The cold wind rushing in from the narrow crack above her head brought to Elise's ears the sounds of moving arthropods in the shadows, as well as the noise coming from below.
As Spider Queen Priest, she was standing at the highest point of "Little Takia City" at the top of a prismatic spiked tower, scanning the building below with her dark eyes that blended with the darkness.
The new drow city with the same name as the drow main city "Takia" has a somewhat dark and unclear look.
Her mood at this time was completely different from the one she had one night when she climbed up to the tallest clock tower in Palermo and overlooked the entire human city.
Because she knew that she failed!
After several years of planning, when victory was only a few steps away, the prey suddenly woke up and not only tore open the cobwebs, but also followed the cobwebs to find traces of the person behind the scenes.
These things happened one after another in just a few days, from the initial exposure, to the subsequent cleaning, to today's invasion.
After receiving this information, Elise felt sad and happy for a while.
Sadly, she has already faced failure. For the priest who swore the "invincible oath" in the Temple of the Spider Queen, this is an out-and-out life and death crisis.
Because as a price, she and the divine power given in her body will be used as a sacrifice to appease the anger of the "Queen of Darkness" Kosust, the god believed by the drow elves.
But what was overjoyed was that the surface humans decided to invade the Dark Territory, which allowed her to survive from a desperate situation. She was not completely defeated.
And with such a nature, she will become an out-and-out sinner and become ordered to take over the command of the city as a "four-eyed" priest in times of crisis.
Then, she would have one last chance. As long as she sacrificed the flesh and blood of the invaders to the supreme Queen of Darkness, she would be able to redeem herself.
She withdrew her gaze from overlooking the underground city and looked back.
At this time, the small spider-belly-like conference hall was already full of people as she looked around, with only one empty seat still missing.
"Luzani hasn't arrived yet?"
Elise asked everyone in the meeting with a heavy voice. The martial arts master in charge of the drow warriors was usually silent, and the other "three-eyed" priest sisters also looked at each other in confusion.
After all, they were not familiar with the name Luzani, but they knew that there was such a person in Takia City. He was elusive and responsible for the assassination institute, and they didn't have much dealings with the priest.
Looking at everyone's reactions, Elise knew that asking was in vain, and immediately patted the table and said.
"Ignore her! According to information from Spider Shadow Scout, the surface army is not far from Takia's position. They have already reached the Noisy Water Falls. They will pass through five caves and go down three kilometers to reach the entrance outside our city.
Black Fungus Forest, what do you think now?"
"Sit back and wait for death?"
When saying this, the man stood proudly, wearing an adamantine mail shirt mixed with mithril and a robe with spider patterns. He also had a weapon in his waist that was used to communicate with the Queen of Darkness, "Kosus."
With a special eight-legged scepter, her voice was eight decibels louder, her expression was angry, and her eyes reflected the shadows of spiders in the conference hall.
But her words were like some of the most peculiar toxins that quickly spread in the air. Along with the lichen and moss covering the rock wall high outside the window, the faint starlight spread to the uneasy faces of everyone present.
Seeing that everyone still refused to answer, Elise sneered.
"Why don't you speak anymore? Or do you want to wait until the Queen's Ceremony stage before you open your mouth?"
The Queen's Ceremony is a grand ceremony used by the drow every year to sacrifice to Kothust. Usually, there are gifts to please Kothust on the stage, usually various creatures from the underdark, used to divide the spider swarm.
In the last ceremony, we even caught an earth dragon.
"Elise, I used my magic pet to investigate the group of surface humans. There are very powerful spellcasters inside. My suggestion is to retreat temporarily."
The one who spoke was also wearing a robe, but there was no drow wearing an adamantine shirt like Elise.
Like Elise, she is full of unique beauty. Her skin is as smooth as obsidian, her light red eyes are like the most beautiful rubies, and her silver hair reflects a dazzling luster under the dim light outside the window. However,
There is a large spider-shaped scar on her flawless and delicate face, but this also proves her identity.
