Shire held up a torch, carefully examining the carving on the wall inch by inch.
Perhaps because the stone chamber had collapsed, the carving was incomplete. He could only make out that one section matched the defense map of the southern region. To the north of the Fortress, Shire saw a small building. What caught his eye was the annotation next to it—Rune Language Material Library.
"Materials from the Ancient Times?" Shire reached out and touched the wall. "It must be the warehouse where those White Stones are stored."
"Maybe there will be new Rune Speech." His fingers traced over the raised carving. "It doesn’t look too far from the Fortress."
He was quite fond of the miraculous Ancient Runes. Teleportation Gates that could be built at will, a belt carved onto Magical Beast Hide that allowed communication with animals—these all relied on the power of Rune Speech. Now that he knew new Rune Speech might exist, he felt he had to investigate no matter what.
"I wonder what new Rune Speech there will be. Maybe one that you can carve on a stone, throw it, and it’ll make a mushroom cloud," Shire stroked his chin, muttering to himself.
’Now that I’ve confirmed there’s no danger in the ants’ current area, I can rest for a bit. Tomorrow, I’ll organize a team to advance north. The target is this Rune Language Material Library.’
He took a small notebook and a charcoal pencil from his backpack and began to copy the carving. It wasn’t long before he had drawn a route map in his notebook.
"I hope there’s new Rune Speech there. Even if there isn’t, it would be great if there are a lot of White Stones," he said as he put his things back in his bag. He then scanned the carving again, afraid he might have missed something. "The Teleportation Gates I made before used up a lot of the White Stones. If I make more later, the supply will definitely be insufficient. It would be best to find a whole warehouse of White Stones. Then I could make lots of Teleportation Gates."
After searching the entire stone chamber and confirming nothing was missed, Shire finally left with his subordinates. Before leaving, he even buried the entrance. He didn’t want anyone else discovering these Relics.
"Chief, what do we do?" Red Eyes drew near and asked.
"We’re heading back for now. We’ll explore north tomorrow morning." Shire took out the Rune Headband and ordered his subordinates to prepare to leave.
This time, they could bring the Worker Ants along for the exploration. That way, they could carry more supplies, and also bring the Stinky Balls.
The Stinky Ball was just a Stinky Spore Ball, but with a woven rattan casing on the outside. This way, one could simply grab the rattan and throw it. When it hit an enemy or the ground, the Spore Ball would burst, its contents spraying out from the holes in the rattan and driving the enemy to despair. With this casing, the Stinky Spore Balls could be easily transported anywhere without having to worry about them accidentally bursting.
It was Lame Leg who had thought of this method. Previously, to defend against Philip’s attack, Shire had taken many goblins to gather Stinky Spore Balls. The process was fraught with failure. Either they would lose their grip and get splattered with black liquid when the balls hit the ground, or several Spore Balls would knock against each other and burst all at once. In the end, Lame Leg found his chief and told him about the idea of making rattan casings.
He got the inspiration from fishing nets. He had watched Caocao cast nets to fish many times, always finding it fun, and had even tried throwing the net himself a few times. Faced with the various problems of transporting the Spore Balls, he came up with this solution on the spot.
However, this Spore Ball gathering expedition had been torturous for Shire and his subordinates. Even though they desperately soaked in the water to wash themselves, using up several bars of soap Mary had bought, Shire still felt the stench clinging to him, impossible to get rid of. He even felt as though he’d been marinated in the Stinky Spores. By the end, Red Eyes and the others had gone completely numb. Looking at their dazed expressions, Shire thought the Spore Balls could no longer affect them at all.
"We set out tomorrow morning. I wonder what surprises we’ll find." Shire sat on the Ant Saddle, his gaze fixed to the north. "Or maybe scares, for that matter."
......
CLIP-CLOP. The Unicorn took a few steps, then turned to look back at the Centaur girl, Evita. His obsidian-like eyes reflected her worshipful expression.
"Spirit of the forest, are you guiding me?" Evita ran toward the Unicorn, but stopped just as she got close. Facing this pure white creature, years of her race’s teachings reminded her not to get too close to a Unicorn.
The Unicorn before her didn’t speak. Instead, he trotted a short distance away, then stopped again to look at Evita.
Evita glanced behind her at the forest village built by her race—a collection of thatched huts made from wood and straw. She realized she was heading south and had already covered some distance.
"Are you trying to tell me that I can see you if I go south?" She took a few more steps forward, her brown eyes fixed on the Unicorn ahead. "Or are you saying that our Blessed Land is in the south?"
The Unicorn still made no sound. He just continued running south, his figure gradually disappearing into the forest.
"Wait for me." Evita galloped on her four hooves, weaving through the woods, trying to catch up to the Unicorn. But the white figure grew more distant, finally turning into a flash of light in the forest and vanishing completely.
