Black Hearted Mage

In order to taste the fresh, delicious, and juicy fruits in the vast and unbearably hot southern continent, Caesars leisurely strolled through the bustling market of Red Stone City. His sharp eagle-like eyes constantly scanned the stalls, searching for fruits that had just been picked from the branches, still exuding a faint fragrance and attractive colors.

At the same time, a cute puppy curiously poked its furry head out from Caesar's backpack. It had originally been happily prancing about, but due to the sheer volume of people in the market, passersby trampled on it several times. The pup, in unbearable pain, howled and angrily bit the offenders.

"You stupid dog, if you don't grow up quickly, you're going to be stepped on by others in the future. After all, you're too small now, and you can only eat a little bit of delicious food!" Looking at the aggrieved puppy, Caesars couldn't help but teased with a smile.

As if the puppy understood the meaning of his master's words, he hummed and expressed that he completely agreed with Caesar's point of view.

At this moment, Caesars noticed a bunch of fresh-looking fruits displayed on a few stalls not far ahead. Each of these fruits was round, plump, and brightly colored, as if telling people how sweet and juicy they were.

Caesars walked over quickly, picked up a fruit, and took a bite. Instantly, a rich fruity aroma and sweet juice filled his mouth. Caesars' eyes lit up, and without a word, he immediately bought all the fruit. Then, carrying his full harvest, he hurried to the carriage shop. There, a public carriage ran daily to Stone City.

It must be said that Caesars had good luck today. When he arrived at the carriage shop, the carriage bound for the Stone Kingdom was about to depart. He quickly boarded the slightly old, but very spacious and comfortable covered carriage and found a seat by the window.

At the same time, thousands of miles away in the Cold Wind Mountains, Carlos, known as the "Jackal of the Empire", finally arrived at the rough seaside after an arduous and long journey.

Carlos, the spy chief, had chosen a long detour to reach the seaside. He encountered Hawkeye's agent atop a massive, leafy tree. The tree was surprisingly thick, perhaps six or seven meters in diameter. Even if it wasn't a hundred meters tall, it was definitely at least eighty meters tall.

"Ruth, have you found out anything in the past few days?" asked the spy chief.

"Commander-in-Chief, you can move freely along the seashore. Five miles to the west, there are patrols from the Delta family, as well as some secret outposts. Whether you want to leave or come in, it's very difficult. In the southern part of the Delta family's fiefdom, there are three lookout posts and one secret outpost!"

After hearing the spy's report, the spy chief nodded slightly. He had also discovered the watchtowers and sentries when he came from the north. The fact that a territory had such strict defenses made the spy chief even more convinced that the Delta family came from the Saint Laurent Empire. Perhaps they had quietly replaced the real Delta family hundreds or thousands of years ago.

"Ruth, point out the location of the dock. I'll go down and take a look after dark!"

The spy chief looked at the cliff by the sea and asked his men.

"Commander-in-Chief, it's directly east of this tree!"

The spy chief looked around the giant tree. It seemed that this was the only towering tree on the beach. The others were just low shrubs. He also guessed the purpose of this tree. It was used to guide the ships.

The Delta family guarded the seashore so tightly because they didn't want anyone to notice the ship approaching and prevent others from coming in to investigate. This also made the spy chief more convinced of his own speculation - the Delta family were from Saint Laurent.

Time flies, and in the blink of an eye, it’s been a month and a half.

After a long journey, Caesars and his playful pup finally reached the central region of the southern continent. It was a desolate place, the air scorching hot, and only towering volcanoes could be seen in the distance. Their destination was this: the volcanic hot springs.

This hot spring is located on the edge of an extinct volcano. Steaming hot spring water rises continuously, emitting a light mist. Even more striking is that this place is not far from the surging lava river. Just standing by the hot spring pool, you can feel the hot breath from deep underground.

Beneath the massive volcanic rock to the west of the hot springs, there was a cave about a meter tall, its entrance uncovered. This was the ideal place for Caesars to live, having come to the southern continent.

"Listen carefully, you dead dog. There are a lot of flame vipers in there, you can eat as many as you want. But... if you are not interested in them, then I will take them home and let that guy St. Paul enjoy them!" Caesar said to the puppy with a wicked smile on his face.

Before he could finish his words, the puppy, which had been somewhat lazy, suddenly widened its eyes and let out a deep growl. Hearing that the black demon snake might steal its food, it instantly became excited. Then, before Caesars could react, the puppy, like an arrow from a bow, howled and swooped into the deep, dark cavern.

This place was discovered by the little black demon snake. Initially, it was just a small crack in the rock. It took a lot of effort for Kaisas to dig out this cave, which turned out to be the lair of the Flame Viper.

Just a few minutes later, the scene Kaisas had anticipated occurred—countless fiery vipers suddenly surged out of the cave like a tide. They huddled together, twisting their crimson bodies, forming a terrifying sight like a blood-red river, sweeping straight out of the cave.

Kaesus gripped the magic blade tightly, completely absorbed in hunting the vipers. Their venom was a minor issue, but their speed was remarkable. With his agility and precise strikes, he managed to kill quite a few. However, the number of fiery vipers was staggering, and despite his best efforts, he only managed to kill a little over three hundred. The rest of the vipers scattered, disappearing into the distant volcanic rocks.

