Chapter 1 The Languages

Of the twenty-one of them, each had learned at least a few languages from various races. Nie Yan had learned the most, a total of thirteen. Some were learned by spending money in the library, and some were learned unintentionally during adventures. The person who knew the fewest languages had learned at least five. Common Tongue and Ancient Common Tongue were required, as well as more common languages such as Orcish and Gnome. Within each major language family, there were many smaller languages. Koradi Tauren was a minor language within Orcish.

"What's written on it?" Nie Yan asked Xie Yao.

"The Lost World, fallen into a dark dimension, a place of eternal night, without sunlight. When the Dimensional Gate opens, the ancient world will welcome a glimmer of dawn. With your hand, touch your heart, and pray to the name of the god, sigola..." Xie Yao read. There was a long passage of text, the meaning of which was very obscure. Behind these sentences were five symbols, identical to the symbols on the stone pillars.

"What does this text mean?" Undying Scoundrel asked, puzzled.

By this time, everyone had cleared out the five hellhounds and gathered around, looking at the scroll, pondering the meaning of the text.

Nie Yan looked at the symbols on the parchment, then at the stone pillars. The symbols on the pillars were like enlarged versions of the ones on the parchment. Waves of energy rippled out from these symbols, spreading in all directions.

A flash of inspiration struck Nie Yan. He walked towards one of the stone pillars, slowly reaching out his right hand. His mind was blank as he softly chanted a spell: "sigola..."

His deep voice, with its strange syllables, gave a mysterious and awe-inspiring feeling.

"What is Boss doing?" Lusting Youth asked in confusion.

"I don't know."

After a moment, the symbol on the stone pillar slowly lit up, emitting a shimmering white light, like a lamp.

Seeing this scene, all the team members felt it was magical.

Nie Yan withdrew his hand and looked up. Just as he had guessed, he had succeeded.

After lighting the first stone pillar, Nie Yan continued towards another.

"Does Boss light the pillars in a specific order?"

"It should be."

The others chatted softly, not daring to disturb Nie Yan.

Time passed, and Nie Yan continued to light the second stone pillar, then the third, fourth, and fifth. Seemingly without any pattern, completely random, they were actually activated according to the descriptions on the parchment.

After the fifth stone pillar was lit, a pillar of light shot into the sky from the center of the five pillars. The light cascaded down, and a white gate slowly opened in the center of the pillar.

Looking into the gate, it was a dazzling white light, and it was impossible to tell where it led.

"This should be a teleportation gate, right?" Undying Scoundrel said in surprise.

"It might lead to the dark world mentioned on the parchment," Summer Bug speculated.

"Boss, should we go in?" Undying Scoundrel looked at Nie Yan.

"Now that we're here, let's go take a look," Nie Yan said after a moment's thought. This should already be the center of the inner city of Batl, and Mefisto might not be here, but inside the teleportation gate.

Under Nie Yan's leadership, the others walked in one after another. A dazzling white light flashed before their eyes, and when they opened their eyes again, they were in another world. The sky was very gloomy, and a light rain was falling.

As far as the eye could see, it was a wasteland, with many stones scattered on the ground and sparse weeds growing.

System: You have discovered the Lost Dark World of Batl.

Seeing this system prompt, Nie Yan frowned slightly. So this was the true Lost Batl. Searching for Mefisto in the Paternoster Hammer quest should be in this dark world.

The monsters that spawned nearby were hounds covered in gray fur. They were extremely ugly, with many places on their bodies already rotting, hanging with scraps of flesh. Their eyes flickered with a fanatical red light, and their mouths were full of sharp fangs, making them look extremely ferocious.

There were a large number of hounds here, and they were in packs, hundreds in a group. They were a dark mass, which looked very frightening.

These hounds noticed Nie Yan's uninvited guests and immediately gathered from all directions, numbering in the thousands. Some of the hounds let out loud cries, and even more hounds came from all directions, surrounding them tightly.

Everyone became tense. Lei Su, Water Color Smoke, and Brilliant Knife Light occupied three corners. Dark Cantor and the thieves scattered around the outside, and the magic classes retreated to the inside, forming a circular formation.

The hounds slowly approached, only a few dozen yards away from Nie Yan and the others.

"Damn, there are so many!" Undying Scoundrel said gloomily.

Nie Yan threw an Investigation at one of the hounds.

Demon Hound: Level 160 Elite, Health 800,000.

All were elite-level creatures or higher. Some of the larger ones were a head taller than ordinary Demon Hounds, and their size was like that of a lion, which was very alarming. These were demon hound leaders at the Lord level with three million health.

