Chapter 32: The Promotion of the Flame Demon

The giant lizard charged forward like a burning, miniature vehicle, its speed staggering!

Dachun turned and ran, his own speed even more astonishing—right, he was an expert-level runner with Level 10 Novice Marathon and 300 points of stamina!

Soon, Dachun had put some distance between them, and his mind cleared. One thing was certain: this boss had emerged from the river to gnaw on the fallen meteorites because they contained edible minerals. Could he eat them? He had to try!

Driven by this thought, he relied on his speed advantage to double back and plunder the ore.

Dachun circled back to the meteorite and discovered that the beast had gnawed it open to reveal a core that looked like a golden yolk!

Wielding his pickaxes in both hands, Dachun struck, effortlessly prying out two large chunks.

—System Prompt: Congratulations! Your Master-level Mining skill has successfully excavated "Abyssal Sulfur." Proficiency +10.

—Abyssal Sulfur: An unknown mineral that appears to possess abundant energy.

It even granted Master-level proficiency! And since it was in powder form, he decided to taste it first.

—System Prompt: You are not a creature of the Abyss; you cannot consume this.

Damn it, what kind of trial is this?! Could the two little ones have eaten it directly? But they were already dead!

Seeing the giant lizard about to catch up, Dachun hardened his heart: If I can't eat it, you won't either!

He hurriedly mined two more large chunks and turned to run.

Perhaps the lizard was heartbroken over its food being stolen, but this time, it stopped chasing and buried its head back into the stone to gnaw.

That wouldn't do!

Dachun picked up a rock. "Advanced Throwing!" He hurled it—*thwack!* It hit the lizard square in the face. Sparks flew, but the result was "Damage Immunity!"

His defense wasn't broken, and the lizard ignored him completely.

The rock wasn't big enough!

Dachun found a soccer-sized stone, lifted it, and smashed it down with all his might. *Thwack!* "Throwing Damage -13!"

However, a stray spark drifted far enough to land on Dachun: "Flame Rebound -10!"

Damn! This was impossible to fight in melee!

The lizard finally grew angry, and Dachun turned and ran. He began to summarize the damage from that last strike. Although it was low, his character's base attack was zero! Without any professional combat skills, and given the lizard's flame-spitting ability, Throwing was his only viable skill. Plus, thanks to his high carrying capacity, he could throw heavy objects far, and he could use his pickaxe to mine ammunition anywhere—it was extremely cost-effective. He had to level this skill up!

Dachun circled back to the meteorite again, mining two more pick-strikes, but this time, only one chunk came out before it was gone.

Was it finished? The meteorite had no more sulfur; it couldn't withstand many strikes from a Master-level miner.

The lizard ran back and gnawed at the stone a few more times, while Dachun stayed at a distance to recover his stamina.

Once the lizard realized there was truly no ore left, it began chasing Dachun again, showing no signs of stopping.

Is it trying to drain my stamina? Dachun felt a flicker of panic. If the boss ran out of stamina, it could rest or return to the river, and he couldn't do anything about it. But if he ran out of stamina, every mushroom he ate was one less he had!

He had to lighten his load. He couldn't throw away the sulfur, so he had to ditch his four pickaxes—wait.

At the thought of throwing his pickaxes, an idea struck him. He whipped around and threw a pickaxe at the lizard. It whistled as it spun through the air—*thwack!* The point sank into the beast's forehead: "-46!"

—System Prompt: Congratulations! Your exceptional wisdom has allowed your Module Combination skill to successfully integrate with Master-level Pickaxe Mastery and Advanced Throwing. Advanced Throwing has upgraded to Level 2! Achievement unlocked: Carrying Capacity +1, Stamina +1, Accuracy +1%.

Holy cow, this damage far exceeded throwing rocks!

As a Master Miner, his best strategy was to use his two highest-level skills: throwing pickaxes! He had four pickaxes with enough durability; he could throw a round, circle back to pick them up, and throw them again—he could absolutely dominate!

But the next moment, the giant lizard shook its head, and a string of numbers popped up: "Self-Recovery +10, +10, +10."

It had regained full health in an instant!

Dachun felt a sense of despair. He didn't mind a boss with high HP, but he hated healing bosses! Was this even a trial if there was no chance of winning? Or was it better to just grind skills and accept his fate if he died?

While wandering helplessly, the whistling red light of a falling meteorite appeared above him. Dachun instinctively dodged away—wait!

Dachun suddenly realized: If I deliberately stand at the impact point of a falling rock, wait for the lizard to chase me, or simply use the sulfur as bait and run away just as it arrives, the rock would smash right into the lizard—could he kill it in one blow?

Theoretically possible! But the operational difficulty was extremely high, and it required the luck of having a large enough rock fall in the right spot—no, given how these rocks were maliciously targeting him, the chances were probably quite high!

Before that, he would treat it as skill practice. No rush!

