How could it be possible that someone was faster than him? Could it have been the other Pseudo-Adept?
Having his mind filled with questions, Tamora had no choice but made a last-minute change to his route. He didn’t want to follow behind another expert and feast on the crumbs from the table. He had three months of time, and it was more than enough for him to dig out sufficient magical crystals to support his two years of consumption.
…………
During the second half of his journey, Greem had stopped behaved timidly like he had previously, and became bold and enthusiastic.
Sitting high up on the body of Rock Snake, he let it crush through one after another lava tunnel like a bulldozer. When a tunnel was large enough, they would charge through it. When a tunnel was too small, once the Rock Snake squeezed through, it would become big enough.
Anyhow, with the self-repairing speed of Rock Snake, the mild scratching and damage on its body could cause no real damage to it.
Throughout their journey, when they encountered some smaller sized Fire element creatures, the Rock Snake would simply crush them. If it were some middle-sized creatures, it would first forcefully slammed and break the creature’s body, then continued by crushing over it. As for the desperate counterattacks put out by these Fire element creatures, they could barely bring additional tiny wounds onto the Rock Snake’s body, let alone stop it from pushing through.
Greem didn’t even bother to come down and pick the Fire Stones or broken cores that fell out from the bodies of these Fire element creatures. He just let the Rock Snake swallow them straightaway, and only when he needed to organize them in future, would he sort through and filter them slowly.
Also, for every place with a high density of Fire Elementiums, basically there would be a big or small sized lava pool. The only thing Greem needed to do was using his spirit and penetrate through the sticky and scorching lava, and find out those Fire Diamonds buried deep inside of rock stratum or covered inside some of the hard rocks.
Of course, occasionally, he would discover some other magical gemstones or unique metal ores.
Then, in the course of marching forward at great speeds, Greem saw another common Fire element creature.
Fire Spirit was considered the natural spirit that numbered the greatest in this world of volcano. Usually, they took the form of a humanoid flame that stood over one meter tall and could walk around freely. They didn’t have any eyes, ears, mouth, nose, or internal organs. Their bodies were totally made up of steaming hot fire, and they couldn’t be too far away from a lava pool.
For these fellows who had no corporeal body and were just a collection of Elementium, the Rock Snake could easily crush them just with its heavy and rock solid body, saving the time of putting out an intense fight. And, from penniless vagrant like these, Greem would never find anything useful.
Fire Lizards were a type of Fire element demon beasts. They did have flesh and blood, and similar to those ordinary large-scale lizards, they liked to hide in the dark and sneak up on their enemies. However, these underground Fire Lizard had rough skins and thick muscles, and they also possessed the ability to spit out flames from their mouth. Not only that, they also had excellent fire resistance. They had a habit of lurking at the edge of a lava pool, waiting for Fire element creatures to fall into their snare.
The Fire Stones with a high density of Fire Elementium and the conscious cores found inside the bodies of Fire element creatures were their favorite food.
Before came to this underground world, Greem already had an initial understanding about this world of volcano. In order to save the maximum amount of time, he had decided not to leave this place until the end time of the mission. With that, the issue Greem needed to solve urgently was regarding food and water.
As for water, besides having a water sack in his storage waist belt, Greem could always collect it by gathering Water Elementiums. Although his element affinity was Fire and he was in a volcanic environment, which could be extremely tough to summon his Water Elementals, he could still solve his water issue easily.
So, the next issue he needed to solve was food!
The food Greem brought with him could only last him for one week. No matter how much more food he brought, it would be really difficult to keep it for a long time in such an extreme environment. Also, as Greem couldn’t consume fire as his food like how those Fire element creatures could, searching for a new food source in this underground world had become an inevitable task.
Yet, in this world of volcano, only Fire Lizards who were made up of flesh and blood could be used as a food source. Nevertheless, the meat of Fire Lizards was tough and tensile, and its blood had a stinky odor and was hot. If not for the fact that the Fire element energy contained within would bring a tremendous benefit to his body, Greem would never torture his stomach with this nasty food.
Basically, these middle and small sized Fire element creatures couldn’t pose any threat to Greem. But, those Magmakins and Guardian of Flames who had a stronger overall strength were difficult to handle.
Both Magmakins and Lava Hounds were actually two different creatures with the same foundation, it just that one of them took the shape of a human, while the other looked like a hound. When facing a Lava Hound, a Rock Snake could tear it apart with just a powerful slam and a ferocious bite. But when facing a Magmakin, the same tactic was completely useless!
Magmakin was a humanoid monster who possessed an intermediate intelligence. The outer layer of its body was underground lava stone of all sizes, ordinary offensive magic spells could hardly penetrate this layer of extremely tough rock armor. Also, they were extremely cunning creatures, and would never act like the Lava Hounds who couldn’t even judge the overall strength between itself and its enemy.
The Magmakin liked to tenaciously defend the lava pool it took it as its home, and would never allow any outsider took a step into its territory. Also, its offensive methods were rather similar to that of a Fire element Adept. For example, it would use an endless shower of spells – Firestone Throwing, Ignite, Flamestrike or some other similar spells – when it fought. Frequently, it would use these Fire element spells that blotted out the sky and turned the lava cave into a sea of fire.
