Chapter 375 Head There
A few days later, in the northeast of the Black Forest, in a barren land.
In the northeast of the Black Forest, there was an area that was not very big. It was about ten to twenty miles in size. It was not even worth mentioning in the Black Forest that stretched for tens of thousands of miles.
However, the topography of this area was very different from the topography around the Black Forest.
Due to the dense concentration of elements, the vegetation of the Black Forest grew exceptionally luxuriant. It was one of the top existences in the entire old territory. The trees crisscrossed and crisscrossed, almost to the point of cutting into every gap.
However, after arriving at this wasteland, this place was completely bare. Looking at the empty land, there were only a few withered trees growing sporadically. It seemed out of place in the entire forest. It was as if there was a bald spot on the head of a strong man with dense hair.
Huff! Huff! Huff!
A bleak wind blew from afar, sweeping up some fine sand and stones on the ground and flying in all directions.
Standing on a large stone, Heath looked at the distant wilderness for a while. Then, he opened the map and compared it. While touching his chin, he said, “This should be the wasteland, right?”
The name of this wilderness was aptly called the Wilderness. This was the entrance to the Underground World in the Black Forest. It was also the reason why this area was so desolate.
After putting away the map, Heath continued to walk into the Wilderness.
As he walked, he turned his head to observe his surroundings. At the same time, he opened the system’s range extraction and scanned the surroundings, looking for an extractable substance.
[Beep, extraction failed. This substance cannot be extracted…]
[Beep, extraction failed. This substance cannot be extracted…]
Unfortunately, he could not find any trace of it even after searching all the way. Actually, it made sense when he thought about it. Looking at the desolation of this area, it would be strange if he could still find something in such a place.
Touching his chin, Heath pondered and said, “It seems that there isn’t anything else.”
At this moment, he suddenly felt a familiar energy fluctuation coming from his right hand. The spirit ring on his hand glowed with a faint l.u.s.ter.
“Hmm?”
Immediately, a gray-brown smoke rose from the ring. The smoke rose higher and higher and soon condensed into an illusory figure in the air.
Her long hair fluttered and her red dress swayed. It was Nina, whom Heath had not seen for a long time.
The little girl who came out of the ring yawned and stretched lazily. “Yawn!”
She turned her head and looked around. When she saw that, her eyes could not help but widen. She looked at Heath with a strange expression and asked, “Hey, Heath, where are we? Why are we in the Wilderness?”
When he was collecting on Prester Island, Heath had killed a Tailless Snake and refined the Tailless Snake’s heart into a potion for Nina to absorb. That was a powerful potion that could recover soul power… After Nina consumed the potion, she fell into a deep sleep until she finally woke up.
Heath smiled and greeted, “Long time no see, Nina.”
Ever since Nina entered his life, Heath had gradually gotten used to the floating ghost around him. He had gotten used to her chattering all day long. It had been a few months since he last saw her, and now he felt a little more familiar.
Nina giggled and said, “How is it? Did you miss me?”
Heath nodded. “I did.”
Nina laughed exaggeratedly. “Aiya, really? Then I’m really touched.”
Then, her little face fell. She raised her chin and said, “Then tell me, did you use the Wilderness to welcome me? My soul power recovered quite well this time. I was going to take a walk on the street. What are you doing? What is this place?”
Heath explained, “Desolate Land.”
Nina thought for a moment. “Desolate land? Could it be that Desolate Land? The Desolate Land of Black Forest?”
Her eyes widened.
Heath nodded. “Yes.”
Nina was surprised. “Wow, wow, you came here? Are you preparing to go to the Underground World?”
The Black Forest was one of the entrances to the Underground World. This was not a secret in the Wizard World. Most Wizards could find relevant information in their literature. Nina obviously knew about it.
Heath said, “Yes, I promised to give Nami a pair of legs. I need some magic materials. Only the Underground World can provide me with them.”
Nina said, “I see.”
After a pause, she changed her previous dissatisfaction and raised her fist excitedly. “Then what are we waiting for? Let’s go! Let’s go to the Underground World! Let’s go, let’s go, let’s go!”
As she shouted and shouted, Heath set off on his journey again.
“Hey, Heath, what have you been doing while I was asleep? Have you done anything bad?”
“What? You just stayed in the lighthouse and did experiments every day? You’re really boring.”
Probably because she had been asleep for too long, Nina seemed to be particularly energetic after waking up. Along the way, she pulled Heath to discuss all kinds of questions. One moment, she asked what Heath had been doing recently, the next moment, she discussed the Underground World with him. She seemed to be a chatterbox.
Usually, Heath would be too lazy to pay attention to her. However, after traveling alone for so long without anyone to talk to, Heath’s heart was still filled with loneliness. At this time, with Nina chattering beside him… the two of them chatted enthusiastically, and the loneliness brought by the journey was alleviated quite a bit.
In such a pleasant atmosphere, the two of them quickly pa.s.sed through the wasteland, which was not big to begin with, and arrived at the end of the wasteland.
At the end of the Wilderness was a small hill. The area of the small hill was not big, only about ten square meters. The height of the hill was about three to five meters high. It stood alone on the Desolate Land. It looked like a b.u.mp on the ground, which was particularly eye-catching.
In the middle of this small hill, there was a big cave. It was pitch-black without any light source. Only a ramp could be vaguely seen as if the terrain was downward.
Just as Heath and Nina had just arrived here, suddenly…
Rustle…
A series of faint rustling sounds rang out. Along with this sound, some fine sand and stones began to roll down from the surroundings of the cave.
