A slope of 30 degrees wasn’t easy to walk on. Fortunately, Qin Lun and the others weren’t ordinary people. Even though a few of them had suffered minor injuries, they were still fine with the help of their companions. The passageway wasn’t long, and the entire team didn’t go far before they saw the end of the passageway.

“Extinguish the torches!” Kelly frowned slightly and waved her hand backwards.

Everyone extinguished their torches as they were told. There were no objections. As they went deeper into the passageway, a bright light appeared in front of them, and the brightness far exceeded the previous furnace area.

The reason why there was light in the furnace area was because of the transmission of light from the outside on the ice wall, and the light here did not seem to resemble it very much.

“Could it be that the descendants of the Sanata Dwarves still live here?” A strange thought flashed through everyone’s minds.

“Longer, go ahead and take a look!” Stark’s heart skipped a beat as he whispered to the thieves in the regiment.

Kelly turned her head to look at the two of them, but did not say anything to stop them. Her strength was the strongest amongst everyone else, otherwise, she would not be at the forefront. However, the martial arts profession was inferior to thieves in terms of investigation. Since there was sufficient light here, the task of exploring the road naturally had to be entrusted to professionals.

Of course, even so, Longer didn’t need to investigate by himself. An elven ranger beside Milleras came forward consciously as his backup. The Fairy Ranger not only had night vision, but also had the ability to detect traps.

Not long after the two of them left, the Fairy Ranger turned around excitedly and waved to the team below, signaling that there was no danger ahead.

“Wow!” Walking along the top of the passageway and looking at the scenery in front of them, many people in the team let out exclamations that originated from the bottom of their hearts.

At the end of the passageway was an enormous open castle gate. The gate of the castle also had the architectural style of the Iron Star Castle. The half-hidden gate was a heavy stone gate that was five feet thick.

Under the stone door was a row of iron wheels half a meter tall. Although at first glance, it was mottled with rust and had long been connected to the ground and the stone door, one could still tell that these things were originally the pulleys of the stone door.

The entire castle gate was more than twenty meters tall and thirty meters wide. There was a dwarf stone statue that was thirty meters tall on each side of the castle gate. The stone statue had a solemn expression as it stared at the two-edged battle axe in front of it with a cloak tied to it, its upper body bare, and its hands folded together.

Even after thousands of years, the two dwarves were still filled with oppression. The long beard on their cheeks and the muscles on their arms could be clearly seen. Not only did the dust all over his body not cover up the majesty of the stone statues, it even made them look even more solemn, just like a hundred warriors who had just returned from the battlefield. Perhaps only the mottled and fine cracks on the stone statue revealed some traces of time.

At the top of the castle gate was a starry stone carving. Although the ancient Sanata dwarves lived in the mountains, they still seemed to worship the mysterious universe and carved a starry stone carving above the castle gate.

“Steel Star!” Qin Lun raised his head and stared at the broken ancient stone inscription in the middle of the starry sky. A trace of fanaticism flashed in his eyes.

Standing in front of the huge dwarf castle gate, everyone felt a thick aura of vicissitudes rushing towards them. They could not help but hold their breath and fell silently.

After a while, everyone who had recovered from the shock finally remembered to check the interior of the castle gate. At this time, Qin Lun and the others discovered where the light source came from.

“It’s a naturally formed luminous stone!” Milleras pointed at the sparkling stones embedded around the castle gate.

Qin Lun’s gaze swept across the surroundings and discovered that this castle gate should be the main gate of the Iron Star Castle. The surroundings weren’t only connected to the passageways that they had left the furnace area, there were also several larger and wider stone passageways beside them.

Some of these tunnels were upwards, some were downwards, and the tunnels that extended upwards were probably connected to the traffic between the Iron Star Fort and the outside world of the mountain range. As for the tunnels that went downwards, they should be connected to other furnace areas or ore storage areas.

“Did you two enter the castle just now to investigate?” Unlike the other women in the team who were obsessed with the dwarf ruins, Robin’s mind was still very clear. He reached out and beckoned Longer and the elven ranger to inquire carefully.

“No, I just looked outside the door.” Long Er and the Fairy Ranger exchanged a glance and shook their heads. “However, judging from the environment inside, there are no traces of life left behind. There is dust and ashes everywhere. Perhaps we are the first visitors to come here in thousands of years.”

“Then let’s go in and take a look. However, I have to trouble you two to explore the path and see if there are any traps and defensive devices inside!” Robin pondered for a moment, then waved his hand to let the two of them leave.

After crossing the gate of Iron Star Fort, a huge square appeared in front of everyone. After arriving here, Qin Lun and the others finally saw a building that matched the shape of a dwarf.

The plaza was oval in shape, and rows of stone houses stood neatly around it. However, it could be seen that this stone house was not a residential area. It should be a business district within the castle. Some of the stone houses were relatively complete in structure, and there were signs with unique symbols hanging in front of the doors.

Certain signs that are not badly damaged can be seen on them with easy-to-understand symbols. For example, the symbols of hammer and felt, the symbols of swords and shields, the symbols of bows and arrows and armor, and so on.

