Greem smelled the thick scent of blood in the air the moment he arrived in the bottom levels of the city. He also sensed the hot air pressing against his face.
The cries and screams of humans were everywhere.
Large groups of slaves struggled as they climbed out of the depths of the tunnels, their bodies, hands, and faces, all filled with blisters and scorch marks. In fact, there were even people who ran out of from the tunnels still fully on fire and burning to death. These people fell onto the ground soon but continued to shriek and howl in agony.
It was an unbearable sight to behold!
Though there were many adepts in the hall, no one paid any attention to these slave miners, nor would any of them cast their magic to heal them. Their attention was concentrated on the interior of the mine, their hands gripping their instant-cast wands and scrolls tightly and preparing to fight at any time.
These adepts stationed in the mines immediately let out a breath of relief when they saw Greem arrive from the higher levels. Two of them quickly went forward and greeted him.
“Lord Greem, you’ve come.”
“What’s the situation inside the mine? Where’s Lord Karak and Lord Dorian?” Though Greem already knew the situation here perfectly, he still feigned ignorance and asked the question.
“Lord Karak and Lord Dorian have already entered the mines. Lady Freina also just entered.” One of the adept in charge of this location hastily explained, “Lord Karak said before he entered that if you and Lady Yunid arrived, you should hurry inside to help them!”
Even though Molten Fire City had been courteous and respectful to Greem over these few days, they had never allowed him to set a single foot inside the mines. That was why Greem remained extremely curious about Mine Three, which was where the eternium ores were produced.
Just then, the ugly Adept Yunid also hurried over.
“Shall we go down and take a look?” Greem asked.
Yunid nodded without any hesitation.
The two of them came to the entrance of the mine and were instantly met with a warm heat wave surging out of the tunnel.
Greem lifted his hand, and a barrier of fire appeared around the two of them.
In the blink of an eye, the powerful heat waves turned into a warm, gentle breeze.
The winding tunnel before them was four meters wide and three meters tall. There were no decorations on the walls or the floor, and the exposed surfaces were simply the tough volcanic rock. However, one could faintly see the gleam of metal in the uneven rock walls with the illumination of the fire.
They were the metal particles mixed in the rocks!
The two adepts had only made it a hundred steps into the mine before a flood of viscous red lava obstructed their path. It was apparent that the lower half of the entire mine was now submerged in lava.
While the two of them hesitated, the lava before them bubbled intensely. The battle inside was clearly still ongoing. Moreover, it seemed to be a very intense fight!
“Since we are here, we might as well go down and see what’s happening!” This time, Yunid was the one to speak first.
Greem smiled and walked in front of her.
A massive flame suddenly ignited on his tall body as, in a single instant, he transformed into a nearly translucent flame humanoid.
Silently, he stepped into the lava. Not a single bubble rose from him diving into the lava, almost like a drop of water falling into a pond, leaving no traces behind.
This place was the best battlefield for a fire adept.
Adept Yunid exclaimed in her heart before erecting a defensive barrier to keep the lava outside. She then strode into the depths of the lava tunnel.
The crimson lava split before her eyes, sliding past the two sides of her transparent barrier. The immensely hot lava clashed with the shield, causing this sealing master of the south to feel a bit of pressure. Moreover, the deeper she went into the tunnel, the higher and more apparent the pressure.
In the end, Yunid was still a Third Grade witch. This bit of pressure wouldn’t be able to stop her. Moreover, with Greem advancing through the lava before her, she did not need to worry about her safety and could concentrate solely on repelling the lava.
Greem suddenly stopped at a large fork in the path.
It was an underground hall. It used to be filled with all sorts of furniture, and a small pile of ores had also been placed in the corner of the room. However, at this moment, all of the items were submerged in boiling lava. All things wooden had vanished without a trace, with only a few unique items barely being able to survive the lava.
Freina struggled and escaped from one of the entrances here. She hurriedly and joyously ran toward Greem when he saw the flame humanoid he had turned into.
It had only been fifteen minutes since they parted, yet Freina was already covered in moderately severe wounds.
Her hot and seductive body was now covered in scorch marks. Three black claw marks scarred her pretty face. All of her exposed skin was also covered in blisters and burns.
Judging by her stumbling gait, it seemed that she was even more severely injured than she looked.
Greem hurried forward to grab her before patting her on the back. A strange magical power surged forth and instantly dispelled all of the flames on her body. In fact, the fire poison that had entered into Freina’s body also turned into sparks of fire and slowly dispersed into the air.
A large air bubble instantly enveloped Freina, allowing her to float within the lava.
“Lord Karak is fighting with the tiger in Mine Three. Lord Dorian’s gone to activate the array. Lord Greem, you must help Lord Karak.” Freina saw Greem as a savior and grabbed his flame hand and shook it.
“I understand. You go out first!”
Greem nodded and slapped the bubble with his hand. The air bubble then flew outward through the tunnel, with Freina inside it.
“It seems Lord Greem makes friends really fast!” Adept Yunid chuckled softly before passing by Greem and diving into Mine 3.
