Mohai did not expect the Ghost to bring such a great haul back.
Based on what he knew, there were only three treasure chests in the secret chamber, but the Ghost had found five. That meant that two chests were one-time discoveries and would not respawn after they were opened the first time. Since the player who found the secret chamber did not make it public, the other players thought there were only three.
Mohai knew which items were from the one-time chests: the Darkness Orb and the first page of the Book of Fire!
The Darkness Orb was what Mohai sent the Ghost to retrieve, but the first page of the Book of Fire surprised him. He did not expect to find such a rare item in the Magma Cave.
In Origin, there was something called the Book of Elements and there were a total of nine of them: Lightning, Fire, Wind, Water, Earth, Light, Darkness, Space, and Poison.
Each book had a different number of pages. The least only had three and the most had nine pages. Each page in a Book of Element had the same number as the total number of pages of that book, meaning there would be three pages of Page 1 out there, but only one book of that particular element could exist. If someone managed to collect all the pages and form a book, the other pages would disappear.
The Book of Fire had the least pages with only three pages in total, and due to the limited number of pages, normal players could not even accumulate enough pages to form a book. The Book of Fire belonged to WaningLight of the Huaxia Empire in the future.
WaningLight was originally a nameless Sorcerer but after he got the Book of Fire, he became an expert in wielding fire and gained overnight popularity.
Everyone knew WaningFire's power surge was related to the Book of Fire, but as for what the Book of Fire could really do, no one knew other than the owner.
As for the remaining Book of Elements, it was still a mystery even in the future. Who had them was all rumor and speculation.
Due to the rarity of the pages, every page that was discovered was big news in the game. Although Mohai never owned any pages of any book, he had a general idea of where a portion of the pages would appear. He even knew the locations of all the pages to three books, but it did not include the first page of the Book of Fire.
There were only so many first pages of the Book of Fire, and they were found quite early in the game, hence Mohai knew nothing about the location of the pages.
However, since he accidentally got the first page of the Book of Fire, collecting the entire book would no longer be a problem.
He knew where the remaining pages of the Book of Fire were, and as long as he was powerful enough, he could go get them and complete the Book of Fire.
It would be great if he could use it. Even if he could not, he ought to diminish a powerful expert in the Huaxia Empire. WaningLight's large AOE fire spells would be quite famous in the future.
Other than the Book of Fire, the hatching fossil egg that the Ghost brought back also surprised Mohai. Based on his experience, he knew that it was a hatching primordial fossil egg.
However, he noticed something strange. If he had not sent the Ghost to steal the chests, the Magma Golem would have been able to recruit a primordial creature from the fossil egg, but based on what he knew, the Magma Golem never had such an unusual creature by his side.
It seemed like something he did not know had happened to the Magma Golem.
Nevertheless, it was not something unacceptable either. He may be reincarnated into a monster and retain the memories from his past life, yet he still did not know about a lot of things, especially about the monster world.
Mohai was quite curious about what could hatch from the primordial fossil egg since he had only seen it before instead of owning one.
Unfortunately, the fossil egg had left the lava pool and the hatching process had stopped. If he really wanted to know what was inside, he must at least grow stronger to the point that he could fight the Magma Golem.
"Ghost, you can eat the Mutated Magma Fruit." Mohai kept the other things and gave the fruit to the Ghost.
There was a type of fire element plant in the cave, and the fruit from the plant, the Magma Fruit, had a small chance of mutating. A normal Magma Fruit could raise a player's fire element damage by 5% or 10% if mutated.
However, since Mohai was already a monster, the fruit stats were different from before.
The Mutated Magma Fruit could only be eaten by a monster below the Elite level and it could raise the fire element damage by 10%. At a lower possibility, it would also grant the extra effect of creating a lava terrain upon being attack. Enemies that stepped into the lava pool would be induced with a [Burn] debuff.
It was only effective for monsters below the Elite level, and the chances of Mohai getting the extra effect was low, so he might as well give it to the Ghost.
After all, the Ghost had done a great deed by stealing the stuff from the Magma Cave and there was no excuse for Mohai to skip the reward.
