It looked like if he wished to replenish both his health points and Fire element innate ability at the same time, he should choose meat from those Fire element demon beasts. The higher grade, the better.
Therefore, urged by his hunger, Greem once again rung the copper bell.
As expected, when Greem mentioned straight away that he wanted the Fire element demon beast as his meal, the wooden face immediately offered him a long list of delicacies.
Flaming Tiger – 15 Magic Crystals per 500 grams
Fire Lizard – 20 Magic Crystals per 500 grams
Inferno Hound – 25 Magic Crystals per 500 grams
Fire Swallowing Sparrow – 30 Magic Crystals per 500 grams
……
Greem quietly listening with his eyes closed. From time to time, he would ask for more information. Soon, he made up his mind and picked a delicacy that suited him the most: Fried Heart of Inferno Hound.
After paying 25 magic crystals, the wooden face quickly swallowed the dishes on the table and revealed another luxurious meal.
This time it was not a rib but a fresh heart that was still pumping lightly. It seemed there was a fire source concealed within the fist-size heart. It was still raw and fresh when it appeared, but following an explosion of the fire source, a scorching hot flame soared up to the roof before disappearing in an instant.
When the enshrouding heat finally vanished into the air, a fresh and fragrant fried heart of Inferno Hound was revealed in front of Greem.
Greem first used the table knife and poked a small hole on the surface of the heart, then suck all the warm blood inside of it in one go. When the warm and appetizing liquid flowed through down his throat and reached his stomach, a raging and explosive sensation made Greem so happy that he couldn’t help but close his eyes in enjoyment.
Soon after wolfing down everything in his mouth, Greem sliced the heart of Flaming Hound into small equal sizes and tucked in one after another. Whenever a piece of heart exploded in his stomach and began to emanate a raging Fire element energy, Greem had the impulse to moan because of the pleasure feeling.
The raging Fire element energy kept flushing throughout his entire body. Although it made him drenched in sweat, it was an extremely refreshing.
After he finished two sets of Flaming Hound meals continuously, he finally managed to replenish part of his Physique, which had been reduced a lot. In addition, there was a slight increase to his Spirit.
Strength – 4.04, Agility – 4.30, Physique – 3.34, Spirit – 10.07
After the wooden face cleared up the leftover dishes on the table, Greem placed both palms on his big belly. He struggled his way to his bed, before starting his daily meditation routine.
After experienced a targeted food tonic, today’s deep meditation had brought Greem’s Spirit the unprecedented increase of 0.11, which was an additional 0.03 comparing to the normal 0.08 increase. Judging from this alone, if he was able to increase the density of Fire element energy in his body or his surroundings, it would also increase the efficiency of his meditation.
Greem ordered the Chip to record this finding, so he could use his free time to research for the best meditation formula. After finishing with all these, Greem breathed out a long sigh of satisfaction and sunk into a deep slumber.
…………
It was a good sleep!
After a long hour of sleep, when Greem finally woke up from his sweet dream, he found that his entire body was filled with a powerful yet inexhaustible strength.
Of course, this was only a sensation of fullness after his Strength had reached the maximum level. After all, he only had 3.34 of Physique and 4.04 of Strength. For a Beginner Apprentice, numbers like this weren’t considered a shame, but if it was an Intermediate Apprentice, it was considered rather ‘frail’.
Even though an Intermediate Apprentice didn’t take the path of Body Refining, he should also make his Strength, Agility and Physique reach the minimum level of five. It was only a body quality like this that wouldn’t hinder their Spirit, placing themselves in an unbalanced course of development. Of course, those like Evil Bugs and Dark Wood were extreme examples and couldn’t be judged by this standard.
For people like them, their bodies could no longer be judged by normal standards, as they had transformed into completely different body constitutions. The bug’s body of Evil Bugs clearly showed the miraculous signs of vitality and damage sharing, and he could be considered an undefeated cockroach.
Meanwhile, although Dark Wood’s Physique was extremely low, he obviously possessed some unspeakable special abilities. At least, Greem’s Demon Alligator had attacked him multiple times with Paralyze Gaze during their battle, but it seemed like he wasn’t affected at all. Clearly, his strange body constitution had an immunity toward such spell.
Greem briefly exercised his body. Right when he decided to pay a visit to the library in this place, someone came knocking on his door.
It was Mary.
When Mary strode into his room with rather charming steps, her eyes were instantly filled with unconcealed puzzlement.
“You… your Spirit has reached ten?”
The strange feeling coming from Greem’s body made Mary think that there was something wrong with her senses, as it was obvious that the spiritual ripple could only be owned by an Intermediate Apprentice.
“Yes, I just made a breakthrough yesterday. Oh, right. I suppose you’re here for the war trophies? Let me tell you some good news, I successfully sold all those war trophies, and I got us these treasures!” While saying that, Greem took out a bottle of Mind Concentrating Potion from his waist pouch.
Mary took over the potion and gave it a closer look. An expression of sudden comprehension emerged on her face. She then gave it back to Greem.
