Chapter 289 – Barren
Barren
“To heal the damage done to my sea of consciousness, as well as dispel the mark from Alric, half of my spiritual force can’t be used during this period, right?”
Leylin stroked his chin while contemplating.
A moment later, he decided. “Let’s start!”
*Weng Weng!*
The moment he gave the order, silver spiritual force in his sea of consciousness clung on to the nearest cracks at the edges, and then crystallised and solidified!
The silver crystals covered about half of the sea of consciousness, and within the crystal, the milky-white spot was frozen, like a little worm frozen in amber.
After solidifying about half of his spiritual force, Leylin realised that the fine cracks in his sea of consciousness had stopped expanding after having been reinforced by the solidified spiritual force. He heaved a huge sigh of relief.
This way, he had completely dealt with the troublesome parts of his body. The price he had to pay for this was that he could only use the strength of a rank 1 Magus.
After stabilising his injuries, Leylin was now in the mood to survey his surroundings.
It was rather dim, with some moss that gave off some faint light, which allowed him to see just a few metres away. Everything else was just pitch black.
“This must be somewhere within a cave! I wonder what direction leads to the outside…”
Leylin gave a long sigh and took another look at the teleportation spell formation.
The spell formation here was the same as that in the Ancient Spirit Slayer Sect’s secret plane. However, a rune at one of the corners had already been destroyed by Leylin.
Leylin believed that if he was the rank 3 Magus on the other end if he was not going to personally keep watch, he would destroy the spell formation at the other area. Hence, this teleportation spell formation would not be able to be used for a long period of time.
On one end, the set up by the Magi of the Spirit Slayer Sect was very simple. There was only the spell formation in the cave, and other than that, there was a very long and narrow passage that seemed to be carved out from the stone walls.
“Night Vision!”
Leylin used a support-type acolyte level spell on himself.
A black glint flashed in his eyes, and darkness no longer hindered his sight and he took his surroundings in.
“The dark elemental particles here are very dense. It seems to be more than in the south coast!” While using this spell Leylin could tell the large difference between the two continents.
If it was said that the concentration of dark elemental particles in the air in the south coast was 1, it would be at least 1.5 or even up to 2 here.
“A.I. Chip! Test the concentration of elemental particles in the air and make a comparison with that in the south coast!”
[Mission established. Beginning collection of data. Generating comparative diagrams.]
Quickly enough, the A.I. Chip transmitted two different pie charts to Leylin.
In the pie chart, the ratio of colours that represented different elemental particles had various percentages. These were all presented in front of Leylin clearly.
“On the right is the average data found on the south coast, while the one on the left is the newest data!”
Leylin compared the differences between the two.
The newest set of data revealed that the concentration of dark, shadow and death, as well as other negative energy particles, rose to about two times that of in the south coast.
The positive energy particles such as that of light, plant and life were a little lower.
“Also, the concentration of earth elemental particles is quite high, while fire and water are quite meagre.”
Leylin touched his chin, looking thoughtful.
“In other words, there is approximately the same concentration of elemental particles here as in the south coast, though the composition is a little different. The concentration of negative elemental particles is almost equal to that of a small scale secret plane, while the positive elemental particles are only like that of the Chernobyl Islands…”
Leylin made a few conjectures and took a few large steps forwards, entering the long and narrow stone passage.
This passage was quite long, and only after ten or so minutes of strolling did he reach the end.
At the end of the passage was a large stone door.
Calling it a door might even be a stretch. From what Leylin could tell, it was just a large rounded rock that was blocking the exit.
Through the chinks in the rock, Leylin could hear the faint sounds of wind entering.
“It’s best to keep this stone door. When I need this teleportation spell formation in the future, I can still come back!”
With a thought, he used a rank 1 spell. “Shadow Stealth!”
Black rays surrounded Leylin’s body, and within the rays, he started to become transparent.
The effect of Shadow Stealth was that the user would temporarily become hard to see, and would be able to hide within tiny shadows. He could pass through most physical objects, but in this mode, he would be unable to attack, else this stealth mode would disappear. Area of effect attacks using energy or sound waves were also the bane of this spell.
Now, however, this was just meant to pass through a rock, so it was a simple task.
