Chapter 96

"Thank you! No need!" A voice came from behind Disan, it was Cook. Since Loli had kissed Cook once, the relationship among the three of them had become somewhat strange. Cook didn't want anyone else to join his team, and with decades of life experience, Cook understood the saying 'no good deed goes unpunished.'

"Hehe, this junior probably doesn't understand the underground world..." Disan was taken aback, but then he laughed and said, calling Cook a junior affectionately.

"Let's go!" Cook completely ignored Disan and directly spoke to Loli and Miki. The big-mouthed creature on Cook's shoulder stared at Disan with its dark eyes.

Loli and Miki had already rested for a while while Cook was collecting the spoils of war. For mages, maintaining a high level of mental energy is crucial. Although Loli and Miki didn't know how much loot there was, they trusted Cook. Cook carried three large leather bags, with two of them on Little Gray and one on his back.

Tore and the others knew what was in the leather bags and were speechless. When Cook unfastened his chest armor and revealed Little Lei sleeping inside, Tore and the others were even more surprised. Many of the students looked enlightened, as Cook was famous in the academy for being the only one to bring a baby to school.

Cook, Loli, and Miki said goodbye to Tore and continued along the map. Tore even gave Cook a map he had drawn, which detailed the territories of certain magical beasts. Tore's supply team wouldn't go to the B area supply point; they would bring the spoils back to the A1 area. As for the B area supply point, other supply teams would be sent there.

Disan watched as Cook and the others disappeared into the darkness, his fists clenched tightly, his fingers turning white, and a fierce look in his eyes.

After walking for not long, Cook put the three leather bags into his spatial bag. The temperature inside the spatial bag was extremely low, so the food wouldn't spoil. The potions and arrows originally in Cook's spatial bag were transferred to Loli and Miki's spatial rings. Miki's spatial ring was given to Cook by Doctor after the Morpheus incident, indicating that Doctor's influence in the council had increased.

"What is this?" Seeing Cook put the three leather bags into the spatial bag, which only had a capacity of two cubic meters, although the leather bags were large, two cubic meters could hold quite a lot. The space inside the spatial bag had no shape, like a soft bubble, which could change shape at will. Therefore, as long as the total volume did not exceed two cubic meters, anything could be put inside.

"Delicious!" In this world, pigs were rarely raised because the pork had a fishy taste, as they had not been domesticated and were not clean, so people didn't like to eat it. Most people ate beef and mutton, and even fish was rarely eaten. The dishes in this world were only cooked by roasting or boiling. Cook, however, loved the braised dishes from Sichuan cuisine on Earth, which were essential for drinking.

"It's magic pig meat!" Miki suddenly realized.

"No, I've already asked Tore to bring the pork back to the academy. It's thousands of pounds of meat. How could I carry it, and besides, in the wild, we won't lack for meat." Cook shook his head and said.

"Then what is it?" Miki asked curiously.

"Hehe, after the mission is completed, I'll cook a good meal for you." Cook thought that if he said he brought pig organs, these two beauties might make him throw them away.

It took Cook and the others more than three hours to reach the B area supply point. This supply point was actually a guarded cave, usually guarded by three small teams in rotation. This was both a guard post set up by the Mage Guild in the underground world and a place for adventurers to resupply. However, the prices here were more than twice as high as in the magic city.

Moreover, entering these supply points required paying points, three points for each entry and exit, which was quite greedy. However, the academy students only paid one point symbolically. The points in the academy were the same as those in the Mage Guild, but the academy points could buy many more items.

At this supply point, people could not only buy items sold by the supply point but also items sold by other adventurers. Cook and Loli looked around, and Cook bought several materials for making magic potions collected by other adventurers.

After resting sufficiently, Cook and the others left the supply point and walked for four hours, finally reaching the C6 area. This area was near the edge of the first underground layer, with many volcanoes and large, interconnected caves. Fortunately, the Mage Guild released a magic signal in the sky of each area to prevent getting lost, but even so, many adventurers still got lost here every year.

"Up ahead is the mission location, around that volcanic lake." With Cook's Magic Eye, the three of them easily avoided some unnecessary trouble. With the Thorn Spell, Cook found it to be the best tool for adventuring. When encountering a cliff, he could use the Thorn Spell to lift people over it, like an elevator. When encountering a hidden river, he could use the Thorn Spell to create a floating bridge. Although it consumed more magic power, it greatly shortened the travel time.

