Above the mage

Chapter 848 Snatching Food from the Insects

Sandworms are notoriously resistant to allergens.

They are extremely aggressive towards any living creature that intrudes into their territory.

Once they sense an unfamiliar presence, they will immediately pounce and bite.

Yet the massive swarm of sandworms so close at hand remained completely unharmed by the two intruders, Gao De and Lorne, showing no sign of stopping to attack.

All their attention was completely drawn to what lay deep within the passage.

Gao De and Lorne exchanged a glance and nodded:

There is only one possibility that can explain this anomaly that goes against the nature of sandworms.

That is, deep within the secret passage, there exists an extremely alluring and high-ranking unknown entity, whose attraction far surpasses the instincts and bloodthirsty nature of the sandworms.

This forced them to abandon all rejection attacks and rush to the front regardless of everything.

Gao De and Lorne hovered above the swarm of sandworms, surveying their surroundings.

The rock walls of the entire secret passage were polished to be extremely smooth.

On the rock walls on both sides, countless solidified earth element particles were arranged in an orderly, suspended pattern, forming a faint...

Yellow trail.

These elemental particles are arranged in an orderly fashion, like artificial road signs, pointing uniformly towards the unknown destination along the depths of the secret passage.

"Let's go, follow these sandworms." Lorne, skilled and daring, made the decision.

Amap One-Click Follow

Since the sandworms were oblivious to them, Lorne and God decided not to bother hiding anymore.

Ignoring everything else, the two followed the sandworms deeper into the unknown underground passage.

The sandworms gathered beneath them, forming a continuous river, their bodies rubbing against the ground with a constant rustling sound.

The sound was amplified by the slow reverberation in the narrow passage, filling their eardrums.

After they had walked for a short while, the already narrow passage began to narrow.

The rock walls on both sides of the passage converge towards the middle, and the rock strata at the top also lower the height.

This space no longer allows them to continue hovering.

But once they get down to solid ground, even if the sandworms are attracted at this moment, they can't ignore them.

The insects weren't attacking them at this moment because they were drawn to something deep inside the tunnel, which had captured their instincts and attention.

However, once God and Lorne land on the ground and come into direct contact with these sandworms, it is a tangible invasion of their territory and will instantly awaken their instinct to reject foreign species.

These sandworms will inevitably attack the two alien creatures that are within arm's reach within a few breaths.

Lorne and God exchanged a glance.

Lorne's gaze first fell on the narrowing passage ahead, then he turned to look at Gao De.

"Do you know the transformation technique?" he asked.

Gao De nodded.

Lorne was relieved, but at the same time couldn't help but exclaim, "You really know a lot!"

Transformation is a rare spell in the second-circle alteration tree. Similarly, it does not provide any combat power boost to the mage; it is a purely functional spell.

In addition, it is a rare spell. Few battle mages of Gao De's age would master such an obscure and niche spell.

However, after his initial surprise, Lorne didn't say anything more.

"Cast spells, change form, and continue deeper," he simply said.

Gao De nodded in agreement and immediately activated his internal magical power to cast a spell.

A gentle magical aura instantly enveloped his body, and under this power, his bones, muscles, and other parts of his body were rapidly reconstructed.

Soon, Gaode abandoned his original human form and transformed into a small flying humanoid creature: the Bat People. The Bat People are extremely small, less than the knee height of an average human.

But its limbs are slender and agile, and it has a pair of thin wings on its back, which allow it to hover and turn in narrow spaces.

In addition, they are a type of humanoid creature that lives in dark caves, possessing dim vision and a keen sense of smell, which is perfectly suited to the dark environment of the passage.

After changing their forms, the two hovered about a foot off the ground.

This allows them to move freely through narrow passages without direct contact with the dense swarms of sandworms on the ground.

They flapped their wings clumsily and continued onward.

After narrowing, the passage continued forward for a considerable distance.

The earth element particles on both sides of the rock face are always present, continuously pointing to the unknown depths.

The swarm of gravel worms was still surging ahead, its density even higher than before.

The gaps between the insect bodies became smaller and smaller, and under the pile of insect bodies, the two could hardly see the exposed ground.

