PATH OF THE STAR HUNTER

Aisha was like the most beautiful of berserkers, brandishing her massive Warhammer made of magma. The ground shook with every step she took, the hissing sounds caused by her hammer breaking the wind always followed by the grotesque sound of flesh and bone being crushed with brute force.

It was hard to associate Aisha’s naive and kind smile with her battle-crazed attitude. “It seems to be a racial thing.” Desmond thought to himself, associating the word Valkyrie in Aisha’s race name with war and battle.

According to Aisha’s fluctuations, her Aura was at the max level one star class, as was her fire mana. However, when it came to combat power, Aisha could reach the standard of the two-star class only by virtue of her enormous innate strength and nearly inexhaustible stamina.

Desmond even theorized that if she were more skilled, Aisha would have been enough to deal with that werelion. After all, he wasn’t much stronger than Aisha, not to mention his martial skills could have been more refined.

Though surprised by Aisha’s strength, Desmond didn’t sit idly by; that just wasn’t his style. Since Aisha was taking on the role of tank and vanguard, Desmond then opted to be the damage dealer and provide field control.

Just envisions the combination of an inexhaustible female berserker with a huge Warhammer; on top of that, it adds Desmond’s ridiculous firepower with skills like or into the mix.

Truth be told, the synergy between the two sides was a bit terrifying, and anyone who got in their way with a hostile attitude ended up meeting a cruel end.

On the other hand, Desmond and Aisha are having a lot of fun. With their teamwork, the difficulty and danger were considerably lowered, allowing both sides to loosen up a bit. Being both hot-blooded people, it wasn’t long before Desmond and Aisha took things with a bit of humor and a sporty attitude.

.....

One thing to note is that Desmond and Aisha are no longer attacked by bandits and rogue adventurers. You couldn’t blame them. You’d have to be suicidal to make a move against them after watching them gleefully slaughter the various underground beasts they encountered.

Although they were no longer attacked by bandits, the journey was not without its dangers. Most of the people who died in the mines fell into the hands of other explorers for greed or revenge. Still, when it came to high-level experts, there was no lack of those who fell at the hands of powerful underground beasts.

Desmond and Aisha were still about to reach the 75% descent of the middle area of ??this section of the mine when they ran into their first major obstacle.

Seeing the sea of ??fire and magma covering the floor of the huge cavern in front of him, Desmond couldn’t help but rub his eyes and look at the map again to check that they hadn’t taken the wrong path. You couldn’t blame Desmond for doing this; after all, there was no such thing as a sea of ??fire and magma on the map.

Aisha was also surprised to see the sea of ??fire and magma. Yet, she understood more about these mines and their strange qualities, so it didn’t take her more than a couple of seconds to understand what was happening. Realizing what it was, Aisha was excited, jumping over to Desmond to give him a quick, playful kiss on the lips before explaining.

“Desmond, we are fortunate. This is a sign that a new gem has been born, a very powerful one. Needless to say, this gem must have strong fire-related properties. However, I can’t rule out that it’s some kind of weird gem related to transmutation or weather alteration. To be honest, it becomes too hard to guess when it comes to the gems in these mines.”

With Aisha’s excited demeanor, Desmond knew they had found something good, but he was still somewhat stunned. “What do you mean with born? Aren’t the gems here dug out of the ground? More importantly, do they all cause this kind of havoc?”

Aisha smiled wryly as Desmond pointed to the sea of ??fire and magma as she asked her last question. “To answer your first two questions, all of the gems in this mine hatch on their own. Many theorize that it is because three ley lines pass through these mines, transmuting the magical minerals already dormant in here. Because it’s completely random, these new gems can be born buried under thousands of tons of rock or appear directly from some newly dug tunnel. There have been cases where gems appear practically at the mine entrance, but those are very rare. From what I hear, the three ley lines lie underground at unknown depths. The deeper you go into the mines, the easier it is to find all kinds of gems because the energy radiated by the ley lines becomes stronger.”

After swallowing half a ton of information, Desmond took his time processing it. These mines seemed quite special in more ways than he had initially imagined. Despite their oddities, Desmond still didn’t expect them to be self-renewable mines.

Aisha waited until Desmond had finished processing her explanation before answering her last question. However, that explanation was relatively brief and could be summed up in one sentence: All kinds of weird things happen around gems.

According to Aisha, the effects would be most radical right after the birth of a gem, after which they would calm down. Still, due to the continual energy absorption from the ley lines, older gems begin to strengthen and alter their surroundings again.

It would be a lie to say that Desmond wasn’t thrilled at the prospect of finding a gem powerful enough to terraform a cavern over a kilometer in radius. At the same time, Desmond was also somewhat cautious. Where there was a treasure, there was danger; everyone knew that.

“Come on, it will be more difficult for us if more explorers come here now.” Aisha suggested excitedly before entering the burning cavern. Desmond shrugged helplessly before following her. Desmond had to cover his body with a thin film of Aquatic Mana to counteract the high temperature and burning ground.

Aisha gave Desmond an apologetic expression; it was clear that she had forgotten that Desmond wasn’t like her. He couldn’t just walk on fire and magma without protecting himself.

Desmond reassured her with a pat on the head and answered. “Don’t worry, the temperature is lower than I expected; it shouldn’t be in danger. But my mana reserves aren’t infinite, and I wouldn’t be able to absorb aquatic mana from the environment here, so we should hurry up.”

As Aisha and Desmond moved forward, the surrounding temperature began to rise. It was obvious that they were both getting closer to the source of it. A low hiss warned Desmond in time to step to the side, avoiding the explosion of a small geyser. Desmond’s protective cloak still suffered from being touched by the scalding steam, but Desmond managed to mitigate the damage.

Desmond’s facial skin itched; he didn’t need a mirror to know that he had suffered burns. Judging by the amount of pain, Desmond reckoned they shouldn’t be too severe burns, so he didn’t do much more than spray the wound with some spray potion.

Aisha looked worried; she had obviously underestimated how difficult it was for other species to cross this sea of ??fire and magma. Although this was quite normal, she was born in an environment similar to this; her mind did not associate it with the word danger.

“Don’t worry; these kinds of injuries are nothing. Besides, I think we almost found the gem; it would be ridiculous if we retreat now.” Though Desmond’s words said one thing, he still doubled the thickness of his protective aquatic cloak. He wasn’t a masochist, after all.

Aisha and Desmond advanced another hundred meters before it became almost impossible to continue advancing. Chaotic flames erupted from the ground randomly, and the magma now predominated over the solid ground. Desmond was spending a lot of mana, just not succumbing to the environment.

Desmond wouldn’t be in so much trouble if they were normal flames, but rich, pure fire mana permeated all of these dangers. It was like being under constant harassment from a low-level fire Elementalist; though Desmond wouldn’t die immediately, he could still be drained to death.

Just as Desmond and Aisha were considering giving up, the temperature plummeted to comfortable warmth. The change was abrupt as if Desmond and Aisha had passed some threshold or territory where internal characteristics were unaffected by external ones.

An obvious way to tell the shift around Desmond and Aisha was the shift on the ground. Instead of magma and rock, the ground was covered in a layer of red grass, with wildflowers peeking out occasionally. The sudden presence of flora was rather strange, to say the least. Desmond and Aisha looked back, seeing the sea of ??fire and magma, and back at the soft-looking reddish grass; it was a disconcerting sight.

As Aisha and Desmond got over their surprise, their eyes were naturally drawn to the object or, rather, the plant in the center of this strange oasis. The giant bud was the size of an elephant, the only thing visible about it being the vast, dense white petals.