Chapter 139: [139] Level 20!

Two weeks later...

"Really? How many of these lizards are even in this region?!" Olivia screamed out in rage, as she stared at a black swarm pouring down upon them.

Over fifty large basilisk were racing down toward Ark’s party, their maws wide open to chomp down on the first person they made contact with.

Normally, basilisks would have been easy pickings for their group, only that these ones were flying...

Over the past two weeks, they had gone about killing so many monsters that Ark had completely lost count of their numbers.

But throughout, there was only one monster that was problematic to deal with... the flying basilisks.

These monsters would swallow lava and spit it down on them from the skies, then use their large bodies like battering rams to slam down on them.

"Tsk!" Olivia clicked her tongue. Her clothing had long turned ragged from spending so much time fighting, and since there were no pools to bathe, she was covered in ash.

She grabbed her axe with both hands and cursed at the monsters. "I want to go home!"

Swish!

Lightning pulsed around the axe as it tore into the sky, unleashing deadly bolts of lightning that stunned the monsters, just before it split apart the first one.

The axe went to rip apart two more basilisks before Olivia resummoned the weapon in order to restart the process.

"Look at you complaining when you were the one saying you wanted to stay." Ark chuckled as he lifted his black magic staff.

"Malformed Devourer."

Black lightning coursed into the skies, momentarily stealing the light from the environment as it blackened both bodies and space.

[Your comprehension of Malformed Devourer has increased!]

’That is one dark spell out of it...’ Ark mused.

Thalia had no ranged attack, so she stood in front of the party. Her tail was covered with black aura which she used to decimate any monster that dared approach them.

And finally...

"Are you guys ready?"

The two salamanders next to him nodded simultaneously.

"Alright, let it out!"

The black salamander shot out a stream of oil, and the moment it was engulfed by her brother’s fire, an inferno tore out, swallowing the approaching basilisks.

The basilisks were highly resistant to fire, but it was more than enough to blow them out of the sky, and Olivia was there to pick them out like flies.

In less than ten minutes, the horde of basilisks had been reduced to smothering, chopped up corpses.

"Hahahaha!" Olivia suddenly leaped into the air with joy, bouncing up and down like a child. "I did it! I did it! I finally hit level twenty!"

Ark laughed and patted down her head. "Ahh my cute junior... you’re so adorable."

"Huh?" She smacked his hand off her head and frowned. "What are you talking about?!"

"I hit level twenty one week ago."

Olivia’s face fell, and then she grumbled something underneath her voice and stomped away.

"Don’t ruin her mood." Thalia sighed. "You did well Olivia, not many newbies reach level twenty this early without the help of a top guild."

Then she glanced at Ark.

"Ark is just... strange."

Ark had long tuned out of the conversation and was staring at the tall mountain in front of them.

"So we finally made it..." he placed his hand on the warm rock. After wandering for so long, they had made it to the base of the mountain.

The Obsidian giant was doing god knows what at the top...

The two girls walked up to him and stared up at the steep, smooth rock.

Thalia frowned. "But how are you two going to climb it?"

"Us two?" Olivia gave her a strange stare. "Are you saying you can climb this mountain?"

The mountain was so smooth that you would need hiking gear to scale it, gear that they of course did not have.

And that was just part of the problem... There was also lava running down the sides of the volcano. It would be impossible to completely dodge all of them.

Thalia nodded. "Well, I am a lamia. I can climb steep walls. And my aura will protect me from the lava..."

Olivia glanced down at her body and frowned. "Why am I the only one that can’t make use of my racial advantages in this place?"

This close to the volcano, the pressure had become so great that even moving was a pain.

Not only was most of the air being pulled in a downward arc, it would also take too much energy to repeatedly flap her wings, which would open her to attacks.

She glanced at Ark with a wary look in her eyes. "Skelly. Any ideas?"

Ark stroked his jaw. "Hmmm..."

He could summon Jenna to build a stairwell made of ice that would carry them all the way to the top... but that would cost too much mana.

Jenna had her own independent store of mana, but they still had no idea how the boss battle would be like.

It would be unwise to waste their mana so early.

While Ark was still contemplating on what to do, Tai walked to him and nudged him with his head.

"C...limb!" It growled, its voice translating in Ark’s head.

Ark gave him a blank stare. "Well I would have done that if I could. It’s not exactly easy, you know?"

The salamander cocked his head to the side, and then right before their eyes he placed a leg on the mountain, and then two, and then four...

Mind you, this wall was basically at a ninety degree angle. Tai turned around and offered Ark his tail.

"Cli..mb."

Olivia was staring at the salamander with a shocked expression. To see something as large as him hanging on the wall felt so... unnatural, and yet natural at the same time.

Ark sighed. "Somtimes I forget you are just one big lizard."

The salamander opened his mouth as though trying to smile.

He glanced at Olivia. "You ride with Kenny, I’ll go with Tai..."

Ark wrapped his hands around the salamander’s neck and Olivia did the same, while Thalia followed beside them. And just like that, they began to scale the wall.

The salamanders, just like most monsters in the area, had a high resistance to fire, so they simply walked over the lava streams that they came across.

It took about ten minutes of continuous climbing, and then they were atop the volcano.

<•••>

Standing right in the center of a large volcano was an obsidian giant the size of a house.

The monster was knee deep in the bubbling magma, surrounded by a wide expanse of barren land that was the rim of the volcano.

There were glowing veins flowing with magma all over its dark body, and its eyes and mouth shared the same colour. The monster seemed to be recharging...

Surrounding the volcano were several winged basilisks that were drinking the magma to restore their internal stores, so that they could go back to the business of raining down hell.

In this natural undisturbed biome, five heads suddenly peaked from the edge of the mountain, eyes narrowed as they stared at the area.

And then when no one was looking, they leaped over the edge and hurried behind a large rock to hide themselves.

A few seconds passed...

And then five heads peaked over the rocks again. Simultaneously, all five of them cocked their heads to the side, trying to make sense of what they were seeing.

"What the hell is that monster doing?" Olivia asked.

"Is it absorbing the lava?" Thalia frowned slightly.

But Ark said nothing, he watched the monster for a few minutes, contemplating. The feeling of unease he had since the monster’s disappearance had not left, now that he had found the monster, it only worsened...

After thinking for a few seconds, it finally hit him.

"Shit." Ark cursed. "This is bad."

Everyone glanced at him. "What is it? Don’t keep us in the dark." Olivia said.

Ark shook his head in a dejected manner.

"You must have noticed... There is nothing natural about the volcano in the region, and neither is there anything normal about the magma that flows through it."

"It is because of the magma that the region had far stronger gravity than anywhere in Eden."

Thalia nodded thoughtfully. "Yes, the magma here flows with mana that comes from the volcan..." her voice trailed off.

"Are you saying?"

"Yes." Ark replied in a low tone. If the obsidian giant was absorbing mana filled magma from the very source, it could only mean one thing...

"It is evolving."

It was at that moment that the giant which seemed asleep moved, causing a stir in the river of fire.

[Threat Detected! Charged Obsidian Giant, Level 30 x1!]

While they had been going around leveling up, the giant had been doing a little leveling of its own...

Before, it would have been only five levels above them. But now, it was ten.

..

A/N

I’ve been sick for sometime, that was why updates were not like usual. But I am getting better so normal updates will resume soon!