Wizards begin by accessing the Inspiration panel.

Chapter 214 The Seal Shatters

Lord of Tug City?

A flash of light instantly crossed Richard's mind.

Could it be that...

Richard planned to follow the three men in black robes to see what they were doing in the Scorched Earth Secret Realm, and also to confirm his own guesses.

However, there were three of them, who not only cooperated well, but each of them was also very strong. If I rashly went to follow them, I would easily be discovered by them.

Of course, the most important thing is that the strength of our side is far inferior to that of the opponent!

Otherwise, there's no need to worry about the other party discovering it; if they do, we can just take them down.

Gorkan?

Their abilities are negligible; even as a candidate for surveillance, they would be 100% unqualified.

Blood Bone Puppet?

Obviously, that won't work either. First, they're too big, and second, as is common with undead creatures, they make too much noise when they walk, either "clattering" or "thumping"!

They're all too easy to spot.

Just as Richard was pondering whether and how to follow them, Gorkan suddenly cried out in surprise.

But he immediately realized what was happening and covered his mouth.

It turned out to be a small lava snake, which had been hiding in the crevices of the rocks. When it saw Gorkan approaching, it bit him hard on the calf!

To avoid attracting the attention of the black-robed man due to the energy fluctuations of the witchcraft, Richard and Gorkan did not cast any defensive spells.

"Whoosh!" Richard immediately pinned the lava snake to death with his sword and threw the two pieces of the snake's body into the lava pool in front of him.

Although the lava snakes in the lava pool didn't know why "food" had fallen from the sky, they obviously sprang up and started fighting for it.

Lava snakes generally do not attack their own kind unprovoked, but they will not hesitate to eat the corpses of their own kind.

In no time, the small lava snake's carcass was devoured.

"Zlatko, there seemed to be some noise over there just now?" The black-robed man who was wielding the Shadow Spear stopped and asked with a hint of doubt.

The other two men in black robes also stopped and, after carefully sensing the surroundings, said:

"Mohtar, you're being too sensitive. That's just infighting among the lava snakes."

"Okay, then I must have been mistaken."

The black-robed man named Mohtar shook his head and continued towards the predetermined destination.

This gave Richard a real fright.

We almost got caught!

Fortunately, he quickly killed the lava snake that had ambushed him and threw its body into the lava pool, causing a commotion among the lava snakes and thus covering up the incident.

It seems that tracking is no longer an option; the other party's senses are too acute.

When Richard peered out again, he found that the three men were nowhere to be seen.

"Master, I'm so sorry! I..." Gorkan looked ashamed, having almost caused a disaster.

Richard waved his hand, "It's alright, but you need to be careful from now on. The deeper you go, the more troublesome the elemental creatures will be."

"If the situation becomes truly critical, Gorkan, you should crush the teleportation stone immediately."

"Master, what about you?"

"Don't worry, I have a teleportation stone too! Let's go, let's keep going."

-

"Alright, we've arrived. This should be the place," the man in black robes in the middle suddenly said, stopping in his tracks.

The other two men in black robes each took out a compass-like object, and after chanting a few incantations, a faint fluctuation of magical energy emanated from them, as if they were performing some kind of precise positioning.

"That's right, Mohtar, this should be it. Let's get started now, lest something goes wrong."

"Um!"

The man in the middle, dressed in black, took out a black box from his robes and clicked it open.

A strong smell of blood wafted through the air. Inside the black box was a round sphere, about the size of a fist, that was reddish-purple.

"You two stay on guard. I'm going to start my spell. Three minutes, is that alright?"

"No problem! Mohtar, don't worry!"

As Mohtar's deep chanting began, the Blood Essence Orb floated in mid-air at chest height, continuously radiating boundless blood energy in all directions.

Several tens of seconds later, suddenly, the Blood Essence Sphere erupted with a blood-red beam of light as thick as a bowl, shooting straight into the sky.

If it weren't for the low visibility within the Scorched Earth Secret Realm, Richard would likely have been able to clearly see several blood-red beams of light shooting straight into the sky not far from him.

-

Tug City Lord's Mansion.

