Chapter 175: 175

Blood will never betray you, and it is also useful for stabbing someone in the back.

-Dragon of Destruction

Meanwhile, the Colossus of the Blazing Cities was bathing in lava. Strangely, the searing-hot lava helped him cool his head. When he finished his bath and slowly stood up, however, he bumped into a tall mountain and destroyed it.

A woman’s voice suddenly called out, “My king, please be careful when you move around. The mountains will collapse if you are careless.”

The Colossus’ forehead creased as he said, “Don’t call me your king.”

“All of the titans regard you as their king,” his attendant said.

“The real king resides in the magic tower,” the Colossus said.

“Then what are you?” the attendant asked.

“I’m just a blacksmith, as I’ve always been,” the Colossus replied. He then looked down at his attendant and said, “Bring me my tools.”

“Will you start hammering?” the attendant asked, and the Colossus nodded. The attendant smiled and brought a gigantic hammer over.

The Colossus looked at the old hammer as if it were a slab of gold, then said, “I’ll need a stronger fire to forge a proper civilization.”

Then, he rolled up his sleeves and gripped the gigantic hammer tightly in one hand.

Clang!

The entirety of the Blazing Cities shook as the Colossus struck his anvil with the hammer.

***

Stories told of an ancient place known as the Blazing Civilization underground, but no one had ever been able to prove its existence in the history of the continent. Some brave explorers had risked their lives and ventured into the depths, but they had never been able to find any traces of that civilization. All they had achieved was to lose their lives to the countless monsters lurking in the darkness.

That was how the Blazing Civilization had been shrouded in a veil of mystery…

…until recently, at least.

“Kyaaaahk!” 

“I have to survive! I have to survive! I have to survive no matter what! I have to survive!”

“I can’t die without seeing the sunlight again, no matter how messed up the world might be!”

The jewel Kang Yoon-Soo had destroyed had been responsible for keeping the entire mine intact, suspending it in midair above a gaping void. It was the catalyst that had kept the mine in place, and a precious treasure that should never have been damaged. Of course, that had not stopped Kang Yoon-Soo from destroying it.

The jewel mine shook uncontrollably as it crashed down. The gems on its walls popped out one by one, and the party members bounced all over the place.

“Humans…! Get away…! It’s too…! Cramped…!”

“Aaaaak! You corpse bastards! Get away from me! You’ll squeeze me to death!”

“Don’t call us corpses!” Kalriven shouted, trying to maintain its balance by stabbing its sword into the ceiling of the mine.

“I am so dizzy…!” Iris cried.

“Hold on tight, unni!” Shaneth shouted while hugging Iris tightly.

“Aaaaah! Damn it!” Henrick cursed loudly while using his mana threads to balance himself, but he ended up in a strange position because the mana threads tangled

Quishow rolled around in the glass bottle while screaming at the top of its lungs, “Bad human! You’re the worst human ever! I’ll kill you! Quishow will do anything to kill this crazy human!”

“I don’t want to die,” Kang Yoon-Soo replied while jumping around to minimize any damage from the fall.

The jewel mine fell a hundred floors before stopping. After bouncing around the entire time, the party members finally regained their consciousness.

“Euuuuh…”

“I’m about to die from dizziness…”

“I survived! It’s a miracle!”

The mine had turned upside down during the fall. Its ceiling was on the bottom, while its floor was on top. However, the calm only lasted for a moment.

“Huh? It kinda feels hot all of sudden…” Henrick muttered.

Heat suddenly started to emanate from beneath their feet, and bright red lava started to flood into the jewel mine.

“Euuuaak!”

“It’s lava!”

The lava flooded through the mine and devoured everything it touched. Countless gems were devoured by the lava, and the men could barely themselves back from jumping in while shouting.

“No! Damn it! My jewels!”

“Noooo! Those were all worth so much!”

Henrick finally managed to untie his mana threads, jumping to his feet mere moments before being swallowed up by the lava. He shouted, “You buffoons! Do you want to melt together with the jewels?”

The men gritted their teeth and began running as quickly as they could. Kang Yoon-Soo led the group, navigating perfectly through the maze-like interior of the mine. The party soon reached the exit, and they all jumped onto a large rock platform that floated on the lava.