When Greem bumped into a fellow like this who hid in a far distance and kept launching long-range offensive magic spells, he had no choice but to command the Rock Snake to charge into the lava pool and engage the enemy in a melee fight. Though both Rock Snakes and Magmakins were Advanced Apprentice level creatures, as the Rock Snake had the advantage of a bigger body, it had a stronger strength compared to the opponent.
A fierce melee battle would always break out within the lava pool. Eventually, the final victor would always be the Rock Snake, who had a bigger body, a greater strength, and a better Physique.
Nevertheless, whenever an intense battle was over, the burly body of Rock Snake would always be slimmed down. After all, it was just an Earth element golem, thus, when fighting against the same grade opponent, in the opponent’s territory, just soaking its body in the lava pool would bring a huge damage to itself.
Therefore, every time after it killed a Magmakin, the rounded and thick body of Rock Snake would always slim down by at least three times.
The Rock Snake could defeat these Magmakins after a fierce fight, but when facing the Guardian of Flames, the outcome would be near impossible to predict.
Chapter 127
If the appearance of Magmakin could still be considered human-like, then the Guardian of Flames would be purely a Fire element creature who had reincarnated from an evil creature.
It had a tall and ferocious stature. Countless sharp rock peaks or spikes had covered the entire surface of its body. It had a strength similar to that of the Rock Snake, hence, when it wielded its huge rock fists and fought against the Rock Snake, the entire lava cave would shake and sway violently.
Two huge monsters clashed against each other, rolling on the floor and punching each other
fiercely. The massive activity and noise produced by them was not weaker than a remarkable battle between two world-class monsters. Even Greem was forced to step back, so that he could avoid the flying debris and rocks that kept falling off from above.
After nearly ten minutes of violently battling, the Rock Snake finally showed slight signs of defeat.
After all, the rocky body of Rock Snake was temporarily molded using ordinary underground rocks. In comparison, the Guardian of the Flames’ steel body was made up of hard ore and special steel rocks it gathered from different places, when it was wandering in this underground world. Hence, when the Rock Snake lost its advantage in body size and strength, there was no way it could withstand attacks from a relentless opponent like this.
For Greem, however, he always scored his victory through numerical superiority of his golems. Since he couldn’t defeat the enemy with one golem, then he could just send two of them together!
As the result, a moment later, the second Rock Snake made its debut with a loud rumble.
Following the debut of the second Rock Snake, the previously brutal and oppressive Guardian of Flames was defeated swiftly.
What to do? No matter how brutal and violent it was, there was no way it could withstand its body coiled up and trapped by one Rock Snake, while the other focused on biting at its head ferociously. Each Rock Snake had a clear task of their own, with their ingenious teamwork, they cut off the control this Guardian of Flames’ conscious core had on its body with one blow.
A man would die when he lost his head; a snake would lose its direction when lost its head!
Though this Guardian of Flames had the overall strength of a Pseudo-Adept, once its conscious core was pulled out from its body, its gigantic body made from steel rock instantly became a mere skeleton and tumbled down within split seconds.
Recently, Greem had been collecting Pseudo-Adept level Fire element core. However, it seemed pretty difficult to find something that could satisfy his requirement. One of the main reason was the toughness of these Fire element creatures!
Taking this Guardian of Flames who he had just killed as an example. It owned an absolutely intrepid body made from steel rock, which ordinary magic spells could not harm at all. Along with that, it also possessed an array of powerful Fire element abilities and melee skills that brought despair to its opponent. When both of them combined together, even if a human Pseudo-Adept bumped into it, he would have to find a way to bypass this Guardian of Flames and wouldn’t waste his time and energy to risk his life and fight a fruitless battle.
Therefore, when facing a frightening fire monster like this, excluding an official Adept who had the ability to kill them surely and steadily, among all Apprentice Adepts, only those Pseudo-Adepts who stood at the pinnacle could defeat it after suffering a mild degree of losses. Also, within the body of this Guardian of Flames, the only valuable item would be the Pseudo-Adept level conscious core. If these human Pseudo-Adepts didn’t kill it swiftly and quickly with a thunderous approach, then it would be end up being a miserable event, as they usually would obtain a broken conscious core.
All in all, because of these factors, the Pseudo-Adept level Fire element core had become scarce.
However, with the help of two Rock Snakes, Greem had just obtained one smoothly. The joyful emotion in his mind had made his face melt into smiles.
Currently, besides making a great effort in expanding his knowledge regarding magic spells, he had used the rest of his time to craft a team of golems that were loyal only to him, trying his best to standardize, quantify and systematize them.
The most vital advantage of a team of golems was their numbers, then only came the comprehensiveness of their types and the cultivation of elite fighters. When having battles in different kinds of terrain, the combative ability put out by different types of golems could differ greatly.
Like when he fought the Fairy in the Underground Cave region last time. If Greem only had Rock Snake, then even if he summoned a couple dozens of them, he wouldn’t be able to bring any harm to that Fairy who could fly in the sky. Thus, in a situation like that, the Lighting Giant had used its high-speed movement to its advantage and had put its fierce long-range firepower into play.