"Hawkins, I've had a bad feeling these past few days, like something's about to happen," said an elderly grey dwarf sitting on a large, soft leather sofa, holding a dark brown wooden pipe.

He had white hair and beard, and his clothes were simple yet luxurious. Upon closer inspection, his black wizard robes were made of a rare and expensive silk material.

The cuffs and collar are decorated with multiple gold threads, and the most striking feature is the cross-shaped hammer and axe pattern surrounded by a ring of wheat ears embroidered in gold thread on the left breast of the black wizard's robe.

It must be the emblem of some noble families in the Grey Dwarf region.

Hawkins took a large gulp of his bubbly beer and said, "Baghdadi, as an old friend, I advise you not to overthink things sometimes. By the way, why don't you try this newly brewed beer? It'll definitely leave a lasting impression and help you forget your troubles!"

"Haha, is the beer you brought this time really as good as you say?"

"Then I'll give it a try! Although I don't really like drinking beer, with an old friend like you recommending it, I'll definitely give it a shot," Baghdadi said with a smile, putting down his pipe.

Hawkins picked up a large wooden beer mug filled with a fragrant liquid and handed it to Baghdadi.

"Come on, let's forget our troubles! Cheers!"

"Gulp, gulp!"

"Awesome! This is how you drink beer!" Hawkins downed his drink in one gulp!

Seeing Hawkins drinking so happily, Baghdadi immediately took a big gulp himself. He frowned at first, but the next second, his slightly narrowed eyes lit up: "Bitter at first, then sweet, with a very special aftertaste and refreshing feeling!!"

"Hawkins, where did you get this beer?! It tastes really good!!"

"Gulp, gulp!"

Baghdadi downed a full glass of the new rye beer straight down his throat.

"Hiccup! Hawkins, I've realized it's not that I don't like beer, it's just that I've never had this kind of beer before!"

"By the way, is the brewing process for this beer very complicated? And is the production very limited?" Baghdadi, who hadn't had beer in a long time, chugs a large glass of beer and, quite lacking in aristocratic manners, lets out a burp and asks curiously.

"Baghdadi, don't worry, I'll provide you as much of this beer as you like!" Hawkins patted his muscular chest and assured his old friend.

"My only request is that you, my old friend, help me promote this wine among the nobles of Tug City. After all, even good wine needs a good cellar."

"Huh? Does that mean Hawkins has already taken control of the sales channels for this new type of beer?" The shrewd old man Baghdadi immediately realized that Hawkins most likely had control of the sales channels for this new type of beer.

"No, Baghdadi, you're mistaken. I don't just own the distribution channels; I'm a shareholder in this new type of beer!" Hawkins said with a hint of smugness.

"What! You didn't even invite me to do this? That's so unfair!"

As the lord of the city, he had already calculated the potential benefits of the new beer he had just tasted.

Hawkins looked at his old friend's envious and incredulous expression and couldn't help but burst into laughter.

Suddenly, the entire city of Tug trembled slightly.

Immediately afterwards, a blood-red beam of light shot out from the monument in the city center, and then the tremors became increasingly intense.

"Oh no!" Baghdadi rushed out without even having time to say goodbye to Hawkins.

"Oh no!! There's a problem with the seal on the secret realm." Hawkins immediately realized this as well.

-

In the minds of all the residents of Tug City, it seemed as if they heard a sound like shattering glass, as if a mischievous child had smashed a corner of a complete window with a stone.

"Thelim! Did you break the windows?" a gray dwarf woman holding a spatula in the kitchen called out to the living room.

"Mom, it wasn't me! Did you hear the sound of glass breaking too?" a young male voice rang out.

"It's probably a broken window in the shop next door. I'll go check it out."

Before long, the ground of the entire city of Tug began to tremble, and the tremors grew stronger and stronger!

"Snap!"

In the northeast corner of Tug City, the ground suddenly began to collapse on a large scale. A hole with a diameter of tens of meters was exposed on the originally flat ground. Yellowish-white hot gas kept rising from the ground, and the surrounding area was immediately filled with smoke.

