Assistant 68

  Behind the dense forest, several dark-skinned and stout humanoid creatures emerged.

  Four Selonian knights swiftly nocked arrows in their crossbows.

  Three red robes also took out their own spell scrolls, and the apprentices drew simple magic wands to guard them on both sides.

  The reputation of the Deep Dwarves is not good. These subterranean dwarves, who were driven underground by their surface-dwelling kin and enslaved and remade by the Heartstone for a long time, have become cruel and bloodthirsty in nature. Apart from their relatively good discipline and inherited craftsmanship, these dwarves have almost nothing in common with their surface-dwelling relatives. Their discipline is usually reflected in the formation they display when gathering to plunder, and the objects of their robbery are none other than the weak and powerless surface humans in their eyes.

  They often emerge from secret caves to raid nearby human villages, and have been a nightmare for surface humans for a long time.

  There are many entrances to the dark realm in the eastern domain, and more near the Sunrise Mountains. It's not surprising to encounter gray dwarves. Xien notices the bloodstains on the broken scales of these gray dwarves, thinks for a moment, and says: "We're just passing by, we don't want to cause any conflict, what do you have against us?"

  Seeing no more than six grey dwarves appearing at the edge of the forest, Penny let out a slight sigh of relief.

  Since learning some spiritual techniques, Penny's sensory abilities have become more acute. As long as he enters a state, no living thing within 200 yards can escape his perception range. He closed his eyes and sensed quietly, detecting that there were no human-like creatures nearby except for the gray dwarves in front of him. Upon closer observation of the spiritual states of these gray dwarves, it seemed that there was no powerful spellcaster among them.

  It's unlikely these dwarves are stupid enough to attack a convoy.

  "Gentlemen, we have an unpleasant request." The people on the edge of the convoy became even more vigilant when they heard the dwarf's words spoken in a stiff tone like granite.

  This sounds like an opening speech for robbery.

  "Don't get me wrong! I just want to ask, is there a divine servant among the teams of adults?" The leader of the group, a sturdy gray dwarf, hastily waved his hand and said.

  Although his voice was stiff, it was clear that his words were nimble. Upon closer inspection, it could also be seen that the scales on his body were intact, from which it could be inferred that he held a relatively high position among this group of gray dwarves.

  Pannier pondered the dwarf's words for a moment, gazing at the bloodstains on several of the dwarves: "Do you have wounded who need treatment?"

  "Not bad." The dwarf nodded.

  "There's no one here you're looking for." Penny shook her head.

  Several grey dwarves exchanged a disheartened glance before cautiously retreating into the forest in the face of the approaching convoy.

  "But I think I can help you."

  Several dwarves nearby looked stunned at the male wizard's words, and even Lirien and Hues looked at Penny suspiciously: "Are you a priest, Penny?"

  "Not being a part-time pastor doesn't mean you can't heal wounds." Penny blinked her eyes, and those few gray dwarves approached again:

  "If you can help us, we will be eternally grateful."

  "Really?" Penny raised an eyebrow, curiosity sparked in her mind. Although the grey dwarves were evil and bloodthirsty, they had a good reputation for keeping their word and rarely lied. This tradition came from their surface-dwelling relatives, and under such circumstances, it was unlikely that the grey dwarves would cheat - cunning was not in their nature.

  Moreover, there's nothing wrong with taking advantage of a good opportunity when it arises. With this in mind, Penny spoke up and asked, "So tell me about your situation."

  Liggy and Hughes exchanged a look, sensing Penny's confidence, wisely chose silence.

  A few grey dwarves hesitated briefly, arguing with each other for a few minutes, as if they had made some kind of decision, before leading several people into the forest. Along the way, Penny learned that these dwarves were originally driven out and hunted by their own kin because of differences in faith.

  "Most of our kin down here worship Radag, but those guys haven't taken away our right to worship Dumathoin." The leader of the dwarves, a sturdy fellow named Rurik: "The new chieftain is a religious fanatic."

  "Hmm... will the Grey Dwarves also go to worship the Silent Guardians?" Hughes raised an eyebrow: "This sounds really strange."

  Dwarves who were driven out of the surface world worshiped Radug, the dwarven guardian deity. Occasionally some also chose to worship 'The Unseen Queen of the Deep' Radu.

  However, Dumuzi is a god worshipped by the dwarves of Azeroth.

  "He answered our prayers, and our faith was sincere." Rurik blew on his grey-white whiskers, looking at Hughes with discontent.

  "This belief determines your way of doing things and is vastly different from that of your own kind." Hughes sneered: "No wonder you were ostracized and hunted down."

  "That son of a bitch's new clan leader doesn't even give us the right to stay." Rurick glared angrily: "We never thought of overthrowing his rule."

  "The middle road is mostly impassable, that's the lesson." Liji Tower suddenly let out a cold laugh. At this time, the forest arrived at a bend, and a cave appeared between the rocks, where several people crawled in to see a small group of bloody gray dwarves lying or sitting inside the cave.

  There were exactly twelve of the dwarves, and in the deepest part of the cave, the one with a long beard and holding a wooden staff caught Panny's attention, only because his beard was too long, over four feet, and the roots of his whiskers were densely braided into a braid at the bottom, tied into a bundle. The dwarf had wrinkles all over his face, obviously not young anymore.

  By observing, Parn noticed that the dwarf was extremely weak and could die at any moment. He leaned in closer, Hughes stepped forward with a look of uncertainty: "Friend, are you sure you don't know any healing spells?"