But in today’s situation, no matter how powerful the Lightning Storm and high-voltage electricity of the Lightning Giant was, most probably, it also couldn’t penetrate the thick skin of the Guardian of Flames which was made from steel rock. Once element magic spells were useless against the enemy, the effect a peak Pseudo-Adept level Lighting Giant could bring wouldn’t be able to compare to that of a Rock Snake’s, who only had the overall strength of Advanced Apprentice.
Thus, predictably, when he had to fight with an enemy on the surface of the ocean, the golems who could bring the maximum combative abilities would be those Water Elementals.
For this reason, increasing the number of golems and diversifying their types had become the direction that Greem was arduously working on going towards recently.
Greem already had a certain number of backups for Earth, Wind and Water element golems, and only the team of Fire element golems took forever to build. The main reason was the lack of Pseudo-Adept level Fire element cores. But after obtaining this Fire element core today, Greem had seen the light of hope in constructing his future army of Fire element golems.
Therefore, under the deliberate control of Greem, two Rock Snakes slithered everywhere in the underground lava tunnel, one behind the other. When they came to an ordinary lava pool, they would just skip it without taking a second look, never wasting their time on those ordinary Fire element creatures, instead, they were focused and determined to hunt for Guardian of Flames.
As the result, along their way of traveling deeper, besides obtaining two Fire Diamonds, seven Fire Stones and a large pile of different gemstones and ores, Greem also found himself four Pseudo-Adept level Fire element cores. And this, was the thing that made Greem go wild with joy!
After running around madly for two days in this world of volcano, Greem merely passed through the shallow region of this place and set foot into the core region of this underground volcano for the first time. From this moment on, Greem couldn’t be as bold and as wild as before, because he had come to the habitat of those Molten Giants. Once he provoked them, even with the help of a team of powerful golems, the torture would be more than Greem could ever stand.
Basically, a Molten Giant who had just been born would possess the overall strength of an Advanced Apprentice, while those adult Molten Giants were mighty existences comparable to human Adepts. If not because their survival solely depended on the endless supply of Fire element energy from the underground volcano, perhaps there would be another species of Adepts that would appear on the Adept Continent.
Undoubtedly, there was an Adept level Fire element core found in the body of an adult Molten Giant, which was a rare treasure coveted even by Greem! But, dealing with Molten Giants wasn’t as simple as dealing with the Guardian of Flames. Though Guardian of Flames had a strong combative strength and a smart mind, they, after all, were living in the wild and were always alone. Thus, it was pretty easy for a group of apprentices to beat them in a group.
Yet, the intelligence of these Molten Giants was not weaker than human Adepts, and they had inhabited the core regions of the volcano in the form of a big clan. So, if any one of them was attacked, it would immediately attract a group of Molten Giants who came to help.
At that point in time, it would not be the golem team who was beating the Molten Giant in a circle, but instead, them being circled by a swarm of Molten Giants!
Whenever the vision of such terrifying scenes came into his mind, Greem just couldn’t help but tremble with fear.
Upon entering the core region of the volcano world, the first thing Greem saw was a boundless ocean of lava. As if an enormous empty space suddenly opened up in the underground world, and the matters that filled this empty space was the slow-moving, sticky and glowing red ho
t molten lava.
Throughout his journey in this place, Greem had witnessed countless lava pool of all sizes, however, this was the first time he saw a lava region where a vast amount of lava formed a boundless ocean.
To be honest, when Greem took his first step out of the tunnel and saw the quiet, red hot ocean of lava, he nearly forgot how to breathe.
Inside an enormous space stretched as far as eyes could see, an ocean made from steaming hot lava of black and red color was moving slowly. There was over one hundred meters of distance between the surface of the lava ocean and the cave ceiling, those thick flame jets frequently burst out, brightening the entire space, casting an unchanging tone of red in this place.
Inside of this lava ocean, besides the molten lava which was at an astonishing temperature, there were also some rock blocks with peculiar shapes floating around. Some only was the size of a washbowl, some were the size of a house. They bobbed up and down in the molten lava like islands.
Yet, on top of these big and small islands were numerous rock pillars with strange gemstones of different colors mounted in them, shimmering like stars in the night sky. Many of them were actually Fire Diamonds the size of a human fist. One could even find Fire Diamonds the size of a human head.
As far as the eye could see, this lava ocean was virtually a massive magical treasury vault, lying quietly here, awaiting for one to visit.
Nevertheless, the environment here was exceptionally dreadful.
According to the Chip’s reading, the temperature at the border region of this lava ocean had approached one thousand degrees Celsius, yet the temperature at the inner region had reached a jaw-dropping two thousand degrees Celsius. In an environment such as this, once an apprentice lost the protection of his magic spell, even a Pseudo-Adept would face the fate of turning into a pile of charred bones in an instant.
For Greem, he was relying on the double protection of his Fire Lord’s Scepter and Fire element affinity, only then was he able to survive in this harsh environment. Or else, not only would he be unable to dive into this lava ocean and cultivate, it would also be extremely tough for him to even get close to the region.
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