The ground around him was made up of exposed, uneven rocks, all black in color. Nearly a hundred meters in front of him, there were many cracks in the ground, which would occasionally emit a stream of hot sulfide gas with a "hiss".

The ground also gradually turns dark red from near to far, which should be a sign that the ground is being scorched by high temperatures.

As far as he could see, Richard could even see a red magma pool area with a faint sense of liquid flow, and there seemed to be traces of elemental creatures in the distance.

"Boo!"

As the water film that Gorkan applied to the surface of his body disappeared without a trace.

Richard immediately felt the heat wave coming towards him, which was at least sixty or seventy degrees, even hotter than the core area of ​​the Sahara Desert during the hottest period. Every breath he took was accompanied by a burning sensation in his nasal cavity.

"Hiss! This temperature! Fortunately, I was prepared."

Although Richard had been mentally prepared for the harsh environment in the Scorched Earth Secret Realm, he did not expect it to be so bad.

Moreover, he was clearly on the edge of the Scorched Earth Secret Realm, Richard concluded after casually looking around.

Immediately, Richard took out a primary flame protection potion from his arms. After drinking it, a thin film of flame appeared on his body surface in an instant, which immediately absorbed a lot of heat from the scorching air surging from all around.

This made Richard feel much more comfortable.

With the soul mark that Gorkan gave him, Richard was basically certain that Gorkan was not far away from him.

It seems that I am lucky and the two of us should be able to reunite soon.

In this case, there is no need to use the positioning device prepared earlier. Richard plans to try to communicate directly using the communication mark.

The closer the distance between wizards’ communication marks, the stronger their ability to resist interference.

Richard stretched out his hand and quickly drew a simple symbol similar to a fish head in the air. After injecting a trace of mental power, Richard began to try to contact Gorkan.

"Gorkan, how is the situation over there? Can you sense my location?" Richard asked in a deep voice.

"Master, I can sense that you are to the east of me, not far away. The situation here is fine, but I encountered some small rolling stone elements, which are chasing me now. I need to deal with them first."

"Oh~ damn thing!!"

Gorkan's scream suddenly came from the mark!

This immediately made Richard frown. It seemed that the situation was not as easy to handle as Gorkan said. It seemed that he'd better go and take charge.

Small rolling stone elements?

It seems to be just an apprentice-level elemental creature. Gorkan can't be so useless, right? There is no way to deal with it!

Recalling the description of the small rolling stone element, Richard couldn't help but shook his head.

"Gorkan, stay safe. I will head towards where you are. We should be able to meet soon."

When Richard withdrew the output of this strand of mental power, the communication mark immediately dissipated into the air.

After sensing the direction slightly, Richard immediately headed towards where Gorkan was currently.

However, after walking a short distance, Richard felt a sense of being watched.

It seemed as if there were some creatures around secretly observing him.

Immediately, Richard stopped.

"Swoosh!" A black line suddenly shot towards Richard's face from the ground on the left.

"Dang!" In an instant, the mimicry wristband transformed into a silver arm shield, blocking the attack.

Richard looked carefully and found that what he had just blocked was actually a small snake with a dark red body and eyes as bright as two small red obsidians.

At this moment, the little snake was spitting red tongue at him, and it looked very angry.

"Lava snake." Richard immediately identified the other party's species.

But he didn't expect that lava snakes would appear so far away from the magma pool.

"Swoosh!" The opponent launched an attack again.

"Dang!" Richard no longer held back this time. He used his left hand to hit the lava snake's head hard with his arm shield. In an instant, the lava snake was knocked unconscious on the ground.

The next second, the silver arm shield quickly transformed into a sharp sword and stabbed straight ahead! "Ding!"

The lava snake was nailed to the hard ground. The severe pain woke it up from its dizziness, and its slender body was twisting constantly.

