Chapter 1499: [Earth Core Furnace]

"I said, this house of yours is very abnormal." Luweiya said:

"This is the how many-th door? Three doors in the basement, Room 2 on the second floor is the 【Secret Keeper Hall】, and the third-floor corridor is the 【Soul Cemetery】. I find it hard to imagine what will happen next."

"It's abnormal here at Xia De's, which is now a recognized fact."

Iruna also said with a smile, while Xia De nodded and did not refute this point.

In Luweiya's dream about the 【Past Life · Sixth Era】, the long-haired her and the silver-eyed Mia were both in this house, and in that kind of doomsday scene, No. 6 St. Deran Square still looked complete, which itself explained many things.

Although he still didn't know what this meant, whether it was special here, or if the Luweiya of the 【Past Life · Sixth Era】 chose this place, which caused it to become special. But this did not prevent Xia De from knowing that his house was indeed the best.

"Let's go down and take a look. I have obtained information about the 【Earth Core Furnace】 from the Heart of the Earth, and the Guardian has also shared knowledge. I think it will be very useful here."

Because it was a door installed using a ritual, using it required the three steps Xia De had summarized, which were "Spirit Rune," "Incantation," and "Artifact."

Both the "Incantation" and "Spirit Rune" were fine; Xia De didn't even need a spirit rune to open the door because he had devoured the Earth Origin. And the "Artifact" corresponded to the "Heart of the Earth." This did not refer to the complete Heart of the Earth, but any fragment would do.

The Guardian had said that the current Heart of the Earth could no longer be split. But when Xia De placed his hand on the handle of the trapdoor today, he clearly realized that his body could actually also be considered the "Heart of the Earth."

Without anyone explaining, Xia De also knew that this was still related to what he had swallowed. In short, he successfully opened that door:

"May the Earth protect me who stands here."

The trapdoor was opened, and white mist like cotton wool floated under the floor, but it strangely did not leave the range of the door, as if this door was restraining it. It was impossible to see if there were steps below in the mist, let alone if there was ground below.

But Xia De knew there would be no danger here, so he held the cat with one hand and jumped down first, while Iruna and Luweiya followed closely behind. The falling process was not very long; Xia De felt as if he had jumped from the window of the second floor of the house into a pile of straw on the ground. 【Outlander, you have entered the "Earth Core Furnace."】

After his feet touched the ground, Luweiya and Iruna also stood firm beside him. The thick white mist diffusing around gradually dispersed towards the surroundings.

The description of this place on the Heart of the Earth stone pillar was "a scene extremely similar to the earth's core," but what was finally displayed before the three was a dilapidated stone house surrounded by a small circle of ground magma.

Calling it a stone house was not accurate, because there was no wall facing the direction of Xia De and the three. This house, built with three walls and an arched roof, although very hazy in the mist, could also see that almost all the building materials were black stones similar to the color of the "Heart of the Earth."

Two thick, unpolished stone pillars supported the roof with connection marks so it wouldn't collapse. Observing it up close, the dilapidated feeling also carried an ancient charm. Although it could not be compared with the magnificent "Secret Keeper Hall" that was simply like a palace, and the "Silver Moon Library" that seemed to be in the star realm under the moonlight, at least it was better than the "Time Corridor" which only had functional effects and didn't even exist as a building, and the "Space Maze" which only had a few dilapidated signposts.

Inside the house, there was a huge stone furnace connected to the magma outside. The structure of this furnace was quite simple and could be opened from the side and top.

"According to the information I have learned, any alchemical item with more than 50% metal and stone material can be strengthened here. Or, putting any material and an alchemical item with more than 50% metal and stone material into the furnace can fuse them into a new item."

Xia De said, the function here was just this simple and direct:

"According to the Guardian, the source of power here is the Old God and the Earth. 'Smelting' here is just a concept; its essence is through

the power of the earth to temper, letting the earth give power to metal and stone materials. It can even be said that the power here originates from the power of the earth itself."

"Can relics be strengthened?" Luweiya asked curiously.

"Yes, but it's best not to. The Guardian said it's very dangerous to do so. But for relic derivatives with not very strong whisper elements, it should be no problem."

Xia De answered, Luweiya nodded, and Iruna continued to ask curiously:

"Then what price do I need to pay to use this place? I think it shouldn't be usable just however one wants, right?" Any space left by an Old God had restrictions; this was certain.

