Chapter 97

Thank you, Xia Mo Qiu Jin, for your votes and the PK votes from the mobile app by CaP Yun Hu → Mi Hu, He Ku Zai Ji Xu, and Xiao Shu Chong 2668239. I haven't been on the mobile app for a while, sorry!

In the following days, a small lava lake actually welcomed another team, making it four teams in total. The area around the lava lake was tightly surrounded, and some low-level monsters were in trouble. However, these people were several hundred meters away from the lake, completely surrounding the lava lake. Cook had been working hard these past few days, using tools to dig horizontally. About ten meters from the cave entrance, there was a crack. This crack was not very wide, and no one could pass through it. There was also a sound of flowing water inside, which Cook discovered while examining the surrounding terrain. Cook's task was to clear this ten-meter distance, mainly to solve physiological needs and to have a stable water source, as water magic crystals were limited.

It took Cook three days to clear the ten-meter distance. Not only were Micky and Lori's spatial rings filled with broken stones, but the cave was also piled high with rocks. Finally, the crack was cleared. Cook took advantage of the lava lake's eruption to throw all the broken stones into the crack.

The lava lake was not calm. Every day, there was a period when a large amount of lava would erupt. After three days of observation by Micky and Lori, they found that whenever the lava lake erupted, the four mercenary teams would become extremely tense. Cook and his companions had no idea why these teams were here, and these people were not of low rank; most were mid-level professionals, with a few high-level professionals. Cook could see this clearly through his Magic Eye.

"We need to figure out what these guys are doing here and find another way to leave." Cook looked at the hundreds of people in the four teams below and felt a bit worried.

Cook spent a day secretly examining the surrounding environment, focusing on the sky because there was no way to go down the ground, and digging a tunnel to escape was not feasible. Cook had an extremely sharp dagger, but it took him three days to clear just ten meters. Considering the teams had set up a perimeter of several thousand meters, Cook thought this idea was not feasible. The only way out was through the sky.

Using the light from the lava lake, Cook looked up. He wasn't sure how high the space was, but he vaguely saw a dark shadow above, about a hundred meters away, which looked like a crack. Cook sent Kaka to investigate first.

When Kaka returned, Cook picked up two strands of spider silk from behind Kaka. Cook had instructed Kaka to measure the height and width of the crack. The height was about 1.5 meters, and the width was about ten meters, clearly a crack.

"Isn't this too dangerous?" Lori asked anxiously when Cook shared his idea.

Cook shook his head and said, "It shouldn't be dangerous. We are in danger here. Those high-level professionals could probably jump up in a few seconds. Right now, they are not paying attention to us. The distance from the ground to the crack is about 200 meters, which is a very safe distance. Even if the crack doesn't lead anywhere, we are still safe. It's a 200-meter cliff, and as long as Miss Lori holds the fort, no one will dare to come up."

"Alright, but when do we go up?" Lori agreed after some thought.

"Tomorrow, when the lava lake erupts. But we need to do some disguising when we go up." Cook was confident. He believed he could cover a hundred meters in just ten seconds, and the second time, he thought he could do it in five seconds. He didn't want to make too much noise, but if he released the Thorn Spell densely, it would probably take only three seconds.

The next day, just before the lava lake erupted, Lori and the others were ready. There wasn't much to prepare; they just took a bath, and even Little Gray was forced to take a bath. They packed all their belongings, but with Little Gray weighing several dozen kilograms, Cook would have to make three trips. The distance was high, and Cook didn't want Lori and Micky to climb themselves, so he would use the Thorn Spell to pull them up, which would make too much noise.

"Boom!" The familiar sound of the lava lake erupting made Cook act immediately. For safety, Cook hid Kaka under the cliff. If anyone came to harass them, Kaka could give them a surprise.

"Hold on tight!" Cook whispered. He was dressed in warrior attire to reduce his weight. The first to go up was Micky, as Lori could still respond to any issues below.

