Mei Yi walked around the empty cave. She raised her head and stared at the stone stalactites hanging upside down from the ceiling. Water droplets slid down the uneven surface and fell into the depression below.
There was a ding-dong sound, and Miss Knight's pointed ears moved and she blinked slowly.
She turned back.
Luo Hao held a shield to one side to protect him. His level was much lower than the average level of the team, so he behaved much more cautiously than others. He held the power warhammer tightly in one hand while looking around with a scrutinizing gaze. The team's leader
At the end is Parker, who is responsible for cutting off the back. The others are mostly in the center of the team, with a certain distance between the beginning and the end.
Fang Plover was behind the two of them, holding an illuminating crystal. From time to time he raised the crystal, so that the cold light reflected the gray rock top. Sylvide was holding a long magic gun, standing gracefully on its side.
Later, other people followed them deep into the underground. Most of them, Luo Wei, had little adventure experience, so they followed Fang Plion's guidance and acted quite curious.
Xiaoyao, in particular, is a restless master. He looks around from time to time, poking around here and there, and then asks: "This place looks like it has been abandoned for a long time. Will the Nozpitz Craftsmen's Association send it?"
Is it regularly maintained?"
He typed in the team channel, pointing out the rusty, winding rails that stretched forward into the dark depths.
Among the group of people, only Liu Liyue had extensive combat experience. He was at the back of the group holding the monocular with one hand, adjusting the focus from time to time, without saying a word, and only appeared to be quite alert.
May shook her head and replied: "As far as I know, part of the Nozpitz mining area is still in operation, and people from the Craftsmen Association regularly go underground for maintenance. This time, the target of our investigation is Nozpitz.
The craftsmen of Pitz discovered it during the maintenance process."
She chose to speak directly.
Sylvester was not systematic and just glanced at them curiously.
"What exactly is the target?" Xiaoyao asked, "Originally we were just curious about the mining area of Nozpiz. This was originally an important crystal mining area in the empire, and magic crystals containing the power of the earth element were found in the silver deposits.
, hence the name of the silver crystal of Nozpits. I have been famous for this place for a long time. I heard that you were coming here, so I shamelessly asked you to take me down to have a look. But after coming down, I found that there is nothing special about it.
The Imperial people are exaggerating a bit, and they haven’t even seen the Silver Crystal at all... It’s really boring. But you probably didn’t come down here just for the Silver Crystal, I heard it’s an ancient magic furnace?”
"It's not that ancient." Fang Plover replied.
Ancient magic weapons in Aitaria refer to the magic weapons of the Numerin Elf Era, but the tower magic furnace was born much later than that, so it can only be regarded as a product of magic technology in the mid-to-late era. This matter
He had nothing to hide. Luo Wei and the others just had nothing to do and were curious about adventure, so they came to the mine with them. But in fact, these people were not very interested in the tower magic furnace.
big.
Of course, the matter of the Star Device and the Zero Crystal was too important, so Fang Plover did not talk much about it. He simply told a few people about how the tower magic furnace was discovered in this mining area.
The Empire's technology recycling order has been circulated for many years, but this matter still sounds quite legendary.
Xiaoyao suddenly said after hearing this: "So there are lost technologies left in this mining area? No wonder, I would also want to come down and take a look to see if there are any missing details that the Imperial people have not discovered. Now since
There is a tower-type magic furnace with unknown technology, so there is no guarantee that it will be something else."
Fang Yu nodded. This idea is not wrong, but there is a deeper connection behind it. It is not just as simple as an unknown technology. Of course, it is no problem for the other party to understand this. For craftsmen, it is completely normal to be curious about unknown technologies.
things.
Although the technology of the middle and modern times has long been backward compared to modern times, many technologies of that era actually came from the alchemy of the more ancient Numerin elves - and ancient alchemy was very different from today's, and mortal skills are not the same.
Inspired by it, it can be seen as an endless treasure house.
Although some of them have been abandoned by contemporary technology, there are still some lost technologies that can inspire today's skills, just like the elf creation technique mastered by Fang Plover. Even if most of them are worthless, they can always be made from endless resources.
I found a few sparkling gems in the sea of sand.
Craftsmen and scholars are full of interest in this kind of work, and this is why different methods of technological recycling in various countries have emerged.
"But after the mining area has been operating for so many years, why are there still unknown technologies found here?" Xiaoyao still seemed a little curious. "Is there still an unknown area down there? It looks so deserted. Are the craftsmen of Nozpitz really there?