At this moment, many residents of Tuge City, young and old, came out of their crooked bungalows near the collapse site. They looked at the collapsed ground and the suddenly appearing deep cave with fear on their faces.

"Was that an earthquake?"

"It should be, but how come there's suddenly a big hole here?"

The residents began to whisper among themselves in small groups.

The deep cave that suddenly appeared at the site of the collapse began to glow with a faint red light, and the surrounding temperature slowly began to rise.

Among the residents of Tug City were many daring gray dwarf boys who, armed with shields and heavy hammers, boldly and slowly made their way towards the smoke-shrouded, collapsed area.

"Cough cough. Serim! You brat, come back right now, don't go!" a gray dwarf woman shouted anxiously.

The strong smell of sulfur compounds made the gray dwarf woman cough incessantly. She tried to pull her child away, only to find that the child had already run far away.

"Mom, it's okay. I have a shield and a hammer. There's a good chance there will be treasure in the collapsed area. If I'm too late, it'll all be gone."

A slightly immature but resolute gray dwarf boy waved his gray iron shield and gray iron hammer at his mother, answering her question as he quickly squeezed towards the collapsed area.

He was worried about how to pay for the tuition at the Grey Dwarf Warrior Academy, but he never expected to encounter such an opportunity. For ordinary Grey Dwarf families, the high tuition fees for the Warrior Academy were almost an unbearable burden.

By the grace of Emperor Dagran, may I be able to seize treasures—no, anything valuable will do!

"Come back soon, Serim!!"

The gray dwarf woman watched her child's figure gradually disappear into the crowd, her face full of worry.

And there were clearly quite a few people who shared the same idea as Serim and planned to go see if a treasure had appeared.

Many young grey dwarves, just as young as Serim, were already running towards the collapsed area.

In addition, mercenaries dressed as gray dwarves, lizardmen, merfolk, and other different races also ran out of the nearby taverns, carrying various bottles or glasses. After surveying the surroundings, they began to head towards the collapsed area.

Based on current observations, this group should be the strongest in terms of combat effectiveness.

In the crowd, you can occasionally see people from all walks of life, some carrying spatulas, others wearing white bread jackets.

It seems that every industry has no shortage of adventurous people.

This is likely because the appearance of many treasures or secret realms in the Darklands is often accompanied by the current situation.

For example, the ground might collapse, or a strange light might appear.

The scene before us perfectly matches both.

Suddenly, one of the gray dwarf boys who was at the forefront stumbled and fell to the ground with a scream.

A small black snake appeared to have emerged from the collapsed ground and was now biting the boy's ankle.

"Amusa, are you alright? Let me help you!" a burly gray dwarf boy shouted from behind.

It seems that this must be a companion of the bitten gray dwarf boy.

He held a single-handed iron hammer high and slammed it down heavily onto the slender body of the small black snake.

Just when he thought that his heavy hammer, weighing over ten kilograms, would surely smash the snake into a pulp, he was surprised to find that the hammer struck the snake's body as if he had hit a tough, elastic rubber stick!

"Bang!"

The little snake seemed to wriggle and bounce off the hammer with its body. The next second, the hammer bounced back even faster.

"Thump!"

The hammer slammed heavily onto the head of the burly boy who was wielding it!

Instantly, the gray dwarf boy's eyes rolled back, and after standing there unsteadily for a few seconds, he collapsed to the ground.

This immediately startled everyone around.

"Hiss! It's a lava snake!"

A gray dwarf mercenary wearing black leather armor also noticed the strange situation.

Upon closer inspection, he discovered that the unassuming little black snake was actually a rare lava snake, an elemental creature that only appears in extremely hot magma areas.

Despite its small size, it possesses the strength of a second-level wizard apprentice.

Without the strength and agility of an intermediate-level knight or higher, it would be extremely difficult to inflict effective damage on it, and even defending against the Lava Serpent's attacks would be very challenging.

Although the Lava Serpent has only one attack method, it is extremely fast.

"Scatter, you bunch of kids! This is a lava snake, not so easy to deal with!"

