Chapter 1 The Banes of War Formations

Where didn’t Suren know the drawbacks of ten-thousand-man magical war formations?

Whenever a ten-thousand-man magic battle array was formed, it was like a knightly charge. There were only two outcomes: either smashing the enemy, or being smashed by the enemy.

Once they collapsed midway through a battle, the magical backlash alone could claim the lives of most members.

And these weren't ordinary enemies.

Under the dread of that evil dragon, even two Rank 8 Archmages had no certainty of survival. Once they scattered and fled, whoever was chased would die.

Therefore, as long as there was a glimmer of hope, they could only continue to wear down the dragon with their formation.

Watching the great battle in the sky reach another stalemate, Suren also ceased his movements.

The magic corps still had desperate measures, and he couldn't force them to risk it all and decide the outcome right now.

Dragon Bro couldn't help too much either.

Only when both sides were evenly matched could they fight for a long time, and both suffer.

Seeing this scene, Suren was satisfied; the situation was even better than expected.

Compared to watching the spectacle, he had more important things to do.

And that was to take a look inside the dragon’s lair.

The underground fortress was the dwarves' royal court, and there were many treasures inside.

If Suren had entered the cursed space alone, his idea would have been to sneak around and take a look, and he definitely wouldn't have dared go into the dragon's lair.

Now that someone was helping him hold back that evil dragon, naturally the opportunity couldn't be better.

Suren then took Number Nineteen, teleporting all the way, carefully avoiding the evil dragon's senses, and after making a detour, they arrived at the foot of the Colossus Mountain.

...

"Howling Abyss" was the bottomless rift, tens of kilometers long, next to the Colossus Mountain peak, which was previously where the cursed space was located.

The Moses family's intelligence indicated that there was extremely terrifying dark energy leaking out of this rift, and ordinary people couldn't get close at all.

It was also because of the Mountain Dwarf clan’s seal that this cursed space hadn't spread.

Suren and Number Nineteen stood next to the rift, frowning as they looked at this seemingly bottomless dark chasm.

They tossed a stone down, but couldn't hear any echo at all.

Number Nineteen wondered, "Just how deep is this fissure?"

Suren also shrugged, replying, "Seems like there's no bottom."

The earth truly might be the burial place of some ancient god.

But he didn't want to explore the tomb, but rather go to the dwarves' underground fortress.

Saying that, he watched as an earth elemental wax statue was summoned, and added, "Let's go, we'll go down and take a look."

"Alright."

Number Nineteen nodded.

After plundering Archduke Raphael's Gold Digging Island base previously, the neuro-mechanical technology of Suren's War Workshop skyrocketed. Combined with his own puppetry, he also had some more means of perception. He left a few mechanical beasts, skilled in hearing and sight, on the ground, connecting their auditory and visual nerves with silken threads, so that he could share part of their perception, and keep a constant eye on the battle situation above ground.

On the other side, the elemental wax statue melted the soil along the way, and the two moved swiftly as if merged into the earth.

The two didn't go through the main gate of the dwarven fortress, because Number Nineteen felt that doing so might trigger some unpleasant commotion.

After experiencing the previous encounter with the "Forbidden Sister" Jona Bell, Suren had a deep understanding of this angel lady's "hidden luck stat." He also kept Number Nineteen by his side at all times, guarding against some mysterious means, like the previous time reversal.

Although Number Nineteen felt a little strange about being treated like a lucky charm when she was a combatant, she indulged Suren, since he was a familiar partner.

Mountain Dwarves were born for mining and forging, and they lived underground, with a dense network of mineshafts sprawling beneath the lush forests.

Not long after merging into the earth, Suren sensed a mineshaft space, and the two dropped down.

The mineshaft was incomparably dark, but fortunately both had strong night vision, so there were no obstacles to seeing.

Because it was used by minecarts, it was wide enough, but not high enough; Suren and Number Nineteen had to bend over slightly so they wouldn't bump their heads.

The dwarves’ superb forging skills were evident everywhere in this mineshaft. The rails showed no signs of decay, the minecarts had anti-rust coatings, and the structures supporting the mineshaft against collapse were also extremely sturdy...

Although it was an abandoned mineshaft, it didn't give people the feeling of constantly worrying about a cave-in.