"What a tenacious vitality! Even after being stabbed in the seven inches, he didn't die. Moreover, his skin is so tough that it feels like piercing rubber when I pierce it." Richard muttered to himself.

"If it was a wizard apprentice who came in, unless he had strength and agility above that of a senior knight, he would have lost his life just from that sudden attack!"

"This is only the outermost part of the Scorched Earth Secret Realm!"

I don’t know how many dangerous creatures are waiting for me ahead as I explore.

"Furthermore, my aura as a first-level wizard can't even frighten the lava snake. It even dares to take the initiative to attack. This is really rare among creatures."

"The point is, after killing him, there are no energy points!!"

Richard had checked it twice.

Yes, after the lava snake was killed, there was no energy point! This surprised Richard, and he had some guesses in his mind.

Could it be that this was because the other party was not a monster but an elemental creature? In addition, this lava snake was obviously a relatively low-level creature among lava snakes.

According to descriptions in ancient books, lava snakes like to live close to magma, absorbing the energy contained in the magma to thrive. Their size is directly proportional to their strength; the redder their body color, the stronger they are.

This lava snake has a dull black body and is only about one meter long. It is obviously a weak one among lava snakes, otherwise it would not have been squeezed out of the magma area to this marginal area.

After a moment of hesitation, in order to avoid a setback, Richard decided not to hide his strength anymore and immediately recited a spell silently.

I saw an inverted pentagram witch formation quickly appear on the ground . The next second, a three-meter-tall skeleton creature appeared on the witch formation.

It was the Blood Bone Puppet! Richard let the Blood Bone Puppet lead the way, and he followed closely behind, moving forward towards Golkan's direction.

It seemed that because of the intimidating aura of the blood-bone puppet, Richard continued forward for more than ten minutes without encountering any attacks from lava snakes again.

From this point of view, it is very likely that it is not that the lava snake is not afraid of the strong, but that the aura of the wizard at the first level is not strong enough to make the lava snake feel afraid.

After a while, Richard saw a familiar figure rushing towards him quickly. No, to be more precise, the figure was rushing towards him in a panic.

I saw a water shield behind Gorkan. The water shield was constantly under attack, and ripples were constantly appearing.

Behind it were several round stones the size of washbasins. Surprisingly, there seemed to be a male face on the surface of the stones, grinning and shouting something.

At the same time, behind Gorkan, Richard could see faintly flickering black lines, which seemed to be lava snakes, which were also attacking the water shield behind Gorkan.

This scene made Richard speechless. He didn't expect Gorkan's fighting ability to be so weak!

"Go!" Richard pointed his finger.

The blood and bone puppet quickly went forward.

When Gorkan saw the Blood Bone Puppet, he was overjoyed and shouted, "Master, I'm here!"

"Swoosh!" Several black lines attacked Gorkan from the side.

"Ouch!" Gorkan's defense finally collapsed and was instantly broken by a lava snake, which bit his arm hard.

Fortunately, the blood and bone puppet had arrived at this time.

“Swish swish!!”

The sharp bone blade on the blood-bone puppet's forearm instantly cut the lava snakes chasing Gorkan into two pieces.

Half of the lava snake's body fell to the ground, still twisting, and no blood flowed out.

The blood-bone puppet did not stop, and continued to swing its bone blade at the basin-sized stones around it, basically killing one at a time.

“Pah!!”

The small rolling stone elements were shattered one by one, and a sense of fear appeared on the surface of the stones. The remaining stones immediately scattered like birds and beasts.

But how can their speed compare to that of the Blood Bone Puppet?

The Blood Bone Puppet took a big step, caught up in a few steps, and smashed all the stone elements! There were no energy points either! Richard understood clearly that the creatures in the Scorched Earth Secret Realm would most likely not provide him with energy points.

"Master!" Gorkan shouted in pain, covering the wound on his right arm.

Richard shook his head slightly. Gorkan had been a murloc prophet for too long, and he was usually busy making potions, so he might have neglected fighting for a long time.

