The fisherman druid is in another world

Chapter 771

Regardless of the reason for the abandonment, the abandoned dungeons leave behind mostly an echo of 'trouble'.

Black Robb then headed towards Tiger Mountain.

The reason is, of course, still the same: for those who prioritize profit, everything is negotiable once the money is in place.

It has to be said that, looking at this from another perspective, it's quite shameful that such a prestigious world guardian has turned into a greedy, money-grubbing scoundrel.

This is even more dramatic than a former tycoon who used to live in luxury cars and with beautiful women now scavenging for bottles in trash cans to make money.

However, if the person involved is open-minded, then it doesn't matter.

It's not so much that he's easygoing, but rather that he always has a great ideal that supports him in facing the various difficulties on his path forward.

Obstructing the way with force is one kind of difficulty, and obstructing the way with financial resources is another.

Obstacles may be as high as mountains, but we'll overcome them slowly, that's all.

Does it matter what others think?

Especially for an outsider like him from a multiverse, he naturally possesses an arrogant perspective. To put it bluntly, in his eyes, the ancient gods are nothing more than old mountain goods that have lived a few more years, let alone ordinary people.

It's not that just because they're both human, they'll have differences that aren't too outrageous. Sometimes, the differences between people can indeed be exaggerated.

Therefore, Black Robb is extremely confident, even arrogant, in his thinking.

This sentiment even led him to transcend the level of 'successful people still look extraordinary and sophisticated even when wearing t-shirts, shorts, and flip-flops,' and to a higher level where he didn't even consider whether such a greedy face was unsightly.

The so-called "making money is nothing to be ashamed of!" is nothing but a joke.

It seems like self-deprecation, but it's actually just self-entertainment, without a trace of self-pity.

The journey to Rolling Stones was unremarkable, except for its winding and long route. The only noteworthy aspect was Ego's excellent positioning technology, which allowed for clear and dynamic positioning even at such a long distance.

Upon arriving near Rolling Stones, the first obstacle appeared: the road was impassable.

Logically speaking, for a geomancer, as long as land is involved, there is no such thing as an absolutely impassable road.

However, in practice, the first thing that cannot be avoided is cost.

At least Black Rob can confirm that, given Lota's affinity for earth elements and his level of strength, using earth-遁 (earth-遁 is a technique that allows one to escape obstacles) is not feasible.

Then let's be honest and find a way. After all, this is a former dungeon, and there shouldn't be only one road.

Finding a way is also something geomancers excel at, but it takes them more time.

So before they knew it, it got dark.

As the saying goes, a long night can lead to many unforeseen events. Therefore, Black Rob decided to adopt the style of a top detective who treats finding people as a matter of life and death as a matter of life and death, and to act overnight to reduce the probability that the target might die because of his lateness.

And so he entered a secret passage.

What this secret passage was used for is now unknown, and he had no interest in finding out, but he did notice some details, such as the extremely common sandstone walls and the labyrinthine complex structure.

Because vegetation, represented by wood, is relatively scarce, the concept of 'brick' is too luxurious for the underground tribes.

Therefore, the technique of turning mud into stone became a relatively common construction application.

It is precisely because of the widespread application of these non-combat extraordinary spells that the underground races have been able to build underground cities; otherwise, the vast majority would have had to live in caves.

Turning mud into stone can be divided into rough processing and fine processing. Turning mud into sandstone is rough processing, while turning it into granite is a typical fine processing.

The intermediate layer actually contains shale, limestone, etc., but it is generally not specially divided, but is regarded as the threshold that the spellcaster's skill can explore.

Skilled spellcasters, like Black Robb, can directly turn soil and shale into magic with the same amount of spell power. If they also have talent, specialization, and elemental affinity, they can even turn basalt into magic. However, that would significantly increase the mental energy consumption, which is also a cost.

In short, the tunnel's complete sandstone treatment can be seen as building a city by firing bricks on the surface.

In addition to the very obvious signs of age, Black Robb naturally realized that Rolling Stone City was most likely built on an even older underground city.

Of course, this is not a big deal, but it explains why the tailor Igor favored would come to this abandoned dungeon, which is not easy to navigate and appears to have been ransacked many times.

Black Rob isn't the kind of person who simply adapts to his environment. As a powerful being, shaping his environment has become second nature to him. Therefore, in this vast maze, he can walk in a straight line instead of following the original pattern and turning around.

The geomancer's abilities also enabled him to do this. He could easily create short passages or doorways in walls several meters thick, whether they were interlayers or rock strata.

