Chapter 572 Escape, Flame, Arthur (7K)

Using the blond man's body to escape from Menzoberranzan was a little more troublesome than Townsend thought.

When Tang Sen left the basement where the slaves were imprisoned and came to the upper house, Tang Sen clearly felt that the entire atmosphere of Menzoberranzan had changed.

The huge stone pillar standing in the center of the city, this timer that had been silent at night, was shining with extremely strong magical light, completely illuminating the entire underground city.

Tang Sen didn't think that such a big movement was because he killed the slave merchant - even if two more guys like this died, it wouldn't be enough to drag the drow nobles out of their banquet, let alone The huge stone pillar was lit up against the rules.

The only person in the entire city of Menzoberranzan who has the right to do this is the high priest of the Temple of Lolth, and in such an unexpected situation——

"Is it an oracle?"

Tang Sen narrowed his eyes, guessing in his mind.

"Only Lolth's influence on Menzoberranzan and the drow can set off such a big battle in a short period of time."

"It's for me. No, it's for Xue Xue, right?"

Tang Sen could not think of other possibilities. After all, Rose did not know that she was related to Neverwinter, let alone know that she had arrived in Menzoberranzan.

Only Xue Xue, who has some connection with Rose, would alert this evil god.

"However, if I don't end up personally, it might not be that simple to catch me with the help of people like Menzoberranzan." Tang Sen looked at the situation outside through the window, not panicking.

Both his own body and Xue Xue were in the demiplane and did not appear in Menzoberranzan at all. The only bond with this plane was the mind replaced by the surgical fruit.

It is even more impossible for Rose to end up in person. The other party may have some interest in Xue Xue - probably because Xue Xue was once his disciple, or even an outstanding priest who came into Rose's sight. Due to the sudden loss of contact, , appeared suddenly after a long time to attract Rose's attention.

The reason why Rose issued the oracle to arrest Xue Xue is probably because when he contacted Xue Xue in the endless abyss, Xue Xue completely ignored him.

"The only trouble is that this body really doesn't have any abilities."

If the ability of the main body, or even the ability of the gods, is involved, Menzoberranzan is no threat to Tang Sen at all, but it is not only Rose who is staring at him, but also more powerful gods. This is the most covert way Tang Sen can imagine.

He turned around and looked at the slaves.

Obviously, the slaves also discovered that Menzoberranzan was unusual tonight. Most of them had begun to look pale and their bodies were shaking.

"It's just... I just killed a slave trader. Is such a big battle necessary?"

"No matter how you look at it, it has nothing to do with slave traders, right? Something big must have happened in Menzoberranzan."

"No matter what happens, we are in big trouble now!"

"If it were normal times, we might have a chance to escape, but now all the drow elves have been alarmed. We are dead!"

"Can we save it by returning to the cell honestly? Just pretend that we never escaped?"

"Stop being delusional, there is no way out."

During the quarrel, more and more slaves turned their attention to Tang Sen.

For some reason, seeing the face of Tang Sen's current body, they couldn't help but have hope in their hearts - for a person who looks like this, it's not impossible to create miracles, right?

Moreover, judging from his previous experience, this man was flexible and flexible. When there was no chance, he would completely grovel and paralyze the vigilance of the slave merchants. Even other slaves were deceived, and when he seized the opportunity, he would kill decisively. , directly killed the slave merchant and rescued everyone.

If there is one person who can lead everyone to escape from here, who else could it be but him?

As a result, the quarrel slowly stopped and was replaced by pairs of expectant eyes.

Faced with these gazes, Tang Sen's expression had calmed down. He straightened his waist, scanned every face with his deep gaze, and finally said, "You are right, the entire city of Menzoberranzan has woken up now, regardless of whether For some reason, Menzoberranzan is now the most heavily guarded."

"If you want to escape Menzoberranzan at this time, you will escape death."

All the slaves had expressions of confusion and surprise.

They stared at Tang Sen in disbelief, and someone stammered: "Keke, wasn't it you who killed the slave merchant and freed us?"

"I just opened the door. It's your choice whether to follow me and escape." Tang Sen said calmly: "And you still have a chance to choose now."

"Life or death should be in your own hands."

Someone broke down and yelled: "This is just your own statement. Where do we have any chance to choose now!"

Someone immediately echoed: "Yes, if I had known this was the case, it would have been better not to come out!"

Tang Sen just looked at them coldly and said:

"To those drow nobles, dead slave traders have no value, but slaves are valuable. When you return to the cage, other slave traders will take you away."

"If they ask about the slave traders, you just need to tell them truthfully that I killed them."

As soon as these words came out, the slaves were shocked again.

A halfling who looked a little calmer took a step forward and asked tentatively: "Didn't you say that you would escape Menzoberranzan with a narrow escape? But judging from your tone, you don't plan to go back?"

