Chapter 19: Spider Wizard
Eight creepy long legs, eight
clicking the stone, tick, tick, knock, knock. Quietly and gently tap.
This was the first horrifying scene that Brian, who was lying on the ground, saw when he raised his eyelids.
He shook his head and suppressed the turmoil in his stomach.
Just now, he jumped into a bottomless dark crevice.
In the moment when time seemed to freeze, he was ready to give up and plan to use the teleportation scroll given to him by Santila, when he was finally brought here by a teleportation circle.
He really didn't want to experience the feeling of fear of falling, coupled with the dizziness of the teleportation circle spinning around, a second time. Just imagining it made his stomach twitch again.
He quickly stretched out his hands to support the cold rock ground and stood up.
“I’m sorry.”
A hissing voice said, "It was my negligence that prolonged your fall. Please don't worry, this feeling will fade away soon. Of course, I will also take this situation into consideration to optimize my teleportation spell." The sequelae caused to the guests.”
While the other party was speaking, Brian had already stood up, and the dizziness was gradually receding.
He found himself in a small, dark sealed stone room.
On the only stone table in the room, there are incense burners, books, magic scrolls, crystal balls, a pile of metal vessels used for magic experiments, and some unknown animal mummies.
The speaker was wrapped in a black robe, and his face was hidden behind a twisted and terrifying ebony mask. The eight softly tapping spider legs proved that the speaker was a spider elf.
"Hello, Your Excellency, Spider Wizard." Brian stretched out his arms, bent his elbows, folded his palms up and down on his chest, and bowed deeply.
Although his tone of voice was as calm as his eyes, his slightly trembling hands revealed his inner uneasiness.
A burst of suppressed laughter came from the mask.
“It turns out he is a half-elf from the surface, which is interesting. Well, before we trade, I ask you to relax. I risk exposing my identity to save you, not just to save you again. "Destroy it."
Brian stared at him, deliberately staying vigilant, and said tentatively, "So, I am safe now?"
"You can think so." The spider wizard laughed strangely again, "After all, here, as long as I am willing, I can't even notice 'her'."
Brian wisely did not mention that. Who exactly is 'she'?
"Half-elf from the surface, you not only know how to contact me, but you can also find this place yourself. I don't think this is a coincidence." The spider wizard whispered: "I am very curious. What are you relying on?"
"Darkness is not necessarily an abyss, it may also be a ladder of help." Brian took a deep breath and said what he had been thinking about for a long time.
After all, he knew the person in front of him quite well.
As one of the most powerful wizards in the ancient city of Orens, the Spider Wizard hides his power behind his carefully cultivated crazy reputation and his fanatical devotion to Lolth.
But these are just illusions.
In fact, he hated Lolth's tyranny and chaos, and believed that the twisted and cruel drow shaped by Lolth should become a truly noble ethnic group.
The spider wizard not only hates what Rose has done to him, but also hates Rose for making the drow into a vicious, evil, hateful, and ruthless tool.
He believed that before the drow were driven into the Underdark, they were once a noble race among the surface elves. They were civilized and compassionate.
But they were seduced by the web of lies spun by Lolth, and they began to become depraved and never satisfied.
Because for the Spider Queen, teasing the drow is nothing more than a cruel and repetitive game, and she has mastered it.
So, the spider wizard has been moving towards the great goal of liberating the drow clan from the control of the ruthless and grotesque goddess of chaos.
The short period of time when Spider Queen Rose fell asleep.
The ancient Orens city was treated as a copy by a group of incarnations of the demon monarchs, which eventually led to complete destruction, all at the hands of this crazy spider wizard in front of him.
After Brian finished speaking, he quietly maintained his silence and waited patiently.
The spider wizard was silent for a long time, with a hint of interest and confusion in his smoky gray eyes. He looked at him carefully and whispered softly, "I'm more curious, how do you know these things."
“On the surface of the kingdoms, under the great light.”
Faced with the other party’s doubts, Brian had already responded. He pretended to be pious and replied, “A land of promises. The earth is waiting for you, returning to the surface in peace, bathing in the sun again, where the trees and flowers grow. "
"The dark girl has always lived in my faith." He paused. After a moment, I made the final addition appropriately.
A long silence fell.
The silence was like a giant beast lurking in the shadow, hiding suffocating depression.
The spider wizard’s eight long legs clicked against the floor, emitting a creepy echo, like the heartbeat of a beast, hitting the silent rock, ticking, and falling into the dark realm. In the cold underground lake.
I don’t know how long it took.
The suppressed laughter that broke the silence came from the mask again, mocking but not malicious, "So, you are a wanderer."
In order not to expose even the slightest flaw in himself, Brian nodded calmly.
The so-called 'Wanderer' is the name that the believers who lost their gods gave themselves again after the death of the Dark Maiden.
In addition to guarding and searching for the last Wandering Temple, their responsibilities are also to wait patiently for the resurrection and return of the dark girl Eilistraee.
The reason why he dared to pretend to be Wanderer and communicate with this crazy spider wizard was mainly because Wanderer, a secret organization, would convey information about this wizard from Ancient Orens City. 'The Wanderer' expresses goodwill.
