Chapter 280 – Lair Sweep
Fatty, of course, had a reason to be happy for gaining such a powerful mount out of thin air. But what upset him was that the Brutal Saddle wasn’t taken off in time and thus was implicated.
In other words, if Fatty wanted to use the Brutal Saddle in the future, he must be prepared to give up on the Violent Ox King. But how could he be willing to let go of such a mighty mount?
The pros and cons were equally divided. While he couldn’t swap the Brutal Saddle as he pleased, but the Violent Ox King wouldn’t lose any levels when it still had the tool on and could be used as a pet, instead of being limited to just being a mount.
Considering the current levels of players, anyone with this kind of mount was practically invincible.
Thinking to this point, Fatty was pleased.
“Haha, hahaha!” West was overjoyed to help subdue the Violent Ox King in addition to gaining the Inferno Crystal that gave him a high hope of ranking up. He patted Fatty on the shoulder. “Lil’ bro, thank you, really.”
“It’s nothing. If it wasn’t for you, big bro, I would have been killed by this foolish ox,” said Fatty humbly.
“Hahaha, let’s go, let us see what kind of treasure this ox keeps in its lair.” West led Fatty to sweep the Violent Ox King’s lair.
Fatty turned to nod at SnowPhoenix, gesturing her to catch up. If anything, she still helped out a little. To him, it was the intention that counted.
Fatty felt delighted and happy as he rode the Violent Ox King. The flame on the latter’s body didn’t do him any harm and even acted as an effective protective layer.
“Go!” Fatty shouted, and the ox’s hooves blazed with fire. Its huge body slowly floated up and flew after West.
SnowPhoenix envied him for having such a powerful boss as his mount, however, only a little. She quickly followed up; these kinds of bosses generally had good things in their lair.
“Hahaha, Fire Crystal Stones!”
The Violent Ox King’s lair was a small valley with it as the only resident. West let out a long hearty laugh the instant he entered.
Fatty followed West’s sight to see the entire valley covered with light-red magic stones, within which faint fire energy flowed and formed a small spark.
“These stones can greatly boost the power of fire magic skills or also be used as a fire mana reserve,” West explained to Fatty. “The Fire Valley also had them, but not this many. I forged them all into armor.”
Saying so, a suit of fiery red armor appeared on West’s body. On the armor surface, fire clouds billowed and flames circulated. This was obviously very high-grade armor.
“I only need half of these to enhance my armor. The rest is yours.” West clawed at the air and the Fire Crystal Stones flew into his body. After taking half, West stopped and told Fatty to collect the rest.
Fatty didn’t act generous and pocketed the other half with Harvest, gaining roughly three thousand pieces. Pondering a little, he gave a third to SnowPhoenix.
“Thank you for your help earlier. While this doesn’t conform to your attribute, you can sell or exchange them.”
SnowPhoenix received the crystals and said thanks. Understanding that this was a guest-dismiss order from Fatty, she left on her own initiative.
As Fatty had finished collecting the Fire Crystal Stones, West flipped his hand and the entire valley rumbled. Flames rose and quickly melted the ground.
West had the molten liquid flow out of the valley. Within seconds, the ground level sank by more than ten meters, until it stopped and revealed a white crystalline layer.
“Hahaha, I knew it! This is why the old ox can advance so quickly. There really are magic stones below.” West was visibly joyous. He jumped into the air. Then, with a swing of his hand, the ground cracked and magic stones flew out in succession.
“s.h.i.+t!” Fatty cursed as the melted lava surge nearly got to him. He also flew up using the Zephyr Wings.
SnowPhoenix turned around upon hearing the commotion. Seeing one huge magic stone after another flying to West’s hand, she was envious to know that the two had struck big again. However, one thousand Fire Crystal Stones was quite a harvest for her this time, it was worth it even if many of her companions had died.
“So many?” Seeing West turn the valley upside down and gathered over a thousand magic stones, Fatty was a bit startled.
Even the Central Dynasty only had very little of this kind of source that could provide magic in bulk, usually as war supplies. It was unexpected that the Violent Ox King had so much in its possession.
And it was only a high-rank Yao boss. What if he could slay a Celestial or even Divine beast? Fatty couldn’t even imagine.
“Haha, great, very good!” Stowing the very last magic stone, West couldn’t help but burst out into happy laughter. “With this, your old bro can go up another rank.”
“If you don’t mind me asking, what rank are you at the moment?” Fatty asked after some consideration.