Suren took out a few mechanical spiders and released them. He didn't expect them to scout the way, but rather to leave behind a reconnaissance eye.

He identified the direction and said, "Let's go, we'll go to the dragon's lair first and take a look."

Number Nineteen nodded silently and followed behind Suren.

Looking at the surrounding rock walls, any piece casually pried off was a high-purity rare iron ore.

Dwarves were the most outstanding ore detectors, and they could always find the highest quality ore seams.

But the mineshaft was too complex, and the two encountered a fork in the road before long.

Although Suren could sense the general direction of the space, he couldn't guarantee where the passage would eventually lead.

There weren't just that evil dragon inside, but also many demonized monsters and some dangerous places with unclear situations.

Before the fork in the road, Suren was indecisive, so he turned his head and asked, "Which way do you think we should go?"

Number Nineteen pursed her lips, seemingly not feeling that her choice was better than Suren's judgment, but still said, "Left, probably."

"Alright!"

Suren smiled as he listened, left a spider in the right-hand passage, and unhesitatingly headed to the left.

The two thus relied on metaphysics and a general sense of direction, and walked very far underground.

Although they also encountered some "demonized dwarven miners," "mutated cave creatures," "cave wyverns"... all sorts of strange things.

But none were too troublesome.

Monsters below Rank 7 were now easily killed by Suren.

The two thus walked through the mineshaft, killing a few small monsters, and occasionally picking up some precious ores and gems from the bags of the decayed dwarven miner corpses.

After roughly passing a dozen forks in the road, and encountering a relatively strong monster...

Number Nineteen also began to complain that Suren's metaphysical methods weren't scientific enough, saying, "You let me choose, but we still encountered monsters."

Suren didn't care, and smiled, "No. If you hadn't chosen, we might have encountered an even stronger monster."

"..."

Number Nineteen was speechless as she listened, and didn't know what to say to refute him.

The two continued walking, but just then, Suren's gaze suddenly sharpened, and he stopped.

Number Nineteen tilted her head and asked, "What's wrong?"

Suren pondered for a moment, saying, "Just now, something ate the mechanical spider I left at point A33. Very strong, at least Rank 6, or it has some special ability..."

The mechanical spider also had the combat power of a Rank 3 magical beast, and for it to be instantly killed silently, that "monster" must be very troublesome.

Saying that, he looked at Number Nineteen again: "I told you, if we had taken that road, we would likely have encountered that monster. Speaking of which, our luck is pretty good."

"..."

Number Nineteen rolled her eyes as she listened, and didn't say anything more.

Walking and walking, after the two passed over a bottomless stone bridge, Suren sensed that a huge space had appeared ahead.

Suren identified the general direction, and after confirming something, guessed, "We should have reached the dwarven king's fortress!"

...

They really hadn't encountered any major dangers along the way.

The battle between the evil dragon and the mage corps outside was still intense; this was the best opportunity.

Even better news was that, in the place where the evil dragon lived, there usually weren't any other monsters.

He also didn't sense any monster activity.

But as luck would have it, just as the two walked over, Suren actually sensed quite a few soul fluctuations.

Although there were also many demonized mountain dwarves in the cursed space, they were just monsters, and didn't have complete souls.

But these souls he sensed were complete.

These were living people.

That string of soul fluctuations seemed to be passing through a secret passage leading to the depths of the earth.

Suren immediately guessed that it might be that "dwarven king's escape passage."

He also thought of something, and said to himself, "No wonder that group of mountain dwarves would so decisively undo the seal; it turns out they knew about this secret passage to escape."

However, the Mountain Dwarf tribe had at least hundreds of thousands of people, and there was no way they could all escape.

And what puzzled Suren somewhat was that there were also dozens of stronger soul fluctuations that didn't follow the main force. They were wandering around in the empty hall, as if searching for something.

Suren and Number Nineteen quietly walked over, and after turning a corner, their vision suddenly opened up.

The surrounding tunnel was no longer a mineshaft, but rather brickwork with reliefs in a very dwarven style, and golden lamps hung on the walls, subtly revealing luxury in the details.

And before their eyes, a huge palace nearly thirty stories high came into view.

