The morning in the demons grave was gloomy as ever. A tinge of light lit the horizon that looked like a red canvas. With newly found vigor, the monsters roared. Molten lava flowed out from the top, lighting the mountain with its golden light. Coupled with the morning light, the realm looked brighter than earlier. In the distance, the bats littered the red sky. Strangely, more and more bats appeared on the horizon for some reason. On the other hand, Michael and Vedora resumed their journey toward the top. The higher Michael climbed, the fewer hook points he came across. He hoped to reach the top using only the grappling hook. But on the contrary, he had to use his hands to climb more than the grappling hook. Without looking down, Michael climbed up the mountain. His entire body was drenched in sweat.
"Careful," Sarba warned Michael. Despite the dry air and the heat, the mountain surface looked slimy for some reason. Grabbing the holds turned out to be a pain because of the slimy surface. Still, Michael carefully held onto the edges and moved up on the mountain. He didn't rush climbing up. Instead, he took every step with caution. Several hours passed in a blink of an eye. He had to use healing potions to keep his hands and legs from going numb. Almost ten hours later, the top of the mountain became close to Michael. With a final use of his grappling hook, Michael climbed up to the top. After lifting his body to the top, Michael just collapsed to the ground and breathed heavily. Michael's chest rose and fell at regular intervals. Meanwhile, Vedora flew away from Michael and saw a giant hole filled with molten lava. The mountain was like a giant well, except it had lava instead of water. Just looking down into the hole made Sarba's head spin. They quickly flew back to Michael and landed on his chest.
Just as they were about to ask Michael to stand up, the mountain rumbled. Soon, the lava erupted for a moment, throwing a splash of lava outside. Michael immediately kicked up to his feet. Molten lava glistened on the ground like a gooey orange cake. Ayag was tempted to have a taste, but she was not that stupid. Michael slowly walked to the edge and looked down at the boiling lava down. He felt like he was staring at the sun itself. The molten lava inside the mountain was too bright and hot enough to melt down a Fusion stage warrior like a wax statue. The volcano remained dormant, hiding the terror and destruction within. Once it erupts, he could imagine how much damage it would do. Fortunately, the demons grave was void of population.
"Hey, look, your robes," Sarba's shout broke Michael's concentration. He quickly turned around and saw his long coat was on fire due to the extreme heat in the air. Crimson red flames engulfed his long coat as Michael immediately took it off and threw it on the floor. In a blink of an eye, the flames reduced his once stylish black long coat to nothing but ash. The long coat had been with him since his first day in this world.
Vedora saw Michael squat before the pile of ash and grab a handful,
"Rest in peace, old friend," said Michael. Even though it was just a lifeless piece of clothing, Michael shared a connection with it. After all, he bought it from the system when he first came to this world. At that moment, he felt like a piece of him had left him. But he could only sigh and buy another one from the system store. For now, he chose not to, as the heat would only burn it down again. At Least his trousers escaped the heat, but Michael was prepared to lose them too. Once again, Michael walked to the edge to look around the mountain. According to the system, the required items to forge his dark swords were somewhere inside the mountain.
Dark volcanic ash hundred Michael's eyesight. To remedy the situation, Michael simply raised his hand as a powerful gust of wind cleared the area around him of the ash. As a result, he was able to see the mountain beneath him more clearly. Finally, Michael saw the narrow pathways around the crater. These pathways were just wide enough for one man to walk. But any misstep would lead straight into the boiling volcano. Instead of dropping down the pathways, Michael flicked his wrist as a drone materialized above him. However, the drone shattered into pieces due to the intense heat. Michael hoped it wouldn't happen, but it did. The only option Michael had was personally walking the narrow pathway. Seeing no point in lingering around, Michael slowly climbed down toward the pathway. He pushed his body against the wall and slowly walked down. Step by step, Michael walked the narrow path.
"If I trip down, grab me by my collar and give me a second to use the grappling hook," Michael said to Vedora. Obviously, Vedroa couldn't fly away carrying Michael because then gravity would pull both of them down. But if Vedora grabbed him by his collar, it would give him a second to react and use either the teleportation scroll or the grappling hook to escape the well of molten lava beneath him.
