Chapter 2 Under the Volcano

Although the place where we met before was near the volcano, it was actually quite far away from the volcano. As we approach, the temperature in the nearby area is getting higher and higher, and a large number of surface lava flows begin to appear on the ground near us. These orange-red lava flows flow like small rivers along the slope of the ground toward the low-lying areas at the foot of the mountain. Upstream of the lava flow, there are lava waterfalls that gradually become thicker and larger. Except for a few small areas where exposed black rocks can be seen on the top of the entire mountain peak, the rest has been completely covered by lava waterfalls.

Vicky pointed to the exposed rocks on the mountain and said to me: "As long as you get there, you can see the entrance to the tunnel."

"I can get through my trap, but are you okay?" I looked at Wiki and the others and asked.

Although this place is still some distance from the top of the mountain, the surrounding temperature has exceeded 60 degrees. Normal people can no longer stay in this place without wearing any protection. Players in the game are more or less resistant to high temperatures, and their equipment is not without fire resistance. Therefore, players are much better at resisting high temperatures than in reality, but this ability is also limited. At least for most players, magma is still something that must not be touched. If you touch it even a little, it will cause a large burn, let alone if you fall in, you will be dead even if you are pulled out immediately. Even if the lava area is large enough, or it is a closed area, ordinary players will start to lose blood as soon as they enter this place, and the closer to the lava, the faster the blood loss will be.

The area we are in now is an open area, and there is not much lava, but even so, the people around us have already had obvious overheating reactions. Everyone in the team had abnormally red faces, and they were breathing very fast, and there was a glistening layer of sweat on everyone's head.

"How did you get close there last time?" Looking at the appearance of these seven people, I doubted how they got there before. Probably knowing what I was suspecting, Vicki directly took out a strange red pill that was as big as the candy ball in front of the lollipop and handed it to me. I curiously took one and looked at it, then turned to look at Vicki and asked him what it was.

Vicky responded cooperatively: "This is fire candy."

"Fire candy? Are there any more candies like this?"

Wiki nodded and said: "This is a candy made by a very special player here. Just eating one can have the corresponding effect. The one I have is specially designed to resist fire. As long as you hold the candy in In the mouth, before the candy is completely melted, it can have a certain degree of fire resistance. We relied on this thing to pass through the lava tunnel last time. However, the price of this thing is quite expensive. Each of us only has six. Considering that we are coming back It may be needed at some point, so we must keep three as preparation, so each person can only eat three on the way there."

"Is it because you haven't eaten until now because three pills don't last long enough to pass the entire tunnel?"

Wiki admitted: "Actually, three is just enough, but the passage has undergone some changes since we last passed through it. It may take a little time to pass through it now, so we must allow some extra time to deal with emergencies." , so we have endured not eating until now, and plan to hold on until we can no longer survive without eating.”

"Is there really such a candy?" I heard that there were actually candies with attributes attached to them, and I became curious. After thinking about it, it wouldn't take long anyway, so I simply said to Wiki: "I want to discuss something with you."

"What?"

"When we come back from there, can you take me to meet the player who makes attribute candies?"

Wiki heard my words and immediately said: "We were planning to level up in the past. If we could arrive safely, we wouldn't be back for at least a month. As for the pastry chef you mentioned, I don't think it's necessary for us to lead the way. Right? You just need to go to Reykjavik and ask someone about the magic pastry chef, and they will definitely know about it."

"Is he so famous?"

"How can candies that can be used as medicine not be famous? Although the price is a bit expensive, the properties are better than the medicines in the drugstore, and the most important thing is that this kind of candy has a long-lasting effect, which is better than the kind that only takes a small amount of time. I know how to use a lot of medicines. Of course, it’s true that they taste really good.”

I thought for a while and just snapped my fingers to summon Xiaofeng, and then said: "Let me make another deal with you. Anyway, each of you will consume three fire candies along the way, and this magic pet of mine can give it to you. Add fire protection, so you can save some candies. As long as you each give me two candies, I will ask her to add protection for you, so that each of you can save one more to use when you come back. That's okay. ?”

Once they heard that it had fire protection, they agreed without even thinking about it. After all, the price of buying only six candies at a time must be quite exaggerated, otherwise they wouldn't buy just that much, so if they can give birth to one, they are considered a profit, so these people agreed with my opinion without hesitation. Of course, there are two other benefits of trading with me, which are safety and comfort.

