Overlord: Start from the Goblin Lair.

Chapter 309 The Screaming Statue

"Inside? It doesn't look like there's anything in there." The black dragon used his paralyzed front paw to poke the statue that had fallen into the mud. From the outside, it looked like there was indeed no hole on the bronze statue that led to the inside. "And from the sound you hear, it doesn't sound hollow."

"She should be referring to some kind of existence attached to it," Ron's hand brushed across the black dragon's back. "Unfortunately, although Devin Booker's arrangement prevented it from escaping, it also destroyed the existence inside... Gillianis, can this statue come back to life?"

"Not today at least." The elf summoned a magician's hand to pick up the statue, and then controlled the water flow to absorb the mud on it. "Look at the inscriptions here. This statue can only be summoned once a day. If you want to try to summon it again, you have to wait until the next morning at least."

"As for the summoning method, it was awakened by your blood. You'd better use the same method next time," Gillianis added when she saw Ron dragging his arm that had not yet fully recovered. "But don't worry, the evil inside the statue has been expelled. It shouldn't be so toxic when summoned again. After all, these elemental creatures are not ghouls."

The moon elf also suggested going down to see the former residence of the murloc paladin. Since only Ron had been to the underwater cave, he had to prepare to go into the water to show the way despite his wounded hands. However, unlike last time, under the control of the three wizards, the water flow of the underground river was divided as recorded in some religious books, allowing the four people to freely approach the residence of the murloc paladin without getting wet.

"There was a fierce battle here." As they advanced in this way, details that Ron and his team had never noticed in the past were revealed. A large number of traces of fighting were difficult to erase even after being washed away by water. Ron noticed the puncture marks in groups of three that penetrated the rock formations. They might have been left by the trident of the fishman.

The cave where Devin Booker was first seen was now empty, with only a set of crude dominoes made of polished fish bones scattered on the ground. The spiritual light on them had not yet completely dissipated. It seemed that this was the vehicle through which the holy warrior guided his divine power.

"It is indeed the skill of the fishmen. The Empire has had some 'not so friendly' dealings with them in the past," Gillianis made a quick judgment. "He is a brave warrior with a delicate mind. Look, if this domino is erected like this, it can mobilize a stronger force specifically targeting the water element, and will not be activated by other creatures. But if this is the case, the way this domino should fall is to deviate to the south."

"So, he deliberately left this gap to target a wider range of targets," Sylvia understood what Gillianis meant. "I didn't expect that after so much time, we would be in his favor again."

"But there is one thing that concerns me..." Ron recalled what he had learned during this period of time. "If it is just to store power so that it can be channeled out at a specific node, only a part of the dominoes is needed. What are the functions of the other dominoes?"

"Not everyone can find the optimal solution," Gillianis shook her head. "In my opinion, the other dominoes are probably redundancies created by a paladin who is not good at this. However, he didn't know which part was effective, so he simply kept them all."

The Moon Elf's explanation was somewhat contemptuous of the murlocs, but it was also the conclusion she came to based on her own experience and knowledge: those dominoes were indeed useless, and some of them would even weaken the effectiveness of the entire system.

But out of respect for the paladin, Ron still recorded the location of the entire set of dominoes, and even took the real object away as a small souvenir. They did not stay too long in Exure. After coming out of the dark river, they immediately returned to the town with the dominoes and the statue. Ron and Gillianis's laboratories were moved here, perhaps they could get more clues from it. The next morning, the bronze heron was stained with Ron's blood again. As expected, the blood-red lines perfected the seemingly rough statue again. With the cry that had not yet ended yesterday, the heron statue spread its wings again and came alive!

"The statue! The statue is really alive!" Driver climbed onto the table and pointed at the egret, which was looking at the crowd around it in confusion, and shouted, "This bird looks like it's alive!"

"It's time to teach you the common language," Ivy slapped the goblin hunter on the head speechlessly, "and didn't Ron tell us about it when he came back last night? Is this worth making such a fuss about?"

"That's true, but this is a living statue!" Driver dodged Ivy's hand deftly and reached out to tease the elemental creature, which looked nothing like the fierce one yesterday. "Come on, can you sing? Sing a song for everyone!"

"This is a heron, not a parrot," Ron sighed, and laid out nine dominoes on the table, looking up at the heron statue. "You were subdued by this yesterday, and the existence in you has been driven away. Now, if you no longer have such deep hostility towards us, do you have anything to say to us?"

"After all, you seemed to be in a hurry to go somewhere yesterday? Or simply wanted to escape from the lair of the Exuri?"

The heron visibly reacted to the dominoes, shrinking back in fear, but looking at Ron in confusion, as if it had absolutely no idea what he was saying.

"Could it be that it doesn't understand the Common Language?" Ron was a little disappointed.

"Generally speaking no, but to be on the safe side, I can try using the Tu language." Gillianis cleared her throat, and suddenly a pronunciation came out of her mouth that almost no one present had ever heard, except for the bronze heron, which stood on one leg on the table, bent its neck and retracted its head, appearing to be listening particularly attentively.

"What are you asking it?" Ron heard that Gillianis's words contained not only the native language that he could not understand, but also some common language words from time to time, but these were almost all directional words or nouns referring to places.

The heron statue responded to Ron's question. After Gillianis finished her explanation, the statue, which seemed to understand but also confused, suddenly stiffened its body, and fell straight on the table with a "bang". Its sharp beak, which had drunk blood three times in two days, fluttered, and it screamed at the top of its lungs in a hoarse and distorted Common Language:
"The other side of the mountain! The Count's estate!"

(End of this chapter)