"System, can you pinpoint the location?" Michael asked the system.
[How about the host paying the system a hundred thousand badass points to show you the entrance?]
"Do it," Michael immediately agreed to the deal. Normally, Michael would have preferred finding the entrance by himself, but the situation dictated otherwise. Any misstep would be life-threatening. So he was not in the situation to bitch with the system. After the system took the agreed amount, a glow appeared in the corner of Michael's sight. A part of the walls on the other side was glowing.
[Try not to fall down, host] said the System. Michael sensed a bit of sick humor in its voice. If the crater containing the lava was a circle, Michael had to go to the opposite end to reach the glow. The narrow path was already crumbling down bits and pieces at a time. But Michael surprised the system by climbing back to the top. Vedora frowned as they had no idea why Michael suddenly climbed back to the top.
"What happened? You got cold feet?" Ayag tilted her head.
[What are you up to, host?] the system also seemed surprised and questioned Michael.
"Using my brain, that's all," Michael thought. Then, he started to walk around the crater to reach the glow instead of the narrow path. The mountain's top was broader and more stable compared to the narrow path. So why did Michael have to risk himself walking the narrow path when he had a much better alternative? Except for the strong wind that tried to push him down, the current path had no downsides at all. Vedora followed behind Michael, having no idea what had just happened.
"Where are you going?" asked Sarba.
"We'll see," Michael mumbled as he continued on his path. Eventually, he reached directly above the glow. He took a deep breath before climbing down the mountain. In a few seconds, Michael landed on the narrow path. The glow on the mountain surface slowly faded away. But to the naked eye, the mountain's surface had no strange symbols or runes. Instead, it looked brownish with the volcano ash covering its surface.
Michael ran his fingers through the surface, trying to see if there was something engraved in it. Yet he found nothing.
"It must be somewhere here," Michael said to himself. Then, he activated his X-ray vision. As soon as his eyes turned blue, he saw a dark square on the surface. Michael placed his palm on the dark square. Suddenly, a bolt of electricity ran down his spine through his hand. Sarba sensed the sudden spike in energy around them. Before he could question Michael, the mountain surface trembled. To Vedora's surprise, the mountain's surface slowly creaked open like a secret door, revealing a dark corridor leading up somewhere. Michael took a deep breath before walking into the dark corridor with Vedora following him behind. After they took several steps into the corridor, the door closed behind them. Everything turned pitch black.
"Do you smell that?" asked Sarba, sniffing the air.
"What?"
"The air…it smells like oil," said Sarba.
"He is right," Michael agreed with Sarba. In addition to oil, he could also smell a tinge of metal smell in the air. To light their path ahead, Michael conjured a ball of crimson-red flames. The flames dimly lit the dark place as Michael walked through the corridor. For a while, nothing came across his path. Even Vedora didn't utter a word. Hence, silence took over them. Seconds slowly turned minutes, and each minute felt like an eternity. As much as Michael loved peace and quiet, he wanted something to happen. Otherwise, he was afraid of being bored to death.
As though the universe had listened to his plea, the corridor opened up to a spacious hall. Michael halted his steps in utter shock. A brightly lit hall with various iron tools and tables welcomed him. The light was coming from the lava oozing down the walls into the giant braziers. Everywhere Michael turned, he saw iron hammers, tools, and a giant anvil in the center. On the hall's corner was a furnace big enough to be called a room. In addition, there was also a complex system of pipes running across the ceiling, and a few metal tubes connected to the system hung down, swaying in the hot air.
"A forge," Michael mumbled under his breath.
[If the host is willing to buy the special dark ore and hilt, you can start forging the pair of dark swords in this very forge] the system sounded in his head. Hearing its words, the blacksmith living in Michael became excited. To be honest, he thought he would find a few special items. But he was completely caught off guard by the forge before him. The previous Dark Lord forged his swords in this very forge. And now, Michael was about to forge something better.
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