Unlike the time before the three month long compulsory mission, the tower's Mission Hall had been opened and now saw frequent use.
Anderson was obviously displeased due to the secrecy his dastardly plans required, but he had no choice but to let it happen.
Even the Third Grade Adept serving as the Sarubo family's head in the plane had to obey the Zhentarim Association's orders, much less his cowardly self.
Everyday, countless missions from the spread out human colonies established by the Adepts would appear on the board. With a vast majority of the mainland being verdant forest, in a high-magic plane to boot, bizarre and strange events were always cropping up.
It could be a village falling under the attack of bandits or magical beasts, the tracks of strange and unknown beings discovered near a settlement, or a group of explorers stumbling upon an untouched resource site.
Happenings like this were a dime a dozen, and it was the Zhentarim Association's job to catalog all these jobs and distribute them to the various towers so their apprentices could undertake them.
With this they killed two birds with one stone; training future Adepts and solving the issues in their numerous territories.
Two of these jobs had been scouted and chosen by Greem and Mary.
Greem chose a resource gathering mission in a volcano while Mary went werewolf hunting in a place called Timbermaw Hold.
He was supposed to enter the volcano and harvest Fire Diamonds while Mary had to venture into a jungle, find the hidden camp of the lycanthropes, and eliminate them.
One mission was obviously more interesting than the other, but this volcano is where he planned to attempt his advancement. Not just for the potent fire elementium in its depths, but the inability of anyone discovering his actions.
That's why he currently found himself in a hostel with other apprentices also intending to go down into the molten depths.
After giving Snorlax the backlog of resources in his storage belt and ring that he had no use for, he helped the goblin set up shop before leaving him behind in the tower.
He then took a smaller version of the flying boat to this place, Palmyra Town, where he reported to the hostel managed by the Zuber family, the owners of the volcano resource site.
This wasn't his first time hearing or entering a resource site, hell, he lived in one. But something about a group of people claiming ownership of a volcano made this world seem even more absurd.
Granted, those people were most likely Adepts and no longer considered themselves humans, so it wasn't too far-fetched to think they'd claim ownership of a natural landmark that caused natural disasters by vomiting poisonous dust and liquid flames.
After spending a few days cooped up in his room and turning away any and all that came to him with ideas of partnership, Greem finally exited his room when the ash and molten flame spitter finally calmed down.
Nine out of the twelve months marked a dangerous and active period in the volcano.
It erupted at fixed intervals throughout this period, keeping the temperature within it at an all time high and maintaining the carpet of ash covering the small town.
With the sudden quiet and cease in tremors, the three month "cooling period" had begun, signifying that it was time for the apprentices to start the gathering mission.
Anticipation lit inside his chest like a candle, Greem gathered and stored the sheets covered in drawings, and moved to the main hall. Like he'd done since he arrived a few days ago, everyone gathered there ignored him and nodded in acknowledgment of each other.
He had made it crystal clear he had no intention of partnering up or making friends, so they all finally let him be. Though a lot of them were secretly hoping for something to happen to him.
Oblivious of how his fellow apprentices were wishing for his misfortune, he was among the people in the lead following Ivan, the representative from the Zuber clan.
All of them being apprentices, their rush to the resource site entrance saw them cover a distance of 8 miles in less than 15 minutes. It was a cave located another 8 miles from the volcano, and there were two Pseudo Adepts guarding it.
After checking and verifying everyone's visiting permit, Ivan gave another reminder for the quota on the diamonds and the penalty for not meeting it before ushering them in.
Greem was, of course, the first to enter.
He brisk-walked at what would be a running pace for normal people to ensure he was out of sight of those behind him. As the only Body-Refining apprentice present, this proved an easy task.
Once he was certain no eyes or Spirit had locked on to him, he broke into a Sprint and dashed through the tunnel, his mantle flapping audibly and wildly behind him.
The farther he got into the tunnel, the hotter the air, the walls, and the ground became. The sulfuric odor also intensified while the harmful particulates increased, leading him to shut his pores and stop breathing altogether.
When he reached the end of the tunnel and exited it, he arrived at a sort of crossroads. There were multiple thin trenches in the ground and cracks in the walls, the glow of red lava escaping them.
He brushed his shoulder where a hot steam explosion hit him and examined each of the tunnels with his Spirit and physical senses.
Upon finding the one with the highest heat and concentration of fire elementium, he chanted the Levitate spell and squeezed his large body into it.
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If Greem were asked to choose which was more dangerous; the Underground world in the Kerala mountain range or the volcanic underground, he'd choose the latter easily.
