Chapter 321: Rock-Digging Emperor

The Nether Panther poked its head out from the White Dragon Lord's shadow.

"That night, I went out to gather intelligence as usual and stumbled upon a cavern dense with the power of death. It appeared abandoned. To confirm this, I went inside to investigate, but I unexpectedly triggered a magic trap and was left unable to move."

The Nether Panther sounded rather sullen. It was the first time it had ever felt so powerless.

"Later, a figure in a black robe walked out. At the time, I thought I was dead for sure, but the robed figure just glanced at me and let me go."

Priest Sinod frowned.

"A black-robed spellcaster and a dense concentration of death power... could it be a necromancer?"

"Probably not. I couldn't see his face clearly, but he carried a distinct aura unique to the living. Of course, it's also possible his magical methods were simply too advanced for me to see through."

The White Dragon Lord waved his claw.

"Regardless, he shouldn't harbor any hostility toward us. If we cross paths, we can try to communicate. However, that rogue who has been loitering around the Outpost Base must be eliminated. Yuir, tell us what you found out."

The Nether Panther recalled the intelligence it had gathered.

"This rogue's group is closest to the base, and they were the first ones I discovered. They've been operating in the area, lying low during the day and moving at night. They also maintain multiple hiding spots. They are definitely plotting something."

"After tracking them these past few days, I've roughly figured out their composition. There is a High-Tier Legendary Rank rogue, a Legendary Mage, and a third member who has yet to show themselves."

Its report finished, the Nether Panther quickly retreated into the White Dragon Lord's shadow. The Cat-Woman's resentful gaze and eager, twitching claws made it feel like it might not survive the night.

Seeing the panther disappear, the Cat-Woman felt a little disappointed.

The White Dragon Lord gave the Cat-Woman a helpless look and resumed the discussion.

"Everyone, that's the general situation. This rogue's group poses the greatest threat to the base. I suggest we eliminate them first. What do you all think?"

The Cat-Woman and Priest Sinod nodded. The Ancient Gold Dragon had no objections either.

Priest Sinod smiled and spoke.

"Since Your Excellency Amos brought it up, you must already have a plan."

The White Dragon Lord nodded.

"This rogue's group has set up surveillance around the base. We just need to create an illusion to make them think the Floating Tower is still here, then dispatch the tower to wipe them out."

"Alright, let's do that."

...

Night fell. The Nether Panther bolted from the Outpost Base as if fleeing for its life, resuming its surveillance of the rogue's group.

Under the pitch-black sky, a slender black panther lay flat against the ground, seemingly blending into the darkness. Over a thousand meters ahead of it, a mage was setting up a magic array.

Although it hadn't spotted the rogue, the Nether Panther knew he had to be nearby.

Because powerhouses usually possessed sharp intuition, the Nether Panther worried about being discovered and didn't dare stare at the mage for long. It only lifted its head for an occasional glance to confirm the enemy hadn't left.

Before long, the mage finished his work, and the rogue who had been hiding finally revealed himself.

"Master Igor, how many more arrays are left?"

Sugnor Gloomdagger sounded a bit anxious. For some reason, he felt inexplicably irritable today.

The magic array grandmaster, Igor, concealed the array's traces with dirt and packed away his remaining materials.

"Don't worry, Lord Sugnor. To disrupt the perception of the Floating Tower, the required magic array is extremely complex. Multiple arrays must operate together to form a massive composite array. But after so many days of hard work, it's nearly complete. It will take a week at most."

Hearing this, Sugnor Gloomdagger breathed a sigh of relief. Ever since his brother died at the hands of the White Dragon Lord, Sugnor had been unable to sleep. He thought of nothing but revenge, but because the White Dragon Lord always commanded the Floating Tower, Sugnor could do nothing alone.

And the organization Little Finger would never risk a full-scale war with Nordhill just to avenge the personal grudge of an ordinary High-Tier Legend by mobilizing forces to besiege the White Dragon Lord.

After gathering intelligence from various sources, Sugnor Gloomdagger had locked his sights on Elena. He wanted the White Dragon Lord to taste the pain of losing kin.

What frustrated Sugnor Gloomdagger, however, was that Elena hadn't stepped beyond a thousand-meter radius of the Floating Tower for the past few days.

If he killed Elena within a thousand meters of the Floating Tower, Sugnor Gloomdagger had no confidence he could escape the furious White Dragon Lord's pursuit. He therefore needed a magic array to disrupt the Floating Tower's perception to secure his escape.

But today, Sugnor Gloomdagger felt inexplicably restless, which was not a good sign.

"Master, I'll increase your payment by fifty percent, but the magic array must be completed within three days. Can you do it?"