  "Must one use magic to save a person?" Panni sighed, shaking his head, and placed his right hand on the old man's chest. He turned back to look at Rurick: "Uh...his ribs are almost completely broken?"

  "Only a fourth-level treatment spell can solve such an injury." Hughes also identified the old dwarf's injury, frowned again, and cast a detection spell: "Hmm, I've changed my mind, Xien. There are some spiritual creatures parasitizing in his body. Fourth-level divine magic is clearly powerless. Even if we choose a priest who specializes in healing, at least fifth-level divine magic is needed to solve the problem. And we're just third-level arcanists. Are you sure you can do it?"

  Several grey dwarves who had been brought in by the red robes changed color, and they naturally knew that the dwarf elder's injuries could be fatal at any time, otherwise they would not have taken the risk of bringing several red robes in. They heard Hughes' words and bowed down to Penny together.

  "If you can save Elder's life, we are willing to offer everything as a thank you gift."

  Liji Tower stood on one side, watching this scene with a playful and curious gaze.

  "I can only say try it out." Panni pulled out a small white toolbox with a bright red cross painted on it, perhaps representing some kind of memorial. He opened the box and inside were various surgical tools. He shook his head at the several pale gray dwarves: "I'm going to use these tools to remove something from your elder's body, don't be afraid."

  "Oh, okay......" Rurick's eyes flickered as he took two steps back, although for a dwarf, suturing wounds or removing foreign objects with tools was not uncommon, but he still felt uneasy.

  But the next moment, he saw that the wizard's small knife in his hand cut open the old dwarf's chest and abdomen at an extremely fast speed. Before he could react, Panni's other hand with pliers rummaged through the internal organs, and a semi-transparent worm-like creature was pinched out and thrown to the ground.

  This parasite had a terrifying head, making people feel terrified just by looking at it. Rourou's face turned red in an instant, and he swung his axe to smash the worm into minced meat.

  While others were completely absorbed in Panni's actions.

  Flying scalpels, hemostatic forceps, tweezers, scissors... fingers that change like magic, damaged tendons and bones recover one by one at an incredible speed, leaving people staring in amazement. Yet, amidst such high-speed movements, there is still a rhythmic sense of regularity, which leaves onlookers even more stunned.

  The needle flew quickly to sew up the incision, bandages and splints wrapped around the old dwarf's upper body, Penny's bloody hand reached out to Hughes, which startled this Changer: "What are you doing?"

  "Potion, you should have brought it," Penny said.

  "Oh, not bad." Hughes raised an eyebrow, knowing that the injury had been adjusted to this extent, and a lower-grade potion would be almost enough to take effect. He took out a bottle of potion and handed it to Penny to pour into the old gray dwarf's mouth.

  "Your craftsmanship is really skilled." He praised.

  "Believe me, you don't want to know how I honed this skill." Penny gave Hughes a weird smile, feeling rather strange about picking up his old trade again. His skills were far more refined now than they had been in his past life.

  "Whatever, who doesn't know what kind of place the Academy is." The red-robed woman next to him let out a snort of laughter, but had already roughly guessed how such agile moves were practiced, and at the same time felt a bit wary of Panni in her heart.

  Penny wiped her hands with a surgical tool, tossed the blood-stained cloth aside, and walked over to several other injured gray dwarves to begin treating them. These gray dwarves were mostly lightly or moderately wounded, none as severe as Old Gray Dwarf's case. Penny thought for a moment before understanding the reason.

  Probably others with similar injuries to the old dwarf have already been abandoned, because the old dwarf's status is obviously very high.

  At this time, the old dwarf coughed a few times, and several grey dwarves, including Luruk, leaned in:

  "Older brother..."

  ……

  "Thank you for your help, uh...... if I'm not mistaken, you are the Red Robe Mages from the Serel region..." The weak old dwarf looked at Penny and her group with a somewhat puzzled gaze.

  "Not bad, we are Red Cloaks of Serel." The grey dwarves around them had mostly been treated by now, and Penny nodded.

  "Oh." The dwarf elder nodded, a thoughtful expression appearing on his face.

  Pang was silent for a moment, and it was clear that this dwarf seemed to know the significance of the term "Red Robe Master".

  He may have to change his mind about his original plan.

  "Elder, we have presumptuously promised a reward on your behalf." Rurick said respectfully to the elder.

  "What is it that you want?" The dwarf elder's gaze was fixed on Panni.

  "What kind of reward we can get depends on what you can offer in return." Penny thought for a moment, then kicked the ball back.

  The dwarf elder laughed: "You are cunning, wizard. You know that we now have no home to return to and nothing of value to repay you with except ourselves."

  He hesitated for a moment, then said: "You saved the lives of us dwarves, and according to our principles, we have sufficient reason to live and die with you. However, I dare not confirm whether you are worthy of our continued loyalty after repaying your kindness."

  "To be honest, we are indeed short-handed." Penny said frankly: "We hope to get any help that can be obtained."

  "Children, what are your opinions?" The dwarf elder stroked his beard twice and asked the other seventeen clansmen.

  "We have already promised them." said Rurik.

  "This monk saved our lives," said the dwarves who had been treated by Panni.

  "That's settled then." The dwarf elder turned to the wizard, furrowing his brow: "However, you should be clear, wizard, that there are still people pursuing us, even though we've temporarily shaken them off. Moreover, if we think we've repaid your kindness and you can't attract us to continue serving you, we'll leave immediately."

  "No problem, these conditions are reasonable." The law master's face showed a smile. In any case, being able to escape here already demonstrated the power of these dwarves, and dwarves were born craftsmen, often useful in many situations.