Knight with Wand

The first shot missed, and Herm wanted to shoot again before those green ghost faces disappeared.

But after pulling the trigger several times in succession, except for the clicking sound, no fire arrow could be fired from the molten pot in the handgun.

"Ulfgaard's eggs! I knew the goods from Silver Mountain's profiteers were useless."

Herm cursed, dropped his gun, picked up the rune battle ax on his side, and jumped out of the stone cabin.

Enduring the sluggishness and discomfort of his newly petrified body, he stepped forward with his short, strong legs, rushed towards the wall of the secret room, and punched the brick button in front of him with his old fist.

The sound of friction on stone slabs followed.

Before the petrified and dormant compatriots woke up, as the guardian of the rune furnace, Herm held the battle ax and rushed toward the hole blasted by the "green-faced demon" while shaking his beard covered with silver ornaments on the breastplate, thinking Buy time for others to be de-petrified.

"Come on, hairless devil, your grandpa needs a horned wine cup——!"

Roaring and rushing out of the hole, he kicked the ground with heavy steps. He swung the battle ax over his head and jumped directly at the demon figure he saw.

The passage of time seems to be stretched.

Herm's eyes widened.

He saw clearly that the human dropped the light source he was holding and raised his sword to attack him. Huh?

Lantern?

The dwarf's hands in mid-air couldn't help but stagnate.

He could see more clearly the human army holding torches not far away.

Torch?

This situation doesn't seem to be those of spiritual demons.

However, before his body hit the ground, Olivia had already approached from one side and swung the hilt of her sword upside down.

The eight-sided handle was like a war hammer, and it hit the side of the short, stocky enemy's head armor hard.

clang!

The huge force knocked Herm away, who had not yet landed on the ground. He spun half a circle in mid-air and fell to the ground, with his helmet thrown out.

The guards surrounded him with shields, and several knights drew their swords again, preparing to chop into pieces the enemies who suddenly attacked their lord.

He rolled on the ground a few times and hit the steps before he stopped. Herm's head was buzzing.

He stood up half-kneeling with the battle ax in his hand.

Turning to look at the gathering swords, hammers and shields, Herm quickly put down his weapon and raised his hand to swing vigorously.

(Faru language) "——Wait a minute!! Human! Misunderstanding!" Herm shouted in shock.

Olivia was a little surprised. Although she did not use full lethal force, she still rushed to knock the opponent unconscious with one blow. After such a heavy blow, even a knight wearing a helmet should fall to the ground. Got up.

Leon saw the irritable short man in heavy armor suddenly giving a French military salute. After thinking about it for a moment, he raised his hand and ordered the knights and guards to stop temporarily.

"Do you speak Ferru?"

Leon looked at the guy who just fired indiscriminately, and then frowned and scolded: "You dwarf, you almost shot me to death just now! Are the people in Herain accustomed to shooting first and then saying hello?"

Leon was still sweating a little.

The group fight against the golem just now was not as thrilling as the sudden "dwarf Iai".

If it hadn't been for the extraordinary response to practicing martial arts for a long time in this world, if it were me in the previous life, I would have been caught off guard and shot in the head.

Next time you go caving, you'd better wear a helmet in advance. Although I don't know how powerful the bullets are, Duosen's thick steel helmet should have some buffering effect. It can also increase your chances of surviving any traps you encounter. probability.

Helm couldn't help but shake his thick beard when he heard this. He wanted to complain that the other party used a lantern with a light color that was extremely different from the underworld. Anyone who woke up and suddenly saw a circle of strange and pale green faces staring at him would probably think of it. to many bad things.

But Herm, who knew he was wrong, did not argue, and could only apologize honestly and patiently: "In the name of Ulfgaard, I apologize to you, human being, my spirit is too tense. You would never have imagined what we went through here not long ago. What a disaster."

After speaking, Herm looked around and breathed a sigh of relief.

He found that the surrounding environment was different from when he hid in the stone cabin before petrifying and hibernating. With the low-light vision of the Hlaan people, he could clearly see that the strange colors of the spirit-like field in the mine had completely disappeared.

"No, please wait for me."

Suddenly thinking of the compatriots he had awakened, Herm quickly turned around and ran back to the exploded secret room, fearing that his gun might go off.

In just one or two words, dozens of Helan people in the secret room had already jumped out of the stone cabin.

Thirty Herran miners carried their own cast-steel bucklers and lined up in front.

Eleven rune furnace guards carried battle axes and hammers, and pointed molten blunderbuss directly at the entrance of the cave.

Several furnace technicians also picked up the heavy ore forks and spears in their hands.

"Turn off the fuse, everyone! Listen to me, the spirit-like field has subsided! There are no demons outside, only a bunch of humans. We can go home!" Herm laughed especially excitedly at his compatriots.