The reason boiled down to one thing: certainty.
While there was some level of uncertainty in the Kerala Underground, it didn't have to do with what danger to expect. The presence of fallen apprentices and underground creatures was a widely known fact.
Uncertainty only came into play when trying to determine when and how you'd be attacked.
In this blistering hot world however, all the tunnels that led deeper into the volcano were filled with lava less than a day ago. Their walls and ground were red hot wherever you went, and the cracks that lined them shooting out blasts of vaporising sulfuric air didn't help.
These scalding blasts were totally random. They could not be predicted or timed, making a sturdy and reliable defense the only way to advance further. On top of that, one had to watch their footing.
If an apprentice made a mistake and stepped on a loose piece of ground connected to a lava pool, they'd fall in it and end up reduced to nothing in mere seconds.
As though this wasn't bad enough, sudden spots in the volcano experienced light geological activity despite it being the rest period for the big guy.
You could be walking in a tunnel and its red hot roof would suddenly collapse on you, turning you into a smoking smear.
It went without saying, Greem's journey to the volcano's deepest parts were far from uneventful.
Apart from exercising supreme caution, taking his time, and using his Spirit as a radar 24/7, he had to fight the native flame creatures that call this fiery world home.
Fire Spirits, Lava Hounds, Fire Lizards, Flame Imps, Guardian of Flames… he encountered and fought all of them, not because he wanted to mind you.
These creatures were extremely hostile to outsiders. Each and every one of them had the same reaction immediately they noticed his presence. Attack.
They were like rabid dogs, jumping with their fangs bared at any non-fire thing in sight. It was a good thing a significant number of them dropped useful resources upon dying or had their nests nearby, else the countless fights would have all been for nothing.
The days-long journey had earned Greem dozens of Advanced and Pseudo Adept fire cores, fire crystals, and gems of all kinds. He'd even exceeded the quota for fire diamonds and even obtained some impressive ores.
The last in particular came from the Guardians of Flames he came across.
These hulking creatures had their entire bodies formed from steelrock and other metals found deep in this place, making them a bitch and half to fight.
He had to hit them with full power, life force enhanced blows several times before he could crack their hard bodies enough to punch through and pluck out their cores. And even then, he broke his hands many times.
So after days of travelling, fighting, and looting, Greem finally crossed the final threshold and appeared in a bright red and orange world. The density of fire elementium was such that it saturated everywhere around him.
Only the bright red lava ocean stretching as far as the eyes could see possessed the greatest concentration of fire elementium, spewing jets of molten flame into the air at various points on its surface.
Greem had encountered and raided more lava pools than he could count on his way here. None of them was as large or hot as this one. It was so hot that the area around it—where he currently stood—had reached a 1000 degrees celsius.
Had he not made ample preparations for his foray here today, not even his defensive forcefield would have protected him. After all, it could only shield him from temperatures a third of that intensity.
Anything above that would ignore this defense and harm his delicate skin and insides directly. And that's exactly what he was counting on to aid in his advancement.
Keeping his pain receptors and respiration disabled, Greem ditched his smoldering boots and placed his bare feet on the nearly molten ground, pungent smoke rising from the bare contact.
His mantle, gauntlets, jacket, pants, and underwear followed right after.
Soon he stood there buck ass naked, his muscular form steaming like a freshly cooked meal. Striding the short distance to the edge of the lava ocean, he stopped and sat there in a meditative pose.
Raising his hand to his neck, he clutched the talisman currently keeping him from being cooked alive and gazed at the slowly drifting lava ocean, his Adam's apple bobbing up visibly.
He could regenerate endlessly. True. But what if that wasn't enough? What if something went wrong?
Despite planning this for literal months, Greem found himself hesitating now that he'd gotten what he looked forward to all this time.
There was a real chance he could die.
Suddenly, he felt stupid for rushing here. Taking another minute to go over the plan and psych himself up, he resisted the urge to draw in a deep breath and instead closed his eyes.
Scenes of his past life and the amazing feats he'd achieved since arriving in this world flashed past his mind's eye. He remembered the promise and the deal with the strange entity. How he'd get an essence for every official jump in power and how he'd get to go back home.
A dashing redhead gazing at him lovingly and longingly also joined the fray, the various scenes of them expressing their love to each other and just lounging about lazily adding more fuel to his resolve.
Ready to fight tooth and nail for his life and this advancement, he opened his eyes with a determined expression and tightened his grip on the fire resistance talisman around his neck.
A simple flash of intent later, the talisman entered the storage ring on his finger and everything went dark.