Destroyer of Ice and Fire

Chapter 254: A Shocking Discovery

"Boss Fire Caracal Lord, just where are you taking us?!"

Although the arcane energy around them defended them from the collisions, having to stick to a giant beast as it madly crashed through a forest was still quite an experience. As Stingham saw all the strange and bizarre plants flying at him, he couldn't help but feel queasy and shout to vent his emotions.

"You idiot, just shut up already! You've been screaming for a full ten minutes already!" Rinloran couldn't endure it any longer as he swore at Stingham.

Stingham screamed back, "Why don't you come here and hold on to the underside of its neck! Ack, it's saliva is about to drip on me!"

Rinloran suddenly became a little bit hysterical as he shouted, "Why are your feet on me?!"

"Stop fighting. You guys are quite lucky," Ayrin suddenly interjected in a dejected manner, "I've over here by its ass. I really hope boss Fire Caracal Lord doesn't suddenly release a fart like the Skunk Devil."

"Ah?" Stingham stared blankly towards the Fire Caracal's backside as he felt like Ayrin was indeed unfortunate.

"Ah, great boss Fire Caracal Lord, what are you about to do now?!"

At this moment, Stingham, who had just about decided to quiet down, began shouting once more.

The Fire Caracal Lord had abruptly charged into a dark cavern, filling Stingham's vision with tons of sharp, teeth-like stone stalagmites.

"Great boss Fire Caracal Lord, why don't you just give up. We are currently linked together. Unless you completely exhaust yourself as well, you cannot kill us through all these collisions," Stingham shouted in succession as he watched several sharp stalagmites rushing towards his head shatter upon contact with the powerful arcane energy around him.

"Stop screaming. I think it's brought us back to its lair," Rui emotionlessly said at this moment.

"Indeed. We have been brought along to its lair."

Jano's voice held hints of excitement.

Having grown up and trained within the demonic forest which made up House Eclipse Moon's territory, Jano and Christine knew well that it was quite possible for this lord's lair to contain great surprises.

Many powerful demonic beasts enjoyed collecting random things. This was especially true for lords, which had to kill off countless invaders when setting up their own territories, leading to their nests being full of things such as demonic crystals.

Even a single demonic crystal which could be made into an amplification artifact was an incredible bounty!

The issue was that it was hard to find powerful giant beasts. Furthermore, if one was encountered, it was likely a situation where the finder was guaranteed to die. Thus, finding a nest or lair was the best way. Only, it was even harder to find a lair than a creature.

"This Fire Caracal Lord has probably never encountered a situation like this before. It's been completely confused by Ayrin." This thought ran through the minds of Jano and Christine.

"Wawawa…"

While Stingham continued screaming, everyone else saw the cave before them suddenly open up as a rosy red light entered their eyes.

"This is?"

Although the light was blindingly bright, they couldn't help but all widen their eyes in shock.

They been brought into a huge cavern tens of meters tall. The cavern walls were dotted with countless rosy red crystals which naturally radiated with light.

Each crystal was about the size of a dove egg and almost perfectly round. Their positions made them seem as if they had been laid into the walls by humans.

But what truly shocked everyone was the emergence of a strange house made of woven black vines and various bird feathers which was constructed right in the middle of the cavern.

Various lizard skulls and giant toad skins hung on the outside of the house off some protruding branches and vines.

"How is there someone living within the Fire Caracal Lord's lair?" Ayrin couldn't help but exclaim.

But before any of them could completely comprehend the scene before them, it had already disappeared as the Fire Caracal Lord continued going further into the cavern.

A dark cavern even larger than the previous one appeared before them.

Tall bones stuck into the ground littered the cavern like trees.

Red lights flashed within many of the bones.

"Are these the Fire Caracal Lord's trophies? It's managed to kill this many powerful beasts?"

This was the first thought that popped into Jano and Christine's minds.

"It's a graveyard of Fire Caracals!"

But the two quickly realized its true identity as they exclaimed in astonishment.

Every bone contained the same flickering red glow within. Every bone still contained a prismatic red crystal!

"Eh?" Stingham blankly stared at the scene before him. Afterwards, he shouted in fear, "Could it be that great boss Fire Caracal Lord has brought us here to bury us!"

"Idiot!" Rinloran berated, "It probably feels like it is on the verge of dying, so it has come here to die! It is its natural behaviour!"

"But if it dies, don't we die as well? We are currently tied to it!" Stingham shouted in response. But after speaking, he suddenly realized, "Wait! If it dies, then we will recover our freedom. Then we can take all the Fire Caracal Lord demonic crystals here! We're rich! Even if they cannot be used to make amplification artifacts, we can still get rich by selling them as gemstones!"

