Chapter 212: Volcanoes
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Everything that came in contact with the eyes were bright red.
Under the long-lasting roast of the never-falling sun, there wasn’t any vegetation on the land that depended on liquid to support their growth.
The fiery red iron sands stretched to the edge of the skies. The bright red reefs were endless. It was like walking into an oven bounded by the sky and land.
Flying in such a harsh environment, the view far ahead was shockingly distorted due to the boiling heat wave. The senses that depended on light and sounds were greatly depraved, similar to a ‘myopic blind man’.
Grimm roared across the sky like a fireball into the faraway lands.
This kind of environment where the fire element was dense was a huge burden for normal sorcerers. One had to constantly maintain his defensive magic to resist the scorching heat. But for Grimm’s triple layers of protections that consist of his Body of Flame, which was resistant to fire; his highly resistant constitution as well as his passive resistance to core elements, the harsh environment was nothing much to him.
Like a demon that was roaming among the flames, Grimm’s grayish-white Mask of Truth was burning in flames as he moved across the skies.
A day later.
He finally reached the mission site after flying through the distorted air for a long time.
The chains of volcanoes stretched thousands of meters upward. The peaks, sides and bases of the mountains were surrounded by traces of lava flows. Volcanic rocks could be seen everywhere. The sharp odour of sulphur permeated every breath of air.
“This bird is dying from the heat! Master Grimm, we’d better finish mapping out this desolate place and rest ourselves in the shade.” The Myna complained exhaustingly. Its feathers were starting to curl up like a child’s scribbles.
Grimm did not say a word and landed near a volcanic crater that was producing dense, dark smokes. He looked into the crater.
Whoa!
The dark, boiling hot smokes were rising. Grimm’s long, blond hairs were blown around in a messy fashion. The Mask of Truth shielded some of the heatwave.
The Myna screeched after taking in the ashes and disappeared from Grimm’s shoulders.
Glug…glug…
The lava within the volcanic crater was not as pure as those found in the lava lake. It seemed that the lava was corrupted by something. The bubble that rose up from the bottom of the lava popped open to release a dark cloud of smoke. The dark smoke rose upward following the boiling heat wave as they converged into the layer of shadow clouds across the sky.
Grimm bent down to pick up a red stone near the crater. Beneath the Mask of Truth, he was observing the stone with his eyes.
“The world is full of fire crystals that were not mined nor used by the Amonros. Although their purity is relatively low, they could still be sold at a quarter to one-fifth of the price of a low-level magic stone.”
Grimm’s eyes lit up after careful analysis.
A quarter of a low-level magic stone’s price. That didn’t sound a lot for a real Demon-Hunter Sorcerer for Grimm. But the point was that the fire crystals were abundant in the area. One only needed to bend down and pick them up.
Therefore, Grimm couldn’t help but make a plan in his mind.
After completing his mission and returning back to the void fortress, he would trade in some Soul Slaves that were highly resistant to fire to gather fire crystals over here. If this demon hunting expedition could last for a century, the number of fire crystals that he could gather would be insurmountable.
Grimm invoked his magic and took out a crystal ball. At the same time, he opened his mission scroll. A spot of green light briefly flashed.
The crystal ball was floating in the air. It spread out a layer of green beam that scanned across its surroundings rapidly before it shut off.
Grimm packed the crystal ball and flew toward another volcano among the chains of volcanic mountains.
The bland palette of the scenery was absolutely boring. The volcanoes that made up a huge part of the fire crystal world was too much. Grimm had to go from one volcano to another to record the geological features of the area.
During the boring flight, Grimm couldn’t help but study the core natural souls of elements that gathered within the crystal ball to learn more about the natural soul elements of Chimeras.
After seventeen dull days of recording the topographical features of the volcanic ranges, what Grimm saw within this particular volcanic crater made him stop.
Underneath the crater was pure boiling lava. Although it was bubbling continuously like the other craters, no black smoke poured from within.
Hmm?
The sharp awareness of the sorcerer about the natural elements as well as the rules of the world allowed Grimm to notice a difference within the crater. Even the purity of the fire crystals around the crater was obviously higher than the rest.
Perhaps, one should properly investigate the causes?
With that in mind, Grimm, who had finished recording the geological information did not leave. Suddenly, searing flames emanated from his body. He set up his sorcerer’s barrier. The searing flame benefited from the surrounding dense fire elements and was burning lively.
Grimm cautiously flew into the crater.
Glug…glug…
The pure lava pool was bubbling non-stop. Grimm dove down almost a thousand meters from the crater. At about a hundred meter’s height from the lava lake, there was a cave entrance among the scorched walls that were apparently man-made.
The entrance was in an irregular oval shape about ten meters in height and thirty over meters in width. The walls were smooth. Its depth was not visible from the entrance.
“Hmm? This smell…it must be. It’s the perspiration from Amonros. To think that the Amonros were building caves here? Just as I thought, there must be some kind of secrets hidden within this volcano.” Grimm smiled coldly, proud of his accurate judgement earlier.
