The Ancient Gnomes' descendants glanced at each other and turned back to Marvin, reiterating determinedly, "We don't trust Humans!"
Marvin rolled his eyes.
From their attitude, the two must have definitely eaten a loss while dealing with Humans.
But fortunately, Ivan was there. He clearly saw Marvin's interest and immediately interacted with them on Marvin's behalf.
Zac and David really were Ancient Gnomes.
The great disaster that year destroyed the Ancient Gnome Empire but there were still some who survived.
They hid in a Sanctuary for who knew how many years.
They almost never communicated with the outside world because nobody knew whether the disaster mentioned by their ancestors in the records had passed or not.
The two Ancient Gnomes naturally wouldn't mention the location of that Sanctuary even if beaten to death.
The Ancient Gnomes that had survived up till now knew that the era was different from the past. Humans ruled this era.
They had hoped that they could stay cut off from the rest of the world.
But there was an issue with their Sanctuary.
Everything was as the prophecy had said: The Sanctuary was on the verge of collapsing and they were about to face an even more frightening disaster!
"Prophecy? What prophecy?"
Marvin and Ivan's faces were full of shock.
Zac elaborated, "In our tribe, there was a prophetic book page. No one knew when this page appeared. Someday after we moved to the Sanctuary, it suddenly appeared on our ancestral shrine's altar. It was written in Ancient God Language, which only our High Priest could read, and he read the prophecy to us all."
"This prophecy roughly meant that a disaster was unavoidable."
"Although our tribe managed to survive the disaster that destroyed the Ancient Gnome Empire countless years ago, it was bound to suffer another one."
"That's what I've heard," the Ancient Gnome finished, looking at Ivan with sincerity.
It seemed like the Wood Elf's identity was quite useful. At least it could make many ancient races trust him.
Compared with the terrible Humans… Although mankind had no lack of heroes, it also had many who were despicable scum. The stubborn Dwarves and Ancient Gnomes clearly wouldn't trust Humans so easily.
Ivan turned silent after this.
A ripple quivered through Marvin's heart!
The Sanctuary collapsing meant that the Ancient Gnomes were on the verge of returning to Feinan.
This scene felt like déjà vu.
'It's… The next expansion.'
'[Return]!'
Marvin took a deep breath.
When he transmigrated, there had been only a rough explanation of the storyline of the next expansion.
Not only did the Gods return to Feinan, but the ancient races would also return one after the other.
The Ancient Gnomes definitely weren't the only ones.
It was the same for the High Elves who had left for the Eternal Country. They returned for the same reason as the Ancient Gnomes. The blessed High Elven Eternal Country was also on the verge of shattering.
They were forced to move back to Feinan once again, but this wasn't their world.
There were other races, races that had disappeared in the 2nd and 3rd Eras like the Dark Iron Dwarves and the banished Numans, that would return from all over.
The entire plane of Feinan would be thrown into chaos.
But the issue was that it was something that was supposed to happen in the future!
What was going on with these two guys?
Marvin inquired impatiently but was treated as Human scum coveting their Sanctuary.
Fortunately, Ivan vouched for him so Zac unwillingly answered, "Our Sanctuary… can still last for a few years, but I don't believe that prophetic page."
"Yes! It's clearly nonsense!" David interrupted. "I am an expert in plane structure knowledge. From my research, the Sanctuary is far from the end of its life. It only lacks energy."
"We need to find some Purple Fire Crystals, which would be enough to keep the flame of the Sanctuary burning for… over a hundred years!"
Marvin nodded.
Sure enough, the Ancient Gnomes were using Purple Fire Crystals for energy.
This meant that the Mechanical Titan's system also needed Purple Fire Crystals.
Ivan sighed. "It's not that we don't want to help you."
"But do you know how many Purple Fire Crystals are left in this world?"
"None! It was all dug out by those wretched Dark Iron Dwarves!" Zac seethed while gnashing his teeth.
It seemed like these two guys did their research after leaving their Sanctuary.
"What about you?" Marvin asked.
"You went into the Secret Garden to look for Purple Fire Crystals? There's no such thing inside." Marvin looked at them strangely.
David shook his head. "Nothing we can do about it, we have to try. We obtained a piece of information saying that there might be some there."
"The Elves are the only race left from the ancient times. If you don't know where to look for Purple Fire Crystal, then we don't know where we should look anymore."
The two brothers were disappointed.
They had secretly left the refuge with the lofty goal of getting enough Purple Fire Crystals before returning home with honor.
But they didn't know that the world had changed so much after all these years.
They even had to carefully hide their identity!
Marvin scratched his nose, thinking carefully before saying, "As far as I know, the Purple Fire Crystals in this world aren't completely gone."
The Ancient Gnome brothers suddenly became hopeful. "Where?"
"Your Ancient Gnomes' vestiges," Marvin explained. "Along Feinan Continent's western coast, there are many vestiges of the Ancient Gnomes. There should still be Purple Fire Crystals remaining in some of them, in places like Saruha."
"Saruha? You went to Saruha?"
Zac and David's eyes shone. "Did that place have any Purple Fire Crystals?"
"None," Marvin answered honestly, "only a Mechanical Titan, which I controlled."
"It's a pity it wasn't designed for me; it was very uncomfortable to operate."
A Mechanical Titan!
The eyes of the brothers were almost glowing!
They immediately pleaded, "Take us there!"
"Our teleportation had an issue when we left the Sanctuary and we somehow ended up on this continent."
"Take us to see the Mechanical Titan!"
Ivan saw through Marvin's sly expression and he couldn't help but chuckle to himself.
Marvin was clearly leading the two brothers' thought processes.
But he hadn't been aware that Marvin had obtained a Mechanical Titan, and was also very interested in it. In any case, the scroll used to return would be very quick.
Adding two more Ancient Gnomes wasn't an issue.
"Good, then let's go."
Ivan and Marvin each grabbed an Ancient Gnome and Ivan opened the return scroll.
"Woosh!" After a long five seconds, they appeared in a green room.
"Your Highness Ivan, you finally returned!" The Elven woman called Joan was full of admiration as she looked at Ivan.