Furthermore, he believed that this operation, which seemed to save little time and wasted a lot of energy and mana, had a certain unconventional nature in breaking the formation and could actually avoid some hidden dangers.

Of course, even so, he still encountered enemies.

A rat the size of an adult dachshund.

There are many kinds of rats in the underground world, and there's not much to say about them. But the obvious signs of evil energy distortion and corruption on these rats made it impossible for him not to make some connections.

After all, the battle with the Boneface Dire Wolf, who was also corrupted by fel energy, happened just yesterday.

Moreover, this time, due to environmental constraints, he couldn't skip the stage of clearing out the smaller fish and directly meet the target, or even confront the nest-level enemy.

Crystal pierces the earth!

He waved his staff and silently cast a spell. The ground in the area was instantly transformed into a trap of nails, and sharp triangular rock cones, over a foot long, suddenly thrust upwards, leaving the evil rats nowhere to hide.

Before that, Black Rob had already used his fishing skills, letting the evil rats call their friends and shake in enough of their kind.

Now, many of the evil rats are suffering from internal injuries, and a few that are lucky enough to be on the edge or not seriously injured are also targeted by Black Robo's "Development Pointing" technique, with earth elemental spikes that resemble crossbow bolts.

After Black Rob ended his upside-down state, he did an aerial somersault and landed steadily. The spikes below seemed to have met their nemesis, turning directly into sand and being trampled under his feet, unable to harm him in the slightest.

Black Robb approached with great interest to examine it, using his staff as an extension of his arm, and the end of the staff, which could change different crystal structures, to dissect, cut, peel skin, and chop bones with extraordinary flexibility.

During this time, he would occasionally use the other end to shoot a few evil rats that had arrived late. The main advantage was that he could easily handle them with one hand.

The conclusion came quickly: there were similarities, but it was still lacking.

What does "different" mean? This is how Black Rob estimated it: he believed that these evil rats were not like the bone-faced dire wolves he had encountered before, which were collectively mutated, and because they were strongly related to the artifact fragments, they had clear systematic characteristics.

He suspected that these evil rats did not possess the source of evil corruption, but rather that their scavenging and other lifestyle habits had contaminated them with this power, leading to the mutation.

As everyone knows, rats reproduce very quickly; with ample food, it's common for them to have one litter a month, with ten offspring per litter. Sure enough, upon further investigation, Black Rob discovered another type of mutated creature: the Fel Slime.

The main characteristic of this creature is its low intelligence. For example, even now, corrupted by fel energy and emitting a fluorescent green glow, it still completely follows its old hunting methods: hiding in water deeper than knee-deep, disguising itself as mud, waiting for its target to walk into its trap, and then turning it into a dumpling.

Black Rob believes that the evil rats became mutated because they fed on it.

After all, from a certain perspective, slime can serve as the bottom of the food chain and can be called a gelatinous mushroom.

Of course, not all living beings have the appetite and stomach of a rat.

For most creatures, slimes are garbage creatures whose corpses have no recycling value.

Therefore, the slime's ability to thrive in the underground world largely stems from its low value. As the saying goes, without demand, there is no supply.

But now, these things have become obstacles, and Black Robo can only deal with them reluctantly.

His approach seemed simple yet unconventional, but in reality, only someone with his level of skill could accomplish it.

His specific method was to mix in sand.

It means exactly what it sounds like: stuffing a lot of sand into the slime's gelatinous body, like adding extra water to noodles.

The slime monster turned into a hard mud cake that didn't even feel like stepping on poop, so it was no longer a threat.

To truly kill it completely, unless it's an instant-death spell, it's extremely difficult. Whether it's cutting it into sufficiently small, inactive pieces, burning it, boiling it, or even throwing it into a lava pool, it's all time-consuming and laborious.

The slime monsters that have been transformed by fel energy are more corrosive like radiation, and their ability to multiply and proliferate far exceeds that of their ordinary counterparts.

Black Robb was unwilling to expend too much energy, magic, or time on them.

With unparalleled skill and control, he kneaded them into hard pancakes.

As before, Black Rob did not actively investigate the source of the fel corruption that was suspected to contain artifact fragments as well.

For him, it was just an extra side quest; it would be good if he could complete it incidentally, but he wouldn't force it if he couldn't.

He didn't have OCD, nor did he intend to sell the fragments three for nothing, ultimately helping Igor complete most of the artifact puzzle.

His main focus is on practical matters, always centering on attracting people to the gathering point.

So, after using his geomancer skills to explore once again, he resolutely dug a vertical shaft at a weak point and ascended into the dome space where Rolling Stone City was located.