They were worried that they didn't have enough time to eat the fire candy, so they didn't dare to eat it until now. However, the temperature around them was actually quite hot, but it was not high enough to cause their health points to drop. However, just like not having air conditioning in summer will not necessarily lead to death, but everyone still likes air conditioning. No one wants to endure the high temperature here for no reason, so it is obviously more cost-effective to obtain fire resistance early. As for safety issues, naturally our fire protection time is definitely longer than medicines. After all, my magic pet can replenish their protection at any time halfway, so the time limit does not exist. In this case, even if it is due to If you are delayed on something, you don’t have to worry about exceeding the candy time limit and being roasted alive.

After Wiki and the others agreed to my request, they immediately gave me two candies each, while Xiaofeng immediately added fire-resistant wards to all of them. Suddenly, he felt a chill all over his body, just like in the middle of summer. It was like running from the road under the scorching sun into an air-conditioned shop on the side of the road. It felt so refreshing in my bones.

While Wiki and the others were feeling the refreshing pleasure, I threw a candy into my mouth. The flame candy that was very expensive for them was not necessarily that expensive for me, so I threw one into my mouth without any frugality.

Although I don't care about the money, rushing to eat this kind of flame candy is certainly not greedy. Although I am also interested in food and other things, I am not so greedy. The main reason why I was eager to try it was that I wanted to know the specific effects of this product, and the taste was secondary. As a brand-new occupational category, if this kind of occupation that can make attribute candies can become the strength of our guild, I believe it will be of great significance to our guild. Of course, this is only possible if this thing is really effective.

When candy enters your mouth, the first thing that comes out is not the attribute, but the taste. A sweet watermelon flavor suddenly filled the mouth, and the cool and refreshing feeling was really intoxicating. In fact, the effect of my taste is far less comfortable than that of ordinary players, mainly because my fire resistance is too scary. Even standing in such a place full of magma, I didn't feel the slightest heat, and because I'm not hot, So when I eat this candy that looks like iced watermelon, I don’t have such an exaggerated reaction. If you are an ordinary player, your whole body is feeling uncomfortable due to the high temperature. If you suddenly eat one of these candies, the surrounding temperature will instantly drop to the normal temperature. At the same time, a cold and sweet feeling like iced watermelon will spread in your mouth. That huge... Contrast stimulation can definitely capture a bunch of taste animals.

I have to say that based on the taste alone, this thing is already considered a pretty awesome food. As for the attributes... I just finished feeling the taste here, and the attributes have already taken effect. However, because my fire resistance is too high, I can't feel the attribute changes at all. I can only follow the attributes in the attribute list. From the numerical changes, it can be seen that this thing has indeed increased my fire resistance.

"How is it? Does it taste good?" Vicky asked when she saw me eating a candy.

I nodded and said, "It's indeed good. It seems that it is necessary to meet this great pastry chef. But before that, let's get things settled here first."

"Oh, of course. Then let's go up the mountain first."

Like most mountains, the bottom of the volcano is relatively flat and becomes steeper toward the top. At first we were still walking up the mountain, but later we were almost climbing with our hands and feet. Fortunately, the wall of this volcano is not very flat. There are many protrusions on it, so it is not as exaggerated as the cliffs climbed by rock climbers seen on TV. The rock wall here looks like a There are a bunch of messy steps piled together. Although the steps are very steep and messy with no rules, they can still accommodate people. As long as you pay a little attention, it won't be a big problem.

In fact, if it weren't for the presence of the following people, I could fly up by myself. After all, I'm not afraid of lava, so even if I get sprayed, it'll be fine. However, the protective barrier on their bodies can only block high temperatures. If the lava touches them directly, They will still be injured, so for their safety we can only climb up on foot.

In fact, as long as you are not afraid of high temperatures, the top of the crater is not as dangerous as imagined. When we are at the foot of the mountain, in addition to paying attention to the lava flows on the ground, we also need to pay attention to the lava balls falling from the sky from time to time. These lava balls are small groups of lava that are separated from the main flow of lava from the volcanic crater. Although it is a small group, it is relative to the main lava column. In fact, these lava groups can be as large as more than one meter in diameter, and the small ones are as big as a basketball. They will be cooled by the air in the air, and then form a hard rock shell. As the inertia is exhausted, these lava masses that have condensed the rock shell will fall from high altitudes. When they hit the ground, they will look like those falling from upstairs. The egg usually shatters instantly, and then the magma inside that has not yet cooled will scatter in all directions, just like a bomb.

