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Page 85

"Yes."

The dragon nodded and continued to ask, "Did any accidents happen when you entered the Fetal Movement Hall? For example, some unlucky person fell into an unknown large container."

The caveman captive thought for a few seconds and said, "Yes, it is true. One of us fell into a piece of gel-like substance not long after entering the fetal movement hall, and became motionless like ancient amber."

The dragon was shocked. "Gel, it sounds like some kind of carnivorous slime monster that will wrap its prey into its body and then slowly digest it bit by bit. After that guy fell into the gel, cavemen born from coffins began to appear in the Fetal Movement Hall, right?"

The prisoner nodded: "Yes, some of our priests believe that it is some kind of necromancy and have been suggesting a thorough investigation, but the elders completely denied the plans of others and stubbornly wanted to use this method to increase the population of the cave dwellers.

"I wonder if you've noticed that most of the cavemen who attacked you are skinny and weak?"

Dragon: "Of course we found it."

The captive sighed, "That's exactly what happened. Originally, the elders only intended to use this situation to expand our tribe and living area, but this vision soon fell through. This is because most of the cave dwellers born from the fetal movement hall are very thin and have almost no thinking ability."

Marika exclaimed, "What? You actually think you have the ability to think?"

Flint: "At least the elders gave us a hard time. Although the final battle wasn't as exciting because we could use the dragon magic given by the scepter."

Prisoner: "See, this is how you surface people look down on us. So the elders want to change all this and want to have a place on the surface."

Nini: "However, drow elves cannot be considered surface creatures, right?"

The prisoner was speechless.

The dragon spoke up to pick up where he left off: "But you just said that this vision failed."

Prisoner: "Yes, the new tribesmen are weak and have no intelligence, so they can only be used as cannon fodder. The good news is that they are fearless and are just like a group of undead. The bad news is that they produce too many and they eat up all the resources underground in a short time.

"In order to prevent the entire tribe from running out of food, the elders made several decisions. First, the cave dwellers coming out of the fetal movement hall must be screened. Those without intelligence can only eat moss mixed with sand, while those with intelligence can enjoy the food they used to eat.

“Second, actively seek out new food sources.

"We tried to tame and raise various monsters underground, but all failed. Finally, we had no choice but to rob the surface. Compared to those dangerous and weird creatures underground, the humans and your livestock on the surface are simply a group of fat sheep."

Dragon: "But because of the intelligence problem, most of your attacks can only be directed at the fortress in Riverwood Town? Is that right?"

Prisoner: "No, of course not. Actually our plan is divided into two parts. The first part is to send a hunting team to the surface to hunt humans and livestock to increase food. All of this does not pass through the fortress of Ximu. The mountains in this place are full of caves. We have plenty of ways to get to the surface!

"The second part is to attack the defense of Ximu Town every day. Anyway, our military force is endless, and the Fetal Movement Hall will replenish our forces at no cost.

"We can definitely bring down the power of Riverwood Town. When we eliminate the human overlord, Riverwood Town can become our first settlement on the surface! It can even become the capital of the Caveman Empire!"

The dragon let out a cackle. "Although you are just cave dwellers, you have big dreams. It's a pity that you overestimate your own strength. Look at us now. We are just a small group of people, and we have reached your holy land and your heart."

The captive looked at the dragon and said, "But in the shallow layer, we almost wiped out all those powerful mercenaries. You are not as powerful as you think. You only gained a temporary advantage with the scepter!"

Everyone looked at each other in bewilderment. Elizabeth sighed, "All the mercenaries were wiped out. I feel so sorry."

Flint: "Don't be too sad. This is how the mercenary business works. Life and death are determined by fate, and wealth and honor are determined by God."

Dragon: "I have heard enough about the ambitions of the cavemen. Let's talk about the scepter in the hands of the forest elves."

(*) The priest spells in this book have been adjusted. In this book, good priests cannot use many offensive spells.

Chapter 98 A Message from the Distant Past

The captive suddenly went into a frenzy: "That scepter contains the power of the great Mother of Monsters! It can activate the Fetal Movement Palace and produce the Mother of Monsters' people in an endless stream! It can even bestow blessings on random people!"

