Warlock Apprentice

Chapter 3043: Chapter 3044: Earth Cavern Arena

Under the dual guidance of Dox and Speedy, they moved forward without any pause, and finally arrived inside a crooked underground passage.

The front of the passage stretched beyond sight, pitch-black all around, and it was unknown where it led.

However, they didn’t care where this road ended, because their goal wasn’t to go forward.

"Is it right here?" Angel looked at Dox.

Dox nodded. "That’s right. Whether we go forward or back, the feedback time we get from sensing that Divine Thought aura will be extended."

This also meant that where they were standing now was the closest spot to the Divine Thought that had possessed the mole.

Angel glanced around. Their current location actually had nothing special about it; it was simply the middle section of a passage. There was no Door here, nor any other unusual marks.

It seemed that the normal route to the "Earth Cavern Arena" was not here.

Angel could understand this. After all, they themselves had not used the Right Path when entering Paradise Land. Moreover, what they were looking for was the "nearest position to the aura," not the main Door of the Earth Cavern Arena.

The shortest straight-line distance did not necessarily mean it was the normal road.

Between the 23rd floor of one building and the 24th floor of the adjacent building, the closest distance would obviously be a line drawn in midair. But if you actually wanted to walk from the 23rd floor of this building to the 24th of the other, you’d have to go up and down several floors and take a long detour.

The same logic applied here. They might seem very close to the location of the Earth Cavern Arena, but if they wanted to follow the Right Path to reach their destination, they would probably have to circle around for quite a while.

But they clearly had no intention of taking the Right Path.

They’d even smashed their way through the walls and mountains of the Maze—how could they possibly go obediently by the proper route?

Angel half crouched, reached out, and touched the ground. Very soon, waves of Energy ripples spread outward from his palm, and the solid earth seemed to turn into a puddle of water, constantly sending up ripples.

As the ripples expanded, a circular hole in the ground, with Angel’s palm as its center, appeared in front of them, rotating as it grew from small to large.

The hole extended straight down for thirty meters. Looking down from the edge, they could clearly see dense Spatial Energy below. Clearly, there had been a space trap here before; it was just that now all the Spatial Energy had been gathered to one side.

The chaotic Energy inside those traps had obediently been bound up, leaving open an underground passage just wide enough for people to pass through.

And from the moment Angel crouched down to the moment this multi-person passage appeared, it had taken him only five seconds.

This made Kaier’s eyes go completely wide.

So... amazing!

An outsider might not understand how technically difficult this was, but Kaier was at least an Apprentice of the Space Series; he knew all too well how much power and confidence Angel needed to pull this off.

Previously, when they broke through the walls of the mud golem Maze, the space traps inside hadn’t been that strong; as long as you had a Wizard Level shield, you could even press forward while tanking the traps.

But this time was different.

The chaotic Spatial Energy inside this hole was extremely abundant, richer than any spatial Sealing or spatial membrane they had encountered before. This meant that their opponents had set up extremely powerful partitions and traps underground.

This was absolutely a Wizard Level capability!

Thinking about it, this made sense. The place they were looking for was precisely the Earth Cavern Arena. That was essentially the other side’s lair, the Land of the End for this Paradise Land game. So it was perfectly normal to arrange more space traps in locations off the Right Path.

These could prevent those trapped inside from escaping, and also defend against attacks from outside.

Therefore, by breaking open the underground traps, Angel was essentially going head-to-head with the other side’s Space Mage.

Given such a tight trap layout and such dense Spatial Energy, for Angel to break through in such a short time was enough to show how profound his attainments in space were.

Kaier even felt that even if Mentor Esos were here, he probably wouldn’t be able to crack it this fast.

Kaier had already admired Angel a fair bit, and now that worshipful filter over his eyes just got even thicker...

"If you open your mouth any wider, you could stuff a bird egg in there." At this moment, Dox’s voice rang in Kaier’s ears, and he patted Kaier’s back as he said, "What are you spacing out for? Move it."

As he spoke, Dox brushed past Kaier and jumped into the hole.

Looking down, Kaier realized that Angel and Dox had already gone into the hole, and he alone was still standing stupidly outside.

"I’m coming right away!" Kaier hurriedly said.

With that, Kaier also jumped into the hole.

