The town of Slobudo is located on the shore of a huge cave lake.

The north and south borders of the town are separated from the outside world by high walls made of fishing nets. Suspension bridges and platforms are randomly interspersed in the town, connecting each floor building structure made of hollowed-out stalactite pillars to form a kind of interpenetration.

public space.

In addition to trading with other races in the Underdark, the Kuo-Toa here also provide shipping and navigation services. It is no exaggeration to call it the largest underground port in the nearby area.

Brian and others were escorted by the fishman high priest team and arrived at the gate of the town.

Although their hands were all tied up, and they were surrounded by heavily armed Kuo Tao supervisors, what bound their hands was a kind of soft fish gut. As long as he used a little force, he could break free easily.

In this case, if the other party dares to show any hostility, he can instantly pull out a pistol and kill him on the spot.

After all, the strength of the fish-man high priest in front of him is only about level 10, and has not yet reached the paragon level.

Taking advantage of his unpreparedness, he was still very confident in dealing with a fishman of this level.

Of course, if everything goes as planned by both parties, he doesn't mind helping them win this war between faiths.

Brian looked at the surrounding environment. The north and south sides of the town were separated by stone walls. The walls of these walls were also woven with heavy fishing nets with sharp bones.

In front of the gate, which was only about two meters high, four Kuotao whippers holding pincer staffs bowed respectfully to the high priest and then gave way to the passage.

Seeing this scene, he realized that the high priest had not lost control of the town of Slobudo yet.

Then he looked at Hesiah next to him, followed the steps of the high priest without any hesitation, and entered through a gate in the middle of the wall.

The huge cave is not as brightly lit as the drow city. Most of the dim light in the town comes from the glands of some glowing fungi, corals and cave fish.

It looks more like it is shrouded in a dark curtain, making people feel depressed unconsciously.

Brian was not surprised by this.

After all, the kuo-toa are afraid of excessively bright light. Anyone approaching them with excessively strong lighting will arouse hostility.

The fish people in the town are busy with their own things, repairing fishing nets, repairing ships, or polishing harpoons, etc.

When they saw the high priest passing by with a group of people, they just raised their heads and glanced, and then they each went about their own business.

Brian is quite familiar with the habits of the Kuo-Toa people.

In addition to words, they like to use a lot of gestures in daily communication.

Their backs are not straight and they like to make quick and sudden movements.

When talking to others, they will keep pacing and circling around the other person.

What's even more funny is that the Kuo-Toa priests usually don't stand on the podium to give lectures to their apprentices. Instead, they walk around while speaking, and the apprentices follow them around like a school of fish.

Leaders of the Kuo Tao fish people like to establish a tall image in front of their subordinates. When there is no high platform for the leader to speak, the leader will directly stand on the body of his companion lying on the ground.

But when it comes to living, those with higher status tend to live on the lower floors of buildings where they consider themselves safe. This may also involve their water-loving habits.

At this time, in the town, in addition to the busy Kuo-Tao civilians and patrolling soldiers, there were also many fish-men who looked like they had lost their souls, wandering around the town aimlessly.

"Ignore it, they are sleepwalking." Brian saw a kuo-toa man walking slowly around Hesiah, which made her a little confused as to what to do.

So he raised his foot and kicked him aside.

The sleepwalking murloc shuddered suddenly, woke up from his sleep, rolled over and got up from the ground, staring at Brian with a pair of big silver-black eyes and grinning teeth.

Finally, after being handed over by the high priest with a look, he was so frightened that he covered his butt and ran away in despair.

Kuo-toas have no eyelids, so they cannot blink. This makes them look like they are awake when they are asleep. In addition, they often sleepwalk, which always causes confusion.

When they passed the dock, Brian found six Kuo-Toa keel boats anchored here, and five patrol teams patrolling back and forth around the lake.

Each team is composed of one Kuo Tao Promoter and three Kuo Tao Supervisors.

To his surprise, the bustling dock he imagined had become quiet. Except for the Kuo-Toa fishmen, no other underground race could be seen.

This made him realize that the other races that came here might have been sacrificed by the followers of the Father of the Deep.

He secretly remembered the location of this place. If an unpredictable accident occurred, he would not mind grabbing a keel boat and escaping from this place.

About half an hour later, under the leadership of the fishman high priest, they passed by the altar of Bribodup, the Mother of the Sea.

A nine-foot-tall statue stands here.

The statue roughly carves a humanoid female figure from the stem of a Zeke wood mushroom.

Her head and front paws resemble giant albino crayfish.

