"Chew chew chew..."

Chen Yu took advantage of the heat to swallow and chew the demonic bat's heart. The scorching magma and acid neutralized with a violent sizzling, sending up thick, burning steam. He squinted his eyes and let out a sulfur-scented, satisfied belch.

High fire resistance is truly great.

Eating a chunk of magma just felt a little hot.

[Devour Digestion Lv.6 triggered — Fully recorded Lava Demonic Bat characteristics, gained talent: Flame Affinity Lv.3]

The gel visibly warmed to a red heat, emitting a faint radiance and warmth, as if the entire Slime had been set alight.

Then it gradually faded and returned to its verdant green.

Nice, another talent with tremendous potential.

"Flame Affinity" had no terrifying destructive power and none of the strange gimmicks other talents sometimes have.

It had only one effect — it provided bonuses to all fire-related talents.

And the effect was quite significant.

Chen Yu touched the scalding hot spring water with a small gel hand. Threads of warmth transformed into life energy inside the gel and, before long, replenished the gel he had lost in the fight.

With Flame Affinity Lv.3 boosting it, Thermal Recovery’s effect increased by roughly thirty percent.

"If I were a demon, wouldn't Flame Affinity make me take off on the spot?"

That didn’t seem quite right.

Demons might not only have Flame Affinity, they might even have talent ranks higher than his.

Chen Yu muttered for a moment, then picked up the ring dropped by the boss demonic bat to take a look.

Hmm... matte black, it looked like a very ordinary ring with nothing special.

But something that could withstand magma’s high temperatures could not be ordinary.

Maybe some adventurer had challenged the boss demonic bat, got gulped down in one bite, and all that was left was this ring.

"Count Bran, you’ve seen a lot. Do you know what this magical item is?"

Count Bran had been busy preening the patch of tail feathers burned away. Hearing Chen Yu’s transmission, he literally beamed.

"Gahahaha! Your Majesty flatters me;

I actually only know a little."

He immediately puffed out his chest, striking the pose of an aristocratic connoisseur. He waddled forward with affected dignity, cocked his head, almost pressed his eyes to the ring, inspecting every detail.

Count Bran tapped the ring lightly with the tip of his wing. "Hmm... the style is plain and unadorned, definitely the handiwork of those stubborn dwarves."

"The material is copper from the mountains, no doubt. But strangely, it appears to have been subjected to some unknown curing process. Mountain copper that can bathe in magma, hiss... this thing probably doesn’t have a magic blessing, right?"

"Your Majesty, it seems you’ve found treasure."

Chen Yu swallowed the ring into his gel to feel it, but whether he probed by mana or spiritual aura, the ring gave no reaction.

"What do you think it does?"

"Function? It’s likely one of the common enchantments: increases intelligence, boosts strength, or charms enemies, that sort of thing. When you get back to the Kingdom, find a knowledgeable mage to appraise it properly and you’ll know for sure."

"True."

Anyway his belly was huge;

stuffing one more ring in wouldn’t matter.

So he mounted Little Ka and returned to the battlefield, reorganizing the Magical Creature Army.

Count Bran wanted to follow, but missing the key tail feathers, he flew crookedly the moment he took off, wobbling like a drunken spinning top and nearly fell into the hot spring several times. After a while he finally mastered the technique and clumsily settled back on Little Ka’s back.

To hide his embarrassment, he cleared his throat and unfolded the map to divert attention.

"Congratulations, Your Majesty, you’ve eliminated the most troublesome enemy in this passage. Next we only need to pass through the thorn-choked Dusk Forest to reach the vicinity of the Obsidian Mining Area."

"That place is only darker and a bit harder to traverse. There are almost no lethal monsters. With this... uh, honorable Miss Peachy leading the way, passing through Dusk Forest won’t be difficult."

"Hmph hmph~"

Peachy grunted, still leisurely chewing the last shard of obsidian.

She seemed to relish being called "Miss Peachy." Rarer still, she bowed her massive head and gently nudged in Count Bran’s direction with her huge snout, emitting a friendly rumble as if inviting the Kingdom count to sit on her broad, comfortable back.

