Chapter 94

In this underground world, Cook's magic eye found its place to be useful. Following the roughly hewn roads, Cook and his two companions remained vigilant throughout their journey, which was also a form of training. The underground world was not flat; it had underground rivers, dormant volcanoes, tranquil underground lakes, and massive stone pillars that supported the entire underground world.

"Whoosh!" A mole was illuminated by the magic torch, its eyes shining like two small light bulbs under the torch's light, then it fled in fear.

"Whoosh!" But the throwing knife in Cook's hand suddenly flew out, as the mole, in a daze, had actually rushed toward Cook and his companions. Mitchie and Lori were somewhat panicked, while Cook remained calm, as this creature, though weighing about seven or eight pounds, was just a wild beast.

"Clang!" Without exception, the throwing knife missed, as the mole's speed was extremely fast. The knife struck the rock with a crisp sound and sparked.

"Fireball!" At this moment, Lori's fireball had already been cast. Within a short distance of several dozen meters, the power of magic was at its peak, of course, this referred to the level of magic attack of a mage like Lori.

"Boom!" An orange, fist-sized fireball hit the mole like a cannonball, sending it flying from the immense magical power. The intense heat energy evaporated the mole's life, and a burnt smell spread, while the fireball also created a small crater in the hard rock.

Cook was speechless, sighing, he said, "Miss Lori, is a small wild beast worth using a fireball on?"

"Hmph!" The response to Cook was a cold snort, clearly Lori was also very tense.

After this small incident, the three of them were more relaxed. Cook also realized that there was a problem with the composition of his team, with two mages, it was difficult to arrange their positions during the journey, as mages generally stayed at the front or back of the group.

"Thud! Thud!" Just as Cook and his companions had walked for a short while, they heard a series of thuds. In the distance, Cook saw the shadows of two large magical beasts, as seen by the magic eye.

Just as Cook was preparing for battle, the light of a magic torch appeared behind them, and these people were dressed in the uniform of a patrol team. Cook and his companions finally felt relieved. When they arrived, they saw two large load-bearing beasts, a type of herbivorous magical beast, about ten meters long and over three meters high, with six thick legs supporting a massive body covered in wrinkled fur. Their heads resembled hippos, and their small black eyes looked at Cook and his companions with curiosity. Their bodies were secured with iron chains and numerous packages.

"Greetings, adventurers!" Before Cook could finish examining them, the lead load-bearing beast stopped beside Cook and his companions. A middle-aged man in chainmail, holding a large axe, removed his helmet and greeted them.

"Hello! Where are you headed?" Cook responded first.

"Hehe, we are a supply team, responsible for all the supply points in the underground first level's B and C zones. Do you need any help? The adventurers behind me are heading to these two areas." The middle-aged man chuckled.

Lori was clearly somewhat interested, but Cook was skeptical, as it seemed unnecessary to have over twenty guards for a supply mission, not to mention the dozen or so adventurers behind them. Clearly, these supply teams would encounter some anticipated troubles.

"Thank you for your kindness, our destination is not far ahead." Cook quickly interjected, as for Cook, who had a magic eye, acting alone could ensure maximum safety.

"Alright then, goodbye!" The middle-aged man showed a hint of disappointment, then drove the load-bearing beast away.

Although Lori and Mitchie were puzzled why Cook did not ride the load-bearing beasts, they trusted Cook. The three of them continued on their journey, while the people responsible for protection muttered to themselves, "How did this kid know that these supply teams are actually tools used by the guild to increase the combat experience of students?"

Cook was indeed right. These supply teams would not invite students from the Unison Academy, and once a student joined, the leader of the team would use a potion that made the surrounding magical beasts more aggressive, causing the beasts within a kilometer to attack the team. This was to increase the students' combat experience. If the potion was not used, the magical beasts would avoid the supply teams. In short, the Mage Guild aimed to maximize the combat experience of the students.

"Battle ahead!" After more than an hour of travel, Cook and his companions heard the sound of magical explosions and the dazzling light of magic.

When Cook and his companions arrived at the battle site, they were startled by the scene. The supply team they had just passed was being attacked by a group of magical beasts, one of the most numerous types in the underground world, earth-type magic boars. These boars had no other magic except for an earth-type stone skin spell and an earth-type stone projectile spell. They were generally only up to level three, but their heads were large, almost taking up two-thirds of their bodies, and their thirty-centimeter-long tusks made it easy for them to break through enemies' defenses.