With his strategy clear, Dachun's confidence soared. He continued to hurl pickaxes while carefully observing the patterns of the falling shadows...

...

Dachun and the lizard circled each other for half an hour. Both Advanced Throwing and Intermediate Module Combination had been leveled up to 4, and he had essentially grasped the patterns of the falling rocks. For a young man like Dachun, performing such high-intensity, error-free operations for so long was exhausting, but he had to persevere!

The massive rock he had been waiting for finally appeared—now was the chance!

Dachun gauged the impact zone, stopped, and dropped the sulfur.

Seeing the lizard and the giant rock closing in at the same time, Dachun ate a mushroom, activated his expert-level speed, and fled!

*BOOM!!* With a deafening roar, a ball of light emerged from the dissipating dust and smoke.

—System Prompt: Congratulations! You have killed the hidden boss, Lava Giant Lizard. You have leveled up to 10. Attack +9, HP +9, Carrying Capacity +9, Stamina +9. You have obtained the loot: "Lava Earthfire Core."

Lava Earthfire Core: Artifact-grade material, a promotion item for Flame Demons. When activated, it creates a flame barrier that absorbs fire damage and stores it as fire energy, while transforming the user's physique into that of a Flame Demon. Current fire energy: 100 points. 1 point maintains the barrier for 1 second.

—System Prompt: Congratulations! Your Marathon skill has successfully upgraded to Intermediate Level 1. Carrying Capacity +1, Stamina +1.

...

He won!

The feeling of triumph after such a grueling struggle was incredibly satisfying! Nine levels in one go—the experience from this boss was far greater than that of the Dog King and Fish King combined, and he had even broken through to Intermediate Marathon!

He checked his only trophy, and it all made sense! This trial was actually meant to transform him into a Flame Demon. The mainstream demon types were Flame Demons and Blood Demons. Niche types included Shadow Demons, Corpse Demons, Ice Demons, Poison Demons, and Nightmares.

In reality, compared to the common mainstream, niche demons were like hidden races; their individual strength was more unique, otherwise they would have been driven to extinction by the mainstream long ago.

Regardless, a Flame Demon it was. The benefit of a mainstream race was having large influence and vast resources, which would help him level up quickly—and speed was exactly what his small account needed.

Dachun tried to activate the core, and a stream of red energy enveloped his body.

—System Prompt: Flame Barrier deployed. Fire resistance increased by 30%, and 30 points of fire damage absorbed. Current fire energy: 99 points.

Absorbing 30 points! Even the Scavenger only provided 10 points of toxin immunity!

Ordinary fire damage was usually a continuous multi-stage attack, so absorbing 30 points was quite impressive. As for explosive fire damage, which was a massive one-time blow, 30 points wouldn't be enough, but it was still a start.

Watching the fire energy tick down like a timer, Dachun immediately dipped one foot into the lava river. A series of "Absorb 30" notifications popped up—he didn't lose a single drop of HP! Meanwhile, the fire energy stopped depleting and quickly returned to 100!

This was truly worthy of artifact status! Was this the rhythm for training swimming in a lava river? Of course, it likely had to do with his current spirit-body constitution; if he were in a normal physical body, no artifact would let him bathe in lava.

Dachun tried stepping in with both feet! He waded deeper until the lava reached his knees, but at this depth, the fire energy began to drain.

Dachun immediately retreated, and the fire energy stopped draining and began to replenish.

Understood! The barrier wasn't strong enough for free-roaming swimming yet. Once he submerged too much of his body, the barrier drained faster than it could replenish.

But it didn't affect his swimming plan; he could practice swimming for dozens of seconds and then immediately return to the shore to recharge.

Dachun tried it immediately. Sure enough, his swimming proficiency skyrocketed, but his stamina drain increased massively. The viscosity of the lava was unlike any ordinary water, and the few mushrooms he had wouldn't last long.

Not yet; it wasn't time to focus on swimming. But he could practice foot-soaking. By keeping his feet submerged up to his knees, he could ensure the core didn't drain while seeing how it modified his body.

After about five minutes, it finally happened—System Prompt: Your feet have been modified by the Lava Earthfire; base fire resistance +0.1%.

Damn! 0.1% after five minutes? His hunger wouldn't hold up! At this rate, he would need to find a lava mine and just go AFK.

Safe mining zones like that would only exist inside volcanic caves, so the ultimate goal of this trial zone was to find the cave mining area—he should head up the mountain!

But there was another possibility: would a map this large only have one boss? If he killed a few more similar bosses and collected more cores, perhaps his cultivation speed would multiply? Most importantly, he had spent precious time figuring out the falling rock patterns; it would be a shame to only use them once.

Just as he thought this, a whistling roar echoed through the sky, and a giant rock trailing a yellow tail flew toward the other side of the mountain.

Yellow meant sulfur, and if there was a boss, the sulfur would surely attract it! His mind was made up: he was going to find that rock.