After pausing for four, five seconds, once the surrounding Fire Elementiums was back in its control, the giant would initiate Fire Teleportation once again, bringing it three hundred meters closer to the destination.
Although Molten Giants owned an intrepid body and physique, agility was never their strong point. Those giants who possessed the ability of Fire Teleportation could still put out a considerable speed, as each time when their body flickered and reappeared, they always drew themselves closer to the island destination. Yet, those ordinary giants could only run past island after island using their feet, causing a great commotion along their way.
And, right at this very same moment, Greem’s eyes shined brightly, while busily looting the mighty war trophies that he dared not imagine in the past.
This was an island with an irregular shape that occupied nearly one hundred acres of land. The shore of the island was fully filled with rocky peaks and stone pillars arranged in a crisscrossing pattern. On the empty field within the island, nearly forty dead bodies of Molten Giants who had completely solidified into stone statue were seen standing quietly.
If it was according to Greem’s initial plan, he would come to this island stealthily without alerting anybody. But too bad, though the plan was well-designed, when he finally swam his way to this graveyard of giants, he realized that it was extremely difficult to harvest everything here without making any noise.
When alive, these Molten Giants had been known for the hardness and high-density of their bodies. After they died, the Fire Elementiums inside of their body would fade away, and their conscious core would be tightly trapped inside of the stone statue who served like a super thick armor. These rocks were the toughest steel rocks or granites found in the underground, and they even mixed with Black Iron, Wrought Gold, and Mithril which had the hardness beyond one’s imagination.
Not only a stone armor like this possessed a fearful strength in physical defense, it also carried an excellent resistance against magic spells. Hence, since Greem came to the island stealthily, he had broken three enchanted longswords but failed to even crack a stone statue.
Looking at the precious treasures that spread out everywhere over the hills and dales, yet unable to make them his, had nearly driven Greem insane!
Also, the practical environment didn’t allow him to spend a long time to slowly chisel away the hard shell of the giant. Once those giants who went out patrolling returned after hearing the news, perhaps he, a mere Fire element Pseudo-Adept, would be skinned alive and swallowed by over three hundred giants.
Left with no alternatives, Greem summoned six Rock Snakes in one go, using their savageness to put out a show of ‘hit, slam, rob’ that shook the heaven and startled the earth in this graveyard of the giant. Six Rock Snakes pulled out all tricks in their bag, either using their rock solid body to crazily slam, or coiled up a stone statue and kept smashing it onto the ground. In short, they resorted to the most violent methods they had and used the craziest manner to achieve their goal!
So, the huge dust pillar Elder Nimr saw just now, was actually the result of the violent actions put out by the team of Rock Snakes!
While directing the Rock Snakes to restlessly destroy the dead bodies of the giants, Greem kept running his eyes nervously at the surroundings.
Due to the fact that this island was the clan graveyard, rarely anyone chose to live on the surrounding islands. Also, the massive explosion that happened previously had attracted most of the giants to the other side of the Ring-shaped Island. Hence for time being, this place was still considered safe.
However, following the huge dust clouds and noise caused by the activities of Rock Snakes, the figures of giants who were running wildly at top speed could now be seen at the far side of the Ring-shaped Island. Yet that was not the most frightening part. A dozen of Molten Giants who stood over five meters tall were driving on flames that kept leaping up and approaching to the graveyard at incredible speeds.
It was an enormous Molten Giant with the height of seven meters that led the pursuit. The powerful Fire and Earth element energy contained within its body had reached to a dazzling stage that could blind anyone’s eyes just by staring into it.
Damn it, damn it… this was a Second Grade Molten Giant!
While calculating the enemy’s’ speed, Greem kept urging his minions of Rock Snakes to make the best use of their time and work harder. After all, for those who were eligible to enter the graveyard of giants, the weakest would also be the mighty existence of that Adept level and many of them were even Second Grade Molten Giants.
In a treasure vault like this, even if he spent one more second in it, and grabbed one more handful of treasures, it would become the mightiest opportunity for his future debut!
While throwing an examining look at the enemy’s besiege, Greem kept crazily slamming and smashing the rock statues. His heart was racing so fast it almost jumped out of his mouth. Even with his Physique, cold sweat started to exude from his palm and back.
“Beep…”
Upon hearing the dangerous warning tone sent out by the Chip in his mind, without the slightest hesitation, Greem turned around and jumped into the mouth of one of the Rock Snake, brought his dismantling team and dove into the lava ocean in lightning speed. Then, each of them simply fled into different directions on their own.
Naturally, the Rock Snake who carried Greem was the only one with all the war trophies. Once it entered the lava ocean, it immediately sunk deeper into the half-molten lava that hardly flowed, swaying its body and bolting toward the nearest escape route. Meanwhile, the other five Rock Snakes were swimming on the surface of the lava ocean, creating a huge uproar and fleeing in different directions.
A moment ago, it was a calm and peaceful world of flame; a moment later, it had transformed into an explosive ocean that rocked violently.
