*Time skip three months*
The Ash Expanse
Endros
In the Ash Expanse, there are five forbidden and highly dangerous to go to areas; one of these places was called Endros, Known for a volcano situated at its center.
Surrounded by countless magma pools radiating with heat that warps the air itself, Endros is home only to power fire-type magical beasts. Even besides the forbidden sea of superheated molten rocks, the veritable hellscape is packed with muted grey particles that drowns any unsuitable life by cramming their lungs with noxious ash. In a show of natural wonder that precious few can ever enjoy, the magma streams all converge upon a single point, flowing into a waterfall of red and white-hot hues that would seem like a tower of light in the area, a manifestation of the unforgiving landscape's harsh will.
Filled with countless hazards, Endros, one of the forbidden areas in the Ash Expanse, housed a variety of precious and valuable stuff. From treasured materials that can be used for forging, fire natured plants, to unique and sometimes even mutated magical beasts.
Endros is also known as the area fire mages powerful enough would venture to. Trying to improve the fire element and its purity is a hard and arduous process to do. By letting the naturally inclined Fire Mana be used as the bases, the fire mages would start trying to purify their element by practicing using spells they are familiar with. This process is long and hard. It is not something that can be done in a matter of days, weeks, or months. Geniuses on the Ash Expanse take years of practice and hard work before they can take the element to the next stage.
Of course, there are exceptions to this, and that is having a higher affinity to the element. Elemental affinities go by order of early-intermediate-late-top and perfect stages, with early being the lowest grade and perfect being the highest. There are legends of people in higher worlds than a MidGrade world having an affinity that went above the perfect rank, but these are legends, and no one knows how reliable they are.
In a secluded valley filled with magma beasts, you could see a fox and a humanoid creature with wings fighting a wolf shaped magma creature. This wolf shaped magma creature is part of the magma beast classification. Magma Beasts are magical creatures that are entirely made of magma. They are intelligent creatures made from the essence of volcanoes. After thousands of years of having the Mana saturate the volcano, a mutation sometimes occurs, giving life to the magma in the volcano. The creatures born from this phenomenon are called Magma beasts.
Magma beasts take a different shape in their development, such as the wolf the man and the fox are fighting.
"Mo, go left I will go right. Let's kill this beast fast." Lu Yao suddenly yelled as she ducked, saving herself from an oncoming fireball shot from the wolf shaped magma beast.
Complying, Xue Mo let Mana envelop his body, giving it a blue skin tight armor made from Mana. Even after losing the system, Xue Mo was still able to use Mana reinforcement since he made it in the first place, the system only recognized it as a skill, which would let him use it with lesser concentration.
The blue-colored Mana surrounding Xue Mo had a tint of black in it, and a small amount of black miasma was leaking out of it. These are characteristics of Shadow Soul Pressure Energy, meaning that Xue Mo hadn't only used Mana empowerment but also utilized his SSP energy to create a similar coating to Mana empowerment.
The reason Xue Mo is wasting his SSP energy to fight a low-leveled creature like the Magma beast is that Xue Mo had discovered something intriguing. One day while Xue Mo and Lu Yao were on the road, Xue Mo decided not to waste time and continue training his control over the different energies he possesses, less he becomes rusty. Confident with his control over True Qi (Arch) energy, Xue Mo didn't waste more than a small amount of time on it before moving to Mana.
After all, Xue Mo's SSP energy cannot be trained until he starts unlocking the seals surrounding his Soul, and doing that, Xue Mo would need time and resources, that Xue Mo currently doesn't have. Luckily Xue Mo was able to find an alternative that is raising his Soul Cultivation. After starting his Soul Cultivation, Xue Mo was able to notice that one of the thirteen Seals surrounding his Soul started moving. However, the movement was very subtle, Xue Mo noticed it and when he reached Rank 1 Level 3 at Soul Cultivation, Xue Mo was able to feel the Seal alleviating ever so slightly.
