Giant Runs Mountains.
The name of this mountain range literally means that there used to be a large number of giants running here, and there used to be a glorious empire of giants here.
But those giants are gone, leaving only the spiral climbing stairs built specifically for giants and the huge palace standing on the top of the mountain.
If you look at these huge spiral climbing stairs and palaces from a distance or look down from the air, you can't feel anything.
But if you are among them, you can clearly feel their deep malice towards the short races.
"No more climbing. Whoever likes to climb can climb. If I continue climbing, I won't find the nest of the cloud ray, and I will be exhausted to death.
I have long said that this matter cannot be done without a mage. Even if you cannot find a mage, you can find a warlock, or at the worst, a priest.
As long as each of us can cast a flying technique, is there no need to go through so much trouble to climb this kind of ladder that is not prepared for people? "
A halfling wearing leather armor and exuding agility was lying on the huge steps, as if lying on a platform.
If we talk about the huge 1.5-meter stairs of the Giant Running Mountains, they are full of malice towards those medium-sized creatures such as humans.
So for a halfling who is only 85 centimeters tall, it is a kind of naked discrimination and an out-and-out disaster.
Every time he climbed a step, he had to run several steps before he could reach the top and climb up.
Even if he is a halfling thief known for his agility, climbing up thousands of steps like this is still a bit tiring.
The most important thing is that there are endless steps like this, and I don’t know how many more I need to climb.
"I've already explained it. Don't say that we can't use flying right now. Even if we can use it, we can never use it.
The cloud ray is the king of the air after those adult dragons. It has extraordinary aerial vision. Once we take off, we may be discovered first and fall into its prey before we get close to its nest.
Although these huge stairs are unfriendly, they also provide excellent cover for our family. If we don't take off and observe from behind us, it will be difficult to find us..."
"Look for cover. Find cover quickly. The cloud in the upper left corner of the mountain is very abnormal. It moves in a different direction from other clouds."
Another female human adventurer dressed as a thief warned loudly.
Both the male half-elf thief who was explaining and the halfling thief lying sprawled on the ground shrank into the shadow of the steps.
The cloaks on their bodies were pulled, completely wrapping their bodies and blending into the shadows. Without the help of magic, it would be difficult to find them.
The three thieves who escaped into the shadows were still whispering to each other: "The special ghost cloaks sold by the Conqueror Chamber of Commerce are really good news for us thieves. As long as we have a cloak in hand, we can go to places that we couldn't go before. On flat ground, previously invisible targets can easily become our prey.”
"It's easy to use, but it's really expensive. One piece costs 50,000 yuan, and you have to book it one month in advance. Just these three pieces cost us 150,000 yuan."
"It's expensive for its own sake. I heard that many thieves and assassins who specifically transferred to the advanced professional shadow thief profession in order to gain the ability to use shadows are almost crying.
A ghost cloak can obtain most of the abilities they have worked hard to obtain through advanced professions.
They are now trying their best to find a way to make this shadow cloak and prepare to completely destroy it. "
"What a stupid act. Who doesn't know that Ivanso's Conqueror Chamber of Commerce was founded by Conqueror Gavin. Even if the entire Dragon Coast cities join forces with black and white, they can't do anything to the conqueror army he leads. A group of Shadow Thief, hey, I guess he will never come back, he can even make ghost cloaks in batches, how could he not have any defensive measures in this regard?"
"This is none of our business, as long as we don't take any detours."
"This is another reason why we don't hire a mage. These three ghost cloaks have already spent all our previous savings. No spellcaster will come out with us to perform a task with too many variables without seeing the cash.
As long as our mission is successful, we will be able to get out of the predicament immediately. A cloud ray egg can be sold for at least 200,000 gold coins in the market.
If we have one, we can successfully recover blood. With two, we will make a lot of money. With three, hey, we can consider retirement. Each of us will be given hundreds of thousands of gold coins, which is enough for us to go to the City of Faith and open one for each of us. Our own little shop.
I heard that there are business opportunities everywhere. The old, weak, sick and disabled who were forced by the evil city lords and mayors to conquer the army have now turned around and earn more every day than the strong laborers in Ximen City.
For those who invest in opening shops, various support and discounts are provided. Not only are shop rents cheap, but taxes will also be reduced or reduced for several months. Compared with the Dragon Coast, there are city taxes, large and small gangs, and labor unions. The tribute is much stronger. "
"What you are talking about is just hearsay before you see it with your own eyes. It cannot be done accurately. Everyone can do it, but they may not be able to do it."
"The most important thing is, is your information accurate? We have invested all our wealth in this matter, and so far we haven't even seen the shadow of Cloud Ray. It's just a passing cloud every time.