When they were hiding inside the graveyard of giants, these Molten Giants dared not attack them using violent long-range abilities, fearing that they might destroy this holy island of theirs. But once they left the island, these Molten Giants wouldn’t be easy with them anymore. While getting closer to them in high-speed, they kept crazily launching long-range Fire element abilities to attack at the Rock Snakes.
Flaming Storm!
Lava Flare!
Fire Stone Shower!
Hellfire Pulse!
……
……
One after another Fire element abilities of massive power had stirred the lava ocean into a rocking sea of fire, and a violent explosion of energies immediately swept across the entire space. Elementium storm visible to naked eyes quickly spread out on the surface of the lava ocean and soon covered all Rock Snakes who were fleeing.
Though a Rock Snake had a thick and large body and its Strength and Physique was considered superb among all element golems, when it was facing a tyrannical and brutal attack that saturated every inch of the space like this, the body made up of hard rocks still melted like hot wax.
The bodies of two Rock Snakes were broken into half from the middle and were swept up into the sky by the Elementium storm like a whirlwind that swept away scattered clouds. The broken bodies flew high up above the sea of fire. And in next moment, more raging energies had rolled them up like a mat.
At the same time, though the bodies of the other three remaining Rock Snakes were badly damaged as well, they still desperately fled towards the outside of the storm. However, before they could run to a far enough distance, a series of fire explosion came into the scene, which brought a Molten Giant who had a tall and mighty body beside them. Upon making its debut, it raised its huge stone fist and simply punched the Rock Snakes’ bodies.
Sensing the conscious nodes that died off one after another on his back, Greem’s heart was pounding violently. He had completed half of his plan, and what was left would be how he could make his escape!
In the beginning, Greem’s existence wasn’t noticed by any of the Molten Giants. But following the an
nihilation of the Rock Snakes and the help from its Fire Sense, Elder Nimr who possessed a formidable overall strength had finally discovered the Rock Snake that had hid deep inside the lava ocean and was fleeing at top speed.
But right at this moment, Greem had fled some seven miles away.
The miserable situation of their clan graveyard had completely infuriated this group of Molten Giants. Whether they were sailing on lava rock battleship or swimming in the lava ocean, they used all their efforts to chase Greem. In addition to that, each giant had summoned a large group of Fire element creatures and organized them into an army of fire that consisted of an insane number of soldiers, vowing that they would capture the foul human.
But too bad, due to the disadvantage in their speed, they were extremely furious and helpless at the same time.
The little human thief who had robbed their clan graveyard, had smoothly escaped the lava ocean and rampaged his way towards the outer perimeter of the volcano world.
The greatly angered giants no longer stayed within the restraints of the contract they had signed with the Human Adepts. Riding on the rocking lava they stormed into the lava tunnels, following that little human thief and pushing their way to the upper level of the volcano. Yet, on this route, there were many human apprentices who came here for training, and was laboriously searching for magical gemstones and underground materials that had been washed up to the upper level by the lava.
As the result of being caught unprepared, these apprentices had suffered a great deal.
A dozen of Advanced Apprentices failed to escape in time and were killed by the besiegement of Fire element creatures who flooded them like a tsunami. The other apprentices put out every single skill and approach they knew and only managed to miserably escape this world of volcano which had gone on a rampage.
Chapter 133
As for what had happened exactly at the depths of the volcano, no one really knew.
Nevertheless, the volcano world which had gone fully rampage was no longer a place suitable for treasure hunting, and it was a fact that everybody knew. Hence, Greem too, mixed among all other visiting apprentices and expressed his anger, before submitting his required portion of mission item and leaving Palmyra Town without alerting anybody.
When Greem returned smoothly to the Magical Swamp with his brand new status as a Pseudo-Adept, a massive storm immediately broke out in the entire Swampy Tower.
Once upon a time, Greem was just a nobody among the apprentices of the Swampy Tower and many people hadn’t even realized his existence. But now, following his mighty rise, those experts who Greem used to look up to had been ditched at his back and became the group who had the most dejected emotions.
And right when a portion of apprentices was still doubting on the authenticity of the news, Adept Keoghan, who represented Sarubo Family had visited Swampy Tower once again and had a meeting with Greem at the fifth floor of the tower. As expected, Greem’s decision was exactly same as Mary’s – he chose to serve Sarubo Family ten years in exchange for the resources required for his level up.
Of course, if Greem had the confidence to find all resources required for the official Adept Advancement Ceremony by himself, then he could always choose to leave Sarubo Family and become a wanderer. However, with the current development situation of Zhentarim Association, they had employed a rather hostile and oppressive policy towards any wandering Adepts and apprentices who didn’t belong to a family. Thus, if Greem wished to spend his apprenticeship smoothly, unavoidably, he had to join an Adept Family.
As for the Byron Family’s chest badge that Greem had obtained at the Underground Cave, it only meant the Byron Family was willing to protect him at the Dagon region, as he hadn’t sign any magical contract and officially joined the Byron Family.
After meeting with Adept Keoghan, Greem was immediately dragged into Mary’s room, by the vampire girl who had heard the news of his return.
“Tell me now, what had you done during the mission? How is it possible that you made the breakthrough and became a Pseudo-Adept?” With Mary understanding of Greem, this guy could never complete a mission smoothly, as every time he would create big troubles halfway.
