After making sure Bleia was appeased, Leon was finally able to finish preparing for the uing mission.
In order to better protect his life, Leon had nearly used up all his resources adding all kinds of items to his inventory, each capable of helping him handle different situations.
The ’Screaming Tree Branch’ that he had received when trading with Pedro was one of them.
The Screaming Tree Branch was a unique item produced by nature. If one cut a branch from it and tied it to their skin, it would let out a shrill scream when the holder was struck by a curse. The one Pedro traded with Leon could still be used three times, and was vital for the mission.
Before leaving the Tower, he had to prepare quite a lot of simr items.
Blood coagting medicinal paste, which made wounds heal more quickly; Purple Wistaria, which could reattach an amputated limb; basic antidotes formon poisons; Absinthe Powder, which could repel insects and snakes in the wild; a talisman that could detect spiritual creatures...
Being away from the tower, besides forgetting all those strange and unpredictable demons, beasts, and monsters, the most troubling of all were other Apprentice Mages. who possessed all sorts of fanciful abilities. The more thoroughly he prepared, the more likely he could save his own life at a critical juncture. Therefore, during the preparation of these items, Leon tried his best to take into ount all possible situations so as to be ready for anything.
Most importantly, as the mission was taking ce underground, Leon purposely studied the information rted to the Underground Cave. So he had gained a basic understanding of the location.
To Leon’s surprise, the underground of the Mage Maind was not entirely hard rock and soil, but included vastworks of underground caverns and karst caves, and twisting tunnels that connecting them together. In this underground world, one could find glowing rocks, crystals, and phosphorescent mosses, lichens and fungi. Compared to the world above, strange nts were verymon in this ce. Without using any magical methods, it would be impossible to identify which of them were poisonous and which were edible.
However, these mutated nts and creatures weren’t the most frightening things in this underground world, but the countless monstrous, evil, dark creatures and Fallen Mages who had separated themselves from the path of official Mages.
Most of these Fallen Mages hadmitted serious crimes against the Mage Maind. In order to escape being hunted down by Mage Associations, they were forced to hide in the underground, choosing to live among all those ugly and twisted creatures. Some said that these Fallen Mages had actually built a small city for themselves. It was awless ce where evil ran rampant, a true city of crime.
As the underground world had aplicated terrain and countless tunnels, although the major Mage Associations had organized numerous clean-up operations, never once had they been able topletely wipe out these dark Mages. Thus allowing these criminals to grow stronger. By now, this underground city of sin had several hundred official Mages, and were considered an abnormal branch of official Mages: the Fallen Mages.
The Underground Cave, where Leon going to investigate, was just one of the entrances to the underground world, of which there were dozens. Although an Mage Tower had been built there, and was guarded by an official Mage, they still couldn’t stop those Fallen Mages from trying to sneak through this cave with all kind of methods.
With the abilities of Apprentice Mages, such as Leon, there was no way they could fight with those Fallen Mages. Thus, they were only required to investigate the distribution of demon creatures within ten miles of the surface. Also, they needed to report if they found any traces of Fallen Mages.
The first mission was easy, but the second one would bring them great danger. If they actually ran into Fallen Mages during their investigation trip, even those Pseudo-Mages would find it hard to escape.
Therefore, knowing he might face such a situation, Leon had to specifically prepare some unique items.
Since the ce was filled with rough, twisting tunnels and caverns, any creature from the surface world would find it hard to see things in the dark. So, the first thing Leon had to solve was how to maintain his vision when traveling underground.
In order to solve this problem, there were two solutions.
n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om
The first solution was to purchase some crafted items which came with the effect of Low-light Vision. Of course, it would be better if it carried the function of Dark Vision. But taking his finances into consideration, Leon had no choice but to lower his expectations.
Low-light Vision allowed the bearer to maintain normal vision in a dusky environment, and Dark Vision was an enhanced version of it, allowing the bearer to have a perfect vision, even in total darkness.
The second solution was to imnt an ’Eye of Void’ or ’Thousand Eyes Bug’ in his body.
