Having finally left the home of the First family, Vincent wears the badge of family advisor

given by his mother. The Dark Elf guards patrolling the gate glance at the badge and steer

away without questioning him; Members of the patrol of trolls and ogres quickly nodded and

bowed to the mage with a look of ingratiating apprehension.

On the surface, these creatures are village killers, brandishing weapons, raiding human towns

and villages for food and wealth, raping poor women, and then setting them on fire (trolls do

not light them because they are afraid of fire). They are synonymous with terror in the ordinary

surface dweller's mouth, and serve as scary stories for children to stop crying. In the

Underdark, they were slaves, cannon fodder only a little higher than the goblins.

Cannon fodder, in fact, for the Dark Elves themselves, all other races are cannon fodder. There

is only a difference in the cost of use, and there is no essential difference. In the eyes of some

of the more extreme and cruel mothers, her Drow children are just cannon fodder.

And in the eyes of the Drow spider goddess, who's to say these dark elves aren't cannon

fodder?

Vincent could not help but smile bitterly. He was just cannon fodder himself. Just the kind of

cannon fodder that can be sacrificed at the last moment. Your own fate, your own life and

death depends to some extent on the will of your mother. He ran his hand over the Dark Elf

badge hanging from his waist and said in a whisper that no one else could hear, "Show you

the power of cannon fodder, Drow..."

He had hardly reached the Tavern when Hardy and Mark came running towards him. Hardy,

double-headed sword in hand, ran breathlessly in front of Vincent.

"Aaah! I'm glad you're all right. I was worried sick. We were just on our way to find you."

'What's the matter? Vincent looked at the serious expression on the soldier's face and couldn't

help feeling surprised.

"I drank so much yesterday that I fell asleep. I woke up to find you alone meeting the dark

Elves. I was afraid something had happened to you. '

Vincent was pleased to see Hardy's concerned eyes. After all, dark elves were not the only

ones in the city. "Nothing's going on, everything's fine with me. We'd better go back and talk

about it. '

'It's all right. By the way, do you remember that squad of five we saw last time in the arena?

They were actually staying at our hotel, too. Do you think it is a coincidence? ' Hardy hung his

double-headed sword behind him, put his arm around Vincent's shoulder and turned back.

"So what? What are they doing in this city?"

"Just ask Mark. Basically I just woke up and ran here. Mark did talk to them."

The dwarf was still panting. His legs were short and he could not keep up with Hardy's long

legs, even when he was pulled by brute force. He felt now that his heart was beating out of

his throat.

'Whew... Whew, they..." Mark took a few deep, hard breaths. 'They've somehow been sent

spells to capture this dark Elf city and become slaves to the Fourth House. They heard you

were a mage and they wanted to ask you some questions. '

"Oh. So that's it." Vincent thought for a moment, "That's all right. Let's walk back slowly. Hardy,

look how tired you're making Mark..."

"Sorry Mark. Hey, hey, hey." Hardy laughed, scratching his head. "I'll just carry you next time."

Mark's face suddenly changed and he tugged at Vincent's coat corner. "Vincent, I wonder if

you can make something that will make me run faster. Just the last time I left the Serpentine

altar, Hardy's shoulder shook my guts out..."

But inside the inn, a few people were waiting for Vincent and their return. When they saw

Hardy and Mark coming in with a young man in a black and purple robe, they went to meet

him.

Vincent looked at the men in front of him. Judging by their equipment and style of action,

they must be experienced adventurers. How could they lose so badly in the arena?

Listen to their self-introduction, the original in front of these several people are exploring a

mysterious dungeon when the dark elves as the experiment arrested. One, a Northern

barbarian named Mapp, looks at the muscular Hardy with a defiant look; A priest named Joe

- who turned out to be the priest of Death, always looking people up and down with a

butcher's eye that made people feel very uncomfortable; A halfling wanderer named William

who is always staring at the Fanny pack of the dwarf Mark; And a warrior named Owain, who

wears heavy armor, a giant shield, and an all-steel helmet for real protection.

"We are asking for your help this time," said Owain. Pastor Joe began, but Vincent always

thought there was something strange and masculine about his voice Unfeminine feeling.

"To be honest, we don't like this slavery we have now." The halfling next to him chimes in,

jumping onto a chair and standing there looking at Vincent. "Although we can walk out of

the gates of the city, we still can't leave the city."

'What does that mean? Are you afraid of being hunted by the Dark Elf family? ' Vincent

thought for a moment and said, "The environmental crimes in the Underdark are complicated

and the area is vast. How can you not escape the Dark Elves' pursuit?"

"It seems this man doesn't know either..." 'said Joe the Parson out of nowhere.

"Well, how many escaped slaves managed to avoid capture, except for kobolds who were

nothing at all?" Willem tapped his finger on the table. "No, not a single one. The dark elves

hunt runaway slaves as a sport, and they never tire of playing cat-and-mouse in the

Darkspaces."

"The key reason is that at the top of the BlackCrystal Tower, there is a magic circle for tracking.