“I ranked up to the 7th enhancement after you gave me the Dragon Revolution Herb,” replied West without thinking.
“Ah?! You can match the Violent Ox King at the 7th cla.s.s enhancement?” Fatty exclaimed in shock.
“How can that be?” West laughed. “In fact, I’m no match for it. It only looked that way because we are both fire-attribute, so I have a certain immunity to its attacks. Also, it’s not as fast as me, so it can’t stop me if I want to walk away from a fight. Therefore, we never went all out on each other. Otherwise, I wouldn’t be able to defeat it. Just now, if I hadn’t borrowed the energy of the Inferno Crystal, I couldn’t have suppressed it.”
“So that’s how it is.” Fatty nodded, then continued, “Bro, have you been cultivating here all along?”
“That’s right. I came here after returning from the East Ocean last time. The fire energy here is very dense and helpful as it can quicken my advancement,” as West talked, a series of Fire Crystal Stones flew out and lined up in some strange magic formation.
After the Fire Crystal Stones finished being arranged, the red armor appeared on West again, automagically falling off before it flew toward the center of the magic formation.
“Refine!” West shouted. The magic formation was suddenly activated, more than three thousand Fire Crystal Stones lit up at the same time and burst with dense fire energy. The energy circulated within the formation and converged into the armor.
West chanted an unknown incantation with a solemn face, his hands depicting some kind of magic rune to add to the magic formation.
As the magic formation ran, the armor suit gradually melted into a puddle of fiery red liquid that hovered at the center.
After about half an hour, a Fire Crystal Stone exploded with a boom. It seemed to trigger a chain reaction as the second one burst shortly after, and then the third, fourth…
The stones exploded at a faster and faster rate. Later on, several dozen of them exploded at the same time. Large ma.s.ses of rich fire energy gushed out and kept gathering at the puddle of liquid which used to be the armor.
The crystal powder remains after the explosion weren’t wasted, they also drifted toward the center.
When the refinement reached its most crucial moment, West’s face grew extremely serious. His eyes gazed intently at the magic formation; he even threw some magic stones into it to provide more mana.
“Condense!” shouted West. At that instant, all the Fire Crystal Stones exploded and the fire energy merged into the red liquid. The puddle then quickly squirmed and formed an armor suit.
This new armor was very different from the original one. The original was fiery red with few spots of light flickering here and there, while the new one was covered in dense sparks. Coupled with the fiery red color, it gave off a strangely aesthetic sense.
“Done!” West made a gesture. The armor flew over and automatically set itself on his body again.
“Congratulations on the successful refinement, big bro.” Fatty came over to congratulate.
“Hahaha, it’s thanks to you, lil’ bro. How could I get the Fire Crystal Stones without you?” West laughed loudly, then sighed. “Too bad that up until now, I could only find Fire Crystal Stones. If I get some Ice Crystal Stones, my armor can be upgraded to an ice and fire suit.”
“No big deal, we can go rob more in the future,” Fatty casually said.
“That’s right! With this new armor, and after I absorb the Inferno Crystal entirely to break through to the 8th cla.s.s enhancement, I will have the power that nearly approaches the 9th enhancement. Then, we can find that Aliya woman and have our revenge.” West’s expression revealed his hatred at the mention of Aliya.
After the sweep, the valley had turned into a mess. The melted ground was restored later by the system reset, but the Fire Crystal Stones weren’t.
“Woah! If we take care of several more fellows like the Violent Ox King, wouldn’t we strike it big? If you swallow some inner cores, bro, you can quickly advance to the 9th enhancement, the Celestial realm.” Fatty instigated West to kill some more.
“How is that possible?” West couldn’t help but laugh. “In the depths of the Mountain of Flames, there lives a very old monstrous fellow. It’s too lazy to care even if we fuss, fight and kill all day, but if we kill a bunch of monsters to take their cores and rob their properties, that old monster will definitely come out to handle us.”
“Oh, who is this powerful monster?” Fatty was curious. He could have guessed that the Mountain of Flames had a ruler-tier boss to manage everything, but West not daring to provoke this monster was quite surprising.
“This… you’ll know when you get more powerful later,” West prevaricated, he actually didn’t even dare to speak about it.
“Heh, now that we’re done here, where are you going next, bro?” Fatty casually changed the topic.
“I want to find a safe area to digest the Inferno Crystal’s energy and rank up to the 8th enhancement.”
“Here in the Mountain of Flames?” asked Fatty.