Fire. A lot of it.

A blast of heat slammed into Cal’s body, and he immediately felt the ground he stood on disintegrate. He instinctively jumped to another platform below—which was barely holding itself together. He made sure the new ground beneath would not fail before finally taking in the new area.

He was inside an active volcano. At least, that was what this area looked like.

Lava flowed freely below, but given the usual layout of each of the sinkhole’s areas, it flowed down to a void at the very bottom. It was like an inverse mountain… no, a valley would be a better description. A valley with a constant lava flow that disappeared into the void below. Thankfully for Cal’s life, there were plenty of blackened platforms made from cooled lava that gave him a place to stand. Unstable pillars that emerged from the lava supported them, and those were also the failure points. Still, it gave him a place where he wouldn’t sink into the lava and die a most terrible death.

Cal jumped to another platform when he felt the previous one crumbling. That was the biggest issue in this area. The heat was intense, though tolerable. However, reaching the void required traversing hundreds of potentially unstable platforms, each risking a fatal plunge into lava.

He used [Mana Sense] to get a feel of where everything was and flinched the moment his mana tendrils ventured too far from his body. He cut the spell off, the mana in the area too chaotic for it to be useful. Using [Mana Sense] was like looking at the farm pond, only far worse. The chaotic mana covered the entire area, and he was in the thick of it.

Cal scanned the area—squinting when the lava bubbled into a burst of fire that blinded his eyes—but saw no signs of Tavia. He saw no tracks of hers either, as expected. The lava refreshed the crumbling terrain and created it anew naturally. Even if Tavia had wanted to leave signs she had been here, the lava would have erased them long ago.

His next focus was the materials, but other than the crumbling platforms, there was nothing to be found. He felt the ground beneath give and descended to another that was closest to him. He heard the previous platform collapse, hissing fires erupting as the lava consumed it.

I need to find a platform that has plenty of escape points. I can’t be testing a platform for materials and have my escape plan crumble into the lava.

Cal heightened his focus as he carefully picked his path down to the void. His platform choices weren’t perfect; several disintegrated on landing. Still, his success rate was high enough to make him confident in his decisions. He had descended several hundred feet and jumped even more platforms when he found the perfect spot.

There were platforms grouped together below, all within tens of feet of each other. If the one he tested for materials collapsed, he would have an abundance of choices for escape.

Cal locked onto a platform that was misshapen to the extreme. There were many bulbous protrusions that had cooled rapidly and kept their shape. That wasn’t odd by itself since other platforms had similar features, but never in such quantity. He intended to break off one of those protrusions that seemed more fragile than the others, hoping it wouldn’t disturb the platform much.

He jumped, landing on the platform beside his target, not wanting to stress it too much before he started his tests. He walked with light steps and stored his war hammer with a reluctant expression, pulling out his voidiron shovel immediately after. The last thing he wanted to do was expose his precious voidiron equipment to the environment here, but the [Spatial Loosening] effect of the shovel would help.

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Cal sunk the blade of the shovel into the middle of the blackened protrusion—coughing when it released a plume of heated gas. He pulled the shovel out and backed away when the protrusion oozed lava from the newly created wound.

That’s disappointing.

He sighed as he whipped his arm to get the lava off his shovel. A quick check of the interface let him know he hadn’t degraded the quality, so at least there was that. He put the shovel back in his storage pouch as he looked around, reevaluating his entire plan. His one idea turned out to be a dead end, and there were no beasts that could help, like in the last area. It seemed he would have to go right to the void and—

Cal jumped; the platform below shattered from the force. He felt heated air pass inches from his feet, where his neck had been moments ago. Red eyes locked onto his own, tracking his trajectory and ready to strike for a second time. He pulled his war hammer out to prepare, but that seemed to be enough of a deterrent to stop the creature.

Cal landed on an unsteady platform and glared at the beast that somehow hid from his senses. The most obvious problem stemming from that was his blindness to its strength.

The beast prowled forward, paws leaving scorch marks on the platform below, doing nothing to help its continued existence. Jagged cracks, pulsing molten red like the lava below, riddled its dark hide, radiating a fiery glow. With each uneven breath, it released a plume of ash as it snarled at him, making its intentions unmistakable.

This hound looked like a volcano birthed it.

Its skin resembles the blackened protrusions. Did it hide as one?

Cal tightened his grip on the war hammer. It wasn’t the monstrous appearance that concerned him, but the intelligence he could see in the beast’s eyes. From his experience with beasts, he would place this one at the Apprentice tier, and a middling one at that.

He couldn’t afford to take this creature lightly. And for the first time, he felt concern for Tavia. Just a little. She was still more suited to this place than he was, given his limited repertoire of offensive-minded spells.

The beast lunged, its jaws snapping inches from Cal’s face as he shot backward, narrowly avoiding a gruesome scar.

Fast!

The platform cracked from the violent movement, and Cal wasted no time in jumping to another platform. The fiery hound followed, the cracks in its hide growing wider and spilling molten droplets that hastened the end of the new platform they were on. This wasn’t acceptable.

Water is the most obvious counter. But in this environment… I’ll try it.

Cal moved backward to keep a distance from the hound and raised his palm to cast [Liquid Core]. He expected failure, but instead he had a large ball of water waiting for his command with the barest hint of mana cost. He snapped into focus and launched it at the hound, smiling at the snarling roar it let out on impact. The ball of water doused it, converting from liquid into hissing steam.

The hound’s hide visibly hardened, the fiery glow from the cracks dimming. The water did its job.

Cal kept his eyes on the beast as he struggled to understand why there was so much water in the air. It was the opposite of what he expected, but he could use this to his advantage in a way he couldn’t have imagined.

He raised his arm higher and cast [Rainfall], chuckling as he stared into the beast’s furious eyes.

Dark clouds almost popped into existence at the speed they formed, and Cal felt the first few raindrops cool his skin before it poured.

Not only did the beast become helpless, but the platforms were more stable since the rain cooled the pillars supporting them, preventing the periodic crumbling. The only thing that was unchanged was the lava itself, other than the massive amount of steam that came from the raindrops hitting it.

This area just became my playground.

Cal waited for the beast to become immobile before moving closer to test for materials. He narrowed his eyes several seconds later, when the beast’s hide cracked wider, a hint of the red glow returning. Its eyes blazed in hatred, wanting to devour him at any cost.

Something’s wrong.

The beast’s eyes ignited into twin suns, and a deep rumble built in its chest.

Cal didn’t hesitate and abandoned his casting of [Rainfall] and fled, jumping across several platforms to put as much distance as he could between him and the beast. He heard a deafening howl from behind before the shockwave of a devastating explosion slammed into his back. It erased all the platforms nearby as it sent him flying without control into the lava.