There is a hidden magic effect on the higher-ranking slaves, who can easily find the location

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

of the runaways and pursue them."

Vincent frowned, but he could not help feeling glad. This information is too important to him,

if there is no reminder of these few people, he may leave the city with the tracking phalanx,

and when he cheers for freedom, he may be killed by the dagger appearing from behind.

"And do you know how to destroy the Phalanx?"

"I'd have to ask you, mages, since we don't know anything about such mysteries."

Vincent thought about it. Since the magic circle was located on the Black Crystal Tower, it was

probably the effect of arcane arts. But the mage, on the other hand, felt very strange. The

number of mages in the Dark Elves is actually very small, how can so many high-ranking

slaves use tracking magic?

The number of Drow priests, on the other hand, is enormous.

"I'll try to look into that, but I think it might be a sorcery rather than an Arcane one, and it

might be used by dark elf priests rather than mages. So don't just rely on me. The pastor in

your ranks might have a solution."

'Is it?? "The priest still had that strange intonation, always with a slight uptick at the end of the

sentence.

"By the way, Mr. Mage, would you like to join us?" "Said William suddenly." We have a very

strong team."

'It's almost impossible...' Vincent replied.

The warrior Owain looked down and saw the badge hanging on Vincent's waist. He asked,

"Master, to which house are you a slave?" His voice was low and muffled through his thick

helmet.

"I am now, for the time being, the consulting mage of the First Family." Vincent answered

truthfully.

There was a look of surprise and worry on the faces of the adventurers, who suddenly looked

very embarrassed. In the city of the Dark Elves, the advisors of a family were somewhere

between nobles and slaves, and they also had great power in certain ways.

'So... Then we won't bother you... Time's up." Several people said quick goodbyes and left the

hotel.

"Alas..." Vincent sighed. He had long thought that this might happen. The advisory role of this

dark elf family is both an umbrella and a yoke, and it is deeply imprinted on you the words

"dark elf". Even if you have done nothing, you will be hooked with the evil because of these

four words.

This kind of unhappy parting situation also appeared in Vincent's mind, he also had a certain

psychological preparation. However, when this kind of thing really happened in front of him,

the master's mood was still inevitably very low.

"Vincent, aren't you going to be a member of any dark Elf family? How come you're like this?

' Hardy sat down opposite Vincent. "You blew Shelley away with your magic and then ignored

those who tried to win her over. But why did you change your mind so quickly?"

"I am still not a member of the Dark Elves, you have to believe me." Vincent knew now, now,

that any explanation he gave would be sophisophied in the ears of the soldier on the other

side.

Hardy looked at the mage without moving a muscle, his eyes fixed on Vincent's eyes. After a

moment, he breathed a long sigh of relief. "I believe you..."

'Thanks,' he said. 'Vincent says with a smile.

"I was scared to death. I thought you two had some problems." Little Mark patted his chest

and was relieved to watch the people at either end of the table go back together to order

dinner from StoneLegs.

As time passed, Vincent and the three of them stayed in the inn and declined the invitation

to move into the Dark Elf family's consulting room. In the meantime, Vincent tries to gain

access to the Blackcrystal Tower, but the mere title of family advisor does not allow him to

gain access to the library there -- and the distance from his true destination, the top of the

tower where the Scepter of Prophecy is located, is even greater. He still can't access anything

inside the tower without an order or assignment from one of the Dark Fairy masters.

Because it holds the secrets of dark fairy magic, a surface human who has not done anything

for his family is unlikely to gain her trust or reward.

So Vincent is always looking for a good chance to win his mother's trust. In fact, the easiest

way is to join in a massacre of the surface elves, as long as the full force of his own, sneak into

a fairy camp can easily cause the greatest casualties to the creatures. And this is the kind of

thing that can make the family shine in front of the spider goddess, and will be rewarded by

the mother. And the very act of slaughtering the elves is a betrayal of the surface world.

But Vincent knew that if he tried to do that, he might backfire. For a mage to take part in the

slaughter like a warrior, it was completely contrary to the noble and mysterious character of

the mage. The mother would naturally suspect a mage's motives for doing this, and would

naturally begin to wonder if there might be some kind of conspiracy behind his or her

behavior.

The most important reason was that Vincent would never do something like that. He was a

Drow advisor, but he was not a dark elf.

So he settled down and studied spells in his room and made some magical objects. The first

was a dark vision lens for Hardy, which allowed him to see in the dark like a dark elf. The

second, at Mark's request, was a pair of shoes to make him walk and run faster. Mark was

very happy at first, but he obviously forgot that getting used to the increased speed of

movement would take some time. With the sound of "bang" and "bang" going on all over the

hotel, Mark came back clutching his red and swollen face.

"It hurts..."

Vincent smiles and comforts Mark; Hardy, on the other hand, rolled around on the bed

clutching his stomach until he was laughing so hard that he couldn't speak.

And the chance to prove his worth, to gain the trust of his mother, had come slowly and

unnoticed to the mage...