Maela's voice trembled as she answered their questions. “You don't understand. Stone Trolls never act alone. Besides, this isn't their usual habitat. If they're appearing here, it means the road to Cinder City has been cut off!”
“Is it that serious? Is there any way we could force our way through?” Po Kong asked, tightening his grip on his weapon.
“Impossible,” Stark said, shaking his head. “We dwarves have an old saying: if you find one live Stone Troll, there are likely a thousand more hidden behind it. That road... is probably packed so tight you couldn't fit a needle through.”
“Hiss!”
Everyone sucked in a sharp breath at his words.
Dealing with a few dozen of those resilient creatures was manageable, but the idea of the few of them fighting through thousands was pure fantasy.
“I'm hearing they're like cockroaches. Surely it's not that exaggerated?” Po Kong's face twitched as he spoke helplessly.
“That's not even the main issue, Po Kong! Stone Trolls... that name is so unfamiliar. Why have we never heard of them?” Moen asked softly.
Maela let out a long sigh and began to educate the four of them on the current state of the dwarven race.
Ever since the dwarves migrated to the northern lands thousands of years ago, they had faced constant challenges.
To survive in this harsh, frozen land, they had hollowed out an entire mountain range to build the magnificent Cinder City underground.
Much like the dragons, they channeled lava through subterranean passages. With a meticulously designed lava diversion system, this underground capital not only gained a stable heat source but also became a holy site for dwarven forging.
Furthermore, the mountains surrounding Cinder City were rich in minerals, making it a paradise for dwarves.
However, their entire race had been besieged by challenges on several fronts.
First, after losing the fertile lands in the center of the continent, obtaining large quantities of food required trade with humans. But the commercial monopoly held by the Crimson City-State forced them to trade minerals worth three times their value just for basic survival supplies. This meant that resources within the dwarven community were never abundant.
Fortunately, the total dwarven population wasn't large—at most equivalent to a medium-sized human city-state—so they managed to scrape by in the barren north.
Second were their two savage neighbors: the Stone Trolls and the Frost Giants.
Both races were unique to the northern wilderness. Stone Trolls had similar habits to dwarves, also living in underground caves, making the two natural competitors.
They occupied the depths of mineral veins, surviving by devouring rare ores. Even worse, any mineral vein consumed by Stone Trolls would rapidly deteriorate, drastically reducing its mining value.
Combined with their savage nature and complete inability to communicate, there had been constant wars of varying scales between them and the dwarves.
Over the years, countless dwarven warriors had sacrificed their lives to protect the mine tunnels; the subterranean front had always been the most brutal battlefield for the dwarven race.
Now, these archenemies who should have been hidden deep underground had appeared on the main road to Cinder City. This anomaly suggested a worst-case scenario: the underground defense line the dwarves had maintained for thousands of years might have fallen.
Starlight gazed at the steep cliff walls, his pupils narrowing slightly.
The sound of stones grinding together was already faintly audible from the top of the cliff, sounding exceptionally harsh in the subterranean canyon. Clearly, the Stone Trolls had broken through their restraints and were catching up.
“It's impossible to turn back now. If we climb up from here, we'll inevitably end up in a fierce battle with the trolls,” he said grimly, extinguishing the light orb floating beside him.
Just then, Stark suddenly crouched down and pulled a precision instrument made of brass from his pack.
He skillfully adjusted the dials on the instrument's surface before plugging it into the top of the probe.
The probe immediately emitted a faint hum as it began to operate rapidly.
A moment later, the probe's glowing yellow eyes turned pale blue, projecting a series of light blue patterns onto the rock wall in front of them.
“This is!?”
Starlight was taken aback. During his travels, he had naturally learned simple map-making techniques. What these blue patterns wove together was a three-dimensional terrain map.
Moreover, the precision of this map was significantly higher than any hand-drawn map he had ever seen. Within it, several flashing red lines were particularly eye-catching.
“Let me see...”
Stark squinted, studying the map carefully. He then slapped his thigh in excitement. “Found it! There's an abandoned mine tunnel at the end of this canyon. It's a backup passage left by the 7th Investigation Team hundreds of years ago. Though it's fallen into disrepair, it should be enough for the few of us to pass through.”
Hearing this, everyone hurried over and looked where Stark was pointing.
“We go this way... It's about thirty-five kilometers ahead. The distance fits our expectations... but the size of a backup passage is hard to estimate. You should be prepared for a difficult trek,” Stark calculated quickly.
“A difficult road is better than fighting a thousand Stone Trolls head-on. Let's go, lead the way,” Po Kong said without hesitation, grabbing his weapon.
But several hours later, when the group finally arrived at the backup passage Stark had mentioned, Starlight and the others were dumbfounded.
The so-called backup passage before them was much lower than expected, with the highest point only about 1.5 meters.
Po Kong frowned and measured it with his hand, realizing he would have to bend deeply to barely pass. He tried taking a step inside, but the blade of Sacred Wood Phantom immediately got stuck, forcing him to back out.
The Moen sisters also looked troubled. Though they had slender builds, maintaining a hunched posture for a long time wouldn't be easy. Xia Duo tentatively walked back and forth in the tunnel while bent over; her long brown hair immediately brushed against the damp ceiling.
“I expected this passage to be difficult, but this is...” Starlight remarked helplessly.
“I did say it was a ‘backup passage.’ You can't expect it to be as spacious as the main road,” Maela said, shrugging her shoulders.
But the situation was urgent, and they couldn't afford to dally. No matter how uncomfortable it was, they had to grit their teeth and see it through.
Moen walked to the entrance and blew a gentle breeze into the depths of the tunnel. After receiving magical feedback, she told the group, “The tunnel is clear. I've already refreshed the air inside, so there shouldn't be any danger.”
“Relax, these emergency passages aren't usually that long. Maela, help me put Xiao Qi away.” Stark jumped off the probe, his rough fingers fumbling over the metal casing until he found a hidden button on the side.
With a soft click, the probe's six slender metal legs began to retract. The entire body curled into a ball like a startled spider, eventually becoming a metal sphere less than half a meter in diameter.
Po Kong watched as Maela prepared to put the probe into her storage space. He unslung Sacred Wood Phantom from his back and handed it to Starlight. “Little Star, help me store this too. If only I could go into the storage space as well... at least I wouldn't have to suffer through crawling through this hole.”
Starlight took the giant scythe and rolled his eyes. “In your dreams. We share the good times and the bad, remember?”
He lightly brushed his fingers over the scythe's handle, and Sacred Wood Phantom immediately vanished.
Led by Stark, the group crawled into the low tunnel one by one. A damp, cold air immediately rushed over them. Water droplets fell continuously from the rock walls, making distinct “drip-drop” sounds in the silent passage.
In the narrow tunnel, their formation was forced to adjust. Po Kong's hulking frame and Xia Duo's longbow were completely unusable in such a cramped space, so Starlight immediately took over the responsibility of bringing up the rear.
Once he entered the tunnel, he pressed one hand against the damp rock wall.
As a yellow light glowed from his palm, the rocks at the tunnel entrance suddenly churned violently. They rose up like living things, forming a thick rock wall in an instant and sealing the entrance tight.
“Let's hope those things don't catch up.”
Rate on N.U.
