Chapter 291: Going for a hot dive
Heavy footsteps resounded through the dark depths, with self-illuminating sparks of light trailing the group, they could at least retain their sight in the absolute darkness.
The atmosphere was stifling and filled with toxic gasses, strong enough to corrode metals and weak items.
Fortunately the group’s battle suits, the Gordon 342, seemed to be holding up pretty well.
Seth led from the forefront, with stronger members of the divisions trailing his steps; growling sounds echoed through the dark narrow path.
Threading through silently, following the radar navigation system, before finally coming before a wall.
The entire division was stretched through the narrow tunnel, all equipped with appropriate equipment to make their travel faster.
So even when Seth held his hands up to signal the group to halt, it was only natural not everyone caught the signal.
Causing a small bit of chaos from behind, while Seth focused on examining their so-called dead end.
The wall echoed with loud gurgling noises and sharp hisses; it was clear as day that this was a hollow obstacle.
They just had to break through it to progress beyond.
Placing a palm gently on the wall, his real palm protected by the metal gauntlets of his genetic battle suit.
But the intricate essence circuits woven into the armour let him channel his essence flow without hindrance, and with a sharper, smoother flow.
Feeling the surface, he was able to feel the width and the density of the rock as his essence seeped into the scalding obsidian wall.
Discerning the exact amount of force needed to shatter the wall without causing a collapse of rubble that might bury them all alive.
Applying pressure, Seth exerted the exact amount of force needed with fine muscle control, and the obstacle trembled then crumbled into smaller rubble.
A sudden glare of orange molten light illuminating his face, causing him to reel back, shielding his sight with his arms.
Before his vision swiftly adjusted to the sudden glare, the temperature of the surroundings rose high.
As Seth stared down at the source, rich in flame and earth essence, he found a bubbling surface thick with toxic gasses.
It was a lava pit...
Heat wafting from the bubbling pool, so intense the metal surface of his armour and those behind him were already beginning to glow hot.
With a crack and a tune of transmission, Seth’s voice echoed in everyone’s ears. "Brace up guys, enter diving mode because we are going swimming..."
The entire tunnel full of humans suddenly fell silent, as the soldier’s heart skipped a beat. They knew this part of the mission would come but they still couldn’t help but feel nervous.
Really, because unlike when normal people use the word swim, they weren’t going swimming in water but in the thick dense molten embrace of lava.
And honestly, what made the soldiers more nervous wasn’t the heat, but the density and the pressure this liquid would have.
Swimming through molten lava would be an arduous task for sure. But in the end they could only follow orders.
Seth tapped against the glowing core of his armour, and his battle assistant’s voice echoed.
[Sequence engaged! Optimising systems, recalibrating circuits...]
[Congratulations master, you are now ready to go diving...]
His helm reflected a special lens that would allow him to see through the molten depths.
His armour hissed with steam, he activated his marker link, a technology that sent his location through packet pings to the entire division so they could all follow his lead.
Seth sighed heavily... "So far so good everything is playing out as the president said it would..."
Well, except for the stealthy attack of the shadow flame lizards... the encounter with these beasts was an unplanned variable.
And it made him expend a huge count of essence units, plus his vital essence pool had also reduced.
And up till now, his recovery on these losses wasn’t complete, though Seth knew the reason why he was still frustrated by the fact that he would have to continue with the mission even though his reserves hadn’t fully recovered.
The reason his recovery rate for essence was slow was simple, not only was his world saint skill rendered inactive but there was also the fact that the current atmosphere was filled with flame essence.
The only person that would have no problem absorbing essence smoothly from the atmosphere would be Brandon.
Plus they couldn’t whip out essence crystals, or else it would combust instantly, so the human evolvers had to actively filter the flame essence, stripping it of all elemental properties before absorbing.
While the process was pretty simple, executing it was excruciatingly slow.
And now he was about to dive into a molten lake filled with a thicker flow of essence.
Sigh... his radar let out a sudden sharp beep, the device had already locked onto their next target.
Steeling himself, Seth didn’t look back, and dived straight into the molten surface.
The liquid was insanely dense but his biological weight and prowess allowed him to shrug it off somewhat.
But he still couldn’t imagine how high the pressure would be when he dived deeper.
’I guess we will find out.’ His eyes flickered underneath his glass visor, the radar flashed on his visual interface, leading him through the orange depths.
Of course he also monitored the progress of his troops closely, due to them trailing down a narrow path, entering the pond would surely take time.
So he didn’t push through the molten depths at full speed, slowing his pace so that the evolvers could catch up.
The armour held out against the heat, but the cooling system, unable to keep up as much, allowed even Seth to feel a surge of heat, mild but steadily rising.
Instantly he knew they couldn’t waste time, cause if this was happening to him in his high-end genetic battle suit, what about his division soldiers?
Connecting to their radio communication, he urged them loudly, as he progressed through the murky orange, the heat already beginning to sting.
But fortunately his bronze cells were stimulated by the slow rise, as the bronze glow coated his frame.
The bronze cells surging and feeding off the pure thermal energy.
Suddenly out of nowhere...
[+1 heat resistance!]
Seth blinked in shock, ’huh?’ before he could understand thoroughly the meaning of the notification another popped into sight...
[+1 heat resistance!]
These notifications weren’t from his battle suit interface, they were direct system prompts.
And it seemed to stem from his Universal Adaptation racial skill...
...
Meanwhile, Seth and crew progressed down the molten lake of lava, further down the depths of the volcano.
A small terrain resided, somewhere one would describe as a land of flames, a place so ethereal and beautiful one would find it hard to believe that it was located underneath a super volcano.
The entire plain rumbled, as a dragon covered in scales of crimson gold burst out of a flaming forest.
Its presence was still of the awakened rank, yet it radiated a might that seemingly surpassed its realm.
The monster’s wings flapped in the winds for a bit, its snout snarling as it caught an unfamiliar whiff...
Its golden slits glowed, as a low rumble filled the plain... "Intruders..."