Grimm conjured up some magical power. Boom! A puff of black flames ignited to form a five-meter tall Greedy Flame Giant. As the black flames flickered, its Lightning Carapace too started to twist continuously.
Roar!
The Greedy Flame Giant had two mouths, which were separately located in its abdomen and its back. One of them wailed while the other roared furiously. The soundwaves transmitted within the cave and echoed back quickly. The cave wasn’t as deep as Grimm had thought.
Without any expression, Grimm walked toward the depths, step by step using his magical powers. The Greedy Flame Giant was following tightly behind Grimm. Its two snail-like eye stalks each looked at different directions. It carried an Elemental Claymore in its hand as it walked swaggeringly. The lightning energy produced a crackling voice.
Highly pure fire crystals were shimmering along the surrounding cave walls. Grimm didn’t express too much interest in them. He explored deeper into the caves unwaveringly.
Since the cave wasn’t that deep, and Grimm did not sense any high-level dangers present in the area, it was enough to conclude that there was nothing lethal within, at least not to Grimm.
About two hundred meters in, three Amonros suddenly appeared. They stared at Grimm as if a difficult enemy had come up on them.
Huh?
Grimm was a little curious. After observing that the three Golden Amonros did not present too much danger, Grimm couldn’t help but start scrutinizing the three Golden Amonros, which were a bit different from the rest of the Amonros.
The most obvious part was that there was a golden flame burning on each of their tail spines; like three very agile sword whips. The golden flames were shining brilliantly like colored glass.
“An outsider sorcerer! You will taste the wrath of the Amonros!” One of the Golden Amonros raised its eyes and taunted Grimm through spiritual telepathy.
“The wrath of the Amonros?”
Tsk tsk tsk…
A lowly chuckle and without saying a word, three fiery bats were animated. They strut their wings and flew toward the three Amonros.
Beneath the Mask of Truth, Grimm’s both eyes exuded the shimmering brilliance of intelligence. He was utterly calm and rational.
The three Golden Amonros actually went ahead to confront the fiery bats. The frontmost Amonro swept at the bat with its fiery long tails. Poof! The fiery bat disappeared in a cloud of sparks.
Huh?
Grimm was astonished.
The Golden Amonro, which extinguished Grimm’s fiery bats in an instant let out a grunt. A cold stare flashed across its hawk-like eyes. Whoosh! Its body was reduced to a trace of golden shadow. As if unbound by gravity, it leapt from the cave ceiling in an erratic manner to attack.
Grimm coldly glanced at the Golden Amonro and did not give it further attention. Instead, he looked at the second fiery bat. He reached out his hand and clenched into a fist.
“Explode!”
A loud bang followed Grimm’s deep voice. Before the burning tail of the Golden Amonro had reached the fiery bat, the Amonro was consumed by the scorching flames.
The last fiery bat suddenly charged forward. At the sound of poof, a flaming wave of concentrated explosion too consumed the last Golden Amonro.
Whoosh! Whoosh!
Two unharmed Golden Amonros emerged from the waves of flame. Grimm’s fire attacks had no effects at all!
“Vaiduryarion-type Amonros? And the golden flames seem to be a mysterious fire energy that could nullify other fire energy. So the reason for these three Golden Amonros to be here was…”
Grimm raised his head. The Golden Amonro which were coming in for an assault from the cave ceiling turned into a golden fireball that was dashing toward Grimm. Its hawk-like eyes still carried a proud air of recklessness.
Hmph!
Grimm let out a cold grunt. The grounds beneath him suddenly emitted a strong gravitational pull. The Golden Amonro which appeared like a golden fireball gave out a startling cry before it was slammed onto the ground by the gravitational forces.
The gravity distortion made Grimm’s robe rise up even without wind. He reached out his leg and kicked away the Golden Amonro as it made a painful cry. Whoosh! It landed on a cave wall more than ten meters away and started twitching.
Fwoosh!
The Elemental Claymore of the Greedy Flame Giant parried the attack of a Golden Amonro. Its tail that could scutter a fiery bat easily was of no use against the water-lightning element claymore sword.
Huff…
Suddenly, the abdominal large mouth of the Greedy Flame Giant stretched open to shoot out a dark pillar of flame which devoured the Golden Amonro.
The last Golden Amonro noticed things had gone south for them. It slipped past Grimm and the Greedy Flame Giant and attempted to escape the cave. Grimm let out a cold chuckle. The Amonro was unable to escape from the gravitational forces emitted from his two hands. It was sucked back before being bound by Green Python Thread.
“Hehe, it seems like I could save up some resources from getting a Soul Slave to collect these fire crystals back to the void fortress.”
After chuckling softly, Grimm pondered. “These three Golden Amonros should be no stronger than a worker ant level mechanical marionette, but surprisingly they were able to hold off fire energies. Looks like this cave, or should I say this volcano, has some kind of secrets hidden within.”
Grimm walked slowly into the depths of the cave.