Angel walked forward another few kiloters. Besides the Six-Tailed Fox he had seen earlier, he now spotted a Cossix Fire Salamander surfacing from the magma.
However, this Cossix Fire Salamander only poked its head out, glanced around, and quickly subrged back into the orange-red magma, disappearing from view.
Angel had a feeling that the Cossix Fire Salamander took a glance in his direction before diving back into the magma.
Could it have discovered ?
"It shouldn’t be, right?" Angel muttered to himself. His entire body was concealed by the Nightmare Illusion Node, and he had deliberately erased all lingering pheromones. Even a True Knowledge Wizard might not detect his presence, let alone the Cossix Fire Salamander, which didn’t seem to be Wizard Level.
Perhaps I’m overthinking it. Angel shook his head, choosing not to dwell on it, and continued onward.
Throughout this journey, every few kiloters, Angel would encounter a few unique elental creatures. However, he didn’t disturb them and rely circled around.
Yet, in just this half-day’s journey, Angel already felt a profound sense of awe.
It is recorded in the common records of the Wizards’ Realm that the birth of elental life in nature is extrely difficult. It must et three conditions: extre environnts, coincidental timing, and a regional elental concentration sufficient to sustain the energy consumption of elental life.
This is different from the fire creatures Angel encountered in Duling Garden. Those were ford from Reeves’ elental energy, not the natural forces of nature. These artificially ford elental creatures still carried so of Reeves’ elental attributes, which is why Angel didn’t choose to capture those fire creatures back then.
But in this region, the fire creatures Angel encountered were undoubtedly all naturally born.
In the outside world, a volcanic region supporting the birth of even one or two elental creatures is already quite remarkable. But here, despite nurturing so many fire creatures, the power of the fire elents remains abundant, as if it has never been consud.
Such a place is simply unimaginable in the outside world.
Amid these thoughts, Angel arrived at a fissure in the ground. This fissure was different from the previous ones; it could easily be called a "gorge," about ten ters wide, with large amounts of gray-black smoke rising from it. Peering through the smoke, one could see the vivid orange-red, rolling magma river below.
The temperature of the magma river was exceedingly high, distorting the space above the fissure with heat. Furthermore, as Angel stood next to the fissure, he could clearly see massive ground flas shooting up from the magma river, reaching skyward.
Compared to the ground flas he encountered before, these were even more terrifying.
Ordinary apprentices, even with flying vehicles, would probably not dare to fly over.
However, for Angel, although these ground flas were formidable, they couldn’t inflict too much harm on him. His reaction speed was fast enough to surpass the speed of the ground fla strikes.
With this in mind, Angel pushed off with one foot and leaped over the fissure.
After avoiding five consecutive ground fla strikes, Angel safely reached the other side of the fissure.
Having landed, Angel did not imdiately continue forward. Instead, he turned back to look at the vibrant orange river flowing in the fissure.
"Sothing feels off. Even with frequent ground flas, they shouldn’t have sprayed at five tis in just ten ters, right?" Angel sensed that the ground fla strikes earlier were abnormal, as if they were deliberately targeting him.
Could an elental creature in the magma river have discovered him? Yet, he was clearly hidden from start to finish.
Or was it truly a coincidence that five consecutive ground flas aid at him?
Angel pondered for a mont, deciding to test once more. This ti, instead of flying across, he took a step forward and suspended himself in the air above the fissure.
Rumble, rumble, rumble—
Three consecutive loud explosions erupted from the magma river. Three pillars of ground fla, enveloping glowing high-temperature magma, shot directly at Angel.
"I’m really being targeted," Angel exclaid, dodging the ground fla strikes and retreating to the edge of the fissure. He called out, "Earl Mi!"
As his words fell, the shadow on the ground boiled like a black swamp, churning up. Shortly after, the outline of a head with Blue Lantern Flowers erged from the shadow—it was Earl Mi!
Earl Mi lifted his head, his scarlet eyes looking over. Even without Angel issuing a formal command, Earl Mi understood his intentions.
With this, Earl Mi compressed his form, transford back into a shadow, and darted forth like an arrow along the edge of the fissure, diving toward the magma river below.
Upon reaching the sky above the magma river, the black shadow turned bright red, resembling boiling blood flas, and plunged into the bubbling magma.
