Chapter 132 Chapter 129 Explosion
When Ji Ma left, she satisfactorily removed the tranquil secret barrier.
Zhen Na was struggling to swallow her normal breakfast at the round table. Seeing the two reach an agreement so quickly, she breathed a sigh of relief.
The door opened, and George was speaking with a dwarf. After finishing, he turned around with a smile and said, “The armor is ready; we can depart soon.”
Everyone was happy, except for one person.
Ji Ma caught a glimpse of Eve Frostleaf behind her, who had a gloomy expression, and felt even happier.
George said, “Pack your things; we’re leaving right away.”
Ji Ma casually tossed her bedroll into the entrance of the Dream Palace, too lazy to fold it. After all, the cat maid Lianxi would fold it neatly.
The four members of the team left the inn and encountered the butcher Gatrek, who said he couldn’t join them. After thinking all night, he believed that Dragon City seemed more suitable for pursuing a glorious death.
George expressed regret, calling him a reliable ally.
Ji Ma also felt regretful, mostly because without Gatrek, the entire savior team lacked a single artifact and also lost an ability to harm the Eternal Chosen.
On the way to the runic blacksmith’s location, they could see angry dwarves everywhere, glaring with red eyes, scrutinizing even a speck of dust multiple times.
George, curious, asked the guiding dwarf, who happened to be the long-bearded horned helmet dwarf he fought alongside yesterday. Unable to resist, he lamented:
“An utter disgrace! An utter disgrace! This is simply the second most humiliating day for dwarves. Each generation is worse than the last; if it were my generation…”
Not just Ji Ma, everyone automatically ignored his continuous ramblings.
The long-bearded horned helmet dwarf complained for a full ten minutes before getting to the point, his face full of anger:
“Last night, some shameless and vile ratmen raided the treasury! How many precious treasures have fallen into their dirty hands! What’s worse, they sneakily cut off the beards of dwarves, many of whom didn’t even notice, and supposedly even the clan leader had his beard snipped.”
George asked, “Were there any casualties?”
“No! That puny ratman didn’t even have the strength to slit the throats of dwarf babies!”
“Well, that’s good.”
“Good? There’s not a single good thing about this!”
The audience, including George, after hearing this, felt the dwarves’ tempers were quite strange.
Ji Ma said, “That really is an unfortunate event.”
The long-bearded horned helmet dwarf glanced at Ji Ma and said, “Even the demons know this is an utter disgrace. Today the clan leader is calling a meeting to decide that even if we have to dig down two meters, we must find the ratmen and retrieve our treasures.”
Ji Ma asked, “Do you know what treasures were lost?”
“We haven’t counted yet; young people these days are really worse than ever.”
Ji Ma sighed in relief. If the dwarves found out that among the lost treasures was an elven artifact, they would surely cast suspicious glances toward Eve Frostleaf. By the time they realized something was off with Frostleaf, the team would have long since left the city.
At that moment, a roar from dwarves erupted from the street. Ji Ma turned around to see a group of shirtless dwarves with beards down to their chests, mouths wide open, angrily shouting and looking like apes.
George asked, “What’s going on?”
The long-bearded horned helmet dwarf went forward, grabbed a dwarf, and after some conversation, the tone shifted from low murmurs to angry shouts. The dwarf was visibly furious, his beard bristling and face red, shouting loudly.
Eve Frostleaf disdainfully swept her gaze over the enraged, incompetent dwarves and raised her hand to cover her long pointed ears.
After shouting for a while, the long-bearded horned helmet dwarf finally said:
“I can’t stand it! The search party found the lost treasures—they’re in the latrine, wrapped in the beards he stole! If I find that ratman, I’ll eat him alive! Roar!”
The ear drums were vibrating.
Ji Ma quickly covered her ears to feel a bit better.
She didn’t expect Arcanis would go this far. Fortunately, everyone was about to leave the city; if the truth came out, they would all suffer.
After hearing various dwarves shout differently, Frostleaf quietly said, “Dwarf apes.”
At last, they arrived at the runic blacksmith’s shop. The black-eyed runic blacksmith was slumped on a stone chair, waving his hand, pointing at the ultra-gothic armor laid on the stone table.
The ultra-gothic armor, polished to a mirror finish, reflected everyone’s faces, looking brand new. Ji Ma felt a sense of fondness and couldn’t help but reach out to touch it; the armor still had the warmth of the forge.
George said, “Thank you so much; it looks as good as new.”
The runic blacksmith waved his hand for them to leave quickly.
Ji Ma picked up the breastplate and walked towards George, saying, “Put on the armor quickly.”
Zhen Na hurriedly grabbed the helmet and placed it on George’s head. The two women helped George into the armor. Even Eve Frostleaf, unusually, picked up the greaves and squatted down to help George put them on. Ji Ma estimated that Eve Frostleaf simply wanted to leave Dragon City sooner.
George just needed to raise his arms to form a big letter.
In just two minutes, Ji Ma stood behind George and tightly pulled the leather straps of his neck armor, and George was fully armed.
She picked up George’s golden greatsword and walked directly to the door, saying, “Alright, no time to waste; let’s rush to grab the crown!”
“Okay.”
