The Collection of The End

My name is Akatosh,

Arthur is about to enter the black drop.

——4E, 201, Hearthfire, 17th, 21:50——

After passing through the ruins of Altenfold, Arthur's team entered a dark and damp underground cave.

Different from the magic stone lamps scattered all over the dwarven ruins, which illuminate the dark underground space as if it were a waste of day, in the deeper and deeper underground caves, there are only some kind of strange plants in a cluster shape with a faint red light on the top to provide illumination. , Barely reaching the level where you can see the ground under your feet clearly.

Everyone tried to ask Septim to cast a light spell on everyone, but they had to give up because of the state of "only self-illumination" and "the field of vision is still dark except for yourself".

Although Septim hinted that the problem could be solved by throwing magic light at the cave wall after a while, they couldn't open their mouths to let a senior old mage do this kind of pure repetitive work.

"Hee——" Sophie's rabbit seemed to be very afraid of the dark and kept struggling to escape, but how could it beat a dragon?

"Why did you bring Rabbit?" Arthur asked suspiciously: "We are going to fight this time, like the Centurion last time, if there are one or two more of them, we have to take them out" I'm really capable, I don't have time to take care of rabbits."

The so-called "true ability" is naturally the release of [Sword of Oath and Victory], werewolf transformation, and various powerful spells implied by Septim. , What should I do if I encounter a more powerful enemy later?

"No, Rabbit is a hare. Last time my father and I went to find the Harpy and left him in Xueman. After I came back, he didn't recognize me anymore." Sophie raised her hand to hold the rabbit's struggling head.

"Um... well." Arthur didn't have time to feel sorry for a rabbit right now, he had to be ready to deal with lurking snow elves and their giant insects.

The three Wilkas brothers once strayed into a dwarf ruins and fought fiercely with this kind of monster group with a good name but extremely ugly, so they explained it to Arthur in great detail afterwards, about weaknesses or characteristics .

But the information seems inaccurate. For example, "Because they have no eyesight, their hearing is very developed, and they often hide in the dark to attack adventurers who accidentally made a sound." After entering the underground cave, they did not deliberately lower their voices. In the surrounding darkness, the expected snow elf assassin did not jump out at all.

"Sophie, grandpa is going to do a trick, do you want to see it?" Septim suddenly asked the girl holding the rabbit.

"Yes! Yes!" Sophie nodded repeatedly.

Here we go again, Arthur sighed, Septim hinted that he hit it off with Kraco Whitemane, the prophet of the comrades-in-arms group, and had a good conversation, and by the way, he also regarded himself as the grandfather of Sophie and Ria. After this relationship, Arthur Inexplicably became a son, and there is absolutely nothing to say about it.

Septim snapped his fingers silently, and a small fireball flew towards a cluster of "lighting plants" that grew irregularly.

Boom——crack—————

After the fireball touched the red light at the top of those weird plants, it suddenly ignited the whole cluster of plants, and they immediately erupted dazzling light upwards. Most of them were bright white in color, and occasionally bright red and bright yellow appeared. A giant tree made of light and fire.

"Wow...it's amazing." Sophie held the rabbit in one hand and held her face in the other.

"Wow! My eyes!" Babas covered his eyes with his front paws, and after thinking for a while, he fell to the ground and began to roll.

Arthur naturally didn't appreciate those fiery trees and silver flowers. He noticed that the plants at the bottom gradually became shorter as the light gushed out, so he began to observe the surrounding environment before they disappeared.

This is not an underground cave at all, and the roof of the cave is not made of rocks.

It's a layer of blue to black ice. It's not that there is no snow elf ambushes along the way, but those organs and traps are all in a state of being triggered. Many black leather huts in the corner look like they were attacked by giant forces. It was completely destroyed and collapsed, and the strange weapons used by the snow elves were scattered around, but no corpses were seen.

The strange plant erupted, leaving only short roots, but no one moved, waiting for the eyes to recover to the darkness.

"Hey, I said how could there be such a big pool in the previous ruins? Is it connected to the underground lake?" Ella spoke first.

"Because the relic guards will replenish themselves, I can't see anything in the relics, but here," Lydia continued: "The original snow elves' lair should have been emptied by Master Septim, and there seems to be no new ones. It looks like the residents live in."

"Well... it seems that there were guys who survived," Septin implied without denying, "I found other ethnic groups and asked them to clean up the place and never came back, probably."

Back then? Arthur recalled the traces of the battle he saw just now, and sketched in his mind a picture of "the much younger Septim said to face the eyes of many shadows alone, then calmly ignited the strange plants, and began to wash the ground with magic" A gorgeous scene, although it is not impossible for him to do it himself, but it will probably be ugly, and maybe he will have to transform into a dragon or something.

"The grass should take a long time to grow back. If it is not necessary, it will not be lit again." The old mage casually threw a magic light and stuck it on the cave wall in front of him, "Go, Hei Jiang."

