Chapter 198: Hin (1/2)

The Demon Fire Salamanders were of a sufficient size compared to the Dark Flame Snails. Furthermore, their teeth were comparable to the snail’s. However, the most important factor that made them the nemesis of the snails was that they had a shockingly sturdy stomach. One so strong, they could contain and digest the entire snail, shell and all.

For the most part, our escort mission proceeded smoothly except for some periodic encounters with the Demon Fire Fishes. By the time we arrived at the destination, a whole ten days had passed.

The gathering spot for the fire elementals was a giant volcano that seemed to connect the heavens and earths themselves. It was completely black with random streaks of red running down it; those were streams of lava.

Because the volcano itself was an elevated ground, the limbless fishes couldn’t climb it easily, thus making this a safe spot for the fire elementals.

“That’s…that’s Flame’s End the volcano?!”

Upon laying eyes on the towering volcano, the elemental, Arca, was visibly excited. From his puffed up chest and the slight glint in his eyes, I could tell he was welling with pride at the moment.

“What’s so special about that volcano?”

I casually asked out of curiosity. Who would have thought that one simple question ended up opening the floodgates to what felt like an eternity of gushing by Arca. Long story short, Flame’s End was the biggest fire elemental gathering in Purgatory. All the Six-stars fire elementals and those above it were afforded a place in this massive settlement.

Having spent over ten days with Arca, I picked up some basic knowledge about the fire elementals themselves. I discovered that they didn’t require food but had to absorb a certain amount of fire element every day. If they failed to do so, their body would become weak and perhaps even dissipate entirely if such a state persisted for long.

Back when Mo Na injured Arca, the wound in his belly refused to close up because the environment simply wasn’t able to provide enough energy for recovery. After resting in the lava lake however, the wound had gotten noticeably smaller. Thus, it could be seen how important fire energy was to these elementals.

The more powerful a fire elemental was, the more elements they needed to absorb from the environment each day. Notably, different regions had different supplies of such energy, which explained why these elementals weren’t able to settle down for long in an unsuitable environment.

If like what Arca said, Flame’s End allowed all those who reached the level of Six-stars to live there and barred no one who met that criteria, it was only natural for the volcano to be considered a sacred ground for the fire elementals then.

“So you’re saying it has an unlimited supply of fire energy?”

“Whether or not it’s unlimited, I’m not entirely sure either. All I know is that those who met the requirements are allowed to join without restriction.” As he said that, his voice trembled. “I initially thought of the entire raid as a disaster but who would’ve thought that it would become a one in a million opportunity instead…”

Perhaps to Arca, this entire Fire Devouring Fish raid was some sort of opportunity, but somehow it all felt a little off to me. Logically speaking, such an incursion should have happened in the past as well. This instance was supposed to be a unique occurrence but for it to require all the fire elementals to hide out in the volcano…

Looking at it from another point of view, this couldn’t have been some simple Fire Devouring Fish raid then, could it? At the very least, it was at the level where the salamanders couldn’t handle it by themselves.

Seeing the elemental prattle on like that, Mo Na begun to get a little annoyed so she cut him off halfway: “Since we’re here, isn’t it time for you to give us those two Five-stars Fire Elemental Cores you mentioned?”

“The fire elementals keep their promises.” Even though he was still in the midst of his gushing, Arca suppressed the burning desire within him to keep on talking, and waved his right hand. Not too long after that, another fire elemental stepped out from behind him and held out two red pearls, both the size of a chicken egg.

The pearls were nearly transparent and didn’t contain a single speck of impurity within them. Their beauty was one that couldn’t be put to words and had to be seen for oneself in order to do it justice. Compared to them, those so-called luminescent pearls from Earth might as well had been marbles.

Even though he was reluctant to part with these pearls, Arca handed them over to us in the end. “We are extremely grateful…you are a trustworthy devil who keeps a promise…”

He should, in fact, thank his lucky stars since I actually had the strength to simply snatch them for myself.

“Perhaps all devils might seem bereft of good points to you, and are a bunch of vengeful and erratic fellows, but at the very least, I’m not such a person. You should be glad.” I handed over the two cores to Mo Na before turning around to face No.3 and Big 4. “Let’s go, this isn’t a place we should stay for long.”

Just as I was about to leave however, Arca called out to me: “Wait, if I’m willing to offer another reward, would you stay to help us?”

‘Stay? No way. Since we got our reward, it’s time for us to leave, right this instant.’ Even though I only managed to gleam some tidbits of information during this escort mission, they were enough for me to piece together a terrifying conclusion: something big was about to happen. As for what that was, I had no idea, nor did I wish to find out. A battle of this level simply wasn’t one we could take part in right now. After all, with our current strength, we might just end up as fodder…especially since this volcano was the home of elementals who were at least Six-stars.

For such a mighty settlement, at least it was in my eyes, to end up as a refugee camp, things truly had to have been bad. More importantly, there was still the matter of devils having a horrible reputation. A reputation so horrible, even devils didn’t trust each other… ‘in short, don’t trust a devil.’

“I’ll have to pass on that, I’m sure you know about our abysmal reputation as well. If I stay, can you guarantee that I won’t encounter any problems because of that?”

“…” Arca fell silent for a moment. “My considerations were lacking…”

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