Chapter 247: The sea of ​​burning light

After walking for a while longer, I encountered a Light Guardian. The moment I saw it, I knew that this creature would be different from the previous ones.

It was tall, fierce, and imposing. Countless extremely sharp rocky spikes and protrusions covered its entire body, making it look like a walking mountain of steel and stone.

Its physical strength was comparable to that of my Black Rock Basilisk. And that meant trouble.

The moment the two creatures collided, the impact was so violent that I felt the ground beneath my feet tremble.

The Basilisk opened its mouth and lunged forward.

The Guardian raised its enormous stone fists.

BOOM!

The two gigantic bodies crashed into each other.

They rolled across the ground, striking one another repeatedly.

Every punch caused the cave to shake. Rocks began falling from the ceiling like heavy rain.

Even I had to retreat. Not because I was afraid of the Light Guardian, but because there was no reason to waste energy dodging falling debris.

I watched the two monsters continue their battle.

The battle had already lasted nearly ten minutes. My Basilisk was beginning to lose. Its body had been temporarily constructed using ordinary underground rocks. The Light Guardian, however, was different.

Throughout its existence in this underground world, it had accumulated extremely durable ores and special rocks.

While my Basilisk relied mainly on its size and brute strength, the Guardian possessed superior durability.

If I continued to let the two of them fight on their own, my Basilisk would eventually be destroyed.

I took out another core and threw it onto the ground.

BOOM!

The earth split open.

A second Black Rock Basilisk slowly emerged from underground.

The Light Guardian turned its head and, for a moment, seemed to understand the situation. But it was already too late.

The second Basilisk charged forward. The first immediately changed its attack pattern. One wrapped its body around the Guardian, while the other opened its mouth and lunged directly at its head.

The Guardian fought desperately. Its enormous fists struck the body of the first Basilisk. However, it was useless. Its strength was frightening, but strength meant nothing when its enemy could simultaneously control its movements and attack its vital point.

The second Basilisk’s jaws snapped shut.

CRACK!

The Light Guardian’s conscious core was torn out.

At the same instant, its body stopped moving. That gigantic humanoid body made of steel-like rock lost all coordination and collapsed onto the ground.

A smile involuntarily appeared on my face. Recently, I had been searching specifically for Pseudo-Mage-level cores from Light-element creatures.

The problem was that they were extremely difficult to obtain. The durability of these creatures was simply absurd. The Light Guardian I had just killed was an excellent example.

Its body was practically a fortress. Ordinary spells could not penetrate that steel-like rocky armor. In addition, it possessed powerful Light-element abilities and terrifying physical strength.

When these characteristics were combined... Even a human Pseudo-Mage would have to think twice before confronting it directly.

A sensible Pseudo-Mage would probably look for a way to bypass it rather than waste energy in a battle that could end with serious injuries.

Therefore, among the acolytes, only Pseudo-Mages who were at the peak of their level could probably defeat such a creature, and even then, they would have to pay some price.

There was another problem. The only truly valuable material inside that Guardian was its Pseudo-Mage-level conscious core.

If the enemy was not eliminated quickly, the battle could end up damaging the very core that the hunter wanted to obtain.

I picked up the core and carefully stored it away. A Golem that was invincible in one type of terrain could be completely useless in another.

I had already learned that lesson the hard way. When I encountered that mosquito-like creature in the Underground Cave region, for example, if I had only Black Rock Basilisks, I could have summoned dozens of them and still been unable to inflict any significant damage.

In that kind of situation, a Light Giant would be much more useful. Its speed and long-range attacks would allow it to exploit a weakness that the Basilisks simply did not possess.

But the current situation was exactly the opposite. No matter how powerful a Light Giant’s Lightstorm was, when faced with a Light Guardian’s steel-like rocky shell, its attacks probably would not be able to penetrate very deeply.

If a Golem’s elemental affinity was incapable of effectively damaging the enemy, its overall strength no longer mattered.

That was precisely why I needed to diversify my forces.