Calling it a "jump" was a bit much—in reality, he just stepped forward and landed on a huge pale Blue hand.

This was the Hand of Magic, controlled by Angel, functioning like an elevator to guide them down from above.

This hole was only a bit over thirty meters deep; as Transcendents, they could normally jump down without incident. However, there were still remnants of chaotic Spatial Energy clinging to the edges of the hole; if they touched them, the outcome would definitely not be pleasant.

To prevent them from brushing against this residual Energy on the way down, Angel had created the Hand of Magic to lower them like an elevator.

As the Hand of Magic descended slowly, the mud golem Maze became something of the past, and what awaited them was the finale of the Paradise Land game: the Earth Cavern Arena.

Even before they landed, Kaier could already feel the change in atmosphere.

The mood inside the mud golem Maze had still been relatively calm, but now that they had entered the range of the Earth Cavern Arena, the air began to tighten with tension.

Especially when he heard those hoarse, furious roars echoing from below—this pressing sense of urgency surged up all around, as if they had stepped into the very front line of two armies facing off.

With his nerves tightening further, Kaier had already reached the end of the hole.

When he jumped down from the palm of the Hand of Magic and looked up...

All he saw were flames blazing everywhere.

...

While Angel and the others entered the Earth Cavern Arena, elsewhere, Aex and Stop appeared at the outskirts of Paradise Land.

Seeing that the spatial Sealing outside Paradise Land remained intact, Aex let out a long breath of relief. "Good. Sharon should still be fine for the moment."

Stop snorted lightly, too lazy to speak.

Years of working together in a team had made Aex understand Stop extremely well. Even if Stop only "hmph"-ed, Aex could still grasp his meaning.

Nothing more than mocking him for being overly cautious. Sharon was a Space Wizard, personally trained by that person; her attainments in space absolutely surpassed ninety-nine percent of the Wizards in the Southern Domain.

On top of that, Sharon had scouted the place in advance and made corresponding arrangements. Once the spatial Sealing was activated, even a True Knowledge Wizard would be unable to pose a threat to Sharon inside Paradise Land.

Besides, the Birlos Family currently didn’t have any True Knowledge Wizard.

So, Sharon’s side was even safer than Stop’s side.

Aex knew this too, so he couldn’t really refute Stop; but... he still felt a vague panic welling up inside.

And his panic usually meant that something had happened to a teammate. Now it was certain Stop was fine, and for the moment Sharon’s side also seemed fine.

Then what on earth was going on?

Aex wanted to voice his thoughts, but just as he opened his mouth, a streak of light flashed across the pitch-black sky.

"They’ve caught up! And Lord Black Earl is with them." Aex’s eyes suddenly sharpened: "We can’t stay here. Let’s get inside and find Sharon first."

With that, Aex and Stop directly merged into the spatial sealing. To them, the sealing seemed to offer no obstruction at all.

And not long after they left, Black Earl, Elder Shu, and the others appeared outside Paradise Land.

"Damn it... they went in!" Gailuo glared hatefully at the spot where Aex and Stop had vanished: "Paradise Land is sealed off again, what should we do now?"

Shayina probed the spatial sealing, a trace of worry appearing on her face: "We don’t have any Space Mages among us. Breaking this sealing is going to be very difficult."

Gailuo of course knew this, but even if it was difficult, they had to try. After all... there were still Wizards of the Birlos Family inside Paradise Land.

"Night Tree No. 9 said before that Sea Eagle, Yaji, and Elder Moon are all in Paradise Land. Now those two attackers have entered it; I’m worried they’ll make a move against Elder Moon and the others."

A single Stop had already played them like a fiddle.

The later arrival, Aex, was just as bizarrely strong. Now they had Paradise Land locked down. If they really decided to attack Elder Moon and the others, the loser would definitely be Elder Moon.

So, they had to rescue them as quickly as possible!

Shayina glanced at Gailuo, her lips moving slightly, but in the end she held her tongue.

In truth, she somewhat suspected... Elder Moon.

This attack incident was a bit odd, and at this critical juncture Elder Moon had also taken Sea Eagle and Yaji away. Paradise Land clearly had been prepared in advance by the other side, so Shayina kept feeling that things were nowhere near that simple.