You see, this is another false alarm. If there are no cloud rays here, let alone cloud ray eggs, the three of us will be sleeping on the streets next month, drinking from the northwest wind, unless we are willing to give up the ghost in our hands. Capes for sale. "
"Don't worry, there is absolutely nothing wrong. My information is first-hand. Not only me, but also a whole town of people witnessed the mating process of two cloud rays. That kind of situation cannot be seen with one's own eyes. It's absolutely unimaginable for anyone I've seen.
I tracked this cloud skate for two months, through the Troll Mountains and the Giant Plains.
At that time, there was no road to conquerors in the Giant Plains, and there were as many monster tribes as there were ox hairs. You don’t know how arduous and dangerous this process was, and I..."
"Okay, okay, don't complain anymore. We have agreed to let you get an extra share. It is impossible to give up more. We have also taken a huge risk in this matter."
"I'm not complaining, but I'm telling you that this information is absolutely reliable. This operation is not the result of my hot head, but was carefully planned and prepared, especially since the ghost cloak completed our last shortcoming. plate.
Although the cloud ray is powerful, its intelligence is not much higher than that of ordinary beasts, and it has no ability to see through invisibility.
Therefore, for us, this matter is mainly a physical job, and the risk is not as high as you think.
We just need to find its nest, sneak in, and take away its eggs.
Considering that there are hundreds of thousands of big golden eggs waiting for us to pick up on the top of the mountain, I believe this fatigue will immediately be nothing. "
"Haha... Don't tell me, it's really like this. I think I'm full of energy again. I bought all the ghost cloaks and climbed more than half of the mountain. How can we give up halfway?"
This is a trio of thieves, which can be called either an adventure group or a small gang.
When the word thief is mentioned, people can't help but associate bag grabbing on the street with sneaky housebreaking.
This image in Faerûn is not entirely wrong, but it is not entirely right either.
Because this describes those little thieves who have not fully opened the professional template or have just opened it.
When their abilities become a little stronger, their development will become very diversified.
There are those who continue to engage in the black professions of the past, but they are no longer targeting ordinary people, but are targeting the manors or treasure troves of the rich.
Some also began to engage in various adventures. Their dexterous hands, agility, proficiency in trap making, and strong perception made them indispensable in many adventure teams.
There are also some who take a more extreme path. They continue to study a series of abilities such as stealth, sneak attack and assassination, leaving their prominent reputation with blood and fear. These are famous assassins. In many cases, the name thief assassin is not Separated.
These three thieves are obviously the second type. They mainly focus on adventure, harvesting their wealth from the wilderness and monsters.
This time, they set their sights on the cloud ray in the Giant's Running Mountains. The adult cloud ray was naturally not something they could fight against, but its unhatched egg could become the most precious asset in their hands.
The premise is that they have to overcome the annoying giant stairs in the Giant's Run Mountains and find the behemoth's lair.
As long as you determine where the cloud ray appears, its nest is not difficult to guess.
This is a purely flying creature. They have neither claws nor feet. Although they can land on the ground, they rarely do so in the plains because it means that they lose any perspective.
In comparison, they prefer to fall on those high mountains.
But their huge bodies of 20 to 30 meters make them very picky about mountains.
Not those sharp, rugged, narrow peaks.
Nor are those that are undulating, have no visual advantage, and are easy for someone to sneak up on from behind.
Only those unique and steep mesa mountains are the best choices.
This giant runs through several mountains, and the one in front of me is the most suitable.
This peak named Giant Peak is the landmark peak of the Giant's Run Mountains. It is a full third higher than the surrounding peaks and is shaped like a solitary peak.
There are only two ways to go up the mountain. One is to fly up directly.
The other was to climb up the spiral giant stairs bit by bit. At the beginning, there were other mountains blocking them, so their actions were a bit unscrupulous.
When they reached the last section, they had to carefully follow the Giant Staircase to the inside of the mountain, and slowly climb up to prevent themselves from being exposed to the cloud ray's gaze, lest the cloud ray egg was not stolen by then. Instead, he became Yun Ray's meal.
When he saw large clouds appearing around him, he immediately activated his ghost cloak and escaped into the shadows.
Just like its name, the cloud ray looks like a huge cloud when seen from the ground. When looking up from the ground, the camouflage is very high and it is difficult to distinguish it.
The only thing the three thieves could do was to hide whenever they saw any cloud.
"what is that?"
"Flying dragons, many flying dragons, a group of flying dragons."
"Why are there a group of flying dragons here? Cloud rays are aerial predators that can feed on flying dragons. There should be no other large flying creatures around."
"No, the size of these flying dragons is wrong. Look at the three leading ones. They are obviously more than twice the size of ordinary ones."
"Could it be that the flying dragons around are all underage?"
"Look at the way they fly, they don't look like underage flying dragons."
"Cloud ray, it's cloud ray. That beast is not at Giant Peak, but hiding in the nearby peak. The flying dragons are hunting that cloud ray."
"Are these flying dragons crazy? The size of the two sides is so different. Even if they really kill the cloud ray in the end, they will pay a heavy price."
"Flying dragons are notorious for being violent and cruel. How can they be rational?"
