Man is a life that thirsts for warmth and craves fire. Pen | fun | pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 ｉｎｆｏ

The mountains of the north and south are covered with snow all day long, and today is no exception.

Between the howling of the cold winds, the cold wave from the distant blank sea freezes the earth, the white snow, the gray clouds and the black forests are all the colors that one can see here—the monotonous and gloomy scenery wears down the spirit, and the cold and harsh weather torments the body.

For human beings, this vast and barren ice field can be regarded as an absolute forbidden area, if you do not fully prepare to step here, there is no doubt that you can only become a pile of bones under the erosion of wind and snow, even if the recent temperature is a little moderate, it will not change the essence of this place.

Of course, not everyone will be afraid of this weather.

At noon on the 26th of February, in the year 832, in the southern part of the Great Ajax Mountains, which stretched for a hundred and ten miles, there was a small group of knights galloping through the wind and snow with fluttering flags.

The snow-capped mountains of the Northlands, the source of all the rivers around them, were winding glaciers that fell from the tops of the high mountains, over cliffs and rocks, through dense black forests, and down the valleys into the distance, while the knights were speeding along the flatter path of the river towards their target, a black smoke that was so evident that it reached high into the sky.

The horse's hooves rose and fell, crushing the ice and snow that had been settled for a long time, and the dragon's blood horses had terrible endurance, so that they had great strength and physical strength, and they would not be hindered by the frost, and in a short time, under the leadership of the leader on the black war horse, the group of knights came to a high slope at the top of a certain hill.

They could already see the source of the black smoke.

"It's spectacular......"

On the high slope, looking into the distance, an exclamation from which I don't know who sounded sounded in the ranks of knights, and this emotion was approved and resonated by everyone.

Right in front of them, in the basin behind the mountains, the vast land had turned from its previous white, but turned into a charred black, the heat distorted the air, and the black smoke rose towards the sky, and in the very center of the scorched earth, there was a red-golden lake, a huge lava lake churning, releasing almost endless heat.

Everyone could already smell the scorching smell of sulfur in the air, and those who were more keenly could also perceive that there was a majestic tide of fire elemental condensation in this icy and snowy land, and under the high temperature of lava, the flying snow falling in mid-air was vaporized into hot water vapor, which rose with the rolling heat wave, and even poked a large hole in the dark clouds that covered the sky.

The most famous landmark on the south side of the Great Ajax Mountains, the surface lava lake.

This is the dwelling of the rune dwarves of the Northlands, and the black scorched earth around it is dotted with all kinds of buildings made of gray rock, including houses, shops, and even paved rock streets and street lamps, which look like a small town.

Dwarves are not a race of stories or legends, these small but stout, long beards and strong wills live next to humans, exist as members of human society, in the Empire, dwarves enjoy the same strength as humans, are true citizens, and dwarves are nominally subordinate to their local lords, under his leadership - of course, it is not easy to make them sincerely obey the leadership.

"The town ahead is our goal."

Riding the darkness and walking slowly, Joshua said to the knights behind him in a deep voice: "Be careful, the lava area will occasionally spew high hot steam from the cracks in the surface, so don't let the war horse be frightened and injured." ”

"Yes!"

After a loud response, the team started again.

After a cautious stroll, avoiding a few steam eruptions, they came to the dwarven dwelling on the surface.

On both sides of the street, the buildings are not tall, and of course, the dwarves naturally do not build their home buildings like they build spectacles, not to mention that the rune dwarves of the Northland are not known for their magnificent buildings, and the mountain dwarves in the west are good at building cities and fortresses, and even the leyline dwarves who are good at changing the terrain are better than the rune dwarves in this regard.

After all, they are best at forging weapons and crafting all kinds of magical equipment, and even dwarf goblins are inferior to them in this regard.

"No one?"

Looking around, Rin on a gray horse said to himself strangely, "Although I know that the dwarves live underground, since there are buildings built on the surface, how can there be no one?" ”

"It's not for nothing."

Joshua in front of him shook his head, and he turned to the side and explained to the boy, "We had sent a magical communication notice before we came, and they should all be in the small square ahead to greet us now. ”

This is indeed the case.

It wasn't long before they turned the corner of the street and saw dozens of dwarves gathered in the small square ahead, who waved in welcome when they saw the team led by the warriors and the fluttering banner of the sword-wielding hand.