As a High-Tier Legendary Rank rogue, Sugnor Gloomdagger was extremely wealthy. The price he had already offered Igor was high, and an extra fifty percent was incredibly tempting. Igor felt somewhat torn. He lowered his head in thought for a moment before replying.

"No problem. But I'll need to extend my working hours. I can't just work at night; I'll have to work during the day as well."

Sugnor Gloomdagger frowned. As a rogue, his strength during the day was far inferior to his power at night. Furthermore, daylight provided too much visibility; it would be troublesome if they were discovered.

"Don't worry, Lord Sugnor. While working, I will use an Invisibility Spell to hide myself. Also, I have an Arcane Eye near the Floating Tower. If the Floating Tower makes any movements, I'll know immediately."

Sugnor Gloomdagger was convinced. The two flew into the night sky, heading toward the next magic node, completely unaware that their movements were being tracked by the Nether Panther lurking in the distance.

"Master, they're on the move."

"Follow them!"

"Yes!"

It wasn't until the sun was about to rise that the two returned to their hiding spot, and the White Dragon Lord received the Nether Panther's message.

"Gurgalu, you can start now."

Gripping the Combat Staff of Caucasus, Gurgalu rapidly chanted a spell. A massive illusion appeared in front of the Floating Tower, looking exactly like the real thing.

At the exact moment Gurgalu manifested the illusion, the White Dragon Lord, holding the Control Core, cast an Invisibility Spell to conceal the actual Floating Tower.

A golden cicada sheds its shell!

On the way back to their hideout, Igor, who had been constantly monitoring the tower with his Arcane Eye, felt as though the structure had shifted. He rubbed his eyes and saw that the Floating Tower was still in its original spot, completely unchanged.

'Maybe I'm just too exhausted after working all night,' Igor thought, laughing at himself.

"Master, what's wrong?"

"It's nothing."

Igor was obviously hiding something. Sugnor Gloomdagger turned away and frowned, his mood growing increasingly irritable.

High in the sky, the White Dragon Lord piloted the invisible Floating Tower rapidly forward, while the Cat-Woman, the Ancient Gold Dragon, and Priest Sinod rubbed their hands together in anticipation.

With the Nether Panther's guidance, the White Dragon Lord easily found Sugnor Gloomdagger's hideout.

In the Floating Tower's control room, the White Dragon Lord rapidly chanted a spell.

Dimensional Anchor!

An invisible magical force field descended. Sensing the familiar magical aura, Sugnor Gloomdagger and the others suffered a drastic change in expression.

"Damn it! How did they find this place?!"

Igor was in disbelief, or rather, he simply refused to believe it.

Up in the sky, the Floating Tower revealed itself. Through the warning spells set outside the cave, Igor watched the tower appear, and his face turned ashen.

Sugnor Gloomdagger, his face livid, shot a glare at the magic array grandmaster he had hired at such a high price. Right now, he wanted nothing more than to kill him with his own hands.

But since things had come to this, killing Igor would be useless. Sugnor Gloomdagger turned toward a bug lying off to the side.

'Good thing I came prepared!'

The bug's segmented body was covered in yellowish-brown armor. Lacking claws or limbs, it looked exactly like an oversized maggot. Its front end featured a massive mouthpart as thick as its torso, lined with rings of jagged teeth inside its dark red maw. Pale green saliva dripped onto the rock beneath it, instantly corroding a small pit into the stone.

"Rock-Digging Emperor! Let's go!"

Receiving its master's command, the Legendary Rank beast—the Rock-Digging Emperor—sprang into action. It opened its sharp mouthparts and sprayed a stream of pale green liquid against the nearby rock wall. The hard stone instantly melted into fluid.

"Master Igor! Hurry up and follow!"

Sugnor Gloomdagger dove into the massive tunnel created by the Rock-Digging Emperor first, tossing back a "kind" reminder.

'Damn it! If I didn't need you to cast teleportation magic to leave this plane, there's no way in hell I'd take you with me!'

Master Igor hastily followed.

Up in the sky, the Cat-Woman, the Ancient Gold Dragon, and Priest Sinod had already flown out of the Floating Tower. The White Dragon Lord used the Floating Tower's omniscient view to observe the ground, noticing a cave entrance hidden by magic.

"You're not coming out?! Do you think you're safe just by hiding?!"

The White Dragon Lord smiled disdainfully and rapidly chanted a spell. With the Floating Tower's amplification, a legendary magic spell could be completed in mere seconds.

Legendary magic—Earthquake Spell!

Magical power caused the earth to quake violently. The tunnel created by the Rock-Digging Emperor began to collapse, and massive boulders crashed down.