There was a faint smile on Greem’s face as he followed after.
The location where Karak and the tiger were fighting was two hundred meters below Mine Three.
Here, inside a somewhat wider tunnel, two Third Grades of different races were fighting with all their strength.
Karak was now standing in the corner of the tunnel, his back against a stone wall. He waved a small and delicate magical dagger in his hand, fending off the attacks of the tiger that were coming from every direction. The jade green gemstone on his forehead continued to let out ripples of green halos that rapidly polluted everything around him.
It was obvious that Karak was not the match of the Third Grade flaming tiger in melee combat. Still, the tiger appeared to be wary of the short dagger he was waving in his hands and didn’t dare to press forward too aggressively.
The two parties squared off against each other intensely with such attacks and parries, trying to break the stalemate.
Greem and Yunid’s arrival triggered the tiger’s senses. He let out a roar as a massive wave of fire surged toward the two adepts, while he lunged at Karak.
Karak seemed to be prepared for the tiger’s attack. He waved his dagger, and a terrifying jade serpent was quickly formed and bit at the lunging tiger. The gemstone on his forehead let out another wave that shot toward the tiger’s body.
Usually, the tiger would avoid the poison adept’s attacks. Yet, for some reason, the tiger charged into the attacks without dodging; the tiger ran straight into the jade wave and the giant serpent.
Aooooo!
A resounding roar rang out as the flaming tiger smashed through the wave. The dagger had also stabbed into his shoulder. However, the tiger continued to charge forward without hesitation and viciously bit at Karak’s head.
Karak’s poison spells had no use in the lava. There was nothing he could do against the ferocious tiger and could only run desperately toward Greem and Yunid.
Greem and
Yunid looked at each other and rushed forward.
Chapter 888 - Information Obtained
Battles between high-grade adepts were quickly decided, but it was incredibly difficult to kill an opponent.
If the enemy wasn’t completely cornered, it was nearly impossible to kill a Third Grade creature.
Thus, when Greem, Karak, and Yunid all stepped forward to surround the flaming tiger, the beast immediately turned and ran without hesitation.
If the mine were in its proper condition, the three adepts would have had more than enough means to deal with this damned tiger. However, all of the tunnels were now filled with thick and swirling lava. Greem was still doing fine, his speed almost unaffected, but Karak and Yunid could only be slowly left behind.
The three adepts and one tiger ran through the winding tunnels, playing their game of cat and mouse.
Seeing that they wouldn’t be able to catch the tiger, Greem let out a roar and shouted, “You guys keep chasing, I’ll run ahead and intercept it!”
Having said that, his body of flames exploded as he vanished.
Large amounts of fire elementium quickly gathered at the entrance of a cave somewhere in the distance and Greem slowly appeared.
The fleeing tiger immediately turned upon seeing his path blocked by his enemy. He turned and slipped right into a smaller tunnel by the side.
After a hundred years of constant excavation and digging, Mine Three was filled with tunnels that led everywhere like a spiderweb. It might be beneficial for the slave miners when they traveled down into the mine, but these tunnels had currently become the paths of escape that allowed the tiger to come and go as he pleased.
Greem teleported ahead of the flaming tiger several times to intercept it, but his efforts were always in vain due to Karak and Yunid’s failure to catch up in time.
Karak and Yunid were still waiting for Dorian to activate the arrays and trap the tiger in the tunnels. However, after fifteen minutes of pursuit, they still saw no signs of the arrays being activated and instantly knew that something had gone wrong on Dorian’s side.
Karak tried to contact Dorian while they continued their chase, but he got no response.
After several attempts, Adept Yunid also became frustrated at the situation.
“Greem, bring me along with you! We can split up and intercept the tiger.”
As Third Grade adepts that belonged to different factions, it was difficult for them to have perfect synergy and cooperation.
Yunid had only requested Greem’s help due to how furious she was. Otherwise, she would never let an unacquainted adept touch her body.
“Understood!” Greem responded. The elementium in the air instantly gathered, and he appeared beside Adept Yunid. He grabbed her by her left shoulder and immediately appeared in front of the flaming tiger’s path with Fire Teleportation.
Yunid freed herself from the disorientation of teleportation with her powerful Spirit the instant she appeared. The white staff in her hand quickly wove a tight golden web in the air that wrapped toward the tiger.
Cindral was terrified.
He easily sensed that the webs woven from golden lines faintly contained the aura of planar laws. They seemed thin and flimsy as if a single strike would tear the web to pieces. However, Cindral knew that if any part of his body were to touch the web, he would unable to escape today.
He leaped mid-run, and his body shimmered in the lava, vanishing from the spot much as Greem had. When he once again appeared, he was behind Greem and Yunid, sprinting once again.
Naturally, there was no reason the flaming tiger wouldn’t know how to use Fire Teleportation when Greem himself knew how to!
Dammit!
It was easy to cast the golden web, but it wasn’t so easy to take it back.
It would take at least two to three seconds to pull the web back into the staff. Obviously, Yunid couldn’t move during this time.
Greem had no choice but to abandon her and teleport to Adept Karak’s side, grabbing him and disappearing once more.