Because of these falling lava bombs, our journey at the foot of the mountain was actually not safe at all. If I hadn't used magic missiles to detonate them in the air in front of the lava balls aimed at us, the journey up the mountain would probably have been very dangerous. Someone got tricked. But when we reach the top of the mountain, this problem disappears. Because the height of the lava eruption is relatively exaggerated, the flying lava mass will not be too close to the eruption mouth after landing. Therefore, the closer you are to it, the less likely you will be hit by the lava bomb. You just need to be careful of the radiation emitted from the lava column. high temperature.

In reality, you would never have the opportunity to stand next to an erupting crater and experience the power of a volcanic eruption. In the game, as long as the attributes are high enough, this is not a problem. Although I have often encountered mission scenes such as volcanoes or lava caves in the past, to be honest, this is the first time I have seen an erupting volcano.

We didn't feel anything when we were standing far away before. As we got closer to the crater, this terrifying power of heaven and earth became even more terrifying. Standing in the crater of the volcano at this time, I felt like the earth was falling apart, and even I couldn't help but feel my heart beat faster. Less than five meters in front of me is a rising lava column. The ultra-high pressure makes the lava shoot straight into the sky like a water column fired by a high-pressure water cannon. Of course, the high-pressure water cannon cannot have a caliber of 38 meters. , and this crater is so big.

Because the speed of lava is very fast, when you look at it from a close distance, it feels like a high-speed train is passing in front of you. The difference is that the lava column moves from bottom to top, and it is bright orange-red, and With a deafening roar. No, this can no longer simply be called a roar, because the ground and my internal organs are being driven by this terrifying vibration and trembling together. The amplitude of the vibration on the ground is at least the level of an earthquake of magnitude 13 or above. There's no way a trampoline can shake so hard.

At this time, Vicki and I were completely unable to speak to each other. The voices were so loud that even if we shouted into each other's ears, we couldn't hear them at all. In fact, in order to protect their ears, they used special protective plugs to plug their ears on the mountainside according to Wiki's order, while I sealed the helmet of the Dragon Soul suit and turned on the sound blocking. Although My helmet is not specifically designed to protect against sound waves, but I have to say that the Dragon Soul Suit is too advanced, so even if it is not specifically designed, it is still many times better than those earplugs. After activating the sound wave shielding, my ears were finally clear. Although I could still hear the loud rumbling noise, at least it would not cause ear pain.

Since we can't communicate with our voices, we are now using gestures to express our meaning. When that doesn't work, I will use phantom to help everyone connect to the spiritual network, but this is more troublesome, and because the fire element in the crater is too active, The use of psychic spells has been greatly affected. Not only the magic power consumption has skyrocketed, the communication quality is not as good as that of a walkie-talkie, and the noise is scary.

"Is that there?" After standing in the crater and feeling the power of the volcanic eruption at close range, I held Vicki's hand and pulled him up, and at the same time connected to his spirit through phantom for communication.

After hearing what I said, Vicki looked in the direction of my finger, then nodded and said, "That's right there."

In fact, the location I am referring to is not far away from us. The straight-line distance is at most seven or eight meters. However, it is impossible for us to pass through the magma and can only go around along the edge. Moving in a place like this is not a simple matter. The crater is on our left. Although the erupted lava is still more than five meters away from the outer wall of the crater, the space between the lava and the mountain wall is not a vacuum zone, but a vacuum zone. Filled with high-speed erupting airflow. Although I haven't tested the speed of the airflow, I have no doubt that if I jump in, I will be blown away immediately, because I accidentally kicked a stone in before, and then the stone swung into the sky like a cannonball. . Our right side is outside the mountain. Although there is no high-speed airflow, it is not very safe. After all, it is quite steep. If we fall down accidentally, even if we do not fall to death, we will definitely burn to death if we fall into the lava.

