Death… And Me

Rean’s triple-layer formation was made up of a protective barrier, a concealment formation to hide the barrier and stop the Divine Energy from attracting demon beasts, and a slaughtering formation to use in case the village was found out regardless. Of course, other than that, Rean would also need auxiliary formations to keep everything running, including the formations necessary to gather Divine Energy. Of course, his main goal was to make the triple-layer formation last a very long time.

However, the main problem wasn’t that. “Even if there was enough Divine Energy, I would use the Divine Energy that the tribe members need to cultivate to keep the formation running. In that case, they would need to head out to cultivate, which isn’t very practical.”

With that, Rean looked under his feet and decided on a plan of action. “Well, geothermic energy it is. The only issue is how deep down I would need to go to get access to the magma, or if there’s any magma at all.”

Divine Energy existed in the entire Realm of Gods. Naturally, the magma under the earth was bound to have a lot of it, together with Fire Element. Fortunately, he just happened to know the perfect people to look for it. “Who else other than the Cosgles would find the right spot? Hehe!”

One must remember the Cosgles had an affinity with the Earth Element so high that they couldn’t even live long without enough of it. They reached a point where they considered it to be a curse instead of a gift. That’s why they were stuck to this place.

Sometime later, Rean called Aien out.

“Do you need something?” Aien was eager to help with anything.

“I do. Can you tell me where the place closest to the magma underground is?” Rean asked.

“Magma underground?” Aien pondered over it for a bit before replying, “Well, I can, but…it’s very deep.” Aien then closed his eyes as specks of yellow light began to come out of the ground and interact with his body. Even without using a single iota of Divine Energy, his body could interact with the Earth Element underground.

After some time, he pointed to the southwest side of the village. “23.7 kilometers away from the village, you can find molten magma at a depth of 1497 kilometers. That’s the closest place to the surface that has magma.”

Rean was truly impressed. Back on earth, molten magma could be found between 40 to 250 kilometers. As a metallurgist in his past life, he did a study on all types of minerals, including the ones underground. That’s why he knew of it. He thought that although he wouldn’t find magma at a depth of 40 kilometers, it should at least be between 100 and 200. It was quite unfortunate that he couldn’t have been any more wrong.

“That’s…quite deep.” How long would he need to excavate? Of course, he would go all the way to the magma. He would just get close enough to draw its Divine Energy and Fire Element to use in the formations. However, it would definitely be at least 1000 or more kilometers. That was way too much!

Aien couldn’t help but ask, “Why do you want magma?”

“I was planning to use it as the source of Divine Energy for the formation. Divine Energy here in the tribe is too sparse to make the triple-layer formation work. Not to mention that even if it was, it would make cultivating very hard in the village as most of it would be used by the formation.”

Aien couldn’t help but ask, “But isn’t the Divine Energy and the Fire Element in the magma below too aggressive for usage?” Naturally, he knew a lot of it as a member of the Cosgles Race.

Rean shook his head, explaining, “That’s where the core of the formation enters. With the right materials and runes, it can calm the energies down. It’s far from being good for people’s cultivation. However, it’s definitely fine as energy for the formation.”

Aien pondered over it for a bit when an idea came to mind. “Just a moment.” Soon after, he went back to the village and brought a young woman back with him. The woman’s body seemed to have seen better days, though. Naturally, Rean was puzzled as to why he would call her up.

Aien then asked Rean, “You said you can drag and calm down the Divine Energy out of magma, right? Does it mean you can drag it out from other sources as well?”

Rean nodded. “Well, it should be possible depending on what kind of source you’re talking about.”

“Alright.” Aien then looked at the girl and said, “Aelua, tell him about that thing in the core of the mountain. Your recklessness might be of some use for once.”

Aelua seemed a little embarrassed with Aien’s comment but nodded regardless. “Yes, elder.” She then looked at Rean and asked, “Do you remember that cave where you found your friends during your first visit?”

Rean nodded in response. At that time, Langara had left the village while their Demon Bird rested from the travel. Rean found her not too far away, inside a cave in a mountain nearby. At that time, he didn’t care about the cave too much as he couldn’t feel anything wrong with it. It truly looked like a simple cave that perhaps was used by some demon beasts every now and then. “I do. What about that?”

Aelua then explained, “The fact is that that cave goes much, much deeper into the earth. Well…I was quite curious about such things, so I left the village without anyone noticing to take a look into it. Usually, that place is out of limits for our village people, but I just couldn’t hold myself.”

“Obviously,” Aien said in response. “That place’s energy is bad for our body. I’m impressed that you even made it back alive, idiot.”

Aelua dropped her head and continued, “There are many caves going in many different directions in that place. However, I just so happened to enter the right ones on my way down…I guess? It was then that I found something that looked like a gigantic multicolored crystal. That was the thing that created the bad energy for our bodies.”