Because the temperature was so high, the surrounding rocks had all turned into a strange kind of crystal, packed tightly together.

And among those crystals, something was crawling quickly, making a faint rustling sound.

Aiden immediately took out the the Abyssthe Flame Demon staff and got ready to fight.

"Malcolm didn’t say whether monsters would appear here or not. It’s better to stay careful," Aiden thought to himself.

He had already come this far, so of course he did not want anything unexpected to happen.

Staying as alert as possible, Aiden walked toward the crystals nearby.

Soon, a tiny red snake, only about the size of a thumb, came into Aiden’s sight.

A closer look showed that this little creature was completely made of violent flame energy, and it was biting at the crystals.

"Hiss~"The moment the small red flame-energy snake saw Aiden, it immediately gave off a blinding red light.

In the next moment, blazing fire burst out and burned fiercely as it flew straight toward Aiden.

Without the slightest hesitation, Aiden instantly used his defensive skill, Blacklight Ward.

At the same time, he locked onto the small red snake.

Swish! Swish!

Several Elemental Arrow shot out, pinning the red snake to the rock before it could get halfway.

[Killed a low-level Flame Energy Snake. EXP +1]

Only 1 EXP?

Aiden frowned at once, feeling that something was very strange. Under normal circumstances, this little snake was as fast as a level 50 monster. There was no way it should give only 1 point of EXP.

Bang!

The Flame Energy Snake quickly burst apart like a bubble.

A stream of pure flame energy slowly appeared, floating in midair, and then drifted toward Aiden.

Aiden instinctively wanted to dodge, feeling that it might be dangerous.

But very soon, he saw that the pure flame energy turned into tiny red points of light and entered his body.

[Absorbed a small amount of low-level flame energy. Constitution +100, defense against fire-type skills +0.1%, fire control +0.1%, resistance to high temperatures +0.1%.]

Aiden’s eyes lit up at once. Killing this kind of creature made of flame energy could actually give this kind of boost?

"The EXP is only 1 point, but EXP is the one thing I have plenty of!"

"I should kill more of these flame-energy creatures," Aiden muttered.

The boost was not very large, but killing a low-level Flame Energy Snake was not difficult either.

If there were enough Flame Energy Snakes, and if this effect could keep increasing without limit, then wouldn’t that mean he could become completely immune to fire-type skill damage?

Or Aiden could push his heat resistance to the maximum, so that even if he entered lava, he would still be completely safe!

Without any hesitation, Aiden kept moving forward while starting to search around.

[Killed a low-level Flame Energy Snake. EXP +1]

[Killed a low-level Flame Energy Snake. EXP +1]

...

Ten minutes later, after killing more than thirty Flame Energy Snakes, Aiden could feel slight changes in his body.

There was less and less sweat on his forehead, and he was also able to control Divine Golden Sunflame better.

"Roar!"

At that moment, the lava suddenly began to boil, and a beast-like roar came from the extremely hot molten rock.

Aiden instantly turned to look. A strange fish more than one meter long was staring at him with its red eyes.

Whoosh!

The monster opened its huge mouth, sucked in the surrounding lava, then aimed at Aiden and spat it out hard.

The extremely hot lava instantly gathered into a flaming arrow and shot toward Aiden.

Not only did Aiden not panic, he actually became excited.

It was obvious that this was a higher-level creature than the Flame Energy Snake.

If he killed this strange fish, the boost it gave would definitely be even stronger!

Aiden took a deep breath and suddenly activated the special effect of smoky black wings. His body began moving in a fast zigzag dash.

After easily dodging the flaming arrow, Aiden immediately launched a counterattack.

"Metal Element Arrow!"

A golden arrow formed in the blink of an eye, but the strange fish did not seem to sense any danger at all. It suddenly dived straight into the lava.

Bang!

Bang!

The Metal Element Arrow sank into the lava, only splashing up a large amount of molten rock.

"So timid? It ran away just like that?" Aiden widened his eyes and carefully searched for the monster.

Aiden let out a sigh and slowly turned around.

Whoosh!

Another flaming arrow appeared.

A smile appeared at the corner of Aiden’s mouth, and the the Abyssthe Flame Demon staff in his hand lit up at once.

[Killed a mid-level Flame Energy Carp. EXP +10]

[Absorbed a small amount of mid-level flame energy. Constitution +500, defense against fire-type skills +1%, fire control +1%, resistance to high temperatures +1%.]

Ten times more?