Is it routine maintenance? How did they find the magic furnace?"
Fang Yu was startled when he heard this.
This question was also unanswerable for him. After all, Estina only briefly mentioned that the tower magic furnace was found in the abandoned mining area of Nozpitz, but did not reveal too many specific details.
many.
The Empire seems to have an unusual interest in the tower magic furnace. They even heard about the fact that he had repaired a tower magic furnace in Istania. But what is the relationship between this and the star device?
In fact, he knew very little about the imperial people's intentions.
The reason why the Seven Seas Brigade came to this place was, firstly, to find a technical route that matched the Type Zero Crystal, and secondly, to investigate the intentions of the Imperial people. After all, the reason behind it might be the Linn family, or the one that sank in the Misty Gorge.
There is a deep connection with the pirate ships...
Regarding the daily maintenance of the mining area by the Nozpitz Craftsmen Association, that was the news they received from the Adventurer's Guild not long ago. The waiter girl told them that the mining area ceased operations ten years ago due to depletion of groundwater and subsidence of the mine tunnels.
Later the Craftsmen's Guild and the Royal Geological Society of the Empire became involved.
Soon after, a large amount of earth elements emerged from the underground area, causing the mining area to fall into a semi-abandoned state.
Logically speaking, from then on, the Nozpitz Area Craftsmen Association should have been conducting deep underground investigations for a long time, so that the tower magic furnace was found later, until a year and a half ago, and when they arrived in the empire
until.
But now it seems that there are indeed many doubts in it. Including the background of the emergence of the tower magic furnace under the mining area, why did Hain-Fam's technical route reappear in such a place after being lost?
Fang Yu couldn't help but think of another thing.
——Yes, this is just like when he was transported to the underground of that strange temple in the elven ruins.
Who was the temple of Anjina built for? Why does it stand alone in that place? Why did the design of the Zero Crystal appear there? What secrets are hidden underground in the elven ruins?
And what kind of power took him to that place?
At the beginning, I was in a hurry to leave the underground and had no ability to investigate further. But now it seems that there are indeed many doubts.
First of all, why was he resurrected there?
Is it the power of Hailin Crown, or does the star dagger contain some kind of coordinates?
It's a pity that one of these two things has been transformed into the glory of Cang, and the other has become Miss Tata. It is impossible for him to recreate the situation at that time. What's more, committing suicide just to verify something sounds like something like this.
It's too unreliable.
The Star Dagger contains the technological crystallization of the second technical route, and the product that was born from it is none other than my Fairy Dragon Soul Lady. So what is the connection between the second technical route and the sixth technical route?
Woolen cloth?
Is that just a coincidence?
Now the other half of the sixth technical route, the Zero Magic Furnace, has also mysteriously appeared under this mining area. Is it also a coincidence?
Or rather, these two technical routes have actually experienced some unusual events, which is why they can be explained by their being so bizarrely scattered and always buried in these unknown underground corners.
But Xiaoyao's words suddenly woke him up.
"You're right," Fang Yu couldn't help but ponder as he looked at the aging tracks, "It might not be that simple down here."
"Ah?" Xiaoyao was stunned.
What did he say? Wasn't he just curious about the bottom of the mine?
But Shui Wuming responded, "You said that when the Craftsmen Association inspected the underground area of the mining area, they discovered a new area below?"
Luo Wei shook her head and analyzed: "I'm afraid it's more than that. The Imperial people should have discovered something underground in the mining area. Now that I think about it, the intervention of the Royal Geological Society of the Empire can explain the problem. If it is just to consolidate the mine tunnel, there is no need at all.
People from the Geological Society intervened, do you remember another thing Ed said earlier?"
"What kind of riddles are you playing again?" Xiaoyao looked at a few people in confusion. But he seemed to react suddenly, showing a look of realization, "Wait a minute!"
Earth element!
Earth elements live in the deep areas of the floating continent. If they do not suddenly emerge in the mining area, but are a stress response to the invasion of the upper area, then everything will be explained.
"The people of the Empire went deep into the deep underground area and discovered an area where the earth element resides. So why did these native species become so angry that they poured into the surface area?" Xiaoyao blurted out, "I understand, then
The tower-type magical furnace was not discovered under the mine at all... No, it can also be said that it was just found that its location was much lower than 'under the mine' in the general sense?"
Fang Plover nodded.
When Xiaoyao mentioned the unknown area, he had already thought of this.