Xue Mo started training his control over Mana like he used to do before; however, this time, he decided to control the Mana internally the way he controls True Qi (Arch) when cultivating. But just as he began to start training his control over Mana, Xue Mo noticed that not only was Mana coming to him from the 'Heart Core,' but also SSP energy came with it.
Xue Mo didn't try to see if he could further his control over SSP energy when his Soul Cultivation increased, opting to try it when he breaks the first Seal completely. However, somehow SSP energy started blending with Mana. Although neither of the energies lost their individuality, they were now able to be fused together to enhance their own strengths further.
Xue Mo got used to the situation since he wouldn't lose anything and only benefit from the new ability to fuse energies that he gained at an unknown time. After some time, Xue Mo was able to further his control over the energies and initiate the fusion between them. Every time Xue Mo practiced his control, he was able to minimize the time needed to fuse the energies and lower the energy required to use both energies. Usually, when forces are merged, they would need an amount of power of what is fused combined, but when Xue Mo was blending the energies, no such thing happened. Instead, he was able to utilize them more efficiently than when used separately.
After coating his body with Dark blue Mana empowerment, Xue Mo, with the fastest speed he used till now, arrived behind the wolf shaped magma beast and unfurled his equipped chains. Hurling the chains at the beasts legs, Xue Mo pulled back, before the magma beast could react he was thrown in the air coming in the Xue Mo's direction.
This situation was a first for the magma beast; after all, he usually was able to kill his prey quickly. When he couldn't kill the enemy directly, he could just turn into liquid form to either safely escape or envelop the opponent and swallow it, leaving nothing behind.
But when the chains coiled around his leg, he wasn't able to move at all and was slowly losing his strength, the magma beast howled and howled trying to escape with no result.
*Awoooo*
After howling one last time, the magma beast decided to discard his leg that has been captured and instead opted to escape by turning into magma, at least that way he can preserve his life.
Before the beast can run away, a fox suddenly crept up from behind him. Grey colored energy enveloping her claws; Lu Yao slashed at the magma beast's head cleanly, cutting it off. The magma sprayed everywhere as the magma beast's body destabilized and started breaking down, leaving magma everywhere around Xue Mo and Lu Yao.
The weird thing was that Lu Yao had nothing to happen to her. Usually, when a person touches Lava, they would either immediately lose the part that touched the Lava. Or have strong enough resistance to get out without a scratch barely. Although Lu Yao had a fire resistance when she had the system, Lu Yao had lost all her resistances as they turned into affinities that can be upgraded through Infinite Darkness.
"So, why did we come here again? You can stop being mysterious now, right?" Xue Mo asked Lu Yao after they finished their fight. Lu Yao didn't answer him but instead went towards the dead remains of the magma beast and started picking them up and storing in a vial that they got from the Treasure Pavilion.
Seeing Lu Yao's weird action Xue Mo was curious but didn't interrupt her and instead went to help her. Just as Xue Mo was about to pick some of the magma remains, Xue Mo heard Lu Yao yell: "MO, STOP! DON'T TOUCH THE MAGMA!"
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Xue Mo and Lu Yao's current new shortened stats
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Infinite Darkness
Name: Xue Mo
Points 1065 SSP energy points
Cultivation:
Energy:
Realm: [Foundation Opening, early Phase, level 1]
Technique: Ultimate Fundamental Racial Technique
Soul:
Realm: [Rank 1, level 3, (Soul Understanding)]
Technique: Boundless Soul Control
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Infinite darkness
Name: Lu Yao
Points 1000 SSP energy points (Shared from Xue Mo)
Cultivation:
Energy:
Realm: [Qi (Arch) Foundation Opening, early phase, level 1]
Technique: Nephilim Void Sacred Sense
Soul:
Realm: [Rank 1, level 3, (Soul Understanding)
Technique: Boundless Soul Control
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