Their eyes stared fanatically at Nie Yan and the others, wandering about twenty or thirty yards away, baring their sharp teeth and growling.

"Those with Fire Walls, quickly cast Fire Walls!" Nie Yan quickly said in the team chat.

As soon as Nie Yan finished speaking, Tang Yao, Summer Bug, Mo Jiu, and others waved their staffs, and walls of fire more than two yards high burned on the ground, the raging flames constantly burning.

These fire walls were densely packed, with less than a yard between each one.

After the flames rose, the Demon Hounds at the front were attacked, and damage numbers of 30,000 to 40,000 floated above their heads.

The Demon Hounds were immediately enraged. They rushed towards Nie Yan and the others, passing through the flames. They suddenly lunged about five or six yards away.

Five Demon Hounds pounced on Brilliant Knife Light. Brilliant Knife Light let out a low cry, Shock! With a bang, the five Demon Hounds flew out.

He raised his shield, constantly swatting away the Demon Hounds pouncing from behind.

After passing through so many fire walls, the Demon Hounds had lost more than half their health, but they still had nearly 300,000 to 400,000 health and were still very capable of fighting.

Everyone was engaged in intense combat, and the entire team worked together in tacit understanding. Melee units formed a wall, mages provided damage, and priests provided healing.

Under Nie Yan's command, the Gold Dragon rushed out, plunging into the encirclement of the Demon Hounds. Under the dense attacks of the Demon Hounds, it constantly triggered the Counterattack Storm. The Gold Dragon swept down a group, but the Demon Hounds' attacks were still quite fierce. Their sharp teeth constantly bit into the Gold Dragon's body, and damage numbers of over 10,000 floated up from the Gold Dragon's head. With so many Demon Hounds attacking frequently, the amount of damage was considerable.

Under Nie Yan's command, the holy knight Leves constantly cast healing spells on the Gold Dragon.

A huge Demon Hound leader pounced on Nie Yan. Because Nie Yan had killed the most Demon Hounds, it had set its sights on him.

Seeing the Demon Hound pounce from above, Nie Yan stepped forward, a spinning kick landing on the Demon Hound leader's throat with a muffled thud. The Demon Hound leader whimpered, flying dozens of yards before crashing to the ground.

As soon as the Demon Hound leader flew out, five Demon Hounds surrounded him from all directions.

Nie Yan retreated slightly, a powerful elbow smash hitting one of the Demon Hounds on the head, instantly smashing it into the ground.

Under his feet, Shadow Dance moved, his figure flashing, dodging the attacks of the Demon Hounds. A Spine Break stabbed fiercely into the back of one of the Demon Hounds.

In the chaotic battle, a Demon Hound bit down on Nie Yan's right foot.

A damage number of over 10,000 floated above Nie Yan's head. Nie Yan tried to pull his foot back, but found that his right foot was being held and he couldn't pull it back at all. Damage numbers of 2,000 to 3,000 floated up one after another.

"Everyone be careful, these Demon Hounds have a Tear skill that can cause continuous damage!" Water Color Smoke said anxiously in the team chat.

Another Demon Hound pounced out from the side, about to bite Nie Yan. Nie Yan thrust out the Zennard's Sword in his hand, piercing the Demon Hound's throat with a soft sound. A damage number of over 300,000 floated up from its head, instantly killing it!

After Nie Yan withdrew Zennard's Sword, he slashed down, killing the Demon Hound that was biting him.

"Boss, there are too many of them," Lusting Youth said gloomily.

"Yeah, they're simply inexhaustible. How long will we have to kill them?" Undying Scoundrel said. Looking into the distance, the Demon Hounds were like a tide, stretching endlessly, a dark mass. If they kept fighting like this, their mana would be exhausted sooner or later.

"Fortunately, we're getting experience, and the experience points are quite considerable," Summer Bug said optimistically.

"Let's kill some first. Who has any AoE forbidden spells?" Nie Yan asked the others.

"Boss is going to use forbidden spells to bombard them?" Everyone was stunned.

"We can't clear them out without forbidden spells," Nie Yan said, but forbidden spells could only bombard one side. They couldn't cover themselves.

"I have one," Tang Yao said, looking at his skill bar.

The mages looked at each other and said, "Our forbidden spells have all been used and are still on cooldown."

Nie Yan looked at the Magic Orb, which was currently being held by Xie Yao, and said, "How many AoE forbidden spells are on the Magic Orb?"

"Two," Xie Yao said, looking at the skills on the Magic Orb.

Having three AoE forbidden spells was already very good. Using these AoE forbidden spells effectively could kill a lot of Demon Hounds.