These two parts were wrapped with gut and gave off a strong stench of rotting shell creatures.

At the feet of the statue are piles of shells, colored stones, mushrooms and rotten fish, while a garland of flowers hangs around its neck.

Four devout kuo-toa circled the statue slowly and were on alert.

There were several other people circling around, looking up at the statue from time to time, and murmuring words while worshiping.

In fact, the kuo-toa originally had no gods.

The gods they worship are actually just their crazy creations. By chance, after gaining enough power from believers, the gods of the Kuo-Toa people can actually manifest themselves.

It is said that the image of the god Kuo Tao is inspired by the miracles that occurred because of it, so it often appears quite random and absurd.

The most revered of these self-created deities is the "Mother of the Sea" Bribodup, a human woman with a shell draped over her shoulders and a crayfish head and claws.

The image of Bribodup, the "Mother of the Sea", is a product of the Kuo-Toa people using various carapace to repair human statues.

The exquisite image of the restored handicraft suddenly impressed all the Kuo-Toa people, and a god was born.

In other words, the gods of the Kuo Toa people were created by themselves relying on the embodiment of their faith.

At this time, groups of Kuo Tao fishmen appeared from time to time near the altar, devoutly looking at the 'Mother of the Sea' Bribodup, offering their own sacrifices, or taking away an item near the altar.

, to pray for protection.

For the Kuo-Toa, taking away a sacrificial object from the altar is also a way for them to express their devotion to the goddess.

Because the 'Mother of the Sea' Bribodup is a scavenger goddess, whether you discard items to her or take items from here, you can use them as tributes to her.

For Kuo Tao fish people, personal belongings that are close to the body are more pleasing to the goddess.

Gu Su

Therefore, there will often be more sacrifices than items taken away.

Over time, the altar now looks like a garbage recycling bin, filled with various underground garbage such as shells, bones, fungi, and rotten shrimps, soldiers, crabs, and generals.

"Brian, did you notice anything was wrong?"

When Brian was inspecting the altar of 'Mother of the Sea' Bribodup, Hesiah glanced at the fishman high priest in confusion, came to his side, and used magic to transmit the message:

"Why do I feel that this fishman priest seems to have no respect for the gods they believe in? When passing by the altar, he doesn't even look at it."

"I've noticed it." Brian nodded slightly and said to her, "It seems the whole thing is not as simple as imagined. Be vigilant and don't fall into their trap."

He and Hesiah looked at each other, and immediately turned their attention to the Kuo-toa warriors guarding the altar.

He noticed that these Kuo-Tao fishmen warriors were very vigilant towards everyone who passed by, even the fishman high priests were no exception.

One of the leading Kuo Tao fish-man whippers even kept his vigilant gaze on the fish-man high priest until he was blocked by the crowd and disappeared from sight, and then he took it back.

With doubts, Brian followed the fishman high priest to a small house not far from the altar.

The first thing that caught the eye was a cabinet filled with various treasures in the high priest's room.

From the types of items, it can be seen that they should all be found from some unlucky travelers or from the depths of the dark lake.

Since the trading currency in the Underdark is mainly gemstones, the cabinets at the moment are full of dazzling jewelry.

"Um?"

Suddenly, Brian noticed a unique sapphire in the pile of gems.

Immediately afterwards, a hint of joy appeared on his expression.

He found that there was a black sapphire inside.

This is an extremely rare sapphire with a deep, rich black color with blue or white highlights.

Most of these jewelry come from the dark places, especially the large cracks in the underground world or the deep underground rivers.

If you want to get the black sapphire in the surface world, you can only go to the deep realm of the gray dwarves to find it.

Although this gem is not favored by the nobles due to its deep color, the water element energy it contains is an indispensable material for wizards to make powerful water-attribute magic equipment.

For Brian, its real function is one of the four gems used to guide the energy of the elemental plane when building the Elemental Pool of the Wizard Tower.

The reason why he chose to return to the surface from the gray dwarf's royal city of Aldus.

Taking advantage of the chaos to recruit a group of gray dwarves was only one of his stated goals. Searching for the black sapphires was also part of his plan.

To his surprise, he accidentally discovered this gem here.

In this case, he has collected half of the four energy gems in the elemental pool.

Brian didn't know the value of the black sapphire in the hearts of the Kuo-Toa people. If he didn't know the goods, he might be able to get it easily.

If they knew the true value of the gem, it would be impossible for him to afford it with his current financial resources.

This forced him to start thinking in advance about a way to definitely get the gems.
To be continued...