"Let me see your arm."

I saw two small red spots on Gorkan's arm, bleeding. The red spots should be left by the fangs of the lava snake. The surrounding area was gradually turning dark red and small blisters were forming.

"Master, this should be fire poison."

Richard nodded, agreeing with Gorkan's judgment: "Yes, did you bring the antidote?"

"Yes."

"Then drink it!"

"Gudong, gudong!"

"By the way, Gorkan, the one chasing you just now was a small rolling stone elemental, an earth elemental creature with the strength of an apprentice. Its strength is not very strong. How could you..." Richard couldn't help asking.

Gorkan's face turned red, and he stammered, "Master, if there were only one or two, I could handle them easily, but there were a few lava snakes in between, and I panicked..."

At this moment, Gorkan was also frightened. In fact, if he had taken a steady and cautious approach at the beginning and killed them one by one, he would not have been in such a mess.

But he adopted the wrong response strategy, thinking that he could get rid of the small rolling stone elementals and lava snakes. Unexpectedly, he attracted more and more elemental creatures while running.

In the end, they were completely afraid to stop and fight.

After listening to this, Richard was speechless and shook his head. After making some adjustments, the two of them pushed forward.

After all, there is no value in killing such a small elemental creature that doesn't even have a crystal.

As we went deeper, the smell of sulfur around us became more and more pungent, but fortunately we had Gorkan's water film technique.

After a thin film covers the body, the air will be cooled and filtered when inhaled again, making the two people breathe much more comfortably.

Richard glanced at Gorkan and thought to himself, it seems that it is not completely useless, just think of it as an air conditioner!

It's just that when it comes to fighting, I'm the only one who comes.

After passing through a corridor, a pool of boiling magma with bubbles not far away came into their sight.

Dozens of red lava snakes were seen standing upright, spitting out red tongues and soaking leisurely in the lava. From a distance, the scene looked like a field of red sorghum.

These lava snakes are much larger than the ones we just encountered.

The lava snakes Richard encountered originally were only as thick as two fingers, but now each of these lava snakes is at least as thick as a thigh and is much stronger.

Moreover, their body surface is bright red, indicating that the strength of this group of lava snakes has reached the limit of wizard apprentices.

"Shh!"

Richard made a silent gesture to Golkan and pointed in the direction of the lava pool.

Gorkan turned his head slightly and was immediately shocked! "Hiss! So many lava snakes!" Gorkan said in horror.

If they were attracted by so many lava snakes, they would be in trouble. The two of them quickly bypassed the group of lava snakes, turned a corner, and continued to move forward.

Suddenly, a dull rolling sound was heard next to a huge black rock, which seemed to be the friction sound between rough stones.

"not good!"

Just as Richard was about to step back to avoid it, the creature behind the black boulder seemed to sense something and suddenly accelerated and rushed out.

I saw a large boulder over two meters tall with a human-shaped upper body rolling out from behind a giant black rock. The top of this elemental creature was a boulder the size of a washbasin, and the face of a middle-aged man was faintly visible on the surface of the boulder.

The large boulder with a diameter of two meters is the body, and on both sides there is a pair of thick human-like arms made purely of irregular rocks.

The pebbles that make up its body are not the kind of smooth stones that have been polished, but the kind of stones with rough surfaces and irregular polygons.

Especially the arms, the irregular protruding stones seem like bulging muscles, and the arms look extremely thick, strong and powerful.

The entire body is made of stone, except for the lower half.

Because there is a group of small boulders at the bottom of the large boulder, each of which is about the size of a human head. The heavy large boulder is quickly moved to the designated position by utilizing the rolling principle. Therefore, although the other party is huge and heavy, it moves very fast.

"Invaders, die!" A strange mental wave came.

The meaning contained in the mental fluctuations instantly made Richard and Gorkan understand that the other party was about to launch an attack.

