Age of Adepts

Two days later.

In front of another tunnel exit, Grim silently examined the flowing dark red glow that was transmitted through the light film. Faintly, it seemed that the loud rumbling of the fluid magma as it surged vastly beyond the film of light could be heard.

"Lord Grim, we'll have to rely on your protection for this operation!"

The two rank 2 Fire Witches dispatched from Molten Fire City were a brother and sister, the slightly older brother had a serious expression and briefly introduced the two of them to Grim. The sister, on the other hand, remained silent and followed closely behind her brother.

However, from the few times she sneaked glances at Grim, one could tell that she had a more lively personality and her posture was quite reasonable.

"Well, all is as it should be," Grim simply promised, and took the lead in striding out of the light membrane.

The two 2nd stage siblings didn't dare to walk directly into the lava sea with such a big thorn in their sides like Grim, but instead quickly cast a spell, each adding a large amount of elemental aura, and also drank some quick energy restoring potions along the way, before carefully stepping out of the light membrane.

If a 1st stage wizard was just a beginner who had just glimpsed the Hall of Truth, then a 2nd stage wizard was a truth seeker who had ascended to the hall.

The lava sea in front of them was already 300 meters deep from the ground, and it would be difficult for an ordinary sorcerer to survive here. And although the two Fire Witch siblings were able to withstand the burning flames and high pressure of the slurry here, they were losing their strength every moment.

At this point, they were far less casual and natural than Grim had shown.

Those who were able to become fire witches had naturally all completed the elementalization of their bodies.

Amidst the dark red surging hot magma, the three nearly completely transparent flame figures looked at each other and quietly dived towards the pre-determined location.

The locations where the underground mines of Molten Fire City were located had all solidified countless defensive witch formations in order to avoid the intrusion of the magma fluid. Unfortunately, many of them had already been destroyed by that 3rd stage Flame Tiger, causing great damage to the inside of the mine pit.

Although they had drained the magma from the tunnels and repaired the defensive array afterwards, the entire defensive system of the mine was in pieces, and it was no longer the same as before.

This time, the Rune Formation Master of Molten Fire City started from here, leaving a seemingly unintentional loophole in the mine's defense system, in order to lure the Flame Tiger into the trap.

But such a trap couldn't be shown too straightforwardly, so it was unknown if and when that Flame Tiger would take the bait!

The mission of Grim and the two Molten Fire City Fire Witches was to ambush the depths of the Lava Sea beforehand and wait until the Flame Tiger was in ambush before rushing out to block the other party's retreat.

This kind of thinking was also easy to know and difficult to do, so the two Molten Fire City Fire Witch siblings followed closely behind Grim, their hearts were also apprehensive and it was hard to be at peace.

As 2nd rank Fire Witches, their siblings were naturally extremely strong, and after transforming into flame human forms, their means of concealing their traces were also amazing.

However, when their attention was focused on that 3rd rank Legendary Fire Witch, they couldn't help but secretly exclaim, "A Legendary Fire Witch is worthy of being a Legendary Fire Witch..."

The two sides were so close, yet they could not perceive the slightest difference in the flames from Grim's avatar.

Just like the burning flames that could be seen everywhere in the lava sea, Grim was walking slowly in the dark red slurry. If it wasn't for the fact that the two siblings could see each other's presence with their naked eyes, they might not have been able to distinguish Grim from the flames in the background.

The three of them quickly traveled through the sea of lava and soon arrived at their predetermined location.

Here, a three-meter thick and five-meter tall spindle-shaped rune boulder was suspended in the lava sea and moving slowly. Sensing the arrival of the three people, the strange inscriptions etched on the rune stone lit up in sequence, flickering with bright and fading light.

The fire witch took a step forward and leaned over the elemental barrier supported by the rune stone with her transparent palm, and with the murmur of an incantation, the rune stone gently shook, and the outer elemental barrier suddenly split, revealing a small portal on the surface of the hard as steel boulder.

The three of them no longer hesitated and swiftly penetrated into it.

The space inside the Rune Stone was already small, and with three witches crowded in at this time, it immediately seemed a bit crowded.

When the rune stone portal closed back up, the three of them sat knee-deep in it, barely able to fit in. But with a little movement from the three of them, they would inevitably have to be touched and physically touched.

The Rune Stones were part of the vigilance system that Molten Fire City had placed in the sea of lava to detect the movements of the mine's outer edges, so if the Flame Tiger really wanted to sneak into the mine, it would definitely avoid this place.

So it was safe for the three of them to hide here.

In order to avoid embarrassment, the two Fire Witch siblings could only close their eyes and wait for a message from afar. On the other hand, Grim looked around, not stopping to examine the Rune Stone he was in.

The interior of the Rune Stone was not empty, and the surrounding rock wall was densely etched with uncountable strange runes and sorcery inscriptions.

