Chapter 102 |
In the window alcove of the neighboring gray, imposing tower, a familiar figure with white hair leaned against the window.
For a moment, Lynn was taken aback. This scene felt familiar yet strangely unfamiliar.
He attempted to discern any trace of mockery or playful teasing in her eyes.
“Hello, new neighbor,” Lynn greeted, raising his hand.
Back in the basement, Lynn retrieved ‘Interlocking Lightning’ and perused the spell’s description.
It required the construction of a total of 3,621 nodes. It would be a slow grind, Lynn prepared himself mentally.
In the following days, Lynn gradually sorted out and sold off the gains obtained from Jim. Any unnecessary items were sold off and converted into magic stones.
After the final tally, Lynn found himself with a balance of 7,650 magic stones. Considering his previous efficiency in selling alchemical creations, this amount was roughly equivalent to twenty years of effort.
And that was without any major expenses along the way, just the normal expenses of maintaining followers. It was evident how difficult it was for wizard apprentices to accumulate resources.
Midway through, Lynn also got in touch with Liszt. Liszt rushed over as soon as he received the message, finding Lynn.
“Liszt, I’ve looked over the potions you gave me. Despite some flaws, they’re rare for an apprentice.”
“I’ll give you a task first. Organize some introductory books on potion studies that you think are necessary for beginners and give them to me in a while,” Lynn instructed.
Liszt was momentarily taken aback. Was this Wizard Lynn planning to learn potion studies? Although he was curious, he didn’t ask further and simply nodded silently.
With more time on his hands now, Lynn prepared to attempt learning potion studies. At the moment, he planned to focus on alchemical studies, runology, and potion studies.
As for mutation studies, level 3 mutation studies was already sufficient. Continuing to advance would require too much time and effort. Lynn would consider it later after becoming an official wizard.
And learning potion studies was also because Lynn was preparing to make a big move and earn more magic stones. As for how to get magic stones, Lynn had a rough idea in mind.
The day before departure, Lynn found Toby and expressed his desire to go to the Abyss, but he didn’t understand the Abyss language or the demonic language.
The demons he had encountered before, including those in the demon academies, had all learned the wizard language of the Continent of Vanquished Gods. However, not all demons knew the wizard language. Many demons only knew the demonic language.
And Lynn happened to have not learned the demonic language, studying a language would take too much time.
“Let me think. I remember many apprentices have learned the demonic language. You can post a task to hire one,” Toby suggested.
“Uh, it’s too troublesome,” Lynn shook his head. “And if it’s another apprentice, I don’t think it’s safe.”
If the apprentice they hired had ulterior motives, and they communicated only in the demonic language, Lynn wouldn’t understand what they were saying.
“So, are you planning to hire a demon?” Toby asked, amused.
“I’m considering it,” Lynn admitted. Compared to the conspiracies and machinations among wizard apprentices, demons’ straightforwardness was easier to accept.
“Hahaha, that’s rare. You actually trust demons more than apprentices,” Toby chuckled. “That’s because you haven’t met the old, cunning demons.”
“Especially some of the Abyss Lords, they have more cunning than the eyes on a Hundred-Eyed Giant.”
“I’ll introduce you to a demon. It can serve as your guide. Currently, it is living a bit hard in Demon City because it doesn’t have many life skills, and it’s not easy to survive in Demon City.”
Through Toby’s introduction, Lynn met a demon who had lived in Demon City for over thirty years.
A brute force demon.
A demon notorious among demons, whose entire body was covered in muscular knots.
These demons boasted massive bodies even among their own kind, rumored to be entirely composed of muscle, with even their brain matter transformed into sinew.
Thus, the brute force demons lacked intelligence and were often stubborn, typically relegated to the front lines as cannon fodder in battles.
As Toby explained, this particular brute force demon had no means of earning money. Apart from helping people move things every day, it didn’t have any other skills.
If it weren’t for some other demons who occasionally helped it out with a little support, it would have starved to death long ago.
When Lynn saw it, the brute force demon squatted in front of the house like a ponderous hill, covered from top to bottom in scars. It wasn’t until it received the token from Toby handed to it by Lynn that it dispelled its wariness toward Lynn.