The consequence of Cook's actions was that the people protecting him were left behind. Each time Cook crossed a cliff or a hidden river, he would decompose the Thorn Spell, a common magic that allowed some magic power to be recovered by decomposing the magic he had cast, but it consumed mental energy. Therefore, most people wouldn't do this, as magic power was easy to replenish, but mental energy was not.

The first thing Cook needed to do was find a safe place. The volcanic lake area was illuminated by the red-hot lava, and the surrounding area was bathed in red for thousands of meters. Cook found a cave on a cliff several hundred meters from the volcanic lake, which was dozens of meters above the ground and very safe.

Cook cast the Thorn Spell three times to enter the cave. The cave was about ten meters deep, with a large interior and a small entrance. The inside of the cave was very dry, but there was a lot of dust. However, Cook and the others had tents on Little Gray's back, which they had bought at the supply point.

Loli took out a metal cylinder as thick as a wrist, which was a water generator, powered by a water crystal to activate a water magic array. When the water crystal was embedded, a stream of water came out. Loli wastefully used the water to clean the cave, and Cook felt very pained, but Loli's magic crystals were free, thanks to her awesome teacher.

The first thing Cook needed to prepare was not food but bathing water for Loli and Miki. To do this, Cook had to use a dagger to dig a pool at the back of the cave. By the time Cook and the others finished eating, several hours had passed.

"Alright, you two rest. Big Mouth will stay here and keep watch with Little Gray. I'll go scout around first." Cook tidied up his battle items and prepared to scout, as the mission only mentioned that a strange creature had appeared in the volcanic lake area, with no specific description.

Little Lei was left behind, but Loli was somewhat unwilling, as Little Lei only wanted to sleep with Loli, but Loli couldn't tolerate Little Lei's harassing actions. After all, Loli was still a girl, but there was nothing she could do about it.

Cook used the Thorn Spell to descend from the cave and scanned the area with his Magic Eye. The Magic Eye was somewhat limited here, as the lava lake appeared as a red expanse. However, Cook wasn't looking at the lava lake but the surrounding area. He didn't find anything suspicious, so he took out a black pair of glasses from his pocket, a magic eye given by his mentor Lyle, which allowed him to see in the dark, with a range of about 500 meters, which was enough.

The first thing Cook needed to do was to familiarize himself with the terrain around the lava lake. Completing a mission wasn't as simple as it seemed, especially for an unknown strange creature, which required extra caution. Cook used the rocks and crevices around the lake to hide and began to investigate.

The lava lake wasn't large, as the lava flowed out through a two-meter-wide lava river. Cook followed the lava river for a while and found that the lava flowed directly into a cave, so he gave up. Cook spent several hours investigating the lava lake twice but didn't find any strange creatures, only a few low-level fire-type magical beasts and a group of second-level fire lizards, about a dozen in number, but no strange creatures.

When Cook was about to return, his Magic Eye suddenly spotted a figure. This figure was also searching for something, which wasn't unusual, but what puzzled Cook was that there was another figure following about a hundred meters behind. This was what puzzled Cook.

Cook secretly followed them for a while. They even passed below the cave where Loli and Miki were staying. Cook finally saw clearly that the first figure was dressed as a thief, and the second as a warrior. In the Magic Eye state, the warrior showed a high-level warrior aura, while the thief was only a mid-level thief. If it were a high-level thief, they would have sensed the warrior long ago. Cook was even more puzzled. A high-level warrior was tracking a mid-level thief. Could it be that the thief had some secret?

Cook didn't continue to follow but returned to the cave when the two figures were far away. However, as soon as he entered the cave, he was stunned by what he saw.

Little Lei was tightly hanging on Loli's chest, and Loli's sleepwear was torn. Little Lei's mouth was sucking on a sensitive part of Loli's chest, and Loli was in tears, clearly having resisted. But as a mage, Loli was no match for a baby dragon.

"Cook! Quickly take the little one away!" Loli, seeing Cook, immediately shouted hoarsely, while Miki was at a loss, but at least Loli was only bare from the waist up.

Cook finally managed to save Loli from Little Lei's clutches, and Loli quickly retreated into the tent, shouting, "I'll never take care of this little thing again!"

Cook was also at a loss. It seemed that Little Lei had given Loli a memorable lesson. Miki looked at Cook with a complex expression and then went to comfort Loli. When she saw Cook glaring at her, she giggled. Cook had no choice; hitting Little Lei, who looked like a baby but had a very strong defense, was out of the question. In terms of strength, Cook was no match for the little one, so he could only glare.