The dragon tilted its head: "Gift? Are you talking about those monsters?"

"It's a gift!" said the caveman, and he gave a sharp cry to the dragon. "It is undoubtedly a gift!"

The dragon pressed it to the ground with its front paws and scratched the back of its head with its sharp nails, causing black blood to flow out, but Lamashtu's ability made the wound heal quickly.

Although it healed, the pain was real.

Dragon: "It's a monster, an ugly monster."

Prisoner: "Maybe it seems that way to you..."

The dragon scratched the back of his head again.

"It's a monster!" the captive shouted, "It's a monster! It's blind and deaf, and can only crawl on the ground. It's undoubtedly a monster!"

The dragon retracted its front claws: "It seems that it is very reasonable."

The elf frowned and looked at the dragon: "Before I came out, I only knew that black dragons were evil creatures. I didn't know that humans who turned into black dragons could be so evil. What's the difference between you playing with your prey just now and a cat?"

Dragon: "So you mean that cats that play with their prey are evil creatures?"

Nini was speechless for a moment.

Elizabeth tried to smooth things over: "This is also to obtain information. Now we know that the cavemen regarded the monster as a gift from Lamashtu."

Marika then asked the captives: "How many monsters are there?"

Prisoner: "They have all been used to attack you, even the ones that haven't grown yet. The Fetal Movement Hall will produce a new wave of cave dwellers tomorrow, and then we will have a new gift - monsters!"

Dragon: "Don't the cavemen have any troops now?"

"Of course there are, but most of them are in the shallows, besieging and killing the human mercenaries and adventurers who come in."

Dragon: "I see. I thought you mobilized shallow troops. I also thought that your social organization structure was quite good, and the transmission and dispatch were fast. But it turned out not to be the case."

Elizabeth was very nervous: "Doesn't that mean there are still a lot of cave dwellers in the shallow layer? We have to hurry!"

"Don't worry, wait until I understand this scepter. What he just said about Lamashtu's artifact is nonsense. I have to identify it."

As he spoke, the dragon stretched out his front paws, pinched the scepter in the forest elf's hand with three fingers, and looked at it carefully.

Xiaobai: "You look like you're planning on swallowing that thing in one gulp."

The dragon ignored the druid and concentrated on studying the scepter. He tried to turn the scepter in a certain direction, but his three fingers were unable to hold it firmly, and the scepter slipped out from his fingertips.

Nini caught the scepter and climbed to the dragon's neck in three or two steps. She pulled the dragon's scales with one hand and put the scepter in front of the dragon's eyes with the other hand.

"Thank you." The dragon said, "But yours is a little off. Put it where my eyes are focused. Yes, here."

It looked at it for a few seconds, then drew a circle in the air with its little paw: "Turn around, slowly."

Nini slowly turned the scepter.

After looking at it for a while, the dragon muttered, "This is weird. This thing... although it has the holy emblem of Lamashtu, it looks like... just a magic energy core from the ancient Cyclops Empire fixed on a metal stick."

The captive shouted, "Impossible! This is Lamashtu's sacred object! The elders have personally authenticated it!"

"There are two possibilities," the dragon said as he continued to examine the elf's spinning staff. "First, your elder is too bad to recognize this object. Second, he deliberately said this to deceive you. I always think that both situations may have happened: your elder did not recognize this object, but made up a story about the sacred object of Lamashtu. After all, you can see that there are dwarven murals in the passage leading to this place."

Elizabeth looked up at the dragon and asked, "With their poor eyesight, can the cave dwellers see the murals?"

Dragon: "They can use touch. The cavemen are very good at this. If this temple was discovered before 27 drops of water dripped from the stalagmite, there is reason to believe that the cavemen elders have understood the contents of the murals by touch."

Prisoner: "Impossible! The elder did tell me the contents of the mural, but... no, impossible! This must be a holy object made by the lich and the dwarves who stole the power of Lamashtu. Otherwise, how do you explain the constant appearance of people and gifts in the Fetal Movement Hall?"

The dragon flapped its wings. "There are many possibilities. Some planes mass-produce residents in this way. A powerful lich is likely to be a planeswalker like my teacher, who often travels across planes to collect knowledge and rare spellcasting materials. It is also normal for it to obtain technology from other planes."