Fortunately I have dragon tendons. Of course Wikipedia and others know that it is best to bring a rope with you when climbing, but what kind of rope do you think can be used in high temperatures of nearly a thousand degrees? In the past, they relied on fire-resistant candies to survive the high temperatures, but they couldn't eat candy on the rope, so they didn't bring it at all because they knew it was useless. But it will be no problem if I come. The dragon tendon rope is my equipment. It is not afraid of fire, at least the temperature of the lava will not affect it. With the dragon tendon rope, I can string everyone together, so that even if one or two people slip, others can catch them.

After carefully moving to the hole I saw before, I had to connect to the wiki again. "How did you get down there in the first place?"

The edge of the crater where we are standing is more than three meters high from the hole below. This height is not a big problem even in reality. But the problem is that the hole is inside the crater, although it is still far away from the erupting lava. Three or four meters away, but what to do with the surrounding airflow? If we jump in like this, we will definitely not fall down, but will be blown up to the sky immediately.

Although Wiki's answer surprised me, I have to say that their method is the most reliable solution under their conditions.

The method they use to enter Wikipedia is to wait. According to them, the activity of this volcano is very regular, erupting once every four days, and the eruption time is accurate to the hour, with an error of less than one hour. Each eruption lasts about three hours and thirty-seven minutes, with an error of no more than ten minutes. Because the eruption time is so accurate, the eruption time can be calculated manually. Whenever the eruption ends, the last trace of lava is shot into the sky, and then the crater will end the eruption within five seconds. At this time, all the airflow and lava will disappear, and the lava that was shot into the sky will disappear in about seventeen seconds. It fell down after a few seconds. There was an interval of about twelve seconds in between, and the average person's reaction speed was about one second. This gave them almost ten seconds to jump down from a height of three meters and then get into the cave. Usually this series of actions only takes five to six seconds to complete, so time is not a problem at all. As long as you don't make mistakes, it is a relatively safe way to enter.

"How long will this eruption last?" I asked after hearing the solution.

Vicky looked at the time and said, "About forty to fifty minutes."

After thinking about it, I still felt that waiting here was a waste of time, so with a snap of my fingers, Everett appeared directly next to me. I informed Wiki that they should not resist, and then I made Everit transform into an armor form and attach it to Wiki's body. Then I relied on Everit's limbs that turned into hammers to crawl along the rock wall like a gecko into the cave.

Compared with us, Everett's shape can be adjusted by himself, so the streamlined shell is conducive to reducing wind resistance. At the same time, his barbed limbs can be inserted into rocks and use his own powerful strength to fight against them. The upward force of the air flow allows the eruption of high-pressure steam to forcefully drill into the cave. Of course, the reason for all this is that Everett is not afraid of high temperatures. After all, the high-speed airflow that erupts is the water vapor coming out of the lava. The temperature of that thing can definitely steam people in an instant. No one except Everett can really Not many people can survive this kind of temperature. Of course, the dragon and the phoenix are definitely not afraid of this high temperature. For Lucky and Plague, this temperature is just a sauna. But considering their size, I gave up the idea of ​​letting Lucky and the others help. If he were to forcefully enter the eruption area with his lucky size, even if he was very strong and could grab the rocks, with such a large lifting force, he would probably tear off the rocks he grabbed and carry them to the sky. In comparison, Everett is much more reliable.

After Wiki was sent into the tunnel, Everett automatically disintegrated and crawled out again, and then brought people down one by one. As for me, I didn’t have to go through so much trouble. I covered Eternity on my fingers and toes to form a grappling hook, and then used The wings formed a fairing on the back to reduce wind resistance. Relying on the height of the stove and not being afraid of the high temperature, I climbed in directly.

Although it was quite troublesome to fiddle with it over and over again, the speed was not slow after all. It only took me just over two minutes to get them all in. After everyone entered the cave, Wiki took the lead and walked down. I walked behind Wiki, so that it would not affect his leading the way, and I could switch places with him immediately when encountering danger.

There is a magic barrier at the entrance of this cave, which means that this passage is not naturally formed, or at least it has been processed by humans. After entering the entrance, the downward passage also has obvious artificial traces, because the descending spiral staircase is too regular, and there is obviously a strengthening magic circle on the cave wall, which seems to absorb the surrounding fire elements as power, which in turn strengthens the hardness of the wall. Prevent the cave from being destroyed by volcanic lava.