The people of Hera, who had just heard the war cry outside and were about to fight the devil to the death, saw the captain of the guard of the mining team coming back and said this, and they immediately looked at each other, with a trace of joy in surviving the disaster in their eyes.

To avoid misunderstanding between the mining team and the humans outside, Helm came outside the cave entrance again.

Several bearded furnace guards inserted their molten muskets back into their waists and followed suit.

As soon as he arrived outside the secret room, he saw a dense crowd of human soldiers arrayed in front of the cave entrance with spears and crossbows aimed at him and others. Helm waved to the man who was suspected of being the human leader just now.

"Don't be nervous, it's all misunderstanding, human. We are the mining team of the 'Edel Mining Chamber of Commerce'. We are definitely not thieves. We have a contract signed with His Majesty Gelvin. It is completely legal to mine here! But the documents are not here. We have to go to the branch to confirm it."

As he said, he asked in confusion: "What about you, are you the army of the Kingdom of Kronia? Or are you mercenaries hired by the Chamber of Commerce to rescue us?"

Edel Mining Chamber of Commerce?

Leon raised his eyebrows at the inquiry of the dwarf warrior.

He naturally hadn't heard of this organization.

But in the other party's mouth, the predecessor of Orland, the Kingdom of Kronia, was actually given the suffix of "country" such as kingdom.

Also, this dwarf respectfully called the founding king of Orland a thousand years ago, the former commander of the Yanyang Guards who was demoted by Laura, Olivia's ancestor, the Dusk Knight Gelvin, as His Majesty.

Hiss, how did these short guys survive until now?

Even though the time and space in the quasi-spiritual field were disordered, Leon remembered that the ethnic history in the magic book, which had survived for so long, said that the lifespan of the Heran people was only about 300 years.

After a few seconds of hesitation, he looked at the leading dwarf warrior and prepared to tell him the cruel fact that was inevitable.

Leon asked Lohak and Larian to keep an eye on the army formation to prevent accidents, and brought Corvis and Olivia to the side.

Avoiding the eyes and ears of ordinary soldiers, he waved to the dwarf who had just attacked him because of misunderstanding: "Are you the leader? Come and talk to me."

Hem scratched his beard in confusion, not understanding what he meant, but turned his head and asked his men to stay on the spot. He didn't bring any weapons and just walked over.

Halfway through, he saw a large number of "miners" lying on the platform, and the torso of the "Furnace Golem" paralyzed in the distance, sounding a piercing alarm.

Such a huge loss of property made the corners of Hem's mouth twitch slightly under his beard. This was the last defensive measure to protect the people in hibernation, but it was not his own property. Thinking that the mine boss who organized this branch mine had died at the beginning of the disaster, Hem could only shrug sympathetically.

He came to the human leader, put his hands on his waist and looked up to test: "Aren't you the army of His Majesty Gelvin? Nor are you the mercenaries of the Chamber of Commerce?

~Ha, don't worry, I won't pursue the property you destroyed. Even if you are a gang of robbers, now that you have saved us, the Chamber of Commerce will give you a reward."

Leon shook his head regretfully at the dwarf in heavy armor: "I am not a bandit, but the lord of this place, Baron Avalon of Nightmare Forest. Although, you are not wrong to regard us as the army of Kronia. I called you here because I have some unfortunate news to tell you."

"What?" Hem didn't understand.

"The 'Gervin' of Kronia you just mentioned has been dead for more than a thousand years.

The Kingdom of Kronia has already unified the northern countries hundreds of years ago, and now it has changed its name to the Kingdom of Orland." Leon spread his hands and said.

"."

The old furnace guard scratched his head and was silent for a long time before reacting.

"Ulfgard's beard!!"

Hem was so shocked that his thick beard on his upper lip blew up: "You said? We have been sleeping here for a thousand years?!"

The old furnace guard couldn't believe it. Even if they were petrified and dormant, they couldn't live that long.

Although they live much longer than ordinary humans, a thousand years is enough to take away the lives of several generations of Helan people.

Leon nodded with a little sympathy.

Time has passed, although there is no way to know where the Helan people who disappeared from the continent hundreds of years ago have gone now.

But when these dwarves who traveled through time returned to their hometown, their relatives and acquaintances had all passed away, and their descendants had turned over several generations.

Leon felt that even from the perspective of the lifespan of dwarves, this situation was like people living in the Kangxi period of the Qing Dynasty in the previous life, waking up and finding that time had come to the modern society of the 2020s.

Of course, looking at the degree of civilization regression on the Western Continent today, it might be more appropriate to say the other way around.

Thinking of this, Leon couldn't help but look at the leather holster of the handgun on the dwarf's waist.

It turned out that someone in this world had invented guns a long time ago.