Aiden’s eyes grew even brighter.

He did not move forward right away. Instead, he kept wandering around the area.

Soon, more and more mid-level Flame Energy Carp were drawn out by him, and each one turned into pure flame energy.

About half an hour later, Aiden looked at the calm, rippleless lava and let out a somewhat regretful sigh.

"There are too few of them."

Aiden glanced at the information in the log.

In total, his Constitution had increased by more than 7,000. His defense against fire-type skills had gone up by 13%, his fire control had increased by 13%, and his resistance to high temperatures had improved by the same amount.

Now he could no longer feel any heat at all. Instead, he felt extremely comfortable in this high-temperature environment.

"If I keep going deeper, higher-level flame-energy creatures should appear," Aiden said softly.

These were all unexpected gains, and they put Aiden in an unusually good mood.

Before long, he ran into larger high-level flame creatures. Although they were much stronger, they still had no power to resist under his relentless attacks.

Deeper still!

And so, Aiden kept killing flame-energy creatures while moving farther inside.

He did not know how much time had passed, but eventually all those boosts had reached 50%!

Just as Aiden was feeling very satisfied, a figure suddenly appeared ahead of him. It looked very much like a Red Dwarves.

At once, Aiden became alert.

"Is it a flame-energy creature, or is it really a Red Dwarves?" Aiden tried to sense it, but strangely, he could detect nothing unusual at all.

And yet, in his line of sight, there really was a figure there.

Aiden tightened his grip on the the Abyssthe Flame Demon staff and prepared himself to activate the supreme Miko blessing at any moment.

Just then, the figure suddenly turned around very quickly.

Aiden froze the moment he saw the other person’s face.

"Malcolm?" Aiden said without thinking.

In the next instant, that figure suddenly vanished. When it appeared again, it was already less than ten meters away from Aiden.

Aiden’s pupils shrank, and his heart nearly stopped.

Only then did he realize that this was not Malcolm at all.

The real Malcolm had a thick black beard, but this unknown Red Dwarves had a black-and-red beard instead.

Without any hesitation, Aiden immediately prepared to activate the supreme Miko blessing.

But in the next moment, the other party spoke."A human? I never thought my younger brother, who used to hate humans so much, would actually allow one to enter this place."

"Looks like he has changed quite a bit."

At once, Aiden hesitated. This Red Dwarves was actually Malcolm’s older brother?

Neither Fiona, Syed, nor Brock had ever mentioned that Malcolm had a brother.

"Kid, don’t be too nervous. The staff in your hand is quite good, and the tier of your equipment is not low either. Are you a student of a human divine powerhouse?" Malcolm’s brother asked.

Noticing that the other party did not seem to have any bad intentions, Aiden looked a little uncertain.

If he used long-distance teleportation now, it would take even more time to come back later.

If this person really was Malcolm’s brother, then there should not be any danger, right?

"Let me introduce myself. My name is Darius," the Red Dwarves said with a smile.

"I didn’t expect to meet a human here. Are you here to become a Forgemaster?" Darius asked.

Aiden nodded. "Yes."

"You really are lucky," Darius suddenly said with a sigh.

Aiden was immediately puzzled and did not understand why he said that.

Darius smiled and said directly, "The key to obtaining the Forgemaster class lies in the fragment of the Starforge Hammer, which has been passed down in the Red Dwarves Clan."

"If you had come later, after I took the Starforge Hammer fragment, you would have ended up with nothing."

A Starforge Hammer fragment?

What was that?

Mythic Rank... could it be a fragment of a Sacred Artifact?

Aiden immediately thought of Dawn Society. Could this Darius be a member of Dawn Society?

"Come on, follow me," Darius said as he slowly turned around.

Aiden took a deep breath, and a trace of hesitation flashed in his eyes.

He did not know much about Dawn Society, and if he followed him any farther, it might be dangerous.

But if Darius really was going to take the Starforge Hammer fragment, then Aiden would no longer be able to become a Forgemaster.

"What? Are you scared?" Darius suddenly stopped and said with a smile.

"Relax. I only want you to pass along a few words for me."

The hesitation in Aiden’s eyes disappeared.If he missed this chance, he might truly never be able to become a Forgemaster in the future.

Besides, this Darius did not give Aiden a very bad feeling.

"What do you want me to tell him?" Aiden asked calmly.

Darius shook his head slightly and said softly,

"Tell my foolish older brother that it won’t be long before I take his life."