At first, it was only a small amount of sand and stones rolling down, but soon, more and more sand and stones rolled down. It was as if half of the cave had collapsed. With a ‘crash’ sound, even some large stones fell down.
The rolling fine sand and stones became faster and faster. They quickly gathered on the ground, then began to a.s.semble and combine. Not long after, a huge object appeared in front of Heath and Nina.
It was a huge stone man.
It was about seven to eight meters tall, and its appearance was similar to Heath’s stone golem. Its joints and its entire body were made of pieces of stone.
When the last stone flew onto the stone golem’s body, its two eyes immediately lit up with a beam of light as if it had come alive. It opened its eyes and stood up from the ground with a rumble.
Its gaze immediately locked onto the two people in front of it. It said bluntly, “Wizards, why are you here?”
This was the entrance guard. Heath had read in a book that there were similar guards at the entrance to the Underground World. However, some places were stone golems, and some places were guarded by Wizards. Apparently, they had encountered a stone golem here.
However, unlike ordinary stone golems, this was not a dead object created by Wizards using puppet spells. Instead, it was a mature individual with its own soul. It was said that it was specially made with a very powerful magical spell, which could bestow a real soul on the stone golem.
Heath bowed and solemnly explained, “It’s an honor to meet you, Sir. I’m an intermediate-level Wizard from the Shadow Land, Heath Noen.”
After hearing Heath introduce himself, the stone golem’s expression obviously eased up a lot. After all, he was a genuine intermediate-level Wizard. He was not an ordinary Apprentice or Wizard who could be easily bullied and exploited.
The Wizard World was, after all, a world where strength was respected.
The stone golem said very politely, “It is also my honor to be able to meet such an outstanding Wizard at such a young age.”
Pausing for a moment, it then asked in a completely different tone, “If it is convenient, I hope you can tell me the purpose of coming to the Earth Gate? As a guard, I am just doing my routine. Don’t mind us, Sir.” Heath replied, “Of course.”
Then, he told the stone golem about Nami.
After listening to Heath’s words… The stone golem looked like he suddenly understood. “I see, then I have really offended you before. I hope you don’t mind, Sir Wizard. This is not my original intention. Recently, some restless Wizards also wanted to go to the Underground World, which caused me a lot of trouble here.”
Heath replied, “I understand.”
Since the misunderstanding had been resolved, there was nothing more to say. After a few simple pleasantries, Heath continued to cut to the chase. “If that’s the case, can you let us in now?”
The stone golem nodded heavily. “Of course, but the prerequisite is that you have to hand over the tax to me. This is a rule set by the Wizards. If you want to enter the Underground World through the Desolate Land, you have to pay a fee like me. You have prepared 20,000 Magic Stones, right?”
Heath said, “Of course.”
He casually took out two high-level Magic Stones and threw them over. After several expeditions, he had earned a lot of money. At this moment, the pile of Magic Stones in his dimensional pocket was as high as a mountain, tens of millions of Magic Stones were nothing to Heath, let alone 10,000 to 20,000 in taxes.
One had to know that in addition to Magic Stones, there were many other materials in his dimensional pocket. They were all treasures obtained through the system’s exploration. Any one of them would be priceless on the market.
“This way, Sir.”
Following the stone golem, Heath walked into the cave in front.
After entering the cave, Heath quickly realized that his judgment was not wrong. The ground in the cave was indeed a downward slope, leading to an unknown darkness in the distance.
Da da da da…
Da da da da…
The sound of footsteps echoed. Heath followed behind the stone golem, walking step by step towards the deepest part of the cave. The surroundings were empty except for the footsteps of Heath and the stone golem, which looked a little eerie.
After walking for more than ten minutes, there was finally a different scene in the distance.
It was a huge hall that was over a hundred square meters wide. In the middle of the hall was a square, and on one side of the square stood an altar.
This was a very standard and ancient stone altar. The bright lines and patterns looked like magic arrays. It looked not much different from the altars that were often seen in the Wizard World.
The difference was in the middle of this altar.
In the middle of this altar stood a stone well. The surroundings of the well were covered with some ancient patterns and reliefs. It seemed to be quite old.
The stone golem brought Heath to the side of the well.
Then… the stone golem opened its mouth and explained to Heath, “According to the rules, I cannot leave the gate for too long. Respected Wizard, then I will send you here. You sit in the basket. It will take you down. After pa.s.sing through this dry well, you will be able to reach the Underground World.”
Heath immediately returned the bow, “Okay, thank you for your help.”
The stone golem said, “No need to be polite. This is also my duty.”
After saying goodbye, the stone golem quickly left.
Heath immediately walked up to the altar and looked around the well that the stone golem had mentioned.
This was a dry well. Looking down from above, there was not a single drop of water in the well, but strangely, the sound of water droplets could be heard from the well.
There was a scaffold at the top of the well. A thick rope was wrapped around the scaffold.
However, there were no wooden buckets or other props tied to the top of the rope. Instead, there was a big basket. It was like a magnified version of the basket that a farmer made of bamboo sticks brought to buy vegetables and stuff.
Just as Heath was sizing it up, a voice suddenly sounded.
“How much longer do you want to look around? Am I really that good-looking?”
Heath was stunned. He looked towards the voice and realized that the side of the basket was filled with human facial features. From the appearance, it looked like a young man.
Heath quickly said, “I’m very sorry. I’ve offended you.”
The basket said, “There’s no need to say sorry. Just don’t keep staring at me. I’m not used to being stared at.”
It paused and continued, “Then come up. Aren’t you going to the Underground World? I’ll bring you. Of course, I’m not free. You need three high-grade Magic Stones.”
D*mn, was the Magic Stones earlier for nothing?
Heath silently complained in his heart…