Then I was pleasantly surprised to find that it was raining here!
He had previously assumed that the flooded area where he encountered the slime monster was caused by a breach in the underground river.

It was only now that we discovered it was rainwater seeping in.

The key point is that this rain is still in a natural state. That is to say, its cause may be an unnatural magical effect, such as the destruction or uncontrolled operation of a magic circle... But at this moment, the clouds and rain are forming naturally. It is just that water vapor rich in impurities gathers and then turns into rain and falls.

All he could say was, "Wow! Another lucrative side story that you can think of in a minute!"

A man cannot get rich without unexpected wealth, and a horse cannot get fat without night grazing.

According to Heroborg, this statement is mainly intended to highlight the added value of wealth that is not estimated.

The estimated wealth is usually planned out clearly. Even if you want to save up some money to start a project, you often need to accumulate it patiently, and you can't encounter unexpected events during the process.

Unexpected wealth, on the other hand, is like winning the lottery. The amount is considerable, and you don't feel the bitterness of hard-earned money. You receive it with surprise, just enough to invest in projects. If you do well, your life and career will improve significantly within two or three years.

As a result, the effect of acquiring wealth through external means became apparent.

Looking back on his journey to save the day after getting back on his feet, isn't this logic in perfect sync?

If it weren't for Luo Su's winning streak in duels, which allowed him to amass a surprisingly large amount of rare and extraordinary resources.

This led him to decide to create the Old Days Divine Kingdom warship. Relying solely on its past methodical growth and development, it was highly unlikely that it could withstand the sudden outbreak of the evil plague.

One wrong step leads to another. Without the Great Shelter Project, and with only the Human Seed Project remaining, it would take at least twenty years to cultivate successors for human civilization in this world.

If that were the case, he estimated that he would focus more on working in isolation in order to complete the Spark Project more efficiently.

As a result, incidents like the abominations, the Night God's Abyss Domain, and the underground races could not be detected in time, missing the best window of opportunity to intervene, or even the last opportunity to intervene.

That would be a completely different story. And he would be in a much more passive position, perhaps even forced to take a desperate gamble.

Therefore, he is also a beneficiary of the unplanned income model. An unexpected source of income allowed him to boldly launch a project and quickly elevate his career to a new level.

Now, the rain drifting in the sky seems to point to another extraordinary source that is potentially more valuable than artifact fragments (with different attributes and traits), and the temptation is undeniable.

Unfortunately, Black Rob is a suspicious man. Even if it truly is a twist of fate, and not a conspiracy orchestrated by some being, these successive temptations will only make him more wary and cause him to choose to avoid them, rather than saying, "Okay, let's give it a try!"

He is greedy, sometimes even appearing to be blinded by petty gains and unable to distinguish between what is more valuable. But this greed has a prerequisite: it lacks a strong sense of conspiracy, or he can confirm that he is the one who is the hidden stab rather than the open attack.

Being hired to find someone, as is the case now, is a typical case of open hostility. With such a strong sense of temptation and conspiracy, he naturally chooses to resist.

He couldn't afford to die unless it was the character Lota, a 3-5 Grey Orc. He wouldn't do anything that violated his life principles.

What does it mean to live like a top star? Isn't it simply having enough strength to say no to things you don't want to do?
So Black Rob ignored the need to investigate the rain further, instead donning a layer of dark brown light, and dashed through the ruins toward the tailor's location.

His leather armor was breathable and could regulate temperature, but it wasn't waterproof.

To avoid drawing attention, he deliberately adjusted the color of the earth elemental power, making it dim and almost invisible. The sound of rain also largely masked the noise of his footsteps as he sprinted and used the earth element's affinity to reduce noise. Therefore, although he was fast, his concealment was quite good.

Then they found their target in a corner of the ruins.

"Wow, they even have vehicles with safe house-level security! I wonder how capable these professionals Igo found are, but this big shot's entourage is pretty impressive!"

Black Rob felt that it wasn't his fault for complaining; the main problem was that the underground world was far worse off than the surface.

Even if there are no roads on the ground, with some extraordinary means, one can cross mountains and valleys, and even building a wind tunnel in a short time is not a particularly difficult task.

But in this underground world, many tunnels are said to be impassable by vehicles, so you really can't get through.

No matter how capable you are, you still have to consider the cost. To put it more bluntly, when traveling around in a large RV in the underground world, it's hard to say who will be serving whom more.

As a result, with the forged carriage pulled by two giant Los beasts in front and the tailored carriage pulled by two wolves behind, only the intelligent mechanical train that he built back then, which could travel underground, could easily win in terms of prestige.

(End of this chapter)