Chương 439: Chapter 410: Forging Opportunity

That had worked out perfectly, Thalion thought after swallowing the bit of blood he had coughed up right after the teleportation with the escape token. In total, he still had over ten escape tokens. The quality was, of course, horrendous, but for an escape it had been perfect. He had simply crushed the token before taking the teleportation circle that was placed inside the tiny chamber one had to enter before the volcano.

Those cheap escape tokens always took a while before they went off, and Thalion had needed to buy himself some time. What truly confused him was how the Second Daughter had looked. She definitely had nothing in common with a termite. To be fair, many of the insects in the termite hive didn't look like termites at all. That it looked different wasn't what disturbed Thalion—it was the fact that it looked like another insect entirely. Centipedes had always been dangerous hunters, especially when fully grown.

They had everything: strong armor, potent poison, and powerful mandibles. The more Thalion saw of the termites, the more he got the feeling that the queen was cooking down there. Or perhaps she had bred with all kinds of other insects. Whatever she was doing, it was definitely working. The First Daughter had been in first place until Thalion figured out how grand treasures worked and snatched a good number of antidotes. The Second Daughter was also ranked high, somewhere in the top ten.

Thalion wondered how many more there were in this trial. It was possible that the queen had only allowed those two to attend to ensure they wouldn't fight over the same treasure. If that was the case, she was a bit too confident, in Thalion's opinion—but after creating offspring capable of fighting other Chosen, it wasn't that surprising. Now it was time to think about what to do next. Thalion had emerged in a small dwarven city, and sounds of fighting echoed from a nearby tunnel.

He was already healing from the teleportation, though with those cheap escape tokens the damage was worse than usual. There were multiple cuts across his skin and soul. If his soul hadn't been as strong as it was, the damage might have been far worse. Either way, he wasn't keen on fighting right now. Getting the red crystal had been a massive pain, and the Sanguis Impera was furious with him for simply storing it away.

Thalion was starting to think that the plant was becoming a bit unhinged when it came to growing stronger. Extracting the red crystal had destroyed multiple vines, and they still hadn't found a way to use the crystal, which resembled a three-meter-tall prism. It was so hot that the first vine to touch it had instantly melted without the slightest resistance. Beyond the heat, the amount of power packed into it was immense—Thalion doubted it could even be shrunk.

Thinking about the dwarves' actions, they may have placed the crystal inside the volcano to naturally compress it under the pressure of all that lava. Thalion winced at the memory of the heat, and he hadn't even fully entered the volcano. Inside the small chamber, there had only been a narrow opening that allowed one to dive into the lava and search for the crystal. Instead of diving in himself, Thalion had sent the vines of the Sanguis Impera.

The vines had struggled immensely as they approached the crystal, while the chamber heated up more and more the moment he opened the gateway to the lava. By the end, it was so hot that his skin had started to burn—and considering his relatively high fire resistance, that said a lot. It was also surprising that the ranger's clothes were still mostly intact, with only a few scorched marks that were already repairing themselves.

Thalion's bounty had risen to sixteen million, widening the gap between him and second place even further.

"Oh, poor Kael. First he had to endure me ruling the tutorial, and now the treasure hunt too," Thalion thought with an amused smile. His bloodslaves were dead as well, which was a good thing. It seemed that at some point they must have attacked the Chosen and the Second Daughter. Even if they had regained some control over their minds, hunger was a different matter entirely. When creating new bloodslaves in the future, he would need to kill them earlier—before rebellious thoughts could take root.

If one ever escaped, it could spark a real blood-fueled apocalypse given how much they needed to feed. Those were plans for the future. For now, Thalion wanted a quiet place where he could wait out the rest of the stage—or at least a few hours. Another question nagged at his mind. The next grand treasure would be located in an icy storm, which sounded like it would be above ground. Finding a way upward seemed like the logical next step.

Considering how hot the red crystal was, he might even be able to use it as a heater. If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement. Maybe this city had a smithy where he could make an apparatus? Thalion didn't have the tools to work with materials from inside a volcano, but that probably wouldn't be necessary. For now, the crystal remained in his amulet, and he only intended to take it out once he entered the icy storm.

The storm should counter the intense heat very well, and with the metal being constantly cooled, it might even withstand the sheer temperature of the crystal. The real problem was the sound of battle drawing closer and closer. Thalion really didn't want to run into another party. Gods, that would be annoying. Still, there was no way to slip out unnoticed if he wanted to search for—and actually use—a smithy.

"I should stop wasting time and get going," Thalion muttered before taking flight. As he searched for a smithy, the Sanguis Impera constantly flooded his mind with complaints about the red crystal. Not in words, but through intense waves of hunger and desire that were difficult to ignore. If there were no other option, he might place the crystal on the ground and allow the Sanguis Impera to extend its tendrils toward it. Yet there were two reasons he was against that.