“You can keep this yourself! A low-grade potion like this has no effect for me, but it can still provide some benefits to you. Remember, don’t consume them continuously, and don’t forget to recuperate after having it. Or else, the condition of your body will become really bad!”
Greem was startled.
Although he did expect that Mary wouldn’t care too much about this potion, but her indifferent attitude of giving it back still surprised him. After all, a bottle of Mind Concentrating Potion was five merit points and five magic crystals in this Adept Tower. Anyone who went to the Underground World at least once would understand how valuable a merit point was.
Therefore, Greem was left speechless.
Chapter 73
Unlike the eternal darkness, the Underground Cave was never a calm place.
Because most of the regions had only been vaguely surveyed, even the native underground species who had occupied this domain for a long history, didn’t own a completely reliable map.
The underground tunnels could stretch for miles; sometimes they expanded into massive caverns more than a thousand meters wide and sometimes they narrowed so even the Cave Dweller couldn’t squeeze through. The biggest cavern was like a miniature surface world: there were hills, valleys, an underground river, and lakes. In this three-dimensional environment, most of the species could utilize the cavern ceiling and walls, using their innate ability or a magic spell to fly, hover, or even ride on some of the creatures who could walk on walls (like the giant spiders or some kinds of lizards) and travel freely in this domain.
As the only city built in the Underground World by the exiled Adepts, the location of Elysium City was top secret. The rock stratum, rich in metal, could easily isolate any ill-intentioned probes from the outside world, and, together with the dark and deep caves scattered across the entire Underground World, the creatures of darkness hiding in the tunnels, Golems, and underground natives, made it so no outsider could distinguish the single passage that led to Elysium City from countless winding tunnels in the darkness without being led by an Elysium City resident.
Some said the mighty Second Grade Fallen Adept of Elysium City had set up a massive formation of illusion outside of th
e city, and it was able to wipe out every single trace of Elysium City’s existence. With that, even if an enemy really did find his way to the area, he still wouldn’t be able to identify the exact location of the city, even if he left no stone unturned.
Elysium City, Catsear Tavern.
When the huge firestone hanging high up on the cavern ceiling started to go off, the tide of darkness flowed on.
For the Fallen Adepts who lived in the dark Underground World, there wasn’t a clear difference between day and night. Without using something to reference the time, their life would become muddled and it would become tough to arrange everything in a regular manner. Thus, having inherited some habits from the surface, the Fallen Adepts with powerful abilities and a bagful of amazing tricks mined a huge number of firestones from the underground and used a magical array to make them light up according to the time on the surface world.
Thus, Elysium City finally attracted a large group of Apprentice Adepts who had been driven into a corner and made them the city’s first batch of loyal residents.
When the night screen was down, the streets and alleyways of Elysium City lit up with torches and bonfires and a dimmed oil lamp hung on the door of Catsear Tavern.
Pushing the dilapidated and dirty door open, a long-faced Langdon came through the door. Having entered, the noisy and lively atmosphere immediately brought a frown to his face.
It was only seven in the evening, but the tavern was fully packed with drunkards of all species. Basically, all of the famous underground species had representatives here. Of course, this didn’t include the lower class species.
Inferior species like Hooked Horrors and Petrified Lizards would definitely not have the status of an Elysium City resident. Instead, there were mostly demi-human or intelligent species, who looked human. For example, Lizardmen, Gnolls, Dwarves, and Ratmen.
As he stared at a group of large-size rats walking upright in front of him, looking at their ugly hairy faces, Langdon’s mind filled with disgust. He was a genuine human being, after all.
Of course, an ordinary human wouldn’t be able to survive in Elysium City, which was dominated by demons and monsters, but Langdon had no fear at all. He even ferociously kicked away a Ratman who got in his way. He could do this because he was an Apprentice Adept, a Pseudo-Adept.
In Elysium City, aside from the Master Adepts who rarely showed themselves in public, a Pseudo Fallen Adept like him was considered a supreme existence. Wherever he went, countless underground natives would give way to him in a rather flattering manner.
His light blue apprentice robe was decorated with countless mysterious and undecipherable golden runes that blinked sometimes as he moved, giving him a magical and mysterious air. Combined with a handsome appearance and his cultural and elegant bearing, Langdon looked like a noble. But too bad, the once elegant face looked extremely gloomy right now.
After he kicked away the Ratman who got in his way, and totally ignoring the squeaking protest, Langdon strode to the counter, forcefully slapped the counter-top, and let out a raging roar.
“Give me a bottle of Flaming Wine!”
The noisy and lively tavern suddenly became dead silent.
Old John, who was leisurely cleaning wine glasses on the other side of the counter, rolled his eyes, murmured, and pulled out a bottle of wine from under the counter and slid it over the smooth counter top.
Once the bottle was uncorked, the strong, spicy smell of wine immediately filled the air inside the packed tavern. Countless hairy faces poked their nose into the air and their shining saliva started to drip from their lips.
