Chapter 302: Underground World

Louis got the answers to Clayton Bello's three questions earlier than him: "Does this country have other hidden residents?", "Does Wonderland have other countries?", "Where does the black wizard Edwards usually go?".

The scarecrow showed the other side of this country for the priesthood.

Louis was dragged into an inconspicuous narrow cave in the forest by the dwarf, and the violent collision between the back of his head and the rock made him faint directly. When he woke up, the scenery in front of him was completely different from the surroundings of this country before.

The sky disappeared, and they were underground.

In front of them was an underground tunnel that led to nowhere, but it did not seem dim. Many glowing heterochromatic crystals grew disorderly from underground to upwards.

Every moment, there were countless sounds of chisels hitting stones, whether far or near, coming from afar and even below, as if many miners were working here.

Louis was stunned. The scarecrow had put him down, but he did not even realize that he should stand up.

"I think you are with us, so I brought you here." The scarecrow came close to his face to make him come back to his senses. The dwarf's eyes were full of bloodshot, and his tone was chilling: "Don't let me down."

Louis smelled the breath of the mole from his beard: "I know."

The dwarf nodded with satisfaction, and he pulled Louis up.

"Follow me closely."

"I have some questions."

"Of course you do, every outsider has a lot of questions. Let me think about where to start-starting from the dark wizard Edwards stealing this country. But before that, I will talk about my story first, and then you can tell yours, how about it?"

Louis had no objection.

Although the dwarf pulled him into the secret side of this country, he did not completely believe him, so he could not tell him his real name. Louis could only continue to use the name "Scarecrow" for the time being.

Different from the first scene that the scarecrow showed to Louis and his party, this dwarf had a considerable status in this country before being punished.

It should be noted that this status is not a status that Edwards can change at will.

This status comes from technology.

Edwards needs the help of Scarecrow and his people, who are miners.

This country was originally an underground kingdom built by the Morrells (the scientific name of dwarves). The part that the priest sees now is just a small corner of this country.

Fairyland is not an empty and desolate world in the eyes of people on the surface. Its underground is full of various magical substances that can be used to make strange objects, and those glowing crystals are one of them. These materials are very rare in reality, and some have never appeared in the world. Morrell alchemists excavate these "minerals" underground to try to find new alchemical raw materials or even the fifth element synthesized by nature.

When the shallow layer is judged to be worthless, the Morrells continue to dig down. A depth of one thousand meters is not the limit for their race.

So far, only Morrells have this superb excavation skill.

The dwarves believe that this is a career worth their eternal dedication, and the immortal power here allows them to eat without food, and the workers can dig down forever.

Louis could still understand the story up to this point, but the scarecrow's account of what happened later was completely different from the information he learned from others, or it provided another perspective.

At a certain time, the natural environment of Wonderland showed a strange growth phenomenon.

A large amount of mysterious substances grew upward from underground, flooding the mines, precipitating on the surface, forming various forms such as plants, water, and rocks. In addition, Wonderland has the power to make people immortal. These phenomena caused a sensation in all religious groups.

People believe that Wonderland is an unformed world and is growing rapidly. If someone can seize the opportunity, they may become a "god" here.

With the support of religious forces, more and more explorers have reached Wonderland through secret methods, trying to find the truth of the formation of the world.

This country appeared in the eyes of the world at this time.

"I still remember that there were two moons in the sky at that time." The scarecrow recalled, his palm stretched out to the side, and as he walked, he scraped against the rock wall, making a hoarse friction sound: "Facing the visitors at that time, we were not stingy, but let them join our work. Those people settled on the surface of this country, but their physique was too weak, and they soon became evil creatures, which blocked the tunnels and delayed our work. Only a few people could do the same as us."

From his tone, it seems that turning into evil creatures is not a common thing among the Moril people.

They walked along the tunnel filled with mineral fluorescence, and Louis noticed that the slope had never recovered.

They were walking down.

The passage here is not set up in a shape that is easy to return.

"Then how do you resist corruption?" The priest followed the scarecrow and bent down to squeeze through a narrow cave.

"Excellent craftsmen and warriors can resist this power. Or as those who came later said-the secret of the blade?"

Louis did not ask any more questions.

The name of the secret means secret and unknown to ordinary people. Even many people who possess the secret do not know that they have mastered this power. People who do not possess the secret cannot correctly describe and recognize them.

"In short, we got along very well with the plains people and the pointy ears at that time. Until later." The dwarf sighed: "You outsiders should also know what happened later. One moon disappeared, and those magical substances also dissipated a lot. Only a small part remained on the surface, but it also turned into a form that could not be used anymore. We tried to dig deep, but we could only find a little bit underground."

"But I see a lot of unusual things here." Louis pointed to a bunch of black smoke-like substances. "We should still be not far from the surface now? They are already very common. Or are they not what you are looking for?"

The smoke came out from the cracks in the rocks, swaying like water plants, but it was not a gas. When the priest approached his hand, it consciously retracted.

Not far away, a piece of crystal swelled its body like breathing.

The scarecrow stopped and looked at Louis solemnly.

"They are, but that's the problem. Because this happened only in the last six months,"

"About seven months ago, these substances gushed up from the ground again. Edwards believed that this was a sign that the gate to the fairyland would reopen, so he re-activated the excavation project. He needs us, the remaining workers, to help him collect them and provide funds for his return to the world."

"Ah?" Louis felt as if he didn't understand.

