Psycho!
Who causes a massive explosion in their own home just to find a thief?
Those messy, chaotic attacks from the elemental spirits failed to flush Knight out immediately; instead, they caused significant damage to their surrounding companions.
One fire elemental even self-destructed directly upon receiving the order. It didn't blow up Knight Puchi, but it did blast a nearby earth elemental into fragments.
Great. Before they even met, Lin Jun had already gained a certain understanding of this Fire Elemental Lord's mental state.
Although Lin Jun managed to avoid being found immediately thanks to his exquisite positioning and a small element of luck, judging by this posture, exposure was only a matter of time.
Since the distance was no longer far, Knight Puchi simply charged straight inside.
Puchi puchi—
The movement quickly attracted the attention of nearby elemental spirits. Attacks came one after another, practically sealing off all dodging positions.
Knight Puchi simply curled into a ball and dropped from above, his speed instantly increasing a notch.
With a wave of his tentacles, he temporarily scattered two fire elementals blocking the way. Knight Puchi finally rolled into the area where the Fire Elemental Lord was entrenched.
The scene before him was nothing short of spectacular. It was an incomparably vast underground hollow. In the center was a lava lake of immeasurable diameter, with bubbles constantly swelling and bursting, releasing waves of heat.
Standing above the lake surface was that colossal behemoth!
A massive body composed purely of flames, its silhouette constantly twisting, expanding, and contracting. Every change in form drove violent fluctuations in the temperature and magic power of the entire space.
And embedded in its chest was a giant metal ring covered in dim runes, looking eighty percent similar to the broken ring Lin Jun had seen in the Tidal Sanctuary.
Behind it, at the end of the lava lake, a door was embedded in the rock wall.
That door was unexpectedly "small," only seven or eight meters high. Compared to the vast lava lake and the colossal Fire Elemental Lord before him, it seemed somewhat out of place.
But Lin Jun knew that behind that seemingly unremarkable door lay the true heart of this dungeon.
However, the goal of his trip was not the core; he merely wanted to confirm the true appearance of this Fire Elemental Lord with his own eyes.
And the instant Lin Jun broke in, the Fire Elemental Lord also noticed this little speck.
"Monster? You are not a dwarf?!"
"What do you want here?"
"No, no matter what you want to do, be annihilated!"
On the face made of flames, the fire twisted into outlines approximating facial features, showing astonishment and confusion, which were immediately replaced by monstrous rage.
Emotions shifted violently in a split second, leaving no room for conversation.
The Fire Elemental Lord didn't even wait for Lin Jun to make any response before whipping up a scorching giant wave of lava, slapping it toward the tiny Knight Puchi at the entrance!
Knight Puchi turned to flee, but the Fire Elemental Lord was a step faster, turning the passage Knight came from into a sea of fire.
"You can't escape! I won't allow you to escape! Any fellow who dares intrude on my territory must die!"
Then, right under its nose, Knight forcibly rolled into the burning passage, incidentally scattering those two fire elementals that had just regenerated their flame bodies.
His snow-white body was scorched black, but relying on his maxed-out resistances, Knight Puchi still made it through the passage.
"ROAR—!"
The Fire Elemental Lord erupted with a deafening roar. Its massive body suddenly leaned forward, and a giant arm made of flames stretched out, grabbing at that tiny figure. However, just as its giant hand was about to touch the edge of the passage, that giant metal ring embedded in the center of its chest emitted a harsh buzzing sound! Countless dim runes lit up in unison, erupting with intense fluctuations.
"Urgh, ahhh!"
The Fire Elemental Lord seemed to have been hurt; the flames on its entire arm instantly flickered uncertainly, and its body twisted in pain, letting out a miserable shriek.
It was forced to retract its arm. In that interval, Knight Puchi had already disappeared from its vision.
"Kill it! Chase it! Crush that bug!" A mental roar of extreme rage swept through the entire dungeon.
Even those fire elemental spirits currently fighting fiercely with the dwarven defenders at the entrance paused in unison at that same moment. Immediately after, they abandoned the enemies before them, turning around and surging back toward the depths of the dungeon, leaving behind a group of dwarven soldiers looking at each other in bewilderment.
