Chapter 31 Shadow Valley (Part 1)
The White Rock is the worst pub in town, bar none.
There are no horses in the so-called stables, only a huge donkey cart full of animal carcasses. The whole stable is shrouded in the smell of mixed fermentation of urine and food residues. Both the sight and the smell make people want to die .
What do you think Raven saw there?
A drunken dwarf with almost no beard, a burly white bear, a down-and-out archer of drow (aka dark elf) blood, and a whining halfling bard.
Oh! Thank you Yondalla! Finally a wanderer is willing to join the gang! The halfling jumped off the unconscious dwarf's belly, greeted him enthusiastically, and grabbed Raven's hand: I am Aya De. Do you want to join us? We are about to try our luck on the outskirts of Shadow Valley, and we are only short of a rogue.
Halflings are easy to be familiar with. Before Raven even opened his mouth, Yad has been introducing his teammates to Raven: Dalak is drunk, a great dwarf boy.
Great yarn! This guy is underage at all!
Although this half-elf Shuva has drow blood, he actually believes in the dark girl. This is a kind god recognized by even the Harper of the Justice Organization. When Yade introduced him, Shuva nodded silently. .
All right! It has to be said that Elitris, the goddess of goodness who believes in the dark elves, and the guy who is also known as the dark girl are idealists who drowned in their dreams.
At this moment, Raven had already equated him with cannon fodder.
Bearman...his name is too long, so he usually asks us to call him Baimao. When the halfling introduced, Baimao added: Well, let me do the job of blocking the knife.
Lei Wen was a little speechless, whether he should be called cute or straightforward. He was so straightforward, Lei Wen was a little embarrassed to cheat him.
After the introduction was over, Lei Wen wanted to say no to Liu Dao's fiery eyes.
To be honest, the guys in this team are more weird than the other. Raven was willing to bet that no one would notice him if he was in the mix.
This is the territory of the human empire Arslan. Humans are the mainstream race here. Generally speaking, elves, dwarves, and halflings mix well here.
To be able to gather such a wonderful team is really a hell!
Dear Mr. Wanderer, the allocation of our team is based on needs, and whoever needs it will give it to whoever needs it. Is it okay? Yade continued to invite Raven.
Okay! My name is Rex, and I'll join. As long as you don't think I'm a rookie wanderer, that's fine.
It's okay, if you encounter a trap that you're not sure about, just tell me, I'll go over there and try it out. Bai Mao comforted Lei Wen in this way.
If you have the ability, look at a string of 【Fingers of Death】!
Raven roared in his heart.
To this team... Lei Wen completely loses his temper.
Okay, everyone is here, let's go! the halfling Yade said happily.
Let's go? Where are the supplies? Raven looked around but didn't see anything like food or tents.
Replenishment? We can go hunting on the road. Bai Mao touched his head with his huge bear paw, expressing his confusion. The half-drow didn't make a sound, the halfling said he brought his own dry food, the dwarf continued to sleep soundly, and then the matter was settled...
Raven's eyelids twitched, damn it! Am I leading the Boy Scouts?
Follow, me, come. Lei Wen yelled almost word by word.
When they saw Raven's almost fully armed two-horse carriage, everyone's eyes lit up.
The halfling yelled and hopped into the car before doing a triple front flip. The half-drow rolled over. The dwarf...was thrown up by the bear man like trash.
The last one was Bai Mao, who was so shy and asked Lei Wen, Can I sit on it?
Raven's mouth twitched: Do you mind if I ask how much you weigh?
Bai Maohan smiled: This... should not be less than one ton.
After the words fell, even the two horses snorted contemptuously, as if they immediately pretended to be dead as soon as Baimao got on the carriage.
In the end, Baimao followed the carriage dejectedly, he had no choice but to walk ahead, the two horses were quite nervous, while the rest were sitting on the rope one.
Yes, no one realized they were actually sitting on a murderous golem.
After walking for a long time, they finally reached the town of Shalesi, which is the closest to the Shadow Valley, in the evening.
The once cold town has now become a huge market.
Not only adventurers, but also traveling merchants who heard the news occupied every open space in the town to sell. The only hotel in town was taken up by the richest adventure party, Ellison's men. The latecomers can only set up tents and camp outside the town.
Thanks to Baimao's huge body, the adventurers consciously gave up a leeward area at the bottom of the hill for Raven and his party.