"Is it due to the blow it took from the Poisonous Nighthawk Lord mixing with the corroding effect of my Ruin Fetters and Jano's Field of Blood Ants, causing it to endlessly lose arcane particles while injured?" Ayrin also began to notice the changes to the Fire Caracal Lord as it became increasingly weaker and began to tremble from exertion. It seemed like it was nearing its limit. But something still bothered Ayrin as he asked, "Teacher Rui, why has it brought us here in such a state? Is it not afraid of us discovering that this is a graveyard and desecrating it?"

"It is innate. For some giant beasts, they will always return to their place of birth when giving birth. For others, they will always return to the graveyard of their ancestors when they die." Rui took a deep breath as he continued, "It's very hard to explain why. After all, most powerful beasts of this level are killed in battle when they encounter a powerful arcane team. It is just too difficult to exhaust a beast to this level without killing it. At the very least, there isn't a single major academy within the Kingdom of Eiche which has ever succeeded in capturing or tracking a grievously injured lord level beast to find its nest."

"Then there are also no beasts of this level within our Holy Dawn Academy's Giant Beasts Enclosure?" Ayrin curiously asked.

"There is not. The most powerful are only at the level of four gate arcane masters, and they were captured at a young age," Rui replied.

"It seems like it is about to completely run out of arcane particles!

As Stingham screamed in terror, everyone felt the energy surrounding them abruptly weaken.

Boom!

The Fire Lord Caracal abruptly collapsed like a shattered wall.

"Ahhh!"

Everyone gracefully descended from the Fire Caracal Lord except for Stingham, who was unfortunately caught under its body. Due to the weight pressing on him, Stingham's eyes had rolled back and his tongue limply hung out of his mouth.

"You idiot, did you really just die from being crushed? It is quite a fitting way for someone like you to die though."

As Rinloran sprung up from the ground, he immediately made sure that the Fire Caracal Lord was no longer breathing. As the cloud weighing over his chest finally disappeared, Rinloran exhaustedly sat on the ground.

"Stingham!"

Indeed, it was Ayrin who was the first to help Stingham as he flipped over the Fire Caracal Lord's body and dragged Stingham out.

"I'm still alive?" About half a minute later, Stingham, who had begun breathing again with difficulty, began making a ruckus again. "I'm really still alive?!"

"You can try killing yourself to see. If you die, then you are still alive." Rinloran coldly said from nearby. He didn't hid his feelings at all.

"That's right, let me try!"

Stingham's reply caused everyone to nearly slam their heads into the ground.

"Rinloran, do you think I'm stupid!" Upon seeing everyone's expressions, Stingham finally regained his mental abilities as he tossed his hair and berated Rinloran.

"We're rich! Teacher Rui, can these Fire Caracal Lord crystals be used to make amplification artifacts?" Stingham immediately asked afterwards as he looked at the many glowing red bones scattered throughout the cavern with a pair of oily green eyes.

"They can."

Rui breathed slowly as he attempted to maintain his composure.

Counting all the bones within the cavern, there were at least twenty full Fire Caracal Lord skeletons. With this many Fire Caracal Lord demonic crystals, they could make at least three to four powerful amplification artifacts.

"Then let's hurry up and decide how we're going to split these crystals up! Wait, what are you guys doing? How could anything be more important than divvying up these Fire Caracal Lord demonic crystals?" Stingham cried out as he watched everyone else begin to walk away from the Fire Caracal Lord graveyard.

"An idiot will always be an idiot!" Rinloran sneered.

"Stingham, we are going to check out the house we saw earlier first!" Ayrin excitedly followed up.

"I guess that makes sense… I just hadn't thought about it yet." Stingham's face flushed slightly from embarrassment. But in the next moment, he swept his hair to the side and added, "But it doesn't matter because I'm the most handsome!"

……

A strange atmosphere emanated from the solitary black house made from woven tree vines and decorated with feathers, lizard skulls, and toad skins.

"It seems very ancient!" Ayrin shouted out before anyone else.

The lizard skulls and toad skins had long since turned ashy and black and were covered with natural cracks.

There wasn't a single trace of arcane energy or human life.

There was a creak as Rui pushed open the house's tattered large black vine door.

"This…"

Ayrin felt his breath catch in his throat as the inside of the small house appeared before him. There was a small bed and desk, as well as a multitude of crystal bottles and bone containers.

Atop the desk, there was a single skull shaped candelabrum made from some red crystal and a pointy black hat which was releasing a strange but bewitching glow.