The area below the mining area is no different than other places. Even before the Artisans Guild intervened, this area used to be the place where the miners of Nozpitz worked. The workers in the mining area should be familiar with every mine tunnel and branch road below.
Therefore, it is almost impossible to discover unknown things in known mining areas, unless the miners discover new areas while digging. Then it makes sense that the miners in Nozpits should be mining
At this time, a passage was dug through to the deep area below.
It is unknown whether the underground caves below were originally natural caves, secret passages left by underground rivers, or underground ruins left by humans. However, the Artisans Association that later intervened should have discovered the tower magic furnace in that place.
Perhaps there should be other traces left behind, otherwise it would be unexplainable why the Imperial people attach so much importance to this place.
There might be a place down there similar to the elven ruins he had seen before, a temple, or something similar.
When he thought of his past experiences, Fang Pliance could almost describe the general process before and after the incident:
Subsequently, the Nozpits Craftsmen Association closed the mining area, and a series of external announcements about groundwater depletion and mine tunnel subsidence seemed likely to be just a cover, but they used this cover to get the Royal Geological Society to intervene.
However, the Imperials must have encountered big trouble in their subsequent explorations. At least the earth element did exist. They should have broken into the earth element's habitat while exploring deeper areas and angered them.
Those indigenous people were killed, which led to the subsequent series of events.
"So the reason for the abandonment of more than half of the Nozpitz mining area must be attributed to it," Shui Wuming was a little curious, "But at least before that, the empire had closed part of the mining area because of this. The silver crystal mining area is important to the empire.
The source of the earth element crystal, they must have discovered something extraordinary down there, I don’t think it’s just a tower magic furnace?”
Judging from the attitude of the Imperial Workshop towards the tower magic furnace, it seems that the tower magic furnace alone is enough to attract the attention of the Oshu people, but Fang Plover is also a little curious as to what the Empire people are underneath the mining area.
What was discovered deep in the underground area?
Estina, and the little girl from the Adventurer's Guild didn't seem to be completely telling the truth to him, or they had limited knowledge about it.
But the Empire had gradually closed off the mining area ten years ago, and it was only a year and a half ago that they discovered the magic furnace underground. If nothing had been discovered during this time, how could the Empire have stopped so easily?
The operation of an important mining area.
It is not just the output of crystals, but also the rise and fall of a city, the work and livelihood of countless people, and countless immigrants. Even the alchemists of the Imperial Workshop and Craftsmen Association can ignore this, but His Majesty the Emperor
It is impossible to ignore such an important matter.
"So I'm a little curious," Xiaoyao said, "The Empire actually told such a big lie to the outside world and stopped the operation of a mining area for the sake of an underground area. What secrets did they hide underneath? This is adventure
eh... turns out to be so interesting."
"These are just guesses," Fang Pliong shook his head and conservatively concluded, "They may not be correct."
"But speculation shows that it is possible. At least the unknown area must exist, otherwise they would find the tower magic furnace from there." Xiaoyao rubbed his hands excitedly, "Can we go down there to see
Look, there might be some treasures of ancient magical skills."
"Even if there is a treasure," Luo Wei reminded him, "it still belongs to Ed and the Seven Seas Brigade. We are just here for sightseeing and we have not contributed much."
"Ah?" Xiaoyao was stunned for a moment before he remembered this question, "Is that so?"
"That's not the case," Fang Yu scratched his head. He was not that stingy. If he had cared about this issue, he would not have agreed to let Luo Wei and the others go with the group in the first place. "If it was ancient alchemy,
Let’s share it with everyone.”
"That's right," Xiaoyao breathed a sigh of relief, "I just said, Ed even taught the skills he learned in Xia Jin Tower to so many people for free, how could he be so stingy? Hehe, actually I just want to see
I am not interested in those rumored ancient technologies and other treasures."
"That's Ed's generosity. What does it have to do with you?" Shui Wuming rolled his eyes at this guy angrily, "But this actually means that we are hiring the Seven Seas Brigade to conduct technical exploration work for us. If there is
If we find something, we can pay for it."
"The reward is just reward," Xiaoyao waved his hand, "It's the guild's expense anyway."
Fang Yu then remembered that there is such a thing as technological exploration, which is actually similar in nature to the technological recycling mentioned before. The difference is that one is led by an association of craftsmen, while the former is mostly private in nature.
Since alchemists have little combat effectiveness, they usually hire adventure groups to work for them when doing field work in the wild. In addition to the fixed salary, there are usually additional rewards based on the value of the objects found.