As we moved forward, the temperature in the passage continued to rise.

However, the ascent is slow, with each section only rising a little bit.

However, as the temperature accumulated, the air temperature became much higher, and even underground, it became hot and dry.

The originally cold underground airflow turned into a thick, sultry, and turbid wind.

The concentration of soil element particles is also increasing, gradually changing from the initial uniform distribution to an increasingly dense aggregated state.

The pale yellow earth element particles were no longer just paving the rock walls, but began to permeate the entire passage, like a yellow mist that was slowly thickening.

Just as the earth elemental aura became so intense that it was almost suffocating, the view ahead suddenly opened up, and the passage came to an end.

The space at the end suddenly opened up.

The passage extends to both sides a few steps ahead, forming a natural chamber that is much wider than the passage itself.

The chamber is about ten paces square in area.

The rock faces of the four walls are densely covered with earth element particles.

The concentration of these earth element particles far exceeds that in the channel; they coalesce into substantial particles, spreading a uniform and dense coating on the four walls of the chamber.

In the very center of the chamber stood a huge crystal.

The crystal was about the thickness of two people's arms, its base firmly rooted in the strong ground, and its main body extended straight from the floor of the chamber all the way to the earthen surface of the dome.

Its surface is covered with an extremely thick layer of yellowish-brown crystalline shell.

The crystal contains an extremely rich and pure earth element power.

That power was pulsating outward from the inside of the crystal at a constant frequency. Each pulsation stirred up a visible pale yellow ripple in the air of the chamber, spreading outward and sending an attractive signal to the sandworms.

The upper part of the crystal extended straight upwards, its tip piercing into the rock strata of the dome and disappearing from sight.

If I'm not mistaken, the crystal continued upwards after passing through the dome, until it reached a certain location on the ground of Nashlamy City.

This crystal is the target that all the sandworms are rushing to.

Tens of thousands of sandworms, regardless of their size, densely covered the surface of the crystal.

Their bodies were pressed tightly together, layer upon layer, completely covering the crystal and forming a hill made of stacked insect bodies.

The sandworms clinging to the surface of the crystal nucleus pressed their mouthparts tightly against the surface of the crystal nucleus, their mandibles opening and closing rhythmically.

They continuously peel off one earth element particle after another from the crystal nucleus and inhale them into their bodies.

However, the surface area of ​​a crystal is limited, and the number of sandworms it can accommodate is only around ten thousand.

At this moment, the number of grit worms gathered in the chamber has far exceeded this number, and more grit worms are constantly arriving.

I have no idea how these sandworms manage to reproduce so many times.

Those sandworms that failed to get a spot crawled on the four walls of the chamber, layer upon layer.

They kept jostling and bumping against each other, trying to squeeze a path through those of their kind that had already occupied the surface of the crystal.

Some of the sandworms that were pushed off landed on the floor at the bottom of the chamber, immediately rolled over and got up again, crawling towards the crystal once more.

The pushing and rubbing between the insect swarms created a continuous and dense sound.

What truly caught the attention of God and Lorne was the upper part of the crystal after it pierced through the dome.

The soil around the rock had been gnawed out by sandworms, creating a ring of channels.

The sandworms climbed upwards along the gap between the crystal and the passage.

What should have been an unobstructed passage has now become an insurmountable barrier.

It was Lorne who promptly had the city-wide defensive rune array of Nashlame City activated.

It firmly seals and solidifies the ground.

It is conceivable that if Lorne had not activated the rune array in time, these sandworms would have already broken through the soil and entered Naslame City, causing a bloodbath.

Even so, the current situation is not optimistic.

These sandworms, eager to absorb the ten elemental particles, relentlessly and tirelessly rammed against the barrier of the runic array.

The successive impacts produced dull, continuous crashing sounds.

They want to break through the soil.

Each impact continuously depletes the city's rune array's magic crystal reserves.

If this endless stalemate continues, the rune array will eventually collapse due to the depletion of magic crystals.

At that time, the long-suppressed swarm of insects will burst forth instantly.

God and Lorne took in the entire view of the chamber.