To Qin Lun’s surprise, he actually saw the sign of gold coins stacking on the signboard of a large building.

“Credit houses? Or banks? Did the Sanata dwarves have the financial sector in their infancy thousands of years ago?” Qin Lun curled his lips and couldn’t help but admire the dazzling civilization created by the Sanata Dwarves.

In the center of the Dwarf Square was a large circular fountain. From bottom to top, the fountain had a total of seven floors, from big to small, like a small tower-shaped cake. Of course, this fountain from thousands of years ago had long since stopped producing water, and the dust that was piled up inside was probably only a few feet thick.

The drainage system in Iron Star Castle was very developed. In front of some complete buildings, most of the people could see canals covered with stone slabs circling the houses. The stone walls of the dome above the plaza were also inlaid with many luminous stones. However, due to the size of the plaza, it was somewhat dim.

Thousands of years ago, there must have been other magical lights here. At least at dawn, the interior of the castle would be as bright as the outside of the mountain range.

Everyone in the squad dispersed and started searching the square. Milleras and a few elven rangers were exploring the history of the ruins, while the male apostles were looking for precious items left behind by the Zanata dwarves.

Of course, regardless of whether it was the apostles or the plot elves, there was another type of character in the team that could not be seen through. It was female creatures like Elistine, Nicole, and Kelly who were purely wandering and curious.

In fact, after seeing that the plaza was indeed not threatening, even Robin, the normally smart and capable leader of the Lost Rookies, began to move closer to the big-chested and brainless attribute.

“Ferrari, look, look, I found a Sanata dwarf artifact!”

“Elistine, that’s just a hammer without a wooden handle, or a piece of scrap rusted into iron slag …”

“Ferrari, look, look, gemstones ~ ~”

“En, this … is not a waste! However, there is still a gap between the broken glass bead and the gem …”

“Ferrari, look, look …”

‘”Elistine, gather it slowly. I’ll look at it later, okay? Be good ~ ~” Qin Lun felt his face was about to cramp. He expressionlessly gritted his teeth and took the Gale Steps, far away from the female creatures who had abandoned the treatment.

After a long time, Qin Lun could finally conclude that they wouldn’t be able to find any valuable items in the ruins. Judging from the buildings he inspected, apart from the dust, the rest of the room was empty and clean. It could be seen that the Iron Star Fort dwarves had evacuated in an orderly manner.

As for the reason why they abandoned the Iron Star Fort, it had been too long. Unless they could find written records, it was unlikely that they would be able to investigate it clearly. Qin Lun reckoned that it was only the decline of the underground fire veins that prevented the dwarves from forging, or the threat of foreign enemies in the vicinity of the Aramil Mountains.

“Huh? Something’s wrong!” Kelly, who was hanging out with Robin, suddenly shook her ears and a strange expression appeared on her face.

“Sister Kelly, what’s wrong?” Robin put away the smile on his face and asked in surprise.

“I really wanted to hear something just now … and now it’s gone!” Kelly frowned and said uncertainly, “You … gather the team, I heard you again!”

“En!” Robin’s expression quickly became serious.

Although she hadn’t heard anything herself, she had developed a good habit of spending a lot of time with Kelly. The martial artists were clever, and their facial features were much sharper than other combat professions without special skills. The Lost Rookies had already relied on Kelly’s ears more than once to avoid potential dangers.

“Guild Leader Robin, what’s wrong?” Everyone quickly gathered at one place. Although Milleras and the others were still reluctant to part ways, everyone knew that safety was the most important thing.

“Sister Kelly seems to have heard something unusual!” Robin explained softly.

Hearing Robin’s explanation, everyone quieted down, took a breath, and waited for Kelly’s feedback.

“Over there! Stark, follow me. The two Elf Princes and auxiliary professions are in the middle. Thieves and Rangers will be cut off!” After listening for a while, Kelly’s expression finally changed slightly and she sprinted towards the southern passageway of the Dwarf Square.

Stark opened his mouth but didn’t say anything. He stepped forward and followed closely behind Kelly. Although his strength wasn’t as strong as Kelly’s, he was still an experienced Second Grade expert. Moreover, he was an MT profession with extremely strong defenses, so he naturally had to play a vanguard role.

Since he entered Iron Star Fort, he had gained 0.005% more exploration points. Although he didn’t have a quest plot, the additional rewards for exploring the world weren’t small. Moreover, this time, the reward was double, and the contribution points he could obtain were no less than the main plot.

Of course, he could accumulate up to 0.005%, and there were also contributions from other members of the fortress. After discovering some clues, most of them first contacted Stark in order to give him a major degree of world exploration.

The sudden change surprised Qin Lun. He silently took a step back and let Elistine cover him. Black and red targets and silver dials suddenly appeared in his pupils, and his perceptual line swiftly pierced into the passageway in front of Kelly like a dancing tentacle.

Countless black and white lines interweaved and flew past Qin Lun’s retina, finally stopping at a space at the end of the corridor.

“Oh?! Interesting!” After seeing the scene in front of him, Qin Lun lowered his head and smiled strangely.