Igor erected a barrier to block the falling rocks, while Sugnor Gloomdagger rapidly spun his short swords to slice the tumbling boulders in half. The Rock-Digging Emperor's hard shell simply ignored the falling debris, and the crisis was smoothly resolved.

"Faster! We'll be fine once we escape the range of the Dimensional Anchor!"

In the sky, the White Dragon Lord noticed there was still no movement on the ground and frowned.

'Were they crushed to death?'

'They couldn't be that weak!'

The Earthquake Spell's lethality sat at the bottom among legendary magic spells. It was generally used to destroy buildings. Even underground, being buried by an Earthquake Spell wouldn't be enough to kill a High-Tier Legend.

The Cat-Woman also felt something was wrong. She closed her eyes and sensed carefully.

"Amos! There are three life signatures moving at high speed underground!"

The White Dragon Lord was startled.

Soul Sight!

Through his Soul Sight, the White Dragon Lord also discovered three souls moving rapidly beneath the earth. One of the souls was exceptionally vibrant—it had to be that High-Tier Legendary Rank rogue.

The White Dragon Lord's face turned livid.

"The enemy has a way to move quickly through the bedrock. Do any of you have a good solution?"

The Cat-Woman, the Ancient Gold Dragon, and Priest Sinod looked at each other in dismay, none of them having any good ideas.

"How about I try digging?"

The Ancient Gold Dragon flashed his claws and asked tentatively. Digging holes was a dragon's specialty, after all.

The White Dragon Lord calculated their own digging speed against the enemy's advance and helplessly rejected the Ancient Gold Dragon's proposal.

'Are we really going to just let them get away?!'

'No!'

The White Dragon Lord's thoughts raced like lightning.

The bedrock was extremely thick, making it difficult to probe with ordinary magic. Even the Cat-Woman could only roughly sense their life traces. The enemy definitely didn't know the situation above ground.

But the White Dragon Lord's Soul Sight could easily pierce the bedrock to pinpoint their exact location. As long as he caused a disturbance the moment they initiated their teleportation...

The White Dragon Lord immediately explained his plan.

"While we won't get any spoils this way, it's far better than just letting them escape."

The three agreed, and the White Dragon Lord tracked the three figures underground.

Just as the White Dragon Lord had guessed, after their surveillance arrays were destroyed by the Earthquake Spell, Sugnor Gloomdagger and the others had lost all information about the surface and blindly picked a direction to break out.

Movement speed within bedrock could never match traveling on the surface. Several minutes later, Sugnor Gloomdagger's group finally escaped the range of the Dimensional Anchor.

Sensing the change in the surrounding space, Master Igor was overjoyed.

"We made it out!"

"Hurry! Hurry! Hurry! Teleport us back quickly, lest a long night brings many dreams!"

In fact, there was no need for Sugnor Gloomdagger to rush him; Master Igor was already casting the spell.

In the Floating Tower, seeing that the enemy was about to escape the Dimensional Anchor's range, the White Dragon Lord began preparing to interfere with their teleportation.

Using the Floating Tower to amplify his spiritual power, the White Dragon Lord watched their every move until a familiar magical fluctuation rippled out.

'Now!'

The teleportation array lit up, but before Sugnor Gloomdagger's group could even rejoice, the White Dragon Lord's magic struck.

Immense joy instantly turned into profound terror and despair. The massive psychological whiplash caused the two of them to lose their composure.

"No!!!"

But reality would not bend to anyone's subjective will. The figures of Sugnor Gloomdagger and Igor vanished into the teleportation array. Where they ended up was unknown, but it was most likely the endless turbulent streams of space.

Hearing their faint, distant screams, the group inside the Floating Tower shared knowing smiles. Everything was understood without being said.

After a moment, the perennial good-natured Priest Sinod blushed with embarrassment.

'Lord! Forgive me! I actually took pleasure in the suffering of others.'

After silently praying in his heart for a moment, Priest Sinod broke the silence.

"Cough, cough! Everyone, what should we do next?"

All eyes gathered on the White Dragon Lord.

"Aside from that spellcaster whose whereabouts are unknown, the only one whose exact position we know is that orc."

The commotion of legendary magic could travel incredibly far. By now, probably more than half the plane had sensed the spell's ripples.

Anyone smart would be able to deduce the cause of the battle with a little thought. Whether these people would stay or go after receiving this warning, the White Dragon Lord didn't know, but he still hoped they would be sensible enough to leave early.

"I wonder if that orc has left yet."

The White Dragon Lord piloted the Floating Tower, flying toward the orc's location.