First and foremost, only the Sanguis Impera was immune to the heat, and Thalion wasn't keen on being burned from the inside by the extremely hot vines. Secondly, he had no idea what the Sanguis Impera actually intended to do with the crystal. If it somehow got destroyed, he would lose a massive number of leaderboard points—and his advantage only really mattered in the next stage. From there on, things would become far more complicated with civilization stages and all that followed.

Thalion even considered simply leaving the king's treasury alone. The king was D-grade, which meant none of the others should be able to steal it either. That alone would prevent anyone from closing the gap. What did Thalion care if someone earned two or three thousand points in a stage? It hardly mattered with the head start he had. Maybe instead of working as a hunter for the king, he could act as a smith instead. Hunting for such a small number of points was pointless for the same reason.

The more Thalion thought about it, the more he liked the idea. The only downside was that he would be stationed at a smithy, where other trial takers might recognize him. That meant when the trial was about to end, he would need to use another escape token. Ending up in the same safe zone as others could turn ugly very quickly. Still, all in all, it sounded good enough to try. At the moment, Thalion dashed from door to door, killing every dwarf that crossed his path. They were simply too annoying.

It didn't take long before he got lucky. He yanked open the metal gate of one of the taller buildings and found a large fireplace inside, surrounded by several anvils. Dust coated every surface. It took some time to clean the place so he wouldn't keep breathing in the stupid dust. Then came the next problem—there was no wood or coal to start the fire. That was the moment he gave in to the Sanguis Impera's demands and placed the large fire crystal on top of the pit. It should be hot enough to melt iron.

Yet Thalion had forgotten one tiny but crucial detail. He had never been this close to the crystal before, and taking it out right in front of him was a terrible idea. This time, his clothes immediately began to burn, and Thalion had to use telekinesis to pull himself away. Well, at least it would work as an excellent fireplace, Thalion thought with a grimace. The more he observed the crystal, the more he suspected that the mountain hadn't been a volcano from the start.

No—that would have been too much, even for this crystal. Thalion closed the metal gate behind him, hoping others would open it later, and used one of the vines to drag an anvil over so there was as much distance as possible between himself and the crystal. Seventy meters still weren't enough for comfort, but at least his skin and clothes stopped burning. The Sanguis Impera seemed satisfied and continued to move its vines around the red crystal—carefully making sure not to touch it.

In the meantime, Thalion inspected the metals scattered around the smithy. Judging by the raw materials, it had likely been used for swords or similar weapons. Either way, it would work perfectly for him. The problem he faced now was that any construction would need to be at least ten meters long. Otherwise, he would be burned by the crystal. Ah, this whole thing already felt like a waste of time. Why not just use the metal as a platform on the skyship and place the crystal there instead?

Thalion paused, considering the idea. With the materials at hand, he might be able to start preparing the components he wanted to use for his sword. That sounded like a far better idea than trying to create some large contraption to carry the red crystal around. At some point, he would likely run into the problem that the skyship wouldn't be able to fly in such a violent icy storm anyway.

After experiencing the sheer heat inside the volcano and the raw power of the red crystal, Thalion was confident that the storm would be the real challenge. He even wondered how these trials would scale all the way up to godhood. Would treasures eventually be hidden inside a black hole? The thought was oddly amusing. In the end, Thalion decided not to build the metal construction. It probably wouldn't work the way he imagined anyway.

Instead, he could prime some of the materials so they would be ready for use during the civilization stage, where he could forge a new sword and armor properly. Thalion also had a large assortment of crystals stored in his amulet from all the warehouses he had looted. Sadly, most of them weren't particularly strong, and he didn't have a formation here to shrink them. The only method he could think of was combining them and hammering them down repeatedly until they compressed.

That could take forever, and he dearly hoped the civilization stage would offer something similar to the formation he had used during the tutorial. For the next few hours, Thalion stayed busy enchanting the materials and shaping them into the rough form of the sword he envisioned, occasionally infusing them with small amounts of blood. He was in a good mood—until, all of a sudden, he heard noise outside. With a loud crash, the metal gate was kicked out of its hinges.

"Good lord, don't they even know how to open a gate?" Thalion thought, his lips curling upward.

"Next time, I'll write a little message that says pull, not push, and put it outside." The Sanguis Impera was annoyed as well, forcing Thalion to store the red crystal back in his spatial amulet so the newcomers wouldn't spot it. Now all he had to do was wait for them to step inside. Thalion was in a good mood. If they were polite, he'd let them leave with their lives.