Psssshhh…!

The priceless jewel mine slowly melted into the lava.

After the men let out a sigh of relief, they glared at Kang Yoon-Soo. They protested, “What the hell did you do? You almost killed us all!”

“We reached the place faster,” Kang Yoon-Soo replied.

“What?” the men exclaimed in confusion.

“This is our destination,” Kang Yoon-Soo explained.

Only then did the men examine their surroundings. They were surrounded by bright-red lava, and the large, dark rock they were standing on was the only platform they could stay on to avoid sinking into it. The ceiling above them was a solid expanse of dark rock, except for the hole they had fallen from.

Henrick laughed in disbelief and asked, “How far did we fall? I can’t believe we’re in a sea of lava…”

“It is too hot,” Iris said while wiping her sweat.

Shaneth hurriedly stopped Iris from taking her top off, saying, “You might get burned if you take your clothes off in a place like this.”

“That’s right! We don’t have a place to cool our heads here!” Swemer added.

Iris teared up and replied, “But it is too hot here…”

The sea of lava emitted extreme heat. The party felt as if the soles of their shoes were about to catch on fire just by standing there, and they felt prickly heat on their feet whenever they took a step.

The men were already drenched in sweat as they talked among themselves.

“Alright, so what he’s saying is that the Dragon of Destruction’s lair is around here somewhere, right?”

“A sea of lava… I’m looking forward to seeing what kind of monsters inhabit this area.”

“Be careful. You’ll fall into the lava and die if you make one wrong move.”

“The heat is also a problem. I’m sweating so much that it’s blocking my view.”

Kang Yoon-Soo took out a dozen fiery feathers from his backpack. They were the feathers he had plucked from the phoenix previously, which had healing abilities and increased the fire resistance of their user. Surprisingly, just having a phoenix feather attached to their clothing significantly mitigated the heat.

“Hooo, this feather is pretty amazing.”

“Who knew phoenix features had this effect? I feel much more comfortable now.”

“You might seem reckless and crazy, but you’re pretty dependable when the situation arises. I’d really be grateful if you could avoid doing the kind of thing you just did, though…”

Kalriven looked at Kang Yoon-Soo and said, “We undead are innately weak against fire. However, we are able to freely move about in this sea of lava due to the curse my lord has placed on us.”

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The undead had received the Blacksmith of Fire’s curse after melting the ogre’s equipment in the lava. Of course, that did not protect them from fire-attribute attacks, but it removed the penalty they received from heat.

The only one among the party members who was unaffected by the heat was none other than Shaneth. She actively moved around the area and asked, “Shall we scout around for a while?”

“Hold on. There’s something coming from that side,” Henrick said, squinting.

A group of moving dots appeared in the distance. Eventually, they grew large enough that the party could identify them as creatures of some sort.

Iris' eyes opened wide in surprise and she asked, “What are those?”

“We have no idea…” the men replied.

The approaching creatures were all of different sizes and shapes, and their skin looked rough as well. They walked on two legs and had strange tattoos engraved on them. However, the thing that stood out the most was their horns, which were longer and thicker than deer antlers; they looked quite sharp, as well.

The horned creatures seemed to begin discussing something among themselves after spotting the party.

“Do you have any idea what they are?” Shaneth asked.

“Who knows? It’s pretty hard to tell whether they’re people or monsters based on their appearance alone,” Henrick replied.

“They could be gentle and kind like the trolls in the Desert of Death despite their appearance,” Shaneth said.

“They were an anomaly,” Henrick replied.

The men were also engaged in discussion.

“Let’s try attacking them. Then, we might see what they are.”

“Let’s just kill them. It’ll be a problem if they stab us in the back later.”

“Yeah, they’ll show their true colors if we hit them first.”

The conclusion the men reached after their long discussion was to beat the creatures up.

It was then that one of the horned creatures shouted loudly, “Who are you people?!”

Henrick cupped his hands in front of his mouth and shouted in response, “No, who are you?!”

“We’re scouts from the Blazing Cities! We heard that the ceiling was punctured, so we came to check it out!” the creature shouted back.

