Artificer Adventure Guide.

Chapter 31 Canyon Watchtower
"Rations are ready, drinking water is ready, weapons are ready..."

The next morning, Carl and Hope carefully counted the supplies in the dimensional bag and prepared to set off to the source of the evil that Carl had sensed before.

In order to enhance his combat capability, Carl modified the pulley crossbow and installed it on the left arm of the arcane power armor.

Today's pulley crossbow can be automatically wound through the mechanism of the power armor, which gives Carl another convenient way of attack.

"Very good, the supplies are ready, let's go!"

His palm pressed on the chest of the power armor. As Carl activated the characteristics of the armored division, the power armor instantly became virtual and was directly put on Carl's body.

Looking up, the crystals at the eyes of the power armor lit up with yellow light.

Everything was ready, and the two returned to the ground along the climbing rope.

Carl has added a pulley system to this mechanism, making its operating speed and load-bearing capacity even better.

"Can you still sense the source of the malice now?"

Glancing at Carl beside him, Hope looked around vigilantly, fearing that something dangerous might appear at this time.

"Well, there is still a faint feeling now, probably in this direction."

Pointing in the direction where the previous wave came from, Carl walked in front and took the initiative to lead the way.

Although the design of this power armor has insufficient defense due to the limitations of the original armor, Carl's structural design is quite excellent, and no sound is emitted when the power armor is moving.

The mushroom forest emitting orange-yellow fluorescence was as quiet as ever, and the two encountered almost no living creatures along the way.

However, there was a rust monster that seemed to be attracted by the power armor on Carl, but after Carl shot a magic crossbow arrow at it, this tactful guy turned around and ran away.

Soon, the two left the woods.

"Is this... a canyon?"

After walking out of the woods, because there were no giant mushrooms blocking their view, the scene ahead appeared unobstructed in front of Carl and Hope.

It was a high ground that was almost vertical to the ground, and it looked like the Red Earth Continent in One Piece.

However, its height is definitely not that outrageous, but it is at least six or seven stories high.

Facing the mushroom forest, a wide crack extends deep into the highlands, forming a canyon.

"Be careful, this doesn't look natural, the crack is a little too straight."

After observing for a moment, Hope cautiously put forward his own views.

The pass from Droam to the Kingdom of Breland is a canyon to the east of Greywall City where Hope lives. Hope is quite familiar with similar terrain.

If it is not "natural", it either means that it was excavated by intelligent life, or that it was shaken out by a wizard using earthquake magic.

No matter which one of them, it doesn't look like the two of them can deal with it.

"Then try to sneak over there. Wait a moment, I'll turn down the light source of the power armor."

After standing there for a moment, Carl controlled the energy crystals on his chest and eyes to dim.

The woods were quite a distance away from the canyon, so in order to prevent anyone from being in the canyon and discovering them, the two had to hide as much as possible.

Soon, Hope and Carl moved towards the canyon one after the other.

At the beginning, the two people's movements were somewhat cautious, but as they got closer, their movements became bolder.

Because the closer they got, the clearer they could see the situation at the canyon intersection. "It looks like there are indeed other intelligent life forms in this underground city. Look at that watchtower. If there were anyone there, we would be seen as soon as we walked out of the mushroom forest."

"But judging by the extent of the damage these things have suffered, they haven't been repaired for at least ten years. Did something happen?"

When they were only a hundred meters away from the canyon entrance, Carl and Hope were already very sure that there was no one guarding the canyon entrance.

At least not yet.

Although we cannot completely rule out the possibility that the people in the watchtower want to ambush them, considering that the other party has the terrain advantage of occupying the commanding heights, this is completely unnecessary.

Seeing that they had arrived at the bottom of the watchtower, Carl raised his hand and fired a magic crossbow arrow into the interior of the watchtower.

As expected, no suspicious sounds were heard from inside the tower.

"I'll go in front, you stay behind."

In order to eliminate the last hidden danger, Carl relied on his power armor and walked ahead.

Like playing a game of "Chicken Eating", the two searched the watchtower from bottom to top, but apart from some old shields, they did not find anything valuable.

"It looks like a rust monster might have been here, and the style of these shields is somewhat similar to that of the goblins of Dagon."

"Goblin? Here?"

Hope seemed very confused as to why goblins appeared from underground.

The goblin mercenaries of Dagon and the monster mercenaries of Droaam are rivals, but all they know about each other is their fighting styles.

"The continent of Khorvaire was once ruled by orcs and goblins, but in ancient times, the alien plane of Seriot, also known as the Kingdom of Madness, invaded Khorvaire and forced the rule of orcs and goblins to end."

"It is said that during that period, the major forces of the Goblin Empire took the opportunity to flee underground to avoid the disaster. Even now, goblins can still be found in some underground caves and dungeons in the demiplane."

"It is said that the mind flayers of Eberron were once residents of the Kingdom of Madness, and their masters, the mutated demons, were sealed into the realm of Khyber by the orc druids of that time."

After briefly introducing to Hope the reason why the goblins appeared in the underground world, Carl sat on the steps, ready to rest here with Hope for a while.

"Then how do you know this is goblin equipment?"

Picking up a shield, Hope examined it over and over for a long time, but didn't think it was much different from an ordinary shield.

"Bandage! Goblins are divided into ordinary goblins, bugbears, and hobgoblins. In order to adapt to goblins of different sizes, many of the goblin equipment is made with a structure that can adjust the tightness to a large extent. This shield's bandage is like that."

Taking the shield from Hope, Carl showed Hope the shield straps.

There are only two buckles on the straps, one of which is barely wide enough for a few fingers to pass through, while the other is wide enough for two people's thighs to pass through.

This is a feature that only appears on goblin equipment. Humans usually just drill a few more holes on the buckle and allow the user to adjust it themselves.

Nodding in understanding, Hope looked up at the standing watchtower.

The construction of the entire watchtower was visibly perfunctory. Even someone who didn't know much about the subject like Hope could see some redundant designs and unreasonable aspects.

"In other words, the goblins here may have been passed down from thousands of years ago? Then why is this building..."

"It should be that civilization was interrupted, just like the giants."

Standing up again, Carl called Hope to leave the watchtower.

Unknown adventures are still waiting for them.

(End of this chapter)