"The situation is no longer the same." Tang Sen quickly collected some sundries in the slave merchant's house, and found a robe to wrap his face and body in, and then replied: "If you return to In the cage, I may be able to survive, but I will never have the chance to escape."

"In this narrow escape, there is still a chance, but just sit back and wait for death——"

He clenched his fists: "I can accept the momentary humiliation, I can accept being stuck in the dust, but I will never let the fire of freedom in my heart go out."

“Maybe we can wait until next time”

"I can't wait any longer." Tang Sen interrupted him directly, "We don't have so much time to waste here."

"There will be drow searches coming soon. Even if they are not coming for us, they will not mind casually executing a few slaves who try to escape. Moreover, before their search net is completely tightened, we must first Get out."

He glanced outside, and finally looked back at the slaves: "I said, this is a choice."

Then, Tang Sen opened the door directly. The light from the huge stone pillar in the center of the city shone on Tang Sen, making his back almost become a silhouette.

With almost no hesitation, he stepped directly into the light, only his voice echoing in the room.

"Those who wish to be slaves can stay."

"May the dead follow me."

The slaves looked at each other for a few times, and the halfling gritted his teeth and followed out first. Soon, several more slaves made up their minds, while the other slaves retreated to the basement while trembling, and re-opened the cells. Lock the door, and then throw the key, which symbolizes freedom, far away on the corpse of the drow.

The slave merchant's house was relatively remote, and no drow were searching for it yet. Several slaves quickly discovered Tang Sen's back. At this time, the other party not only did not take the opportunity to escape into the hidden alleys, but even Walk towards the street.

"Didn't you just say that we have to escape now?" The halfling quickened his pace to catch up and whispered: "You are going in the opposite direction! The way out of the city is behind!"

"Oh." Tang Sen kept walking and replied in a low voice: "So, are you a legendary caster or a legendary warrior?"

"Ah? Of course not." The halfling was a little surprised: "I am just an ordinary halfling scholar. If I am so powerful, how can I be captured and used as a slave?"

"What about you?" Tang Sen looked at the other slaves who had followed.

The slaves shook their heads.

"Obviously, neither am I." Tang Sen spread his hands: "Then, I don't think we can escape with just the few of us."

"Use your brain, we haven't met the drow here yet, because this place is not important at all. If the drow plan to search the city, what do you think they will do first?"

Without waiting for the slaves to answer, Tang Sen said directly: "Block all ways to leave Menzoberranzan."

"Believe me, that's the most dangerous place now."

The halfling opened his mouth wide and soon realized that what Tang Sen said was right. He said, "But... didn't you just say that?"

"I lied to them." Tang Sen said casually: "If someone wants to follow up on our whereabouts, it is absolutely impossible for them to help us hide it. In this case, it is better to give them a wrong direction. Of course, the effect is worse than nothing, just one step Leisure chess.”

"Ah?" The halfling's voice couldn't help but grow louder: "Now are you considering the follow-up? We are not out of danger yet. Wait, what are you doing?"

He saw Tang Sen squatting in front of a rather gorgeous house, taking out a pot of liquid from his cloak and pouring it towards the corner.

"I just saw that the slave merchant happened to stock up on some oil."

As Tang Sen spoke, he took out a box of matches and lit them with a snap: "I think he won't be able to use it anyway."

"Is this a question of whether it is useful or not?" A human slave suddenly became anxious: "You don't want to set a fire, do you? That will definitely attract the attention of the drow elves!"

"I think so too." Tang Sen loosened his fingers and the match fell directly to the ground. Suddenly, the flames grew wildly and swept across like a monster.

Tang Sen took a step back slightly and squinted at the scene: "Speaking of which, I have always felt that Menzoberranzan's fire protection is average. You see, most of these building materials are flammable. .”

"Is now the time to worry about this?" Several slaves jumped up in fright, "It's over, it's over. You are simply a lunatic. It's okay if you don't run out. You are so heavily guarded, but you still plan to attract more Attention?"

"If I had known better, I wouldn't have followed you impulsively. Even if I continue to be a slave, it would be much better than losing my life by messing around with a lunatic like you."

"I thought those who followed were willing to die for freedom." Tang Sen said: "Since you are not ready to die, why should you follow?"

"I -" the slave opened his mouth and lost some confidence: "That's not how to die."

"Death is death. The way of death never matters." Tang Sen said.

At this time, the halfling had keenly heard the rapid footsteps coming from the far corner of the street. He quickly shouted: "What to do next? Since you are doing this, you must have your reasons, right? If you are planning to attract those Zhuo If you take advantage of the elf’s attention and take the opportunity to escape, we must leave quickly.”

Compared with other slaves, this halfling seemed a little calmer. At least he could think rationally about the logic of Tang Sen's behavior instead of directly thinking that Tang Sen was crazy.

