Or, when we have established a stable territory in the future, we can transport large quantities of beer from outside to trade with the gray dwarves.
Ten barrels of beer can be exchanged for fifty sets of exquisite dwarven plate armor. This is more than a huge profit.
At this time, most of the beer brought by the Marin caravan had been sold. He handed the remaining work to his nephew to let him accumulate some experience. He came to Lin Xiao and said,
"I'm sorry that I was so busy with business that I neglected Mr. Mystery."
Lin Xiao waved his hand and said:
"You're welcome. I'm planning to travel the second and third levels of the Underdark. Can you help me find a guide?"
Marin was shocked and said:
"Mr. Enigma, are you going to the third level of the Underdark? That's too dangerous. That's the territory of the drow elves. If we encounter..."
Although he didn't say anything else, Lin Xiao understood what he meant. Obviously, even though he was a high-level mage, it would still be very dangerous if he encountered a drow patrol or a powerful monster.
Lin Xiao had no intention of explaining himself. He just slammed the staff in his hand to the ground. A faint halo extended from under his feet. Marin's eyes suddenly bulged and he shouted in surprise:
"Magic aura! Are you a great wizard?"
In this world, when a mage reaches level 15 or above, he will naturally possess this magical aura, and such a mage is called a great mage.
Like the mage system in the Toril multiverse, the professional system in this world is divided into twenty levels. Levels zero to four are low-level professionals, levels five to nine are intermediate professionals, levels ten to fourteen are high-level professionals, levels fifteen to nineteen are top professionals, and those above level twenty are legendary professionals.
From this we can see that professionals above level 15 are already extremely powerful professionals, and they can go anywhere as long as they don't commit suicide, not to mention high-level professions like mages.
When Lin Xiao demonstrated his strength, Ma Lin was speechless.
Soon a tauren warrior named Jonila expressed his willingness to be his guide. Marin said that this tauren warrior had been to the third level of the Underdark during the trial of adulthood and had killed a drow elf with his own hands.
This Minotaur warrior named Jonila is two meters sixty-seven meters tall. He wears a thick steel half-body armor, carries a huge steel axe on his back, and has several small hand axes on his belt. He is almost armed to the teeth.
He had a copper ring in his nostril, but the other nostril was broken. He said it was cut off when he was fighting with the drow during the trial of adulthood.
Even Marin praised that after going berserk, Jonila was able to compete with a level 14 warrior. His combat ability, good equipment, and high professional level of 13 barely met Lin Xiao's needs.
Jonila looked very honest, and even blushed in response to Marin's praise. It was only because Lin Xiao had a very sharp eyesight that he could find the red marks on Jonila's thick, finely furred face, which showed how red the child's face was.
This can easily make people feel good about them. After all, people who are easily shy and blush are usually very obedient, and it is generally reassuring to work with such simple-minded subordinates.
After bidding farewell to Marin, Lin Xiao took Jonila and set out on the journey to the second continent.
It has to be said that it was quite convenient to have a local as a guide. After Jonila took him out of Stone Hammer Castle, they quickly came to a passage leading to the next level and went in. They didn't encounter many monsters along the way.
After traveling for a few days, Lin Xiao felt that being too shy was not necessarily a good thing.
Take eating for example. Although the Minotaur has six stomachs that can store a lot of food at a time, they will also get hungry, and they can eat a lot.
Of course, this was nothing for Lin Xiao, who had prepared an unknown amount of food. What gave him a headache was that after the Minotaur Jonila finished eating the food he brought, he was hungry again, but he was still very shy and was too embarrassed to ask Lin Xiao for food. So it was not until the Minotaur fainted from hunger the next day that Lin Xiao discovered the truth with a dilemma.
So every once in a while he would ask the minotaur Jonila the same question:
"Jonila, are you hungry?"
Fortunately, this situation did not occur again after the two became familiar with each other. Apart from being shy, Jonila is indeed a very good little minotaur.
He knew that magicians were generally weak and could not withstand blows, so whenever he saw a monster along the way, he would rush up and fight it. After knocking down the monster with a few axes, he would turn around and smile foolishly at Lin Xiao, letting him see how much value for money he had and that he was definitely worthy of the food he had eaten.
They walked and stopped along the way for half a month, and they stepped onto the land of the second continent through a long spiral stone staircase.
The first impression that Lin Xiao had of the second-level continent was that it was tall and big. The space here was much higher than that of the first level, and the terrain was relatively flat. At least he could see farther when standing on a high place.
Jonila took the initiative to introduce that this layer is more barren than the first and third continents, with relatively fewer monsters, only some small beasts that survive by stealing the crops grown by the cave dwellers. Except for the drow raids every six months, this place is relatively safe.
