The Watchtower in the Canyon

"Rations ready, drinking water ready, weapons too..."

The next morning, Carl and Hopp carefully counted the supplies in the Bag of Holding before setting off toward the source of the malice Carl had sensed earlier.

To improve her combat capabilities, Carl modified the Repeating Crossbow and mounted it on the left arm of the Arcane Power Armor.

The Repeating Crossbow could now be cocked automatically by the mechanisms in the Power Armor, giving Carl another convenient means of attack.

"Excellent. Supplies are ready. Let's go!"

Carl pressed her palm against the Power Armor's chest. As she activated the Armorer's feature, the Power Armor instantly became intangible before fitting itself directly onto her body.

Carl raised her head, and yellow light flared from the crystals where the Power Armor's eyes were.

Everything was ready. Following the Rope of Climbing, the two of them returned to the surface.

Carl had added a pulley system to the mechanism, making it much faster and more capable of carrying weight.

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

Hopp glanced at Carl and warily scanned their surroundings, afraid that something dangerous might emerge at that moment.

"Mm. I can still sense a faint trace. It's probably in this direction."

Carl pointed toward the direction from which the disturbance had come earlier, then walked ahead and took the lead.

Although the Power Armor's design had been forced to sacrifice some defense because of the limitations of the original armor, Carl's structural design was excellent. The Power Armor made not the slightest sound as it walked.

The mushroom woodland, glowing with orange-yellow fluorescence, was as quiet as ever. The two of them encountered almost no creatures along the way.

However, a Rust Monster seemed to have been attracted by the Power Armor on Carl's body. After Carl fired a magic crossbow bolt at it, the sensible creature turned around and ran away.

Soon, the two of them left the woodland.

"Is this... a canyon?"

After leaving the woodland, the enormous mushrooms no longer blocked their view, and the scene ahead appeared unobstructed before Carl and Hopp.

It was a highland that stood almost perpendicular to the ground, looking much like the Red Earth Continent from One Piece.

Its height was certainly nowhere near that outrageous, but it was still at least six or seven stories tall.

Facing the mushroom woodland, a broad fissure extended deep into the highland, forming a canyon.

"Be careful. This doesn't look naturally formed. The opening is far too straight."

After observing for a while, Hopp cautiously offered her opinion.

The pass from Zhuomu to the Kingdom of Brynnland was a canyon east of Graywall City, where Hopp lived. She was quite familiar with terrain like this.

If it wasn't "natural," then either an intelligent life-form had excavated it, or a mage had blasted it open with an earthquake spell.

Either possibility seemed beyond the two of them to handle.

"Then let's sneak through as much as possible. Wait a moment—I'll dim the Power Armor's light source."

Carl stood still for a moment, then controlled the energy crystals in her chest and around her eyes, causing them to dim.

There was a considerable distance between the woodland and the canyon. To prevent anyone in the canyon from discovering them, the two of them had to remain as concealed as possible.

Soon, Hopp and Carl moved toward the canyon one after the other.

At first, their movements were somewhat cautious, but as they drew closer, they actually became bolder.

The closer they got, the more clearly they could see the situation at the canyon's entrance.

"It looks like there really are other intelligent life-forms in this underground city. Look at that watchtower. If there's anyone there, they'll see us the moment we leave the mushroom woodland."

"But judging by how damaged everything is, it hasn't been repaired for at least ten years. Did something happen?"

When they were only a little over a hundred meters from the canyon entrance, Carl and Hopp were already certain that no one was guarding it.

At least, no one was there now.

Although they couldn't completely rule out the possibility that the people in the watchtower were trying to ambush them, given the enemy's terrain advantage from occupying the high ground, doing so would have been completely unnecessary.

When they reached the foot of the watchtower, Carl raised her hand and fired a magic crossbow bolt into its interior.

As expected, no suspicious sounds came from inside the tower.

"I'll go first. You cover the rear."

To eliminate the final danger, Carl relied on her Power Armor and went ahead.

Like players looting a "battle royale" game, the two of them searched the watchtower from bottom to top. Aside from some old shields, however, they found nothing of value.

"It looks like the Rust Monster may have visited this place. And the style of these shields resembles the goblins of Darguun."

"Goblins? Here?"

Hopp was deeply puzzled about why goblins would appear underground.

The goblin mercenaries of Darguun and the monster mercenaries of Zhuomu were rivals, but their knowledge of each other was limited to their respective fighting styles.

"The Continent of Khorvaire was once ruled by orcs and goblins. But in ancient times, Syrraote from another plane, also known as the Mad Nation, invaded Khorvaire, forcing the reign of the orcs and goblins to come to an end."

"It's said that during that period, the various factions of the goblin empire took the opportunity to flee underground to escape the disaster. Even now, goblins can still be found in certain underground caverns and Demiplane dungeons."

"The Mind Flayers of Eberron were supposedly once residents of the Mad Nation, while their masters, the Mutated Demons, were sealed within Khyber's domain by the orc Druids of that era."

After briefly explaining to Hopp why goblins had appeared in the underground world, Carl sat down on the steps and prepared to rest here with Hopp for a while.

"How do you know this is goblin equipment?"

Hopp picked up a shield and examined it from every angle for quite some time, but she couldn't see how it differed much from an ordinary shield.

"The straps! Goblins are divided into ordinary goblins, Dire Goblins, and Hobgoblins. To fit goblins of different sizes, much of their equipment is designed with straps that can be adjusted over a wide range. This shield's straps are like that."

Carl took the shield from Hopp and showed her its straps.

The straps had only two buckles. One could barely let a few fingers pass through, while the other was large enough for both of their thighs to fit through.

This was a feature found only on goblin equipment. Humans would generally just drill a few extra holes in the buckle and let the user adjust it themselves.

Hopp nodded in understanding, then looked up at the watchtower standing above them.

The construction of the entire watchtower was visibly shoddy. Even Hopp, who knew nothing about construction, could see some redundant designs and unreasonable features.

"So the goblins here might have inherited this place from thousands of years ago? Then how did this building..."

"The civilization must have suffered a break in its succession, like the giants."

Carl stood up again and beckoned for Hopp to leave the watchtower.

An unknown adventure was still waiting for them.