Grim could see clearly, some were energy storage runes, some were energy-absorbing runes, some were protective sorcery, and some were warning runes... Although he didn't know too much about the mechanism of the Rune Stone's operation, Grim could understand a lot of things sideways from these strange sorcery formations alone.

A rune stone alone as part of the alert mechanism would be too monotonous and rigid, and it would be difficult to defend against the enemy's covert invasion with a single thread. That's why the rune stones here are usually stationed with a wizard.

Then with the tirelessness of the Rune Stones and the powerful mental scans of the resident sorcerers, the combination of the two made it extremely difficult for an ordinary foreign enemy to sneak inside unnoticed!

Just like now, Grim was able to clearly perceive that the rune sorcerer formation etched on the runestone rock wall was echoing with the two 2nd rank sorcerers at all times. The two complemented each other, and their breath and abilities combined to give them a qualitative increase in their spiritual perception.

Grim couldn't help but ask, "Was this rune stone purchased, or did your organization create it themselves?"

The Fire Witch siblings opened their eyes and looked at Grim curiously.

Eventually, it was that older brother who opened his mouth.

"The basics of the Runestone were purchased from the Silver Alliance, but the specific refinement seems to have been done by Lord Dorian himself! As far as I know, most of the witch powers do the same thing. After all, it's safer to build your own vigilant defense system that can't completely fake someone else's, or build it yourself..."

Grim nodded silently and closed his eyes once more.

The two siblings looked at each other and could only shrug their shoulders helplessly, once again turning their attention to the detection and scanning of the surrounding lava sea.

But not long after the silence, the fire witch abruptly opened her eyes and whispered in surprise, "There's movement at the mine! That flaming tiger seems to be destroying the rock walls of the mine..."

Grim's eyes widened, and a thoughtful look appeared on his face.

..................

At this moment, at the periphery of the underground mine pit of Molten Fire City, a Flame Tiger was frantically destroying the rock wall.

Unlike the rocks of other regions, the rock walls of the mine's outskirts had not softened or disintegrated at all despite being immersed in a terrifying magma fluid. The volcanic rocks here were as hard as steel due to the large amount of metals mixed with them, yet they were able to withstand the long erosion of high temperatures and heat, so it was extremely difficult to destroy them.

However, the flaming tiger seemed unconcerned.

It stood frozen in the surging magma, wielding its flaming claws and digging into the steel-hard rock wall with a loud thud.

No matter how powerful the Melting Fire City Sorcerer was, it was impossible for the entire mine, which spread over dozens of kilometers, to be under the protection of the Rune Sorcerer Formation. Therefore, the most dense areas of the Rune Witch Formation tended to be concentrated at the weak points and entrances of the mine pits.

But today, the Flame Tiger, which had disappeared for a period of time, went the other way, not trying to sneak into the mine, and instead chose a spot on the outskirts of the mine that the sorcerers couldn't care less about, and dug it out frantically.

The Constant Gold Liquid that had been continuously absorbed over the past few days also gave the Flame Tiger's elementalized body a slight difference. Every time the sharp tiger claws composed purely of flames struck, not only did they contain a powerful flame power, they also carried a whistling wind, displaying an astounding physical attack power.

One claw, a half-meter deep pit appeared on the steel rock wall, and at the bottom of the pit was a dense, terrifying crack like a spider's web. The Flame Tiger dug down with one claw after another without stopping, and in a split second, a huge pit seven to eight meters deep was found on the rock wall.

At this rate, in less than half a day, the Flame Tiger would be able to dig through a rock wall of over 30 meters and directly into the mine tunnel.

Such a scene was clearly somewhat unexpected by the senior management of Molten Fire City, and also made the several 3rd rank sorcerers behind the hidden curtain unable to sit still any longer.

Amidst a violent wave of magic, the two rank 3 witches simultaneously showed themselves in the sea of lava.

Unlike Grim who had transformed into a fire elemental and mixed with the lava sea, one of the two rank 3 witches was poisonous and the other was a rune maker, neither of which were clearly suited to fighting in the lava sea.

However, the current scenario was somewhat different from the previous one, the flaming tiger didn't step into the witch trap, which made the two Lava City top brass could only fight with a grudge, expecting to be able to lure it into the trap range.

The Kairak and Dorian shaman stood in a huge rolling stone ball, pushing away the obstructing magma fluid all the way and furiously rushed towards the flaming tiger.

The two sides immediately engaged in a deadly struggle on the outskirts of the mine.

But when it was said that they were fighting, the two sorcerers were actually more just on the defensive, trying to defuse the endless attacks of that 3rd stage flame tiger.

In the sea of lava, the battle power that the Stage 3 Flame Tiger could exert was simply astonishingly high.

Its 3-meter body appeared and appeared around the stone ball, and every time it appeared, it was accompanied by a huge roar and a fierce tiger claw attack, shaking the earth elements on the surface of the stone ball.