Mysterious Stone Orb

Magical beasts like the Gold-Striped Leopard, especially at the peak of the seventh rank, are generally more than a match for warriors of the same level.

Once targeted by one, death is the only outcome.

The same applies to mages.

For them, the most troublesome magical beasts are those with exceptionally outstanding speed and agility.

After collecting the magic core, Jonathan continued on his way.

Several days later.

He had no idea where he was in the Magical Beast Mountain Range when suddenly, his vision cleared. After passing through a forest, a patch of earthy-yellow, barren ground appeared before him, sunken inward from the edges.

The earth elemental essence here is so dense; I can sense it even without trying to focus.

The concentration of earth elements in front of him was so intense that it had pushed all other elemental essences to the periphery.

Where there is an anomaly, there must be a secret!

Could there be some supreme earth-elemental treasure here?

Jonathan speculated that this was either a natural formation of the Magical Beast Mountain Range or something left behind by a god-level powerhouse from another plane after they died on the Yulan Continent.

Just then, a slight tremor came from the ground, originating from a cave at the foot of a nearby mountain.

Soon, Jonathan saw what it was.

It was a brown, two-to-three-zhang-tall bear with thick fur. It walked with a swaying gait, its semi-circular ears twitching from time to time, and a pair of egg-sized eyes on its face that looked incredibly disproportionate to its size.

It was like a human growing a pair of bean-sized eyes.

Coupled with its round, chubby belly, it looked quite amusing.

"An Earth Bear!"

"And a ninth-rank one at that!"

He watched as the Earth Bear walked to the center of the sunken earthy-yellow ground and, without a second thought, lay down with its limbs splayed out.

After a quarter of an hour, it turned onto its side and tried to scratch its butt with a short limb, but it didn't seem to reach, clawing at the air a few times.

A steady sound of snoring drifted over.

Under Jonathan's spiritual perception, countless yellow specks of light flowed into the Earth Bear's body with every breath it took.

There must be a treasure underground!

The Earth Bear shouldn't stay here forever.

After thinking it over, Jonathan decided to hunker down and wait for it to leave so he could go in and see what was there.

The Earth Bear slept for three whole days!

Fortunately, he had enough patience to keep waiting. Finally, after it had absorbed enough earth elements, it sat up slowly, looked left and right, and stood up to head toward the cave.

Judging by its demeanor, it hadn't slept enough and was returning to the cave to continue its slumber.

Even a magical beast with such high affinity for earth elements as the Earth Bear could not absorb them indefinitely; just like a person who has eaten their fill, it needed time to digest.

After the Earth Bear entered the cave, Jonathan waited another two hours before making his move.

As he stepped onto the edge of the sunken pit, a familiar force suddenly descended upon him.

"Gravity!"

"The force naturally emitted by the object at the center is enough to form a gravity field with a diameter of a hundred meters?!"

His eyes burned with excitement.

After walking a few steps, he discovered that the gravity increased as he went deeper.

Dozens of meters in, the surrounding gravity exceeded that of a seventh-rank gravity spell. Although it was somewhat uncomfortable, his body, which had undergone rigorous training and possessed a physique comparable to a sixth-rank warrior, could still withstand it.

By the time he reached the eight-fold zone, he had to circulate his battle qi to protect his body and exert his full effort in casting an Anti-Gravity Spell to counter the pressure.

The gravity at the center reached ten times the norm.

Jonathan's battle qi and spiritual energy were being constantly consumed.

I must hurry!

He had originally intended to dig with his hands, but the ground here had been compressed by gravity for years, making the soil quality far superior to other areas and even sturdier than ordinary rock.

Therefore, he had to use the dagger gifted to him by Xue Yan, which had been inscribed with miniature magic arrays for durability and sharpness, to perform the excavation.

However, it was still quite difficult; he had only dug a few dozen meters in an hour, and the soil below was becoming increasingly hard, far exceeding the density of common steel.

Could it be hundreds of meters deep?!

Wait, I'm an earth mage! Why am I stupidly doing a warrior's work?!

Jonathan pressed his hand to the ground, and a large amount of earth elemental essence gathered, allowing him to condense a seventh-rank spell in an instant.

"Seventh-rank Earth Magic, Earth Splitting Spell!"

The ground split vertically, instantly exceeding the depth he had dug in the previous hour.

The commotion was not small, but seeing that there was no movement from the cave, he let out a long breath and cast it again.

After four or five attempts, he had to leave to recover his mental energy and magic power.

Then he continued, and after a full ten Earth Split Spells, he finally discovered a Stone Orb a thousand meters deep underground, which did not look like it had formed naturally.

The Stone Orb looked to be only the size of a chicken egg, but it was so heavy that even with the strength of Jonathan as a level seven warrior, it remained motionless when he tried to pick it up.

"If it is a divine artifact, then I can bind it with a drop of blood."

Jonathan bit his finger to attempt the binding, and the drop of blood was instantly absorbed by the Stone Orb, after which the surface of the orb began to emit a bright earthy yellow light.

Jonathan suddenly felt a connection with the Stone Orb, and in an instant, he saw a vision.

In the core of the earth veins beneath an endless earthy yellow plateau, a massive black boulder transformed into a humanoid shape and roared at the sky; with a casual wave, it refined another black boulder that had been born alongside it into a Stone Orb.

"So this is its origin; was its previous owner a stone-based lifeform that became a god?"

When he went to pick it up again, the Stone Orb no longer had its previous weight, and the Gravity Field that had persisted for who knows how long vanished instantly; he tucked it into his robes, turned into a streak of black light, and left the cavern, heading far away.

A day or two later, the Earth Bear woke up, came to the front of the cavern, blinked its eyes, and stood there in a daze.

Then it let out a terrifying roar, startling the surrounding magical beasts into fleeing, not daring to provoke its wrath.

As for Jonathan, after obtaining the Stone Orb, he ran toward the outer perimeter of the Magical Beast Mountain Range, not stopping for two days, and was now hiding in a cave on the outskirts, studying the Stone Orb.

The Stone Orb had two functions: first, when activated, it could exempt the user from the effects of gravity; second, when activated, it could emit a Gravity Field of at least ten times the normal force, with the range being dependent on the user's mental energy.

With his level seven mental energy fully exerted, the maximum range was a one-kilometer radius, though he could only sustain it for about fifteen minutes before his mental energy would be exhausted.

Beyond the ten-fold Gravity Field, as Jonathan's own strength increased, the gravity he could trigger would become even more terrifying.

Furthermore, it contained a massive amount of pure Earth Magic elements; by refining them slightly, they could serve as his own magic power, and it could instantly draw in a large amount of heaven and earth Earth Magic elements, allowing him to use it to cast Earth Magic—he could instantly cast level seven Earth Magic more than a dozen times.

"The Gravity Field I cast with the Stone Orb right now is even stronger than the Gravity Spell of a level eight Earth Mage; if a level eight magical beast enters it, even if it isn't crushed, its movements will be extremely slow."

"The feeling of one's entire body's blood and bones being squeezed by ten times the gravity is truly quite unpleasant!"

"If low-level magical beasts were trapped inside, their internal organs and bones would likely be crushed instantly."

"Moreover, with this Gravity Field, combined with the recovery properties of the Dao Fruit, I can attempt to break through my limits and train my physical body to the level seven stage."

Originally, apart from magical beasts, only humans with special bloodlines could possibly break through to such a physical state.

Ordinary people, no matter how hard they trained, could only reach level six.

Jonathan was one such person.

However, after obtaining the Stone Orb, he saw a glimmer of hope for a breakthrough.

The first round of recommendations is here, please keep reading!!!