And a man who seemed to be the leader, with several dwarves in armor or gowns, walked towards Joshua and them, and the warrior and his knight naturally dismounted to greet them.

"Dear Lord Joshua, welcome to Blacksteel."

First of all, he bowed respectfully, and the dwarf was the first to welcome and apologize: "My name is Iron Body Tanya, Lord Lord, I beg your pardon, there are not many people who welcome it, because most of the inhabitants live underground. ”

He was about 1.4 meters tall, with slightly blackened skin and a long dark yellow beard on his chin, on which hung rings made of various metals, each of which had a very obvious inscription - it was the custom of the dwarves that when a dwarf reached adulthood and achieved an amazing achievement, he could put a ring on his beard to show glory.

If you want to tell the difference between the two strange dwarves, you don't need to think about anything else, just look at the number of rings on their beards, the dwarf in front of him has at least thirteen upward rings on his beard, and this is not counting the ones hidden in the beard, according to Joshua's experience, they are already considered noble.

"Nothing, actually, I'm surprised enough to see such a large group of dwarves on the surface."

Naturally, Joshua didn't have any thoughts about such an inconsequential matter, the warrior never cared about pomp, as long as someone led the way for him, it was enough, but after hearing the other party's name, Joshua couldn't help but feel a little interested, and he said straightforwardly: "Mr. Tania, let me call you like this, your name seems to be the same as Master Moria." ”

"That's right."

With her hand in the middle of her chest, Tania bowed slightly, as if to salute someone who wasn't here: "Iron Molia is my father...... If you don't mind, lord, give the horses to my assistants, and I'll take you underground, where Father awaits you in the underground forge area. ”

After handing over the horses to the dwarves in the square, the warrior and his knights followed Tania on their way.

Behind an arch at the back of the square is a corridor that leads to the underground. Led by Joshua, the crowd followed Tania and several young dwarves into it, and after walking through several corridors lit by pyroxene lamps, a vast underground world was revealed before everyone's eyes.

Bright corridors lead in all directions, they are like spider webs, intricate and regular links to various important regions, and the four walls of the corridors are made of some kind of alchemy specially made by the dwarves, in the previous life, Joshua and other players habitually called it Dwarf Cement, but no one remembers its real name.

On both sides of the road, you can see some exquisite statues and heroic murals from time to time, and even some stone pillars that seem to be made of metal ore are erected in the center of the passage, which is also the custom of the dwarves, when digging the underground passage, it means that they are lucky to encounter the metal raw ore, they will not destroy these stone pillars.

Joshua is well-informed and has seen a lot, he has been to the underground fortresses of the dwarves countless times in his previous life, and he is familiar with their architectural styles and customs, but the knights who follow him are completely different.

After passing through a corridor, he came to a huge cavern formed by nature, and at the dome, the red crystals condensed by countless fire elements shimmered brightly like a forest. Not to mention Cleel, who had been silent from the beginning to the present, Rin who was following the warrior on one side kept his eyes wide open, held his breath, and quietly looked at everything around him, while the other knights couldn't help but slow down and fell into the shock of this huge underground world.

Tania, who was leading the way in front, naturally noticed the exclamation and admiration of the crowd in secret, and while he was secretly proud in his heart, he couldn't help but feel a trace of admiration for the peace of the warriors.

"It's really worthy of our titular lord."

The dwarf thought to himself, "This calm temperament is different from the others. ”

Time spent in the observation of the underground world, after a period of time, Joshua and the others have gradually gone deep underground, under the deep rock layers, the heat of the earth rises again, everyone can even hear the sound of magma pulse, but surprisingly, no one feels very hot, all the heat seems to be sucked away by those light gray dwarf cement.

Joshua squinted his eyes and roughly estimated that he had just passed through at least three layers of underground defense and made four bends, and the tunnels dug by the dwarves were dense and extended, just like a labyrinth, and ordinary intruders would probably die in the confusion of hunger because they didn't need to do it themselves.

"It's quite cautious, even if you call me lord on your lips, you don't actually want me to know the right path."

The warrior thought so, but he didn't care, this kind of thought was human nature, he could understand it, and he didn't think it was a big deal.

I can't hide it from him anyway.

But even after many detours, we are now almost at our destination. In the lead Tania shouted, "It's here." With that, Joshua and his party stopped.

They finally made it to the underground living quarters of the rune dwarves. (To be continued.) )