If I ever needed to fight on the open sea, for example, the most effective Golems would probably be those of the Water element.

Therefore, the more types of Golems I could create, the better.

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During our journey, I found two Light Crystals, seven Light Stones, and a large quantity of different gemstones and ores.

But that was not the most important thing. I found four Pseudo-Mage-level Light-element cores.

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I continued moving forward.

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And then... I reached the central region of Crystal Peak’s Light Mountain. My expression immediately changed.

I could no longer act as I had before. Until that moment, I had allowed myself to be somewhat more reckless. Now, that would be suicide.

The central region was the territory of the humanoid Light Spirits.

And provoking them would be completely different from fighting a Guardian. A newborn humanoid Light Spirit possessed overall strength equivalent to that of a Level 3 Acolyte.

But adults... They were comparable to human Mages.

The only reason this species had not claimed a portion of the Magus Continent as its territory was its absolute dependence on the environment. They needed the practically infinite supply of Light-element energy that existed within Crystal Peak’s Light Mountain.

If they were capable of leaving this environment without losing their strength... Perhaps the history of the Magus Continent would have been completely different.

A Mage-level Light-element core also existed within the body of an adult humanoid Light Spirit. It was a material that even I would desperately desire.

But I wasn’t crazy. After all, fighting a humanoid Light Spirit was nothing like fighting a Guardian.

Humanoid Light Spirits possessed intelligence comparable to that of human Mages. And they lived together, like one great clan.

If one of them were attacked, we would be surrounded by a multitude of Mage-level Light Spirits.

Just imagining that scene sent a chill down my spine.

I continued forward much more cautiously.

Then I saw something that left my mouth hanging open in astonishment.

Before me was an endless ocean of blazing solar light. It was as if a gigantic empty space had been carved out in the heart of the underground world.

I stepped out of the tunnel and walked toward the edge of the golden ocean that stretched as far as my eyes could see.

The surface moved slowly, and waves of blazing solar light rose and disappeared.

More than a hundred meters separated the surface of that ocean from the cavern ceiling. From time to time, enormous jets of flame erupted upward.

BOOM!

The light illuminated the entire region.

Everything took on a golden hue.

There were also large chunks of rock floating within that ocean.

Some were the size of basins. Others were as large as houses. They floated atop the blazing solar light like islands.

And on those islands... There were stone pillars.

Gemstones of various colors were embedded within them, shining like stars scattered across the sky. My gaze immediately became fixed on some of them.

They were Light Crystals, after all. Some were the size of a human fist, while others were larger than a person’s head.

This was practically a gigantic treasure vault.

But there was a problem.

The environment was monstrously dangerous.

The Biochip began measuring the temperature.

[Temperature of the peripheral region: approximately 1,000°C.]

[Estimated temperature of the inner region: approximately 2,000°C.]

That was enough to make any ordinary Acolyte disappear within seconds. Even a Pseudo-Mage who lost their magical protection in that environment would have little chance of surviving.

I could only remain there because of two things: my extremely high affinity with the Light element and the Brighter Light Staff.

Without these two advantages, I wouldn’t even be able to approach this place.

I looked at my Basilisks. The two creatures began to disappear.

I dispelled their forms, retrieved the two Golem cores, and carefully stored them away. Then I examined my surroundings and carefully hid my equipment and clothes behind a pile of rocks.

I clenched my jaw, knowing that this would be painful.

But this was exactly why I had come here.

I took a deep breath and then plunged in.

It was as if hundreds of thousands of steel needles had pierced my body at the same time.

The pain struck my heart almost instantly, causing my consciousness to waver.

My skin began to crackle, and dark smoke started escaping from my body.

The smell of burning spread through the surroundings.

But I did not retreat.

My Light Body was reacting.

The energy of the Light element penetrated my flesh.

And along with it...

There was something different.

Something the Biochip still could not completely identify.

Mysterious particles.

Extremely difficult-to-capture elements.

They entered my body together with the elemental energy and began modifying my structure, strengthening my innate talent for the Light element.

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1574 Words

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