Chapter 323 Exploration and Gains

After a short stay, they exchanged blessings and that was that. The female warrior ruler nodded to Shaoke and chose a stone path, led over thirty people away. Shaoke soon selected a path as well and stepped onto an unknown journey.

"Honorable Mage, should we slow down a bit?" A mage asked Shaoke uncertainly. Just now, a jet of magma shot up from below and struck the stone path not far ahead. Although the path was layered with defensive spells, the mage was still uneasy.

"If you want to die here, you're welcome to take your sweet time walking alone." Shaoke glanced at the seemingly endless road ahead and quickly sped up. The others involuntarily quickened their pace as well; none of them wanted to be left alone here.

"Remember the path we've taken. If we get separated, everyone must rely on their own memories to get back to that passage." After some thought, Shaoke indirectly warned the mages and warriors following him. Although he didn't know what the Eighth Tier female mage meant by her parting words, he felt they were important—his gut instinct told him so.

After traveling tens of thousands of meters, some stone paths converged with Shaoke's path. But Shaoke's team didn't change their route; they kept moving forward.

After another ten thousand meters, a depression suddenly appeared in the stone path, and what was inside it surprised Shaoke and the others greatly.

A small stone fortress stood there, its base deeply embedded in the magma. The entire fortress glowed red from the heat, with red light flowing over strange magic scripts and lines. The scene was utterly incredible.

"There's an opening on top." A Seventh Tier mage in Shaoke's team quickly identified a spell door at the top of the fortress. After chanting a certain incantation, the stone door would open, allowing them to enter.

"We're going in." Shaoke carefully surveyed the area around the fortress, noticing two narrower stone paths passing by it. They could bypass the fortress via those paths, but the magma below the fortress looked unusually calm. Though small eruptions occasionally occurred, none splashed onto the fortress, so Shaoke decided to explore it.

While the others hesitated, another Seventh Tier mage chanted a dispelling spell and quickly opened the stone door at the top. The door slowly lowered, as if inviting them in. They entered without further delay.

"Crystals?" Shaoke was the first inside. The fortress looked red-hot from the outside, but the interior was pleasantly warm. What he saw inside startled him.

The interior wasn't large. Beside a staircase was a simple stone bed covered with a fire-resistant blanket. On the floor nearby was a huge pile of red crystals, nearly filling the entire space. On the walls were over a dozen small, strange beast heads. As soon as Shaoke entered, one of the beast heads immediately spat out a red crystal.

"These must be artificial crystals." The other Seventh Tier mage picked up a fist-sized crystal, examined it, and confirmed his guess. "I think all these crystals here would be enough to build a mage tower." He carefully placed the crystal back on the ground and stood behind Shaoke without saying more.

"We're going back." Despite a greedy glance at the crystals, Shaoke ordered the team to leave. He knew they had no way to take them.

Later, they encountered seven or eight more such fortresses, all filled with the same red artificial crystals. This nearly drove everyone mad. If they had enough magic bags, they wouldn't have hesitated to take those crystals—these crystals were every bit as good as premium ones.

"Let's hope what we're looking for is here." After leaving another magma-submerged fortress, the stone path led them to a massive stone pillar. The mages carefully used spells to disperse the flames falling from the pillar, then quickly entered it after a brief discussion, as no defensive spells were active on its outer surface.

The pillar, tens of meters thick, had been hollowed out into a living space resembling a hall, where Shaoke and his team could rest a bit. Since the situation was strange, they didn't touch anything and sat cautiously on the floor until they decided to move on.

A magic array like an elevator appeared before them. After some study, the mages determined it led to the top of the pillar. They decided to use it and ascended.

During the ascent, they encountered dozens of layered spaces within the pillar, filled either with precious magic materials or with special medicinal herbs and plant-based magical items. Shaoke even spotted several breadfruit trees like the ones he'd seen at the female cleric's place.

"If we take control of this place, I think we'll become the most powerful wandering mage organization in the Blue Feather Empire in under a thousand years." The Seventh Tier mage leaned closer to Shaoke and whispered, using a minor spell to prevent others from hearing.

"No way that's happening." When the array stopped ascending, Shaoke shook his head and denied the mage's speculation. He didn't think the Blue Feather Empire would let them, wandering mages, claim this place. Perhaps if their organization fully submitted to the empire, they might gain a small area. But Shaoke didn't give it much thought; he was more concerned with leaving safely and returning to the surface.

"This is the residence of a top-tier mage. We shouldn't move anything randomly." As Shaoke was lost in thought, the Seventh Tier mage loudly stopped the others from touching items, to avoid any accidents. A top-tier mage's dwelling was sure to have numerous defensive magic arrays that could easily destroy their team.

The top of the pillar wasn't large. It held a simple bed and walls lined with shelves of various sizes, partially covered by light red curtains, revealing stored items. What excited Shaoke and the Seventh Tier mage were books—books a top-tier mage would consider worthy! Their value was immense.

"Eleventh-tier mage." Shaoke stared in confusion at the mage badge floating in the center, clearly marked with an eleven-pointed star that indicated the owner's tier. If this was an eleventh-tier mage's residence, then the countless other stone pillars might also house mages of the same or even higher tiers. How many top-tier mages were there? Yet why hadn't he heard of so many high-tier beings joining that battle back then? Shaoke pondered until the Seventh Tier mage reminded him to snap out of it.

"Mage Xueye, these are items left by the owner." The Seventh Tier mage stepped forward and pointed to a writing desk near the bed. On it were scattered papers and open books, along with an eighth-tier phantom fox fur brush casually placed. Everything suggested the owner had left in a hurry.

Shaoke scanned the area; his spiritual sense found no defensive arrays, so he decided to personally retrieve the items from the writing desk. Still, he ordered everyone, including the Seventh Tier mage, to step back.

Though his intuition told him there was no danger, Shaoke approached cautiously. After hesitating for a long time, he took a sheet of paper and quickly retreated to his original position. Only then did he breathe a sigh of relief. As a mage, he knew well how dangerous a mage's dwelling could be, and he expected even more peril from a top-tier mage's home.

The result relieved everyone—taking the paper caused no unusual reactions. Shaoke quickly examined the paper. The writing was in a rare Flashian script, which he had studied, so he could easily read it. The author hadn't infused the characters with any spiritual power or magic.

"Mage Xueye." The other Seventh Tier mage saw Shaoke standing silently after reading the paper, and asked worriedly what had happened. "Can you share the content with us?" He glanced at the lower-ranked beings behind them, then stepped a bit closer to Shaoke.