Dozens of whale oil torches on the tall pillars illuminated the entire palace, and a dazzling, eye-blinding golden and silver light reflected into the two's eyes.

Suren and Number Nineteen's expressions both froze for a moment!

Legend had it that dragons liked shiny things. They were boundlessly greedy, and the embodiment of evil and cruelty. But their lairs were always piled high with treasures that amazed adventurers. The stories of dragon hoards were always found in the songs of bards, becoming the ultimate adventure ideal that countless adventurers flocked to.

Although he had heard of all sorts of legends, seeing such an exaggerated scene for real made Suren also feel the blood of an adventurer surging in his heart.

Gold and silver coins, gold wine glasses, silver plates, golden scepters, jeweled crowns... all sorts of gold and silver products were piled up like mountains; high-end magical armor, knightly lances, two-handed greatswords, shields... all sorts of magical items were seen everywhere; and there were also all sorts of colorful gems strewn all over the ground like ordinary stones.

Here, treasures were like sand dunes, piled up tens of meters high, filling the entire hall.

These were all the black dragon's treasures!

No, the dwarves'!

Dwarves were skilled at finding mineral veins, mining, and forging magical artifacts. They had always been one of the richest races in legend.

However, Suren's gaze only lingered for a moment on the exaggerated hills of gold and silver, before falling on the decapitated statue of the dwarven king in the center of the hall.

This statue was a full hundred meters tall, but it captured the stocky feel of the dwarves.

Suren identified it, and saw that the material of this statue was actually 99% pure Living Silver!

One cubic meter of Living Silver weighed about twenty tons, and that hundred-meter-tall statue of the dwarven king was estimated to weigh over ten thousand tons!

And that was just the statue, not including the materials on the ground that had been forged into silver coins, silver plates, and silver bricks.

There were all sorts of rare metal materials.

The materials here were enough for Suren to forge thousands of gargoyles, or even super-large gargoyles.

"I've struck it rich this time!"

Suren couldn't hide the excitement in his heart.

The most important purpose of his coming to the Magical Beast Mountains was to find enough Living Silver.

Now that he saw the goal right before his eyes, how could he not be excited?

...

However, turning his eyes to look at the few Mountain Dwarf tribesmen searching everywhere in the treasure piles, Suren frowned, pondering in his heart, "What are these guys looking for?"

One of the burly dwarves, with flaxen hair and beard, wore a crown, and was clearly the current "Dwarven King" of the Mountain Dwarves. Another was the Black Rock tribe chief, whom he had met once before...

This group of people wasn't interested in treasures or anything like that. They searched for something all the way. Only when they occasionally encountered some metal books did they flip through them.

But before the dwarves could find what they were looking for, a signal suddenly came through the silken threads.

Suren's gaze shook: "The evil dragon is back!"

For some reason, the fiercely fighting sides outside had suddenly erupted in a head-on collision, and both sides had been severely injured.

The magic corps was collapsing in disarray, and that black dragon was flying towards the lair!

He looked at the dwarves who were still standing there, and roared in Dwarvish, "The black dragon is back!"

At this time, the entire palace trembled slightly, and a piercing dragon roar poured in from the passage, making people dizzy.

The dwarves also quickly reacted, and looked at Suren with complex expressions.

After hesitating for a moment, the leading dwarven king shouted, "You can come with us!"

Suren naturally knew that they wanted to take him out with them.

Although dwarves had fiery tempers, they also knew how to be grateful.

They were never stingy with their friendly friends.

Suren didn't know why the dwarven king had suddenly extended an olive branch to him. Perhaps it was because he had been watching him kill those mages, so he thought he wasn't an enemy?

However, he couldn't leave now.

Now that he knew where the secret passage was, it wouldn't be a problem to leave.

Suren said, "No, thank you, you leave here first. I still have things to do; I want to stop those invaders from other planes."

Hearing these words, the dwarves frowned, but didn't have a chance to say much. After hesitating for a moment, they turned around and left.

The evil dragon was about to return to its lair; no one dared stay here any longer.

Suren sensed it, but found that this group of dwarves didn't escape through the passage, but rather went somewhere else. Were they planning to hide and attract the evil dragon's attention, to give their clansmen more chances to escape?

