Chapter 54: The Ascending Volcanic Dragon

Since the main character had nothing to do, the alt character sprang into action.

Dachun then instructed Elena: "I... have something to attend to and must step away for a moment. Keep an eye on things."

Elena scoffed: "I'm going to the contract space to train the ship, and I can keep an eye on things along the way."

Dachun felt somewhat helpless. What was it that made even a woman so obsessed with sailing? The immense greed for treasure! Rather than saying he was being led around by the nose by the great evil spirit, it was more accurate to say she was the one strongly driving it all...

"...Very well."

Thus, Dachun returned to the small boat at the dock to fish and idle.

Then, he switched over to his alt avatar.

He checked the system notification messages:

--System Prompt: You have acquired the skill "Weak Point Strike" through the Soul Link.

--System Prompt: Your Flame Demon Body transformation progress has reached 15%, granting you the passive ability to regenerate health within flames.

--System Prompt: You automatically idled and consumed a hallucination mushroom; hallucination value +1, health +1, stamina recovered.

--System Prompt: You have acquired Expert Module Combination Level 1 through the Soul Link special technique...

--System Prompt: You have acquired Expert Ship Piloting Level 1 through the Soul Link special technique...

...

The Soul Link is truly amazing!

However, the progress of this Flame Demon Body transformation was utterly disappointing. It had been idling from yesterday until now, a full 24 hours, while other major consortiums had already sent all their members marching towards hell. Moreover, idling for a whole day didn't raise Master-level Mining by even a single point, indicating that the grade of the ores here was simply inadequate.

Even dual-wielding intermediate pickaxes at level 10 while idling for a whole day hadn't budged at all. This made Dachun, who was used to rushing through expert and master ranks, regain his reverence for the higher levels: as long as the favorable opportunity was lacking, no amount of idling would do any good. And wasn't that favorable opportunity precisely intercepting the loot of the consortium leaders? Otherwise, how could ordinary players ever find such an opportunity?

Fortunately, he had automatically eaten dozens of mushrooms throughout the day, increasing both his health and hallucination values by several dozen points. These mushrooms truly were hard currency!

Stepping into the teleportation array, the scene shifted, and Dachun appeared inside a clanking, echoing lava crater.

--System Prompt: You have entered the Volcanic Forging Grounds.

True to its name, the facilities here were complete. He then spotted the seductive "angel" supervisor wearing long black leather boots, standing by a magma pool enclosed by giant stones.

Dachun stepped forward and respectfully greeted her: "Supervisor, I have come to resurrect two servants."

Without a word, the supervisor simply waved her hand, and the two red balls of light floating around Dachun flew into the magma pool.

Amidst the bubbling foam, two tiny, fiery-red level 10 "little angels" crawled out.

The two little ones immediately knelt and kowtowed: "Greetings, Supervisor! Greetings, Boss!"

As a Master-level miner who mined for her the entire day, could he really only resurrect two level 10s?

Yet Dachun could only force a joyful expression: "You've reached level 10!"

The supervisor said indifferently: "With this level of strength in the volcanic region, you can only mine. Now you can command them to mine in your place. All their yields belong to you, and you'll be free to do other things."

So these were basically two idling robots? Hell's brutal system... was actually quite awesome!

Sensing that the supervisor was about to discuss business, Dachun immediately ordered the two to leave: "Go mine!"

The two obediently replied: "Understood, Boss!"

In high spirits, Dachun handed over two more mushrooms as a welcome gift: "This is a reward for you both."

The two were overjoyed and swallowed them in one gulp: "Thank you, Boss! We will work hard at mining!"

With that, they hurriedly ran toward the teleportation array and vanished.

Dachun quietly awaited the supervisor's inquiry: "Do you have any instructions, Milady?"

The supervisor smiled: "Weren't you wondering how to pass the second layer of this trial? Now you can go search for clues. Moreover, this is a timed race; the faster you complete it, the better the reward."

--System Prompt: You have activated the timing for clearing the second layer of the trial. Elapsed time: 00 hours: 00 minutes: 01 second.

Holy shit, she actually smiled!

Although she didn't provide any clearance tips, Dachun knew it definitely involved finishing off the fourth giant lizard—the one that had overeaten yesterday and sunk into the magma lake; right now, it probably couldn't even move. But timing mechanics were meant for professional players; what was he even trying to accomplish with his operational awareness? It would be better to take advantage of her good mood to ask a few more questions and get to know her better.

Dachun asked: "Milady, are you interested in receiving a gift?"

The supervisor's expression sank: "Your trial score is the gift."

Dachun cautiously asked: "A good score or a bad score?"

The supervisor said sternly: "Do you have any idea how much time you're wasting?"

Very well. Knowing when to quit, Dachun walked back to the teleportation array. The scene shifted, but this time it wasn't the volcanic mining field, but the cave halfway up the volcano where he had entered earlier.

With dual-wielding iron mining pickaxes at the ready, Dachun cautiously stepped out of the cave, only to be met with the sight of earth elemental creatures—stone monsters—covering the mountains and plains.

These were the ones that had crawled out from the ground after the volcanic eruption subsided yesterday.

Fortunately, relying on his expert-level running skills to forcefully break through should be completely fine. Let's charge!

Dachun sprinted wildly down the mountain. As expected, the surrounding stone monsters began to close in from all directions, but the speed gap was too vast. Before long, Dachun was dragging a massive horde of monsters straight to the magma lake where the fourth giant lizard had sunk, activated the fire-resistant barrier of the magma core, and leaped right in.

