You promised to wreak havoc on the dungeon, but instead you've got Dragon Slime!

"I am not just anyone."

"I am you."

Ron kept his mouth shut and didn't say a word, his fists clenching tighter and tighter.

Several seconds passed before he stood up and stepped down from the throne.

The black flames on his body had subsided, as if the furnace had eaten its fill and was temporarily quiet.

"Did you... speak just now?" Viser asked cautiously.

“No.” Ron wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth.

"You got on."

“I tried it, and it’s fine.” Ron didn’t explain further.

He finished speaking and walked forward.

Ahead was a very deep staircase that stretched all the way down, with the bottom nowhere in sight. On both sides of the staircase were the walls of a foundry, covered with dense pipes, furnace patterns, rivets, and old rust.

They followed him, and the temperature rose as they went down.

Claudia walked behind, muttering under her breath, "What a lousy place, it's like a pit of fire."

“This was originally a pit of fire,” Viser interjected. “I guess this place used to be the furnace for forging royal weapons—the kind of furnace that only burns human bones.”

"Shut up," Claudia said irritably.

After walking down for another ten minutes or so, light appeared below.

It's not fire, it's light.

They stepped onto a metal floor, their feet thumping loudly.

Then, a space resembling a city square appeared before us.

This place was more than ten times larger than the foundry hall above. Everywhere there were half-collapsed towers, fallen pipes, mountains of waste ore and steel skeletons, and several dark tracks extending into the distance, like transport tunnels leading deeper underground.

“This isn’t a foundry anymore…” Viser’s voice was hoarse. “This is the entire underground city.”

They had only taken a few steps inside when they heard a soft sound.

It was the sound of chains dragging on the ground.

Everyone immediately stopped and picked up their weapons.

The next second, three figures slowly crawled out from behind the ruins.

Its skin was grayish, and it had bony protrusions on its back. It held a crude weapon in its hand. Its original form was unrecognizable, but there were still faint traces of imperial marks.

The one at the very front was wearing a tattered cloth and had a necklace of broken bones around his neck.

He grinned, revealing a mouthful of animal teeth.

“The Grayscale Clan,” Claudia said softly.

"Confirm?" Ron asked.

“Confirmed.” She drew her weapon.

The gray-scaled people didn't move immediately, but slowly surrounded them, muttering incantations as if they were shouting something.

“I don’t understand,” Viser said.

"Who cares if they understand or not?" Claudia took a step forward.

"Wait," Ron raised his hand to stop her. "Let me do it."

He took two steps forward.

The Grayscale Clan also stopped; the one at the front bent down and slammed his fist into the ground.

It was a gesture of surrender, but it was very brutal.

The two gray-scaled creatures behind them did the same thing, burying their faces in the dust, as if performing some kind of tribal ritual.

"They...are afraid of you?" Claudia frowned.

“It’s not that they’re afraid of me,” Ron said, looking into their lifeless white eyes. “It’s that they’re afraid of the fire on my body.”

The flame on his body had just been bound to the furnace, which was equivalent to igniting the main artery of the entire city. This mark would be passed down.

The Grayscale Clan was originally connected to the Old Forge, and now that the Fire Seed has appeared, they instinctively obey.

"Will it work?" Claudia asked.

“No,” Ron said. “We can’t touch them now.”

"What?"

"They've been starving for too long, they're too weak to go to the battlefield."

"What are you going to do?"

"Throw them back and let them come back on their own."

Claudia didn't understand.

“I’m not going to feed them,” Ron said. “I want them to learn to walk back on their own.”

"What if they run away?"

"Then I'll set the fire again and burn the whole city to the ground."

After Ron finished speaking, he turned and walked deeper into the underground city.

No one spoke again.

They passed through a side path and encountered three groups of Grayscale Clan members, all in similar condition—cracked skin, falling bone armor, and unable to even hold their weapons properly.

They didn't stop them; they just huddled in the darkness and watched them pass by.

My body was trembling slightly.

They are afraid of fire.

I'm afraid of him.

“…What have you become?” Claudia asked.

Ron didn't turn around, only saying, "Walk a little further, and you'll find out."

The fire patterns beneath their feet began to light up automatically.

The Grayscale Clan dared not approach.

A road was ignited by fire.

The wind underground is hot; it doesn't blow, but it seeps into your bones and makes them ache.

The fire patterns continued to spread beneath their feet, like the city's veins being relit, leading them deeper into the city. After walking for half an hour, a collapsed fault appeared ahead, like a gash left after an underground volcanic eruption.

“There’s no road down there.” Viser glanced at it. “This wasn’t built; it was… blown out.”

"Who bombed it?" Claudia asked.

"Perhaps it was caused by the last underground rebellion, or perhaps it was caused by the explosion when the Empire tried to seal the furnace."

“Maybe it wasn’t a person who bombed it,” Ron said.

He squatted down and placed his palms on the rock wall.

The flame flickered slightly, and the next second, a ring of very old runes began to light up at the edge of the fault.

It's gray, not red, not gold.

“This is Gray Flame.” Viser gasped. “It’s older than the original flame… it’s a flame left over from before the early rune system was fully developed.”

“It’s still moving,” Ron said in a low voice. “That means there’s someone down there.”

They slid down the side slope.

Below was a crack-like cave with an uneven ground, covered with collapsed rubble, half of a building, and some metal pillars that had been melted by fire.

As soon as they landed, they heard the sound of metal hitting the ground.

A second later, a series of low growls came from the darkness, with a thick nasal tone and bone whistling.

“Greyscale Clan.” Claudia immediately raised her weapon.

“No.” Ron stopped. “It’s a different kind.”

Several dark figures leaped out from the cave wall at the edge of the fire pattern.

It is taller than the Greyscale, more agile, and has a thicker carapace. Its eyes are entirely black, without any white, as if they have been stained with furnace ash.

They didn't speak, they just surrounded them, but didn't make a move.

Viser glanced at it a few times, then gritted his teeth and said, "This is the Gray Nest—an evolutionary branch from the bottom of the Old City, brewed from fire poison."

"Can we communicate?" Claudia asked.

“If you have fire, you can,” Viser said, shrinking back. “But it’s best not to get too close, as they may not be able to tell the difference between the Fire Lord and the Fire Food.”

Ron walked forward.

Several Gray Nest members simultaneously took a step back, their movements so synchronized it was as if they were being pulled by a single thread.

The one in the lead, kneel down.

He didn't make a sound, but instead drew words on the ground with his fingernails.

The script was the old Imperial script, but Ron could understand it.

"Fire, come!"

Ron replied with three words.

--"I am coming."

The other person's body trembled, then he flipped his hand and tore off a piece of rag from behind his back, throwing it at Ron's feet.

The cloth had an old map, but it didn't depict a city; it depicted a road leading to a furnace.

In the center of the map, there are concentric rings of fire patterns surrounding something, like a cage.

There was only one line of small print above.