Chapter 233: Chapter 17: In the Depths of the Fiery Sea
Four hours later, the first light of dawn began to appear on the horizon.
On the Red Soil Plain, Richard glanced behind at the pursuers doggedly on his tail and cursed,
“These damn Fire Lizards have nothing better to do? So many of them chasing after one Wizard!”
Richard roughly counted the Fire Lizard Knights chasing him—an entire patrol, with over a hundred knights. This number had exceeded the range that Richard’s combat capabilities could handle, and to make matters worse, his main reliance, Ulysses, was still asleep.
Swoosh, swoosh, swoosh…
A Magic Barrier suddenly sprang from Richard’s body, blocking the black arrows flying towards him from behind.
Although these arrows were not very effective against the Magic Armor Plate on the Magic Support Vehicle, they were surprisingly good against a purely energy-based barrier like the Magic Barrier.
The tips of these black arrows had been enchanted with Giant Dragon Alchemy, giving them Demon-breaking properties, and combined with the formidable kinetic energy of the arrows themselves, they were practically Magic Armor-Piercing Bullets.
Moreover, every one of the Fire Lizard Knights was a Divine Archer, able to hit the target every ti from a kiloter away.
Every interception of the arrows with the Magic Barrier consud a large amount of Richard’s Magic Power.
“No good, I need to make a quick escape. If I keep dragging this out, I’m done for.”
Richard didn’t know what these Fire Lizard Knights were thinking, but he was clear about one thing—he didn’t morize the map, and now he was running blind.
If he couldn’t get rid of them soon, he was likely to run headlong into a second patrol.
Roar!
A beastly roar suddenly ca from ahead of Richard.
A large lizard covered in flas suddenly ca into Richard’s view.
Behind the lizard, Richard saw a Magma Pool that was not too large.
In this world, where the Fire Elent was dominant, Magma Pools were as common as ponds, but on the Red Soil Plain, a Magma Pool also ant sothing else—that was the spawning point for Fla Giant Beasts.
Fla Giant Beasts, a species of Magic Beast unique to the Red Sun World, were half-elental creatures that could live in magma, subsisting on devouring Fire Elents as well as various animals and plants.
They had an extrely wide-ranging diet, even occasionally consuming blade shrubs from the Red Soil Plain.
According to Wizard investigations, the Magma Network that ran beneath the Red Soil Plain seed to be ho to so Fla Giant Beasts.
These Fla Giant Beasts often attacked Fire Lizard settlents and destroyed their farmlands. For this reason, specialists among the Fire Lizards, known as Giant Beast Hunters, erged to hunt them.
As Richard eyed the Fla Giant Lizard roaring angrily at him, a stroke of inspiration suddenly flashed through his mind.
Boom, boom, boom…
The Fla Giant Lizard charged toward Richard, its nearly ten-ter-long massive body shaking the ground as it moved.
“This Wizard is done for!” exclaid a Fire Lizard gleefully.
To them, Richard being attacked by the Fla Giant Lizard ant he would be delayed montarily, which would be enough for them to close the distance.
But in the next mont, they realized sothing was not right.
Richard gripped his Magic Wand, leaped onto the lizard’s back, and then drove the end of the wand violently into the lizard’s spine.
In the next instant, the Life Drain pattern began to take effect.
The blood of the Fla Giant Lizard was continuously transford into Life Energy by the pattern, which then flowed into Richard’s body.
This Life Energy was gentle, unlike the Frenzy of the Life Energy from the Insect Nest World’s Source Sea Abyss, and upon entering Richard’s body, it swept away his fatigue.
“That’s better,” Richard said contentedly.
But compared to Richard’s comfort, the Fla Giant Lizard was in suffering.
Having a blood-sucking worm on its back was unbearable.
It tried desperately to shake Richard off, but Richard clung on as if stuck to it, impervious to its attempts.
As its blood drained away, the Fla Giant Lizard grew frantic, while the distant Fire Lizard Knights kept shooting arrows at Richard. He utilized a Deflection Field to deflect all the arrows toward the Fla Giant Lizard.
If Richard could still be considered a re blood-sucking worm, then to the Fla Giant Lizard, the Fire Lizard Knights were like piranhas.
Sensing the black arrows, it plunged headfirst into the Magma Pool behind it without a second thought, dragging Richard into the Magma Network beneath the Red Soil Plain.
“Has this Wizard gone mad!?” exclaid the pursuing Fire Lizard Knights, their expressions one of astonishnt, as they saw Richard enter the Magma Pool along with the Fla Giant Lizard.
A Magma Pool was not easy to enter.
The magma of a world with such an imbalance of the Fire Elent was more violent than in other worlds, and the Fire Elents within the magma would continuously assault all life forms.
Even Fire Lizards, native creatures who had adapted over untold years and awakened Dragon Blood in their veins, had to reach the peak of Third Level to disregard the magma. And Richard was but a Second-level Creature; for a Wizard to dive headfirst into the magma was surely a terrible move.
The leading Black Corner Fire Lizard, seeing Richard enter the Magma Pool, imdiately instructed the Fire Lizard ranks to spread out and guard several nearby Magma Pools.
