The appearance of the dusk elves is far from human fantasies about the elves.
They have slender torsos and limbs, pointed ears, dark green hair like seaweed, and big and bright eyes.
Because I'm really too thin.
Matthew even suspected that the nutrients in their bodies had been absorbed by the mushrooms.
Their skin color is darker, but unlike the pitch black of the drow, the skin of the dusk elves shows a relatively healthy wheat color.
"Thank you, but we're not hungry yet."
Faced with the elf's hospitality, the two Matthews took the mushrooms, but did not eat them immediately.
The other party said happily:
"It doesn't matter, you can eat anytime you're hungry!"
"This is a mushroom grown with my blood and spirit. It has high nutritional value. One bite can satisfy you for a day."
"On the Eternal Island, if anything happens, just call Dudley."
With that said, the elf named Dudley stepped aside at Crait's signal.
The three of them continued walking towards the center of the island.
Along the way, Matthew saw neat and tall tree houses, with various mushrooms and other types of fungi growing under the eaves.
The center of the tree house is an extremely open space.
The open space is covered with a thick layer of soft sand.
It seems like no one lives around here.
According to Crater, his lair was built on the cliff on the northwest side of the island. Because his body was so big, the cliff was almost hollowed out.
As for the natives of Timeless Island.
Currently there are only three creatures: dusk elves, earth spirits, and sea monsters.
Among them, the hardworking and capable dusk elves account for the majority.
Every dusk elf is a natural druid, and they are tightly united with the Spore Society as the core.
The sad fact is.
Whether they are the dusk elves or the druids of the Spore Society, they are not recognized by their peers.
In Irondor, the four major elven clans of wood elves, night elves, sea elves, and cloud elves recognize each other, and among them, the night elves and cloud elves are vaguely superior to the other elves.
But they don't recognize the existence of the dusk elves as a kindred race.
The same goes for the Spore Society.
The druids of the Earth Order consider them no different than the Blighted;
The Ocean Society believes that the sea is the best destination for life, not fungi and bacteria;
The Moonlight Society also cannot accept the alternative looks of the Spore Druids;
The Storm Society is even more extreme. They regard the Spore Society as the scum among druids and vow to eradicate them all.
All of the above were introduced by Crater while walking.
He continued:
“For a while, I thought I needed more people to promote my ideas, so I searched for like-minded people all over the world.
At first I found the Order of the Blight, but I soon discovered that they were a bunch of losers.
They don't really love withering, they just have to throw themselves into the embrace of withering because they have been abandoned by nature.
They embrace blight because they hate nature, which is contrary to my philosophy.
So I abandoned them.
Later I met Dudley, who was the only survivor of his tribe in the Elf War.
He introduced me to the Spore Society.
This interests me a lot.
The Spore Society believes that decay is part of nature, which is precisely Huang Yulong's philosophy.
So I brought him to the Eternal Island so that his family could thrive.
Unfortunately.
The former sun elves not only lost the civil war among the elves, but the first-generation sun god they believed in also fell in the war between gods.
since then.
The sun elves were eternally cursed, and they could never return to their former strong, healthy and sunny appearance.
The moonlight also keeps them away.
Only dusk would give them some shelter.
So the sun elf degenerated into the dusk elf.
As a result, these former high elves became behaving strangely——
I have advised them several times not to grow mushrooms on themselves.
This will make you look abnormal.
But they just don't listen!
They insist that this is their way of communicating with nature, and hope that through this move, they can dispel the misunderstanding of mushrooms from the outside world.
The goal of the Spore Association is to hope that more people can fall in love with mushrooms.
I'm not optimistic about this.
In my opinion, if you want to vigorously promote the benefits of mushrooms, it is easier and more effective to grow mushrooms directly on others than to grow them on yourself."
Hear this.
Matthew and Margaret were both confused.
Kraite chuckled and said:
"There is a kind of mushroom that can make the host think slowly, and there is also a kind of mushroom that can make the host feel like falling in love.
My advice to them is to just plant these two mushrooms on other people——
If everyone in the world had mushrooms planted on their bodies, wouldn’t they look normal!”
Matthew rubbed his temples and forced a smile:
"That's an idea."
"Before I met Dudley, I only mastered the field of decline, but I didn't know how to create life."
Crater seemed to be in a lively mood:
"But after getting deeper into the fields of fungi and bacteria, I realized that the essence of biological decay is the creation of microorganisms. For this reason, I understood a new field."
"It can be said that I have benefited a lot from the Spore Society's worship of fungi. Sometimes when you look at the world from a different angle, you will find a different scenery."