Thirty seconds later, dozens of ground flas erupted from the magma river, each reaching several tens of ters in height.
However, the power of the ground flas soon weakened, and their numbers decreased.
Two minutes later, Earl Mi flew out from the magma river, quickly returning to the edge of the fissure and rging into Angel’s shadow.
Once Earl Mi entered the shadow, he gradually erged, revealing his head again.
The next mont, Angel watched as Earl Mi opened his mouth, and a Fire Butterfly, vibrant and orange, flew out from within.
"So this is the elental creature causing the ground fla disturbances?" Angel asked softly.
Earl Mi nodded, the Blue Lantern Flower on his head swaying as he communicated waves of thought directly into Angel’s mind.
Earl Mi conveyed the mory of how he had chased the Fire Butterfly in the magma.
In the vision, the Fire Butterfly seed nearly fused with the surrounding magma, and with each wing flap, spiral fire elental shocks flew towards Earl Mi. Earl Mi redirected these fire elental shocks upwards, creating the towering ground fla pillars earlier.
"So it was really responsible," Angel once again focused his gaze on the Fire Butterfly.
Despite being released from Earl Mi’s grasp, the Fire Butterfly showed no fear. It even fluttered around near the Blue Lantern Flower, finally landing on it, seemingly quite at ease.
With so observation, Angel understood why the Fire Butterfly was so unafraid.
Because this Fire Butterfly... was an Elental Sprite.
Elental Sprites are also elental creatures. They are referred to as sprites because they are in their juvenile phase of elental life. During this phase, elental creatures are generally small, mischievous, and endearing, much like elves.
This Fire Butterfly was such a juvenile elental creature.
And such Elental Sprites are always fearless, just as Jon once taught him with a saying from his childhood: "Newborn calves are not afraid of tigers."
It didn’t care about the consequences of the ground fla strikes or who the targeted person was; it simply did as it pleased.
Even when it was captured by Earl Mi, it wasn’t too scared and was still curious about the Blue Lantern Flower on Earl Mi’s head.
Ignorant and fearless.
Angel looked at this Elental Sprite, not knowing what to say.
Elental Creatures have a certain level of intelligence, but the vast majority of Elental Sprites are quite unintelligent and act purely on instinct. This Fire Butterfly belongs to the unintelligent type. Even if Angel wanted to ask this Fire Butterfly sothing, he wouldn’t get a response.
However, it’s precisely because Elental Sprites are unintelligent that Angel could roughly guess that the Elental Shock the Fire Butterfly launched at him before was probably not intentional, just instinctive.
Fire Elentals generally have a mischievous nature.
When Angel was at Silent Hill, he was captured by Bogura and fell into a short coma. During that coma, the Fire Elentals that Bogura kept in the fireplace would occasionally pull his hair, burning his once golden hair into a ss. These Fire Elentals weren’t really trying to attack Angel; they were just plain mischievous.
In terms of behavior, Fire Elentals are the most classic troublemakers among the Elental Sprites.
For the absurd attacks from these little troublemakers, Angel can understand it based on their identity; however, there is another thing he doesn’t understand right now.
"How did it discover ?"
Due to intelligence reasons, the Fire Butterfly definitely can’t answer this question. Thinking about it, Angel believes there are actually only two possibilities.
The first possibility is that this Fire Butterfly has a special detection ability; it can spot Angel hidden within an Illusion Technique.
The second possibility is that it’s not the Fire Butterfly that’s special, but rather this side of the Tidal World, this area, or the Elental Creatures here with a general insight ability.
The first situation might be okay since only the Fire Butterfly can see him; but if it’s the second, doesn’t that an all the Elental Creatures he’s encountered have actually seen him?
Angel thought of the Fire Salamander from Koshi he saw earlier; it poked its head out from the Magma, glanced around, then looked in his direction before slowly subrging itself... At that ti, Angel vaguely felt sothing was off. Now that he thinks about it, could it be that this Fire Salamander actually saw him, that’s why it hid?
"There’s really such a possibility." Angel pinched his eyebrows with so distress, thinking he was hiding his figure to gather information; yet if Fire Elentals truly can perceive him, forget gathering information, his own information has probably already been leaked.