Not long after, a dark red puppy came out with half a viper in its mouth. Its round eyes looked around vigilantly, as if it was afraid that its food would be snatched away.

Considering his extended stay in the southern continent, Caesars felt it necessary to construct a concealed door at the entrance to the cave. He took out several thick wooden planks and two large jars of alchemical glue he had prepared in advance. He first placed the planks side by side, then opened a jar of alchemical glue and slowly poured it over them. The sticky glue flowed down the planks, gradually covering the entire surface. Then, Caesars bent down, grabbed handfuls of volcanic rubble from the ground, and evenly spread it over the glue. To achieve a more realistic volcanic rock look, he also sprinkled a layer of volcanic ash between the cracks in the rubble.

After a few minutes, something magical happened: the liquid alchemical glue quickly solidified and hardened, blending seamlessly with the volcanic debris and ash. Now, the door, made of wood and alchemical glue, looked like a massive, naturally formed volcanic rock.

Caesars nodded with satisfaction, picked up the "volcanic rock" with both hands, walked to the cave entrance, and placed it properly. Then, he took up his magic blade and carefully cut away the excess, making the simple door fit tightly against the cave entrance without a single gap. If you didn't look closely, you wouldn't even notice there was a door here.

The plump puppy stared intently at Caesar's busy figure, as if filled with curiosity and concern for his every move. When Caesar finally placed the simple door he had made firmly in the cave entrance, the puppy's eyes widened in surprise, almost rolling out of their sockets.

"You damn dog, the fire crystals in this cave are not for you to eat. If you eat them, boiling magma will gush out!" Caesar said seriously, looking at the puppy.

The edge of the volcano on the southern continent is filled with rich and vibrant fire elements. For this young lava dog, this place is a paradise for its growth. The ubiquitous fire elements can continuously infuse its young body, adding vitality and vitality; more importantly, it can promote the puppy's healthy growth.

The moment Caesars entered the cave, the puppy quickly followed him in. As soon as they stepped into the cave, they could clearly feel the temperature there, which was slightly higher than the outside world, but not beyond the human body's tolerance.

Following the winding, narrow passage dug by Caesars, he soon arrived at a spot gleaming with a dazzling red light—a vein of incomparably precious fire crystal appeared before his eyes. However, this vein had now become tailings, with a multitude of Fiery Vipers greedily absorbing its fire energy, reducing the original six or seven-meter-thick layer of fire crystal to just a meter or so.

Fortunately, however, directly beneath this fire crystal vein lies the scorching, surging magma. As long as the fire element here is not lost in large quantities, the remaining vein will be able to rely on the fire element in the magma to gradually grow and recover at a slow pace.

From his space ring, Kaisas pulled out three priceless and incomparably precious array discs, radiating magical light. These three array discs were the fruit of countless years of accumulation and the painstaking efforts of countless top elven mages.

One of the array plates is called the Magic Gathering Array. As the name suggests, it has an amazingly powerful ability to gather magic power. Another is called the Element Transformation Array, which can cleverly transform elements of various properties into magical and precise ones. As for the last one, it is the Element Crystallization Array. When the three array plates are perfectly combined, they can use the complementary power of each other to create various element crystals with different properties.

You should know that the original elemental crystals actually originate from the core of the magic crystal veins deep underground. The magic crystals located in the center of the veins contain an astonishing amount of elemental energy, more than five times that of the ordinary magic crystals surrounding them! For this reason, humans regard these magic crystals as the best of the best, bestowing them with the honorific title of "Top-Grade Magic Crystals." However, the elegant and ancient elves prefer to use the poetic name "Elemental Crystals" to refer to these treasures.

It is worth mentioning that the crystals carefully crafted by the elemental crystal array contain more abundant elemental energy than naturally formed elemental crystals.

Caesars concentrated intently on connecting three precious mithril array plates. Immediately, abundant volcanic rock poured into the magic gathering circle. Instantly, a surge of immense fire elemental energy gathered like a surging torrent, its concentration reaching a staggering one hundred times its normal value!

Over time, this highly concentrated fire elemental energy methodically flowed into the elemental transformation array. In the blink of an eye, as if under a spell, the once violent and fiery fire elemental energy instantly transformed into a characteristically pure elemental energy. Finally, this flawless elemental energy slowly flowed into the elemental crystal array. With a burst of dazzling light, a crystal-clear, purest elemental crystal emerged!

Converting into dark elemental crystals was too time-consuming, so Kaisas chose elemental crystals without attributes. He roughly calculated the time and found that he could only obtain two elemental crystals in an hour.

"Don't be greedy, you idiot! This is my cultivation resource!"

The puppy was wandering around the elemental crystal. It was obvious that this guy wanted to eat it, so Caesars quickly grabbed the puppy in his hand.

"You idiot, Master Caesars will take you to the lava river! Salamander meat isn't tasty, only fire salamander meat is delicious!"

The puppy looked at the elemental crystal and hummed unwillingly at Kaisas. However, the fire salamander was very attractive to it because Kaisas had just mentioned the word delicious.

After Caesars exited the cave, he closed the tightly sealed door and then set up two powerful protective arrays. One was to prevent the Flame Viper from entering, and the other was to prevent mercenaries from entering. This cave had been there for several years, and mercenaries who had passed by before would have seen it.

After finishing everything, Caesars led the puppy along the hot spring pool and walked towards the scorching lava river in the south.