Then, his vision turned a blurry red, and he had no idea which way to swim. This made Dachun, who had grown accustomed to Elena's radar, feel extremely disoriented.

Fortunately, his fire resistance combined with the Flame Demon Body meant he wasn't losing health, so he decided to rely on his expert-level swimming and diving mastery, slowly searching while reducing water resistance.

--System Prompt: You are swimming in viscous magma. Your swimming skill has gained proficiency!

It gave proficiency! Treating this as training skills wasn't bad at all! If he could grind it up to Master level before midnight—

Dachun suddenly felt that time was pressing and intensified his deep dive. The deeper he dove, the faster his proficiency increased!

At the same time, he pulled out his phone to record his swimming trajectory on the game screen, preventing himself from getting lost in this world of magma. It served as a makeshift replacement for a radar.

Finally, Dachun discovered a lava pit at the bottom of the lake.

Could it be hiding in here?

Nervously and quietly, Dachun swam along the cave wall until he heard it: the magma fluctuations caused by fan-like breathing sounds! Was it sleeping? That would increase the chances of success even further!

Dachun bumped into something very elastic—

--System Prompt: Warning! You have entered the territory of a newly advanced Magma Dragon.

It had evolved into a volcanic dragon in just a single day?!

The next moment, Dachun broke through the elasticity and entered an air bubble isolated from the magma. Right in the middle of the bubble lay that giant lizard, its belly bloated like a drum, sleeping on its back! In just a single day, its belly had become even more swollen and thin! Moreover, two short horns had grown out of its head—this was a dragon! Just as he had imagined yesterday: fatten it up, then kill it to drop an even higher-tier core!

Right at that moment, a loud rumble echoed from behind the dragon. Dachun jumped in fright, then noticed the air bubble trembling along with it.

Holy shit! It turned out to be bloated from too many farts; could this bubble field have been formed by its farts?! Sleeping on its back meant its belly defense was at its absolute lowest—he could win!

Excitedly, Dachun raised his dual pickaxes, activated his pet's stealth skill to turn completely transparent, and quietly crept toward its bloated belly.

Yet the dragon alertly opened its eyelids. Dachun's scalp tingled—there was nothing for it but a frantic charge!

The dragon let out a long, trembling hum!

--System Prompt: Your exceptional wisdom seems to have understood the volcanic dragon's plea for mercy!

Huh?

Having previously experienced the "understanding" of the old whale, the crystal bat, and the magic dolphin, Dachun was quite fond of this kind of thing! He immediately stopped and asked: "Are you scared?"

The dragon was also astonished, actually humming in the "angel" language that Dachun could directly understand: "Master!"

The red name instantly turned into a yellow name!

Holy shit! As a player, who could resist this word "Master"?! Even that Yirah had fallen for it; she had also been called master!

Dachun asked in shock to confirm: "You're calling me master!?"

The dragon's voice sounded incomparably sincere: "Yes, Master!"

Calm down! After all, this was a hellish creature; how could its intelligence be so naive, and how could it possibly kneel directly to a player in their teens? So this was most likely a scam. Opportunities like this don't wait—time to blow it up directly!

The dragon spoke again: "Master, I need 100 earth elemental cores to help me digest."

Awesome! I was still hesitating whether I should kill you, and you actually took the initiative to make a request!

However, Dachun felt he should take a gamble—a gamble on the supervisor's temperament! Did she really want him to quickly eliminate this dragon to achieve an infuriatingly fast score, or did she want him to bring her some unexpected surprise? A powerful dragon couldn't possibly recognize a teenage player like him as its master, but it could recognize *her* as its master and become her mount! Therefore, this was a grand gift to present to her!

Even if the deception failed and he lost, she would still be happy! And once she was happy, everything would be easy to negotiate, so he needed to look at the bigger picture.

Having made up his mind, Dachun began to pacify it: "Your master isn't me, but an even more powerful—"

What was her name again?

"—Avatar of Lady Maria! Therefore, I will help you digest, and you must also prepare yourself to follow a powerful master."

The dragon readily cooperated: "I understand."

In short, it was time to head to the surface and fight earth elementals.

Emerging from the water surface, he spotted a large cluster of earth elementals, ranging from level 10 to level 30.

To be honest, although Dachun had slaughtered a hundred miners single-handedly in the volcanic mining grounds, he had relied heavily on the massive advantage of magma swimming. Fighting on open ground without having changed into a combat class—relying solely on dual-wielding pickaxe melee attacks and the newly learned Weak Point Strike—would that even work?

Let's find a solitary level 10 earth elemental to practice on first.

Finding a relatively suitable target that wasn't entirely isolated, Dachun stood by the lake ready to jump back in at the first sign of trouble, then forcefully hurled a fairly large rock to lure it over.

Direct hit! But damage immunity! Dachun estimated that its defense was a bit too high; his current attack power might struggle slightly.

It charged over. In front of "little angel" Dachun, its bulk was like that of a giant. But at a glance, this giant's stacked legs didn't look very stable—that had to be its weak point!

The moment the clumsy stone monster raised its arm to attack, Dachun swung his pickaxe straight at its root—Weak Point Strike -74! Shattering Strike!

Crash! With destructive force, he mined away a patch of stone! The stone monster instantly lost its footing, its broken leg causing it to topple over, naturally neutralizing its attack.

Holy shit, he got it! The tool he was using was a mining pickaxe, and when facing a stone monster, the pickaxe treated it directly like a mineral vein to be mined! This probably meant that damaging it had little to do with his normal attack stats, but was instead tied to his Master-level Mining skill!