Soul of Searing Steel

“Not bad.”

Standing at the foot of the mountain while enjoying the cool cold wind, Joshua looked at the schematic diagram projected by Nostradamus and nodded. “It looks good. I just don’t know what it will be like to build the entire academy. However, I’ve never expected that you have actually completed the interior design and structure of the academy.”

The old mage smiled. But he did not speak.

In fact, he had given birth to the idea of building a new academy nearly a decade ago. In recent years, he has already completed his own preparations. He could just start the construction of his new academy after finding a suitable site. Let alone the interior design and structure of the academy, after years of feeling bored, he even put different decoration into every single classroom of the academy. There were even a few sets of alternative plans.

At the same time, Moreila was also observing the schematic diagram, also in agreement. “It is really good. The conditions of the snowy mountains of Nissia and the location are also very suitable to build your academy.”

“This mountain is basically made up of rocks. As long as we do a good job with the foundations and the support points, we can continue to dig deep into the interior of the mountain for more space in the coming days. We do not need to concern ourselves with the expansion of the scale for the academy.” As he was saying, he also came closer and looked at the projection of the diagram more closely, “The site is far from the Dark Forest. The terrain is also high enough, surrounded only by unmanned ice. The surroundings are not bad as well. This site is truly a location for people to carry out experiments and study at ease… In fact, it seems that the rune factory can also be built around here.”

The old dwarf seemed to have some of his own intentions. He continued to speak, “Here, we have rivers and lakes. Magic density is just enough. If the academy is being built here, then there will be enough manpower to maintain the factory… Hence, this site is indeed very appropriate.”

After hearing Moreila’s proposal, Joshua gave it some thought for a brief moment. He was also convinced that the site was indeed a good choice. After all, the rune factory was only a semi-autonomous magic furnace core and a complete set of production processes. Other than the energy source of the furnace core that needed consideration, the factory would not need much of a space. It could be built anywhere. Being built together with the academy, it would also be possible to rely on the surrounding rivers to build waterwheels, allowing parts of the production process to utilize water power to their advantages.

After all, magic energy was always precious. With other sources of energy and power available at their disposal, it would be better not to waste the usage of magic energy. Not to mention that when the factory had manufactured products in the future, they could use the river water to transport the products downstream, which would be simple and convenient.

After they had roughly finalized the site where they would build the academy, Joshua and others began to discuss the environment around Nissia’s snow-capped mountains for a little while. After that, it was time to do some real business.

“Master, do you really want to go into this lake?”

Standing right above the lake that was covered by snow that was located at the foot of the mountain, Ying said with concern, “I’m not worried about your safety… But what if you accidentally make everything around collapse?”

The girl seemed to have misunderstood her own master.

“The main purpose of exploring this ice lake is merely because I am curious.”

In the meantime, Joshua had already prepared himself and ready to enter the lake with Moreila. Then he shrugged and replied, “But one of the reason is to survey the surrounding terrain down there—well, you will have to trust your master. I am not a saboteur who slaves on destruction. This time, I’m handling real business. And you’ll just have to wait here until we come back.”

After he finished talking, Joshua and Moreila broke the surface layer of the ice lake and dived into the water right before the eyes of Ying and the old mage, and also the others around.

The first thing he felt was a chill that ate through bones.

The temperature of the lake was approximately zero degrees. However, the water would quickly take away the heat from the skin. So practically speaking, one would feel even colder than it should be. The moment when they just went into the water, Joshua noticed that the water of this ice lake was very clear and transparent to the point that there was not even a single trace of any impurity that was visible to naked eye in the water. The water seemed to be carrying a kind of inexplicable power that could sweep dirt and impurities away all the time.

Upon noticing that, Joshua could not help but to feel even more curious now. He started swimming at a speed faster than before.

When he dived to about tens of meters deep down to the lake, the surroundings became dark and opaque. No light seemed to have reached this part of the lake. Everything around him was pitch black. There was not even the slightest sense of life there. There was also no sign of any fish or other living beings. As they continued down towards the bottom of the lake, the lake seemed to be endlessly deep and dark. There was only the soundless stream of water flow gushing against the direction they were heading towards.

