Chapter 388: Dragon’s Roar

Thirty Wildfire Foxes roamed the slopes of the volcano, in five separate packs.

After wiping out the first pack, Qin Ruo had learned a new trick from the Wildfire Foxes: attacking pockets of lava with a flurry of Darkfrost Stings, he was able to create new lava streams of his own. With that done, he instructed Poochie to draw more Wildfire Foxes over, and then toss them into the soup.

The lava allowed them to make short work of the Wildfire Foxes!

Having easily completed the second task, Qin Ruo wondered if he could keep repeating the same technique on the rest of the monsters somehow. He looked up through the endless black smoke, wondering if he would be able to ascend to the volcano’s peak just by drowning everything in lava like this.

But when he encountered the next foe—the Lava Giants—he finally understood that it could not keep being so simple.

The Lava Giant was an entirely different kind of creature from the Flametongue Toads and Wildfire Foxes from before. Not your typical beast of flesh-and-blood, they seemed to be made up entirely of living fire and rock, Elemental Creatures spawned from the volcano itself.

Their most notable abilities were being able to wade through the scorching volcanic lava and, furthermore, being able to control it.

Even the absolute destructive power of the lava was nothing at all to the Lava Giant. Qin Ruo learned this during his journey towards the peak, when he just happened to pass by a small pool of lava, from which a couple of Lava Giants suddenly emerged!

***

“Oh, hell!” Qin Ruo leaped in shock, realizing his wishful plans were not to be.

The Lava Giants that were rising out of the broiling lava were gargantuan in size. Just the visible upper half of their bodies alone already exceeded four meters in height. They were solid red and seemed to be made of stone, with sharp corners and angular edges, and piercing scarlet light winking and roiling from within their translucent forms.

Leaving the warm hearth of their birthplace, the Lava Giants nearest to Qin Ruo scooped out clumps of liquid lava half a meter across. As Qin Ruo watched in horror, they hurled these at him, striking his Frostbarrier!

Wham! Wham! Wham!

These attacks from the Level 58 monsters scored direct hits against Qin Ruo, not that he would have any chance of dodging such high-speed missiles suddenly flying at him from long range. Instead, he stood his ground and bet on his Frostbarrier, waiting to get a taste of what kind of damage a Level 58 monster could do.

Qin Ruo wasn’t without his own legs to stand on.

With all his equipment, any incoming Fire damage would be lessened by as much as 25%, and this was in addition to his fully Mastered Frostbarrier cutting all Magic Damage down by 15%.

With incoming Magic Damage being reduced by 40%, and his dual defenses providing a whopping 184 Magic Resistance, Qin Ruo basically need not pay heed to any fire-elemental magic attacks from anything beneath Tier 6, especially if it was not even a Boss.

However, the sheer destructive might wielded by the Lava Giants had Qin Ruo’s hair standing on end.

The slew of magma missiles hurled by the lumbering Lava Giants tore down his Darkfrost Shield. His Frostbarrier buckled dangerously, on the verge of collapse, with the Defense dropping rapidly, fifty points at a time!

“No way!” Faced with this withering onslaught, Qin Ruo fled from the attack range of the Giants, heart racing. For goodness’ sake, this Tier 5 monster was no laughing matter!

That was a solid two hundred damage!

So the Lava Giants had an attack that could penetrate his basic Magic Resistance… Damn! Cursing as he continued to run, Qin Ruo hurried to cast another Darkfrost Shield as though his life depended on it.

There were fifteen Lava Giants in all, and now that they’d found him, they weren’t eager to let him go. Holding a massive blob of lava at the ready in each hand, they clambered ashore and gave pursuit with long, loping strides.

Although not as quick as the Wildfire Foxes had been, they were certainly a lot faster than an Aquamancer like Qin Ruo, and caught up within moments.

Qin Ruo was still working on his Darkfrost Shield—the situation was dire!

In a crisis like this, who else could save him but Poochie?

The hulking Lava Giants seemed confounded by the appearance of diminutive Poochie, and paid it no heed. When the Lava Giant at the head of the group suddenly got knocked away, as though hit head-on by a speeding train, it was already too late for them.

Bang!

The Lava Giant crashed into two others following close behind. Tangled together, they stumbled about for a moment, before all three of them toppled over in a heap. This caused the entire troop of Giants to have to halt for a while.

This momentary pause was the opening Poochie needed!

Shadow Form! Shadow Dash!

Swift as lightning, Poochie bounded into the midst of the towering Giants, using its unstoppable physical attack to bring down the clumsy leviathans. In this way, it caused so much chaos and pandemonium that the Lava Giants were unable to continue their pursuit of Qin Ruo, thus buying him precious time to cast his spells.

***

At last, the Darkfrost Shield was back up.

Having restored that essential element of his defense, Qin Ruo felt a little of his courage returning to him, and decided not to waste any more time renewing his Barrier, despite it being down by two hundred Guard. Watching Poochie knock the fifteen Lava Giants about, he boldly began casting a Lycan Barrage.

The unusual nature of the Lava Giants made them tough opponents. However, it also suggested a fatal flaw.

