Several kilometers beneath the surface, everything was pitch-black.
The tunnel was as silent as a tomb, its darkness chilling.
An illumination staff lit up the area within sixty meters, revealing a party of roughly thirty.
Its light revealed lichens, fungi, and moss growing along the tunnel, glowing faintly in the light. Carrying a light source in the Underdark was extremely dangerous, however. In large caverns, sunrods and torches could be spotted from far away, giving nearby creatures ample time to decide whether to avoid these surface dwellers or ambush them.
After ten minutes of walking through a narrow passage, the pressure on their bodies eased.
Luo Laike passed through the barrier and surveyed his surroundings. Darkness lay ahead, and the party of Elves stood behind him.
He crossed another threshold, and the view suddenly opened up.
"What an endless expanse of darkness!" Luo Laike's pupils contracted.
This was the Subterranean Sea.
The Subterranean Sea differed from the seas on the surface, yet at first glance it looked vast, distant, and deep, like a sea beneath the night sky, stretching for dozens of miles.
Countless vaulted caverns surrounded it.
"Master Luo Laike, with the Subterranean Sea here, this is clearly very suitable territory. It has ample space and resources to support forests of giant fungi, moss, and other strange plants," a woman said. "And although the seawater isn't fresh, it can be purified. It also sustains vast numbers of fish and shrimp."
"Yes, Miss Aivisi. It seems this could well be one of the Earth Elves' settlements?" Luo Laike said.
"It's possible. All the places targeted by the dozen or so underground exploration parties our lord dispatched are likely to contain Earth Elf settlements. That judgment is based on the Elves' senses," Aivisi said. "For now, though, we should find a