Micky tightly hugged Cook. Micky and Cook had already taken a secondary invisibility potion, a perfect one. Cook had a vine seed hidden in his palm, and his magic power surged out, making the seed grow upward according to his will. By the time it reached thirty meters, the vine was as thick as a thumb. Cook tested the vine's strength and found it to be solid. He then used his strength to climb up quickly, covering thirty meters in two seconds. The vine was not thick enough to go further, so Cook released the Thorn Spell again. After four times, Cook finally carried Micky up to the crack. Fortunately, Big Mouth had already come up to guard, and Cook didn't see him, but his Magic Eye showed no magical fluctuations in the long, narrow crack. Cook patted Micky's hand and went back down.

The second time, with the vine from the previous release, Cook took seven seconds to go up and down, bringing Little Gray up. Little Gray had never experienced such a situation and tightly hugged Micky's leg, clearly frightened.

"Let's go, Miss Lori!" Cook said to Lori when he came down, handing her a bottle of secondary invisibility potion.

"What did you call me?" Lori didn't take the potion but glared at Cook.

"Lily, let's go!" Cook was speechless. What was this woman thinking? He said helplessly.

"Hmph! Not sincere!" Lori huffed, staring at Cook with big eyes.

"Lily, stop being silly. Once we're out, you can do whatever you want. Okay?" Cook pleaded softly.

"Hmph, as if I'm being unreasonable. Do you think I'm unreasonable in your heart, hmm..." Lori was angry. Before she could finish, Cook kissed her.

"Let's go, Lily!" After a while, Cook awkwardly removed his hand from Lori's certain parts, and Lori blushed.

"Cook, I love you!" Lori whispered in Cook's ear as she tightly hugged him.

Feeling the warm breath and the unique scent of a woman, Cook became aroused and almost fled to the vine formed by the Thorn Spell.

"Wait, you forgot to drink the invisibility potion!" Lori's urgent voice said in Cook's ear.

"Uh!" Cook had already climbed a few meters and couldn't help but laugh bitterly. But he didn't have time to think about it. He used his hands to pull hard and fully released the Thorn Spell. From a distance, Lori and Cook looked like a moving thorn ball.

"They're out, they're out, everyone look!"

"They're out, above the lava lake."

"Magicians, magicians, cast spells."

"Cast a rain spell to cool the lava lake and don't let them escape."

When Cook was halfway up, he heard the people below start to get noisy. Cook didn't have the time to see what was happening; he just focused on climbing. The Thorn Spell was mainly to interfere with the archers, as the two targets were too obvious. At a hundred meters, mid-level archers could hit them with perfect accuracy, but a large group of Thorn Spells would disrupt their vision.

"Wow, someone, someone on the cliff, magicians!" Cook's luck was completely gone. Although the four teams surrounded the lava lake, they were still on alert. Soon, Cook's movement was noticed.

"Archers, archers... Uh! Beep! Beep!" The two thieves responsible for the alert were more useful than archers in the underground world. They were shouting loudly, but the vines suddenly came to life, like a rope, and threw the two thieves into a crack about 200 meters above. The thieves then saw the vines disappear and immediately blew the alert whistle.

When Cook and Lori reached the crack, they quickly moved to the side and were stunned by what was happening at the lava lake. They saw a dozen water magicians casting rain spells, forming a dark cloud above the lava lake with lightning flashing through it. Large water droplets continuously fell into the lava lake, creating a white mist. The surrounding light dimmed instantly.

"Wind magicians, disperse the mist!" Someone shouted loudly. Commanders in this era needed a good voice, as communication was mostly done by shouting.

A dozen mid-level magicians casting rain spells was predictable. The rain spell was a continuous spell, and as long as they kept inputting magic and mental power, the spell would continue. Cook looked down and saw a small team gathered at the bottom of the cliff.

"Whoosh!" Cook quickly pulled his head back when he saw an arrow whiz past where he had just looked.

"Damn! They're so accurate." Cook didn't dare to look down again, but Kaka was on alert below. If anyone passed, Kaka would attack them. Cook used a small mirror to look and saw that the people below had no desire to attack, just watching the cliff closely.

While Cook was observing the professionals below, Lori pulled him and pointed to the lava lake. "Cook, look, what's that?"