"The things consumed here are quite strange; it's not a specific substance, nor is it some kind of special power, but... experience. It's hard to find a suitable word in Dralian:

"Simply put, when we set foot on the earth, we will definitely be contaminated with the breath of the earth. The further we walk, the more places we go, and the more things we experience on the land, the thicker the breath of the earth we are contaminated with. And wanting to use this place consumes this kind of thing."

"Traversing the earth?"

Luweiya tilted her head and asked, while Iruna's way of saying it was simpler: "Steps?"

"Hmm... not accurate, but it can be understood this way."

Xia De was stunned by the seventeen-year-old girl's simple and straightforward answer, but what she said was indeed very close. He lifted the little butt of the cat in his arms again:

"Like small animals like Mia who are very young, almost never go out, and don't want to walk on the ground when they go out, they probably will never be able to use this place. But we have experienced so many things, taking some important items to strengthen, or trying new alchemy recipes, should be no problem."

No one would tell them how much "breath after traversing the earth" they each possessed, but "the other me" could vaguely sense how many times each could use this place.

This was the combined experience of the body and soul, and the Outlander's soul had been in this world for less than a year. But because he had experienced too many things, the number of times he could use it was instead the most among the three:

"121 times."

"94 times, almost 95 times."

Iruna said. "Only 48 times."

Luweiya said regretfully, but Xia De guessed this was because her "other me" was not judged. "It's really generous; I thought everyone only had two or three chances in their lifetime."

Iruna sighed, and then quite eagerly wanted to give it a try.

"Although we don't quite understand the intention of the Old Gods in setting up these spaces, it's definitely not to make things difficult for us. We are all still young and will accumulate more opportunities in the future."

Xia De said with a smile, using the metal rod standing on the side to laboriously open the lid above the furnace.

The sound of stone rubbing against stone was not very harsh. When the lid was moved to the side, the fiery red light immediately illuminated the faces of the three, and the heat rushing towards them could even affect the soul:

"Besides strengthening or fusing alchemical items, the earth can also temper our bodies and souls." "Put your hands into the magma? Or jump in directly?"

Iruna asked.

"It's not that scary; just drink a small cup of magma. It doesn't consume the breath we are contaminated with after traversing the earth, but doing so has consequences. First, the amount of earth power our souls and bodies can carry is limited, so this kind of tempering is limited. Second, doing so will seriously affect the nature of the body and soul itself, making it lean towards the power of the earth."

"Pollute the core spirit rune?"

Luweiya frowned; this was something all Ring Mages tried their best to avoid.

"It can't be counted as pollution; after all, this is not harmful power. But it will definitely have a serious impact on one's own system. However, for Ring Mages like Miss Bernice who originally had 'earth' power as their core, there is no need to consider this problem."

While speaking, three small mud holy grails rose from the scorching magma of the furnace, and each cup contained wriggling lava:

"Drinking a small amount is still no problem.

Although the improvement is small, the concept of 'cornerstone' contained in the earth can stabilize the discordant parts of the soul and body."

Saying this, Xia De picked up the floating cup, tried sipping a small mouthful, and then threw it into the furnace with some anger: "Really, just like the 【Dark Dungeon】, it's ineffective on me again."

Luweiya and Iruna were amused by his appearance. They also drank a small cup; Iruna didn't feel anything about this, but the purple-eyed girl felt quite good:

"The soul is becoming scorching hot; this feeling is better than taking a hot bath in the middle of winter!" 【"Cornerstone" power is repairing Luweiya Annat's "other me."】

"She" reminded softly in Xia De's ear. Xia De blinked, then took off the badge for detecting witches from his neck. "I want to try the effect of strengthening alchemical items."

He said.

"Strengthening? Or do you want to add materials for smelting?"

Iruna asked curiously. Xia De thought for a while and took out the part of the mithril that Sister Devlin had returned to him yesterday from his pocket. "Let's try with this."

Actually, the "Philosopher's Stone" was a better smelting material, but Xia De was reluctant to consume it here. As for the characteristic of "displaying the story of Randel Valley" that this piece of mithril itself possessed, Sister Devlin said that as long as the mithril itself was not split, changing its shape or adding it to other materials would not affect this characteristic.

And this badge itself now possessed the characteristics of "detecting witches" and "blessing of the death-announcing angel"; no matter how it was enhanced, Xia De would be very happy.

So the rope was untied, and then the round badge and the mithril were thrown into the furnace by Xia De together. ===== CHAPTER 1500 =====