The party members tilted their heads in confusion.

“Blazing Cities?”

“What the hell is that?”

“How can there be cities this deep underground?”

The two groups merely looked at each other for a while. Then, someone shouted from the other side, “It seems we’re too wary of each other, and have reached an impasse. Why don’t we send a representative from each side to have a discussion?”

Shaneth looked at Kang Yoon-Soo and asked, “What should we do?”

“We’ll have a discussion with them,” Kang Yoon-Soo replied.

The creature with the largest horns stepped forward as the representative of the scouts, and the party chose the glib-tongued Henrick to be their representative.

The two men met in the center of the dark rock platform and began speaking with each other.

“Who are you people? I’m guessing you aren’t monsters, judging by the fact that we can understand each other,” Henrick said.

“We’re titans,” the creature replied.

“Titan? What are those? Is there such a race on the continent?” Henrick asked.

“Well, who are you people?” the titan asked in response.

“We’re humans,” Henrick replied.

“Humans? What are those? Is there such a race underground?” the titan asked.

“Hmm… We’re just wasting time like this,” Henrick grumbled.

“I agree. Why don’t we find something in common, for starters?” the titan asked.

“Alright, do you guys live in a society, trade using a currency, and act obsessed with making profit like us?” Henrick asked.

“Of course! Then, do you guys snack on things, raise livestock, and bathe in lava?” the titan asked.

“It’s roughly similar, except for the bathing in lava part. Ah, do you make alcohol as well, by any chance? It's water that makes you feel happy and dizzy,” Henrick asked.

“Alcohol? We’re not only good at making it, but also good at drinking it,” the titan replied.

“Hoo, is that so? We humans love alcohol,” Henrick said.

“Ah, is that so? There’s nothing as useful as a bottle of booze to build a friendship between two men!” the titan replied.

“Then, let’s have a drink later,” Henrick added.

“Let’s do that,” the titan agreed.

The historic meeting between the two races concluded with a drinking appointment.

Henrick returned and said with a nod, “They aren’t so different from us.”

“It seems they’re at least not hostile to us, then…” Shaneth said, letting out a sigh of relief. She stared at the titan scouts for quite a while and remarked, “There’s no race known as titans on the continent, right? They could be a race that only lives underground.”

“It sounds like something those crazy explorers would come up with, but it does seem credible,” Henrick said.

Iris smiled brightly and said, “My heart is pounding from excitement at the thought of discovering an unknown civilization!”

The men scratched their heads in confusion before someone spoke up. “Anyway, this means we were present at a historic event, right?”

Hawk smiled and replied, “This is great news! Let’s plunder them and turn this into a colony! Euak!”

Harpoon smacked him in the head and said, “You fool! Our aim is to kill the Dragon of Destruction! Do you want to waste your energy on something like that? What’s the use of having a colony when you can’t embrace a woman?!”

Kang Yoon-Soo checked the details of his quests, and saw that the legendary quest had been updated into a new one.

[Legendary Quest—Underground Civilization]

You have discovered a civilization hidden so deep underground that no one is known to have reached it. However, this place is the source of many legends—tales that speak of an endless sea of lava, hidden treasures, and powerful underground creatures.

Continue your journey into the unknown and find out more about this unknown civilization!

+You have obtained the ability to discover additional details during this quest.

The horned scouts walked toward them. They used primitive equipment, but their bulging muscles did not make them look weak at all.

The men clutched their weapons tightly, not lowering their guard.

The scout with the largest horns said, “I’m Renolk Hemaksir, the leader of our scouting party. We were wary of you because this is the first time we’ve seen someone fall from the sky. We come in peace, as long as you do as well.”

Renolk extended his tattooed right hand, and Kang Yoon-Soo shook his hand in response. Then, a new message popped up on Kang Yoon-Soo’s wrist device.

[Name: Renolk Hemaksir]

[Lineage: 82nd Mixed Titan (Orc)]

[A descendant of a titan, born from the Dragon of Destruction and an orc.]

[A drop of the Dragon of Destruction’s blood flows in his veins.]

The titans were descendants of the Dragon of Destruction.

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