Cook looked and saw a small, fiery red dot above the lava lake. He used his Magic Eye and said, "It's a low-level fire monster." Cook's Magic Eye could distinguish the life force of living beings, but it could only roughly determine the level, such as low, mid, or high. If a creature suppressed its magical fluctuations, Cook couldn't detect it. In short, Cook's Magic Eye saw only magical and life fluctuations. The higher the brightness, the higher the magical fluctuation. The magical fluctuations above the lava lake were chaotic, with blue water magic, fiery red fire elements, and occasional purple lightning elements, as well as yellow earth elements. However, Cook saw the dot first with his eyes and then used his Magic Eye, so he could see clearly.

"A flying fire monster is probably not a low-level monster," Lori said slowly. The logic was simple: the dangers in the sky were many times greater than on the ground. Without powerful bloodlines and species, monsters couldn't fly in the sky. Of course, some low-level, flocking flying monsters were an exception.

"Um!" Cook just nodded. He understood that so many teams were here for this creature. The low-level fire monster must have come from the lava lake, and the dozen water magicians had cooled the lava to deal with the fire monster. However, Cook didn't understand how these teams would capture a flying monster.

"Sweat!" When Cook saw the four teams use dozens of magic torches and the lighting spell from fire magic to illuminate the area around the lava lake, and several eagle-like monsters, twice the size of regular eagles, called wind carvings, which were mid-level, flocking monsters used by large teams for communication, Cook saw at least ten of them. There were also twenty archers around the lava lake, but they used crossbows, which had a longer range and higher accuracy. Each archer had two warriors behind them and several crossbows, clearly to block the flight paths around the lava lake.

Moreover, these archers occupied high points. The underground space was only about a thousand meters high, and the crossbows had a range of about a thousand meters. The top was covered by dense water vapor, which fire monsters wouldn't enter due to the high concentration of water elements.

"Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!" What surprised Cook was that the archers started firing crossbows without any warning. The sound of the crossbows was continuous.

"Puff! Puff! Puff! Puff!" The crossbows emitted a puffing sound at about a thousand meters, and yellow smoke began to spread. Some black powder mixed with the water vapor and turned into black liquid.

"Strong paralyzing agent and super sticky liquid?" Cook looked at the color of the powder and said in surprise. He quickly took out several potions and gave them to Micky, Lori, Little Gray, Big Mouth, and Little Lei, and drank one himself. The team members around the lava lake put on masks to prevent inhaling the paralyzing agent.

"Damn! The antidote for the paralyzing agent is hard to make, costing dozens of points per bottle. This has cost hundreds of points! Damn, Big Mouth, go and catch that guy for me." Cook was angry and finally understood why the people below were waiting. In fact, Cook's complaint was unreasonable. Compared to the four teams, who used countless paralyzing agents and bought them with money, Cook just made them himself, which was a fundamental difference.

Cook told Big Mouth this because the target was smaller than Big Mouth's body. Although fire creatures could resist most toxins, there was a limit. The continuous falling sticky liquid, which was the black powder mixed with water vapor, hardened upon contact with high temperatures, making it an excellent tool against fire creatures.

Big Mouth's black eyes turned, and Cook knew he was about to bargain. Cook threw a soul crystal and said, "If you succeed, you get one!"

"Three!" Cook liked that Big Mouth only had three toes, so he could only bargain up to three, while Little Bad had five fingers, making him more advantageous in bargaining. However, this was a natural limitation.

"Two! Or I won't go." Cook pushed back one of Big Mouth's toes and said.

Big Mouth flapped his wings and flew away. Cook was already skilled at bargaining. Although there were archers and wind carvings surrounding the area, the middle area was covered by the paralyzing agent, and the wind carvings stayed far away. Big Mouth easily caught the target, which no one around knew was a flying monster taking advantage of the situation.

"Wind magicians, disperse the paralyzing agent!" Cook was watching the small creature, about the size of a sparrow, with a red beak and white eyes, being carried by Big Mouth, when he heard a loud shout below.

"Damn!" Cook knew it was bad.

"Here, the target was taken by these guys." At that moment, an archer responsible for surrounding Cook saw this and immediately shouted.