The dragon paused and said, "By the way, you are wrong to think that people keep appearing in the Fetal Movement Hall. This energy core is almost out of energy. The remaining energy is barely enough to keep it glowing."

As soon as she finished speaking, the light of the scepter in Nini's hand gradually dimmed and finally disappeared completely.

As the light went out, the huge hemispherical fetal movement hall emitted a long hissing sound, which sounded like the whistle of a dwarf steam engine letting off steam in the cylinder before stopping working.

Then the entire Fetal Movement Hall fell silent, and all the lights illuminating inside went out.

Dragon: "It turns out that the energy core is also responsible for the lighting inside the Fetal Movement Hall. No wonder it went out much faster than I expected."

The prisoner couldn't see what happened in the Fetal Movement Hall. He could only shout in panic: "What happened? Is there something wrong with the Fetal Movement Hall? The sound of the movement stopped! What was that scream just now?"

Dragon: "The thing you thought was the scepter artifact has used up the last of its energy."

The captive cried out, "Impossible! My palms can still emit holy light. Lamashtu has not abandoned me!"

Elizabeth frowned and asked the dragon: "So what's going on? I don't quite understand. Lamashtu's artifact does not exist?"

"Yes," the dragon answered affirmatively, "I guess the ancient dwarves were deceived by the lich. In fact, the lich took the energy core of the ancient Cyclops Empire and used the energy inside to create a huge mechanical device that can mass-produce dwarves. But this is just my guess. We have to go in and see what it is like to know the details."

Flint looked at the door of the hemispherical Fetal Movement Hall. "It's completely dark inside. You can't see anything unless you have your scepter to illuminate it. But the scepter merged with you after you transformed. You have to cancel the transformation first."

The dragon tilted its head and looked at the dwarf. "What are you talking about? I am a dragon now. I also have darkvision."

As he spoke, the giant dragon began to walk towards the Fetal Movement Hall.

Marika asked, “What about the captives?”

"Kill them. Do you expect a caveman to mend his ways? I think they may not even understand what they have discovered." The dragon replied indifferently.

The drow asked again, "Do you have any problem with me killing the captive white-skinned elf lady?"

Nini replied: "I have no problem with killing evil creatures."

Although forest elves are a kind race, their closeness to art makes them tend to be somewhat chaotic. They do not have the rigid view of good and evil like the paladins, nor do they pursue procedural justice.

After entering the Fetal Movement Hall, the dragon first looked around.

"It looks just like the biology laboratory in the Mage's Tower," it commented.

The forest elf hanging around its neck asked curiously, "What is biology?"

"It's a foreign word, from a certain dimension in the multiverse." The dragon came to the "sarcophagus" that covered an entire wall and took a closer look. "Artificial womb."

Then it walked towards the only pillar in the middle of the huge fetal movement hall.

In the middle of the pillar is a transparent gelatinous body with a skeleton floating inside.

"The skeleton of a caveman. It looks like this is the unfortunate caveman that was swallowed in the first place. It's a very clever design. The ooze was transformed to analyze the target organism, and then produce something similar in the artificial womb.

"But this system should require raw materials. I didn't see a feed port, and the prisoner just now didn't mention the need to feed materials."

The dragon muttered to himself as he looked around the entire Fetal Movement Hall.

At this moment, the lighting outside the Fetal Movement Hall also disappeared, and the entire cave was dark.

**

Outside the cave, on the platform, Elizabeth was startled by the sudden darkness. She immediately approached Marika and grabbed her hand tightly: "What should I do? Is the enemy going to attack?"

Marika soothed, "It shouldn't be. Look, Xiaobai didn't hear any movement from the cavemen. I guess the lighting energy of this facility has run out."

The next moment, a tiny light appeared in the darkness.

Gao Chuk took out the fire starter and gently opened the lid, revealing the faint fire inside.

The dwarf took the torch from behind him and said, "It turned out that I was right not to store everything in the wizard's dimensional bag."

After the torch was lit, the light was only enough to illuminate the surrounding area, and it was pitch black farther away.