasts, each standing roughly five meters tall and measuring around ten meters from head to tail.

Terrorclaw Beasts were typical omnivores, armed with rows of razor-sharp teeth powerful enough to crush even the bones of magical beasts.

“Hey, Grett. Can’t you stay out of my sight for once?” Hark said irritably.

He looked up at a dwarf in full armor sitting astride one of the Terrorclaw Beasts, then continued walking forward without any intention of stopping.

Grett gave Hark and the others a glance.

This time, however, something was different.

There was a strange figure among them.

The newcomer was wrapped in a cloak, with even his head hidden beneath the hood.

Grett immediately raised his voice.

“Who are you? Take off that hood and show your face!”

Kent had already been warned by Daphne and the others before they approached the city.

If he wanted to enter, he had to keep his face hidden.

For that reason, Daphne had lent him her own cloak.

Kent understood well enough that if a human from the surface suddenly appeared in the Underdark, he would almost certainly be questioned and investigated.

But he had no intention of letting these little fellows discover his identity so easily.

Besides, Hark had already promised that once they were inside the city, he would find a way to arrange a legitimate identity for Kent.

So Kent merely gave a cold snort.

A ball of fire suddenly appeared above his palm, its flames flickering brightly in the darkness.

Then, lowering his voice, Kent asked,

“Do you still need any other proof?”