Chapter 370: Sky-breaker

The mineral veins were situated in a barren hill where the surrounding soil was so dry and hard that not even weeds could grow. Beneath the hill, there was a mine shaft about the height of a person, and Lin Li could feel the scalding heat coming from the opening even from far away.

From a distance, he could even see a glowing red light from the opening of the mine shaft, and there was a pile of messy discarded mining equipment next to it. Due to the extremely high heat, the miners have stopped working for a while, and most of them had already left, leaving the bold ones to stare inside the opening…

“The redhead is called Duncan, he’s the leader of my miners. He has been in charge of most of the mining of the Rosen Union.” As they walked, Kaman introduced Lin Li to the red-haired youth looking into the mine shaft. He looked to be in his twenties, and was extra eye-catching with his red hair. After the introduction, Kaman shouted from afar, “Hey Duncan, come over for a bit.”

“How come you’re here, Boss?” Duncan stopped moving when he heard Kaman’s voice from afar before he brought the two miners beside him over. “Boss, it’s really dangerous there now, you shouldn’t go too close.”

“I brought Mage Felic over to take a look…” Kaman said while looking over to the glowing mine shaft opening. “Say, Duncan, what’s going on now? Can you continue mining? Why do I feel like the temperature has increased?”

“The temperature is indeed much higher now. I went to take a look, and it’s hotter than a volcano crater at this point. If we go in, we’ll be cooked in a matter of seconds. I’m afraid this mineral vein cannot be mined anymore, Boss…” The young miner shook his head helplessly.

“You went in?” Lin Li was a little shocked. While this red-haired teen looked strong, he did not look to be well-versed in martial arts, much less be at level-10 with Combat Energy. Given the temperature now, only a Warrior of at least level-10 could go in using their Combat Energy to protect themselves, or else they would be scalded.

Only now did Duncan realize that his boss had brought a mage along, and he could not help feeling curious. Why did his boss bring a mage now? Surely he didn’t think that he could depend on a mage to mine the refined iron?

However, this was someone his boss had brought along, and even though Duncan found it strange, he answered honestly, “I went in three hours ago, when the temperature was much lower. I don’t think it’ll be easy to go in again…”

“Hm…” Lin Li nodded, and did not say more.

There was probably a Lava adamantine mineral vein hidden in this mine shaft after all, as this only happened with Lava adamantine mineral veins. When they were buried underground, they were just like any other mineral vein, but once they came into contact with the air, the fire magical element in them was released, and would start spreading faster and faster. If not mined, the fire magical element would be depleted in at most five days, and by then, the precious magical metal mineral vein would be just like any ordinary stone…

“Kaman, get someone to bring me there and have a look.”

“Mage Felic, isn’t that too dangerous?” Kaman jumped in shock. The mine shaft was already boiling hot, yet he still wanted to go in? What if something happened?

“Don’t worry.” Lin Li smiled. The Lava adamantine’s temperature was scary only to an ordinary miner; it was nothing to him as an Archmage and a Master of mining. He had a whole bunch of methods to deal with the heat; even with just a Flame Shield he would be able to guarantee his safety in the mine shaft.

Of course, if he were to bring someone else along, it’d be a bit more complicated…

“Alright, then…” Kaman hesitated, but did not continue. This was the resourceful Mage Felic, after all, and any danger Kaman was concerned with was probably nothing to him. After thinking for a bit, Kaman called Duncan over. “Duncan, bring Mage Felic down to have a look.”

“Ok.” Although Duncan still could not decipher who this young mage was, his boss had already given the word, and Duncan could not say anything more. He nodded his head before picking up his shovel as he prepared to head down to the mine shaft with the young mage.

“Duncan, hang on…” After taking a few steps forward, Kaman stopped him, and whispered quietly, “Protect Mage Felic carefully once you’re there, nothing must happen to him, or else you and I will be in big trouble, you understand me?”

“Yes…” Duncan gave Kaman a look, and although he said nothing, he was filled with suspicion. Who was this Mage Felic, and why did he make his boss so nervous? Could he be a son of an important figure?

Kaman’s miners were good indeed. They had only been mining for a couple of weeks, but they have already dug quite a bit. After Lin Li followed Duncan into the mine shaft, before them was a long slope where it shone bright red, and the temperature was scalding. Sparks were flying around the steep slope, and painted the dim mine shaft a fiery red like that of a volcano.

