Night Ranger

The Duergar was extremely frightened, but he only showed a look of confusion when he heard Marvin’s request.

He couldn’t understand Marvin!

Marvin felt a bit embarrassed.

He used Common, but while Common was spoken quite widely on the surface, those that lived in the Underdark generally used a lingua franca of their own, which he hadn’t ever learned before.

Luckily, although he didn’t know how to speak it, Jessica was pretty proficient in it, as she had been fighting in the Underdark for quite a while.

Marvin grabbed the pitiful Duergar and brought him to Jessica.

She was at a huge public square. From the buildings that surrounded it, the area looked like the place where the Duergar would hold celebrations and other various kinds of activities

"Who are you? What happened here?" Jessica asked in a threatening tone.

The Duergar were the kind to fear the strong while bullying the weak. It looked to him like it would be a bad idea to provoke these two Humans before him, so he immediately spat out what he knew, with some pauses so that Jessica could summarize it for Marvin.

After a few minutes of questioning, Marvin and Jessica glanced at each other and let the Duergar leave.

They already had the information they wanted.

But it seemed that the situation was a bit trickier than they had expected.

...

That Duergar was named Shawn and had been a rather undistinguished inhabitant of Brightsow.

He didn’t have the talent for crafting. He was very lazy and very poor. It could even be said that he was the lowest kind of existence in the city.

If not for his cousin, who had a blacksmithing shop and frequently helped him out, he might have already starved to death.

Normally, it would be very difficult to get any important information from this kind of person.

However, the circumstances were a bit special at that time.

From what Shawn said, some issues had cropped up in Brightsow City about two months ago.

Marvin and Jessica recognized that as more or less the time when Black Dragon Clarke launched an attack on Hope City.

The expansion of the Eternal Frozen Spring and the awakening of Black Dragon Clarke must be related.

As for the details, Shawn himself only knew about the rumors. Fortunately, his cousin was quite an important figure in the city, and thus, he managed to hear some confidential information!

It turned out that two months ago, the Eternal Frozen Spring had started spraying out Extreme Cold Water!

That Extreme Cold Water froze quite a lot of rivers in the Underdark, including the ones that supplied Brightsow with fresh water.

The leaders of the Duergar sent many craftsmen and scholars to search for a way to survive the Underdark Winter. Similarly extreme conditions had been recorded in history, but they had never been as serious.

The climate began to seriously deteriorate, and under the continued effect of the Extreme Cold Water, the originally meager crops became even rarer, some people even began freezing to death within the city walls.

During these harsh times, Brightsow sealed its gates.

The Duergar gathered together to discuss countermeasures.

Ultimately, they found a way to obtain enough water. As for the food, they could only plunder other cities.

Plunder. Slaughter. Copulation. The three everlasting constants of the Underdark.

They sent excellent craftsmen to the Deep Dark River in order to dig a well that could access the water.

It had been recorded in history that during the Underdark Winter, many rivers would be frozen over, but there would still be water below.

The result of the digging... was that they excavated a disaster!

A few days after the start of the project, a couple of strange signs appeared.

Some of the slaves in charge of the digging apparently suffered from a burst of epilepsy and died in front of everyone.

The Duergar felt that this was a foreboding omen.

Many of them believed that they should stop digging, but the leader of the Duergar was very obstinate. He personally took charge of Deep Dark River Project and ordered them to keep digging. They had to dig for fresh water!

After three days, Brightsow received the news that they were successful!

They successfully dug through the layer of ice on the Deep Dark River and found fresh water below.

With fresh water secured, they should be able to survive the Underdark Winter.

But just as Brightsow’s inhabitants were feeling overjoyed, ready to welcome their leader back, a high-tier craftsman arrived in front of the city, covered in blood.

The guards hurriedly rushed him to be treated, but unfortunately, that Duergar had too many wounds. The Duergar were good at forging, but they weren’t particularly good in the medical field.

The craftsman soon died.

But as he did, he said a lot of crazy things.

He warned the people of the city that they definitely shouldn’t open the door when those from the Deep Dark River Project came back.

Because... they became monsters!

Those were the craftsman’s last words.

But no one believed him.

Even if he had been a renown craftsman during his life, his words had been considered the nonsense of a delirious person on his deathbed.

Only one person believed him.

And that was Shawn.

Because that craftsman was his cousin who had helped him for so many years.

That could be considered quite lucky. After hearing of his cousin’s death, he immediately sold his cousin’s blacksmith shop and bought himself a place to live.

He used the rest of the money to buy a lot of food and ale and then sealed himself in the cellar, living cut off from the rest of the world.

At the same time, he made sure to pay attention to what was happening in Brightsow.

He installed a prism that had been owned by his older cousin on his door.

It would allow him to observe what was happening in the city.

At first, nothing happened, and Shawn happily lazed around at home, eating, drinking, and sleeping.

But later on, a large noise woke him up.

He saw countless Duergar and other lifeforms running on the streets.

They were fighting each other!

Fear could be seen in some people’s eyes as they fled, while some others had completely white eyes!

They looked like pure snow!

Shawn was terrified at the sight, and he remembered the last words of his cousin!

’They became monsters!’

This was the only thought that the pitiful Duergar had.

He didn’t dare to leave the cellar.

Every day, he would use the prism to stealthily check the situation on the streets.

The city was getting more chaotic all the time, until one day, some monsters charged into his house, and the prism exploded!

That was the scariest time for Shawn. Fortunately, the entrance to the cellar was very well hidden, and none of the monsters found it.

Thus, Shawn remained hidden in the cellar day after day.

Eventually, he ate all the food he had and drank all the alcohol. After feeling famished for several days, he decided to leave the cellar.

But when he stepped outside onto the streets, he found that the city was already empty!

Everyone seemed to have disappeared!

Shawn couldn’t do much on an empty stomach and decided to look for something to eat first, and then alcohol. He wouldn’t be able to survive without alcohol.

As a result, he met Marvin and Jessica.

...

"Clearly, those disappearing Duergar all went toward Hope City." Marvin shrugged as he stated his conclusion.

The Dark Specters had certainly awakened, but the question was, how many Ghost Mothers had awakened?