When it comes to drow elves, Jonila seems like a different person. His shy image is gone and he looks angry and gritting his teeth.
Lin Xiao understood, as they had talked about the atrocities committed by the drow elves during their casual conversations along the way.
These drow are much more brutal than their counterparts in the Underdark of the Prime Material Plane of Faerun in the Toril Multiverse. The Dark Lord of this world is a pure evil god, even more brutal than the Spider Queen Lolth. Under the rule of the Dark Lord, the drow are a completely evil race.
After the drow won the battle, they slaughtered all the adult males to use as materials to summon the Soulbinders, and used the women and children as slaves. The same was true for the corpses of their own drow who died in the battle.
Not only Jonila, but in the eyes of other underground races, these drow should live in the abyss.
At this time of year, there was still a long time before the Drow's big sweep, and cave dweller tribes of varying sizes could be seen everywhere on the vast continental plains. These little guys, who were just over one meter tall, were quite timid. When they saw Lin Xiao and Jonila approaching from afar, after a few sharp whistles, the cave dwellers who were busy planting underground crops near the geothermal hot springs became confused and went back into their caves like moles.
The Minotaur laughed:
"These little dwarfs are very timid. They will hide in their caves at the slightest disturbance. Last time when I passed by, a cave dweller didn't escape and bumped into my calf, knocking himself unconscious."
Lin Xiao turned his head in surprise. The minotaur could actually tell a joke?
"How far is this place from the third-floor passage you went to last time?"
"We're almost there. I put up a signpost there last time."
Oh, since there are signposts, it should be easy to find.
However, in the next three days, Lin Xiao watched Jonila repeatedly look at various huge rocks in a certain area, and kept muttering:
"I clearly remember it was here?"
Lin Xiao keenly sensed that there had been signs of fighting nearby and estimated that the road signs had been destroyed.
This place was definitely nowhere to be found, so he pulled Jonila and walked towards a caveman tribe not far away. The best way at this time was definitely to ask the locals.
When Jonila scared away a group of cave dwellers as soon as she showed up, Lin Xiao had to step in personally, took out some delicious food from the six-color magic cube, and then slowly heated it up. The aroma of barbecue floated in the air, and he cast a human-like charm on himself, which slowly dispelled the cave dwellers' fear.
Two hours later, these cave dweller tribes had already regarded Lin Xiao as their best friend, so it was natural for him to easily obtain the location of the passage to the third floor from them.
During this time, he tasted the food of the cavemen, which was really similar to moss and extremely disgusting. However, it was extremely precious in the underground where food was scarce. Even the drow elves relied on it to fill their stomachs when there was not enough food.
After eating these moss-like foods every day, they suddenly got to eat delicious barbecue and snacks. Every cave dweller who got the food regarded it as a treasure. They would savor it for a long time after taking a small bite. Many cave dwellers sang and danced excitedly as if it were a festival. Although their dancing was ugly, this was definitely the most delicious food they had ever eaten in their lives.
From this we can see that the situation of these cave dwellers is extremely difficult and harsh. It is said that the average age of cave dwellers is no more than five years old. They can escape the pursuit of the drow once but not a second time. If it were not for their strong reproductive ability, they would have been exterminated long ago.
He saw kindness, gentleness, and... good potential in these cavemen.
For this reason, Lin Xiao did not go down to the third level immediately. He stayed in this caveman tribe for a while, and took Jonila to travel around the continent for a while, specifically investigating the different tribes of this race.
Before Lin Xiao came, he had already taken the caveman race into consideration.
In other words, there are only a few intelligent races in the entire Underdark that can provide faith, and most of them have masters. Among the races he had considered before, the drow elves ranked first, and the cavemen were actually ranked at the bottom. It was because this race was too weak and did not provide much power of faith.
But after he carefully examined this race for a period of time, he raised the ranking of this race by several places.
Next, he will continue to investigate the drow elves, and then he will make a decision to choose a race to spread his faith. After accumulating enough believers, he will deify this world based on this incarnation and begin the road to conquering this world.
Although the drow are evil and cruel, they are not unchangeable.
In the Toril multiverse, the drow elves worship not only the Spider Queen Lolth, but also the kind goddess Dark Maiden.
However, the risk of snatching some drow from the Dark Lord as his followers is too great, so he has to conduct an on-site investigation to see if it is worth the risk.
Two months later, Lin Xiao and the minotaur Jonila came to a passage leading to the third level under the guidance of several cavemen. However, before leaving, he dug a cave near the caveman tribe, set up a magic circle to isolate the breath inside, and left a teleportation coordinate. If they encountered any danger, they could directly activate the coordinates and teleport back.
(End of this chapter)