Chapter Thirty-Nine: Elemental Crystal (Water)
2015-05-27
Author: Floating Tower of All Beings
A surge of blood erupted.
Soren stood expressionless, but his mind was far from relaxed.
The Demigod Ice Giant seemed unfazed by the result and continued in a low voice, “The enemy in front of you does not pose a danger, but as you delve deeper into the dungeon, a strange sound suddenly came from the ground, followed by a shower of sharp arrows shooting towards you.”
“It seems you have triggered some mechanism.”
No sooner had it spoken than it waved its hand, and the surrounding ice cubes transformed into a sky full of ice arrows, directly assaulting Soren.
Clang, clang, defend!
A curved blade appeared in Soren’s palm, and the twin blades in his hand turned into a flow of light, blocking the ice arrows coming from all directions while he rolled and maneuvered back three meters, guarding his blades in front of his chest, vigilantly watching the Demigod Ice Giant before him. The spell attack just initiated by the giant had shown no signs; indeed, a demigod-level enemy was different from any foes he had encountered in the past. The domain of deities has its own rules, and the ice arrows just now were completely spontaneous magic cast by it.
“You deftly dodged the trap.”
Karona Grass looked up at the sky, his expression appearing slightly altered before he continued in his deep voice, “You have found the person you were looking for in a room of the dungeon. However, at this moment, a rumbling sound erupted from the dungeon; it seems you triggered some mechanism when opening the cell door, and now the entire dungeon is about to collapse, with boiling magma surging from the ground, its scorching breath enveloping the dungeon, and you could be engulfed by the erupting lava at any moment.”
The ground around them trembled.
The frozen ice blocks gradually shattered; the entire valley seemed to shake, as if something terrible was about to happen.
A divine light flickered in the eyes of the Demigod Ice Giant. It gazed at Soren, its smile suddenly turning eerie, and said in a low voice, “At this moment, the demon that first appeared suddenly stands before you.”
The figure of Karona Grass seemed to warp.
It was as if its body was not composed of matter, eerily smiling, “I can open a portal for you to leave here. However, this portal will only allow one person to escape. The other will be buried.”
“Who will you choose to let escape?”
Rumbling.
The peaks around the valley began to collapse, with ice and snow cascading down like a torrent. The rock structure of the mountain gradually fractured, resembling an ‘Earthquake Spell’ as huge rocks from the sheer cliffs surrounding the valley began to fall, and it wouldn’t be long before the entire valley would be buried by the falling boulders.
A light from a portal appeared.
A blue portal materialized before Soren. The Demigod Ice Giant smiled eerily, watching him.
It seemed to be waiting for Soren’s answer.
Soren furrowed his brows and carefully stepped aside, dodging a massive rock that crashed down from the sky, creating a dent in the ground. With such force, getting hit by it could severely injure him. He wanted to leave but felt the Demigod Ice Giant had already locked onto his body. The giant was waiting for his answer, and its smile looked as distorted as a demon’s in all of this.
“I will stay!”
Soren slowly drew his curved blade, all of his muscles tensed, prepared for battle, and said in a deep voice, “I choose to stay myself.”
Rumbling!
The earth began to crack. Nearby mountain peaks collapsed, and a massive rock with a diameter of over ten meters fell from the sky.
The Demigod Ice Giant gazed at Soren, then smiled thoughtfully and said, “Very well. You have passed my test. Mortal! Farewell! I hope we can meet again one day.”
The figure of Karona Grass gradually vanished.
Yet the dramatic changes around them did not cease; large rocks continued to fall, and the collapsing mountains were about to bury this place.
Soren took a deep breath.
He then rapidly cast a spell, and with the enhancement of the Flight Spell, he soared into the air. Just as his figure flew into midair, the valley before him was already buried beneath ice and rocks. The entire valley had turned into ruins, and the nearby mountain peaks had nearly collapsed halfway; if it weren’t for his Flight Spell, he would have had no way to escape and would have been buried under the rocks and snow. The original Elemental Altar had completely vanished, and the elemental energy here seemed to have undergone some change, with the presence of water elemental energy entirely dissipated.
The figure of the Demigod Ice Giant had vanished without a trace.
It was uncertain whether it had returned to the elemental plane or moved to another world.
……………………
Soren hovered in the air for a moment before flying east, as the mountain’s collapse buried everything behind him; it was unlikely that ice elemental energy would appear here again. His intuition told him that there might still be a magic circle beneath this valley, but it must have been completely destroyed by now. He wasn’t concerned about where the released Demigod Ice Giant would go, as with the arrival of the Saint’s Cataclysm, creatures of that level would become increasingly common. For some reason, however, he always felt that the Demigod Wind Giant was somewhat unusual, seemingly different from the elemental giants in his memory; perhaps that was the reason it had been sealed.
