“Demon Vine Lady!”
“Demon Vine Lady!”
Both Greem and Mary let out cries of shock at the same time. They couldn’t help but feel that their unexpected calamity wasn’t just an accident after all!
So they actually bumped into an old enemy! Judging from his age, he was most probably the companion of Demon Vine Lady. Things have now become interesting!
“What’s that Soul Trapping Corpse he just mentioned?” Mary wasn’t able to dispel her curiosity and whispered.
“That’s an undead creature created using a living person. Before the enemy is dead, they will draw special magic arrays on the enemy’s body, so when the enemy is finally dead during the sacrifice ceremony, the soul would be trapped within the undead body, becoming the eternal slave of the spellcaster.” Greem quickly answered her question.
With the help of the Chip, Greem was gifted with an extraordinary retentive memory, thus he was able to remember a lot of elementary knowledge and seldomly used topics of this magical world.
The noble youth strolled forward, and supplemented Greem’s answer by saying, “What you said is just the lightest punishment. Once both of you become Soul Trapping Corpses, I’ll find a remote place rarely visit by everybody. I will then bury the both of you deeply in the soil, and let you maintain your consciousness while painfully spending the next hundred years in complete darkness! Don’t worry, I’ll pay the both of you a visit from time to time, making sure your souls will stay forever intact, your memories stay clear, and your mind can’t become insane! Hahaha…”
Ugh… Greem couldn’t help but feel a chill run down his back. He had underestimated the level of enemy’s evilness and madness!
“Which way?” Taking advantage of the opportunity while the guy was still laughing wantonly, Mary whispered to Greem.
“In front!” Greem replied with a low voice, “There are two Pseudo-Adepts behind us. But I only sensed one soul aura in front of us, that’s where we’re going!”
“Alright!”
Right after they ended their conversation, a raging flame bursted out from Greem’s body, revealing a Fire Shield shrouded in scorching flames. Mary spread her arms and clung onto Greem, pressing her body closely with his. Without any hesitation, they turned around and propelled themselves into the lightning web that kept producing buzzing noises of electricity.
“Still trying to run away from me?”
The blue-clothed noble youth roared furiously. His body suddenly expanded a few times bigger than it was, and he stretched out his thick hand full of wiry hair and forcefully grabbed towards his enemies.
The giant hand of the blue-clothed noble youth missed his targets. However, his fingertip touched the lightning web, and was instantly turned black by the noisy Paralyzing Lightning.
Struck by the pain, the blue-clothed noble youth roared furiously again and retracted his giant hand. Within a split second, the giant hand which looked similar to a stone pillar returned to its original shape. Only a trace of burn mark could be seen on his fingers which emitted black smoke.
“Damn it, Hegel, retract your lightning trap at once!” The blue-clothed noble youth roared out loudly, and obviously, the target of his roar wasn’t standing in front of him.
Meanwhile, Mary and Greem were about to throw themselves into the lightning web, and once they did, the violent and raging electricity immediately came surging through their bodies.
Of course, the first target who bore the brunt of all these was the Fire Shield summoned by Greem.
The violent electric arcs hit the Fire Shield producing countless dazzling sparks, the frightening electricity which had enough power to burn an ordinary human into charcoal caused the Fire Shield to keep making buzzing and crackling noise. The overly dense energy of electricity even gathered into some frightening blue plasmas, hovering at a distance less than a meter from Greem’s head, slowly moving toward its target.
An ordinary Fire Shield only had thirty-five defensive strength, but as Greem’s element affinity was Fire, he was able to increase the defensive strength of his Fire Shield to fifty points. But this was still insufficient to protect them through their short journey of ten meters.
10 meters!
With Mary’s extraordinary Agility, she could actually flash through this ten meters of distance within a blink of an eye. But right at this very moment, this short distance seemed so long and dangerous!
The Fire Shield vanished into thin air before it could last for half of the distance. The scorching plasmas which had been waiting around them immediately swarmed their target. It would only take half a second before Greem would be turned into a thread of smoke by them. Since Mary’s Physique was higher than Greem’s, she actually had a higher chance to survive the second half of a lightning-filled passage.
Everything happened within just a split second of time! Right when Greem’s body trembled violently, closing his eyes and waiting for his death to come, Mary suddenly shouted out, unleashing a vast amount of blood from her body that instantly covered both of them.
No matter how pure was these Blood element energy, they just couldn’t withstand such a violent and raging plasmas. Both of them were like the raw meat placing on top of a roasting pit, countless Blood element energy that hovering around them were instantly devoured by the ferocious plasmas. At the end, the thin Blood element energy could no longer provide them with a full protection. Unexpectedly, Mary clenched her jaw, shifted most of the Blood element energy to Greem, allowing most of her body exposed to the electricity and plasmas.
The frightening noise of flesh being burnt by electricity could be continuously heard at the scene. The exposed parts of Mary’s body quickly turned into charcoal, before crumbling into ashes that flew in the air.
On the other side of this narrow tunnel, a short midget was staring in bewilderment, a look of disbelief present on his face to what just happened in front of him.
What happened inside of the lightning web was clearly seen by him. Although he had witnessed it personally, but he was still unable to believe what he saw.
