Chương 178: Turning Earth to Glass

Vince stood at the edge of the "crater." Up close, it was even more massive than he had guessed, though it seemed slightly shallower than the original sinkhole. Perhaps due to the thick layer of ash blanketing the bottom, it had lost that cavernous "sinkhole" feel. Instead, it looked more like a colossal frying pan. He nearly slipped the moment he reached the edge. Sweeping the ash aside with his boot, he realized the surrounding soil had been completely fused into slick, obsidian-like glass.

He had just stepped on a slightly raised "bubble" in the glass, which was impossibly smooth. Surrounding this smooth curve was a pockmarked landscape of embedded gravel and debris, with razor-sharp obsidian filaments sticking up everywhere. If an ordinary person slipped and tried to catch themselves here, they'd end up with dozens of bone-deep gashes. Even with Vince's currently superb sense of balance, he couldn't confidently stride across this trap-filled expanse of molten wasteland.

He carefully drove the butt of his spear into the obsidian glass of the crater wall, using it to slowly inch his way down the slope. He didn't stop until the incline leveled out, bringing him to the bottom of the "pan." The ash down here was much thicker. Not only that, but the ambient temperature was also significantly higher. The blue light radiating from the [Armor Crystal] protecting his feet was growing increasingly distinct. However, his Energy Bar wasn't dropping too quickly.

This meant the ground temperature was high enough to damage his feet, but it wasn't absurdly lethal yet. It was just a shame he didn't have some convenient ability to blow all this ash away. Vince had no choice but to activate the [Impact] energy within his spear. He carefully channeled the energy, feeling it gather, and focused it onto one flat side of the spear's blade. Thwump! Clang! A sharp crack echoed!

The [Impact] energy erupted from the spearhead in a fan-shaped shockwave, violently blasting away the pocket of air directly in front of him! Vince felt a massive reactionary force travel up the shaft. Driven by the thrust of the explosion, the spearhead smashed heavily against the obsidian behind him, chipping off a piece of the razor-sharp tip.

[Durability: 99/100] The violent air currents kicked up by the shockwave completely blew away the ash near the bottom of the crater, whipping it into a massive grey fog that blanketed a dozen meters in every direction... As the wind dispersed the swirling dust, Vince's heart sank. There was absolutely nothing in the crater. The entire pit had been scorched into a massive "glass bowl." It grew thicker toward the center, forming a slick, pitch-black expanse.

He gathered the [Impact] energy into the spearhead again and thrust it viciously downward! BANG! With a deafening roar, the [Impact] energy detonated. A spray of obsidian shards exploded from the ground, acting like shrapnel from a fragmentation grenade, hammering against Vince and triggering ripples of light across his [Armor Crystal] shield!

"Tough bastard!" Vince muttered, his hands completely numb. He peered through the grey mist at the shallow crater on the ground—it was barely a third the size of a soccer ball.

"The obsidian down here has to be several meters thick..." He continued walking toward the center of the crater. He noticed that the center wasn't perfectly flat. Instead, there was a depression about two meters in diameter where the slope suddenly became much steeper... Evelyn was right. It's not dead. Vince thought silently. A conical depression sitting right in the middle of a "glass bowl" perfectly fused by endless fire could only mean one thing... There was a tunnel beneath this. A very, very deep tunnel.

Vince held his breath and launched himself upward with a massive bound, leaping out of the crater and landing smoothly on the outer edge. Looking at the smoke-grenade-like clouds of ash being dispersed by the wind, Vince reached up and wiped the lenses of his gas mask. The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement. It was a bit awkward. The mutating zombies that had been "incubating" on the cavern walls were definitely dead.

But because the rock had been fused into glass, dozens of round crystals were now permanently sealed within that thick layer of obsidian. Even with the [Impact] energy, a single strike from Vince's spear only managed to carve out a dent the size of a watermelon rind. At that excavation rate, he wouldn't reach those depths even if he dug for a month. Furthermore, the explosion had completely leveled the area into a flat plain. There wasn't a single line-of-sight obstacle left.

As time passed and the extreme heat of the ground slowly cooled, the surrounding zombies were beginning to sluggishly encroach upon the area... But most importantly, the corrupted Giant Tree wasn't dead. Just as Evelyn had deduced, its above-ground portion was merely a facade. Simply destroying that section wouldn't kill it. Vince stood at the edge of the billowing dust cloud. He glanced at the depression in the center of the crater, hesitated for a brief moment, then turned and walked away. Time waits for no man.

Evelyn was probably right; they needed to leave. Thankfully, the crystals buried down there were all round ones. Aside from keeping them as miraculous healing items, they didn't offer him much immediate utility anyway. The mutated zombies had already provided him with a massive amount of HP, along with a mountain of high-tier materials and potions. Even without recovering those crystals, this operation was still a net positive. After all, he had essentially gotten this bombing opportunity for free.