Follow the spiral staircase all the way down to at least a few kilometers underground, and then the passage changes from vertical to horizontal. However, the horizontal passage here is obviously natural, because the root here is a lava tube, and the ground and surrounding There are obvious traces of lava condensation on the walls, and we also found a lot of volcanic rocks in the channel. This kind of volcanic stone has a similar structure to cat's eye stone, but it is not the same thing. It is neither valuable nor of any use value. There is nothing special about the base except that the surface is smooth, somewhat translucent and beautiful.

"Is this the tunnel that leads all the way to the bottom of the sea?" I asked after we all entered the horizontal passage. There is no roaring here anymore. Although there is a rather large lava river flowing in the middle of the passage, our location is in the upper part of the passage. There are protruding platforms along the wall, just like a spiral staircase. Although It's relatively narrow, but it's no problem to walk normally. The temperature is still very high even outside, so it's basically safe.

After I asked, Vicky pointed in a direction and said: "If we walk in that direction, we can reach the bottom of the sea. I don't know where the other direction leads. From here, we are safe for a distance of about ten kilometers. There is no danger other than the high temperature. The problematic part is further ahead, and you will naturally understand it when you get there."

"That means we can now run more than ten kilometers boldly, right?"

Vicky nodded and said, "Yes, but we'd better hurry up, otherwise we'll waste a lot of time on the road."

"Don't worry about this. Since there is no danger, the speed will definitely be guaranteed. But will this passage always be this wide?" My idea was to summon Lucky and take us to swim directly through the lava river. Anyway, giant dragons can bathe in lava, so letting them bathe in lava is just like us entering a hot pool in a bathhouse, and there is no threat at all. Moreover, since the direction we want to go happens to be the direction of the lava flow, swimming through the lava is equivalent to swimming down the river, and the speed will definitely be much faster than walking. Of course, summoning birds is the fastest, but unfortunately birds are not heat-resistant, and there are too many people.

Hearing my question, Wiki shook his head and said, "No, our passage is the thinnest part. It will gradually get wider in the front, and eventually it will become a space three or four times the size here."

"As long as it doesn't become narrow, it'll be fine." After I said that, I turned around and jumped out without any luck. Probably because he hadn't taken a shower for too long, Lucky seemed to be very excited. He jumped out of the void and crashed into the lava with a crash. I was so scared that I quickly put up a protective shield to block the splashing lava. Although I'm not afraid of lava, these guys are more delicate, and I don't want this kind of meaningless accidental injury.

Lucky, who had gotten into the lava, turned over and soaked his whole body in the lava. Then he raised his head and said, "This sulfur smell is better, it feels like home."

"If my house smelled like this, I would rather move." I said and added, "Okay, you've almost finished washing. Come up and help us take a walk. Stop rolling around."

"Understood, I'm coming up."

Lucky finally floated up obediently, then spread his wings and put the edge on the rock platform where we were standing. We slid directly along his wings to his back, and then Lucky retracted his wings and started swimming forward.

Although I often ride Lucky around, this was their first time riding a dragon for Wiki and the others, and they were obviously a little over-excited, especially the three youngest in the team. They couldn't sit still at all, and soon ran to Lucky's tail. Then he observed Lucky's swinging big tail, and then ran to his neck and tried to climb onto Lucky's head. Unfortunately, just as he had some intention, Lucky swung his neck and almost fell into the lava.

I saw those three guys were so excited, so I had to dissuade them: "Don't climb on his head. The dragons are very proud. Even if they fly with people, they usually fly with their claws, and rarely put people on their backs." Yes, we asked you to come up today due to special circumstances. That head is the pride of the Dragon Clan, and no one else but me, the master, can touch it."

The three guys over there finally calmed down after hearing what I said. During the rest of the trip, I started asking some questions about Duludu City, and Wiki also knew everything. Just when I thought I understood almost everything, Lucky suddenly told us that the flow rate of the lava was accelerating, and Wiki immediately told me that we were approaching the problem area.

Following Wiki's advice, we put away our luck and started walking ashore again. After walking for a while, we arrived at the so-called problem area. When that area came into my sight, I was simply stunned by what I saw. I have to say that I never expected to encounter this kind of situation before. It’s no wonder that Wiki never said what happened here. It turned out that he couldn’t find the words to describe the scene in front of him.