Moreover, these boars were not very smart; when they encountered enemies, they would only cast a stone skin spell on themselves, then charge like tanks. These adult boars were about three meters tall and five meters long, weighing about two tons. Even real tanks could not match their speed. If their attacks were blocked, they would use their second innate magic, the stone projectile spell, hurling football-sized rocks at the enemy. These boars were very tenacious, and what surprised Cook most was that this group of boars numbered over fifty, clearly a medium-sized group.

With the light of the magic torches from the load-bearing beasts, Cook saw that these beasts were also earth-type magical creatures. They had no other skills except for a stone skin spell. Two load-bearing beasts were huddled together, head to tail, and under the boars' attacks, they continuously cast stone skin spells on themselves. The innate magic of these magical creatures could stack, and Cook saw that the load-bearing beasts had grown by at least a circle, not knowing how many times they had cast the spell. In the gap between the two load-bearing beasts, the adventurers and the guards of the supply team were continuously attacking the boars with bows, magic, and crossbows.

However, the effect was not very good, as the adventurers and guards had to prevent the stone projectiles and the boars had a stone skin spell. The boars' weak points were their butts, eyes, and noses. Hitting these parts under the light of the magic torches while dodging the stone projectiles required high skill. Only two boars were dead, and they were killed by heavy weapons, clearly at the beginning of the battle.

The captain of the supply team, Torre, was bitter, as he had been unlucky. He thought this area had no large, high-level magical beasts, and today the team had ten students from the academy, so he used a bit more of the potion. He did not expect to attract a medium-sized group of boars. Torre looked at the scattered supplies and the terrified students, with only the guards calmly attacking the boars. Only a few of the students aimed at the targets, while the rest were only dodging. The students were a small team, with one mage, one archer, and two thieves who threw knives. The other six were warriors, but even mid-level warriors would be overwhelmed and killed if they faced a group of boars. The supply team had no mages, only warriors, thieves, and two archers, so out of the thirty or so people, only a quarter could actually attack the boars.

Seeing nearly twenty adult boars and ten half-grown boars, the rest being piglets, all using stone projectiles to attack, Torre wanted to charge out, but without enough firepower, the warriors would suffer heavy casualties. If hit by a stone projectile, the impact would be significant. The load-bearing beasts' defense was extremely strong, and the stone projectiles had no effect on them.

Cook and his companions took a quick look and retreated. Now, they were torn about whether to help and how to help. Cook looked at Lori and Mitchie, and Lori and Mitchie looked at Cook. Cook scratched his head and asked, "What do you mean?"

"You're the leader, how do you decide what to do?" Lori and Mitchie said in unison, as they trusted Cook from their previous adventures.

"Shall we leave?" Cook tentatively asked.

"Not good! They are all students from the academy." Mitchie objected.

"Exactly, the boars' hides are worth several points each, and the tusks, and the boars' heads are the best-tasting among low-level magical beasts, and the piglets are highly valued by the Magic City... Altogether, this is worth hundreds of points, enough for Mitchie and me for three months of magic core consumption." Lori calculated, counting on her fingers.

"Uh! The boar meat doesn't count for points, but Rea is an expert in eating meat!" Cook said, once again not understanding women. Since they decided to help, they needed a plan. Cook checked the surrounding terrain from a distance, as the underground world's terrain was complex, and due to the lack of light, magical creatures had better senses than humans, with extremely sensitive hearing and smell. Cook did not dare to get too close. While Cook was checking the terrain, Lori and Mitchie prepared their attack and defense magic scrolls, healing potions, and magic staves, and also prepared magic crystals or magic cores for restoring magic power. However, Lori and Mitchie used magic power restoration potions, which were made by using a special solution to separate the elements from magic crystals or magic cores and then dissolve them into the solution. These potions restored a limited amount of magic power, as the mages' bodies could not instantly handle a large amount of magic power, and the solution could only separate a certain percentage of the elements from the magic crystals or magic cores. Even a small amount of magic power restoration was extremely expensive on the market, and these potions were SSS-level in difficulty to make, as the solution's composition was crucial. If the solution was off by a bit, it could not separate the elements, and the percentage of separated elements was also crucial. The higher the percentage of elements in the solution, the higher the quality of the potion.

Moreover, making magic power restoration potions did not mean that the longer the time, the more elements the solution contained. If the time, temperature, or the percentage of elements in the solution was off, it would explode. This was the upper limit, and once exceeded, it would "boom." Therefore, these potions were classified as SSS-level, as they were too dangerous, and most potion makers did not dare to attempt them.