"Master! It's a large rolling stone element!" Gorkan quickly reminded the leader and quickly cast a transparent prismatic shield formed by water flow to block it in front of him.

Richard quickly dodged and hid behind the tall blood-bone puppet.

At the same time, he silently recited the magic armor technique in his mind, and a black bone armor with spikes instantly covered Richard's entire body.

However, perhaps due to the influence of the surrounding environment, Richard felt that the power of the water shield performed by Gorkan was much less than usual. In the past, the water shield performed by Gorkan was much larger and thicker than it is now.

Just as Gorkan was about to cast a water shield on Richard, the large rolling stone element opposite raised his hands above his head. The next second, a stone the size of a washbasin suddenly condensed between his sturdy hands.

I saw his strong arms holding the stone, like a slingshot, and leaning back all the time. Suddenly, he threw it heavily towards Gorkan who was performing a spell!

"Swoosh!" The sound of breaking through the air.

The stone flew so fast that only a gray line was left in the air! Richard was about to remind Gorkan, but before he could finish his words, Gorkan was hit by the stone.

“Bang!”

Gorkan was like a straw. In an instant, he was broken in half, thrown several meters away, and fell heavily to the ground.

The water shield in front of it broke the moment it came into contact with the high-speed rocks.

What attack power!

This "stone throwing" by the large rolling stone element immediately made Richard's eyes fixed and his face serious!

Richard kept his eyes fixed on the other person while helping Gorkan up.

Fortunately, Gorkan had the water shield to block the attack, so he was not seriously injured, but his face was pale and he might have broken several ribs.

Obviously, the opponent's attack just now was so fast, it must be its innate ability.

It's a kind of innate ability similar to earth-based witchcraft - Stonemance. The process of condensing stones is almost instantaneous, but the opponent has to lean back to accumulate power, which takes about one second.

“Hula!!”

Seeing that the stone throwing just now was successful, the surface of the round stone at the top of the large rolling stone element actually showed a smiling face in a very human way.

At the same time, it waved its thick arms, and a pile of small boulders suddenly appeared behind it and rushed towards Richard.

Obviously, the other party had a certain level of intelligence, but since he started fighting as soon as they met, Richard did not intend to try to communicate again.

It just so happened that Richard also wanted to test the combat effectiveness of the newly made blood and bone puppet.

So, Richard waved his hand, and the blood-bone puppet rushed forward with big strides.

At this time, the group of small rolling stone elements also "rolled" towards Richard.

"Perform the Spiral Slash!" Richard gave the order to the blood-bone puppet.

“Swish!”

The sharp bone blades on the blood-bone puppet's elbows, knees and other joints shot out in an instant like cat claws.

The blood-bone puppet immediately stretched out its arms, placed the bone blade on the outermost side, and its entire body spun rapidly like a gyroscope, forming a bone blade storm that directly killed the small rolling stone element.

“Crackle!”

The bone blades on the outermost part of the Blood Bone Puppet are extremely sharp and hard. As long as they touch a little bit of the small rolling stone element, they will immediately smash the stone.

In just a few seconds, the ground was in a mess and more than a dozen small rolling stone elements were shattered.

This caused the large rolling stone element to emit a violent mental wave: "My children! Damn enemy, you will pay the price!"

The large rolling stone element once again raised its arms as if throwing. In an instant, a round stone condensed between its hands. Just as it was about to throw it at the blood-bone puppet!

But he just stood there in a daze.

It was Richard in the back who used "mental shock!" on him.

Taking this opportunity, the blood and bone puppet quickly approached the large rolling stone element.

“Pah, pah, pah!”

The bone blade chopped the rock surface of the large rolling stone element one after another, and sparks flew everywhere! The large rolling stone element could not withstand seven or eight chops in one second!

Although it also used its thick rock arms to block, it only lasted for a few seconds, and dozens of half-finger-deep scratches were left on the rock surface of its arms and body! Immediately, the male human face on the cobblestone on its head showed an expression of unbearable pain.