—— 22:47——

Although Septim hinted in a loud tone, as if the entrance of the black drop was ahead, in fact, the group of people arrived at a dwarf ruin after passing through the dark cave.

As always, various mechanical guards emerged from different institutions.

"Here...does it seem to be different?" Arthur chopped off the metal spider that was leaping towards him, and asked his companions with some doubts.

"Is there?" Ella looked around with her bow and arrow, then shook her head and let go of the bowstring, directly "nailing" a spherical guard who was about to jump out of the trap inside.

"Yes." For the time being, there were no more threatening guards who needed to use shields. After observing for a while, Lydia came to the conclusion: "The leather tents and suitcases of the snow elves should not appear here."

"That's right." Ayla shot another arrow through a metal spider: "There are no ruins next to the surface."

Judging from the information obtained from a Redguard tavern maid.

All the lairs, containers, and even weapons and armor of the snow elves are made of the skin of a giant insect called "Zerus", which can spray venom and attack. The relationship between Zerus and the snow elves is probably similar to Hunters and hounds, so it is impossible for them to kill insects and peel their skins. Those skins are all the "sloughs" left by Zerus' "evolution".

The reasons and conditions for this evolution are unknown. According to the descriptions of adventurers who have seen it, Zerus will wrap itself in a capsule made of the same material as the shell during "evolution". After the evolution is successful, it will become a "flying "Zerus", there is almost no difference except for a pair of leather wings, and those "sloughs" will be taken by the snow elves and processed into various items.

The most peculiar thing is that this kind of flying Zerus will also wrap itself with horny vesicles when its lifespan is at the end of its life or after being seriously injured, and the ordinary non-flying Zerus will finally break out of the shell.

So how much money did this insect owe the Snow Elf? — Notes from Satya

"It's not surprising. When I came here, those snow elves attacked me together with the Dwemer guards," Septim said in a silent voice: "The snow elves here are slaves of the dwarves, so the center of the ruins is here. When producing guards, the command 'Do not attack snow elves' was added, maybe."

"Slave?" Sophie tilted her head and thought for a while, then raised Rabbit to her face and stared at it.

That rabbit is your slave, well, yes. Arthur thought as he smashed the mechanical guards whose numbers were beginning to dwindle.

"According to the historical records of the Comrades in Arms, Skyrim was first ruled by the snow elves on the surface and the dwarves below. The elves mobilized heavy troops and drove them out, known as the "Night of Tears" in history." Ayla continued to draw the bow and shoot arrows to clean up the remaining machines, and explained at the same time.

"Then, Master Sgrammer led five hundred heroes, that is, the original comrades-in-arms group, and killed them back, almost cleaning up the elves in the entire sky. Finally, these elves had to ask for help from their distant relatives underground, and those dwarves very arrogantly asked each other to become Slave." Lydia slapped a spherical guard that was rolling over secretly, and then continued: "This kind of arrogance made them anger [Ms. Azura] soon after, and the whole family disappeared. After losing their master, these elves I still dare not go back to the surface, and finally turned into the ugly appearance I am today after living underground for many years."

"How ugly?" Sophie shook Rabbit.

"Uglier than me, Wang!" Babas said to himself.

"Isn't that delicious?" The girl showed a little disgusted expression.

"Don't eat!" Arthur belatedly wondered why Sophie had to follow, the others were just excuses, the truth was that he wanted to taste the snow elves that he couldn't meet on the surface!

"Obviously, the owner of this dwarf city is more 'kind'," Septim, who did not participate in this simple encounter, said in quotation marks: "He allowed the snow elves to participate in the city's defense, so he deliberately changed the guarding order, and Instead of just treating them as slaves like most of the other relics, it is forbidden to leave the workplace or enter the core area of ​​the city, otherwise, they will be killed."

So, to sum up, there were snow elves haunting here, but they were swept away by Septim a few years ago, and no one dares to come back to live until now.

"Since we have cleared the dwarf guards, shall we take a short break?" Arthur looked up subconsciously: "It should be late at night, right?"

Although it is not easy to judge the time in the ground, it is almost midnight in terms of the time required to kill all the way down. After all, you will have to be in the ground for a long time in the future. It is easy to fall and make unexpected mistakes in the battle.

Moreover, compared to a dark cave, it is safer to rest in the bright Dwemer ruins.

"You are the captain," Ella nodded, "I only have one request, stay away from those disgusting leather tents."

"Then, let's go to the place where I stayed last time," Septim said silently. "The temple where these dwarves worship their so-called 'God of Steam' should be clean, at most, dusty."

"I will open the barrier and keep vigil for the first half of the night," Lydia said to Arthur, "Please rest well, Baron."

"I'll keep watch in the middle of the night—" Sophie raised her hand high.