He didn't have much interest in this thing. The Seven Seas Troupe shouldn't be short of such a small amount of money. Taking Luo Wei and the others out was just like taking a vacation together. However, when Fang Plover's words came to his lips, he swallowed them back and thought about it for a moment.
He asked with a shy face: "Wait a minute, this reward you are talking about...is it a lot?"
"It's not much," Shui Wuming replied, "if we divide it among each of us, it would be less than 250,000 yuan."
"What, so many!?" Fang Yu couldn't help blurting out.
Here Luo Wei, Shui Wuming and Xiaoyao are worth 700,000 to 800,000 lisels. If Liu Liyue is included, isn't it close to 1 million lisels?
Thinking about how much effort he put into helping the military catch the spy, he almost didn't trigger a war among the dragon knights, a confrontation with the Seven Mage families, a trial by an arbitration tribunal, and finally he got a post-tax payment.
The remuneration is less than half a million lisels.
Although we know that Stargate Port has always been stingy and naturally cannot compare to the commercially operated Super Competitive Alliance in terms of financial resources, this is still too much of a difference, right?
But as soon as the words were spoken, Fang Yu realized that his words were a bit embarrassing, and couldn't help but add: "I'm just... just a little interested in this. I have my own adventure group. As you know, I know a lot about this."
a bit less."
A sighing sound came from behind.
Fang Yu turned around and glared at Alyssa angrily. Miss Nightingale looked at him and shook her head as if she couldn't bear to look at him.
Sylvester was quite amused and smiled. She was used to seeing her captain being embarrassed, so she was not surprised. And she was not an alchemist. In fact, she was not too familiar with the topics among these alchemists.
care.
Only Luo Hao yawned in front of him. He didn't even see a hair on the earth element or other adventurers along the way. And he himself was not interested in the skills of the craftsmen at all. He listened to several people discussing this.
He almost fell asleep after hearing what was going on under the mine.
He looked at Mei Yi beside him, and couldn't help but admire the little lady's seriousness and calm expression.
Luo Wei didn't mean to ridicule after hearing what Fang Yu said. She only explained seriously: "You don't have to say that, Junior Ed, you are a free adventure group and you are responsible for your own profits and losses. Naturally, it is different from us. This is not the case for us."
Of course I know. Wu Ming is not exaggerating at all. This level of technical exploration is at this price, and for a team like the Seven Seas Brigade, the market price should be higher."
"Why?" Fang Yu was puzzled.
"Because you are the Dragon Alchemist," Shui Wuming said with a smile, "A person's name, the shadow of a tree, you know why the Grand Guild pursues popularity and traffic so much, because in the operation of super competition, these are genuine goods.
The value can be converted into real money. The same goes for free adventure groups. Hiring other people is not the same price as hiring a Dragon Alchemist."
"Anyway, you don't have to be polite to us," Shui Wuming said, "We all act according to the rules, and the guild's money is spent. The club doesn't object. What do you have to be embarrassed about? It's just business rules."
She looked at Xiaoyao: "Xiaoyao, talk."
Xiaoyao usually talks a lot, but this time he didn't waste any time. He drafted a page of contract directly from the system and distributed it to everyone. "I'm only interested in magic technology," he spread his hands, "As long as I can get
When it comes to technology, this little money is nothing to us, and to the guild, it’s a profit without any loss——"
"Okay," Shui Wuming gave him a thumbs up, "Silver Weislan is indeed very wealthy." He also signed the contract.
Fang Yu looked at the amount of money on the contract, as well as the holy emblems of several major guilds and the Roman Goddess, and couldn't help but be stunned for a moment. Although he had long known that these people were elite craftsmen in the first world of their respective guilds, or for
The main craftsmen trained in the future will be rich and powerful, but knowing it is one thing and experiencing it personally is another.
He had always thought that although the Seven Seas Troupe was living a tight life, including the fixed assets on the Seven Seas Traveler, it should be considered an upper-middle-class level among adventure groups at this stage. But now it seems that it will be at the upper-middle level among this group.
Add a restriction to the upper level, that is, a free adventure group or a free guild.
Compared with those real big guilds, they are nothing but a drop in the bucket.
Although he knew that the equipment of these people might cost several million lisels, his attitude of not taking hundreds of thousands of lisels seriously still shocked him quite a bit.
Fang Yu carefully put away the contract - although this virtual contract did not even exist in reality at all, and could only take effect after the ancient technology was successfully found, and before that, it only agreed on a very small fixed remuneration. But no matter
So, this is a big business worth over one million yuan, and if they find more things underground, there may even be additional commissions.