"Hey, is it my imagination? Among those flying dragons, there are not only flying dragons, but also human figures. Could it be said that this flying dragon group is not wild, but controlled by a powerful being and raised in captivity?"
"I haven't heard of any powerful being keeping so many flying dragons in captivity nearby."
"Don't worry so much. They are fighting each other, which makes it easier for us to move. Hurry, hurry, hurry, hurry up and get to the top. If it's too late, we won't have anything to do."
"Why should we climb? We simply went to the wrong place. The cloud ray's nest is on another mountain."
"That's right, that cunning animal is playing tricks on the three holes of the rabbit. The Giant's Peak is its real nest. The place where it just hid is just a surveillance point used by it to monitor the Giant's Peak. If he is really in the Giant's Peak, On the contrary, we are afraid that the journey will be in vain.”
"This speculation is reasonable. Now we have no choice but to take a gamble and bet that Tomei's guess is correct."
The three thieves didn't care whether their figures were exposed or not. They no longer spared any effort and ran towards the Giant's Peak in cooperation with each other.
The ability of the ghost cloak to escape into the shadows is indeed powerful, but it also has a minor flaw, that is, it can only be used in shadowed places. If it is exposed to the sun, it cannot be activated.
Once used, they are similar to shadow energy bodies. What determines their movement speed is no longer their best agility, but their perception, which greatly slows down their movement speed.
After the three thieves reached full speed, they showed skilled cooperation. The human female thief and the half-elf male thief held hands and directly used them as trampolines to send the halfling thief who had the most trouble climbing up. With a slight push, they were lifted up. Followed up.
The halfling thief had already run to the bottom of another step, braced his horse, and treated himself as a human step, directly sending his two companions who were trotting up one after another.
The two companions who climbed up the steps first grabbed one of the halfling thief's hands and threw him directly.
The halfling thief rolled several times in the air and climbed up two steps.
Then they followed the same pattern, and after a few rounds, they easily climbed up more than a dozen giant steps.
The reason why I didn't do this before is because this method consumes a lot of energy and is not sustainable like running fast.
In an adventure where you don't know what situation you will encounter in the next second, conserving your physical strength is very important, whether it is attacking or escaping, you need to use it.
While the three thieves quickly climbed the Giant's Peak, they did not forget to observe the rare air battle.
I couldn't help but express my sincere admiration in my heart. It was indeed the most majestic of all flying creatures. Even most of the ancient dragons would have mutilated themselves in front of it.
After all, it has bigger flaps than a giant dragon. When unfolded, it looks like a triangular cloud, which makes its body look even bigger, but this cloud has a huge tail full of spikes. .
If the cloud ray is alone in the air, it is difficult to feel its hugeness due to distance and visual misdirection. However, if it is surrounded by more than a dozen flying dragons and a suspected human being, the comparison will be immediately apparent.
Even a group of more than a dozen flying dragons, with their heads biting their tails and their wings next to each other, still didn't feel as big as that cloud ray.
But compared to those flying dragons flying back and forth, the cloud ray feels too clumsy and slow.
The flying dragons have circled around the cloud ray several times, and it has not yet reached the level of the giant peak.
Its flight mode is also very unique, unlike birds or dragons that constantly flap their wings to provide themselves with lift.
From the beginning to the end, it has never done this, and its wings have always been spread out so flatly.
In fact, the cloud ray cannot do this. It is like a huge kite, with a huge keel between its wings and its body, fixing it in place.
What really provides its flight power is the gas produced in its body that is lighter than air, so the cloud ray does not fly, but floats in the air.
What provides it with forward momentum are the long wing-like muscle membranes on both sides of the body, which can flap like wings.
To be more precise, the flexibility of this kind of flaps is much higher than that of ordinary wings. They can not only move up and down, but also left and right, forward and backward, and at an angle. The cloud ray can control the flaps to flap.
This characteristic allows it to not only fly forward and backward, but also fly left and right, which makes its flexibility of movement in the air far greater than that of ordinary creatures.
Unfortunately, due to its huge size, it moves very slowly in any direction.
But the flying dragons did not dare to get too close to the cloud rays.
Its huge size is destined to have terrifying power. Once it is hit by its huge tail hammer, it may not be as simple as broken bones and tendons, and it is very likely to be patted into meat pie on the spot.
Moreover, the attack methods of the cloud ray are far more than that. At every turn, several seemingly inconspicuous stones fly out from the place where it previously lived and hit the surrounding flying dragons.
After they hit the air, they landed on the ground with a huge roar, proving that they were not inconspicuous stone bullets, but huge boulders of astonishing weight.
Telekinesis.
This is the innate special ability of the cloud ray. This magical beast with low intelligence has psychic powers to make up for its shortcomings of having no hands and feet.
Is it just that the cloud ray's psychic powers are so powerful? Can you easily throw hundreds of kilograms of boulders?
(End of chapter)