Any 'wanderer' who comes here and uses a special docking method to contact the spider wizard will attract the other party's attention.
At the right time, he will also provide needed assistance.
In other words, when Brian asked the halfling servant to do him a small favor, he had already attracted the wizard's attention.
But he couldn't guarantee that the other party would definitely provide him with assistance, so he simply found the spider wizard's seclusion directly. Of course, this is not free.
He must provide an action that can plunge the ancient city of Orens into temporary chaos, or information that the spider wizard thinks is of high value.
If he is very satisfied, the person who provides the information will receive a generous reward.
Because for the Arachnid, if he could thwart any of the Priestesses of Lolth's plot without anyone noticing, he would do so with all his might.
It turns out that this news is true.
In this case, a bold attempt suddenly appeared in Brian's mind.
He thought that since he had the ability to foresee things, why not take advantage of this opportunity and play a big game.
If his idea is what the terrorist wants, he will naturally be rewarded by the legendary wizard.
"Very good." A soft smile came from the mask, and he stretched out his hand to signal.
"Please sit down. According to the rules I set, before we trade, I have to show you something. Maybe you don't want to see it, but the purpose of me doing this is just to let you Understand, I am not as scary as the rumors describe.”
The so-called rumors are that many people believe that the spider wizard is the most notorious and mysterious wizard in ancient Orens City.
It is rumored that his power is surpassed only by his passion to serve Rose, and that is only matched by his madness.
But judging from his every move, Brian had long known that the wizard in front of him was neither crazy nor Rose's most devout believer.
The wizard said no more, reached out and took off the ebony mask.
Brian greeted him curiously.
What he saw in front of him was not a face.
In its place is a dense mold covering the face, like mycotoxins growing on moldy bread.
In a trance, the dense mold transformed into countless tiny squirming spider legs, which was terrifying and disgusting.
Brian looked startled, and quickly used his psychic powers to dispel the fear in his heart and the discomfort in his stomach, and then forcibly turned his face away.
A wisp of cold sweat slipped silently from his forehead.
At this time, he was really glad that he was not a trypophobia patient. Otherwise, he would have been scared outright if it wasn't a heart attack.
Even so, he also forcibly mobilized his psychic powers, and then he could barely stabilize his mind.
When the mask was put back on, Brian mustered up the courage to look up and asked, pretending to be surprised, "This is..."
It is said that when the spider wizard was young, he rejected a female priest, who was furious. His face was torn open and a corrosive distillate of spider venom was injected into the wound.
His face turned into a purple, swollen ruin that looked like fungus was growing.
Then she transformed the unrecognizable young man into a spider elf and imprisoned him in her room as her personal slave, toying with and torturing him.
It took a long time before he found an opportunity for revenge.
His revenge would be fatal to the priestess who captured and tortured him.
He fled into the wilds of the Underdark, vowing that he would only return if he had enough magic to gain a foothold in the cruel city of ancient Orens.
After only twenty years, the spider wizard is back.
He would not reveal where he went or how he obtained his magic and power.
When he returned, he was an accomplished wizard, and proved his prowess by simultaneously defeating three wizards from the Academy of Warlocks during a pastime held by the matron of a noble family.
"I let 'her' down once, and this is the price I paid." A long sigh came from the suppressed mask, followed by a low sneer, "But there won't be a second time."
< br>Brian knew full well and didn't answer.
As a reborn person, he knew that the spider wizard's power actually came from his almost crazy loyalty to Rose.
"For us drow, openly provoking 'her' means death or being transformed into a spider." His whisper slowly became sharper, "If you want to defeat 'her', then I can only slowly change from a chess piece to a real game player in the game that belongs to her.
So, I avoid 'her' by pretending to be a true believer. censorship. But few people know that even when I pretend to obey 'her', I am always resisting 'her'.
I used the power 'she' gave me to deal with 'her'. To do so, one must be very cunning and patient. This process may take hundreds or thousands of years. But slowly but surely, I firmly believe that I can gradually offset 'her' control over the drow race. "
"You plan to overthrow 'her' chaos by serving 'her'. "Brian said slowly.
"That's right. The spider wizard nodded slightly, "Once an appropriate opportunity comes, I will spare no effort to take action." "
"Okay, our chat is over, otherwise it will affect my precious time to serve 'her'. " He raised his hand to interrupt what Brian was about to say, and said softly:
"Say your purpose, I can help you escape from Ancient Orens City, and even open the teleportation The door takes you out of the underworld, and as a wizard, I also have a lifetime of magical knowledge and study that is alluring to any spellcaster. So, I'm curious, what kind of equivalent exchange can you bring me? ”
"Not only do I know the news about the high-level artifact 'Rose of Chirashar'." Brian raised his head, met the wizard's smoky gray eyes, and said calmly, "I also know that tomorrow is the once-in-a-millennium event in Ancient Orens City." City Building Day, so."
He smiled slightly and paused appropriately, just to give the other party enough time to think about the 'suspense'.
Silence fell again.
At this moment, the air seemed to be frozen in the closed stone chamber.
Only eight creepy long legs, eight
They clicked against the stone, ticking, ticking, tapping, tapping. They tapped excitedly and rhythmically.
(End of this chapter)