Greem responded with a big smile on his face, but said nothing. However, after he stroked his hand across the tabletop, he left behind one big and four small, a total of five mysterious, dark red gemstones.
“What are these?” Curiously, Mary stretched her hand toward the biggest gemstone, but right when her little hand touched the mysterious gemstone, she retracted it instantly.
A light crackling noise was heard, as a small flame ignited on top of the gemstone and ferociously burned her fingers.
Even with Mary’s body constitution of vampire, her fingers which had touched the gemstone had turned dark. But she wasn’t bothered by it, with a gentle wave of her palm, the burn marks immediately disappeared and her fair and delicate fingers had returned.
Mary didn’t act recklessly this time, but stood still and pondered for a moment.
Obviously, the flame wasn’t controlled by someone, and it wasn’t the result of some magical arrays. It was a defensive mechanism initiated by the instincts of the gemstone. It was like as if… as if it possessed its own consciousness!
“What exactly is this?” Mary asked the question once again, but this time, she wore a fierce expression on her face and revealed a pair of her sharp fangs. She had a look as if to say that if Greem didn’t give her the answer, she would leap onto him and gave him a brutal bite.
“Second Grade Core!” A weird smile emerged on Greem’s face, as he spoke the answer one word at a time.
The juicy red lips of Mary murmured the same answer a few times, before she came to a rude awakening. “Second Grade Core? Did you kill a Second Grade demon? Where is the corpse? Did you extract its blood? Hurry up… tell me quickly!”
“Ugh…” Greem spread his arms and expressed his speechless at Mary’s response. “If I really meet with a Second Grade demon, do you think I can still come back alive?”
“You’re right!” Mary smiled slightly and felt surprised for losing her cool just now.
She just couldn’t help it. She was at the most important transition period throughout the entire life of a vampire, and the fastest method for increasing her overall strength was being fed the blood of experts. With these two reasons combined, it was more than enough for Mary to become nervousness enough to lose her cool and become restless and passionate upon hearing news about a powerful creature!
Of course, in the eyes of Mary, the current Greem could barely be considered an expert. Nevertheless, no matter how much Mary tried to convince Greem until the roof fell down, Greem would never agree to let her suck his blood. Because according to the Chip’s analysis, any individual who had his blood sucked by a vampire, would always suffer from a different degree of decay in his overall strength.
And, this decay was most likely the key to why the vampire could evolve by sucking blood!
To put it simply, if Greem allowed Mary to suck his blood, most probably his attribute would drop, and it would effect his Physique and Spirit, which were the attributes he cared about the most. With regard to this, Toril, the Bloodline Apprentice they met at the Underground Cave, was the perfect example.
Originally, that guy had reached the pinnacle of his apprenticeship, and was about to hold his official Adept Advancement Ceremony. However, he was miserably defeated by Greem’s golem team. Such injuries would only take him one to two weeks of resting to fully recover. However, from the news from his family, the Pseudo-Adept Toril had experienced a decay in his Spirit. Though it hadn’t dropped below 20 points, it was more than enough to affect him from advancing normally.
Hence, after summarizing from so many bloody examples, Greem had reason to believe that through sucking the blood of others, the race of vampire could extract the bloodline factor of the host and use it to strengthen themselves and weaken the enemy. Try to think about it, under such circumsta
nces, how could Greem let Mary suck his blood?
After exchanging the latest developments of each other, Mary rushed back to the Mission Hall, continued searching for apprentice missions that suit her the most. As for Greem, he returned to his own room and started listening to the briefing of the goblin merchant, Snorlax.
During the three months that Greem was not here, following the injecting of information and resources from the outside world, the Swampy Tower had become livelier, no longer a place of stagnancy and dead quietness like how it was in the past. With Mary’s backing, Snorlax had opened the first Goblin Store in the tower.
There weren’t many items available to buy in this little store, yet they were all rare resources that could hardly be found in the outside world. Also, recently Snorlax had put its eyes on those Beginner and Intermediate Apprentices and had started to purchase magical materials and ordinary resources that they wouldn’t be using for now.
Nevertheless, in order for such a little store to operate in full scale, it needed an endless supply of high-grade items, or else, it would be pretty tough to attract these apprentices.
After finished listening to Snorlax’s briefing, Greem nodded his head satisfyingly. Then, he casually poured out a large pile of magical gemstones and materials from his storage waist belt, and most of them were Fire Diamonds. After all, compared to those apprentices who spent all days wandering at the outer perimeter of the volcano world, Greem had ventured into the depths of the lava ocean countless of times and the chances of him finding high-grade magical gemstones were much higher.
Also, those Fire Diamonds and magical gemstones were mostly washed out from the lava ocean during the active periods of the volcano. And, after going through the filtration of Fire element creatures, the leftover would be all of that lesser quality materials. Yet, the Fire Diamonds Greem brought back from the lava ocean were at least supreme grade Fire Diamonds, the size of a human fist. Greem even tossed a huge human skull-sized Fire Diamond over to Snorlax, asking it to find someone to craft it into the shape of a jade pillow.
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