Suren didn't pay much attention to it, directly teleported to the center of the hall, and then quickly released a group of Dawn mercenaries from the small subspace, and the group worked together to draw a spatial array on the statue.

A few breaths later, the magic array was completed.

Suren pinched a warlock seal, and then took the mercenaries and the entire statue into the small subspace.

Then he teleported over and met up with Number Nineteen, and the two didn't head outwards, but rather walked into a pitch-black passage blowing with dark, hot winds.

...

Before long, the evil dragon returned to its lair.

The huge underground fortress trembled violently.

The evil dragon roared, seemingly discovering the petty thieves who had invaded its lair, and spewed out all sorts of dragon breath indiscriminately.

However, coincidentally, the passage Suren and his companion had chosen wasn't affected.

After walking for a while with trepidation, Number Nineteen finally couldn't help but ask, "Did you know that evil dragon wouldn't come here?"

Suren explained, "The dark energy here can mask smells, so it's not easy for that evil dragon to find us. Moreover, it won't come."

Number Nineteen wondered as she listened, "Why?"

Suren thought about it and said, "This cursed space is called 'Dwarven King's Grievance.' That black dragon isn't actually the real black dragon from tens of thousands of years ago, but rather a manifestation of the dwarven king's grievance..."

He had experienced many strange cursed spaces, and could now be said to have a wealth of experience.

Usually, breaking cursed spaces was formed from all sorts of lingering grievances, which meant that there was a possibility of taking shortcuts hidden in the plot.

The dwarven king had this lingering grievance because his people had been enslaved by the evil dragon for hundreds of years.

Therefore, the "grievance master" usually wanted someone in this illusory space to help him eliminate that trace of grievance in his heart.

Following this train of thought, Suren came to this conclusion, and added, "Since it's a grievance space, then I plan to go find that 'Dwarven King' Ironhelm Olr first, to see if there's a chance. When the evil dragon returned to its lair just now, I sensed a bit of soul fluctuation deep in this passage, which might be him. He should be waiting for someone to come knocking..."

Saying that, he paused and raised an eyebrow, "Even if I don't find him, I also plan to find a safe place to advance to Rank 7. No matter how you look at it, this underground fortress is the safest place in the cursed space."

Although the great battle outside had temporarily ended, that ten-thousand-man magic corps, despite suffering heavy casualties, was still a threat.

Suren felt that if he really went out, he would definitely have to fight.

And his current strength wasn't too strong yet. Faced with an Rank 8 Archmage, he could only run for his life.

But if he advanced to Rank 7, his strength would immediately skyrocket. If he encountered an Rank 8 again, even if he couldn't beat them, his survival ability would be greatly improved.

Moreover, he had just obtained so much Living Silver, and during the time he was advancing, the War Workshop could also step up production.

When he really produced hundreds or thousands of gargoyles, Suren wouldn't be afraid of any thousand-man mage legion.

Moreover, now that this underground fortress was guarded by the black dragon, even if those guys discovered the secret passage, they would have to kill the evil dragon first.

This underground fortress, as complex as a maze, wasn't very suitable for the "ten-thousand-man magic corps" to spread out and fight.

If they couldn't kill the evil dragon outside, it would be even more impossible here.

As time passed, Suren felt that the situation would inevitably become more and more favorable to his side.

"Oh..."

Hearing these words, Number Nineteen realized that Suren had already considered everything very perfectly.

She didn't know what she was thinking about, and fell into silence.

...

The two walked down this passage all the way.

But the surrounding environment became more and more strange. The surrounding area was devoid of light, and was endlessly dark.

The passage had also become a spiral staircase going downwards, as if they would never reach the end.

On both sides of the stairs was an endless darkness, as if a single misstep would cause them to fall into that bottomless abyss.

Suren very cautiously sensed his surroundings.

But the space here was already distorted, and couldn't be sensed at all.

It wasn't strange.

After all, this was a cursed space formed from grievance.

Black Crow didn't warn of danger, and Number Nineteen was also by his side.

Suren glanced at the depths, as if he understood something.

The endless staircase was like a prison leading to the depths of one's heart, filled with deep loneliness and self-blame. The dwarven king, Ironhelm Olr, was enslaved by the evil dragon, and could only bury this grievance in his heart.