"What are you saying?" The scarecrow said impatiently: "He wants to have his own country in reality. Is this a very rare thing?"

The priest admitted: "It is very rare."

These days, there is no extra land to build a country. All lands belong to someone.

The dream of contemporary people has unknowingly changed from starting from scratch to establishing their own country to concluding a marriage relationship with the heir of an existing country. This is also a helpless transformation.

Unless a new continent is discovered, Louis does not think Edwards' dream is possible.

The scarecrow waved his hand: "Who cares? We all had similar wishes in our time. It's not surprising. By the way, did I tell you how Edwards stole our country?"

Louis shook his head.

"It has to do with the damn demon next to him. That little bastard can not only make people resist corruption, but also make people more corrupt. Our old king was turned into a weird-looking venomous snake by that thing, and now he is still crawling in the tunnel." The dwarf spat, and as the clanging sound of knocking in their ears got closer and closer, his attitude became more and more willful.

"Edwards, this guy, probably came in shortly before the fairyland was closed. It is said that he failed to pursue power in the world and was wanted by some church, so he fled here."

"After he came to this country, he kept persuading everyone to accept the power of the devil to resist corruption. At that time, some good players were slowly turning into evil things. We thought that the environment of the fairyland had changed, and even we, the elite of Morrell, could not resist, so everyone surrendered to him."

"Later we found out that it was his trick, but there was no way at that time."

"The fairyland gave us the power of immortality, including Edwards. We couldn't kill him. He easily used the power of the devil to divide us into two groups and drove us underground. Then he found a group of people from somewhere and drove away all the people of this country who originally lived on the surface, formed a new country, and then betrayed these allies, making them insane and treating everyone as his playthings."

As he went deeper underground, Louis gradually smelled a smell like a mixture of sulfur and blood.

They turned a corner and Louis finally saw the first dwarf underground.

He was in rags, wearing only a few pieces of cloth, and his untrimmed beard was draped to his waist, becoming a new fig leaf.

When Louis and the Scarecrow passed by him, he did not react at all, but was busy carving a stone with a chisel, trying to take out the fish embedded in it intact.

"It's hopeless, he's almost as stupid as the people on the surface." The Scarecrow looked at this fellow, with more anger than pity in his tone.

"He was afraid that other demon warlocks or outsiders would come here to replace him, so he almost sealed all the entrances and exits underground and above ground, leaving only his own private door. The entrance we just entered was newly dug by me, I hope you didn't remember it."

"If you want me to forget it, I will forget it." Louis said.

"There are not many sensible outsiders like you." The Scarecrow sighed, and they walked around the crazy dwarf and continued to move forward.

In front of them, countless forks and glowing crystals made the priest dizzy, but the scarecrow could still find his goal accurately.

"Tell me about yourself now."

Louis was very frank about this. He told almost everything about himself, including how he came to Wonderland. This honest attitude made the dwarf very fond of him.

"Very good, you look more credible than Edwards when he first came. I hope you can keep it up." The scarecrow walked in front and nodded with satisfaction: "Where are the two strangers traveling with you? I heard that one of them became a king."

"That's true."

"Is he in the same group with you?"

"It should be considered that he wanted to get rid of Edwards' control. He asked me to liberate you."

This answer exceeded the scarecrow's expectations, and he repeated with a smile: "Very good, very good"

Louis still remembered Clayton's instructions, so he asked another thing.

"The guy who sent us in may have passed through this country. Have you seen such a person passing by on the post road?"

He described the appearance of Chude Osmar in detail, but the scarecrow shook his head, so he had to put the topic aside.

The tunnel in front of him still had no end, and the surrounding rock walls began to have distinct cracks, and dark red light and heat burst out from the inside, evaporating the water in the priest's body. If it weren't for the fact that people would not die in the fairyland, Louis would give up going on.

And in front, more and more strange things poked out from the ground, growing randomly like corals, blocking the entire corridor.

The dwarf cursed, and took his guests back to the fork in the road and took another detour.

The scarecrow's destination soon arrived. It was a huge underground cavity. In the corner of this rock room, the glowing crystals that Louis had just seen in the passage were piled up as lighting tools. The room was illuminated.

Many dwarves sat here to rest, clustered together like mushrooms. They seemed to still be conscious. Some sat around and talked in a low voice, while others held stone slabs and kept carving.

In this colorful light, everyone's face looked very dark.

A dwarf suddenly saw Louis' presence and stood up excitedly.

"Why is there a plainsman? Edwards' new supervisor?" His tone was not very friendly, and his eyes quickly turned to the scarecrow: "Hohomer, did you bring him down? Is this why you reduced your sentence?"

"I didn't reduce my sentence. It was this new stranger who put me down. I think he and his companions may help us in the next plan." The scarecrow named Hohomer said.

The dwarf who had just spoken was furious: "You told him this too?!"

The other dwarves also stood up, holding axes and pickaxes, their eyes gleaming like wild beasts, and their uncomfortable gazes swept over the priest.

The scarecrow was not surprised by this situation. He said calmly: "Not yet. I brought him here in the hope of holding a vote to see if our plan requires the participation of new outsiders."

Another dwarf with a mop of beard asked maliciously: "What if we don't agree?"

"Then bury him alive in the deep area, where Edwards's overseers can't find him." The scarecrow said without hesitation.

The room was silent for about ten seconds, and all the dwarves sat down again.

A dwarf who looked particularly old waved to the priest: "Come sit here, let's talk."