“It hurts so much”

Seeing that the opponent seemed unable to resist, Richard gave the "Jump and Slash!" command to the Blood-Bone Puppet.

“Ding!”

The tall body of the blood-bone puppet actually jumped several meters high, and the two bone blades on its arms formed a cross and chopped heavily in the center of the body of the large rolling stone element.

“Crash!”

Suddenly, the large rolling stone element could no longer bear it, and the big stone in the center of its body shattered at once.

A large piece of rubble was scattered on the dark ground, and one of the pale yellow crystals, half the size of a fist, instantly attracted Richard's attention.

"Hey, master, this is the Earth Crystal. Although its price is far less than that of the Fire Crystal, it is still worth 10,000 magic stones." Gorkan shouted in surprise.

Gorkan quickly stepped forward, picked up the Earth Crystal, and handed it to Richard.

Placing the Earth Crystal in his hand, a warm feeling immediately came from the crystal, and Richard could feel the powerful earth energy particles contained in it.

Obviously, this thing should be more useful to wizards who are good at casting earth-based magic.

However, there are not many wizards in the gray dwarf race who are good at earth magic.

Naturally, in terms of price, the Earth Crystal is much lower than the Flame Crystal.

In the previous battle, Richard had hardly made any moves except for a mental shock. The entire battle was basically fought by the Blood Bone Puppet alone against the large rolling stone element! Richard recalled the Blood Bone Puppet and took a closer look at the multiple bone blades at its joints. They were shiny as new.

It seems that I have to thank Vice President Hawkins very much. The strength of this ogre must have been extraordinary, otherwise the hardness of its skeleton would not be so high.

As an advanced combat puppet, the Blood Bone Puppet itself has extremely strong combat power, and Richard has also transformed it into a dual energy channel, so its current strength can be said to be extremely powerful.

Judging from the opponent's energy fluctuations just now, the strength of this large rolling stone element is about the level of a mid-level wizard. But even so, it was quickly defeated by the blood and bone puppet after it got close to it, like chopping melons and vegetables.

Richard was very satisfied with the fighting power of the blood-bone puppet.

With the Blood Bone Puppet by their side, Richard and Golkan headed towards the depths of the Scorched Earth Secret Realm. ——Three days later. After a few days of exploration, Richard was relatively familiar with the outer conditions of the Scorched Earth Secret Realm.

There are many magma pools scattered around the periphery, as well as large and small passages through which magma flows. Some are so narrow that only one person can pass through, while others are relatively spacious.

From time to time, beams of high-temperature steam mixed with sulfide and a small amount of highly toxic chloride emerge from the cracks in the rocks on the ground, and visibility is very poor.

And it is indeed as Disol said, there are almost no first-level fire elements on the outskirts of the secret realm.

Due to the high price of Flame Crystals, many resource exploration teams have been engaged in long-term sweeps for first-level fire elements and herbs in the periphery, resulting in the current situation.

However, although Richard had no harvest of fire crystals and herbs, he did harvest four earth crystals.

The two of them walked out of a corridor carefully.

"Hey, that's it." Gorkan's face lit up with joy.

"Master, look over there!"

Richard turned his head and looked in the direction Gorkan pointed. About seventy or eighty meters to the left of the two men, where steam was rising, there was a faint burning flame suspended in the air and moving around.

Hiss! First-order fire element!

Richard was immediately overjoyed. He had finally encountered a first-level fire element! It seemed that his luck was not bad at all.

This fire elemental was like the king of this area, wandering around and patrolling its territory. When the lava snakes saw the fire elemental, they immediately bowed their heads to show their submission and respect.

Just as Richard was planning to find an open space to avoid the interference of numerous lava snakes and try to kill the fire element.

Suddenly, three shadow arrows came from a distance and hit the fire element heavily. Immediately, Richard and Gorkan felt the screams caused by the violent mental fluctuations: "It hurts!!"