Seeing so many young men, whose strength wasn't even that of a knight, rushing over to try their luck, the gray dwarf mercenary couldn't help but shout anxiously.

"Lava serpent? What's that?" A gray dwarf boy holding a wooden mallet looked at his companion with a puzzled expression.

"I don't know, I've never even heard of it."

"You're saying it's just a tiny snake, what's so powerful about it!"

"I guess that idiot just hit the ground with a hammer, so it bounced back and hit himself."

"Hey, do you think it's possible that those mercenaries wanted to take it all for themselves, so they tricked us into leaving?"

"I think so! Look, they're coming!" A young man holding a blacksmith's hammer pointed at the approaching mercenaries and shouted.

"Let's go, hurry up, or we might miss out!"

The group of teenagers ignored the black-armored mercenaries' advice and, seeing the mercenaries approaching, quickly ran towards the pit.

"Swish, swish, swish!!"

Several more black lines emerged from the cracks in the collapsed area.

"Aaaaaah!!"

Immediately, screams of agony filled the air!

Seven or eight of the boys who had charged ahead fell to the ground in an instant, and the remaining two or three turned pale and their teeth chattered, too frightened to speak.

Only then did the boys believe what the black-armored mercenary had said.

Because they didn't even see how the lava snake attacked, but their companions around them were already lying on the ground, groaning in pain.

Clearly, this creature was beyond the capabilities of ordinary teenagers like them.

Fortunately, there were several taverns near the collapsed area. At this time, many mercenaries with the strength of intermediate knights rushed up and fought with the black lava snakes, rescuing the seven or eight gray dwarf boys.

only.

The wounds on the gray dwarf boys' bodies were beginning to turn black, and large, burn-like blisters were appearing on the skin around the wounds, and more and more of them were forming.

"This is fire poison!" a tall mercenary wielding a double-handed hammer exclaimed upon inspection.

"That's right. This is troublesome."

"You need to see a pharmacist for treatment."

"I'm afraid a regular pharmacist isn't very useful; you need at least an intermediate-level pharmacist!" An elder mercenary looked around and shook his head.

The mercenaries started discussing amongst themselves. The group of lava snakes that had just appeared made even these people who had spent years licking blood off their skin dare not approach them recklessly.

but

There are always those who are not afraid of death. Seeing that the small black snakes no longer appeared, some people mustered their courage and began to slowly continue exploring forward.

"Look at them, they're really not afraid of death!" A mercenary shook his head as he saw several chefs wielding spatulas daring to continue exploring.

"Never mind them!"

"Hiss~~"

The gray dwarf chefs, each wielding a spatula, heard strange noises coming from a deep cave about ten meters ahead.

"Oh no! That's the sound of a snake flicking its tongue!" a chef nearby shouted.

"Retreat immediately!"

But they had just turned around and run a few steps when they heard a whooshing sound coming from behind!

"Swish, swish, swish!"

Dozens of red lines shot out.

The red line is much longer and thicker than the black line!

"Ahhh!!"

However, the screams were actually less frequent than before.

Because these red lava snakes are three to five meters long, they can often bite the neck of a gray dwarf who is only 1.4 meters tall.

Therefore, the gray dwarves who were hit at this moment had already fallen to the ground, and most of them had been killed instantly without even letting out a scream.

"Damn it! It's a red lava serpent!!" Upon seeing the red lava serpent appear, several gray dwarf mercenaries began to consider retreating.

It seems that what's hidden in this collapsed area is probably not some kind of treasure.

Even if they did, it wouldn't be something they could covet.

These red lava snakes alone are more than they can handle!

"Get out of the way! Get out of the way!" At that moment, a loud voice rang out.

"Clang, clang, clang!"

The sound of armored steel boots clashing on the ground came in perfect unison!

The mercenaries' faces lit up with joy.

This is the sound of a well-organized gray dwarf city guard arriving.

As the official defense force of Tug City, although the individual strength is not strong, once the number exceeds ten, the overall combat power is incomparable to that of these scattered soldiers.

"You all step back!" commanded a gray dwarf dressed as a captain, his entire body clad in thick plate armor and with a silver hammer painted on his breastplate.

