Wizard: Starting from the Skill Tree

The further he moved forward, the stronger the residual energy from the shockwave became, and the higher the temperature within the rock layers.

Within the range of Duke’s Spiritual Power perception, signals of Rule remnants grew increasingly dense.

Those subtle, fleeting Rule-level energies floated like fireflies in the darkness, each piece dimming, shrinking, and dissipating at a speed visible to the naked eye.

He must increase his speed.

When Duke finally poked his head out from the rock layers, he saw what the Black Stone Plain looked like now.

Calling this place a plain was no longer accurate.

The central area of the entire Black Stone Plain had been blasted into a huge depression, with circular rubble embankments pushed up hundreds of meters by the shockwave around its edge, decreasing towards the center, at whose heart was a still-churning lava lake.

The sky had been burned into a massive hole by the pillar of fire reaching towards the heavens, its edges showing a bizarre color between dark red and charred black, like a wound burned by flames and filled with ash.

Grayish-white volcanic ash continuously drifted down from the sky, covering everything within view, painting the whole Black Stone Plain into a deathly gray and white stillness.

At the center of the lava lake, the dark red pillar of fire, over two thousand meters in diameter, continued to gush, though its momentum was starting to wane.

Edges of the fire pillar’s lava surged outward continuously, forming wave upon wave of lava crest, crashing onto the circular rubble embankment, sending sparks tens of meters high into the air. The air was thick with the pungent smell of sulfur and the acrid stench of metal burning, making each breath feel like fire filling the lungs.

On the ground, there were holes everywhere, blackened and filled with not-yet-solidified lava, glowing dim red like countless blinking eyes from afar.

The army of the Six-Ring Tower had already retreated to the periphery.

In Duke’s perception, the signals of the Wizards were rapidly moving away from the explosion center in all directions, with slave creatures scrambling to escape as well.

The ruins were scattered with bodies, mostly those of the Molten Spirits, but also numerous enslaved creatures and a few low-level mages.

A half-corpse of a Magma Giant was lodged at an angle within a pile of rubble, its chest core shattered, with residual flames still emanating out along the cracks.

Not far away, several bodies of Level 1 Mages lay within the remnants of overturned tents, their robes burnt beyond recognition.

The troops of the Molten Spirits on Black Stone Plain had completely lost their fighting capability under this explosion, but the Wizards also paid a price.

The entire area resembled a slowly cooling furnace, littered with embers and traces of death everywhere.

Duke’s gaze passed over these scenes of destruction, finally landing deep within the lava lake.

His high fire affinity unfolded far beyond normal at this moment, allowing him to precisely differentiate between ordinary fire and lava and the Rule Power-infused residual energies, even as all other mages were fleeing.

The signals from the Rule remnants were dissipating at a rapid pace, but their dispersal was not uniform.

Most remnant rules diluted into the environment as they spread outward, but a small portion, an extremely small portion, flowed backward against the dispersal.

It’s as though something were attracting them, pulling them back from the explosion’s dispersion and converging them towards a fixed position within the depths of the lava lake.

Duke directed his Spiritual Power along the return flow, probing downwards, through the churning lava, through the fractured rock layers, into a vast underground cavity ripped open by the shockwave.

Deep beneath the lava lake, there was a faint yet extremely stable Rule-level energy signal.

It was not a dissipating ember; it was something already formed and stably present.

That signal burned quietly in his perception, like a heart buried in ashes, still beating.

Duke withdrew his Spiritual Power, taking a deep breath of the scorching air.

He knew he had found it, the small fragment of the core not completely obliterated after the Heart of Molten Fire’s explosion.

In the knowledge system of the Wizard Plane, such a thing is the most typical form of a Key of Rules.

Not deliberately manufactured, but a Rule crystalized naturally under extreme conditions.

The Heart of Molten Fire itself was one of the places where Flame Rules were most concentrated within the Four Spirits Elemental Plane. Its explosion created a high-temperature, high-pressure environment that provided the perfect conditions for compressing, refining, and stripping away Flame Rules.

And this small core fragment, not completely annihilated by the blast, was the self-congealed product of Flame Rules under extreme conditions.

It was being buried by lava and rubble. If he waited any longer, the cooling lava would completely seal it under thousands of meters of basalt, making the Rule fluctuations extremely contained and difficult to detect again.

By that time, unless the entire area’s crust was lifted and the Spiritual Power painstakingly searched inch by inch, no one would find it.

Duke leapt from the edge of the ruins, his body transforming mid-air into a Fire Elementalization form, diving into the lava lake like a dark red meteor.

The moment he plunged into the lava, the scorching molten rock enveloped his entire body, but in his Fire Elementalized form, defenses were unnecessary.

The lava automatically parted upon contact with him.

He dove rapidly in the direction locked by his Spiritual Power, through layers upon layers of rolling lava, through fissures in shattered rock layers torn by the shockwave, through that massive underground cavity.

The depth continued to increase: fifty meters, a hundred meters, a hundred and fifty meters.

The surrounding environment grew increasingly extreme, with the temperature of the lava rising, its density thickening, transitioning from liquid to semi-solid.

Duke could feel his Spiritual Power consumption accelerating; maintaining Fire Elementalization form required continuous output of Magic Power and Spiritual Power, and in this increasing heat and depth, this consumption rose exponentially.

Were it not for Duke’s Magic Power recovery rate being far beyond ordinary Wizards, he wouldn’t have been able to linger long in such an extreme environment.

But he did not slow, as the signal was becoming clearer.

It was a temperature unlike the searing heat of lava, purer, more essential, like the heart of flame itself beating.

At a depth of several kilometers underground, Duke abruptly halted in the lava.

Before him, deep within a fissure in a shattered rock wall ripped open by the shockwave, something small was glowing.

It was an irregular crystal about the size of a thumb knuckle, its surface a deep crimson, nearly black, yet radiating a blindingly bright orange-golden light from within.

All the lava within a meter radius of the crystal was repelled, forming a small vacuum sphere.

That was because of the Rule-level energy emitted by the crystal, forcibly isolating it, those Rule remnants streaming back in his perception slowly absorbed into the crystal. Each time one was absorbed, the crystal’s internal light flickered slightly.

This was what he needed.

Duke sent his Spiritual Power over to the crystal—no enchantments, no protections.

A Key of Rules naturally born under extreme conditions seldom needed protection, as its birthplace was its best natural barrier. Few lives could operate at such depths, and fewer still were Level 2 Mages with high fire affinity capable of entering Fire Elementalization.

He hesitated not, his right hand forming a grasp, weaving a delicate energy net with Spiritual Power, enclosing the crystal along with its vacuum sphere.

The crystal vibrated slightly upon contact with the Spiritual Power net, its internal light briefly brightening before returning to stability.

Carefully, he drew it towards himself, pulling a Sealing Box crafted from Magic Metal out from his Space Ring.

This was his usual container for unique Magic Potion Materials; Magic Metal’s natural isolation from Elemental Energy was perfect for temporarily storing a Key of Rules.

Gently placing the crystal inside the box, he closed the lid, snapped the clasp shut, and tucked the box into his chest.

At the moment the lid shut, the ambient surroundings dimmed briefly.

The Rule remnants drawn to the crystal lost their anchor, began drifting aimlessly in the lava, quickly diluted by the natural surroundings.

Without lingering, Duke turned and ascended rapidly towards his entry point.

The item was secured; survival and return were now his priorities.

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