"Gahahaha, thank you, Miss Peachy. As a grand duke of the Kingdom, it is my duty to clear the path and expand Your Majesty’s territory."

Count Bran immediately felt his vanity fulfilled as never before, overjoyed, and flew up onto Peachy’s back with great pleasure.

"For the Kingdom! Forward!" Count Bran waved his wings high, brimming with spirit.

Peachy snorted and set her heavy stride, leading the way into the dim passage behind the Lava Well that led to the Dusk Forest.

Little Ka carrying Chen Yu followed closely, and behind them stretched the vast, silent, murderous ranks of the Magical Creature Army.

Before long the massive force disappeared down the passage, leaving only the ravaged battlefield of the Sulfur Hot Spring Area.

Silence fell again over the Sulfur Hot Spring Area, broken only by the monotonous "gurgle gurgle" of bubbling hot springs.

After an unknown length of time, several voices came from far to near across the quiet Sulfur Hot Spring Area.

"William, these three fire-resistance potions are my last precious stash. Use them sparingly. Charge them to the squad when we get back — not a copper coin less."

"Tock, don’t be so stingy. Imagine how many monsters are in that hot spring waiting for us to hunt. This is virgin territory ripe for exploitation."

"If we hunt twenty—no, fifteen monsters it’ll be enough to make us filthy rich. The monsters here aren’t worth the same as those outside."

"But the Mist-devouring Dog’s core is the best ingredient for illusion potions, even in a place like Ironboot Town it can sell for several Gold Coins."

"Come on, William, you’re already painting a pie-in-the-sky, and we haven’t even stepped in yet," the third, younger voice teased.

At the hot spring edge, a three-person adventurer squad cautiously peeked out.

Their leader, the ranger William, popped a cork and tilted back to gulp down a costly red potion.

The other two, the warrior Tock and the young mage apprentice Allen, exchanged a glance. Though it hurt, they gritted their teeth and drank as well.

The potion took effect;

a cool insulating feeling passed across their skin.

William nocked a white-feather arrow on his longbow, took a deep breath, and was the first to step into the shallow, warm spring water.

Feeling the scalding heat turn into comfortable warmth, his face broke into uncontrollable delight.

"Haha, it worked! Tock, Allen, be careful not to scare our Gold Coins away." William’s voice trembled with excitement.

Three men harboring dreams of fortune, buzzing with excitement and a trace of nervousness, tiptoed into the mist-shrouded hot spring area.

But only half an hour later.

The three figures emerged from the fog like withered eggplants, despondent.

Their faces were etched with bewilderment and disbelief, a stark contrast to their earlier excitement.

"Damn it... not a single one... not one alive sighted," Tock’s voice trembled, whether from anger or fear it was unclear.

"William, are you sure your intel was right? This place is cleaner than the Church," Allen’s voice quavered, tears edging his words. Those fire-resistance potions were not cheap, wasted like this.

"Impossible, absolutely impossible!"

William grabbed his hair in agitation. "I saw several Mist-devouring Dogs roaming here last week, plus Heatland Giant Mosquitoes, Sulfur Leeches... How... how did they all disappear?! Not a single hair left."

He kicked at a sulfur rock with a hard thud.

Tock looked miserable. "It’s over. No monsters, the fire-resistance potions burned for nothing, and we’ve got two huge holes in the books..."

At that instant young Allen remembered the strangeness of the hot spring area and turned deathly pale.

"This is wrong, run! This place was definitely swept by an incredibly terrifying magical tide. They ate everything clean!"

William and Tock followed his pointing finger and instantly felt their hair rise. Earlier they had been too busy hunting to notice the shocking battle marks now obvious around the hot spring, and the eerie emptiness clicked into place...

"Damn it! Run!" William no longer dared dream of riches;

he howled in terror.

The three of them scrambled like hounds chased from hell, tumbling and fleeing without looking back, afraid a single slower step would let that unknown, terrible magical tide catch up and turn them into the next buffet.