Suren peeled away those emotions that made people overthink, and resolutely walked down the stairs.

Finally.

After walking for a quarter of an hour.

He heard sounds beside his ears: "Dong," "Dong," "Dong"... like the sound of a heavy hammer striking metal.

Number Nineteen thought she was hallucinating, and glanced at Suren beside her.

Suren's gaze was still firm.

He inexplicably had a feeling of certainty in his heart that the environment here was like a prison of the mind.

The imprisoned person wanted someone to release him, to give him liberation.

Sure enough, after walking two more steps like that.

The endless staircase finally saw its end. There, the firelight was blazing, and magma gushed in from the depths of the earth.

Before that forge, a burly dwarf with a tawny beard was stepping on the bellows, which were constantly blowing hot winds, and in his hand he was swinging a hammer, hammering a set of armor on an anvil.

Suren saw that set of armor at a glance.

[Dragonscale Armor of the Dragon-Slaying Warrior]

Quality: Legendary

Description: The dwarven king, "Ironhelm Olr," secretly used his divine craftsman-level forging skills to forge the dragon scales that had been corroded and fallen off from Gugrolo, the black dragon, into armor; it possesses extremely strong physical and magical defense, and can almost completely exempt one from the dark dragon breath; but it is, after all, forged from broken scales, and no one can guarantee how many times it can withstand the black dragon's breath;

Details: Ironhelm Olr had wanted to kill that evil dragon that had enslaved their Mountain Dwarf tribe for hundreds of years countless times, but failed to fulfill this wish even in death, and could only secretly forge such a set of armor; this is a set of armor entangled with grievance. Putting it on will inevitably subject one to the corrosive power of darkness;

Looking at this armor, it wasn't hard for Suren to guess that this dwarf was the "grievance master" of the entire cursed space.

The dwarf was hammering the armor on one side, while muttering to himself in a lamenting tone, as if regretting that his work wasn't perfect enough: "It's a pity that the Eternal Furnace's flames have gone out. Otherwise, I could have forged it even more perfectly..."

The dwarven king seemed to have been waiting for someone to come and rescue him.

Hearing the commotion, he turned his head, and looked at Suren and his companion with a pair of brown pupils, asking urgently, "Young men, are you willing to put on the armor and kill that hateful black dragon for me?"

"..."

Looking at that morbidly eager gaze, Suren guessed that if he refused, something bad would definitely happen.

Perhaps this dwarven king would immediately turn black and go berserk.

But Suren wasn't prepared to refuse.

When he saw this set of armor, he knew that things had taken a turn for the better.

He couldn't take down an Rank 9 giant dragon. But now, this evil dragon was seriously injured, and there was the mage corps, and this armor, and he had the [Dragon-Slaying Dagger] in his hand.

The space for manipulation was too great!

Plans flashed through his mind in an instant, and he said directly, "I am very willing to help you, and rescue the dwarven people from the abyss of enslavement. But my current strength is not enough to kill that evil dragon. I still need some help..."

When communicating with grievances, you had to say things they liked to hear, and had to agree.

But Suren wasn't lying to deceive an NPC.

If he could, he really wanted to kill that black dragon, completely break open this cursed space, and see what secrets were hidden.

Because, the instant he came down just now, he saw the ⍥, that long-unseen mysterious alchemical symbol, on the wall.

This was one of the five mysterious symbols he had once seen in the basement of the Stormwind Manor!

Suren now knew the meaning of three of the symbols: Death ☽, Wisdom ꧧ, Destiny §.

This was the fourth.

All indications showed that this cursed space had a vital connection with one of the five elders of the Twilight Society in the Dawn Era!

Any relic involving the Dawn Five Old Ones was bound to be an important opportunity that absolutely couldn't be missed.

Moreover, it wasn't just this symbol.

Suren also saw the iconic ouroboros symbol of the [Ouroboros Spacetime Ring] on that forge!

Having reached this step, he could almost be certain that this cursed space was directly related to that God-King artifact fragment.

If not...

After identification, this dwarven king, Ironhelm Olr, was a "Divine Craftsman."

Too many ideas immediately popped into Suren's mind.

For example, asking this person to repair the [War Angel's Golden Wings]?