At the door, the long-bearded horned helmet dwarf was waiting, talking incessantly about God knows what while raising his head to look at Ji Ma as she walked out.
“No need for you to lead the way. We know how to get there,” Ji Ma said as she quickly walked by. “We’re short on time.”
Under Ji Ma’s lead, everyone walked quickly. Ji Ma felt it wasn’t fast enough and started to run, flapping her wings while holding George’s golden double-handed sword, and flew up into the air.
George raised his feet and ran, shouting, “Ji Ma is too fast!”
At this moment, Eve Frostleaf’s silver shadow passed by George and seriously said to him:
“Every second is precious.”
After saying that, she took long strides with her somewhat awkward posture but still managed to surpass George in one leap.
Before long, even Zhen Na had to hoist her tower shield and run quickly.
The group hurried towards Dragon City, the towers guarding the gates grew closer, and Ji Ma could even see the dwarven guards’ eyebrows clearly.
Ji Ma shouted, “Hey, open the city gate; we need to pass through!”
As soon as her voice fell, the tower suddenly shuddered, and a thunderous explosion erupted from the gate, causing Ji Ma to shiver all over and her eardrums to hurt. On top of the tower, dwarves were falling over, as if a dragon had breathed fire, a cloud of smoke and dust surged out of the city gate, until the dust settled.
Ji Ma saw nearly a kilometer’s worth of dust left on the ground, and even the city gate had shattered.
There was no doubt about it; the gate had exploded. That was the only exit leading from Dragon City.
Ji Ma, mad with rage, flew down, disregarding the crumbling tower, grabbed a falling dwarf, and headed straight for the city gate.
Behind the city gate, there was originally a wide tunnel, but debris had blocked it, making it resemble the nasal passages of a severe rhinitis patient. In the gaps of the debris, green smoke was still seeping out, making it obvious that this was the work of the ratmen.
“What happened?” Ji Ma shook the dwarf forcefully, shouting, “Open your eyes and see if this tunnel can still be dug through!”
The dwarf guard opened his eyes and said unhappily, “Yes, in a year.”
Very professional; after all, they are dwarves skilled at digging tunnels.
“How do you know?” Ji Ma yelled, “Hurry and organize people to dig! Dig hard!”
“Hey, people inside! Get out now; this could collapse at any moment.”
“Shut up, little dwarf!”
In the end, it was George who carried Ji Ma out. Ji Ma flailed her arms and legs, shouting, “Let go of me! Hurry and tell Eve Frostleaf to clear this tunnel!”
“Aren’t dwarves skilled at digging? Hurry up and dig; what are you dawdling for?”
“Damn ratmen! Are they tired of living? Blowing things up like this, for what?”
George pulled Ji Ma’s tail hard and said, “Ji Ma, calm down.”
“How can you tell me to calm down?” Ji Ma replied, “We don’t have much time. If we keep delaying, the Eternal Chosen will get the crown fragments first!”
She felt a sense of defeat within her, furious like the dwarves. If this tunnel collapsed, it would not only block their way out but also block Ji Ma’s way back to Earth.
George had no choice but to carry the most agitated Ji Ma away. After struggling a bit in George’s arms, Ji Ma had to accept the possible fact that she might spend her whole life in this foreign world.
Forever being a platinum powerhouse, never seeing the end, and possibly giving George a few children in the meantime. Thinking of this, she felt depressed and lowered her head.
George remained calm, saying, “Stay calm and don’t rush. We can still get through the tunnel faster than the Eternal Chosen.”
“How is that possible?” Ji Ma weakly responded, “They have the assistance of four gods—though they are always in conflict and hindering each other. As long as the storm pauses and they send a flying mount to the Eternal Chosen, he’ll be much faster than us and might even be performing a ritual to summon his army to attack the dragon’s lair.”
“Things are unpredictable.”
“Indeed unpredictable,” Ji Ma said despondently, “I don’t understand why the ratmen would blow up the tunnel. Don’t they need the tunnel too?”
About an hour later, an envoy from the dwarves brought an investigation report.
As expected, the tunnel was blown up by infiltrating ratmen; they likely took advantage of last night’s chaos to blow up the tunnel.
“Ratmen truly are despicable and cunning,” George said, “I always felt the ratmen’s intentions were not so simple. It turns out it was to cover their actions.”
Ji Ma and Eve Frostleaf exchanged glances and said nothing.
Ji Ma complained, “The dwarves are really a sieve, completely infiltrated by ratmen. They deserve this humiliation.”
Then she slapped her thigh and said, “We should have let the three of you go through the gate first yesterday while I stayed in Dragon City, and once the armor was ready, I could teleport to find you.”
George said, “Complaining about the past doesn’t change anything. We need to discuss what to do next.”
“But complaining can effectively regulate one’s mood.” Ji Ma thought about the current situation, and her mentality almost exploded: “Dragon City is surrounded and about to fall, and now the tunnel we entered has collapsed. It’s obvious that Dragon City is on the verge of losing. I don’t know if we can clear the gate before it falls.”
George added, “We can’t, the dwarves said it would take at least a month to dig through the tunnel, and that’s if there are enough people.”
Ji Ma held her head, saying, “Now, it’s hard for us to even survive.”