Two days later, Knight Puchi found the delegation's location in Forgefire Capital.
"You're finally back. I was afraid you'd get lost!" Inanna happily picked Knight Puchi up, then held him up to examine him left and right with some confusion. "Why do I feel like you've become a bit whiter?"
...
To be honest, Lin Jun hadn't expected Knight Puchi to actually make it out.
This was largely thanks to the Fire Elemental Lord's unstable mental state.
After Lin Jun took one look at it and ran, it immediately issued a kill order. Then, one instruction after another echoed through the dungeon.
Although Lin Jun couldn't figure out the specific content of these instructions, seeing the elementals attacking everywhere looking for Knight one moment, then swarming toward the main gate the next, and then collectively retreating to block key intersections a while later...
It wasn't hard to see that a large portion of the orders this fire element gave were contradictory. Coupled with the dwarves seizing the opportunity to retake the dungeon entrance and tentatively probing inward...
Under multiple factors, Lin Jun actually succeeded in withdrawing Knight Puchi.
Although losing it wouldn't have been a major issue, there was still an S-grade magic crystal inside, so saving it was definitely better.
After all, one doesn't know the cost of fuel and rice until they run the household!
Now, besides the Puchi Fortress and Mushroom Garden Puchis needing high-tier crystals, there was also Little Pig, a big "whale" player.
He also had to prepare a set of S-grade magic crystals for the magic crystal battle armor. He might not use it, but he couldn't be without it; it counted as a trump card.
And on this trip, Lin Jun also obtained the answer he wanted to know.
This Fire Elemental Lord also had no soul!
To be honest, this answer was somewhat beyond Lin Jun's expectations.
Although this Fire Elemental Lord was mentally unstable and didn't seem to have a high IQ, it could speak and had rich emotions.
If Lin Jun had to classify it, it would definitely be in the ranks of intelligent life.
Yet it actually had no soul!
However, under the [Inspiration] perspective, it wasn't purely an aggregate of gray substance either. In the center of the gray substance, a slightly illusory core had condensed.
And this form—possessing a core but no soul—was actually seventy percent similar to the Yellow Book.
An artificial creation?
The origins of the dungeons and the secrets behind these guardians were clearly hiding quite a lot. Unfortunately, regardless of which race's literature, records regarding the birth of dungeons only noted the time, location, the impact caused, and some baseless guesses.
No one could say for sure who created them or what the purpose of their creation was.
The only one who might be clear on these things, the Divine Tree, was a damn riddle-spouting old geezer!
The more he thought about it, the angrier he got. Lin Jun made another mental note against the Divine Tree.
The negotiations over here had already begun, and it was playing out mostly as Lin Jun expected.
The delegation did not immediately raise the request regarding the method to seal the elemental lord.
On the contrary, after witnessing Inanna's ability to control elemental spirits, the dwarves intentionally or unintentionally brought up the Molten Dungeon disaster several times during the negotiations, clearly wanting to borrow Inanna's power.
This allowed Ronan and the delegation to seize quite a bit of initiative in the negotiations.
However, after witnessing the Fire Elemental Lord's psycho-like state, Lin Jun was now facing a new problem.
Although Pink Puchi's [Elemental Spirit Favor] was bugged-level strong, like mass brainwashing, could it affect an intelligent Fire Elemental Lord?
If it couldn't affect it, or if it was somewhat useful but couldn't fully control it, then Pink Puchi would be in danger.
Knight was able to escape after seeing the opponent because there was some distance, and Lin Jun retreated immediately after taking a glance. Even so, he only escaped with low health by tanking the terrain damage from the flames.
If Pink Puchi went in, in the worst-case scenario, Lin Jun might not even have the chance to decompose Little Pink.
Thinking about it this way, that would be terrible!
Should he give up?
Give up an opportunity to control a Fire Elemental Lord and switch to only demanding content regarding sealing?
Lin Jun decided to wait until tomorrow, follow the delegation to meet the dwarves' higher-ups, and then make further plans.
(End of Chapter)
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