Enthusiasm

The sky began to darken, and on the other side of the sky, the sun was setting.

After their conversation, the two tidied up the surrounding area, cleared a space, and lit a campfire.

By the campfire, Anna smiled and said:

"I never imagined that one of our Elf kin could become a mage in the Alliance..."

Fran scratched her head, somewhat puzzled, and asked:

Is it difficult for Elf to become a mage in the Alliance?

She noticed that the other party kept emphasizing this point and seemed extremely shocked at the beginning, which led her to a bold guess.

In addition, she had never seen a single person of another race while she was in the Alliance... She seemed to have seen some, but they were either corpses or cyborgs.

Anna paused for a moment, then continued:

"Perhaps you are within the Alliance and do not possess any outwardly visible Elf organs, and therefore have not experienced those things."

"The Alliance is notorious for its xenophobia on the continent, being predominantly human, and its territories are inhabited entirely by humans without any features of other races."

"About five hundred years ago, the Alliance wanted to be even more radical and develop a device to check the bloodlines of all residents. If any alien bloodline reached a certain level, they would be eliminated..."

"Of course, in the end, a variety of factors caused the plan to fail before it even began; the cost of this device was uncontrollable..."

"It's also because the humans in the Alliance aren't actually of pure blood, but nowadays, where in this world are there any pure-blooded races left..."

"Even the Elf, who have always been known for their pure bloodlines, no longer possess any pure bloodlines after the Elven Forest was breached and reclaimed three times..."

Anna seemed to have found an outlet, and a whole bunch of things just poured out of her mouth as she told Fran a lot about the Elf.

Through Anna's account, Fran even learned what kind of treatment she would receive within the Elf race for someone without Elf characteristics.

For people like Fran, who lack outward Elf characteristics but possess tangible Elf organs, it's necessary to differentiate between different groups.

While people like Fran are rare in Anna's birthplace, the Elven Archipelago, they do exist within the community.

Therefore, if Fran were to arrive at the Elven Archipelago, she would most likely be regarded as one of their own.

However, if you go to the Elf Elven Forest, that won't work, because there they look at both the exterior and the interior.

Although pure-blooded Elf no longer exist in reality, the Elf there still have a strong obsession with pure-bloodedness.

There, if you have Elf ears but cannot perceive what other Elf perceive, you will be expelled from the Elven Forest.

Even more so, in the Elven Forest, giving birth to a child who does not possess either of the two characteristics is considered an omen of bad luck.

Although they won't be expelled from the Elven Forest, both parents will have to undergo some forced labor as punishment.

"By the way, you're going to that mine tomorrow to eliminate that Undead, right?"

"Yes."

"Could I come along? We're both Elf, so we can look out for each other."

Fran looked Anna up and down, scratched her head, and said frankly, bringing along someone she didn't know before at this time was definitely not a wise choice.

However, Fran could sense that Anna's identification with her as a ' Elf elven' was genuine.

Moreover, she could sense that Anna probably had some other purpose in going to the mine with her.

"Sure!"

Wasn't that exactly why she used her Elf identity to get close to her? She wanted to see if Anna could give her a 'surprise'.

However, she also knew that her time was limited, and judging from the increasing number of people here, Snow Bear Territory was probably not a suitable place to stay for long.

So she'll spend the whole day at the mine tomorrow, giving Anna plenty of time to act. If it takes even longer, she'll just give up and go back to the Northern Lands Society.

When Anna heard Fran agree, her eyes gleamed and the corners of her mouth turned up slightly.

Then Anna became even more enthusiastic. She took Fran's hand and asked Fran to tell her about her experiences in the Alliance.

As darkness fell, Fran, having set up Magic Trap, kept a certain distance from Anna and drifted off to sleep.

Meanwhile, near Fran and Anna's temporary campsite, in Fran's destination—the mine where Undead roamed.

Like most mines, open-pit mines are hard to find here, so the workers who used to work here built a passageway to the inside of the mountain and below, which was reinforced with timber.

There have been no workers here for a long time, and even in the mine outside the passage, skeletons and soulfire can be seen wandering around from time to time.

In the former dwellings of those workers, a pair of eyes peer out through the cracks in the windows, which had been reinforced with planks and nails.

The faint light emitted by the soul fire allowed these eyes to see what was happening outside.

"Those undead have become stronger again." Gavin's voice trembled, tinged with fear.

His eyes, hidden behind the wooden plank, caught a glimpse of a skeleton seemingly looking in his direction, and he quickly lowered his head, too afraid to look in that direction.

He pressed his ear to the ground, and only breathed a sigh of relief after a long time without any footsteps.

He turned his head and looked into the narrow house.

There was a person lying on the ground. From the slight rise and fall of his chest, it was clear that he was still alive, but his condition was not good.

The person on the ground had a large hole torn in their clothes, revealing a gruesome, gaping wound that emitted a faint blue light, similar to that of soul fire, in the dim light.

He stared at the wound, unable to come to his senses for a long time.

Their situation couldn't get any worse; the original six-person team was now decimated, with some members leaving and others injured...

He didn't know if his former comrade lying on the ground had any chance of survival, but he knew that it was probably not.

They are now backed into a corner. Perhaps their best option is to give up, disguise themselves as Mercenary, escape Snow Bear Territory, and there might still be a way for them to survive.

Just as his thoughts were wandering, a faint knock came at the door. The sound was very rhythmic: three knocks, a pause, then five more, and so on.

He only opened the door after listening to the entire story once.

A tall figure stood outside the door, draped in a black robe, and through the opening in the robe above the chest, one could see that the person was wearing a cloth armor underneath.

Around the opponent was a thin yellow film, which was the mage's Shield Spell.

This was also his companion, Grant, a mage who had risen from the Spirit Realm.