"Really? It's for me?" The Ghost's eyes gleamed.
As a matter of fact, the Ghost had drooled over the fruit when he took it back, but he was too cowardly to eat it. He was afraid if he ate it without informing Mohai, the latter would get mad.
"Of course, you did well this time. This is your reward," Mohai said with a nod.
"Thank you, Boss! You are the best!" The innocent Ghost was really easy to please.
'Boss is so great to me! He gave me such a good item and didn't even use it for himself!'
"Hahaha! Boss, I feel a lot stronger!"
After the Ghost chomped down the Mutated Magma Fruit, he tested out his newfound strength.
His self-destructive power was increased by 10% and once the fruit's effect was triggered, he could cast a lava pool on the ground. His core could absorb energy a lot faster, so he could revive a few seconds faster as well.
"Not bad," Mohai said.
Things were progressing as expected. It seemed like giving the Mutated Magma Fruit to the Ghost was his best choice.
…
The liveliest night in the Monolith Stronghold was over.
Infuriated, the Magma Golem was forced to return to the Magma Cave.
Even though the players stopped coming after that, the cunning bandit leader was nowhere to be found and all clues about his location were lost in the last hour.
"My lord, a lot of our men were killed. Otherwise, we might've been able to capture that b*stard," said the Fire Raven.
"I know that," said the Magma Golem as rage continued to burn in his eyes.
The monsters in the Magma Cave were on Level 15, and after they left their own territory, their strength was greatly weakened. A lot of them died at the hands of that cunning bandit leader and the Adventurers killed a number of them. On top of that, the Adventurers were resilient in their attempts to take him down which cost him the chance to find and kill the bandit leader. He was confident at first, but in the end, his efforts fell short.
"Get out! No one is allowed to come in without my order!"
After the Magma Golem returned to the Magma Hall, he felt that something was amiss. He told the Fire Raven and Fire Demon to leave. Although the Fire Raven and Fire Demon felt it was strange, they did not ask why.
A while later, the Magma Golem stormed out of the hall with a scary look. "Who came into my cave last night?!" the Magma Golem sprinted to the entrance and questioned the two Flaming Warriors angrily.
"A Fire Raven." The two Flaming Warriors were just normal monsters, hence their dull answer.
"A Fire Raven? No. 3, didn't you say that the b*stard had a suspicious monster at his side last night?" the Magma Golem asked Fire Demon No. 3.
"Yes, my lord, I heard he got a new Ghost. Our men can't even damage that thing," said Fire Demon No. 3 after some thought.
"A Ghost? Hmph! That cunning b*stard! How dare he recruit this kind of subordinate?! No, I must take him out at all costs!"
The Magma Golem did not plan to spare Mohai even after a night of wild goose chase. Now, with his lair emptied out and Mohai getting a Ghost as subordinate, his killing intentions doubled.
However, after last night's goose chase, the Magma Golem understood that the same trick was not enough to kill that b*stard. He must seek something better out!
…
Even after the lively slaughter last night, the Monolith Stronghold was just as exciting today because of the Magma Golem's appearance at the Monolith Stronghold. The players who rested at night missed the appearance, so they thought they could be lucky during the day.
Although they failed to run into the Magma Golem, they encountered the group of Elites that roamed the Monolith Stronghold.
It was another day of killing players, and with the Ghost, which was his new XP-farming machine, at his side, Mohai's weakest bandit leaders reached Levels 12 and 13.
However, after reaching Level 13, the XP from killing Level 10 players was no longer enough and Mohai still had quite a long way to Level 14.
Thankfully, he got another Faith point.
He was able to kill that many players because of the Magma Golem's appearance at night.
As for the players leveling in the Monolith Stronghold, there was an obvious decrease in number as the players decreased gradually when they knew that the Magma Golem was not in the Monolith Stronghold.
At 6 in the evening, the number of players in the Monolith Stronghold plummeted.
It was almost time for Mohai to make his move. He put on the Nightwalker Cloak and headed to the Black Witch Forest.
The Magma Golem would never spare him, and after some thoughts, Mohai decided to visit the Black Witch.