Someone really had the courage to run through his lightning death trap!
This… how could this be possible?
Whether he believed it or not, this just actually happened. And right in front of him, a large charred object dashed out of the lightning web, forcefully slamming onto the ground.
“Little kid, you’re pretty tough, huh! But this is better, as Langdon would owe me two big favors later!” Although the short midget looked skinny and ugly, he was surprisingly an actual human. When he saw the preys that brought themselves in front of him, he quickly leaned forward and tried to catch them using his hand.
His palm could be seen being covered with a glove made up entirely from a dense layer of tame electricity.
If any living being was touched by this Paralyzing Lightning, they would lose all their strength for fifteen minutes.
An indistinct noise rang out in the air, as a crystal clear Elementium core fell on the ground.
The midget became startled for a brief moment but decided to pick it up. But before he could get close to it, a dense cloud of Earth Elementium suddenly bubbled up and covered the core.
“Eh, what is this thing?”
The midget was struck with curiosity. At this time, Langdon’s loud roar could be heard through the lightning web and was heard by this midget.
The midget hesitated, wondering if he should capture these two preys first or turned off the lightning web. A loud rumble suddenly came from the place where the thick cloud of Earth Elementium appeared. And a massive monster suddenly squeezed its way out from under the ground, moving its huge and long body, thrusting it ferociously into the midget.
Its body was made entirely of rocks, a rocky snake head, tongue, and fangs… this… this was clearly a Rock Snake!
With just a flick, the midget suddenly vanished from where he previously stood, only to reveal himself again behind a huge rock some twenty met
ers away. Meanwhile, with the use of its rock-solid mouth full of sharp fangs, the frightening Rock Snake forcefully slammed on the ground where the midget once stood at just mere moments ago. In just an instant, a powerful quake spread throughout the entire tunnel, causing the rock bed to shift, causing huge amounts of rocks to fall from the ceiling.
The Rock Snake pulled out its head from the piles of stones, and once again held its head up high. With not even a second had passed by, it’s earthy yellow eyes had already locked down on midget located not far away from it, and readied itself to violently thrust again to its target.
Damn it! What exactly was this?
Taken aback by the surprise attack, the midget stamp with rage and cursed. He quickly rubbed his palms and unleashed a raging lightning, striking onto the snake head who was coming fast in his way, trying his best in holding it back. The wantonly splashing electricity burned the snake head of Rock Snake, producing a thick cloud of smoke, while the skin made from tough rock had also starting to melt like hot wax.
However, the Rock Snake’s strength was on it’s tough skin. It wasn’t bothered by these damages and still charging toward the enemy savagely.
Left with no alternative, the midget once again used his Lightning Jump ability and brought himself to another spot.
“Hegel, what the hell are you doing there? Quickly turn off the lightning trap!” On the other side of the tunnel, Langdon became even more impetuous when he heard the violent rumbles.
After not receiving a response from his peer after a long time, his eyes turned bloodshot. Langdon turned around and asked furiously, “Philip, can you bring me over there?”
Holding his staff firmly, Philip, who stood behind Langdon, focused his mind and sent out his senses. Soon, he shook his head, saying, “The changes of terrain are really intense on the other side. The aura of the rock layers aren’t stable. I can’t establish a stable stratum node!”
Damn it…
The angry Langdon couldn’t wait any longer. He let out a furious shout and once again transformed into a giant three meters tall. A crystal clear blue armor was seen forming outside of his body. After that, he crazily shot himself into the lightning web.
The raging electricity kept wreaking havoc on his body, while the blue plasmas restlessly destroying his ice armor. However, he used his hands and protected his eyes and face. In addition, with the help of the copious Ice energy that kept bursting out from his body, he managed to withstand the attack of the lightning. He then strode out from the lightning web.
Revealed in front of his eyes was a broken tunnel with many parts collapsed. The original cavern was no longer there. Only broken ruins were left after the intense battle. An enormous rock snake was seen lying on the ground, motionless. Thick and pungent dark smoke was seen lingering around the over thirty meters long body. The position of the snake head was now replaced by a pool of flowing magma, while a crystal clear, earthy yellow core flashed a few times, before finally dimming down completely.
The midget was squatting beside the snake head. It seemed as if he was examining something.
“Where are the enemies I asked you to intercept? Where are the two bastards!?” Langdon, who had transformed into a blue giant, roared crazily.
“Aren’t they there?” The midget turned around and pointed to a spot. “Eh? Where did they go?”
The midget had finally realized that both charred humans had vanished without a trace!
Chapter 81
Within the soil, the Demon Alligator Hunter was traveling at high speed.
After they went past the lightning trap, the unusual interference affecting the Earth Elementium had disappeared.
In order to save their life, Greem had no choice but to give up his Rock Snake. He had ordered it to trap the super frightening Thunder element Pseudo-Adept, while he secretly summoned the Demon Alligator Hunter. He then brought Mary and fled for their life.
Currently, Mary couldn’t be referred to as a human. She seemed to be more like dark charcoal just pulled out from the fire.
