The Ranger held his breath and began to swing his weapon.

The two scimitars drew arcs in the air, bypassing the weapons used by the drow to defend themselves from attack, cutting their throats and piercing their mouths.

Drow armor is considered quite sophisticated. Adamantite and mithril, both extremely valuable on the surface, are commonly used by the drow. However, this armor cannot protect uncovered areas.

The drow sacrificed too much for covert operations.

The ranger's weapon was obviously a rare divine weapon in the world, and beheading his own people was as easy as splitting the breeze.

pat pat pat.

Corpses fell silently in the forest one after another. Many drow only clutched their throats in fear when their necks were severed.

The ranger silently swung the hilt of his sword, knocking out those of his fellow tribesmen who had previously crashed into the trees, tearing off their robes and tying their hands and feet.

He believed that the mastermind behind all this must be nearby, watching his every move.

Sure enough, when the last drow was tied up tightly, a cold female voice finally sounded behind the ranger's head.

"I assume you are the ranger who was said to be coming to support us."

"It seems I was worrying too much," the ranger said without turning back. "I could have focused on tracking down those Malar cultists... This forest is more fortified than I imagined."

"Not really," the woman said seriously. "Just a few months ago, this forest was nearly caught up in a war. So your help was very useful."

"Are they also drow or Malar followers?" the ranger asked.

"No." The woman said as if it was a matter of course, "It was me."

"……what?"

She immediately explained, "However, just as I was about to expand my victory, I was thrown to the ground and then defeated three times in a row. To survive, I have now become the guardian of this forest."

At this time, the female voice finally floated in front of the ranger.

It was a simple elf figure outlined in dancing black sand. "Let me introduce myself. My name is Halffont, patriarch of the Shadow Spirit Light Chaser family, a member of the Halruaan Elders Council, and currently residing in the Sharptooth Forest."

"Drizzt Do'Urden. Ranger of the goddess Mielikki. He's here to investigate this large-scale half-elf kidnapping." said the ranger.

Strangely enough, the elf didn't seem to recognize him, but had no reaction to the drow's face, nor did it show the surface elves' uncontrollable uneasiness and disgust towards his skin color.

But now is not the time to get to the bottom of it.

"What is the current battle situation?" asked Trist.

This mysterious elf obviously had a much deeper understanding of the battlefield than he did.

"Overthrowing these presumptuous fools isn't the problem. The real challenge is uncovering their greatest secret without alerting anyone else." Halffont floated gently around Drizzt. "We now know the Church of Malar holds a crucial secret. A secret so crucial that the church is willing to mobilize its entire forces at regular intervals."

"Precisely because this secret is so important, the Beast God Maala himself must be extremely concerned about it. Therefore, we cannot use too direct methods to interrogate the captives, otherwise the god may even intervene personally, and then the interrogation itself will lose its meaning."

Haverfont glanced at Zhuo Er lying on the ground: "This..."

She spoke with some difficulty in the drow language: "Mr. Do'Urden, we haven't launched an attack on the Malar Church yet. We need a drow to guide our infiltration."

Eleven demons dancing wildly

Just as the two were talking, more and more footsteps were coming out of the forest - they were teams of elven archers wearing diggerworm armor.

Of course, they are all shadow spirits.

Drizzt had never heard of this race, but now he could roughly recognize the common characteristics of this subspecies: black hair, pale skin as if it had never been exposed to the sun, and poor skin texture, as if it had been through many vicissitudes of life. However, the pointed ears and the delicate features shared by the elves still explained their origins.

Drizzt was silent for a moment. After confirming that these shadow spirits held no hostility towards him, he sheathed his weapon and said, "I can help you go undercover—but I need to confirm the details of the mission. At the same time, I must state that I do not know those hunting lords."

"This is a test." Haverfont didn't seem that worried. "Our primary goal is to prevent their plan from succeeding... although we don't know what it is yet... Secondly, we want to inflict a permanent wound on this church. Finding out their secrets is just a means to strike back at them.

"We were originally worried about how to get those reclusive lunatics to let down their guard... Your arrival has solved my urgent problem."

Although, Trist could tell from Halffont's gaze that she actually didn't know Trist at all - or rather, in her eyes, he was just an ordinary ranger.

She doesn't even look familiar with the drow!

This ridiculous inversion made Trist couldn't help but shake his head.

-----------------

Finding the headquarters of the Mala Church in the green wilderness is actually a rather difficult task.

The green wilderness...is a plain, a no-man's land.