The roof of the cave seemed to be reinforced with wood, which made the structure of the mine shaft look unusually sturdy. After entering the mine shaft, Lin Li uttered a spell and covered himself with the light from a Flame Shield.

As the Flame Shield was released, Lin Li was immediately shielded from the scalding heat of the mine shaft; even the flying sparks seemed to feel the obstruction as they disappeared before landing on Lin Li’s body. The strange scene shocked the red-haired miner. Was this the legendary art of magic?

“It’s just magic to protect myself.” Lin Li smiled, and uttered another spell without waiting for Duncan to come back to his senses. A blue light engulfed him—it was a level-15 magic, Frost Barrier. While it could not absorb any attack of magical elements like the Flame Shield, the powerful ice magical element could still prevent Duncan from being harmed by the heat.

The slope was not too steep, and the pair walked about 50 meters before they saw a burning ball of flame. At the core of it was a fiery-red boulder, which looked to be about a meter tall. Rays of red light seemed to be caressing the stone…

“My God, what a huge piece…” Even Lin Li was shocked. This Lava adamantine was at least half a ton in weight, and from the red light pouring off it, it seemed to be of a very good quality. If it was used to forge weapons, it would be enough for at least 10 magical weapons, and each of them would be a rare masterpiece…

“Duncan, go notify the other miners and have them gather here with their equipment in five minutes.”

“Okay.”

After watching Duncan leave, Lin Li took a deep breath and clutched the Aether Staff in his hand tightly. Then, he started chanting away, and a chilling cold started filling the mine shaft as he continued…

Duncan brought everyone over in less than five minutes. As the over 40 miners entered the mine shaft with their shovels, all of them looked like they had seen a ghost. They could not believe that the boiling hot mine shaft was suddenly filled with a bone-chilling cold; there were thick layers of ice everywhere around the mine shaft, as well as icicles hanging off the cave walls. The world seemed to have turned into a winter wonderland at that moment.

“Duncan, what’s going on?” Kaman followed behind a group of miners, and his mouth still hung agape. The sight before him was so peculiar as though a bearded muscle-man had suddenly turned into a dainty beauty…

“Boss, I really don’t know…” This was Duncan’s third time replying. To be honest, he was more confused than Kaman. When he left the mine shaft, it was clearly boiling hot. How did it become like that so quickly?

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Just like that, the group of confused people continued going forward following the slope. There was no raging fire at the end of the slope, nor any strange mineral vein covered in flames. There was only icy snow and a young mage holding onto a magic staff.

“Mage Felic, what… what’s going on here?”

“Nothing much, I just sealed the place up with magic for a while. It should be fine now, but get them to mine quickly while I find a place to rest…” Lin Li was somewhat pale, and tiredness was evident in his voice. Well, he had just used five Thousand Miles of Ice in one go—even the most hardy of mages would feel it…

“Are you alright?”

“I’m fine.” Lin Li shook his head, and carried on giving instructions. “Oh, right. Ask them to be careful when they mine, be sure not to damage the outer layer of ice. Once you’re done, have them send it to me at the Tower of Dusk, and I’ll see to the rest.”

“Okay.”

He had not even been back in the Tower of Dusk for an hour before Kaman had someone send over the boulder still covered in ice.

Now, the scarily huge Lava adamantine was sitting in the basement of the Tower of Dusk. Its high temperature was gradually melting the ice encapsulating it, and Lin Li stared at it as he was stuck in a dilemma.

This huge boulder of Lava adamantine was rare indeed. Even back in the Endless World, where Lin Li had a lot of mineral veins, he had never seen such a huge amount of Lava adamantine. It was a rare magical metal, and even a portion the size of a fist held a shocking amount of fire magical element. Even adding a tiny bit of it when forging a magical weapon was enough to raise the quality of it to a whole new level. Meanwhile, the magical weapons crafted entirely from Lava adamantine held terrifying power—any of them would have sold for at least a million gold coins.

The amount of Lava adamantine Lin Li had now could be used to craft 10 magical weapons. In other words, this boulder of Lava adamantine was worth at least 10 million gold coins…

And because of that, Lin Li was stuck at a crossroad.

Lava adamantine had many uses, and using it to craft weapons was undoubtedly the most wasteful of all. For example, he could use a mageweath to extract the fire magical element from it—using this incredibly pure fire magical element, he could even replace the Legendary magical crystal of the Salamander as a new source of power for the Tower of Dusk.

