Chapter 71 - Demon Hot Spring
Chapter 71: Demon Hot Spring
Roy felt very puzzled about the Abyss.
According to his understanding, if the Abyss was on a planet, then the deeper the Abyss, the closer to the world’s core, the weaker the gravity should be. Although Roy had not been a top student, and his high school physics knowledge had long returned to his teachers, he still knew this reasoning.
But the current situation was that the lower the Abyss, the stronger the gravity he felt. This anti-scientific situation made Roy confused about what the Abyss was. Was it on a planet, or was it in a separate space?
Roy was doubtful but was not too caught up in it. If it was anti-science, then so be it. He did not expect to become a scientist among the demons anyway.
After landing on the ground, the feeling from Roy’s feet told him that the ground here was much hotter than in the upper Abyss. Demons were resistant to heat, but the scorching sensation he felt when he stepped on the ground made him wonder if he should bring forward his plans to get armor or at least get himself a pair of boots.
Roy’s legs had forward joints, and his feet were animal-shaped ones with claws. When he was standing, his feet were almost all touching the ground, and the temperature he felt was naturally strong. Instead, it was demon hooves with hoof walls covering the toes that would adapt well in this environment. However, Roy had never thought about changing his feet because those demon hooves typically had reverse joint legs, and the reverse-joint legs were more suitable for traveling at low postures, which was crawling. Compared to that, Roy preferred to stand and walk.
In addition to the dimmer light and higher temperature, the most troublesome thing was the high gravity. Roy felt heavy all over, as though he had a load of hundreds of kilograms tied to him, and even his movements were a bit difficult.
Of course, Roy knew that the high-gravity environment was beneficial for training his muscle strength. Once his body adapted to this heavier burden, the energy supply of his cells to his body would also increase, making Roy look forward to it. Therefore, the first thing he planned to do after entering the middle Abyss was to adapt to the gravity here.
During the next four hours, Roy did not rush to run far. He stayed where he was and stretched his limbs continuously, running with Fat Tiger, chasing each other.
Fat Tiger seemed to be less affected by the high gravity here. Perhaps it was because he was a creature that walked on four legs, and his natural center of gravity was lower, allowing him to adapt quickly.
While Roy was sighing, he suddenly found that his strength attribute had increased by one on the system interface!
Huh? What’s happening? Even if adapting to the high gravity environment can improve my physical strength, isn’t this a little too fast? I’ve only been here for four hours!
After careful study, Roy realized that it was unexpectedly due to the T-Virus!
Because he used the T-Virus before, other than optimizing his cells, it had also provided him with the possibility of evolution. When the external environment changed drastically, the T-Virus would stimulate his body’s cells to adapt and evolve. Like this, Roy’s strength attribute, which had stopped growing in the upper Abyss, was improving once again.
With the advantage of the T-Virus, Roy adapted to the environment of the middle Abyss at tens of times faster than other demons. If it were any other low-rank demon that had just entered here, it would not have been as fast as Roy!
After discovering this, Roy felt fortunate. It was indeed the correct decision to have made this perfect T-Virus.
It was not without reason that middle-rank demons were stronger than low-rank demons. Even middle-rank demons not known for physical strength could still build strong bodies in such high gravity.
Now that he was in the middle Abyss, Roy did not dare to fly around. After all, this place was not the upper Abyss, and he could encounter middle-rank demons at any time. Although Roy thought that if he relied on using Bloodlust and the defense methods of the Dark-Dark Fruit, he would not have any issues against ordinary middle-rank demons, his main task now was to find a place of refinement, not fighting against middle-rank demons.
His darkvision was already working, and the dim light all around no longer obstructed his vision. Roy began exploring with Fat Tiger.
Without the inheritance of a demon’s soul knowledge, Roy did not know what the so-called places of refinement looked like nor where they would be, so he could only explore by himself. At this moment, Roy felt that it would be great if he could meet other demons that came down from the upper Abyss and were also looking for a place of refinement. This way, he could at least follow behind them and save a lot of trouble.