I don't know what the principle of the round-barreled handgun that the other party used just now is. It's a pity that he was still looking for isotopic materials similar to saltpeter and sulfur in this world to experiment whether the gunpowder formula can be effective in this different time and space. Now there are technical predecessors, which saves trouble.

"It's not that I don't believe you, human, but what you said is really hard to accept for the time being. Let's leave here first. I want to contact the Chamber of Commerce as soon as possible to understand the situation." Hem lowered his head and paced a few times, then turned around and said.

". What's your name, sir?" Leon suddenly asked.

"In the way you Feru people pronounce it, my name is Hem Ironbeard, and I am the captain of the 'Rune Furnace Guard' responsible for protecting this Edel Mining Team." Hem replied.

"Then, sir Hem, in addition to this, there is another worse news to inform you."

Leon lowered his head and continued to the dwarf warrior: "I don't know where the 'Edel Mining Chamber of Commerce' you mentioned is, but Helan people like you have disappeared from the continent for hundreds of years.

To be honest, everyone present, including me, has seen a living Helan for the first time in their lives."

"Disappeared? What does it mean? What does disappear mean?"

Hem felt a little chill behind his back because of the words from the human's mouth.

He couldn't help asking, "The nearest station of our Chamber of Commerce is in Silver Mountain City. Are there no people of my clan there?"

Leon nodded and turned his head to look at the Heraen miners who were holding shields and walking out of the secret room one after another in a vigilant manner.

There were also a few dwarves who were holding strange weapons like whale harpoons in their hands, carrying unique backpacks behind them, and wrapped in technical armor.

Looking at these legendary natural master craftsmen who appeared in batches in front of him, his heart was particularly hot.

This made him jealous more than seeing any beauties and treasures.

Knowledge is priceless. At this moment, the dwarves who accidentally survived in the spirit-like field and came to the era of a thousand years later are probably much more valuable than this underground mine.

Those autonomous constructs, golems, and ancient knowledge of building various equipment used by the Heraen people who are naturally slow in magic power do not have such a high magic technology threshold like the Lorelit people.

Looking back, Leon gave the dwarf named Hem a kind smile.

"What you said just now is right. Let's leave the underground first and talk about it upstairs. It's only my one-sided statement, and it's not enough to prove it. You can go to the outside world to confirm it yourself.

Now that we have resolved the misunderstanding, why don't you take your people to visit my castle? As the ruler of this land now, I can also do my best to be a good host for you."

Regardless of whether he can keep these dwarves, he has to try his best.

Even if these short masters still have to leave in the end and go to find their fellow tribesmen who disappeared hundreds of years ago, it would be good for Avalon to have a good relationship with these short masters.

Maybe there will be opportunities for cooperation in the future.

Hem listened to the proposal of the human lord and glanced at the main mine road behind the statue.

If the spiritual land field covers the mine before that kind of mine, it is the fastest way to contact the fellow tribesmen by going directly along the main mine road to the nearest underground mine site.

But I don't know whether what the other party said is true or not. If they are really in a state of petrified hibernation waiting for help, a thousand years have passed in the outside world, and their compatriots have disappeared as the other party said.

The situation is stronger than people. After weighing the pros and cons, Hem nodded to the human lord. He finally survived the disaster, and he didn't want to have any conflict with the army in front of him, so he accepted the proposal. Anyway, it's the same when he comes back to visit other sites in the future.

"Then. Thank you for leading the way, Mr. Baron."

Leon raised his eyebrows and was secretly happy.

He planned to go to the Mage Tower to consult Laura as soon as he returned to Avalon.

Although he didn't plan to rashly expose Laura's existence to these unknown dwarves.

But since these Helan people had lived in the era before Laura's death, maybe his little teacher would have a way to keep them.

After asking and confirming that there were no more traps here, Leon led the warriors of Avalon and the dwarf mining team to gather the team.

Even the three-legged construct captured by the warriors before was debugged by the dwarf technicians. The orange light went out and it calmed down, shrinking into a shuttle shape. The Helan people did not ask Leon to return the two machines with the cut pickaxe arms.

The two teams left the underground mine in parallel, crossed the rock suspension bridge, returned to the tunnel leading to the nightmare forest, and walked to the ground.

When they returned to the sunny forest surface, Leon looked back at the dwarves who stepped out of the mine in groups of three or five.

Miners, mining team guards, maintenance technicians, a total of 51 people survived in this mining team.

Spirit vein mine, iron ore, ancient mine, Helan people.

Unexpectedly, a simple leisure outing brought him such an amazing discovery. He found that he underestimated how many ancient heritages were hidden in this forest that was shrouded by the spirit field for thousands of years, in addition to the fortress of Aphrodite.

Leon couldn't help but look at Larian.

How about letting the knights-errant and the soldiers explore this forest together?