"Hmph! If you don't behave, you won't get any meat to eat." Cook said with a huff.

"Yaya!" Little Lei, hearing that she wouldn't get any meat, became visibly upset, waving her chubby little hands and making sounds.

"Hmph! If you don't behave, you won't get any meat to eat, and you won't get any milk either." Cook, seeing the little one's obvious distress, threatened again.

"Yaya!" This time, the little one's eyes were filled with tears, clearly feeling very wronged by not getting any meat or milk.

"If you behave well, you'll get meat to eat and milk to drink, okay?" Cook, seeing the little one's pitiful expression, felt his heart soften and kissed her, saying.

"Yaya!" The little one said, clearly understanding, and kissed Cook on the face, hugging his neck tightly with her chubby little hands.

"Alright, alright, I'll make you something to eat." Cook, feeling his breathing restricted by the little one's tight hug, quickly said. There was nothing he could do; the little one was too strong.

When Cook made the food again, Loli, with a red face, came out of the tent. Of course, Cook's eyes immediately scanned a certain part of Loli's side, and Loli, being a mage with a sensitive mental perception, felt Cook's gaze and became very angry.

"Yuck!" Loli took a bite of the roasted meat and said angrily.

"Uh!" Cook thought it tasted fine, and he saw Little Lei eating with her mouth full of oil. He didn't believe it and tasted the roasted meat in Little Lei's hand, but found nothing wrong with it.

"This is no good either!" Loli then took a sip of the juice and said angrily.

"This is the juice of the Goldfruit from the elf race, your favorite." Cook explained.

"Hmph! If I say it's not good, it's not good!" Loli said and left angrily.

Cook shrugged helplessly and continued to feed Little Lei, who was a glutton. Little Lei ate as much as four or five warriors, as warriors consumed a lot of energy and needed to eat a lot. The fastest way to recover energy was to eat and rest. Even healing spells didn't have this effect, and of course, there were energy recovery potions, but they were much more expensive than food.

"Hmm?" Cook felt Miki shaking him, and he responded with a "Hmm."

Miki whispered, "Should we check?" and pointed to the tent.

"You should go! There are some things I can't say." Cook whispered back.

"Rubbish, you got a big advantage today. Miss Loli feeling wronged is normal." Miki said irritably.

"I didn't know!" Cook was at a loss, as the relationship between Miki and Loli was quite strange. They were first a teacher and student, but more often like sisters. Loli's family had not officially given her a status, and after entering the Unrivaled Academy, they became classmates.

"Hmph, are you going or not?" Miki pinched Cook hard.

"Hehe, my lady, I'll kiss you and go." Cook laughed and kissed Miki's smooth cheek before she could react. In Cook's heart, Miki was the best choice for a wife, even with the ambiguous relationship with Loli, he still placed Miki first.

However, just then, Big Mouth, who had been out, flew back, flapping its wings. Big Mouth called out a few times, and Cook immediately said, "Not good, someone is coming."

Cook quickly went to the edge of the cave and slowly poked his head out. He was surprised to see that there were dozens of people below, apparently a team. The team set up camp at the base of the cliff where the cave was located. Miki and Loli also poked their heads out, surprised.

The three of them silently retreated. Loli asked first, "Cook, what should we do?"

"Ah, if we go down now, we'll definitely cause a misunderstanding. There are dozens of people in that team, and we're no match for them. I'm not afraid; at worst, I'll be a prisoner for a while. But you two won't be safe in this wild area; anything can happen." Cook sighed and said.

"What should we do then?" Miki asked anxiously.

"Let's treat it as a period of hard training. We have enough food for half a month, and the fire element here is very dense. You two can practice, and I'll continue to study potion formulas. These guys can't stay for half a month, right?" Cook said with a bitter smile.

Cook then had Kaka set up a large net at the cave entrance. Big Mouth, being small and black, was not a concern, but Cook was troubled by how to solve the physiological needs of the three of them, which was the most pressing issue.

Before Cook could come up with a solution, the volcanic lake area became lively again. This time, two teams arrived, setting up camp close to the small lava lake. Cook saw from a distance that the three teams were not on good terms, as they were a certain distance apart, and there were many guards.

"From the looks of it, something big is happening here. Going out now would only deepen the misunderstanding." Cook, seeing this, became even more cautious. The most pressing issue was how to solve the physiological needs of the three of them.