"Wait for me! Where are you?" Evita cried out anxiously. "Come out, Unicorn! Are you abandoning us?"
She shouted helplessly, crying and running back and forth through the woods, but she couldn’t find any trace of him.
"Where are you, Unicorn?" Tears slid down her cheeks as Evita slowly opened her eyes. She looked around and found she was still lying in her thatched hut. Everything had just been a dream.
’Just a dream.’ She wiped away her tears and got up from the deerskin mat. Night had fallen. In the village, everyone was asleep except for the kin on patrol duty.
’Did it really abandon us?’ Evita stood by the door, gazing at the dark, gloomy forest in the distance, from which the hooting of owls echoed continuously.
Her gaze focused on the south. The Unicorn in her dream had been running constantly in that direction.
’Does it mean we should migrate south?’ Evita’s hands gripped the doorframe tightly. She couldn’t be sure if what she had just experienced was a revelation or simply a dream.
But in the end, she went back inside the hut. She picked up her Longbow and Quiver from the floor, then put on her Deer Hide Wooden Armor.
The Centaur Race didn’t have many iron tools. Their Armor was mostly wooden planks wrapped in the hide of Big-horned Deer. However, they were all Archers with superb Archery skills. Many enemies were shot down long before they could even get close.
Evita kept her upper body as low as possible, moving along the edge of the huts. She dodged a few patrolling kin and slowly neared the edge of the village. As long as she controlled her hooves and didn’t step too heavily, she could slip into the forest without a sound.
She glanced back at the village behind her, her eyes filled with deep reluctance to leave. ’Wait for me, Father. I will definitely bring back news of the Unicorn.’
Then, she lowered her head and walked into the gloomy Nightmare Forest.
......
"Where are you, little Centaur chick?" Dagou chuckled lewdly as he raised the Magic Staff held in his left hand.
"Idiot, keep your voice down! She’ll hear you," Damo said immediately, slapping Dagou with his right hand at the same time.
"She’s hiding right up ahead, and she’s already spotted us," Dagou said, pointing to the Arrow sticking out of his shoulder. Then, he suddenly realized. "You just hit me."
Then, Dagou forcefully tilted his head, slamming it into Damo next to him.
The two of them cursed loudly, fell to the ground, and then their left and right hands started pulling and swinging at each other.
"Alright, the Centaur is getting away! Watch out or General Evil Throat will punish you," Damo shouted. Hearing this, Dagou finally stopped yelling.
RUSTLE. The grass rustled as Damo and Dagou sat up. They used their left and right hands to hold their cheeks and shook the grass from their hair. The fight had left both their faces bruised.
"You’ve wasted more time. The Centaur has probably gotten far. Hurry up and release the hounds to chase her," Damo said sternly.
"She couldn’t have gotten far. My Magic Energy Burst definitely hit her several times," Dagou retorted in a rumbling voice. He felt his cheek ache; it must have been from when Damo slammed into him.
"Whatever. Just hurry up and catch her. The Earth Goblins’ envoy will definitely reward us," Damo said, ignoring Dagou and urging him to get the hounds ready.
Then they went behind a nearby tree and untied the hounds’ leashes. The few mongrel hounds looked up at the Two-headed Ogre in front of them.
"Go get her!" Damo commanded loudly.
"Those were my words! You stole my line," Dagou complained, then added, "Go get her."
Unfortunately, the hounds had already vanished from sight.
"Grab the Magic Staff. We need to follow them, quickly," Damo said immediately.
"Don’t order me around! I..." Dagou said, annoyed. He was still upset that the head next to him had stolen his line.
"Let’s go!" Damo leaned in and roared in Dagou’s ear, shouting his complaint into oblivion.
The Two-headed Ogre picked up the crude Magic Staff from the ground. It was called a staff, but in reality, it was just a stick with a Magic Crystal Stone tied to it.
WOOF WOOF. Several barks came from up ahead, and the Ogre immediately strode off in that direction.
......
Evita was in a very bad state. Her body was covered in cuts and gashes, and blood dripped continuously onto the ground.
Not long after leaving her village, she had been discovered by that Two-headed Ogre. It was mainly because those mongrel hounds had picked up her scent.
She had originally planned to slip out of the encirclement quietly, but she hadn’t expected to be found so quickly.
Luckily, her opponent was stupid. Although it had hit her repeatedly with Magic, it hadn’t released the hounds. ’It was probably afraid they’d bite me to pieces,’ she thought, ’which would make it hard to hand me over to the Earth Goblins.’
Unfortunately, she was now surrounded by three hounds. She had no choice but to draw her Short Blade, preparing to carve a bloody path out.