In the underground world, inside the ruined prison.
Rosie stood face-to-face with the half-elephant, half-human creature, uttering a series of strange syllables.
She paused from time to time, listening intently to the other's response before continuing.
The dwarf stood by her side, his axe still raised. He stared blankly at Rosie and the four-meter-tall behemoth as they conversed back and forth in an incomprehensible language.
He opened his mouth, closed it, and finally muttered under his breath, “What kind of gibberish is this...”
Knight John didn't speak, but he maintained a stance that allowed him to strike at any moment.
Anna stood between the three of them.
Her gaze didn't linger on the half-elephant man; instead, she kept her eyes on Rosie, as if observing her expressions and the rhythm of her speech.
After uttering his final string of syllables, the half-elephant man jabbed his iron club into the ground with a heavy, dull thud, sending a cloud of dust billowing outward from the base.
He freed one hand, pointed behind Rosie toward the direction they had come from, and barked a short word, “Galong!”
Rosie nodded. “Gulong.”
She turned around, looked at the three of them, and lowered her voice. “They are Mammothkin. Those rats are their servants. This entire area is their tribe's territory. They don't allow outsiders to enter.”
The female mage asked, “Why do you speak their language?”
“I'm exceptionally gifted,” Rosie replied with a straight face.
The female mage twitched her lips, at a loss for words.
“What do we do now?” the dwarf asked.
“What do you think?” Rosie glanced at him.
The dwarf narrowed his eyes, tossing his axe slightly in his hand. “Tell him: either they let us through, or we kill them and go through anyway.”
Rosie shook her head. “There's no need to ruin our relationship with them right away. They are locals; they definitely know more than we do.”
Anna nodded in agreement. “Rosie makes sense. These local natives might be of great use. We need guides, and we need intelligence.”
The dwarf said, “Then do as you see fit.”
Rosie said, “I'll give it another try then.”
She turned around and spoke another string of gibberish to the Mammothkin.
This time, she spoke slower than before, as if carefully choosing her words.
The Mammothkin fell silent for a moment.
His small eyes stared at Rosie, lingering on her face for a few moments, before he uttered a series of muffled, drawn-out syllables.
Rosie listened intently and babbled back for a while.
The Mammothkin's gaze swept over the four of them.
The dwarf raised his axe, refusing to back down.
The female mage merely flipped her hair elegantly.
Knight John remained expressionless and motionless.
The Mammothkin spoke another string of words to Rosie, though his tone was no longer as aggressive as it had been at the start.
Rosie nodded. “Gulong!”
Then, she turned back and said briefly to the three of them, “Let's head back first.”
With that, she took the lead and left.
The dwarf was taken aback for a second but didn't ask questions. He slung his axe over his shoulder and followed.
Anna didn't hesitate either, following Rosie out of the corridor.
Knight John turned sideways, maintaining his guard as he brought up the rear.
The four of them retraced their steps.
The rats from earlier did not reappear on their way back.
The mushrooms on both sides of the walls still glowed with an eerie green light, but the sensation of being watched had vanished.
The only sound left in the corridor was the echoing footsteps of the four.
Stepping out of the prison building and back into the dusty white ruins, Anna raised her wand once more, cast her light spell, and illuminated the surroundings.
She tilted her head and glanced at Rosie. “What did you say to him just now?”
“I said we could cooperate for a win-win outcome,” Rosie said.
“He agreed?” the dwarf chimed in.
“He didn't want to, actually,” Rosie said.
“But I told him that if he didn't agree, it would be a fight to the death. The strength we displayed earlier made him ultimately agree. However, he proposed a condition.”
“What condition?” the three of them asked in unison.
“The Mammothkin and their servants have been constantly attacked by sandworms. They want us to help them exterminate the sandworms in the desert. If we are willing to take action, they are willing to grant us safe passage through their territory and provide some intelligence.”
The dwarf was stunned. “Aren't those worms already all dead?”
“Wrong,” Rosie said. “To be precise, they are only gone from the area we came from. There are still plenty in other regions. Sandworms are all over the sandy areas of the underground world. The Mammothkin said several of their hunting grounds have been taken over by sandworms.”
Anna's eyes flickered. “Did he say who built these ruins?”
Rosie shook her head. “They don't know who built it either. The Mammothkin didn't always live here; it was already like this when they migrated here.”
“I see.” Anna's gaze drifted toward the distant darkness, seemingly lost in thought.
“Lady Anna, there's something I've been wanting to ask you,” Rosie said.
“Go ahead.”
“You didn't seem very surprised when you saw the Mammothkin. Did you know of their existence?”
Anna nodded. “There are Mammothkin tribes on the Rift Continent to the east. I just didn't expect to see them here in this underground world as well.”
“The Rift Lands?” the dwarf chimed in.
“I've heard of that place. They say it's a land where opportunity and danger coexist. It's just a pity it's too far. Dwarves hate taking boats. I'd rather walk inside the belly of a mountain for a year than spend a single day on a ship.”