The area is about three times that of the Sharptooth Forest.

That is, it starts from tens of thousands of square kilometers.

Even more unfortunately, the hunting lords of the Malar Church have always been known for their rough lives.

Druids are considered a group that values ​​natural living, but they still carve treehouses out of dead trees. Malar's temple is simply a circle of pointed stones facing inward, and the dwellings of believers are often desolate caves.

If there is no cave nearby, they will simply use the sky as a blanket and the ground as a bed.

There is one crucial difference between Malars and Druids.

Malars simply love hunting for its own sake, but their definition of hunting leads them to spend more time in the wilderness.

This results in their hunting targets and partners being completely unrestricted to wild beasts.

It is said that those notorious beast-like monsters, such as owlbears, shifters, and shark lizards, were created by Malar followers.

Therefore, the Malar followers act together with predators, including various carnivorous monsters.

After changing into the clothes of his own people, Drizzt regretted it very much after successfully following the trail to find Mala's camp.

He should have been more vigilant when he discovered that this group of his fellow tribesmen actually came from the most powerful Banrui family.

The Malar cult's camp and the Sharptooth Forest were at least a few days' journey away. In fact, Drizzt had to walk for several days before he finally found the Malar cult's camp.

--one.

In the process of finding this camp, Trist had already discovered that there was definitely more than just one group of Malar believers on this grassland.

But this was only natural. Malar believers were inherently highly dispersed, ensuring the vitality of the Malar Church, allowing it to survive for tens of thousands of years, but it also limited their power. Even if they finally came together for a certain purpose, that was just a gathering; expecting them to have a unified command was impossible.

Now, Trist had no choice but to charge in.

The Shadow Spirit Tribe vowed to protect him, and Trist was confident in his abilities.

He walked into the center of the crude camp with the arrogance of a drow and came to a tent made of human skin.

However, just as he revealed a corner of his clothes, a dark green ray suddenly came towards him.

——But at the same time, Trist realized that a cone-shaped force field was covering him.

Anti-magic field.

His intuition prompted him not to dodge the ray, but to jump directly into the force field.

The green rays sank into the force field and disappeared.

Trist rolled to his feet, already wanting to curse.

He knew that the Malars were a mixed bunch...

But, an Elder Eye, an Eye Demon among Eye Demons, comes here to be the Lord of Hunting?

No matter how absurd this matter was, it had already happened.

In front of Drizzt was an Elder Eye - it was much larger than an ordinary beholder, and several of its eye stalks were already decayed and withered.

A beholder, one of the most ferocious creatures in Faerun. Even a dragon must be extremely cautious when facing a beholder. It resembles a giant ball, as if its entire body is attached to an eyeball that takes up 80% of its volume. Tentacles dance at its sides, each ending in an eye.

It has a huge single eye that can release a powerful anti-magic force field to suppress its enemies, while those small eyes can spray out destructive magic rays.

The beholder smiled, raised its giant eyes slightly, and raised the anti-magic field upwards, freeing the bound green rays.

The thin ray hit Trist's feet, and the earth instantly crumbled into dust.

Just now, Trist was so close to death.

"I'm sorry, but I'm also happy," the beholder said. "If your arrogance has begun to affect your thinking, and you're starting to use your magical resistance to resist my rays, I'd be happy."

It opened its mouth, revealing its sharp teeth. "I really like a game - tying up a prey with high magic resistance tightly, and then seeing how many times it can last before being disintegrated into ash."

"I like a game, too," Drizzt replied.

Drow had a natural talent for mimicking others' speech, not to mention that Drizzt only needed a brief memory: "Strike your folds with nine-knotted whips, and see how many lashes it takes to drain the last drop of your blood."

Although Drizzt was undercover, he had to be arrogant - it was almost impossible for the drow to bow down to other races, let alone a high-ranking warrior like him who came from the Baenre family.

"Your voice is loud, but your grip on the knife isn't necessarily steady," the Beholder said. "What's a drow doing in my camp? I told you I find it hard to suppress my desire to ravage dark elves. Could it be that you're one of those who enjoys being ravaged? That's right, I heard that male drow's job in the Underdark is to receive whippings."

Drizzt twitched his facial muscles at the right moment, placed his hand on the hilt of his knife, and then gritted his teeth, spewing out a sentence: "...The camps here change too frequently. Where are my compatriots now?"

“…” The Eye Demon suddenly moved closer, but Trist didn’t move.