Using some techniques from biological modification, recing one of his eye with an ’Eye of Void’, which was an eyeball modified with a magical spell. With that, he would possess the ability to see invisible objects and vision in total darkness. But as this method involved biological modification, the purity of his bloodline risk being contaminated.
As for thetter, he had to swallow a ’Thousand Eyes Bug’. After that, the bug would live in his body, and apound eye would grow on his forehead. After the Thousand Eyes Bug integrated with a body, it would form a symbiotic rtion with the host and thus the host would gain its special vision: Infrared Senses.
This parasitic method did bring an amazing effect, but, at the same time, it came with some irritating side effects. Every day, the host had to consume mothrvae, which was the favorite food of the Thousand Eyes Bug. Without it, from time to time, the parasite bug would feed on the host’s blood essence and flesh. ording to the description in the book, thoservae looked nearly identical to silkworm in his past life, which made Leon nearly thrown up when reading about it.
After taking all situations into consideration, Leon felt his priority would be on those supplementary crafted items. If he really couldn’t find anything, then he would have to force himself to use the Thousand Eyes Bug.
After taking care of his vision problem, Leon started to ponder about the issue of mobility.
That ce was underground, fully surrounded by wet soil and hard rock. Any intense fights could cause a devastating copse. How was he going to rescue himself if he was trapped in a pocket cavern?
Leon’s mind was deeply troubled by this question. However, the Chip gave him the answer. The y Golem!
Leon’s elemental affinity was Fire Elementium, but the y Golems he owned now both had an affinity for Earth Elementium, and all Earth creatures were experts in traveling underground. With help from the y Golems, there shouldn’t be any earthen ce that could trap Leon.
But after all, this supposed to work theoretically. In order to get first-hand information, he had to test it out himself. Therefore, after meeting with Danny and telling him he was looking for a Low-light Vision talisman, Leon once again snuck out from the Tower.
To be honest, after thepulsory mission was announced, most of the Apprentice Mages were busy preparing. Hence, the inspection mission of the tower had temporarily been halted. With that, Leon didn’t have to worry that someone would disturb his practice.
Following the familiar path that led to the outer perimeter of the swampy area, Leon found himself a t field, nning to practice the offensive model he envisioned. The reason he chose this pace was because Sinbad, the leader of Ghost Nannies, had been killed. Without their leader, and with all the recent deaths, no Ghost Nannies woulde and disturb him.
He casually threw out the two y Golem summoning cores. When they touched the ground, two totally different looking y Golems immediately appeared in front of Leon. The core obtained from Sinbad summoned a human-shaped golem that was nearly two meters tall, and the newly crafted Giant Alligator King core actually brought forth an alligator shaped golem. Aside from being smaller than the real Giant Alligator King, they looked nearly identical.
Leon narrowed his eyes and pondered on this for a brief moment.
Both cores were extracted from demons heads, so it wasn’t surprising that they contained part of the demon’s soul. So, when the summoning core gathered Earth Elementium and formed a body, the conscious of the former demon, before they were killed, decided the final shape of their body after being crafted into a golem.
Of course, as this body was formed with Earth Elementium, as long as Leon gave a precise order through the Mind Control Imprint System, the golems could still change into any shape Leon wanted, by adjusting their distribution of Earth Elementium. But this process would consume a certain amount of their energy reserve.
Staring at his two subordinate golems, standing side by side in front of him, Leon couldn’t control the excitement growing in his mind. Three days ago, he was still a lone wolf that no one seemed to care about, but now he hadpleted the first steps of building a loyal army of golems. Although the number of his subordinate was still small, he still took heart in his progress.
The Chip had gathered statistics on this new golem, so Leon focused his attention on the data.
As expected, as the Giant Alligator King was way stronger than Sinbad, as the attributes of the y Alligator Golem totally surpassed his first y Golem, excluding Agility. Also, all its fighting skills were perfectly matched with Leon’s abilities. At a nce, it looked like it was perfect for melee battles.
But Leon didn’t bring them out to show off their muscles, as he wanted to practice the firstbat tactics he had envisioned in his mind.
Taking a brief moment to calm his mind, Leon howled, giving a battlemand to both golems.
"My golems! Use your braveness and fearless to open up the path to victory! Now, follow mymand! Combine!"
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