Chapter 349: The Gray Stone Heart!

Columbus is gone!

Taking with him the conviction that he must find the treasure and not betray Gervas's trust.

He sailed the Black Dragon toward the deep sea.

"Let's go! We're finding the Baron of Hell!"

Gervas didn't linger either, for he needed to prepare everything before the conscription.

This meant the next few days would be extremely busy, as there was far too much to prepare.

Splash! Splash!

"Master!"

Time passed, over an hour later.

As Gervas neared a pile of rocks at the mountain's base, the previously silent pile suddenly trembled.

Then a massive figure slowly rose from the rocks—it was the Baron of Hell.

"Baron of Hell, how have you been these past days? Are you comfortable?"

"Master, I am doing very well. Every day, I am watered with enchanted spring water, and I feel myself growing stronger with each passing day!"

"I'm glad you like it!"

The enchanted spring water referred to the spiritual spring of Tianehu.

Stone beings like this are peculiar—they have mouths and noses, but do not grow by consuming ordinary meat or plants.

Instead, they grow by absorbing the essence of sun and moon, and other pure energies.

Such as spiritual spring water, or earth energy veins.

Whether drunk or poured over their bodies, they can absorb it.

So Gervas instructed Old John to assign personnel daily to fetch water from Tianehu's spring source and pour it around the Baron of Hell.

The Baron didn't even need to emerge; servants merely had to splash the spiritual water onto the rock pile, and it would be absorbed.

The energy from this spiritual water was inferior to that of beast meat or beast crystals.

But it was still several times faster than the Baron's natural absorption of sun and moon essence in the wild.

"Master, you've come to see me—do you have an order?"

The Baron of Hell was stoic.

More accurately, the Stone Giant race was straightforward, with no hidden motives.

"Correct. I'm taking you somewhere good!"

"Somewhere good?" The Baron of Hell raised his rock-formed arm and scratched his head awkwardly, as if pleased.

"Let's go—you'll see when we get there!"

Gervas smiled and led the Baron of Hell straight toward the southeastern coast.

About twenty minutes later, Gervas arrived with the Baron of Hell at a patch of dull gray rocks.

This area was easy to find, because when Gervas had passed by before, he remembered only this one large expanse of gray stone.

"My lord, what's special here?" This question, of course, came not from the Baron of Hell, but from Migen.

Migen had already been rubbing his hands together, knowing his master was about to seek something valuable.

"These rocks!"

"Rocks? My lord, what could possibly be valuable about rocks?" Migen, eager moments before, froze.

"Of course there is—try sensing them!"

Upon hearing this, the knights all activated their perception.

In the next instant, Lei Meng paused, then quickly walked to a rock, picked it up, and carefully sensed it.

"My lord, this gray stone emits magical fluctuations!" he exclaimed moments later.

"Magical fluctuations? In gray stone? Is that real?"

Migen and the others had only recently become Bronze Knights—their perception couldn't match Lei Meng's.

They spoke up, half-skeptical.

They hurried to Lei Meng's side, and in the next moment, astonishment spread across their faces.

"Huh? It really does emit magical fluctuations—even rocks have magic? How is this possible?"

"Because something valuable has been born here, causing the surrounding gray stones to absorb magic."

"My lord, I remember now—you mean the Gray Stone Heart?" Knight Captain Lei Meng, prompted by this, recalled a fragment of memory.

"Knight Captain Lei Meng, I didn't expect you to know this! Correct—this is where the Gray Stone Heart was born!" Gervas nodded in confirmation.

"Gray Stone Heart? Knight Captain Lei Meng, what exactly is that? And is it valuable?" Migen was confused—this was something he'd never heard of!

"Of course it's valuable—even more so than many common magical herbs!"

"Because once the Gray Stone Heart is born, it imbues all surrounding gray stones with magic."

"These magic-infused gray stones are the most prized building material for mages and alchemists—one cubic foot sells for ten silver coins!"

"Ten silver coins per cubic foot?? That's over a hundred times more than ordinary gray stone?!"

In this world, gray stone's only use was for building castles and stone houses.

Its price was actually low—no more than ten copper coins per cubic foot.

The reason buildings made from it were expensive was entirely due to mining and transportation costs.

So a cubic foot of unmined gray stone worth ten silver coins was truly a sky-high price.

"Correct. But even at this price, magic-infused gray stone remains in constant shortage, because the Gray Stone Heart's birth is rare and accidental."

"However, once born, even if all the gray stone in this area is mined, simply move the Gray Stone Heart to another gray stone region!"

"Then, within two or three years, a new area of magic-infused gray stone will regenerate."

"There's something like this?" Migen's eyes sparkled.

This was an incredible treasure—an inexhaustible mine!

"My lord, congratulations! The God of Glory has favored you!"

"Indeed, it is the favor of the God of Glory!" Gervas smiled, picked up a magic-infused gray rock, and handed it to the Baron of Hell.

"Baron of Hell, take a look at this stone!"

"Yes, Master!"

The Baron of Hell still didn't understand what was happening.

He mechanically reached out and took the rock Gervas offered.

But the instant he gripped it, his copper-bell eyes widened in disbelief as he stared at the stone in his hand.

"This… Master! Magic! Delicious magic!"

The magic within the gray stone was naturally more compatible with earth-aligned divine beings.

So the Baron of Hell, upon contact, instinctively recognized it as beneficial food.

"Then eat some!"

"Yes, Master!"

The Baron of Hell wasted no time. In front of Migen and the others, he placed the gray stone in his mouth.

Crunch! Crunch!

Crisp! Delicious!

The gray stone had no hardness in the Baron of Hell's mouth.

It shattered like a potato chip with a single bite.

Migen and the others swallowed repeatedly, watching.

"Master, it's delicious!"

"If it's delicious, eat more. Can you tell other magic-infused gray stones apart?"

"Yes, Master!"

The Baron of Hell had no perception or spiritual energy.

So he couldn't sense magic from a distance.

That was also why Stone Giants had 100% magic resistance.

But they could sense magic through touch—just like now.

So from now on, Gervas didn't need to help—the Baron of Hell simply walked around the mountain and could precisely locate the magic-infused gray stones.

Meanwhile, Gervas located the exact position of the Gray Stone Heart and marked it.

Since the Gray Stone Heart was buried at the center of a mountain, no one could easily steal it.

Half an hour later, the Baron of Hell stopped eating.

He was full—he had consumed over thirty cubic feet of stone.

Don't think that's too much; this single meal would normally sustain the Baron of Hell for a full month.

At that moment, a faint hum suddenly resonated from the Baron of Hell's body.

A small black five-clawed dragon mark appeared on his forehead.

This was the design pattern Gervas himself had created.