“Since it is its recommendation, I’ll go with you,” the brute force demon spoke in a somewhat non-standard wizard language of the Continent of Vanquished Gods, with a strange accent.
“We agreed on fifty magic stones. I’ll go to the Abyss to protect you and help translate with other demons,” the brute force demon stated.
Time passed, and twenty days gradually slipped away.
Under Lynn’s efforts, the construction of the one-ring spell, ‘Interlocking Lightning’, was over halfway complete, with just over five hundred nodes remaining.
Although disappointing, Lynn couldn’t always have everything revolve around his own preferences.
Lynn brought along the brute force demon, then retrieved the ring and silently invoked the passage to the Abyss.
The surrounding space began to shift.
In an instant, the world spun.
It felt like being grabbed by an invisible hand around the heart, and for a moment, Lynn, standing still, felt as if his whole body was plummeting.
The sensation of space being infinitely stretched, everything around him became surreal.
Holy crap, entering the Abyss feels completely different from entering the other world.
And it’s been too long.
Lynn felt as if he had plunged into nothingness, with glowing objects in the darkness around him streaking into long trails in his vision.
After an indeterminate amount of time, Lynn once again felt solid ground beneath his feet.
More than his sight, it was his sense of smell that he noticed first.
Lynn caught the strong smell of sulfur in his nose, along with the wave of intense heat rushing toward him.
Lynn’s eyes gradually narrowed in focus. On the dry and desolate land, what met his gaze was an endless expanse of red sand and broken stones—a barren wasteland. At the far end of the plain stood a volcano emitting black smoke, silently towering over the landscape.
Looking up, he saw a hazy yellow sky, occasionally dotted with shadows flying across.
This is the Abyss?
Without the need for any special rituals or passing through channels, one could arrive from the World of Vanquished Gods to the Abyss plane with just a ring.
“Here, you’ve finally regained consciousness. The air here smells awful,” the brute force demon, standing nearby, squatted on the ground, boredly scooping up mud and throwing it out. Even while squatting, Lynn was only half its height. When the brute force demon stood up, Lynn had to crane his neck to look up at it.
Then Lynn released four units of the Iron Serpent No. 1 Noble Edition, allowing them to burrow underground.
With a roll, Iron Serpent No. 1 bumped its head against the ground of the Abyss, causing sparks to fly from its head, and only a small shallow pit was dug out of the ground.
Observing this, Lynn couldn’t help but fall silent. Was the ground here really this hard?
Looking over, Lynn saw one large hole after another, dug out like mud by the brute force demon.
Truly befitting of demons renowned for their strength.
He retrieved Iron Serpent No. 1 units back into the ring.
Surveying the surroundings, Lynn noticed numerous footprints, all leading toward the road ahead.
Behind him came a violent rumbling.
Lynn turned around and saw a massive beast charging towards him across the plain, resembling a rhinoceros, clad in thick armor and covered in magic patterns. Riding on its back was a burly, towering dual-horned demon.
Danger!
The charging posture of this rhinoceros, larger than a tank, could likely smash through ten walls in its path.
Boom!
Suddenly, the brute force demon standing beside Lynn moved with unexpected agility, extending its right hand despite its massive size.
It grabbed the sharp horn of the massive rhinoceros beneath the dual-horned demon, taking a step back, then let out a low growl from its throat, hurling the rhinoceros along with the dual-horned demon off into the distance.
Lynn helplessly watched as the rhinoceros was thrown in a parabolic arc and landed on the ground.
The ground beneath their feet trembled slightly.
Despite the fall from a great height, the rhinoceros seemed unharmed, quickly getting up from the ground and swiftly carrying the dual-horned demon away in a cloud of dust, leaving behind a large swath of smoke.
Following the direction of the rhinoceros’ footprints, Lynn walked for about half an hour until he finally saw a huge market ahead after climbing over a small hill.
On the plain ahead, a variety of colorful canopy-covered stalls appeared.
Demons of various sizes walked between the pathways in the middle of the market.
Behind the stalls of the market, many wizards sat, some veiled or masked.
As Lynn took two more steps forward, it was as if he passed through a barrier, and the quiet air was suddenly filled with a cacophony of sounds.
A multitude of noises assaulted him, mixing the low, guttural, and obscure languages of the demons with the common language of some wizards.
——