Of course, Cook had a magic eye and knew exactly what elements were contained, so he made mostly high-quality magic power restoration potions, and all the healing potions were perfect quality. He also made agility potions and other auxiliary potions, filling the pockets of Lori and Mitchie's mage robes with them, as these pockets were designed to hold items that might be needed during combat.

When Cook returned, Lori and Mitchie were already prepared. In a shaded area, Cook took out a magic torch and drew a diagram on the ground, saying, "I carefully checked, and there are two stone platforms about twenty meters above the ground here. You two will stand on these platforms, but you cannot stand at the edge, as that would be within the boars' line of sight for their stone projectiles. You should stand back and only attack the boars below the platforms."

"But the platforms are so narrow, the stone projectiles might still land on them," Lori carefully examined the two platforms and said.

"Hehe, I will use a thorn spell to create a simple defense. The stone projectiles are not direct attacks, so it should hold," Cook chuckled.

"What about you?" Mitchie asked.

"Hehe, I am a hunter, so I will use a hunter's method. I plan to capture the piglets." Cook pointed to a group of piglets, but there were two very fat sows, and whether magical or wild beasts, females in the breeding period were the most aggressive.

Lori and Mitchie did not ask how Cook would do it. Cook then used the thorn spell to send Lori and Mitchie to the two platforms, and he also went up to the platforms, using the thorn spell to create a dense thorn shield on the platforms, which was actually made of vine-like thorns, as Cook did not use thorns with spikes or poison, but simple vine seeds.

Since it was dark, and the thorn spell had a low magic fluctuation, the boars and the supply team did not notice. However, the two platforms where Lori and Mitchie stood were some distance from the battle, so Cook looked around, secured Rea in his arms, and looked like a big belly from a distance. Then Cook drank a perfect-quality agility potion, strength potion, and invisibility potion and approached the boars.

"Damn!" When Cook was about 200 meters away from the boars, they noticed him. Cook realized that although he had drunk the invisibility potion, Rea had not. Seeing the boars charging at him, Cook cursed and raised his horn bow.

"Twang! Twang!" Two dull sounds of the bowstring, and two three-pronged arrows were shot by Cook.

"Roar!!!" Both arrows hit the boars, but since the charging boars were not fully grown, their stone skin spell was not very strong. Even so, the arrows did not cause serious injuries. The two boars roared and continued to charge, but this roar made three adult boars charge at Cook.

"Thorn spell!" Seeing the charging boars, Cook threw a handful of thorn seeds and quickly retreated several dozen meters.

The boars covered 200 meters in less than three seconds, while Cook only ran about 100 meters in three seconds. When the boars stepped on the spot where Cook had stood, countless thorns entangled them, and the speed of five boars slowed down.

"Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!" Cook was already prepared and shot three arrows in two seconds.

Then Cook threw another handful of thorn seeds and continued to run. This time, he ran 150 meters before stopping. Looking back, he saw that he had only killed one boar, which had an arrow through its eye, and it was a young boar. Another adult boar had blood dripping from its mouth, clearly injured by Cook, while the third one missed.

Four boars charged over like four speeding cars, covering 100 meters in two seconds.

"Thorn spell!" Cook shouted, and countless thorns emerged. Here, Cook used thorns with high resilience, but the thorns were shattered by the massive kinetic energy of the two adult boars. The boars only paused slightly before charging again.

"Explosion fireball!"

"Fireball!"

However, the two adult boars only paused for less than a second, and Lori and Mitchie's magic attacks arrived. Lori used a level four explosion fireball, while Mitchie used a level one fireball.

"Boom!" Lori's explosion fireball was the first to take effect. A level four spell against a level three magical beast was a piece of cake. One of the adult boars was blown several meters away, and the explosion was powerful enough to throw a two-ton adult boar several meters. The other one had its leg blown off and was howling on the ground.

Lori's fireball caused burns to the two young boars, but they were only minor injuries.

"Whoosh! Whoosh!" However, the two young boars were dazed by the explosion's shockwave, and Cook's two three-pronged arrows pierced their eyes.

"Roar! Roar! Roar!" The adult boar with the injured leg howled, and the other adult boars, hearing the howl, immediately charged at Cook. Even from 400 meters away, Cook could feel the strong vibrations in the ground.

"Hehe!" Cook chuckled, took out a handful of black iron caltrops from his spatial bag, which were a weapon against thieves, but Cook had soaked them in a powerful paralyzing agent, a gift from his mentor Lyle. Then Cook approached the place where the two sows were guarding the piglets from another direction, as that area was where Lori and Mitchie were fighting.

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