The Seven Seas Troupe has done so many businesses, and this extra income can be considered a large amount among them.
Even Miss Nightingale secretly gave him a thumbs up after seeing it.
Unexpectedly, their captain was so humiliated that he became a "big business" while talking and laughing. This is the importance of reputation and connections. Ordinary adventure groups may not have the opportunity to meet these people from major industries.
The 'big boss' of the guild.
What's more, even if you know someone, you may not be able to gain trust.
Didn’t you see that the guild behind these people passed the contract with almost no review? It may not be obvious how much importance they attach to the name of the Seven Seas Brigade, but the name Dragon Alchemist must have had a lot of influence.
big effect.
After signing the contract, Luo Wei mentioned the next adventure, "But if Ed's previous speculation is true, that is, the Empire's abandoned mining area is just a cover for them to seal off this area, then they may be quite concerned about the area deep underground.
Take it seriously, I’m afraid it’s not that easy for ordinary adventurers to go deep underground.”
Fang Plover nodded.
He had considered this early on, but the raging of earth elements in the mining area should be a reality. The empire could not hide this kind of thing, so they recruited adventurers from the Adventurer Guild to enter the mining area.
Medium suppressed earth elements should also be true.
However, these adventurers should not be able to leave the mining area easily. They will help share the pressure of the Imperial people in the shallow layers, so that the people of the Craftsmen Association can be free to concentrate on dealing with underground affairs.
And it is precisely because of the existence of these people that they can use the people of Gray Dagger to fish in troubled waters and enter the mining area. In other words, in fact, there should be a large number of adventurers in the upper levels of the mining area, and they should not be particularly conspicuous here.
.
But once you go deep into the underground area, you have to find a way to avoid the Imperial people's eyes.
"Then what should we do," Xiaoyao asked. He knew nothing about this kind of underground adventure. "The Imperial people are much more familiar with this place than we are. It won't be easy to avoid their attention, right?"
"It's not that there's nothing we can do," Fang Yu didn't mind. Compared to Luo Wei and the others, the Qihai Brigade is experienced in this aspect, "but I'm afraid we have to hurry up."
"How to say?"
Fang Yu thought about the fact that he, Luo Hao, Luo Yu and Parker were being followed outside the Adventurer's Guild. The local Chosen Guild would not notice them for no reason. It seemed that the Empire should have been wary of them early on.
.
Fortunately, those people seemed to have underestimated his level as a combat craftsman and allowed him to get rid of his tail easily. By the time the enemy reacted, they had already gone deep into the mining area. Now it seems that the people looking for Gray Dagger led the way into the mining area.
It was a correct move.
However, the people of Gray Dagger are only interested in profit, and betraying them will happen sooner or later, which means there may not be much time left for them.
"Actually, I had some ideas about this before," Fang Plover raised the lighting crystal in his hand, letting the gray light illuminate the cave in front, "but we need to wait a little longer."
"Wait?" Xiaoyao asked.
Luo Hao suddenly straightened his body and looked in one direction.
But Mei Yi had already put down her halberd and suppressed the power hammer in his hand. "It's one of our own," she replied crisply.
A silhouette gradually appeared in the darkness, as if someone emerged from the invisible state. First it was Luo Yu, and then followed closely by the scholar lady holding the magic book. As soon as the two appeared, they walked toward Fang Yu.
Look in the direction of the plover.
"How's it going?" Fang Yu asked immediately when he saw the two people appearing.
"I've checked," Luo Yu answered first, "The Gray Dagger people didn't lie. There was nothing going on near the damaged elevator. But it was pretty much what everyone had guessed. Jita and I used elemental vision to search for two
Wheel, I found that the concentration of earth element magic power nearby is much stronger than in other places, and there should be many earth elements building nests in that area."
"As long as there are no Imperial people," Fang Plover nodded, "It might be a good thing to have the earth element nearby."
"Wait a minute," Xiaoyao responded, "that damaged elevator, the damaged elevator that the people from Gray Dagger mentioned were you planning to repair?"
"Why not," Fang Plover asked, "The people from Gray Dagger said that there had been a collapse in this area before, which was probably caused by the earth element. After that, they dug a passage from here to the mining area, but we returned
It's not safe in the mining area. Why not use the damaged elevator? Maybe we can catch you by surprise. We have so many craftsmen here, why are we afraid that we can't repair even one elevator?"
Shui Wuming's eyes lit up when he heard this: "This is a good idea!"