"First squad, raise shields, attack!"

"Second squad, infiltrate and defend!"

The red lava snakes seemed to sense the danger as well, abandoning the "food" in their mouths and focusing their attention on the "tin cans".

Immediately, red lines began to battle with the tin cans.

The battle was raging!

Suddenly, dozens of boulders shot out from the collapse area, and a rumbling sound of rolling stones echoed from the deep cave.

As the noise grew louder, the onlookers, both civilians and mercenaries, turned their attention to it.

A rock monster, over two meters tall and with the upper body of a human, was rumbling out of the underground cave.

The common people had never seen such a monster before. They were terrified and screamed and cried as they scattered and fled. Many elderly people and children were trampled on the ground.

"Not good!" The gray dwarf captain of the city guard, who was in the middle of the battle, suddenly changed his expression.

"This is a massive rolling stone elemental; even a typical level one wizard wouldn't be a match for it!"

"Casper! Inform Commander Bram immediately, quickly!"

"Yes, Captain!" A gray dwarf city guard quickly turned around and ran towards the center of Tug City.

One.

Two

Before long, five large rolling stone elementals rushed from the collapsed area to the surface and wreaked havoc in the vicinity.

The dozens of gray dwarf city guards who were originally able to suppress the red lava serpent were now being routed by the impact of the large rolling stone elemental.

Casualties also began to appear.

The city guards, equipped with thick armor, are not afraid of elemental creatures like lava snakes that primarily bite, but their plate armor offers much less protection when faced with the hurling of large rolling stone elementals.

The stones, the size of washbasins, hurtled at high speed, as if launched from a giant catapult. With just one strike, no matter which part of the body was hit, tendons and bones would be broken, resulting in severe injury.

If you're unlucky and get hit directly on the head by a rock, your skull will be smashed to pieces, and even your brain matter will splatter out.

"Whoosh!" A Shadow Arrow struck the large rolling stone elemental, sending up a pile of rubble!

"Don't use fire magic! Large rolling stones have high fire resistance. Use shadow magic!" shouted an old lizardman holding a black wooden staff.

"Whoosh!" Several more Shadow Arrows were fired in quick succession.

A group of lizardman wizards dressed in black robes arrived at the scene and stood behind the old lizardman who had initially held a black wooden staff, launching an attack on the large rolling stone elemental.

Judging from the insignia on the chest of the black robe, the gray dwarf city guard captain knew that they were from the nearest medium-sized wizarding organization—Shadowfire Tongues, a group mainly composed of prophets or wandering wizards from various lizardman tribes.

Their strength is quite formidable!

This immediately made the captain of the gray dwarf city guard breathe a long sigh of relief, feeling much more at ease.

As long as the wizards destroy these large rocks, there won't be too many casualties. After all, lava snakes are relatively easy to deal with.

"This place will soon belong to Lokauer."

All the residents in the northeast corner of Tug City, whether civilians, gray dwarf city guards, or even wizards, received this deep, magnificent, and ancient spiritual energy fluctuation in their minds.

"boom!!!"

Hundreds of rocks burst forth from the tunnel in the collapsed area, and a giant stone creature, almost identical to the large rolling stone elemental but magnified several times, rumbled out of the cave.

Behind it followed dozens of large rolling stone elements and thousands of smaller rolling stone elements, with the ones in front being the largest, and the four in front being much larger than ordinary large rolling stone elements.

In an instant, a deafening rumble of rolling rocks filled the air!

If Richard were here, he would definitely think that this scene looked exactly like a heavily armored army group of tanks starting up in his previous life.

"Stone Elemental Lord!!" The old lizardman holding the black wooden staff exclaimed in terror, sticking out his long, thin tongue.

"It's over! Tug City is doomed! That's a Tier 3 Stone Elemental Lord!!"

"How could a Stone Elemental Lord suddenly appear? Could it be that the ancient seal of the Scorched Earth Secret Realm has malfunctioned?" the lizardman elder muttered to himself, his eyes momentarily glazed over.

(End of this chapter)