Chapter 165: Visitors from the Dark Lands

Through the accounts of the three remaining members of Team Swiftwind, all adventurers learned in detail about how Lord Dalaran and the Adventurers’ Guild handled the attack on them.
Donald’s kind and fair approach, along with the guild’s benefits and treatment for the fallen adventurers—essentially providing double insurance for those who joined—moved all the adventurers who heard about it deeply. A few older, experienced adventurers even nearly cried.
Why did they risk their lives in such perilous adventures? It was to achieve success and wealth, so as not to spend their entire lives working in the fields like their ancestors, ensuring their descendants would never achieve anything either!
Aside from a few who joined out of a longing for an adventurous life, most adventurers were originally ordinary commoners. Reaching the Bronze rank was already extremely rare, and those who attained Silver strength were even rarer. It was a high-risk job—nearly half of the adventurers encountered accidents along the way, and the rest returned injured. Only a tiny fraction could enjoy a peaceful retirement.
Now, with such a kind lord and an organization that truly cared for adventurers—whether it was Dalaran or the Adventurers’ Guild—they were deeply moved!
Many had resolved to support the guild, with some even considering settling in Dalaran.
Putting aside the adventurers’ emotions, Donald, who had left the Adventurers’ Guild, was now in the Green Cloak Forest with Uther.
After his last period of cultivation, his strength had automatically risen to the peak of Bronze, and his soul level had surpassed the upgrade threshold. His innate spell, Teleportation, had finally evolved into a group teleportation spell that could transport others. Once he reached Silver rank, he could upgrade it to a major teleportation spell, allowing him to travel freely anywhere he had been in the main world.
According to the descriptions of two members of Team Swiftwind, Donald summoned five owls at once and sent them flying in the general direction of the incident to investigate. He and Uther followed on foot. As they walked, Donald asked, “Uther, what’s your current strength level?”
“It’s stabilized at mid-Silver. The people in this world are closed-minded, and there isn’t much accumulation of Holy Light. Yet no one has ever grasped the true essence of Holy Light, so its reserves are abundant enough for me to break through to the Legendary realm, or even higher!”

Hearing this, Donald glanced at Uther with envy, admiring his way of cultivating by drawing power directly from the source of holy light and advancing simply by staying at home. Through the knowledge imparted by the Book of Truth and his own understanding of divinity, Donald realized that the holy light power used by Uther also stemmed from faith—though it was a variant of that power, more akin to the light generated by people’s commitment to justice and their hope for good things. It remained hidden in the void, undetectable by those who had not grasped the true essence of holy light.

According to the Book of Truth, Holy Knights derived from demons were precisely such individuals who had understood the heart of holy light. They drew upon this light power through their will and selves for immediate use. This was also why, even without true gods, Holy Knights like Uther could wield abilities similar to divine spells.

Unlike the orthodox priests and paladins in this world, whose powers came from true gods through faith, they obtained seeds of holy light and gradually cultivated them to grow stronger. This vast force of holy light, like the wills of other planes, lacked wisdom and possessed only instinctive will. Anyone who understood the mysteries of holy light could draw power from it. Conversely, the more people understood these mysteries, the stronger the power returned to holy light—a mutually reinforcing process.

Just as mages drew elements and magic from the world and swordsmen converted energy from food and air into sword energy, Holy Knights had no other restrictions except to act in accordance with the true nature of holy light.

In fact, Donald had another idea: if he could master this neglected force of holy light in this world, it would undoubtedly grant him authority to manipulate the world’s rules, allowing him to become a powerful being akin to a true god. Even igniting a divine flame to become a true god would not be difficult. Especially since the mysteries of holy light were inherently divine, the process of gathering divine status could be completed effortlessly, saving much time.

However, although Donald admired the lifestyle of knights and the ideals they upheld, he did not fully agree with them. After all, he was still an ordinary human—though he had a good side, he was also selfish and had desires. Requiring him to act according to knightly doctrines like a monk would be an unbearable life for him!
So even though it was a tremendous power, one that could even lead to divinity, Donald was willing to give it up. His path was not limited to this one; whether it was the Book of Truth or the primal divinity of the evil god, both seemed to point him in a different direction. Though it might be extremely difficult, the future ahead was brighter, and there were no restrictions like those associated with wielding holy light. After all, while taking shortcuts might lead to quick success, it required a price!
These thoughts flashed through Donald’s mind, and he stopped thinking further. The power Uther had acquired was nothing different from his own, right? The beings created through the Book of Truth were already tied to their master in an unbreakable bond. Donald believed that even if Uther became as powerful as a true god, he would not betray him.
He then inquired about the situation at the Blue Vein Magic Metal Mine and received replies that everything was normal. Soon after, an owl ahead brought news.
The owl had spotted monsters in the forest. Through its eyes, Donald saw two lizard-like humanoids over eight feet tall, armed, walking through the forest.
“They match the description given by those two adventurers from the Swift Wind Squad—they’re indeed lizardmen!” Donald said softly.
“Let’s go and see how strong these guys are!”
With that, he used the owl’s location as a coordinate to teleport himself and Uther in front of the two lizardmen.
“Sssss…”
Detecting strange creatures, the two lizardmen immediately used their unique cries to warn their kind. Then, they swung their weapons fiercely, using their strong legs and tails to charge at Donald and his companions.
But Donald and his companion remained motionless. With a wave of his hand, an ice-blue light exploded between the two lizardmen, instantly turning the two opponents, whose strength was at least at the beginning stage of bronze rank, into ice sculptures.
“Amphibians really fear the cold! It’s worth watching those science and exploration shows after all!…”

After casting the Frost Nova spell to take care of the two lizardmen, Donald realized they weren’t dead—only weakened by the power of ice and unable to move. Their minds remained clear, and they should be able to move freely again in about half an hour. So Donald stepped forward and used his innate ability of telepathy, which he had acquired after gaining divine bloodline. Not knowing whether these lizardmen understood the common language of the continent, Donald decided to communicate directly with them through their minds to extract the information he needed. Fifteen minutes later, Donald withdrew his telepathic ability, his expression a mix of joy and concern. He muttered to himself, “So they’re subterranean creatures from the Dark Regions. I never knew there was an abyss near my territory with a portal to the main material world…” The two lizardmen were initially defiant but couldn’t withstand Donald’s slight threat. Their intelligence was much simpler than that of humans, and they had never encountered such psychological tactics. Without Donald having to inflict pain, they revealed everything he wanted to know. Through Donald’s interrogation, the two lizardmen revealed that they belonged to a lizardman race called the Black-Scaled Lizardmen. They originally lived in the surface world but were forced to migrate underground due to a great calamity that affected the entire world a thousand years ago. In the main material world, not only did many creatures live on the surface, but there were also numerous beings thriving in the underground cave worlds. The most famous among them were the black dragons and the dark elves. To humans on the surface, both the black dragons and the dark elves were merely legends—the former being degenerate dragons exiled to the underground world by the dragon race, and the latter being corrupted elves who betrayed the will of nature and the elven gods; both were considered evil races. It was said that even as the dark elves retreated to the underground world, they already pledged allegiance to the evil gods, transforming from proud and pure elves into cruel and wicked beings, which earned them widespread hatred from the creatures of the main material world. Aside from these two most famous races, the racial structure of the Dark Regions world was almost as complex as that of the surface world. And unlike the surface world, which mostly maintained stability and peace, the underground world followed a brutal law of the jungle—survival of the fittest was inevitable, and random killings were even more alarming.