His profession is "Spider Mage", and he is also a high-level drow spellcaster who has gone through the "Tattooing Ceremony".
Like Elise, she can cast spells of level five or above, but she does not cast divine spells, but spider spells that she studied and learned from the descendants of Kosust.
"What are you talking about, Kulea? This can't be the case! How much effort did we spend to build New Takia City? Are you going to run away? Just because of the death of your demon pet and your bullshit fear, you are going to
Quit with your Rosales family?”
Hearing this, Elise, who was originally angry, became even more furious. She looked at the drow mage in front of her who had obvious dark scars on her face after healing, and almost growled,
"But reason tells me that there is no better decision to stay here than to be buried with this city. They will not live here. Carrying a few spider corpses is enough for them to go back and make business, isn't it?"
Kulea was not affected by the angry Elise at all, but stood up, walked to the priest who believed in the Queen of Darkness, and sighed.
"Didn't the Spider Queen also tell us that we need to be patient? No hunting can be successful in one go."
"Now that they are going deeper underground, their supplies cannot be maintained, right? And the shipment has already arrived, so it is not impossible to invade Palermo again."
The drow mage's voice is particularly rational, and compared to Elise's anger, her words are more convincing.
"can not do this."
Elise was still reluctant to object and said that no one knew about the oath she made in Kosust. This was the price of her rapid growth, and she could not tolerate failure.
She gritted her teeth and said.
"You didn't even fight. I don't agree with your defeat based on your intuition alone. Moreover, the high-ranking bishops in Palermo did not follow you this time."
"I have already prepared the blood alliance's preparation ceremony. This time I will not allow them to approach New Takia City no matter what."
The Blood Pact is the highest ritual that Elise can perform. She can use sacrifices to call the descendants of the Dark Queen who have been worshiped by the drow elves for generations, but the price is the death of countless creatures. This is a cruel living sacrifice, and it will also
Let Elise lose at least one level of magical authority.
"All right."
The drow mage with scars on his face nodded helplessly and said in a solemn voice.
"Now that you've decided to do this."
"Then I won't stop you, but I will prepare a backup plan. If it really fails, I will take the remaining drow and hide deeper. Then I will wait for you on the ruins of the gray dwarves. "
"If you die, I will avenge you!"
…
Valley Order
At this time, in Palermo, a luxurious study room in the Rutov Winery was filled with gloom and gloom.
When there was a knock on the door, the two distraught middle-aged nobles sitting in high chairs woke up immediately.
"Master, I'm back." The man outside the door said.
"Logan, I'm going."
Inside the door, Marco restrained his brother Logan's desire to get up with his hands. He walked to the door, skillfully removed the pick and opened the locked door.
Standing outside the door was indeed the butler he sent out, Yasin Odom.
Yasin is a Xuyan with beautiful orange-red eyes, which is one of the reasons why he purchased him from the slave market more than ten years ago.
"Yasin, how's it going? Is everything done?"
Marco looked at his most loyal servant in front of him. Even if he was usually as calm as him, his tone at this time was inevitably a little hasty.
He subconsciously held the hand of the man in front of him, as if this could make him feel at ease.
"Replying to the master, it's done. I have brought your words to tell those people in the sea not to attack Edith Manor. They agreed, but they asked for compensation."
Feeling the man's big hand, Yasin frowned slightly, but his tone remained respectful.
Marco, who was in the joy of the news, did not notice anything strange about Yasin. Instead, he closed the door, then excitedly took his hand, and even let him sit on another chair in the study. He waved his hand.
"As long as you promise, they will eat as much as they can with their fish-like appetite."
"Well, indeed, there are only fifty livestock, which are not expensive. I have already asked people to prepare them. They should be satisfied by enjoying these by then."
Yasin also nodded in agreement. Compared to the Sahuagin tribe whose resources are still in the barbaric period, and to the Rutov family whose gold coin purchasing power is unprecedentedly high, the price of fifty livestock is not high, but low. terrible.