For all she knew, there might be an inside man among Elder Moon and the others working for those attackers.

However, suspicion was one thing; Shayina had no proof. If she spoke up now, she might be branded as someone trying to sow discord, so it was better to keep quiet.

Elder Shu was actually thinking along similar lines. But the ones he suspected were not Elder Moon, but members within Night Tree.

Yet with Black Earl standing right in front of them, Elder Shu couldn’t possibly deal with this matter now, much less air their "family scandal" in public.

So for the moment, he had to give up tracing the inside man and focus on finding a way to solve the situation at hand.

"The spatial sealing is solid, but if the energy it’s bearing exceeds a certain threshold, there’s still a chance to break it."

Elder Shu thought for a long time. Once he confirmed he couldn’t dismantle it through technique, he could only turn to brute force.

But just as he finished speaking, Black Earl opened his mouth: "This spatial sealing covers a very large area, and it’s completely integrated. The Power of Space is evenly distributed and has all reached the steady-state level. Breaking the surface from a single point won’t work; you can only push straight through. If you choose to push through, plug in the basic data and the shaping formulas will give you the required power level for that horizontal push."

He skipped the derivation and directly gave an answer: "If you want to break the sealing by force, you’ll need large-area attack capability, and the attack field must be evenly distributed and reach the peak standard of a Second Level True Knowledge Wizard. If you can meet these three points, then you can choose to push through."

Three conditions, and Elder Shu couldn’t satisfy any single one of them.

He could only look at Black Earl, seeking help.

This time Black Earl spoke plainly: "Don’t look at me. Unless my true body comes, this one Avatar alone can’t break this spatial sealing."

"Or, if you find a Space Wizard to cooperate with me, there’s a certain chance we can break the sealing. But can you find one?"

The Birlos Family contingent fell silent.

Space Wizards... were exceedingly rare.

Black Earl: "Since you can’t find a Space Wizard, then there’s nothing I can do."

At this point, a shadow actually flashed through Black Earl’s mind... Angel. He remembered that Angel had decent attainments in the Space Series, but then he quickly shook his head and dismissed the thought. Angel’s research in the Space Series was still just knowledge, not practice.

To break a spatial sealing, armchair theory wasn’t enough; Angel would at least have to reach the level of a Space Wizard. But Angel was an Illusionist; Space Series abilities were cross-system studies for him. Reaching Space Wizard standard in a short time was basically impossible.

With Black Earl at an impasse, Elder Shu and the others could only stare at one another. They were unwilling to give up on Paradise Land, and for a while everyone fell into silence.

Time was slipping away and they had no solution. Elder Shu’s heart burned with anxiety.

Just when everyone was at their wits’ end, a turning point suddenly appeared.

Yet the turning point was not that they had come up with a method, but that the spatial sealing covering all of Paradise Land suddenly began to emit a faint glow.

Next, under everyone’s gaze, the faint light slowly started to flicker.

After flickering for a few seconds, the spatial sealing lightly...

Shattered.

...

Angel and the others arrived at the Earth Cavern arena, and the first thing they saw was those surging rivers of magma, whose channels weren’t wide but illuminated the entire cavern in Red.

Moreover, there seemed to be some combustible substance floating in the air of the cavern; they could see large masses of flame gathering and churning overhead.

In the very center encircled by the magma rivers, they could vaguely make out a high platform tens of meters tall rising up.

Because of the distortion of hot air and the smoke drifting all around, Angel and the others couldn’t clearly see what was on the platform. In this environment, using Spirit Tentacles rashly would also be unwise.

But they could be sure that the hoarse, anguished roar they’d heard before was coming from that platform.

"Is there someone fighting up on the platform?" Hearing the occasional angry roars, Kaier asked in a low voice.

"No idea." Dox paused for a moment: "We’ll know once we go over and take a look... Anyway, the owner of the Divine Thought that possessed the little mole, the one I sensed, is up on that platform right now."

After speaking, Dox looked at Angel, asking with his eyes whether they should go check it out.

Angel nodded casually.

Since Dox had already decided to go, and given his inspiration, heading over shouldn’t be a problem.

However, what Angel cared about right now wasn’t the situation on the platform, but... where exactly Speedy’s Avatar was.