"It's really time to move quickly." Tang Sen touched his waist again, took out a coil of rope, skillfully tied a knot in the rope, shook it a few times, and then threw it upward.

The rope knot hit the corner of the roof of the nearby building with great accuracy.

"So this is the route!" The halfling's eyes lit up: "You really have a careful plan. If we take the rooftop, we may be able to avoid the drow elves that are surrounding us."

Several other slaves were also stunned. One slave could not wait to grab the rope and climb upwards.

"Wait, where are you going?"

At this time, Tang Sen's voice sounded from another place. He was standing in front of the burning house and waved towards this side: "Come this way."

"Ah?" the halfling asked again: "Isn't it going to the roof?"

"Stop making trouble, do you really think there are no spellcasters in Menzoberranzan?" Tang Sen said as he wrapped his body tightly in a black robe, then took a deep breath and ran straight into it. In the sea of ​​fire.

The slave who had climbed halfway up the rope was stagnant. Seeing that the other slaves had followed Tang Sen, he looked up at the nearby roof.

"madman!"

Cursing like this, he finally gritted his teeth, let go of the rope, and quickly headed towards the sea of ​​fire.

The flames burned his body, and the figure in front of him was already looming in the flames. The thick smoke made him almost unable to open his eyes, but there was no way out at this time. He had to follow the figure in front of him through the fire. In such torture, time seemed to be extremely long, until suddenly, he was shocked to find that the figure in front of him disappeared.

Just like this, he disappeared into the fire.

This incident scared the slave almost crazy. He stepped forward quickly and found a secret door in front of him. He quickly jumped down and suddenly felt the temperature around him drop.

This is a basement.

In other words, it is a basement transformed from a natural cave. Through the fungi, you can see that it is empty, with only hard stone walls. Probably because there are no combustibles, the scope of the flames did not spread here, but the dense Smoke still inevitably fills the entire space.

"Here, help me." Tang Sen appeared next to him, struggling to push a boulder next to him. The slave's brain was in a state of mush, and he reflexively went up to help. After gathering the strength of several people, he finally blocked the entrance with a boulder.

The steady stream of thick smoke finally stopped flowing in.

At this time, everyone could breathe a sigh of relief and sit down on the ground.

"What on earth are we doing?" One slave stammered: "Why should we escape into the fire when we can obviously escape from the roof?"

He looked around. Although it was a natural cave, he saw no passages leading to other places. At most, there were only some gaps between the stones, which could barely circulate some air.

"If you don't want to be caught immediately, this is the only way at the moment." Tang Sen took off his cloak, took out a bottle of wine from somewhere, took a sip, and threw it towards the halfling.

"Don't want to be caught? Aren't we throwing ourselves into a trap now?" A slave cried sadly: "You have already lit a fire to attract the attention of those drow elves. Believe me, there are drow elves everywhere above our heads!"

"And now we have nowhere to escape!"

"There is no need to escape." Tang Sen shook his head: "At least, there is no need to escape now. The only thing we have to do is wait."

"Wait?" The halfling also took a sip of wine, handed it to the other slaves, and said, "What are you waiting for? This secret door is not hidden. When the drow clear the fire scene, they will definitely come in and catch us. etc!"

He suddenly showed a thoughtful expression: "Will they do this?"

Tang Sen suddenly laughed: "You are quite capable of using your brain."

But the halfling didn't seem to hear Tang Sen's approval. He became excited because of his guess, slapped his fist hard, stood up, and shouted excitedly: "Yes, this is indeed the best way. How can I I didn’t expect that.”

"What on earth are you talking about?" The other slaves looked confused.

"Fire scene!" The halfling waved his arms exaggeratedly and said: "If you were a drow, you would not even try to enter this place before putting out the fire. In this case, they would never think that in fact we would Hide inside the fire!"

"In their opinion, we must have set fire to attract attention and then took the opportunity to escape!"

He looked at Tang Sen in surprise: "There is also a rope. The reason why you arranged the rope just now was to mislead them!"

"When they see the fire and the ropes, they will definitely think we escaped from the roof."

"You have planned everything! The only thing I can't figure out is, why did you choose this house? How did you know that there is a hidden underground cave under this house and that there is no one living in it?"

Without waiting for Tang Sen to answer, he quickly asked and answered himself, "Yes, could it be that you showed such a submissive attitude before, not only to paralyze the slave trader, but also to delay time to collect surrounding intelligence? "

Townsend: "That's right."

Although it was because when he first came to Menzoberranzan, he had already used the surgical fruit to sense the topography and details of the city.

"But what's the point of this?" said a slave: "We still haven't escaped from Menzoberranzan, have we?"

"At least we can get through the most dangerous stage." Tang Sen said: "If we had a narrow escape before, now we have at least a 30% chance of survival."