“Keep a tight watch. The mont the Wizard surfaces, launch a combined attack—don’t give him a chance to retaliate,” the Black Corner Fire Lizard said with a cold smile as it watched the Magma Pool.
“I want to see how long you can hide down there!”
…
In the magma network, Richard sustained his magic barrier, following the Fla Giant Lizard as they continuously descended through the magma webs.
Even when he had beco a level 1 creature, Richard could survive without eating or breathing, relying purely on his cells to absorb energy from the air. Hence, within the magma network, he wasn’t worried about breathing.
Richard kept up his magic barrier, taking magic stones out of his pocket and stuffing them into his body without pause.
The erosion from the fire elent within the magma was terrifying for the magic barrier; it was as if a wizard was casting spells against the barrier incessantly.
Under such circumstances, the magic power within Richard’s body was rapidly depleting, so much so that he couldn’t even keep up with the consumption by drawing from the magic stones.
But this was enough.
Richard opened the Secret Realm Rift, removed all his magic equipnt and placed it in his pocket, then threw everything into the Secret Realm.
He only kept his magic wand with him.
After dealing with his things, Richard’s magic barrier suddenly vanished, and his body was instantly enveloped by the magma.
But Richard took no damage at all.
“I didn’t invest in these magic stones for my Adaptation Body for nothing; with a five hundred energy-level fire elent resistance, even a Three Rings Wizard who doesn’t follow the physique route doesn’t have that,” Richard thought to himself with a cold smile.
Richard closed his eyes, roaming freely through the magma network alongside the Fla Giant Lizard.
There were rumors that Fla Giant Beasts congregated under the Red Soil Plain, but wizards hadn’t found the reason yet. Now, with nothing better to do, Richard decided to explore this untouched virgin territory following the giant lizard.
The magma network under the Red Soil Plain was incredibly complex and vast. Below the network, there laid an imnse underground magma sea.
Three days later, the Fla Giant Lizard finally stopped moving.
The beast wasn’t dying from blood loss caused by Richard; just as Richard said, he was rely a blood-sucking worm.
Would a person die from a mosquito’s bite?
The spot where the Fla Giant Lizard halted was a massive crystal pillar that seed to be an enormous Fire Elent Gem.
It was difficult to imagine such a large Fire Elent Gem existed in the world, big enough for a ten-ter-long giant lizard to rest upon.
Richard used his spiritual power to probe the gem and felt that it was sowhat different from the Fire Elent Gems he had seen before.
The gem was continuously emitting fire elents, not showing the usual closed nature characteristic to Fire Elent Gems.
“It’s curious, even if this thing wasn’t a gem initially, after being saturated with fire elents for so many years, it should have beco a mineral of fire elents by now; why is the elental nature still so unstable?”
Richard dismounted from the giant lizard and tapped the enormous Fire Elent Gem with his magic wand, hoping to break off so fragnts for research.
However, no matter how hard Richard tried, the strange Fire Elent Gem beneath his feet showed no signs of damage.
This was starkly different from other Fire Elent Gems, which were famously hard and brittle.
“This is odd, what exactly is this thing? It’s been in the magma sea for so long and yet hasn’t been eroded or assimilated. Could this be a unique mineral from the Red Sun World?”
Elent erosion was an issue that many alchemy machines had to address, especially fire elent erosion.
As the most active of the four elents, alchemy machines were easily embrittled in environnts with high concentrations of fire elents.
If this crystal truly was a unique mineral from the Red Sun World, then both he and the two Great Wizards were about to make a fortune.
Richard lowered his body and tapped the crystal pillar with his fingers repeatedly, using techniques from Mountain Breaking Fist, continuously sensing the rebounding force to distinguish that particular frequency.
It was a lengthy process.
One day, two days, three days, a week passed, and Richard kept tapping on the crystal pillar.
Finally, on the eighth day, Richard found that rhythm.
He flicked his finger, and a small piece of crystal detached from the pillar.
Holding the crystal, Richard raised the magic barrier again, preparing to open the Secret Realm Rift and enter the Secret Realm for study.
But just as Richard set up the magic barrier, separating the magma and the crystal, the crystal suddenly ejected a jet of flas—this was the fire elent that had been eroding the crystal.
After all the fire elent was expelled by the crystal, the piece that originally appeared red turned into a form that Richard recognized.
“This is… Pioneer Crystal!”
As a wizard who had researched Pioneer Crystals for hundreds of years, Richard could not possibly mistake this object.
This piece of crystal must be a creation of the Pioneers.
In an instant, Richard understood the strange phenona of the crystal pillar.
This crystal pillar was a relic left behind by a civilization that had disappeared into the annals of history, and being built in the depths of the Molten Lava Sea, resistance to fire elent erosion was certainly essential.
“I never imagined that I would find a Pioneer relic in the depths of this Molten Lava Sea; the Pioneers and I are truly fated,” Richard exclaid, then tossed the crystal into the Secret Realm and began swimming in the Magma Sea.
Since the crystal pillar was constructed by the Pioneers, there must be other relics of the Pioneers nearby.
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