As Roy continued moving forward, some middle-rank demons gradually appeared. The behavior of these middle-rank demons fighting in the wilderness did not differ much from the upper Abyss. What was different was that their combat methods had changed. They were no longer relying solely on melee combat but began using magic power.
Roy observed the fight between the two middle-rank demons from afar and found that flames were the most frequently used power among middle-rank demons. They either spewed flames from their mouths to burn their opponents or attached flames to their claws to fight.
However, although the few middle-rank demons that Roy had observed knew how to use magic power to fight, their use of magic was still very shallow. At least, Roy did not see any fire magic like Xeron’s Fire Explosion, Meteor Shower, and so on.
When observing the fourth battle between middle-rank demons, Roy might have gotten too close, or maybe the middle-rank demon that won had a stronger sense of smell, leading to Roy being discovered!
When the middle-rank demon ran toward Roy, Roy even thought that his first battle after entering the middle Abyss was unavoidable. However, just as he was about to fight alongside Fat Tiger, he found the middle-rank demon had suddenly stopped a few meters away from him.
This middle-rank demon was bigger and taller than Roy, and his appearance was strange. He had only a demon horn on the middle of his forehead, no wings on his back, and four arms. He seemed to be using magic power on his four arms, and they had blazing flames on them, looking rather majestic.
After stopping, the demon sniffed, smelling Roy’s scent, before revealing a look of disappointment.
He used a rough voice and said to Roy, who was guarding against him, in the demon language, “Y-you went the wrong way… place of refinement, over there…” One of his four arms raised and pointed in a direction.
After speaking, the demon left without looking back.
There was no fighting? Roy was slightly astonished. Although he knew that middle-rank demons had higher intelligence than low-rank demons, he never thought that a demon would ‘kindly’ give him directions!
It seems like this middle Abyss is different from what I imagined! Roy unconsciously waved his tail while thinking. When a middle-rank demon meets a low-rank demon, shouldn’t he just charge up and bully him? Also, how does he know that I’m going to a place of refinement? Is it like this just for me or for all the low-rank demons that enter the middle Abyss?
With this doubt in mind, Roy turned around and went in the direction that the demon had pointed. Since the demon did not attack him, there was no point in deceiving him. The direction to the place of refinement should be right.
After advancing for another two hours, Roy realized that the middle-rank demon must have had some reason for giving up on attacking him and giving him directions because…
Roy witnessed a fight, a fight between middle-rank demons and a low-rank demon!
It was a low-rank demon, definitely. Roy could tell at a glance. This low-rank demon was fleeing desperately when Roy saw him, and behind him were three middle-rank demons.
The low-rank demon did not manage to escape too far before being caught. The three middle-rank demons pushed him to the ground and cruelly ripped him into pieces. Then, in order to snatch the soul, the three middle-rank demons fought each other.
This scene made Roy realize that it was not that middle-rank demons would not attack low-rank demons, but that the low-rank demon had some reason that caused middle-rank demons to attack him!
With caution in his heart, Roy went around the three middle-rank demons and continued toward the place of refinement.
Before long, Roy vaguely saw… something in the distance!
Roy could not care less as he flew up with Fat Tiger. After rushing forward, Roy finally saw what it looked like.
It was a building! A typical demon-style building!
Unlike the altar with the summoning formation, this building occupied a very large area. Roy found that the building looked like a huge stadium… No, to be precise, it looked a bit like Ancient Rome’s Colosseum. A black wall surrounded the main structure, and on the round wall were six openings. Each opening was a gate sculpted into a demon’s head, and the big mouths of the demon heads were the entrances.
On the other places of the wall were engraved demon runes shining with light. These runes were similar to those used in the summoning magic formation. Roy could see many middle-rank demons loitering around the building, but when they attempted to get close, they would be shot flying by a sudden burst of black light.
It seemed to be a… barrier! It was protecting the things within the wall.
The enclosed center area looked empty except for a small pool. Although the light was very dim, Roy could clearly see that the water in the pool was purplish-red, like demon blood, and a few low-rank demons were soaking in it…
Roy immediately understood that this was indeed a place of refinement!
A place of refinement, also known as a demon hot spring…