The further down they went, the greater the pressure of the water against them had become. When they had made it to the depth of one hundred meters down, there was not even the slightest light and sound in that area. There were only the frosty streams and the endless vigorous undercurrent.

Relying on Life Energy, Joshua could feel that the old dwarf was not far from him, and he was also swimming alongside with Joshua deep into the lake. However, strangely, both of them had already submerged more than a hundred meters into the water. However, they had yet to reach the bottom of the lake. Truthfully, wasn’t it just an ordinary lake?

Hidden magic energy was coming from the bottom of the lake one layer after another, disrupting the Combat Aura that surrounded around the two. However, both Joshua and Moreila were Gold-tier warriors after all. Regardless of whether it was the disruption of the water pressure of the lake or the magic energy, they were not really affected much by those.

Although the development of the incident was somewhat unexpected, Joshua still planned to continue to explore. He would dive to the bottom just to find out what’s down there. Looking at the actions of the old dwarf, it seemed that he had also made the same choice as Joshua did.

All of a sudden, the two men increased their speed as they were swimming downward, heading towards the deepest part of the lake.

Deep in the lake water, silent as if the place was dead, an ordinary man would have been overwhelmed by fear caused by the unknown factor having known that they had no way to distinguish the directions and bearings in the dark water. However, neither Joshua or the old dwarf were actually affected by that. They had experienced something that was ten times more horrifying than this one. So such an insignificant deep water and the depressive mood in its surroundings had long been put past behind their minds.

Two hundred meters, three hundred meters, four hundred meters… their speed of diving in was getting faster and faster. The pressure in the water was getting denser and denser by the moment as they pushed on. Meanwhile, they had also reached an incredibly deep point of the lake’s depth. Initially, they only planned to dive down just to see what was down there. However, they had been unconsciously diving in so deep that they had reached more than five thousand meters below the surface of the lake.

That’s unbelievable!

Moreila looked at the deep part of the lake that looked dark as hell with both of his eyes. The color of the deep looked just like the lifeless dark abyss that was dreadful to any living beings. He sighed deeply, and thought, Five hundred meters, this lake is like an endless pit without a bottom…. How can an ordinary lake that is formed from the melting water of the snow be so deep?!

Meanwhile, Joshua was also having the same thought. He observed the surroundings carefully. However, he could not find anything there. Up till this point, both of them had not notice or discover any surging waves of magic energy. The magic crystal vein that the old dwarf had been talking about doesn’t seem to exist at all down there.

At this time, they were at approximately six hundred meters below the water level, and there was no telling how deep the lake would go. Meanwhile, Joshua felt very strange about it. According to his feelings, there were not many toxic substances in the lake by the side of a volcano. Logically speaking, this is a fertile spot where living beings can multiply. He could not help but think of the past life about something back at the Lake Baikal. It was also a huge freshwater lake in the snow. Although it was also freezing, there were many fish there. On the contrary, there was nothing, not even the slightest sign of life here in this lake.

The two of them continued to dive deeper. They seemed to be unwilling to stop until their goals were achieved. But fortunately, soon afterwards, the warrior had found a glimmer of light in front of them.

This light was prominently visible in the depths of the dark lake. Joshua immediately waved at Moreila to get him over. Then both of them went down to observe the light source. After swimming down a few more dozens of meters, they arrived by the side of the light source.

Under the emanating bright blue radiance, they were pleasantly surprised to find that the bottom of the lake was right in front of them now. However, the two of them had dove down over six hundred meters, which was more than ten times deeper than any other lake that they previously discovered.

It was not hard to find where the light came from. Meanwhile, Joshua had located the source of that bright blue radiance with ease. That was actually a gleaming crystal that was embedded in the sedimentary rock among the sands and dirt. Its core was a cluster of blue vortex that continued to swirl along, unleashing a blue radiance.

It was very highly pure magic crystal!

Clenching his fist out of his excitement, the old dwarf turned his head around and made a gesture at Joshua by relying on the light coming from the crystal, “There must be more of these crystals around here somewhere.”

The warrior nodded in silence. Then he made his way to locate the remaining magic crystal. As for Moreila, he swam up to the side of that crystal and started to examine further into it.

