Lyana stared at the human walking in front of them in deep contemplation. She was trying to assess his character from the interaction just now but she was only drawing a blank.
The man remained a mystery. The guy had saved them from the barbarians but he clearly waited until it was safe for him and did not react when one of them was brutally tortured. Perhaps he wouldn't have saved them at all if there wasn't a safe option available.
On top of this, he clearly had an ulterior motive for doing this. He wanted them to help him cross the barbarians. This told her that the person was a ruthless opportunist.
The meeting with the other humans just now had also told her the same thing. Though the fat one and the woman had visited him to discuss peace, the ruthless guy had not budged an inch.
The two feared him and from what she could tell had only come here because they were afraid he would kill them. So this also supported her theory. The person who is standing with her was not a righteous one.
However… despite everything… there was one thing that she couldn't understand. Why was such a cruel ruthless person carrying around a small injured fox? Why not just throw it away?
She could feel the life essence of the small fox waxing and waning like a flickering lamp in a heavy wind. The creature was useless, as good as dead and yet this person always continued to hold her like a treasure.
Only this single thing clashed with her image of the person and confused her. She still couldn't tell if the person she had allied with was evil or not.
The elf silently continued to stare at Liam as the scenery around them changed and the temperature suddenly spiked as they arrived at a barren warm area.
The trees and the plants thinned out and the land was scarred with huge cracks. As the group walked further, these cracks started widening and the air also became hotter and suffocating.
A white, hot mist hung around obstructing the vision in front of them, and past this mist, at the distance there was the vague silhouette of a single mountain peak.
Liam gazed at this peak with a resolute expression. "The level 60 dungeon, Pits of Lava." Standing beside him, the elves looked at the same place with apprehension.
Already jumping to level 60 seemed to be a bold arrogant move, but the man next to them was indeed a bold person.
The group continued walking forward when suddenly Liam stopped. The heat in the air had now become extremely uncomfortable, so much so that when inhaled the body was getting toasted from the inside out.
<Ding. You are being affected by extreme heat>
<Ding. Your health drops by 1 every second>
"What a strong debuff!" Liam grimaced. However, he already had the item to deal with this. So he turned to the elves, "You guys should stay out here. Maybe even farther away. I am going to be busy for a bit now. I will see you later."
Not many beasts were in this weird uncomfortably hot in-between zone so it was relatively safe. The five elven women agreed with Liam and prepared to stay back.
"I can take care of the injured fox," Lyana even offered to help, though Liam immediately shook his head. "I appreciate it. But no. I have a feeling that she would like it more there than here."
"Huh?" Lyana was shocked. She closed her eyes and tried to sense the creature's life force and just like the human said, the life force had already become slightly stronger.
She then realized that the fox in his hand was probably a fire fox so what she observed made sense.
She silently nodded and stepped back while Liam took out a fire resistance potion from his inventory and emptied it before walking forward.
Huuuuu. He took another deep breath now and the air was somewhat comfortable compared to before even though it was not pleasant. But this was just the beginning.
"This is going to be troublesome." Liam frowned as he headed further inside. The temperature was steadily increasing. The cracks on the ground were now far too many and quite big as well.
A few seconds later when he took another step, a burst of piping hot steam erupted under his feet, almost melting him in the process.
"Fuck." Liam jumped forward, only barely managing to escape it. "I cannot go slow here." He immediately picked up his pace and started blasting forward, enhancing his speed using mana.
The air prickled his skin and beads of sweat trickled down his body, but before they could fall down and reach the ground, they disappeared in the heat.
Without the fire-resistance potion, he wouldn't even have been able to step foot into this zone. It was extremely hostile even for a Level 50 character with a mana core.
However, for certain others…
Liam looked down as the fox in his hand comfortably purred, showing the first signs of movement after these past couple of days.
"I knew it." Liam smiled.
This was the first reason why he decided to come here. When Luna was an egg and he had obtained her for the first time, she only hatched after absorbing the fire essence from the lava.
The environment here was even richer when compared to that place in the beginner zone. So he had taken a gamble that she would feel better here.
And from the looks of it, this was working!
Of course, this was also an ideal place for him to currently dungeon dive because the Level 50 dungeon was not giving enough experience points and the leveling speed was too slow.
He did not want a comfortable run. He wanted a quick run.
And lastly, if it was this area, the other guilds would hesitate to step inside the zone and disturb him. So for now this was the perfect place for him to grind.