Breathing heavily and with a pair of bloodshot eyes, Langdon, who rarely drank, threw his head back and ferociously gulped down a few mouthfuls of the hard liquor. The spicy liquor rushed into his stomach like raging flames and made it so he couldn’t hold it and burst out with a few dry, hoarse coughs.
A splash of liquor danced in the air.
Most of the liquor he had drunk was coughed out.
The Ratmen, who dressed in old cloth, mimicked humans, and walked upright, immediately flocked up, lay down on the floor, and stick out their big wet tongues, savagely licking the liquor spilled on the stone floor. Though normally they behaved like humans, once they saw something that was good and cost nothing, they would immediately throw away their deceiving behavior and once again expose the true instinct as low-intelligence creatures.
Elysium City was under strict governance: only intelligent creatures were allowed to become its residents, and they had to appear human. In order to get themselves status in the city, many Ratmen, Gnolls, Lizardmen had no choice but to dress in dirty cloth which they simply picked up from piles of rubbish, stand upright, and walk with strange and staggered steps, as if pretending they were some demi-human.
In this mini city ruled by Fallen Adepts, these creatures had no means or methods to earn their living. They ate the rubbish of the Adepts. Of course, sometimes they would resort to dirty businesses like stealing from someone; only by that could they gain a better life.
Looking at Ratmen punching and biting each other for his vomit, Langdon clenched his jaw tightly and wished he could kill them all with an Acid Pool spell.
He was a distinguished Pseudo-Adept; how he had he ended up spending his days with a group of demons and monsters?! An unspeakable feeling of grief and hatred filled his mind with anger that couldn’t be vented. Langdon threw his head back and gulped the remaining Flaming wine in a swallow, casually tossed out a magic crystal, and staggered out from the tavern.
“What happened to master Langdon? I think this is the first time we’ve seen him behave abnormally like this?” In a dark corner, two shadows whispered to each other.
“What? You don’t know?” Another shadow said under its breath. “I heard that his partner is dead.”
“Demon Vine Lady?” The first shadow let out a shocked cry. “You said the Demon Vine Lady is dead?”
“Quiet…” The first shadow looked around uneasily, realized no one was watching them, and then warned with a low voice, “You just came back from the west, that’s why you don’t know. The east region was rather lively in the past few days. I heard quite a few Pseudo-Adepts were having a fierce fight there. They even collapsed a few tunnel levels.”
“Just now you said the Demon Vine Lady was dead? Who killed her?”
“Who else? Of course she was killed by those bastards from the surface. I hear those Adepts on the surface had nothing else to do, so they sent a group of apprentices to our world to seize our resources. The Demon Vine Lady was killed by this group of rookies. Rumor says…” The shadow paused and looked around, lowered its voice, and continued, “Rumor says that she was killed by a Beginner Apprentice whose name is Greem! She…”
Before the shadow could finish its words, a ground shaking boom drowned out its voice. The rock wall beside them had been punctured by a frightening fist and a large hole was left.
A huge figure, over three meters tall, dashed through the large hole. With both hands, he forcefully pulled up the two shadows, who had been conversing secretly in the darkness.
Light from the blazing stove in the room shone onto these two shadows. They were Gnolls.
“You damn inferior creatures, who gave you the audacity to secretly talk about the matters of me, Langdon? I hate hearing the name of Greem. Whoever dares mention it again, this will be an example!”
After the angry roar of the huge figure, an azure ice energy started to gather within his palms. Within the time of a breath, the two Gnolls froze into two ice statues. Right after that, the huge figure used all his strength and threw both ice statues onto the ground, shattering them into tiny pieces and splashing throughout the entire floor of the tavern.
“All of you damn dregs, hear my words and remember. Nobody mention that damn name again! Anyone fails to obey this, I, Langdon, will remind them with their own death!” Langdon, who had transformed into a frightening giant, roared out furiously.
…………
Having no knowledge of what happened in the remote Underground World, Greem was extremely busy for a few days.
He had finished reading all the books from the Swampy Tower. Only the long-drawn-out process of magical knowledge accumulation and magic spell model analysis were left.
For the first defensive magic spell he was going to possess, Greem poured in a hundred times the enthusiasm.
Fire Shield, that was the first defensive magic spell he chose for himself. But, in order to truly master it, Greem first had to master four to five elementary subjects and a huge amount of magic spells. From the to the , and to …
Greem was required to master dozens of magic spells knowledge and techniques before he could learn Fire Shield. Though he was assisted by the Chip, it was still an extremely tough mission in order to thoroughly master them one by one.
But according to the calculations and estimations of the Chip, Greem was delighted to learn that he would be able to bag this Fire Shield magic spell before his next trip to the Underground World.
This was a great news!
Chapter 74
After discovering that the food tonic could bring great benefits to an apprentice Adept’s body, the magical energy meal which he only eats once a day became an essential part of his daily life.
After being inspired and guided by him, it didn’t take too long for Mary to become a slave of this “delicacy” as well, accompanying him in indulging in a frenzy eating spree. If not for having to carry out appropriate ‘exercises’ after each meal to help in the digestion of bioactive element substance, Greem would surely change all of his regular meals into magical energy meals.
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