As for the monster itself, if it just wanted to turtle deep underground, Vince genuinely had no way to deal with it. He couldn't exactly conjure a one-ton bunker-buster bomb out of thin air. But even without a bunker-buster, I should probably forge some specialized weapons. He recalled the issues he faced during his fight with the branches last night, already brainstorming new weapon designs. Everyone needed to evacuate this place as soon as possible...

But just in case this Tree held a serious grudge, Vince was absolutely going to give it another unforgettable lesson. Once he was clear of the extreme heat zone, Vince equipped his [Stealth Crystal]. Taking advantage of the remaining duration of his potion, he carved his way back through the zombie horde, following his original path. Passing by the remains of the massive tentacles, he didn't forget to grab a souvenir for Evelyn.

Strangely, even though the tentacles had been raised high into the air, the massive fire at the roots had still managed to ignite them all the way up. Furthermore, they seemed to have burned incredibly thoroughly, turning entirely brittle. A single smack with his spear caused the several-meter-long remains to shatter easily, turning out to be more fragile than charcoal. Vince swatted away the surrounding zombies, stored his spear, and picked up a large chunk of the remains.

With a running start, he vaulted onto the roof, landing smoothly beside Evelyn. The entire round trip hadn't even taken ten minutes. His potion was still active.

"Here..." Vince held out the watermelon-sized chunk of debris, handing it to Evelyn, who was waiting in the same spot.

"It's so light... Where is your spear?" Evelyn quickly took the remains. She marveled at it while inspecting it from every angle, completely absorbed in the fresh sample, and casually threw out the question. Vince knew she had been observing him from her vantage point. Plus, he had unequipped his [Stealth Crystal] later on. He casually replied:"... I put it away."

"It's completely carbonized. Logically speaking, even if it were at the epicenter of the incineration, it shouldn't have carbonized this thoroughly..." Evelyn didn't press the issue. She muttered to herself, analyzing the sample while processing the intelligence, completely dropping the topic of the vanishing spear.

"According to your description, this is a part of those two tentacles that were hundreds of meters long. They weren't even touched by the main fire at the roots, yet they still ignited and burned until they were completely carbonized..."

"What if the fire just traveled all the way up from the roots?" Vince offered a guess.

"Did you pour the gasoline from the top of the tentacles downwards?" Evelyn turned her head and shot him a glance.

"Otherwise, how could it burn all the way up...? If it were that flammable, we wouldn't have had to go through all this trouble. A single incendiary grenade would have killed it."

"... Why are we ruling that option out?" Hearing her say that, Vince suddenly felt like his two tons of fuel had been completely wasted. Maybe an incendiary grenade really could have done the trick. He couldn't help but complain.

"We tried. It doesn't burn to death. The surface of its limbs is coated in a mysterious energy. It's likely a part of its abilities. Flames can't catch, and they just get shaken off..." Evelyn placed the sample on the ground. Raising her combat boot, she stomped down hard, crushing the watermelon-sized carbonized tentacle into smaller pieces. She carefully picked them up one by one, placing them into a plastic specimen bag.

"Unless the temperature or the amount of fuel surpasses a specific threshold, rendering it unable to extinguish the flames, and even igniting certain internal components..." She gathered all the shattered pieces from the ground into the sample bag, sealed it tight, and stowed it away in her canvas satchel.

"Of course, that scenario is highly extreme. It would likely require thousands of liters of fuel suddenly appearing at its roots while it was completely unprepared..." Having finished packing the sample, Evelyn looked up. Her deep, piercing eyes met Vince's gaze once again. Vince, who had already formed his own plans and wasn't really paying attention to her lecture, habitually reached his soot-covered hand toward her waist. Halfway there, he suddenly remembered this wasn't Zoe.

He hastily yanked his hand back and wiped the soot off on his own clothes. These clothes are covered in ash anyway. They're going straight in the trash when I get back, Vince thought silently. But the look in Evelyn's eyes made his hand freeze. Even though her face was hidden behind her gas mask, the intense gleam in her eyes left him slightly dazed.

"Colonel Lin, is your ability to create objects out of thin air?" She asked, her tone entirely serious.

"Whoa, that would basically make me a god..." The direct question caught Vince off guard, but he quickly recovered, answering half-jokingly.

"No, it's not. That falls under the category of things I can't talk about. Feel free to guess, because honestly, I haven't even fully figured it out myself. If I discover anything concrete or if I need your help researching it, I'll let you know..." At this point, Vince pursed his lips beneath his mask. He looked straight into Evelyn's eyes and continued.

"But right now, there's really nothing I can tell you."