Both of them were Gold-tier warriors. As long as there was enough energy, their bodies would no longer need any supply of oxygen. It does not matter at all on how long they wanted to stay dived in the water. Hence, they were not feeling any rush at all.

Shortly afterward, Moreila suddenly gasped in shock. Then he reached out his hand and swept away the dirt and sand on top of the crystal. Instantly, the emanating light became brighter. There was another crystal, being revealed to be right before the eyes of the Dwarf.

“An exposed crystal vein? No, this is five or six hundred meters down below the surface of the lake. Generally speaking, crystal veins would normally be located at such depth of a lake. So it was not strange at all to come across one here. However, what exactly is this piece of crystal then?”

Thinking as such in his mind, Moreila reached out his hand and touched the second piece of crystal. He had some thoughts along with some doubts, “This is not a magic crystal, but it also emits light. The interior of it has a spiral pattern, and it is a special material that has never been seen before. It seems to contain energy as well…”

On the other hand, Joshua who was on the scouting in the surroundings had also noticed the presence of that light. When he swam back, he saw Moreila touching that piece of crystal and he could not help but blink.

Isn’t that the Spiral Crystal, a superior reward of the church that Artanis had used before? As a practical item that could convert into three kinds of Holy Light, Joshua remembered it very clearly.

Why is there a Spiral Crystal here? Is it produced in the North?

It was true that there was such a possibility. However, why hasn’t anyone seen it before then?

“Joshua.”

Just when he was having questions in his mind, the old dwarf opened his mouth and spoke. With the vibration of the sound wave across the water, he said, “The energy of the crystal here seems to be blocked by some sort of power. It can only flow out into the surroundings little by little. Based on such pace, it will require a very long time before the crystal can enchant the entire lake with magic energy.”

“No matter how long it will take, there nothing strange about it. The time where the mountains exist has far exceeded the time when our civilization first existed.”

Joshua also opened his mouth and spoke underwater. The two of them started talking to each other underwater now, “It would still be normal if it takes a thousand years, or even ten thousand years.”

“The mountains may have existed for tens of thousands of years, but this lake is different.” Moreila seemed serious. His golden eyes glanced at the sedimentary rocks next to the crystal. Then he said, “According to the traces of rocks and dirt here, this lake was only born about a thousand years ago. According to the speed of the leakage here, it is impossible to enchant the entire lake though.”

As he was saying, Moreila then picked off the blue magic crystal from the rock. Half of the crystal remained in the rock though. Meanwhile, the other half of the crystal had been picked off right for the surface of the rock. And now, it was resting right on the hand of the old dwarf. The gleaming radiance instantly got intensified a lot. After it had left the bottom of the rock around here, the energy of that magic crystal began to spill over into the surroundings at a pace significantly faster several times than the pace before.

“Something is wrong with the surrounding environment. I’ll go have a look at the situation.”

While Joshua was looking around at the surroundings, he frowned and he did not pay attention to Moreila. Meanwhile, the old dwarf was holding the magic crystals as he was doing various tests on the crystal itself. He then went up over a distance as he also increased the density of his red Combat Aura in his hands.

The sudden high heat vaporized the frosty snow that chilled all the way down the spines. The melted ice that came in contact with the high heat was boiling. Innumerable air bubbles and strong light were seen unleashing from the water, along with a spurting of a strong water current. Under Joshua’s fine control, the water and light swept through the water, sweeping away the dirt and mud, illuminating the surroundings, revealing a larger area of the environment underwater.

Meanwhile, the crystals that had been hidden from plain sight seemed to be stimulated. They began to emanate radiances of different colors. This seems to have produced a chain reaction. In only a few seconds later, the entire lake was completely illuminated by those magic crystals. The entire place was gleaming in seven colors of the rainbow, making the entire bottom of the lake look like a spectacular fantasy realm.

“Oh my god…”

Upon seeing that scene, Joshua did not felt awed by that magnificent view that appeared right before him. Instead, he took a deep breath as he was in shock. “What the hell is this?!”

He looked at the bottom of the lake in astonishment. The shape of the bottom of the entire lake has been clearly highlighted by the light coming from the crystals. That was why the warrior was so surprised about.

The shape of this lake looked actually similar to a fingerprint! A huge, magical crystal-based palm print!

Whose palm print is this?!