"You two are mages from the Seven Saints Alliance, right?"
Margaret nodded.
Crater asked expectantly:
"Are you or the mages you know interested in studying this topic?"
Margaret looked troubled.
It was Matthew who stepped forward to smooth things over:
"We do not rule out such plans in the future. Microbiology is indeed a neglected field. As long as we make preliminary preparations and time permits, we will conduct in-depth research."
Crater looked quite happy.
He repeatedly warned:
"If the Seven Saints Alliance launches a project in this area, be sure to ask me to be a consultant. I will provide strong support in this field for free."
"It's a pity that I am not a mage myself and do not know how to conduct research in this field."
"But I have a strong hunch.
Within the next hundred years, a "King of Fungi" will surely be born in this world.
In the future, microorganisms will shine on the world stage. Can you imagine that scene?
That’s really an exciting scene!”
However, what Matthew imagined was a terrifying scene of a giant mushroom destroying Rolling Stone Town.
Although he also liked Peggy's fried mushroom noodles, he had no expectations for a world dominated by fungi.
But now he can only muddle through with vague words.
Crete took the two of them around the island.
The Timeless Isle is indeed very exotic, and the landscape and architecture here are different from other places in Irondor.
But after looking at it for a long time, it’s actually just the same thing.
mushroom.
Colorful mushrooms.
Mushrooms big or small.
Mushrooms with different smells and smells.
Everything here seems to be related to mushrooms or other fungi. Over time, it gives people the feeling of being in the Mushroom Kingdom.
It quickly became dark.
Crete invited the two to have dinner on the cliffside.
This place is close to the Dragon's Nest and is the only place without any mushrooms.
But there are negative energy crystals growing everywhere.
Under the sea cliff.
A group of sea monsters rode the waves and presented them with a sumptuous seafood feast.
Krayt himself has transformed into his original form, and the huge body of Huang Yulong has submerged into the ocean. He will dive into the deep sea for a feast.
Dinner ended quickly.
When night fell, Crater personally took them to an empty mushroom tree house and told them that they could rest here.
After that, he left gracefully.
Matthew and the others entered the room, and Margaret quickly set up a magic tent on the ground.
Matthew was about to say something.
But his mouth was covered by Margaret.
She took Matthew's hand and wrote several words on it.
Matthew was so itchy that he couldn't tell what she wanted to say.
Fortunately, there is also a data column.
…
"Tip: Your partner Margaret reminded you that there are traces of "eavesdropping" in the room."
…
"This old dragon respects us on the surface, but the dragon's arrogance is indispensable in its bones.
He just wants to watch us do what a couple should do.
And once he discovers that we are pretending, I'm afraid we will suffer even more severe retaliation.
According to the alliance’s information, Krayt behaves erratically and is moody, so don’t be fooled by his appearance and always stay vigilant!”
See Matthew's unresponsiveness.
Margaret simply took out a piece of paper and wrote the above content on it with a floating quill pen.
Matthew read the contents once and then disappeared.
He knew it was a magic item used for encryption.
So he took the quill and wrote:
"So what do we do tonight?"
Margaret pondered:
"We have to sound like a couple, and we have to act realistically."
"After tonight, we will find a way to say goodbye tomorrow. Anyway, we cannot stay on this island for a long time——
Have you noticed that the dusk elf named Dudley, almost all the dusk elves on the island look very similar to him!
The mushroom smell here is too strong, I always feel a little weird."
Matthew agreed with Margaret's concerns.
As for how to sound like a couple.
The two of them fell into deep thought.
…
At night, in the dragon's lair by the sea.
Krait transformed into his original form, lying on a pile of gems and gold coins, playing with a crystal ball with his dragon's tail boredly.
From time to time, the conversation between men and women could be heard in the crystal ball.
Most of them are boring and homely.
Until late at night.
The female voice suddenly said:
"It's almost time to go to bed."
The old dragon was shocked.
But I heard the man reply:
"Wait a minute, I have to copy another scroll, why don't you go to bed first?"
The woman complained:
"It's obvious that the wedding has just been held, but you go to bed later and later. You were not like this when we first got together eight years ago."
The man coughed:
"I am indeed copying scrolls."
The woman said angrily:
"Scrolls can be copied every day. Didn't you hear Mr. Crater say that we need to have more children? Come up here!"
The man's smile sounded forced:
"All right."
Then there was a sparse, chirping sound.
Crater's vertical pupils narrowed.
But it didn't take long.