“The Merchant Coalition sends a trading fleet there every few years,” Anna said.
“However, the risks are high; more than half of the ships never return. But the harvest is also immense—the finest magic gems are produced there. My mentor once sailed with them when she was young. She said it was the most magnificent sight she had ever seen in her life, but also the journey she was least willing to recall.”
“Who is your mentor?” the dwarf asked curiously.
“My mentor is Sophia Merlin,” Anna answered casually.
“Grand Mage Sophia Merlin?” the dwarf said in surprise.
Anna's lips curved slightly. “Yes. I didn't expect you to know her name.”
“Of course I do!” the dwarf's voice grew louder.
“A legendary figure of the Merchant Coalition! She single-handedly sank a massive pirate fleet! She used ice magic to freeze one hundred thousand elite cavalrymen of the Kingdom of Poria into ice sculptures! And she killed the giant sea monster that was rampaging along the coast...”
Anna smiled slightly. “Actually, many of those stories are exaggerated. The pirates only had a few ships. My mentor said that the so-called 'fleet' was made up by merchants to cover up smuggling. And the one hundred thousand cavalrymen of the Kingdom of Poria is pure rumor; Poria doesn't even have a total of one hundred thousand troops in its entire army.”
“Haha, I knew it! How could a single person be that powerful?”
The dwarf scratched his head, his laughter carrying a hint of realization.
“What about the sea monster?”
“The sea monster was indeed real.”
Anna's eyes flickered slightly.
“My mentor said that a single tentacle of that sea monster was dozens of meters long, capable of easily tearing a warship to shreds. At the time, she used lightning magic to stun it, and then ice magic to completely freeze and kill it. The Coalition had to deploy over a dozen warships just to drag it back to the harbor. In the end, they even employed thousands of laborers to dismantle it.”
She recalled, seemingly savoring the memory. “I even ate its meat. It was very tender and chewy. My mentor also said it was the most delicious seafood she had ever tasted.”
The dwarf was silent for a long time before squeezing out a sentence: “...I want to taste sea monster meat too.”
Rosie drifted off slightly.
This world was even larger and more magnificent than she had imagined...
She suddenly remembered her days working as a porter at the docks of the Royal City of Norman. Back then, her world had been only as big as a single harbor.
“Rosie, what do you think?” Anna suddenly asked her.
Rosie snapped out of it. “About what?”
“Cooperating with the Mammothkin, of course,” Anna said. “I've read records about them in books. The Mammothkin are tyrannical, not very trustworthy, and quick to turn hostile.”
“Right now, they are the ones who need our help, so we can try cooperating first and see how it goes,” Rosie said after some thought.
“Besides, I learned from our conversation that they aren't the only power in this underground world; there are other races as well.”
“What races?” the female mage asked.
Rosie replied, “The beetles Knight John encountered earlier aren't ordinary bugs; they are intelligent. The Mammothkin call them the 'Insectoid race'.”
Knight John's voice sounded: “When they attacked us back then, they surrounded us from three directions simultaneously. Now that I think about it, it was indeed highly unusual.”
“This underground world is truly fascinating,” Anna murmured with emotion.
“I certainly don't like bugs with brains,” the dwarf muttered.
Anna looked at Rosie. “So that's why you suggested cooperating with the Mammothkin? To avoid fighting on multiple fronts.”
“That's pretty much it,” Rosie nodded.
“Then why didn't you just agree right away?” the dwarf asked.
Rosie glanced at Knight John and then said:
“I think this matter should be left to the Baron to make the final decision. After all, he is the lord of this fief. If we are to cooperate long-term in the future, we can't keep him in the dark.”
Anna nodded. “This underground world is located within Lord Weiss's territory, so theoretically, it's his domain. It indeed should be decided by him.”
She paused, then added, “However, this place is too vast. I think the King's direct intervention will be inevitable.”
“Lady Anna, you are not from the Kingdom of Deros, are you?” Knight John suddenly asked from the front.
Anna didn't deny it. “No. I was born in the Kingdom of Falia. I arrived at the Mages Association in the merchant city-states when I was five and have been studying magic under my mentor ever since.”
“I see.” John nodded, saying no more.
Rosie suddenly asked, “Anna, does your mentor still take on apprentices?”
Anna glanced at her with a hint of a smile. “I wouldn't know. Why? Do you want to learn magic? You could always take me as your master.”
“Uh, I was just asking...”
Rosie went silent.
The four of them spoke no more, their footsteps echoing through the dusty white ruins.
As they returned to the temporary camp, a clamor reached their ears first.
“What's going on?” Rosie walked quickly into the camp.
Hearing her voice, Baron Weiss immediately came forward to meet her.
“Two of our teams were attacked,” he said.
“Who did it?” the dwarf asked.
The Baron's gaze fell upon him, his voice low. “A pack of giant scorpions.”
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