Struggle in the Steam Age

When Lawrence and the others approached the fortress with their spoils after resting, they found that the fortress was quiet, except for the sound of crackling flames and the occasional sound of a building falling down when it was burned. The whole fortress was as dead and silent as a tomb.

"Be careful, everyone." Lawrence, standing in the middle of the line, shouted. As a spellcaster, he would naturally be surrounded by melee professionals when fighting in a team. After stepping through the gate of the fort that had been burned into a pile of coke, Lawrence immediately realized that the surrounding situation was not right. Because under normal circumstances, there will always be people staying behind after this kind of place is cleared.

Kobold corpses were lying everywhere on the wreckage of the building and on the ground. Judging from the way they fell and the marks on their bodies, it seemed that the main force of the Transcendents had attacked very smoothly. Most of the kobolds were killed by a single blow, and basically did not make any effective resistance.

"The contestants who came here before should have fought here very smoothly. At the same time, when they left here, they also left in an organized way. They didn't leave in a hurry after being attacked." The woman of Yingzhou descent who followed Zhu Yan The samurai Okita Sakura walked to the corpses of several kobolds and observed them before saying.

"You see, all the valuable things on these kobolds are gone, leaving only the kobold-specific weapons and their armor that are meaningless to humans."

After listening to Okita Sakura's words, others also focused on this aspect. Sure enough, the jewels on the kobolds that were previously shown in the scouting report were gone. On the corpses of several kobolds, Lawrence and others found traces of rings on their paws.

"Who is it?" At this moment, a soldier suddenly heard movement in the ruins, so he held the short spear in his hand and raised his round shield and asked over there.

"Don't do it, your own people." Seven or eight contestants got out of a hidden bunker.

"What happened here? Why are you hiding here?" Looking at them, Lawrence asked curiously.

"We were sent to watch here before." said a contestant who was elected. According to his narration, everyone's attack was very smooth before, and other enemies except the kobold shaman were also easy to deal with. After the battle was over, a few of them were left behind. And the big troops went directly to the mine on the mountain.

"But just ten minutes after the big troops went up, a blood-red light shot out from the mine. We looked through the binoculars here and found that everyone had disappeared, and the person who was supposed to be on guard at the entrance of the mine was also gone. No trace. We were scared, so we hid and prepared to teleport out when the time came."

After hearing what this group of people said, everyone seemed a little hesitant, but after a brief discussion, they decided to go up and have a look. Everyone felt that such a powerful enemy had been defeated just now, and it was really inappropriate to run like this now. If you really want to run away, it's not too late to wait until you find out that something is really wrong.

Before departure, they tried to invite these people who stayed behind, but these people declined Lawrence's invitation. In desperation, everyone could only bid farewell to those who stayed behind under Lawrence's command, and then walked towards the mine on the mountainside behind the fort in a search formation.

This section of the road is not very easy, because the higher the temperature, the higher the temperature, and the volcanic mountain is full of loose stones and dust. Walking up is as strenuous as walking on a thick snow-covered ground.

Fortunately, the road from the mine to the fortress is also where the kobolds often need to go, so they laid some tree trunks and stones on the loose ground as a foothold. Although the distance between these footholds is arranged according to the step size of the kobolds, it is not very friendly to humans. But it is more comfortable than walking directly on loose ground.

Along the way, Lawrence found that there were many kobold corpses and some traces of knives and gunshots on both sides of the road. However, most of the kobolds fell towards the mine, and the wounds were concentrated on the back. This also shows that the kobolds had completely collapsed when the contestants attacked.

"It seems that everyone's attack went smoothly, so why did everyone disappear?" Lawrence walked up while thinking, but everything was normal along the way. When he was approaching the entrance of the mine, the phantom of Bai Ze in his mind suddenly sounded an alarm to him.

"Stop moving forward." Lawrence raised his hand and shouted. Everyone stopped immediately, and then looked at him with puzzled eyes, hoping that he could give an explanation.

"The situation ahead is wrong, it's really too quiet." Lawrence pointed to the footprints on the ground and said, "Besides, even if there is no need to keep people in the fort below, there must be a few people at the entrance of the cave. A hundred people all went into the cave, leaving no one standing guard outside."

Hearing what Lawrence said, everyone felt that something was wrong. After a brief discussion, Lawrence, John, and two other contestants who thought they had more experience formed a team and walked into the cave.

As soon as he entered the cave, a hot breath rushed out of the cave. Lawrence knew that it was caused by a part of the skeleton of the undead red dragon, because with this skeleton, a natural melting furnace was automatically formed in the cave using the heat energy of the magma. And the tools and weapons of the kobolds come from here. This hot air also comes from the operation of the furnace.

"Look, everyone is here." After turning a corner, John suddenly shouted, and Lawrence followed the direction of his fingers and found a large group of people lying there crookedly in the cave hall ahead. The kobolds tangled together.

"Could it be that the magic circle in the cave was activated?" Lawrence thought. "But theoretically, only the kobold leader and the dragon's remnant soul can activate this magic circle."

From the memory obtained just now, Lawrence learned that under the deception of the dragon's remnant soul, the last step of the kobold leader's last sacrifice was in this mine. Because the dragon's remnant soul is too weak now, the magic to transfer the soul must use its own corpse to successfully cast it.

"They just passed out." John and the two fighters had already rushed up to check on the fallen contestants at this time. Fortunately, after checking, everyone was simply unconscious.

"That is to say, even if the magic arranged here is activated, it is only the activated part?" Lawrence walked forward while thinking, and then moved a piece according to the instructions of a certain picture in his memory and the phantom of Bai Ze in his mind. slate.

Under the stone slab is a simple basement. In theory, no one knows this place except the kobold leader and the dragon remnant. But now, there are also several people lying down in this basement.

"It turned out to be them." John, who was alarmed by Lawrence's movement, came over and looked down, and then he recognized the identities of the group of people below.

"Do you remember?" Seeing Lawrence a little confused, John quickly explained, "Before we entered this space, we saw a group of contestants from the Algarve Empire in the southern continent, and the following group of guys are the contestants A small team of fighters."

"Oh, it turned out to be them." When John said that, Lawrence also remembered. At that time, Lei Suo also commented that this group of people likes to do things by unscrupulous means. Now it seems that these things are probably all caused by them.

After confirming that there was no other danger, Lawrence called most of the people outside and began to wake up the contestants. Soon, everyone was awakened from the coma.

The group of Algarve Empire contestants who were pulled out of the basement quickly aroused suspicion, especially since their previous credit history was very poor. After a series of humane and inhumane tortures, everyone finally knew what happened just now.