All of her skin was charred. Countless ashes would peel off with just a slight touch. Once the charred ashes had peeled off, her steaming hot, half-baked flesh was exposed. Apparently, the high heat brought by the raging electricity had killed most of Mary’s bones and flesh.
If it was any other ordinary human, a severe injury like would have long since killed the person!
However, Mary had proved herself as a Bloodline apprentice who had gone through a mutation. Her vampire bloodline had gifted her with an amazing ability. As long as her heart core wasn’t destroyed, her soul would be maintained intact. Within her charred and cooked body, a weak soul aura could still be sensed.
“Chip, scan Mary’s current condition. Provide me with the most reliable treatment!” Although Greem’s heart was trembling, his voice was still calm and cold.
“Beep, scanning commence… Warning! Warning! The survival rate of the target is less than 7%. The core consciousness has shown signs of damage… Warning! Warning! Target’s life aura is deteriorating. If this is not treated then the heart core will start to break down…”
“Don’t tell me all this crap! Just give me the best solution!” Greem interrupted impatiently.
“Blood, a huge amount of blood… The target has the body constitution of a mutated vampire. As long as the target is provided with sufficient blood, it will survive. Even if the entire body is disintegrated, as long the target’s core consciousness touches fresh blood, they would be able to rise once again!”
“Blood?”
Greem shook his head, cursing inwardly at his own stupidity. Mary was a vampire, what else could save her apart from blood?
“Change our course immediately. Find me a region where there are abundant underground creatures. Quick!”
A couple of minutes later, at a colony of green-skinned Goblins, the giant body of Demon Alligator Hunter suddenly emerged from the ground.
Green-skinned Goblins were a subspecies of demi-humans and had the average height of one meter. Their green skin was as tough as cow leather, and they had a pair of donkey-like big ears. Their diet consisted of everything and anything. To be specific, in this Underground World, apart from rock and dirt, they could eat almost everything.
But, as their individual strength was extremely weak, they had the habit of living in groups.
In this Underground World, these Goblins were at the bottom of the food chain. However, they were widely distributed and had the largest population out of everything. Their biggest characteristic was their ability to eat anything. They also had an incredible rate of reproduction.
Normally, such weak creatures wouldn’t be able to survive in this harsh environment. Despite this, they could be found in every region of the Underground World. The reason was actually rather simple.
Food was a rare resource in Underground World, and it was extremely tough to find a stable source of food. Therefore, these Goblins were bred like livestock by the other underground creatures. When they lacked food to survive, they would come to a colony of Goblins and eat one or two in order to cure their hunger.
To be honest, the meat of these Goblins was tough and bitter. It also came with a stinking smell that was hard to get rid of. Therefore, unless the hunger really drove them nuts, no underground creature would be willing to torture their stomach like that.
Perhaps, this was the main reason why Goblins never went extinct.
But today, this colony of Goblins had been struck with a great misfortune!
Within a narrow cave, over one hundred Goblins were gathered in their camp cooking some ‘delicacies’. The shabby condition of this camp looked absolutely hopeless. Besides from the crushed rocks scattered around the place, the only other things present were countless piles of dirt. Even though there was a tent found in this place, it was just a dirty cloth. It was supported by a wooden stick, and no one could tell its original color.
This was a tent that even the homeless
guys in the human society wouldn’t step into. But it was, in fact, the home of the Goblin who had the most prestigious status: the clan chief!
It was dinner time for these Goblins. Goblins, who had gone out hunting, had returned to their base. They chattered on their way and threw their spoils (which were things like wall lizards and other small insects) into the large stone pot in the middle of the camp. The fire was burning brightly under the stock pot. The color of the liquid inside of the pot looked green and muddy. In addition, countless strange objects were seen floating inside of this nasty liquid.
There were bones of unknown origin, strange-colored chunks of meat from unknown creatures, sharp teeth of demon beasts, small bugs that were struggling and crying violently and pale white eyeballs that looked really frightening…
A few Goblins were standing on a platform, holding a wooden stick in their hands. These goblins kept stirring the bottom of the stone pot, bringing up many unknown objects from it. This was a pot of meat filled with poison and harmful ingredients, however, to these goblins, it was the most sought after ‘delicacy’ of the day.
Countless Goblins held a stone bowl in their hands and gathered around the bonfire. There were pushing each other and trying to fight for the forefront position while waiting for the arrival of their clan chief. As the chief of Goblins, it was natural that he held the right of enjoying this ‘delicacy’ first.
Therefore, right in the middle of this noisy scene, the Demon Alligator Hunter made its debut.
Greem carried Mary in his arms and squeezed out from Demon Alligator. He coldly gazed at this ugly scene, saying with a low voice, “Kill them all!”
After saying that, he ignored everything and walked away.
After finding a rather clean place, Greem gently placed Mary on the ground.
Just this gentle movement alone had made countless pieces of ashes fall off from Mary’s charred body.
Greem pulled out a dagger from his waist, poking it into Mary’s chest without hesitation. He cut away her half-baked flesh while paying no attention to the steaming heat. Greem pushed aside her flesh, exposing the dying ‘heart’ within her chest.
Age of Adepts c1-1513 Page 55