“The Lava Lord ahead,”
Just a few words, and Ivan’s heart skipped a beat.
Could Jenny’s actions have been discovered, was this a trap set by the dark elf tribe, or was there some other unusual trickery involved? He did not believe in trickery and checked several times; the scent could not be faked, confirming the marker left by Jenny was indeed correct.
“Flame Scorpion, quickly move to the right, let’s take another passage.”
He had no time to think further, treating it as something even Jenny had not figured out, and immediately instructed the Flame Scorpion to change its course.
In any case, it was better to be cautious.
“Alright, uh—“
Just as the Flame Scorpion was about to leave, it unexpectedly encountered a huge face not far to its side, a face entirely formed of dark gold lava, staring at it with authority. Explore more at My Virtual Library Empire
Unmatchable!
Extremely dangerous!
For a moment, the Flame Scorpion almost took off running.
“Stay calm!”
Seeing it start to lose its composure, Ivan quickly shouted in a low voice, his voice carrying a power to calm and soothe the soul.
It turned out Jenny’s warning was correct—there really was a Lava Lord guarding this area, but the figure before them was not its real body, just a thought combined with a bit of power, materialized into a phantom.
He saw it clearly; the creature’s eyes were actually dull, showing little response, probably asleep nearby.
This could either be a minor or serious issue, the key was not to expose their non-lava entity identities, or else they would face great danger.
“Flame Scorpion, listen carefully. From this second on, remain calm, slowly move away, try not to make any noise, do not look back, and do not respond to what I say.”
Ivan continued giving instructions, his voice almost inaudible.
Hearing his magically infused voice, the Flame Scorpion calmed down a bit and swam slowly away from the golden face as instructed, its movements resembling those of a thief accidentally trapped inside a house.
Behind it, the golden face stood silently in the lava, watching it with a silent pressure that made it hard to relax for even a moment.
The Flame Scorpion gradually moved away from where the golden face was located. After a long while, it felt relief and the pressure lifted, secretly relieved to have escaped the creature’s gaze.
Seeing this, Ivan’s expression changed slightly, fearing the situation might worsen.
“Just when I thought there was more business, what’s this little fish doing, daring to disturb my sleep. Let me show you a little lesson.”
As expected, an impatient voice arose.
The golden face clearly hadn’t fully woken up. Muttering half-asleep, it opened its mouth wide and blew a breath towards where the Flame Scorpion was, causing the nearby lava to boil even more, the temperature soared, and waves surged up.
In an instant, a turbulent Dark River formed.
The Flame Scorpion didn’t have time to react before it was swept away by the newly formed Dark River, hearing the creature’s chuckle as it finally escaped from its vicinity.
After a moment, the Flame Scorpion crashed into a rock wall before it freed itself from the predicament, dazed from the impact.
“Sorcerer Ivan, I—“
“Remember this lesson; not every mistake grants an easy escape. Sometimes it may cost lives, yours, the swamp ant’s, or even mine.”
“Uh-huh, I’ll definitely remember.”
“Continue on, let’s leave this place of trouble.”
This time, the Flame Scorpion learned a harsh lesson and was significantly injured, but fortunately, it was resilient, especially in the current lava environment where its injuries healed even faster; it was merely a scare.
Under Ivan’s guidance, the Flame Scorpion quickly entered a passage deep in the fissure.
“Phew! There should be no Lava Lord now, right? I was nearly scared out of my wits just now.” Old Tree Man Meg had been holding back from speaking, afraid his voice would disturb the Flame Scorpion.
“Just now was the last fault,” Ivan said, “we are about to cross where the magma is located.”
At this moment, he finally had the leisure to think about what the Lord of Magma had just said, apparently about collecting tolls; something that had never been mentioned in any documents. He wondered what exactly the “toll fee” involved and whether it required personal relations.
Anyway, he dared not go and ask.
Even the lords guarding the underground and surface passages knew how to switch allegiances, so one could say that anything is possible in this vast world.
“We will soon reach the underground world then,” Meg paused, his heart leaping with excitement, “Hehe, the underground world, I, Meg, am finally going there.”
“Why do you long for the underground world so much?”
“No one doesn’t yearn for the underground world, never have they, you will understand once you are there. That place is the true center of Danaila’s world, and I advise you not to leave once you go, staying in the center of the world will be something you won’t regret,” Meg said with longing on his face.
“Is that so? If I don’t leave the underground, according to the contract, you will have to be my guardian for life,” Ivan teased.
“Uh—Is that really the case?” Meg’s color drained from his face as he suddenly remembered, it seemed to be true.
“Just kidding, I have a pile of things to handle on the surface, I won’t stay in the underground world for long,” seeing him dumbfounded, Ivan said with a chuckle.
“Then you must visit again after you go back,” Meg sighed with relief and added a bit sheepishly.
It seemed he had never considered that the human sorcerer before him might go back on his word.
Ivan didn’t know what to say to that; going to the underground world, wouldn’t this old tree person be sold out and still help count the money? To speak the truth, it was not impossible.
After a long journey through the magma passageways, finally, the lava boat reached the end of the magma.
“How peculiar!”
“Yes, indeed.”
Contrary to what they anticipated, there was no marvelous view at the end, just that the magma ceased to flow forward right at a certain point as if there was a barrier of some sort.
Inertia did not seem to apply here.
Perhaps due to his limited abilities, Ivan didn’t sense any diaphragm blocking it; the magma just stood up vertically for no apparent reason, striking awe into the beholders.
The boat of lava emerged from the magma and lightly landed on the ground; after Ivan and the others left the cabin, the Flame Scorpion transformed back to its original form.
“How are you recovering?” Ivan glanced at it.
“Feeling good,” the scorpion tossed its tail to show its fine recovery.
“Then let’s continue,” Ivan tossed a healing potion to it, and the Flame Scorpion swallowed it whole, bottle and all.
Emerging from the passageway, they could see that the upper and lower strata here were not far apart, occasionally a stone emitting a mottled red glow appeared above, looked almost like a starry sky at first glance, but the “sky” seemed quite low.
As they continued to move forward, the earth above them rose higher and the surroundings became more spacious, as if they had entered another continent.
Surprisingly, not only was the concentration of energy particles high here, but there also was a unique vitality to them, giving a comfortable sensation, as if they had come to a place with fresher air and their pores were fully opened.
Ivan was slightly surprised, but old tree person Meg was utterly intoxicated, seemingly wanting to breathe it in deeply.
“I’m starting to believe what you said,” Ivan remarked.
“What?” Meg didn’t catch on immediately.
“That the underground is the center of the Danaila World.”
“That’s known to all. The deeper underground you go, the denser and more peculiar the energy; the resources also become richer. If you could reach the mythical Level 7, you might even casually find a forgotten throne.”
As the old tree person spoke increasingly outrageous claims, Ivan secretly shook his head.
As far as he knew, a throne was something conjured by a being of Level 6, not something picked up somewhere, and he wondered where Meg had heard such rumors.
More outrageously, Meg seemed to truly believe it.
This guy was too gullible.