"Why?" the slave asked bluntly.

Tang Sen narrowed his eyes and said: "Mr. Halfling's guess is partly right. I set the fire to attract the attention of the drow elves and mislead them by the way, but this is by no means the most important reason."

"Think about tonight's battle. Believe me, those drow will turn the entire city of Menzoberranzan upside down, search every corner of this city, and inspect every living thing in this city, not just They are slaves, and even their own clan members will not be spared."

After all, that was Rose's oracle. From the moment the opponent's will came to Menzoberranzan, all the power of the city would serve to capture Xue Xue.

"Under normal circumstances, we would never find a place to escape such rigorous pursuit."

"Unless we can create a place. A place where the drow naturally feel that there is no need to investigate at all."

Tang Sen raised his hand, stretched out a finger, and touched the ground.

The cave suddenly fell into silence.

All the slaves looked at Tang Sen blankly.

They didn't know how to describe the feeling in their hearts at this time. They just felt that the hairs all over their bodies stood up uncontrollably.

"Of course, there is a limit to waiting." Tang Sen continued: "We can't stay here forever. After all, we are still in danger, and it will become more and more dangerous as time goes by. Those drow elves When you don’t achieve your goals, you will definitely go crazy.”

"So, we have to seize the short-term relaxation of the drow after the investigation, and then find a way to leave Menzoberranzan. Of course, we have to act according to the circumstances."

Tang Sen shrugged: "After all, I am not a god, not even a professional. I can only do this one step at the moment."

This is indeed Tang Sen's truth. If he didn't want to avoid the perception of the gods, he wouldn't need to go to such trouble. As an ordinary person in this body, Tang Sen can only do so now.

After all, it was still too rushed. Tang Sen didn't think he was the kind of quick-thinking person. If he had more time to plan, he would have been more confident in many aspects.

But obviously the slaves didn't think so, or in other words, the part that Tang Sen didn't do well enough might be beyond their understanding.

"Anyway, let's have a good rest first." Tang Sen waved his hand and ended the topic: "It just so happened that I also picked up some dry food from the slave merchant's room. Although it's not much, it's enough for a meal."

He took out some more food.

This made the slaves feel the gap even more. When they were still in a state of panic and hesitation, the man in front of them seemed to have prepared everything, not only ropes and fire starters, but also food and wine!

The halfling took the food, took a deep breath, and murmured: "Now, even if we fail in the end, I feel that my choice was not wrong."

"Mr. Halfling, we haven't reached the point where we need to consider failure yet." Tang Sen smiled.

"O'Neill." The halfling sat up straight and said seriously: "Sir, my name is O'Neill."

"I originally thought that from the day I was captured in Menzoberranzan, I would never have to use my own name again. Sir, at least for now, I think I can use my original name to introduce myself. , not a halfling slave worth fifty gold pieces."

Such words resonated with other slaves, and they all said, "Yes, I am not an adult human male worth fifty gold coins. My name is Herbert Falk!"

"I'm not a dwarf slave either. My name is Witte! By the way, I'm worth a hundred gold coins."

"Huh? Why are you taller than us?"

"Hey, the dwarf's body is naturally strong! And he also has superb casting skills! Isn't it normal to be worth more than you?"

"No, I think it's because dwarves have longer lifespans and are more durable. They can be played with by those disgusting dark elf nobles for a longer time, right?"

"Shut your mouth, do you want to taste my fist?"

"Okay, okay, it's just a joke. I can't beat you. At least now, we are no longer the ones they use to measure the value of life with a number."

"Hey, that sounds pretty good. Let me give you a break."

This kind of quarrel finally made the atmosphere among the slaves a little more lively, and they all looked at Tang Sen.

Tang Sen understood and said: "Arthur."

"this is my name."

Tang Sen didn't know what the original name of this body was, but it didn't matter anymore.

From now on, his name is Arthur, well, a name that Tang Sen thinks is very suitable for this body.

The halfling then spoke respectfully: "Mr. Arthur——"

"Just call me Arthur." Tang Sen interrupted him and said: "We are all in the same boat now. I am not nobler than everyone else. In some ways, I even need everyone's help. "

"Speaking of which, do we have any spellcasters here?"

The halfling smiled bitterly: "Spellcasters are not at the same price as us. Arthur, except for you, we are almost all leftovers in the hands of slave traders."

"Women are the best to sell, followed by spellcasters, then elves, and finally us people." The dwarf said: "I heard the slave merchant say before that if we people can't be sold anymore, he plans to package them up and sell them to us. A gray dwarf merchant."

"The final result is either living in the mining area forever, or being sold deeper into the Underdark. I heard that gray dwarves and illithids also trade. A lot of those things require intelligent creatures to reproduce."

Everyone suddenly shivered.

No one wants to have illithid larvae implanted in their brains and transform themselves into a monster.