The tiger seemed to be prepared for Greem’s consecutive teleportations now.
He changed directions and ran without hesitation upon seeing Greem and Karak disappear. It caused Karak to start cursing furiously after appearing from the flames.
“Greem, only you can keep the tiger here now. Don’t bother with the two of us. First, catch up with the tiger and stall for time. We will arrive right after.”
Karak finally understood the situation at this point. Only Greem could fight with the flaming tiger in this harsh environment. The other adepts probably couldn’t catch up even if they tried.
To maximize Greem’s chances of success, Karak waved his hand, and a crimson orb flew toward Greem.
“This is the topographic map of the underground map. Keep the tiger here.”
Greem looked at the orb, and the Chip’s notification instantly rang in his mind.
[Beep. Data stream port detected. No security problems detected upon scan. Requesting instructions from host: Allow connection?]
“Connect!”
Greem brought the orb of light under his nose and sniffed. The light then seeped into his body.
The next second, a three-dimensional map of the weblike tunnels of the mine appeared in his mind.
Got it!
Greem was overjoyed.
All the circus and monkey act with Cindral was for this one moment.
Without the complete topographic map of the underground mine, he would not be able to know the exact location of the resource warehouses of Molten Fire City.
The mines?
What was in there?
Unprocessed and unrefined raw ores, gemstones, scrap, and a whole bunch of waste.
How could these things be of any use, regardless of how much Greem managed to steal?!
From the moment he arrived in Molten Fire City, Greem had set his sights on the ‘resource warehouses’ that very likely existed in the city!
It was a large underground mine. The daily amount of ore excavated from this place had to be tremendous. Transporting them to the surface for refinement and extraction and transportation them back to Molten Fire City for storage was very unlikely.
That was why there had to be an alchemy lab somewhere in Molten Fire City. It was very likely that metal ingots that had already been refined could be found there.
If metal ores were only small change that Greem couldn’t be bothered to work for, then these refined ingots were the precious treasures of Molten Fire City!
However, with Greem’s identity as an outsider, he would never have been able to get access to information such as the location of these warehouses, even if he were to scour all the famous locations of Molten Fire City. To avoid alerting or alarming Molten Fire City, Greem couldn’t attempt to get the information through Freina. As such, he had to rely on force.
As he turned into fire and chased after Cindral in the tunnel, he waited for further analysis results from the Chip.
Since Karak was willing to hand over the topographical map of the mines, he must have wiped away some extremely crucial information. However, Greem didn’t mind him doing so. With the Chip, he could find anything he wanted on the map as long as there were any slight traces left behind.
Mines One through Four looked like dense spiderwebs on the map. However, outside the spiderwebs, apart from the few tunnels leading toward the surface of Molten Fire City, there were three more subtly hidden tunnels.
The alchemy lab had to process a large number of metal ores daily; it couldn’t be too small. Moreover, the path to and from the lab had to be fast and easily accessible. There should also be a hidden path that led to the surface.
Combining all of this information and data, the approximate layout he got from his observations, and the topographical map before him, the Chip quickly and effortlessly locked onto an empty spot on the map.
With this information in hand, Greem instantly sent a message to Flaming Tiger Cindral,
who he was still pursuing.
Cindral immediately turned back and started a fight with Greem.
The two of them ravaged the depths of the mine with their Fire Teleportations, flickering about like apparitions as they blasted each other with their attacks. Finally, they arrived at the location where Cindral had dug into the mines. Both Cindral and Greem charged into the sea of lava, moving further and further away as they tussled with each other.
The ripples and shockwaves from the depths of the lava sea caused the entire region to go into turmoil.
Karak and Yunid stopped at the point of entrance and looked at each other.
Keep chasing? With their speed in the lava sea, they would never be able to catch up to the two who were fighting inside. Give up on their pursuit? Greem was fighting for their sake now; giving up as the master of Molten Fire City was…
“Lady Yunid, I will have to trouble you with the task of helping Greem. I need to return to see what has happened to Dorian. It seems like something has happened on his end as well.” Karak quickly made up his mind, “Don’t worry, Lady Yunid. We of Molten Fire City promise that item will be delivered to your hands regardless of the results of the battle! You can trust our Molten Fire City to uphold that reputation.”
At this point, Yunid had no reason to object.
Moreover, with Greem holding back the flaming tiger, the risk she had to undertake was well within control. It was worth a risk!
“Good, don’t forget what you’ve said!”
After agreeing to Adept Karak, golden light spread out from Yunid’s staff, diverting the lava away from her. She then quickly charged into the depths of the lava with the barrier of light around her.
Though it was impossible to see anything in the lava sea, and even Spirits couldn’t search too far forward, the shockwaves from the battle in the distance still guided her way.
However, what Yunid didn’t know was that the two ‘battling’ in the lava sea were no longer Cindral and Greem, but Cindral and Greem’s fire clone.
At any rate, the distance between them and Cindral’s Third Grade power was more than enough cover to conceal the true identity of the Second Grade fire clone.
Age of Adepts c1-1513 Page 548