Then, after carefully observing Drizzt's expression, the beholder burst into laughter. "I don't recall a male drow acting alone like this... I'm afraid you don't want to rejoin the group, but rather want to make sure they can't find you! After I tell you their location, you'll go out, circle around a few times, and then turn around and run. How can they spare the energy to find you right now?"

"...Ridiculous!" Drizzt tried his best to make an expression. "Where else can I go if I leave my family? And if I want to escape, I can just run away."

"Hahaha!" The Beholder laughed. "Don't say such foolish things—life in the Underdark isn't exactly easy for the drow either. The pressure from superiors, enemies, comrades, and even subordinates makes it hard for you to breathe. Perhaps it's indeed difficult for you to survive alone in the Underdark, but the surface isn't that harsh—with your skills, any wilderness will provide you with enough food and water.

"It would be unwise to flee. This place has become a dark hunting forest, and all Malar followers are eager to complete their hunt. The bad news is that the drow feel they are different from the elves, but we don't - every Malar follower is interested in hunting a lone drow elf.

"However, although we just met by chance, you now have a chance."

Drizzt didn't deny it, but frowned and said, "What do you want to say?"

"I'm very impressed by your skills—even though we only fought once, many things can't be hidden," the Eye Demon said. "I've been getting very bored waiting these past few days. My colleagues clearly know some secrets, but they're unwilling to tell me—I hate being kept in the dark.

"However, hunting colleagues is forbidden." The Eye Demon smiled. "If you can find out what they are doing, and if you can cause them a little damage, that would be even better. As long as you can complete this task, I will personally help you escape.

"Why should I believe you?"

"I should be the one asking you this—let's not play dumb with each other." The Eye Demon shook his head. "Why did you risk coming to my camp and confirm the current distribution of forces in the Green Wilderness? It was simply to survive. But now, if you can't even complete some less obvious exploration and sabotage missions, there's no need for us to continue—you definitely won't be able to leave the Green Wilderness alive."

"Right now, a large number of Malar followers are extremely bored and looking for some entertainment. A lone drow, suspected of being a deserter, is a perfect target." At this point, the Eye Demon revealed a sinister smile. "You can disagree, but my hunt for you will begin at any time. Disintegration rays are far more deadly than flying knives and arrows."

"As for fighting to the death with me..." The beholder glanced disdainfully at Drizzt's still-unsheathed scimitar. "If you were that strong, you wouldn't have ended up like this."

The intelligence of the Eye of the Elder is still a little too outstanding among the followers of Mala.

Drizzt sighed inwardly.

Fortunately, Drizzt is the only well-known kind drow on the continent.

He has lived in Icewind Dale for decades, and not many people know what he looks like.

With this drow face that remained motionless in the anti-magic field, no one would realize that he was a spy.

"Then I always need a reason to spy."

"You still need a reason? You..." The Eye Demon paused, then twisted his face. "—My Lord, I knew that male drow had a low status, but I didn't expect it to be this low! You don't know why you're here, do you? Our Lord, Malar, gave the chief of Baenre a proposal."

"We're exchanging the true reasons why House Baenre suffered such heavy losses in the Crown War for House Baenre's stance in this war. This is no secret among us. Therefore, your exploration of various camps is understandable and even begrudgingly tolerated. It doesn't conflict with our deal."

Drizzt raised an eyebrow.

Ten thousand years ago, the Baenre family was driven into the Underdark along with the rest of the drow. However, it was only less than two thousand years ago that this family rose to become the foremost family of the drow.

Being able to become the first family shows that Banrui has a deep foundation, but why did it take such a powerful family thousands of years to rise?

Were they a family that split off in the Underdark, or had they risen to prominence long before the Great Fall?

Trist was more or less curious about this.

"...I agree." Finally, he nodded seriously, "But I should at least know a general direction... What might they be doing?"

"Are you an idiot?" the Eye Demon said impatiently. "We are followers of Malar! You need to find out. Are they being so secretive lately? Are they plotting something, taming animals, preparing for defense, or are they simply bored and want to hunt?"

Taming animals?

Trist agreed, but felt it was a bit ridiculous and felt that he was wasting his time.

What can Malars tame?

The Tarrasque?

-----------------

"——A-sneeze!"

Emiya sneezed loudly, but turned her head in time to avoid her spit spraying on the obsidian and diamond in front of her.

When he first got the formula from Corellon, the expression on his face must have been difficult to control.

This recipe looks like the Dark Elves' [Moon Blade] no matter how you look at it.

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