Night Frost pressed the Elderly Elf for more details about the treasure.

He told her it was sealed within a massive, man-made Formation.

He’d studied it all this time, yet had uncovered only a trace of its workings. Fully breaking it would take much longer.

“As someone from the Earth Realm, you must know something about the art of Formations. (Draconic)”

He was right.

In the end, Night Frost agreed.

Compared to the distant lair of the Black Dragon, she preferred the wealth and treasure left by someone from the Earth Realm.

If she walked away and ignored the treasure hidden within the Mythic Abyss, someone here might eventually claim it.

Then the Earth Realm could face another disaster for no reason.

She fully believed the Elderly Elf had the ability to break the seal.

He simply needed time.

But elves lived for so long. Who knew how many years this old fellow had left?

Decades? Centuries? Perhaps even longer.

How long had it been since humanity’s recorded history of Magic Maidens began?

Probably not as long as this old fossil had lived.

Even if he didn’t live long enough to open the treasure, there were still plenty of younger elves.

Any random one of them could live for centuries, perhaps even a thousand years.

The Elderly Elf was clearly rushing things, probably because he believed his remaining lifespan was limited.

Compared to the other elves, he did look like he already had one foot in the grave.

He wanted to visit the Earth Realm himself, but he didn’t have much time left.

Then Night Frost arrived.

She came from the Earth Realm and possessed considerable strength. Surely she also understood its Array Patterns.

That assumption was correct.

Night Frost’s Array Pattern skills were admittedly clumsy.

Even so, she’d probably count as outstanding in the modern Earth Realm.

There were barely any powerful array carvers left there.

Anyone who could merely use a Formation would be hailed as a master.

Someone like Night Frost might even be called a master among masters.

Still, agreeing didn’t mean she could definitely break the Formation.

What if its creator was a master among masters among masters?

Whatever. She’d try first.

There was nothing to lose.

If she could open it, she’d take her share.

If she couldn’t, she’d deal with whoever else tried to claim the treasure.

The Elderly Elf’s scrolls were indeed formidable. They could withstand Night Frost’s attacks.

Unless he had something even stronger, she wasn’t afraid of him.

After receiving her affirmative answer, the Elderly Elf repeatedly praised her for knowing what was good for her.

He waved his hand, ordering the nearby elves to lower their weapons and leave the wooden hut.

Then he pulled a fresh scroll from his sleeve.

Night Frost found the Array Patterns on it extremely familiar.

It was a contract scroll.

The Elderly Elf wanted to sign a contract with her, ensuring she couldn’t go back on her word.

“You want to sign a contract? Then let’s draft it together. (Draconic)”

The Elderly Elf glanced at the scroll, then turned his gaze toward Night Frost.

She’d recognized the contract scroll at a glance.

Clearly, her mastery of Formations was already quite profound.

With Night Frost joining him, the Elderly Elf believed he was another step closer to unlocking the Earth Realm’s treasure.

The two began negotiating the contract.

An elf truly was an elf. When it came to order and rules, they stood in a league of their own.

His terms could be described with just one word.

Fair.

Fair, fair, and still fucking fair.

Night Frost gained no advantage.

Neither did he.

The contract roughly stated the following:

If Night Frost unlocked the treasure, half would go to the Elderly Elf and half to her.

They would share the method of reaching the Earth Realm.

Afterward, neither party could harm the other before Night Frost departed.

Signing the contract was simple.

It worked much like the contract scrolls used in the Earth Realm.

Both parties dripped a drop of Blood onto the scroll.

Once they heard the voice of a deity, the contract was complete.

Seeing the contract finalized, Lurie finally breathed a sigh of relief.

She didn’t know Night Frost’s origins or even what the Earth Realm was.

Still, Night Frost had survived this crisis.

With an elder vouching for her, she could even move freely through the city without being investigated.

To prevent Night Frost’s identity as an Earth Realm native from being exposed, the Elderly Elf thoughtfully crafted another scroll on the spot.

Even its paper differed from the one used by the elven woman before.

With a sweeping motion, vivid lines crawled across the scroll.

Under his control, the symbols seemed to come alive.

They danced across the paper.

Night Frost did her best to memorize every movement.

The elf was using an array-carving method that had never appeared in the Earth Realm.

The old elf’s technique was remarkably deft.

He tapped the air, and the runes leaped onto the page.

They moved in perfect unison, forming an orderly pattern.

Unlike Night Frost’s method of carving arrays by hand, this was Formation creation through pure magic.

As expected of an elf. His magical talent was truly impressive.

But on second thought, Night Frost carved flames into the Magic Layer as Array Patterns.

There was a faint similarity between the two methods.

Her flames simply couldn’t move with the same agility.

To make a comparison, Night Frost was a tyrant.

She commanded her soldiers at will, ignoring their complaints.

The Elderly Elf, however, treated his runes as friends.