What Richard was more concerned about was where the person who launched this wave of concentrated shadow arrow attacks was.

Three wizards wearing black robes and hoods walked out of the left passage farther away from the fire element.

This made Richard narrow his eyes, and with a wave of his hand, he sent the blood-bone puppet back to the world of the dead, and immediately pulled Gorkan and hid in the corridor they came from.

The other party's attire immediately made Richard feel that they were not an ordinary resource search team.

Because at the gate of the Scorched Earth Secret Realm, he saw those first-level high-level wizards waiting for their team members, and most of them did not cover their faces.

Although the fire element suffered severe damage, the flame that was originally three meters high and burning fiercely had now shrunk a lot, but it still had the power to strike.

It finally saw the enemy who was attacking it!

The flaming hand swung forward, and instantly blasted out a fireball the size of a washbasin.

A black-robed wizard on the other side raised his hand, and a spear condensed from dark elements appeared, which quickly blasted towards the fire element.

Just as Richard was surprised that the other party did not make any defense and launched an attack against the fire element, the fireball suddenly disappeared when it was several meters away from the three men in black robes.

The fire element's body was instantly pierced by the dark element's spear.

With a violent mental shock from the fire element, the flame was extinguished instantly, and a pile of ashes appeared on the ground. With a surge of air, a crystal stone flashing red light suddenly appeared.

Among the three people, a short man in a black robe walked up quickly, bent down and picked up the flame crystal.

"Hehe, not bad, this is the fifth one."

"Hurry up, Zlatko, don't waste time on this kind of thing."

"Mohetal, relax a bit. We can collect a flame crystal stone along the way. We should reach the mission location a few hundred meters ahead. Then, we can retreat as long as we put the things that Priest Nicol asked us to put in place."

"We'd better be careful. I'm worried that we might run into resource teams from other wizard organizations. Besides, our speed is already slow. According to the plan, the others should have already put their things away. We may be the last one."

"If you don't want to be punished by Nicol's priest, you'd better hurry up!"

"." The short man in black robe continued to mutter something, but his pace was obviously much faster.

It seems that the Nicol sacrifice mentioned by the other party is very intimidating to them.

The sound was getting farther and farther away. Gorkan was originally angry about the three strange black-robed wizards who had snatched the fire element, but as soon as he saw the magic they cast, he knew that their strength was far superior to his.

Although the distance was too far to sense the opponent's mental fluctuations, judging from the wizard who cast the Shadow Gun, at least one of the opponents was a high-level wizard.

Richard remained silent at this time.

Obviously, the other party is definitely not a serious resource search team, and their purpose of coming to the Scorched Earth Secret Realm is also questionable.

More importantly, the word "sacrifice" touched Richard's slightly sensitive nerve.

Could it be that the other party is from the Nightmare Church? However, weren't the members of the Nightmare Church in Tug City uprooted by the city guards?

"Gorkan, have you heard of the name Nicole? Think about it carefully about the cult." Richard asked.

"Master, a few years ago, I seem to have heard of a cultist named Nicol!" Gorkan thought for a while and replied.

"The enemy seemed to be a member of the Jade Fire Cult. When they were sacrificing a small town of gray dwarves, they were defeated by the gray dwarf wizard Baghdadi who was passing by at the time. But it is said that more than half of the 1,000 gray dwarves in that town were killed or injured, and there were only two or three hundred survivors."

"This made the gray dwarf officials furious, and Nicol was immediately put on the wanted list," Gorkan introduced.

"The Jade Fire Cult?" Richard rubbed his chin and muttered to himself, "Also, the name Baghdadi seems a little familiar!"

Richard had an impression of the Jade Fire Cult. This sect was one of the five major cult organizations that Gorkan had introduced before.

"Hey, Master, have you forgotten? Baghdadi is the current Lord of Tug City."

(End of this chapter)