Besides that, Lava adamantine powder was also a great ingredient to use when using magic. Level-18 magic like the Endless Flames would become scarily powerful with the help of Lava adamantine powder as it could prevent the bite of mana.

Anyway, this was a treasure indeed…

Lin Li pondered over it, yet he could not think of anything to do.

“Hey, Lava adamantine!” At this time, a yell of surprise could be heard from behind. Lin Li looked around, only to see Apophis. God knew when the old fellow had arrived; he was now standing behind Lin Li and looking at the huge boulder of Lava adamantine. “Hey, kid, where did you get so much Lava adamantine? Bloody hell, this must be at least half a ton…”

“Mined it, of course…” Lin Li looked at him before realizing that something was wrong. Damn it, he forgot about this old fellow—if he had known, he would have hidden the Lava adamantine better…

“Bullsh*t!” Apophis did not buy it at all. “This costs a fortune! If you can dig it just from anywhere, then why doesn’t a fortune drop on me when I walk on the streets?”

“It’s true…”

“Nonsense, you little bastard, nothing true ever comes from that mouth of yours…” Apophis scolded angrily before he started smiling deviously. “Say, kid, why don’t we make a deal?”

“What deal?” Lin Li looked at the old man’s smile, and suddenly became wary of him. He spread out his hands, and shielded the Lava adamantine behind him like a hen guarding her chicks. “Anything but this, you hear me, definitely not this!”

“Damn it, you little bastard, why are you stingy? You’re exactly like that bastard of a teacher you have. I am a Sanctuary Master, will I ask you for something without giving anything in return? Moreover, I only want a bit of it, at most the size of a fist…” The old man broke into a rage suddenly, and after complaining furiously, he sulkily said, “How about this: you give me a piece of that Lava adamantine, and I’ll give you a blueprint so that you can make good use of this stuff unlike the morons who use such precious magical metal to make weapons and armor. What an utter waste!”

“I don’t need blueprints…” Lin Li rejected the offer without even considering it as he thought, I have plenty of blueprints, and each of them is at least of a divine level, why would I need your blueprint?

“Don’t regret this, kid, I have the blueprint of the Sky-breaker. Only I have it in the whole of Anril!”

“Not even for the Sky-breaker’s blueprint…” Lin Li finished his sentence, but he found it strange. Wait… Sky-breaker? Could this old man be talking about the Sky-breaker that was more powerful than the magical crystal cannons and had blown down a Sky Castle during the war back in the Dark Ages? Damn it, this was going too far—the Sky-breaker was a closely guarded secret of the Dwarf Kingdom! Back then, during the war, six Sky Castles had been blown down by the allies, and one of them was blown down by the Dwarf Kingdom using the miracle that was the Sky-breaker.

There was no blinding magic light, nor the Wyvern Army that covered the sky and land—only a hundred Sky-breakers firing at once. Then, the purportedly infallible Sky Castle fell just like that…

However…

The skill of crafting the Sky-breaker had been lost after the war. Even the Dwarf Kingdom did not have the blueprint, so where did this old fellow get it from?

“How come you have the blueprint for the Sky-breaker?”

“Of course it’s from the dwarves…” The old man did not seem keen on telling him where he got it from, and only briefly explained, “Don’t bother about where it came from. I’m just asking whether you want to exchange for it. If you do, I’ll give you another gift…”

The old man then retrieved a ring from an inner pocket. The ring looked nothing out of the ordinary, and was made from common silver. There was no magical wave coming from it, either. Besides being a little old, it looked just like rings that cost a few silver coins sold on the street. If he did not see it for himself, Lin Li would never believe that a common silver ring would be kept so carefully by the Sanctuary Master.

“Take this ring to a dwarf named Gern, and pass him the blueprint. Tell him an old friend is asking a favor, and he will help you turn this Lava adamantine into a Sky-breaker…” After finishing, the old man did not care whether Lin Li agreed to it before shoving the ring in his hand. “I’ve held onto the blueprint for more than 1,300 years. It’s time to return it to the dwarves. You’re in luck kid, I’m taking a piece of Lava adamantine from you, but I’m doing you a huge favor…”

“Heheh…” Lin Li knew that the favor the old man was referring to was the blueprint—it was more important compared to the Sky-breaker as it was something that the Dwarf Kingdom had lost for over 1,300 years. If he brought it back to them, they would probably agree to any of his requests given their straightforward attitude.