"Move!"
One had already received the command through Hive Link before the sentence was complete.
The ant turned its body and moved away from the root at full speed.
Seris, Seraphina, and Liana maintained their balance on its back. The massive root exploded from the center.
The Cindervein Devourer pulled its body out, and the glass plates around it shattered the passage’s path.
Part of the ceiling collapsed, and a wave of soil, stone, and glass scattered in the space.
The creature roared.
Hot air came out of its mouth and turned the opposite wall red.
Lian landed on One’s back with Thunder Step.
"This thing was inside there?" Seraphina asked.
"Yeah."
"Did you go to check the path or to wake up a monster?"
"Both happened." Lian said without changing his expression. He hadn’t expected the inside to be a monster’s lair.
He had even checked, but this worm lived deep underground, and detecting it was practically impossible, which is why he hadn’t noticed it.
The Devourer dragged its body on the ground.
With every movement, the plates under its abdomen shattered the glass surface. A few images of its body appeared in the heat waves.
Five identical Devourers moved toward the group from different directions.
But Predator’s Instincts only sensed real danger from one of them.
The main body was slightly further back and to the right.
"Right side. The rest are heat reflections." Lian said immediately after figuring out which one was real.
One carried the group to a wider part of the passage.
Seris jumped down before the ant fully stopped.
The Devourer slammed its heavy tail on the ground. A wave of glass plates moved toward her.
Seris walked among them, her sword held low.
When the first plate reached a few meters away, heavy pressure formed on the blade.
[King’s Breaker]
The strike hit one of the defensive plates beside the creature’s head.
King’s Breaker was not made for cutting.
The Skill collapsed the defensive structure through concentrated force transfer.
A heavy explosion sound echoed in the passage. The black plate sank from the center.
Cracks spread across the surrounding layers.
The Devourer shook its head, and then the cracks in its body opened.
The accumulated heat burst out. Hundreds of molten glass pieces, like a red rain, were thrown toward the group.
Seraphina and Liana prepared to attack, but Lian moved forward.
[Diamond Skin]
His skin’s surface hardened.
[Iron Fortress]
Compressed defensive pressure formed around his body. He found the wave’s weakest part with Predator’s Instincts and passed directly through it.
A few molten pieces hit his armor and arm.
Diamond Skin prevented deep penetration, but the heat still burned his skin.
Lian reached close range.
Instead of attacking the Devourer’s body, he slammed his palm on the root beneath the creature.
[Cataclysm Pulse]
The wave entered the root’s structure, passed through the broken plates, and exploded exactly beneath the Devourer’s heavy body.
The root cracked from below. The creature’s balance was disrupted for a moment, and its massive head tilted to one side.
The false bodies trembled in the heat wave. The Devourer opened its mouth, and red light gathered in the depths of its throat.
This time, it intended to release all its stored heat in one direction.
Lian activated Thunder Step, and blue lightning remained on the ground. He appeared directly on the creature’s head.
The crack created by King’s Breaker was in front of him.
[Glacial Reaper Claw]
The ice claw sank into the cracked armor. The cold entered the Devourer’s body.
The molten veins around the crack changed from red to orange and then gray in an instant. The temperature difference widened the cracks.
The Devourer roared and shook its body violently.
Lian sank his claws deeper into the armor to avoid being thrown off. The creature’s tail hit the wall, and a large part of the black glass collapsed.
Seraphina and Liana jumped down from One’s back.
But before they could enter the battle, Seris ran on one of the Devourer’s body plates. Her movement was synchronized with the creature’s shakes.
Every time the plate went up, she would place her next step on a lower part.
Lian only saw her path for a moment, and then King’s Edge lit up.
Seris sank the blade into the same crack. Her cut moved along the cold of Glacial Reaper Claw.
The defensive plates separated from the inside.
Lian released more cold. The molten veins froze one after another.
The Devourer tried to release the heat in its throat, but the internal Mana path was blocked.
The energy built up inside its body. The cracks on its armor lit up with red light.
"Back!" Lian sensed the danger and warned immediately.
Seris pulled her sword out without asking and jumped off the monster’s body.
The young Vorhelm activated Thunder Step, appearing on the ground a moment before the explosion.
The Cindervein Devourer’s body exploded from the inside, and red light burst through hundreds of cracks.
The glass plates were thrown in all directions.
Lian activated Iron Fortress again. A few pieces hit his defense and were deflected.
Seris spun her sword in the air and cut the nearby plates.
One positioned its body in front of Seraphina and Liana. The glass pieces shattered on its black shell.
The explosion subsided after a few seconds. The front part of the Devourer was completely destroyed.
The molten veins went out. The creature’s massive body fell to the ground with a heavy sound.
A panel appeared.
[You have slain Cindervein Devourer Lv.24.]
[Bloodlust has absorbed 100% of the available exp.]
A significant amount of EXP entered Lian’s body, but it was not enough to reach Level 20.
He looked at the corpse. The coordination between him and Seris had been done almost without words.
He had opened the weak point, the young Pendragon had broken the defense, and then both had concentrated their attacks on the same path.
"You really don’t leave any chance for us." Seraphina lowered her sword, a little dissatisfaction could be heard in her voice.
She also wanted to test her new skills and abilities. Since last night, instead of sleeping, she had only been examining the inheritance she had obtained.
She had understood many things and was even sure that her power had still increased.
But these two gave her no opportunity to test her skills, and as long as she was in a group with them, this situation would probably continue.
"I was even ready to be useful this time." Liana stood beside One.
Seris cleaned her sword.
"Be faster."
Seraphina gave her a sharp look, and Liana sighed.
Lian turned his attention back to the broken root. The others probably assumed the Devourer had awakened because of his entry into the hole.
This assumption was not entirely wrong, but none of them knew about the Cinderheart Fruit.
"How about this? From now on, you two take the weak monsters, and we’ll take the strong ones." After a moment of thought, he suggested.
"Great." Seraphina smiled and accepted the suggestion.
She knew Lian meant monsters between levels 15 and 22 by "weak," and for her, those monsters were actually considered strong.
After making sure the creature was dead, the group stopped for a few minutes to recover energy.
One had taken a few fresh scratches, but none of them were deep.
Liana sat next to the ant and wiped the glass pieces off its shell with a thick cloth.
Lian first looked at the notifications. Aside from the stats points he had obtained, he had also finally acquired a new skill.
Then he opened the World Memory Map.
The explosion had blocked part of the main path. After a few seconds, the map calculated an alternative route beside the gap.
The new path was slightly longer but passed through stable root sections.
They continued moving. The further they went, the less Glassthorn’s features became.
The black glass on the walls receded, red and brown roots took its place, and the passage’s air was no longer just hot.
The smell of wood, soil, and smoke was in it. The sound of insects could be heard from a distance.
Signs of natural life, after a few days among reflections and glass trees, seemed almost strange.
The third book of treasure mark was getting closer.
In a wide part of the passage, the skeleton of a massive creature lay among the roots.
Its bones were partially burned and blackened. The World Memory Map showed the main path passing beside that same skeleton.
One needed a short stop because of the scratches on its legs.
"We’ll rest for a few minutes." Lian said.