The faint image that Leylin turned into easily passed through the shadows of the cracks on the rock and he reached the outside.
“Hah! This is…”
Leylin looked at the view outside, and was stunned for a few moments.
He was standing on a little hill formed from large rocks, and surrounding him was a vast plain. There were also a large number of shrubs.
A gloomy darkness encompassed the whole area, making it so that there was no light at all. The sky was dim and looked as if it would collapse at any moment.
Vastness, gloominess, a deathly stillness! This was Leylin’s first impression about the place.
With the help of his night vision, Leylin did not have any trouble looking at his surroundings.
“This plant looks quite strange!” Leylin picked up a dried up twig on the ground.
“It has no leaves and at most, just has some thorns. On top of that, it seems like all the plants I can see share this characteristic!”
Leylin grabbed forward with his right hand, a little mole-like creature was captured from the ground. It constantly made ‘chik chik’ sounds.
“Its eyes are small and don’t seem to serve much of a purpose. It also looks like it has albinism! This is a mutation from not being able to get sunlight for a long period of time!”
Leylin mumbled to himself, clearing up his doubts.
*Pak!* He tossed the mole aside and pushed himself into the sky using a dull, red light.
Leylin kept ascending, and he could feel pressure on his head. Finally, after who knows how long, Leylin reached the end.
This was a large rock rampart. It had a metallic sheen to it, which made it look like the canopy of heaven.
“So the top of this place is the Earth’s crust!”
Leylin descended slowly, his expression still revealing his shock, “This is a subterranean world!”
……
On a plain made entirely out of rocks and moss.
Two grey boar-like animals that were a lot smaller used their thick and coarse snouts to dig into the earth, searching for edible food.
*Xiu Xiu!* Two black arrows were suddenly released, and the sharp arrowheads penetrated the back of these two little beasts, pinning them to the ground.
“It’s not a bad harvest today. There are two grey boars! I can change the menu!”
On a hill, not far away, Leylin saw this scene, and joy was present in his smile.
Just ten or so minutes later, he used a wooden frame and made a fire. On top, the grey boars that had been skinned and washed were being roasted, a little grease rolling off the boiling hot skin. There was also an aroma that could make anyone drool mixed with the scent of pine wood, and Leylin’s forefinger couldn’t help but twitch.
“It’s been around a month since I exited from the large rock hill where the teleportation spell formation is.”
After gnawing away at an entire grey boar, Leylin sighed contently and kept the other one for later.
After a month of wandering around, he now had an idea of how barren this subterranean world was.
Here, it was possible to not see any life despite walking for days, and only moss and bugs were tenaciously surviving.
The pig-like creature that Leylin named “grey boar” was the biggest animal he had seen thus far. It was also the tastiest.
At this thought, Leylin couldn’t help but feel a little regretful.
While the precious spatial leather pouch was extremely spacious, there was a limit to how much could be stored within. It was already full of precious items that Leylin had gained through various methods, the value of which was something even rank 3 Magus would be envious of.
Unfortunately, there was no good food or wine at all. Compared to precious materials, their value was much too low and it was not worth being stored within.
Hence, Leylin found himself living the life of a barbarian.
Water was not an issue. He was a Magus, and with a water elemental spell, he could easily produce large amounts of fresh water. If it was food, however, he had little in the way of options.
Because he was a rank 2 Warlock, it was fine if he didn’t eat for ten days or half a month, but if it was a full month, it wasn’t possible for him not to eat at all.
In addition, his living environment in his previous life, and even now, were all not unsatisfactory. He was used to having three meals a day, and even had some stringent requirements regarding the content of his meals.
Currently, after a long search, Leylin could somewhat find a few starchy plants and roots that he could consume. He might also be able to have some birds or berries.
Leylin was beginning to get tired of these meagre meals.
This boar-like creature that he had named “grey boar” was, by far, the tastiest out of everything else that he had seen here up until now.
“Damn it! I hope this isn’t a completely barren land.”
After walking for a full month, besides this desert-area, Leylin had also seen some plains. Leylin began to have some suspicions, as even large animals were rarely seen.
Honestly speaking, as he was accustomed to sunlight, Leylin had never realised how precious it was.