Chapter 377 - Underground
After descending for more than two hours, a ball of light suddenly appeared in front of the darkness. It was as if a hole had suddenly appeared in the pitch-black earth.
Heath’s eyes lit up. “Are we almost there?”
The bamboo basket said, “Yes, we can reach our destination after passing through the hole in front.”
At this moment, a strange force suddenly swept over from all directions. Immediately after, Heath felt that he was firmly held by this strange forcefield. Then, a feeling of the world spinning came over. It was as if he had changed directions in an instant.
It was not just him who had changed directions. It was as if the entire world had turned upside down. The top of his head became his feet, and the bottom of his feet became the top of his head. He had turned around directly.
Under the effect of this strange forcefield, the bamboo basket that had fallen to the ground seemed to have turned up.
Heath asked in puzzlement, “What was that?”
The bamboo basket said, “Reversed gravity.”
Heath asked in surprise, “Reversed gravity?”
The bamboo basket said, “That’s right. When we’re on the surface, we step on the ground. But when we’re in the ground, we change direction. At that time, we’re stepping on the surface, so the gravity will also show a reversal. This causes you to have the feeling that the world has turned around.”
Heath opened his mouth and said, “I see.”
This was the first time he had heard of such a situation. It turned out that there was such a magical phenomenon underground.
He could not help but ask, “Then are we going up or down?”
The bamboo basket said, “For the surface, of course we’re going down. But for the core, we’re going up. This is a very complicated relationship. You’ll figure it out in the future. In short, for our own feelings, I think you should be clear about this, right?”
Heath nodded. “Going up.”
He was very clear on this point. He was going up now.
“Alright, we’re here. Prepare to welcome the Underground World. It will give you a big surprise.”
The bamboo basket spoke in a show-off manner.
As he spoke, the bamboo basket carried Heath and continued to go up for about a hundred meters. Then, the darkness in front of his eyes suddenly brightened. Suddenly, it became clear and rose up from an exit. It was the same well entrance as when he went down.
Standing in the bamboo basket, Heath turned his head to look at his surroundings. His mouth could not help but open wide, and his eyes were filled with surprise. Heath opened his mouth and asked, “Is this the Underground World?”
When he was on the surface, he had thought about what the Underground World was like. In his imagination, it must be a pitch-black place where no sunlight could be seen all day long. It was like a dark cave. However, at this moment, the view he saw from the Underground World was completely different from what he had imagined.
It was a lush and fertile grassland with thick and strong trees growing on it. There were colorful flowers blooming around it. When the breeze blew, the flowers, plants, and trees swayed continuously, making ‘hua hua hua!” sounds. It was like the sound of birds chirping and the fragrance of flowers.
The sky was not as dark as Heath had thought. On the contrary, there was a bright sun hanging high in the sky. The sky was blue as usual, with white clouds floating around.
Heath rubbed his eyes. “This is the Underground World? Are we really in the Underground World?”
This was no different from the surface, okay?
The bamboo basket said slowly, “Every first-time traveler will be surprised by this. Some even wonder if I sent them in the wrong direction.”
“But this is the reality. Everyone thinks that the underground should be dark and irrelevant, but in fact, there is still sunlight, a perfect ecological environment, and even the civilization here.”
“The Wizard World is full of magic. You’ll get used to it.”
Heath looked at the bamboo basket. It was hard to imagine that such philosophical words would come from a bamboo basket. Heath still did not understand what this thing was? Demonized creature? Alchemical lifeform? Activated item?
If it was the former, there was no wisdom seed that grew into a basket in his knowledge, and if it was the latter, it was even more impossible. Neither alchemical lifeforms nor activated items could have wisdom.
Heath said, “I haven’t consulted you, sir…”
He was about to ask something, but the bamboo basket seemed to have seen through his doubts and was not prepared to give an answer. Thus, it quickly interrupted Heath’s words.
The bamboo basket shook its head and said, “Alright, my work has ended. As for the other doubts, they are not within my scope of answers. Then, we will meet again in the future. I wish you good luck, young Wizard.”
After saying that, the bamboo basket shook and threw Heath out. Then, it slowly descended and quickly sank into the bottom of the well, disappearing in front of Heath’s eyes.
Looking at the direction where the bamboo basket left, Heath said, “What a strange thing.”
Seeing that the bamboo basket was unwilling to talk more, Heath did not ask further. After sending the bamboo basket away, he turned his gaze to the strange land in front of him.
This seemed to be a forest. The trees were lush and the vegetation was rich. It should have a very good ecological environment.
“Such a place should have materials that can be extracted, right?”
As he silently guessed in his heart, Heath immediately called out to the system in his heart, ‘System, open the range extraction…’
He immediately opened the range extraction of the system and scanned the surroundings.
As expected, right after he gave the order, the system quickly sent him a series of feedback.
[Beep, 30 degrees east, 20 meters ahead, extractable found. Host is advised to extract…)
[Beep, 22 degrees east, 77 meters ahead, extractable found. Host is advised to extract…)
(Beep, 28 degrees east…]
The system notifications rang in Heath’s ears one after another. At the same time, a series of data lists popped up on the system’s message board.
Heath was overjoyed. “Haha, that’s great!”
He immediately walked in the first direction the system notified him of. It was 30 degrees east. After walking about 20 meters in that direction, he quickly arrived at a small grassland. and on this grassland… Heath immediately saw the extraordinary substance indicated by the system.
It was a purple flower. It looked a bit like a rose, but it was a size smaller than a rose. The stamen of the flower was much larger. The petals were purple, and the edges of the petals were covered with a circle of black patterns. It looked exceptionally beautiful. It was particularly eye-catching in the middle of a green grassland.
