Chapter 525: Chapter 281: Wandering Eye Tyrant (Part 2)
As the top Warhammer user Hamilton was introducing the top Adventurer Squads skilled in using Warhammers, suddenly, a dazzling red light rose in the distant sky.
The elite of the Empire beside him exclaimed in shock: "Something’s wrong, there’s trouble! This direction should be the squad led by Quasi-General Valentine!"
Red signal flares indicate a trouble they cannot resist, with a danger of total annihilation.
"General, we...."
At this moment, a messenger quickly reported: "General, Quasi-General Laird has sent word that they are closely following the Hernet Family’s Drow Elves, who have now entered a hidden underground path unmarked on the map."
"Lord Laird is preparing to conduct a preliminary investigation inside."
Quasi-General Laird is the deputy of Kobodore and in charge of tracking the Drow High Priest Siriel and their party.
...
On the other side.
High-tier Priest Siriel, along with Guard Captain Narrell, led a remaining Royal Guard squad of five deeper underground.
At this time, Siriel glanced at the bracelet emitting a faint black glow on her wrist and said to Narrell beside her: "The early warning magic array I just set was triggered; it seems they have followed us down."
"Exactly, let them experience the terror of the eye monster mutation." Siriel said, curling her lips into a light smile.
No wonder Siriel was so proud.
Because on the way here, she was astonished to find that the eye monster Zergelos had crazily transformed itself into a Wandering Eye Tyrant.
Guard Captain Narrell looked puzzled and asked: "Even if this human Empire’s squad is wiped out here, this loss means nothing to the human Empire, right?"
"That’s right, but we can do more. For example, lure them to the surface."
"I’m curious, what expression will the humans of the Urein Empire have when they see a Wandering Eye Tyrant with strength far beyond the Black Dragon Soron?"
Upon hearing this, Guard Captain Narrell suddenly realized and smiled as well.
Truly worthy to their High-tier Priest, for hundreds of years, besides polishing her own strength, she was involved in power struggles. If not for her ruthless methods and meticulous mind, she could not have fought her way up to become the High-tier Priestess of the goddess.
...
At an entrance to a hidden path.
Raine curiously examined the rock walls emanating a faint hot mist around, turning to Meredith beside him: "Have you been here before?"
"No, but I’ve read related texts and ancient maps, knowing this hidden path."
"This place is slightly far from the Belendaan’s influence, but a thousand years ago, this hidden path was used as a trade backup route, until it was gradually abandoned as the eye monster Zergelos entrenched here."
Listening to Meredith’s introduction, Raine nodded slowly.
He already understood about eye monsters.
Before setting out, he memorized most of the demon and monster pictorial data of the Underdark.
In terms of individual combat power, an eye monster of the same age generally surpasses an adult Black Dragon, only ancient dragons can firmly suppress them, aside from mutated eye monsters.
Though the growth span of eye monsters isn’t as extravagant as giant dragons, they grow stronger over time.
And the trickiest part is, according to the Adventurer’s Association’s records, the proportion of mutations among eye monsters exceeds thirty percent.
Across the whole continent, only Adventurer Squads of Gold Level and above dare to hunt eye monsters, even top-silver squads would promptly retreat upon encountering one.
Without mentioning others, simply the eye-beam ray and Anti-Magic Field of eye monsters are enough to render adventurers below Gold Level helpless.
Currently holding a Protector and Counterattacker, having acquired Black Dragon bloodline, his level has advanced once more, yet even so, he has no confidence in facing a quasi-legendary level eye monster head-on.
Of course, it’s not out of fear, but an objective assessment of strength.
It’s undeniable that the attraction of eye monsters to Raine is comparable to that of Black Dragons, which is one of the main reasons he chose this hidden path.
It’s like an early exploration to understand the environment.
Though familiar with eye monster pictorial data, it doesn’t mean he understands their specific habitats.
Just like at this moment, Raine clearly sensed that as they progressed deeper underground, the surrounding temperature became hotter and more unbearable.
The two continued their conversation as they delved deeper.
Suddenly, Raine thought of something and took out the two Warhammers hanging at his waist to carefully inspect them, noticing small cracks on the hammerheads of both Protector and Counterattacker.
Of course, by comparison, the recently repaired Counterattacker had minimal cracks, whereas the cracks on Protector were more noticeable.
This is because very few Drow Elves use hammer-type weapons, so naturally, they wouldn’t spend much to repair the Protector.
Suddenly, Meredith and Raine halted, raising their eyes to the front.
For both sensed a subtle movement from ahead.
"Be cautious, try not to disturb the creatures here, it’s likely they are eye monster minions."
Raine nodded, thought for a moment, then casually released two Invisibility Spells, and both quickly advanced towards the direction the sounds came from.
Soon, they saw four or five busy kobolds.
This made Raine’s brow arch slightly, it had been almost six months since he last saw kobolds at the Azure Mine, and seeing them again brought about a strange sense of closeness.
Only these kobolds were not mining, but burying the skeleton of some large creature.
Meredith whispered into Raine’s ear: "I can almost confirm these kobolds are the minions of eye monsters, creatures of their level couldn’t possibly live stably here. Most likely they are assigned to the periphery for garbage removal and nest cleaning."
"I see."
If an unaware adventurer saw kobolds and casually killed them, it would inevitably alert higher-level minions of the eye monster, possibly even directly alerting the eye monster, thus sealing their fate.
Due to Raine and Meredith’s strength vastly surpassing kobolds’, and aided by the Invisibility Spell’s concealment, they easily bypassed this group of kobolds and continued deeper.
"By the way, did you notice anything peculiar about these kobolds? Their skin seems particularly dry, and their movements rather stiff?"
"Could it be due to prolonged labor?" Meredith expressed doubt, offering a somewhat reasonable explanation.
Raine heard this, pondering slightly, nodded, and said no more.
Soon, the two progressing forward came upon a fork in the path.
Both branches led downwards, one to the left, the other to the right.
Just as Meredith was about to proceed, Raine’s pupils shrank and he immediately pulled Meredith back.
"Hm?"
Meredith looked at him puzzled.
Raine spoke no words but rather pulled her a few steps back with a solemn expression, hiding in a recess in the rock wall, then whispered:
"I just spotted an invisible creature at that left fork. It’s about the size of a washbasin, with two eye stalks half a meter long."
Raine naturally relied on the Black Dragon bloodline talent ’Eye of Truth’ to spot it.
Eye of Truth LV1, effect: You can discover creatures and objects in an invisible state and perceive the presence of planar rifts. (Note: High-tier Invisibility Spell or more advanced invisibility state cannot be detected.)
Upon hearing Raine’s description, Meredith’s demeanor turned serious: "That’s an Observer eye monster!"
"Observer eye monster?"
"Yes, it’s invisible, has excellent vision, and upon detecting intruders, it immediately alerts the eye monster."
"I thought entering the Transcendent, I could detect these invisible creatures, but it seems.... Luckily you found it early." Meredith frowned slightly, with a subtle hint of fear.
"So what should we do?"
"A passage with an Observer eye monster must lead to the eye monster’s nest; let’s take the other route."
"Alright, let’s go right then. Wait." Raine peeked out to see the Observer eye monster, also in an invisible state, starting to float away deeper into the left passage.
...