Angel sighed: "Forget it, let’s not think about it anymore." Pretend you haven’t been discovered and continue forward. When he encounters Fire Elentals again, he’ll test it out then.
Having determined the next strategy, Angel looked again at the Fire Butterfly resting on the Blue Lantern Flower.
How should he handle this Fire Elental?
This question’s deeper aning is: should he release it, or should he capture it?
Before coming to Tidal World, Angel had thoroughly researched information on Elental Creatures. Elental Creatures are very useful to a Wizard; not only can they assist in practicing Spell Technique on the elental side, they can also serve as casting dia for quickly releasing powerful attacks. Moreover, if nurtured well, Elental Creatures themselves are a formidable force.
It could be said that as an Official Wizard, having an Elental Creature partner is indispensable.
So how does one choose an Elental Creature suitable for themselves?
Aside from artificially cultivated Elental Creatures, in terms of choosing naturally occurring Elental Creatures, the current mainstream view in the Wizards’ Realm has two opinions: The first is to choose Elental Sprites and start nurturing from the juvenile phase, accompanying them; the second is to choose maturing Elental Creatures, which already have certain abilities and can directly assist the master in practicing elental side Spell Technique.
These two choices have their pros and cons. Generally speaking, Wizards on the elental side will choose to nurture from Elental Sprites, because self-cultivation makes them more loyal, and one can influence the Elental Sprite’s future developnt according to their own desire.
Most importantly, once Elental Sprites mature, there is a high probability they can give the host an ability: Elentalization.
With the ability of Elentalization, a Wizard can basically ignore the majority of physical attacks.
The advantage of choosing a juvenile Elental Sprite is very significant, but the downside is also obvious; the cost of nurturing Elental Sprites is too high, and the nurturing period is too long, often spanning decades or centuries.
Choosing a maturing Elental Creature has existing abilities, allowing it to have considerable combat strength directly. But there are disadvantages too; a maturing Elental Creature already has a certain amount of wisdom. They may not want to follow you, and even if they do, their abilities and attributes may not suit you.
If Angel were to choose, he could actually go for either option.
For the juvenile phase, he does not lack Magic Crystals, so he can nurture Elental Sprites without concern for the cost.
For the maturing phase, he too can choose it, because he doesn’t primarily rely on Elental Creatures for combat. To him, Elental Creatures are just a dium to assist in cultivating elental abilities.
Since both are viable, this Fire Butterfly can indeed be taken as well.
Angel crouched down and gently touched the Fire Butterfly, wanting to sense its internal elental structure... But at that mont, the Fire Butterfly flapped its wings, and a Fire Tornado went straight for Angel’s face.
An infanthood Fire Butterfly’s Fire Tornado isn’t strong by itself, but here the Fire Elents were too active, causing the AOE of this Fire Tornado to be extrely large.
Angel wasn’t much affected himself, but he accidentally activated the nearby underground Magma Lake.
Torrents of magma surged upwards like an inverted flaming waterfall from the ground.
Angel quickly flew into the air to avoid getting burned.
After the flas slightly cald down, Angel glanced at this Fire Butterfly with a slightly stern expression. He couldn’t be bothered to make a choice and directly snapped his fingers at the Fire Butterfly.
Off you go.
The Fire Butterfly turned into a blazing arc and fell into the depths of the crevice.
"Let soone else discipline this troublemaker later." Angel dusted his hands and said without hesitation.
As for talent? When he had touched the Fire Butterfly earlier, its internal fla structure was quite ordinary, and Angel truly didn’t find anything especially talented.
Anyway, there are bound to be many more Elental Creatures and Elental Sprites here; no need to waste ti with a troublemaker.
Without hesitation, Angel turned and left.
In the next few miles, Angel didn’t encounter any more Elental Creatures; perhaps they all hid within the magma. However, he saw many different kinds of Demonic Materials exposed on the Scorched Earth. These included gemstones, magical ores, and remnants left by Fire Elental Creatures, like fla feathers and fire-affinity nails.
He didn’t touch any of these things, because there were too many to carry, and most of them were Low-level materials. In the future, he could issue tasks at the Barbarian Cave and let the apprentices co here to collect them.
His priority now is to explore and gather intelligence, everything else cos after.
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