Soren did not linger there and proceeded directly towards the eastern desert.
The time left for him was not much, for according to his memories, unless there were significant changes, crucial news would soon emerge from the Underdark.
At that time, he had heard the news near the Misty Forest, around April.
Gods have appeared!
The first batch of gods to descend to the mortal realm included one that appeared in the Underdark and ultimately died there. (Note: For details, please refer to the chapters near White Horse City, which mentioned the gods that had fallen to the mortal realm at that time.)
Three days quickly passed.
Soren crossed the icy plains and left this cold kingdom once again from the Icewind Valley.
He did not head towards the elves’ territory, as he had heard recently that the Elf Kingdom was not very stable; the Druid Church seemed to have been locked in a fierce conflict with the Elven Pantheon, causing many Legendary Druids to feel displeased with the Elven royal family. The recent movements of the Druid organization were quite unusual; anyone with a keen eye could sense they were plotting something, but because the Druid territory was hard to infiltrate, there had been no concrete news returning yet. (Note: For details, please refer to the chapters near Elemental Crystal (Earth).)
Soren naturally paid relative attention to this news.
………………
Night fell.
Soren arrived at a place near the Misty Forest called Blackwater Town. It had abundant coal resources and was an open-pit coal mine, making it much more prosperous than other towns. He had been here before, but at that time, it had already fallen into disrepair due to excessive mining and deforestation, and the humans near Blackwater Town had offended a powerful group of natural beings. However, Blackwater Town remained prosperous now, with many merchant caravans coming and going and a population exceeding ten thousand households.
The Misty Forest housed some supernatural beings.
Among those, there were entities Soren did not dare provoke lightly, so he was merely passing through here.
The inn was bustling.
However, being deep within the continent, there was barely any news from the Southern Coast, nor did one hear of major events occurring in the Frozen Kingdom.
The townsfolk were still buzzing with talk about White Horse City, claiming that the lord of White Horse City had drawn the legendary Dragon-Slaying Sword, preparing to gather an army and powerful adventurers to slay the restless Red Dragon. The cunning Ancient Red Dragon had not yet revealed its identity, and Soren could already foresee the fate of White Horse City’s lord; he could only hope that this time there wouldn’t be any significant deviations and that White Horse City wouldn’t decline too quickly. The decline of White Horse City would mean the beginning of worsening conditions in the surrounding areas, leading other races to gradually launch attacks against humans.
Humans have a greedy nature.
If they are strong enough, other races can only retreat, but once they begin to decline, hate and desire will reignite the flames of war.
Soren sat in his room deep in thought, playing with the Elemental Crystal (Water) in his hand.
“Item Type: Elemental Crystal (Water)
Item Level: [First Tier Legendary Item]
Item Description: A special treasure from the water elemental plane, formed from the essence of water elementals into a crystal, imbued with special magical powers, that can cast powerful spells upon activation. It seems not to be a standalone item; one can see from the patterns on the edges that it was once part of another item.
Equipment Requirements: None.
Special Effects: Summon Water Elemental (1 time per 7 days), Ice Storm (1 time per 3 days).”
………………
Compared to the Elemental Crystal (Earth), the practicality of this Elemental Crystal (Water) was somewhat lacking.
It summoned a water elemental, which was considerably weaker than the earth elemental and could not match the speed of the wind elemental, but its combat power in the sea was astonishing. Among the four great elemental summoned beings, the fire elemental had the strongest practicality as it was a burning fire, inflicting damage on enemies just by moving around, having an overwhelming effect on many weaker foes. As for the accompanying spell, “Ice Storm,” it was an area damage spell, inferior to Soren’s more commonly used “Stone Skin Spell,” but it still had some decent utility.
“Ice Storm [Fourth Ring Spell]: Summons an ice storm to deal area damage to enemies within 20-40 meters, causing 18 points of bludgeoning damage and 12 points of cold damage to enemies within the range. Enemies in the area suffer -4 to hearing and reduced movement speed, with the speed reduction effect depending on the enemies’ physique.”
This spell’s damage was even less than that of the third-ring Fireball Spell.
However, it also had an advantage in being able to freeze enemies and affect their movement speed, making it quite a common spell.
………………
(PS: There will be another update today.) (To be continued ~^~)
