Chapter 37: Swamp
The soldier rode his horse at full speed to catch up with the Baron.
Fortunately, the Baron had not yet reached Cloud Valley Town.
He and the Magi had only made it halfway since they were traveling at a leisurely pace.
The soldier easily caught up.
Suspecting that a report had arrived, the Baron stopped his horse, forcing the entire group behind him to halt as well.
"What is it?" the Baron asked with a frown.
The soldier seemed to think for a moment before answering, "Baron, the miners have dug quite deep, but until now, not a single Black Iron Spiritual Stone has been found."
His heart pounded after saying that, worried about the Baron’s reaction.
"Are you joking?" the Baron asked with a smile on his face.
However, it wasn’t a friendly smile.
It was the kind of smile that looked as though it wanted to devour someone alive.
His mood had been excellent. He had been imagining the enormous wealth he was about to obtain.
How could he not be irritated upon hearing such news?
The soldier became awkward.
"It-it’s really true," he said. "The captain ordered me to report it."
This time, the Baron’s expression finally darkened.
Fortunately, he immediately turned around.
"Return!" he ordered.
After that, he yanked the reins hard, causing his horse to sprint forward.
All the Magi were forced to follow.
They were both confused and curious.
At their speed, it only took a short time to return to the crater.
The Baron didn’t merely stop at the edge.
His horse leaped directly down into the crater, and then he jumped onto the edge of the excavation pit, right beside the captain.
"Baron..." The captain wanted to say something, but the Baron’s expression only grew uglier.
"Did you really find nothing?" the Baron asked the miners.
They shook their heads, looking terrified.
Instantly, the Baron’s breathing quickened.
"Call all the Magi and have them dig as well!" he roared.
"You all, get over here and dig!" the captain shouted at the Magi.
Their expressions also worsened.
Who would have thought they’d end up digging dirt?
Still, just like before, they obediently complied.
Once the Magi joined the excavation, the results became incredibly fast.
Inside the crater, another crater rapidly formed.
An extremely deep one.
The Baron watched without blinking.
Unfortunately, no matter where he looked, the thing he sought could not be found.
If they had already dug this deep and still found no Black Iron Spiritual Stones, then there could only be one conclusion.
There truly weren’t any.
"Baron, could we have been deceived?" his personal guard asked.
"Idiot, why would Earth Master deceive me?" the Baron snapped angrily.
"Could the stones be buried extremely deep?" the guard quickly changed his speculation.
"I hope so," the Baron replied before ordering them to continue digging.
Unfortunately, even after reaching a depth of over a hundred meters, not a single Black Iron Spiritual Stone was found.
The Baron appeared to be losing hope.
Clearly, he understood that continuing to hope was pointless.
"Send a letter to Earth Master. Inform him that we found no Black Iron Spiritual Stones beneath that village," he ordered his guard.
The guard immediately wrote the message on a piece of leather parchment.
He whistled, and a pigeon soon arrived.
The letter was tied to its leg before it flew away.
"Let’s return," the Baron said afterward.
He no longer signaled for the Magi to follow him.
Clearly, he no longer wanted to deal with them.
After failing to obtain what he wanted, how could he possibly reward them?
"Should we keep digging?" someone asked.
"For what? The Baron already left. Let’s go!" another person replied, naturally finding the idea ridiculous.
Mateo left even earlier than the others.
He felt much more at ease now that the Baron no longer seemed concerned about him.
"Mateo!"
Just as he entered the forest and was about to head toward the Grass Forest, he heard Lucas’ voice.
The man had actually chased after him.
Was he suspicious that Mateo could somehow move an entire mine?
Mateo had no desire to talk to him, so he ran.
"Wait!" Lucas shouted.
However, as soon as Mateo entered an area dense with trees, he teleported away.
He reappeared right in front of the Grass Forest.
Buzz!
He entered while running.
The Baron had interrupted his progress.
During the war, he hadn’t truly fought, only blocked a few attacks, so his Diamond Bones had not improved at all.
This time, as soon as he entered, he suddenly noticed numerous massive footprints.
They resembled centipede tracks.
Hundreds of them were clustered together, stretching forward into the distance.
If the footprints alone were this large, then just how enormous was the centipede itself?
This had to be a high-level monster.
Perhaps even a boss.
Mateo wanted to fight it.
He immediately followed the tracks.
To his surprise, following them led him to an actual forest hidden within the Grass Forest.
It wasn’t particularly large, just an ordinary-sized forest.
However, it appeared to have grown atop a swamp.
According to his observation, the swamp seemed quite deep.
A powerful sense of danger emanated from it, as though warning anyone against entering.
Mateo wasn’t afraid.
He stepped inside and jumped onto a large tree branch.
Crack!
The branch he had assumed was sturdy snapped the moment he landed on it.
As he fell into the swamp, he immediately saw a gigantic mouth opening wide beneath him.
DING!
(Level 20 Monster!)
A notification appeared.
After taking a closer look, he realized it was the mouth of a crocodile.
The distance between its upper and lower jaws was nearly three meters.
It could easily swallow him whole.
Instead of worrying, Mateo smiled.
Level 20?
If it was merely an ordinary monster, it wouldn’t trouble him.
The only creatures capable of causing him problems were Boss Monsters like the raccoon from before.
In response, he opened his own mouth.
Shua!
He unleashed a stream of crimson fire.
Its heat instantly spread everywhere because he wasn’t even controlling it.
The swamp water around him evaporated dry under the intense temperature, exposing numerous ordinary beasts hidden beneath.
The swamp turned out to be much deeper than he had thought.
Perhaps more than twenty meters deep.
The trees in this forest weren’t actually small.
Most of their trunks had simply been submerged beneath the swamp.
The flames pouring from Mateo’s mouth forced their way into the crocodile’s throat, instantly burning a hole through it before reaching its enormous stomach.
Boom!
The crocodile exploded, unable to withstand the fire.
DING!
(You have killed a Level 20 Monster. You obtained 1 Point of Heaven Path Soul Energy and 20 System Points!)
[System Point: 20]
[Soul:]
Heaven Path Soul > 1 (SSS Class Soul)
’That’s way too little.’
Mateo rolled his eyes in dissatisfaction.
Even killing a Level 20 Monster only yielded such a tiny reward.