Lorne's gaze first fell on the sand worms that were frantically attacking the rune array in the dome passage.

Finally, it stopped at the intersection of the huge crystal and the runic array.

"This is a crystal of earth element," Lorne said slowly after a long silence.

"Earth element crystals?"

"Yes, it is a special extraordinary crystal formed by the long-term overflow of earth elements from underground and solidification through geological compression. It compresses and condenses the free earth element energy into solid earth element particles."

"These earth element particles have an extremely high density, and ordinary organisms simply cannot directly absorb these solid particles."

Lorne paused, his gaze falling on the sandworms that were clinging to the crystal shells and munching on them. He continued, "Only sandworms can directly swallow these indigestible solid particles, and then, through a long decomposition process in their digestive tract, convert them into absorbable earth elemental energy to promote their own growth."

"To be honest, I've never seen such a large earth element crystal before," Lorne said with a hint of amazement.

"After the mages of the Holy Empire found this huge earth element crystal, they placed it in this chamber."

"Then all that's needed is to awaken the overflow within the earth element crystal, and the sandworms will be spontaneously attracted, surging along the passage and climbing upwards through the earth element crystal, emerging from the ground and entering the city of Nashlamay."

"To eliminate this hidden danger, this earth element crystal must be made to disappear."

Lorne frowned, feeling caught in a dilemma: "But we can't destroy it directly. Earth element crystals are solid structures containing powerful energy."

"If you forcibly bombard it with magic, it will disrupt its stable structure and cause a chain reaction of the massive amount of solid earth element energy accumulated inside. If you're not careful, a huge explosion could occur, overturning half of the city."

"Given the current situation, it's clearly not possible to simply take it away."

"Trying to take this earth element crystal in front of so many sandworms is like snatching food from a tiger's mouth. They will immediately see it as their greatest enemy and attack it in droves until they are dead."

"Destroying it is not feasible, forcibly taking it is impossible, and letting things develop is simply waiting to die. These countless sand worms will eventually deplete the magic crystal reserves of Nashlame City."

Lorne pondered for a moment, but couldn't think of a good solution. He just felt it was incredibly difficult to handle.

Gao De hovered on either side of Lorne, listening to what Lorne said, his gaze sweeping over the densely packed sand worms on the surface of the earth element crystal.

A thought suddenly struck him, and a bold idea flashed through his mind: "We can't destroy it, we can't take it away, but what if we completely drained the earth element particles from this earth element crystal?"

"Once the earth element particles are no longer attracted, the frenzy of these sandworms will subside, and they will fall into a slumber, thus ceasing their attacks on the magic circle."

"Then we will clear the gravel worms in the underground passages in sections, and we will be able to gradually solve this infestation."

Gaode's approach is completely reasonable, and can even be described as flawless.

But Lorne raised an eyebrow and pointed out a fatal flaw in this line of thinking.

"How can we extract the earth element particles from this giant earth element crystal?"

He asked, "As I just said, mages cannot absorb solid elemental particles at all."

These are earth element particles, not earth element essence. If an ordinary mage tries to refine them, these earth element particles will only cause the magical energy channels in their body to become blocked.

At best, it disrupts the flow of magical power, making it impossible to cast spells; at worst, it directly destroys the star core magic crystal.

"I know," Gao De nodded, "but I do have a way."

When asked by Lorne, he told the truth: "I have an earth element seed inside me, which has the ability to absorb earth element particles."

Gao De was referring to his [Sleeping Spider Web], an elemental item that had once reached a high-level quality.

However, in the long battles against the [Depletion Bite], its power gradually dissipated, and it degenerated into the low-level elemental species it is today.

However, it is essentially a high-level elemental species and has the potential to return to a high level.

To return to its peak, the most important thing is to replenish its energy and essence.

These earth element particles are the best nourishment for it, and can be used to repair the damage to the Sleeping Spider Web and restore its rank.

Industry specializing in surgery.

For a mage, elemental particles are harmful substances.

For sandworms, elemental particles are nutrients that require time to digest. Although they have benefits, they also require a long time to decompose.

For the elemental species [Sleeping Spider Web], these particles are fertilizer that it can directly ingest!