“Amethyst Rose!”
Seeing this rose, Heath’s eyes lit up. He recognized the identity of the rose. It was a very rare magical plant, a type of plant that had a very strong elemental energy. What was even more unique was that its elemental nature was very gentle. Even if it was consumed directly, it could increase a Wizard’s spiritual power.
Because of this, in ancient times, this rose was also one of the greatest nourishment for many Wizards to speed up their cultivation. But because of this, a large number of Wizards at that time collected them, to the extent that it was said that this plant was now completely extinct.
“I say, where did those ancient roses on the market come from? Looks like they probably came from underground!”
While wandering in the Wizard market a few times, Heath had seen some Wizards take out these Amethyst Roses to auction. At that time, he was very curious about it. After all, the Amethyst Roses taken out by those Wizards were still very fresh. They did not look like they had been preserved since ancient times until now. At that time, he had suspected the origin of these Amethyst Roses. Now, it seemed that they were all collected from the Underground World.
“Good stuff, good stuff!”
Heath was happy in his heart. He opened his dimensional pocket and took out one item after another, preparing to collect this Amethyst Rose.
The Amethyst Rose was different from ordinary magic plants. Although it was a plant, it had a certain ability to sense external things. It also knew danger, resistance, self-protection, and so on. Moreover, this kind of plant also had a very strong magic talent. It was born to be able to cast many spells. It was extremely difficult to deal with.
Heath took out a magic pen and drew a magic array on the spot. This was a magic array of the nature of a barrier, which could block the elemental space within a certain area.
After drawing the magic array, Heath clapped his hands in the middle and then pressed them on the ground. Immediately, the magic array flashed with a dazzling beam of light, and the entire space became distorted. Then, another invisible barrier formed around the Amethyst Rose.
The Amethyst Rose obviously sensed danger. Its purple stamen turned dark red. At the same time, a small hexagram magic array appeared around it.
Crash!
The ground was thrown into the air. A few sharp thorns shot out from the ground and quickly wrapped around Heath.
Heath, who had been prepared for this, waved his hand. A silver metal shield opened up in front of him. The thorns hit the silver shield hard. However, other than the splashing sounds and silver liquid, the thorns still could not break through the silver shield.
At the same time, Heath continued to move his hands. As he chanted the incantation and the runes returned in seconds. The space around the Amethyst Rose became more and more solid. When Heath’s last syllable fell… a square barrier had completely covered the Amethyst Rose.
Then, Heath immediately mobilized his magic power to extract the elements from the sealed barrier.
Like a pump, under the effect of Heath’s full power, the elements of the barrier surged out like a river that had burst its banks. Soon, all the elements in the enclosed space were sucked clean.
At the same time, the magic luster on the Amethyst Rose quickly dimmed, and the ferocious spell suddenly stopped.
This was a spell that Heath had recently developed. He created it based on the knowledge of runology, enchantment, basic laws of magic, and so on.
The operation mechanism of this spell was to first set up a barrier around the opponent’s body, completely placing the opponent in an independent space. Then, through magic, all the elements in this space would be extracted. This space would become a zero space without any elements.
It must be known that no matter what demonized creature wanted to cast a spell, the premise was that there must be active elements in the surroundings. The little magic power in the body of the Wizard was only used as a casting primer. A spell relied on the elements that were everywhere in the world.
Because of this, when Heath finished extracting all the elements in the space, there was no condition for casting a spell in this space. No matter what kind of spell they cast, it would be impossible to succeed.
As the elements were extracted in large quantities, the Amethyst Rose’s aggressive spells quickly withered. Soon, it completely stopped shaking.
“It’s really easy!”
ds
Although he said so, Heath was still not careless. He released his spiritual tentacles to continue checking. After confirming that the thing was indeed silent, he finally released the barrier around him.
Then, he walked up and broke the Amethyst Rose with one hand. This thing knew a lot of magic. If he did not destroy it as soon as possible, he would be in trouble later.
Holding the Amethyst Rose that he picked, Heath chanted in his heart: ‘Extract.’
(Beep, extraction successful. Spiritual Power +0.6]
(Beep, extraction successful. Vitality +0.2]
(Beep, extraction successful…]
Seeing the series of numbers on the system prompt, Heath was extremely surprised. Tsk tsk, he could extract 0.6 spiritual power in one go. This was not bad.
After becoming an intermediate-rank Wizard, Heath’s training speed had greatly decreased. Now, even 0.1 points of spiritual power would require several months of painstaking training before he could reach it. This sudden increase of 0.6 points of spiritual power was equivalent to several months of his hard work.
“Haha, as expected of the Underground World. This trip really wasn’t in vain!”
Besides increasing his spiritual power, the Amethyst Rose was a very precious magic material. If it could be brought to the market… It was not surprising that the Amethyst Rose of the same species could be sold for hundreds of thousands of Magic Stones.
However, Heath was not planning to sell his Amethyst Rose. After all, such a treasure should be kept in his hands for research. There were also many magic experiments that could be used to test the Amethyst Rose.
After keeping the Amethyst Rose, Heath continued his exploration of the underground.
This time, he went to the second place the system notified him. What he found here was a round grass with a sawtooth pattern. It was Rootless Grass.
This was the same as the Amethyst Rose. It was also a magic plant that had survived from ancient times. Previously, Heath had only seen the existence of this plant in books.
“What is this place… Why are there so many ancient magical creatures here…”
Turning his head, Heath was puzzled.