The sound stopped.
The woman asked:
"what happened?"
The man's voice was a little unnatural:
"I'm not in a good state today, let's do it tomorrow."
The woman is silent.
after awhile.
she says:
"Then you have a good rest today..."
respond to her.
There was only the sound of men snoring.
Crater felt something was wrong when he heard this, but he couldn't say what was wrong.
He thought for a while, cut out the conversation just now, then took out a smooth magic mirror and asked in a deep voice:
"Answer me quickly, Mirror Trian, is the above conversation common among human couples?"
An old-fashioned square face quickly appeared on the magic mirror:
"The answer is yes."
Crater muttered:
"It seems they didn't lie to me."
"Prepare some gifts for that man tomorrow. At such a young age, you know that copying scrolls all night long is not enough."
…
The next morning, Matthew woke up relatively early.
According to the agreement between him and Margaret, he would go to Crete first and create an opportunity for Margaret to explore the Eternal Island alone on the grounds that Margaret was feeling unwell and wanted to rest more.
Dragons' requirements for sleep are obviously different from humans. As soon as Matthew left the tree house, Crater came up to him.
This old dragon obviously didn't sleep all night.
He invites Matthew to visit his collection of undead.
Matthew readily agreed.
The two of them arrived at the bottom of the Dragon's Nest, where individual rooms were carved out one after another on the cliff about ten meters away from the sea.
These rooms are all connected to the Dragon's Nest.
Each room is guarded by a siren.
Most rooms are filled with items of unknown significance.
There are even salted fish, seaweed and other items.
However, Matthew knew that all this was just the effect of disguise.
Crete took Matthew to the most spacious room.
After Matthew entered, he found that the cave was empty except for a large sandbox on the stone platform in the middle.
He took a closer look.
I found that the sand table was filled with densely packed undead creatures!
"Reduction surgery?"
Matthew asked.
Crater nodded:
"I spent a lot of money to hire a mage to shrink all the undead creatures in my collection into this sandbox.
As I grow older, I become more and more interested in perceiving the world in human form.
Whenever I was bored, I would sit by the sand table and observe some undead creatures.
Look, they're all interesting, aren't they?"
Matthew walked around the sand table several times from a bird's eye view.
The abundance of undead creatures here is comparable to a reduced negative energy plane.
Matthew quickly found the mummy that Crater had mentioned yesterday that always tripped over his own bandages.
That guy is too tall, and the bandages on his body are too long, so he will inevitably bump and bump when he walks.
besides.
There are also zombies that are as fat as buckets.
A skull with three eye sockets on its head.
The headless horseman who never knows where to go.
And a bone dragon that has to remove the bones from its body and count them again every day.
The undead creatures in the sand table all have unique characteristics, but their strength should not be underestimated.
If it weren't for the reduction spell that kept it at this size, and if it wasn't bound by the power of the sand table itself, there would be several undead creatures with the strength of a king.
Crete introduced their origins to Matthew in detail.
Matthew is naturally crazy about pandering and flattering.
One morning.
The guests and hosts enjoy themselves.
"I'm not bragging, am I? My collection of undead creatures is definitely the most bizarre in the world."
"If you have a similar undead creature, you can show it to me. If it becomes my collection, I will exchange it with you for other treasures."
After proudly introducing the undead creatures in the sand table, Crater said this.
Matthew's heart moved.
At that moment, he spent some effort and summoned a zombie and a skeleton from the cemetery.
The zombie is a Silver Moon zombie with a tombstone on its back.
The skeleton is a very ordinary skeleton, except that its hips always twist when walking.
Crete really liked it when he saw it.
Matthew wisely said:
"You can just accept it if you like. You don't have to give me anything."
Crater shook his head:
"Although I am vulgar, I never take advantage of my friends.
As mentioned, it is an exchange of collectibles, so it is impossible to just get in and not get out.
Is there anything in particular you want?"
Matthew shook his head.
Kraite caught it with ease:
"Then I'll pay you back whatever I want."
The next second.
There are two more coins in his hand.
The coins exude little bits of magical light.
Crete forced the two coins into Matthew's hand.
Matthew had no choice but to accept it.
…
"Tip: You have obtained Featherfall Coin and Weight Coin.
Featherfall Coin (Accessory): When you put it in the pocket of your jacket (it must be a pocket on your jacket, it will not work if it is a jacket without pockets), your body will automatically gain Featherfall when you fall from a height.
(Slow and safe landing) effect.
Weight Coin (Accessory): When you put it in your coat pocket, your weight will increase to 5 times your current weight."