Born from the molten magma itself, the Lava Giants had probably never encountered any water at all. Therefore, when the icy Lycan Barrage slammed into them, they immediately let loose an earth-shaking howl of pain!

Target hit: Dealt 2,102 damage to Lava Giant!

Target hit: Dealt 2,384 damage to Lava Giant!

Target hit: Dealt 2,401 damage to Lava Giant!

At first, Qin Ruo was taken aback by this, but then a grin of delight spread across his face.

Haha! The Lava Giants were just like Snow Giants, with not a shred of Magic Resistance against pure Aqua Magic! These damned Lava Giants, with their natural ability to bypass their target’s Resistance when attacking… but it was far worse to have a weakness like this!

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One complete Lycan Barrage, and a Level-58 Lava Giant was instantly slain!

Another Lycan Barrage was swiftly prepared, and then released!

Half a minute later…

Lava Giants slain! You have completed the third task!

***

With all the surprises of the previous three tasks, Qin Ruo no longer dared to take anything for granted. On high alert like never before, he swore to give it his all when he went up against the Tier 6 Fire Trolls!

Forging ahead with grim determination, when they did encounter the Level 62 Fire Trolls, it proved a one-sided battle—with Qin Ruo victorious.

(Translator’s Note: Yes, that was the entire narration of the battle with the Fire Trolls. Nothing’s missing.)

Looting the bodies of the Trolls, he found a Tier 6 Pyro-Terra Dual-Attribute Mana Core. Qin Ruo sucked in a long breath.

Now there was just one final task remaining: to locate the Volcanic Mushroom and harvest it, so that he could finally leave this infernal hellscape.

“Phew!” Qin Ruo exhaled. Now that he was so close to the end, it was making him really nervous!

The true battle had yet to begin!

What came next would decide whether or not he’d actually make it to the next tier.

There was no telling what manner of fearsome Boss he’d find standing guard over the Volcanic Mushroom, once he reached the volcano’s summit.

He quickly took stock of his remaining Scrolls and Potions, and spent a few moments restoring Poochie and himself to full HP and MP. Only then did he resume his cautious advance towards the vast caldera at the peak.

Looking across the distance, the caldera seemed to be hundreds of meters across, spewing thick black smoke constantly. Dark clouds hung against a reddened sky, creating a foreboding atmosphere of gloom and desolation.

***

The closer Qin Ruo got to the summit, the stronger his unease grew. On the other hand, the higher he climbed, the less oppressive the heat became, and it was no longer as suffocating as earlier.

Qin Ruo decided that the former was just a matter of his nerves getting the better of him; the latter was likely caused by his increasing distance from the geothermal core, combined with volcanic activity and its effect on the air around the peak, producing an overall drop in local temperature.

The truth was that it had been steadily getting colder ever since he’d emerged from underground.

Deep in the belly of the volcano, he had faced not only those puny Flametongue Toads, but also adverse conditions which had rendered his magic all but useless. That had been when he was the most vulnerable!

After coming outside and encountering the Wildfire Foxes, he had been able to make some use of his magic.

Then there were those Lava Giants!

As the monsters grew stronger, the environment became less punishing as well, and Qin Ruo felt as though his full power was gradually being unsealed.

When it had come time to do battle with those Fire Trolls, his casting speed had almost returned to normal!

Now was the moment!

Upon his arrival at the summit, he saw the stone caldera, hundreds of meters wide, with broad ribbons of heat streaming upwards. Although these were still high-temperature conditions, compared to what it had been like further down the mountainside, this was much more manageable. Once in a while, he could even feel a slight breeze, cool and pleasant.

Elated, Qin Ruo held out his left hand experimentally. “Freeze!”

Water condensed rapidly out of the surrounding air, gathering into a tight mass over his palm, compressing and forming into a dense ball of Water Magic!

Two seconds!

At last, a hint of a smile began to dawn behind Qin Ruo’s stern expression.

“Freeze!” he whispered, and the Compressed Aqua Bullet in his palm promptly began to solidify.

A wave of cold air washed away the sweltering heat, and as Qin Ruo continued to maintain the spell, it radiated a constant cooling zone that kept the pervasive heat currents at bay. It felt great—as though winter had suddenly arrived!

The suffocating heat dispelled by this magical source of wintry chill, Poochie stood up a little straighter upon his shoulder, no longer gasping for air like before. The spark returned to its faded eyes, and every few moments it would chirp jubilantly.

“Happy now?” Qin Ruo turned and smiled at Poochie as he brushed aside the bushy tail that curled about his neck.

Cheep, cheep!

Nodding eagerly, it clenched its fists in anticipation, and waved them about.

“Alright. You better do your best later. If I make it through my Advancement Quest, you can have a day off… and I’ll feed you pine nuts all day.” Suddenly reminded of how Snowleaf would feed snacks to it, he was inspired to offer a further incentive.

Qin Ruo felt the claws tighten on his shoulder, and Poochie began squeaking urgently in the direction of the volcanic caldera.

“Hmm?” Through his link with Poochie, he realized this was a warning signal!

The mirth departed, Qin Ruo turned and fled from the caldera.

He had barely made it thirty meters when something burst out from the vast mouth of the volcano and soared upwards through the roiling black smoke.

The roar of a dragon echoed through the heavens!