They communicated amicably and benefited one another.

The runes on the paper slowly gathered together.

Rows of tiny words formed across its surface.

Then the paper began radiating mysterious fluctuations before drifting into Night Frost’s palm.

“This is a specially made scroll. It can change your appearance, and it isn’t disposable. (Draconic)”

“It still has a limited number of uses. Judging by its quality, four or five uses shouldn’t be a problem. (Draconic)”

Night Frost examined it carefully.

The symbols weren’t actually any different from those on the previous scroll.

So the difference really lay in the materials?

Better materials probably produced stronger Array Patterns.

The scroll worked the same way as the one she’d used last night.

Night Frost only had to press it against her palm.

Then she could assume the same elven appearance as before.

The Elderly Elf clapped his hands.

Someone brought Night Frost an unnamed metal identification tag and a set of elven accessories.

No qualified, mature elf could do without such things.

Her previous disguise had lacked them, making it obviously fake at a glance.

Now those flaws had been fixed.

As long as she didn’t confront any ancient monsters directly, almost no one would see through her.

Until she left this Abyss, she was an elf.

The Elderly Elf then crafted another scroll and handed it to Lurie.

Lurie accepted it with profuse thanks.

Night Frost also received a map from the Elderly Elf.

It wasn’t a map of some vast plain.

It was a detailed map of the city’s defenses.

The treasure left by the Earth Realm native lay beneath this human fortress.

The elves had migrated here for a reason.

Their intentions clearly weren’t innocent.

Night Frost stored the map away in her spatial storage and put on the elven headdress.

She engraved an elf-like name onto the metal tag:

Elphie Nicholas Night Frost.

Hopefully, there weren’t any vampires or similar species in this Abyss.

There absolutely couldn’t be a vampire named Nicholas, either.

Yeah. Hopefully not.

The Elderly Elf originally planned to assign Night Frost a residence, but she refused.

She thought squeezing into Lurie’s place would be fine.

She wasn’t staying for long, anyway.

So the Elderly Elf added another bed to Lurie’s room.

A single bed would’ve been cramped, and elves wouldn’t sleep comfortably that way.

Adding one more bed wouldn’t disrupt Lurie’s daily life.

Once everything was settled, Lurie left with Night Frost.

The Elderly Elf pointed into the air.

A transparent scroll appeared, displaying images of Night Frost and Lurie.

“I’ll leave the search to you from here on. I’ll be watching you the entire time. (Elvish)”

Night Frost had no idea the Elderly Elf was observing her every move.

Right now, she cared only about the treasure beneath the city.

It was difficult to see outside from within the Obsidian Stone fortress.

Still, the scorching floor told Night Frost that the sun was blazing overhead.

There were definitely three suns in the sky.

No wonder most creatures here were active at night.

Weaker creatures would probably be dried out after taking only a few steps outside.

And so, Night Frost spent the morning shopping with Lurie.

The Elderly Elf had given her the title of druid.

Because of that, no one found it suspicious when she walked around with Li Dogegg.

Besides, most humans couldn’t understand the language of dragons.

The humans here had never seen Night Frost before.

Her clothes carried a faint reddish-gold hue.

Most elves wore green, or green paired with gold to emphasize their noble status.

Night Frost’s color scheme was something they’d never seen before.

Night Frost herself wasn’t unattractive, either.

Combined with the scroll’s effects, her appearance perfectly matched a normal human’s idea of an elf.

Once she showed her metal tag, almost no one doubted her identity.

They simply assumed she was an elf with unusual fashion tastes.

After all, humans had plenty of eccentrics.

It was perfectly normal for the elves to have one or two as well.

After carefully browsing with Lurie, Night Frost obtained a complete map of the continent.

It wasn’t expensive.

Perhaps it had once cost much more.

But the entire Abyss had been plunged into disaster, and no one wanted to venture outside.

Maps had stopped selling, so their prices naturally fell.

Lurie didn’t even need to pay.

The Elderly Elf’s advance was enough for Night Frost to splurge throughout the city.

The map was called complete, but it only showed explored regions.

Everywhere else was marked as unknown.

The weather was too hot for suitable plants to grow on the land cultivated by humans.

They could only plant tropical crops the elves had brought from the forest.

Most of those crops were fruits.

Still, that was better than nothing.

They had no shortage of carbohydrate-rich crops.

The constant heat caused certain rice-like plants to grow extremely quickly.

Those crops were the fortress’s main source of food.

That was why dinner here was actually jam with pasta.

Night Frost found the combination almost impossible to accept.

Surprisingly, the sweet pasta tasted pretty good.

Even so, she had no intention of trying it again.

It somehow filled her with the guilt of betraying her faith.

The temperature only barely dropped after nightfall.

Lurie prepared to sleep, but Night Frost had no intention of resting.

The moon was dark, and the wind was high.

It was time for Night Frost to make her move.