…
“A very interesting pair of props.”
Matthew played with the two coins curiously:
“What would happen if you put them both in your jacket pocket and jump off a cliff?”
Crater smiled and said:
"There is a cliff right outside the door. You can try it yourself."
Matthew ultimately did not try to jump off the cliff with two coins.
After leaving the cave where the sand table was located, Crete led Matthew to visit other collection rooms.
It has to be said that the treasures of ancient dragons are eye-catching.
What Craig showed Matthew was just the tip of the iceberg, and its value was already more than a Margaret.
It can be seen that the dragon's wealth is also highly linked to its age.
Ordinary young dragons may not even be able to raise hundreds of thousands.
Even a stable dragon nest is difficult to build.
Ancient dragons like Craig were much richer.
Correspondingly, he has more than one dragon nest in each major plane.
Craig chatted while showing Matthew the collection:
"Actually, one thing that often troubles me is that after my death, no one will take over these collections."
"I'm not afraid of death, I just don't want my collection to exist alone in the world, so I long for a longer life."
Is this why you want to become a dracolich?
Matthew secretly complained.
As expected, Crater then said:
"My end is approaching, and my body will die soon. I thought about it carefully last night. The transformation of the shadow dragon not only requires the cooperation of the strong men in the shadow field, but also requires a bit of luck. That is not what I want."
"The Dragon Lich is the best way I have found to extend my life so far, but in the meantime, I need a Necromancer to help with the ceremony."
"Matthew, will you help me?"
Although in more than a day, Matthew has realized that Krait has a very straightforward temperament. Perhaps it is the great strength of the ancient dragon that makes him act as he pleases.
But now, when we suddenly talk about transforming into a dracolich after death, it feels a bit like talking about something superficial.
Matthew cautiously replied:
"Of course I am happy to serve you, but I am limited by my mana and strength, so I may not be able to satisfy you."
"Speaking of which, with your connections and experience, don't you know other high-level necromancers?"
Crater immediately complained:
“Of course we know each other, I have even negotiated a preliminary cooperation agreement with Blinken of the Dragon Cult.
But when I went to look for him last month, I found that he had disappeared.
Even prophecy spells couldn't find his whereabouts.
I suspect he wants to default on the bill."
Matthew was shocked and said:
"Blinken? Deadbeat?"
"He took your money?"
Crater said angrily:
"No, but he took a lot of mushrooms from me, the kind worth thousands of gold."
What does Blinken want with mushrooms?
Matthew felt strange and was about to ask more questions, but he heard Crater say seriously:
"It doesn't matter if your level is lower now. The growth rate of human mages is extremely amazing compared to other races."
"If you haven't become a legend by the time I die, then I will naturally choose someone else to preside over my transformation ceremony."
It turned out to be a strategy of casting a wide net.
Matthew nodded and said yes:
"I will work hard."
Crater patted his shoulder seriously:
"You really have to work harder. After all, I only have more than a thousand years left in my life."
"It's really distressing that it passed in the blink of an eye."
Matthew heard this.
Immediately fell silent.
…
at the same time.
Margaret also walked out of the tree house.
She walked briskly on the narrow path of Timeless Island, her eyes carefully observing the details around her.
Just at this moment.
A somewhat familiar dusk elf appeared in front of her.
He greeted warmly:
"Good afternoon, Ms. Mary, would you like some mushrooms?"
"If you need anything, just call Dudley."
Margaret smiled and declined his help.
She took the side road.
But it didn't take long.
Another elf on the roadside smiled at her and said hello:
"Good afternoon, ma'am, would you like some mushrooms?"
"If you need anything, just call Dudley."
Margaret frowned:
"Your name is Dudley too?"
The elf smiled and said:
"I am Dudley himself."
Margaret subconsciously turned around and said, "But he also said his name was Dudley."
I don’t know when they got up, but several dusk elves came around.
They looked at Margaret with smiles and said in unison:
"We are all Dudley."
"So, just call Dudley if you need anything."
"Are you okay?"
"What's up?"
"?"
Waves of strange sounds came from all directions.
The dusk elves walked towards her stiffly with smiles on their faces.
Margaret's eyes lit up brightly.
The next second.
She suddenly shouted:
"Dudley!"
All the elves trembled, and then an unhappy voice came from the distance:
"Get out of the way! Get out of the way!"
"What are you doing here?! I am the real Dudley!"
A dusk elf who looked similar to the others ran over.
Panting, he pushed aside the others and came to Margaret.