Raven prepared two tents, one was Karin's before, and he didn't lose it later, but now he is using it. Raven let the dwarves who hadn't woken up to continue lying in the carriage, and slept in a tent by himself, and a half-drow in a tent. The chattering halfling went out to find out the news.
White hair? Where to cool off and lie down!
When it was almost dawn, the halfling Yard came back. Facing several temporary teammates including the sober dwarf Dallak, he was indescribably frustrated.
This public reward is very problematic. The target of the reward is a rare silver dagger [Black Moon Blade] in a mysterious treasure house in the Shadow Valley. Anyone who gets it and hand it over to the Adventurer's Guild can get 20,000 gold coins. At this point Yade stopped.
The problem is that no one knows where this shadow valley is. Or those who know are unwilling to say. There are at least twenty barren valleys near the town. What's worse, they are all ordinary valleys when you go out during the day, and you can't go out at night. Someone from a small team is missing. Listen, it seems that people and equipment have completely evaporated from this world.
Oh, no— Dwarf Dallak patted his forehead painfully: I still want to pick something from the outer ruins and take it back as proof of my adventure.
Raven didn't speak, he knew that if Ellison couldn't catch him, he would definitely make a move.
In fact, in the hotel on the other side of the town, Ellison was lost in thought.
His confidant Catrick came in: Your Excellency, I still can't find it. The number of adventurers who came here is much more than we thought. We simply don't have enough manpower to screen over a thousand adventurers.
The old thief Van der Far added: If... I mean, if that Raven is a real rogue and knows how to change face, then no one except high-level wizards and warlocks will be able to detect his disguise.
It's okay, let's implement the scheduled plan.
At noon, a shocking news spread that the entrance to the Shadow Valley was found, but the entrance was only opened at night.
People suddenly became excited and talked about it. There are even fantasists who are already thinking about how to spend after getting paid.
As night fell, the adventurers couldn't wait to charge, and locusts swarmed towards the entrance.
Raven couldn't stop the impulsive dwarves and excited halflings, who were also surrounded and walked towards the entrance.
It was a strangely silent valley, no matter how noisy the crowd at the entrance of the valley was, there was not even the slightest echo from inside. Walk down the rocky slope to the bottom of the valley, follow the direction of the rumored entrance, walk into a huge rock crack and enter a cave.
The crowd lit torches, illuminating the surroundings like daylight.
But soon, billowing mist gushed out from the depths of the cave. It just spread at first, and after a few seconds, it curled and coiled around everyone like ghost tentacles.
Don't leave me! Bai Mao yelled.
Almost all adventurers unconsciously moved closer to their teammates.
Suddenly, there was a short period of dizziness, and when he came back to his senses, there was a scene most people had never seen before: the surrounding world had become only black.
right! Only black!
Different shades of black!
Black clouds rolled in the sky, and the ground below was the endless pure black land, with gray-black grass and twisted and weird black trees on it. The crooked moon in the sky emits light similar to that of the sun, but every ray of light is black, and the light is projected on every piece of soil and every stalk of grass, creating a darker shadow on its dark back.
Everything still has the same lines as before, and the white hair is still the huge bear man before, but his white hair has turned into black hair of different shades.
He never thought that black could be divided into so many different shades.
Oh! What the hell is going on? Dallak the dwarf cursed.
The half-drow is still a little knowledgeable. He spoke for the first time, with fear in his voice: Trouble, we may have strayed into the shadow plane.
Shadow plane?! The three rookies exclaimed at the same time.
Yes! Shuva gritted his teeth: Be careful, there are many shadow creatures here that cannot be understood by common sense. Besides, except for high-level wanderers, I haven't heard of anyone else who can survive here for a long time.
The halfling yelled: Oh my God! I always thought this was just a half-plane mystery! What should we do? Why don't we evacuate first?
The face of the half-drow was even darker: It's late! The entrance and exit of the shadow plane are never fixed. Similarly, only high-level rogues can sense the existence of the entrance.
Raven next to him was decisively ignored by the rest of the team. Because the high level refers to the gold level or above, which has nothing to do with the weak Lei Wen.
Raven didn't speak, he observed quietly, he wanted to make sure of something. He will not remind this temporary team until it is confirmed.
In this way, the team wandered aimlessly for an hour.
After the vote, they descended a solid rocky path and reached a black wilderness.
In the middle of the wilderness, there is a hut that should be made of thatch and mud. On the eaves, some small animal bones swayed and rattled like wind chimes in the black breeze.
Suddenly, the halfling screamed.
My God! Look!