Logan even laughed heartily. After all, this was the only good news recently, and he finally stopped the original death plan.
You know, he couldn't even drink in the past few days. What he thought about in his dream was that the Edith family discovered what he had done, which led to a devastating blow to the Rutov family. Not only His reputation was tarnished and his family's name disappeared.
"Well done, Yasin! Cheers to a better tomorrow!"
After hearing the news, Logan took a sip of the rich and fragrant white wine in the goblet, then raised half of the glass and said to Yasin.
"Master Logan, I dare not..."
"Haha, come on, come on, have a drink!"
"Brother, you come too..."
…
Listening to the commotion behind him and the exchange of glasses, Marco held up the wine glass he took a sip in one hand and rested it on the transparent embossed glass with the other. The dim sky outside the window felt particularly bright at this time.
It was also a good thing to feel for the first time that the family wine business was about to be destroyed by the impact of the fine wine brought by the open trade of elves.
At least it will take half a year for this matter to affect Palermo from a distance. And if the sahuagin attack on the noble manor is exposed, then they will not be able to stay in Palermo for a day and will have to pack up their belongings overnight. Run away.
But who knew that an ordinary viscount who had retired from the battlefield and lost his influence in the army would still have such great energy.
Not only does he have a good relationship with the Dawn Temple, but he can also be treated with respect by Earl Rees. If he hadn't witnessed the swearing-in ceremony with his own eyes a few days ago, he would not have believed it.
The Edith family, which has always had a low reputation in the city and is unknown except for the wine business, is actually so well hidden that it is able to summon a legendary strongman.
If he has such powerful assistance, what's the point of hiding in Palermo? He can dominate the capital of St. Lawrence.
He was quite unhappy and jealous as he thought about it, and then took a sip of wine.
However, letting go of the most important things on his mind also allowed him to start thinking rationally about what the future should be like.
Now and in the future, Palermo's high-end wines will surely be impacted by the elf wines, and the Rutov family will soon live up to its grandeur and fall from the clouds into dust.
Naturally, it was not something that the two brothers could accept. Ever since their ancestors dared to follow the Kingdom to open up the knights, drive away monsters, and withstand storms to build a port city with just a handful of food, they had the blood of unwillingness flowing in their bones.
The reason why he hooked up with the sahuayu people was because he wanted to trade with the undersea tribes and make profits.
It's just that the sahuagin in the original plan are extremely xenophobic and disappear without a trace, and the sea elves are extremely arrogant. The only people they can contact in the Thousand Sails Sea are sahuagin.
Having said that, I don’t know how those damn diplomats from the Camille Empire convinced the group of elves in the Supreme Forest, and how they were willing to open up trade.
He is well aware of how difficult the elves are. If he hadn't accidentally sent a sea elf slave back to the bottom of the sea, he would not even be able to meet the sea elf if he wanted to find it. But even so, he still couldn't deal with that group of people. The extremely proud sea elf.
At most, there are two more useless magical objects than others, a curved conch-shaped token used to prove one's identity, and the other is an underwater breathing ring that allows people to move freely in the water.
Apart from this, there is nothing else. It seems that this is the reward given by the ocean to him for rescuing the sea elf slaves, but how can this be...
Perhaps it was because he was relieved of his serious worries that he quickly thought of another possibility before him, that is, if he used this token given to him by the sea elves as a stepping stone to trade and bribed the elves in the High Forest, would it be possible? There is a possibility of success.
He had heard that the land elves were also interested in the culture of the sea elves. Could his token please them?
If possible...
Then if he gets the agency right for Elf Wine in the Bavialo area, he won't have to worry about Rutov's winery declining, but will instead prosper.
As long as the price of elf wine is raised, the wine from Rutov Winery will become a very cost-effective substitute for drinking.
At this moment, for some reason, Marco suddenly found that his originally rough and rough future suddenly turned into a smooth, sunny road.
On the other side, Yasin, the housekeeper of the Rutov family, calmly borrowed the gesture of raising a glass and covered the ring that was flashing red light...
