Merging with the Earth

After leaving the academy for over a week, Arnold arrived at a town somewhere in the Fenlai Kingdom. Near this town was a famous forest—the Black Forest. A very ancient legend had been passed down about it.

Long, long ago, it was said that a witch from the Black Forest lived in a village. She had a beloved magical beast pet—a Three-Eyed Monster—and they lived happily every day.

Then one day, a male wizard in a black cloak appeared from nowhere and told the villagers that the Three-Eyed Monster was an evil creature. In truth, this wizard's true form was a talking lion. He had long coveted the Three-Eyed Monster and had always tried to eat it. However, Three-Eyed Monsters were already rare. The lion wizard had gone to great lengths to devour several of them, making them increasingly difficult to find.

The witch of the Black Forest was kindhearted, yet the foolish villagers forced her to try to burn the Three-Eyed Monster.

In the end, unwilling to burn the Three-Eyed Monster to death, the Black Forest witch used the latest alchemical techniques to merge herself with it, creating a new magical beast—the Three-Eyed Witch!

The Three-Eyed Witch defeated the evil wizard, stripped off his clothes, and revealed his true form—a lion—to all the villagers. The lion wizard was then burned to death. But in the end, the Three-Eyed Witch grew tired of the villagers' ignorance and secluded herself alone in the Black Forest.

Arnold was very interested when he heard this legend. Three-Eyed Monsters had been Third-level Magical Beasts long, long ago, and they were now nearly extinct. Only in towns near the Black Forest were there still occasional rumors of hunters seeing Three-Eyed Monsters at the forest's edge.

Arnold went alone into the Black Forest. In truth, it was not particularly large, only three li long and two li wide. Mercenary groups had long since explored every corner of it.

Arnold also spent several days roughly exploring the Black Forest. Its strongest magical beast was merely a Seventh-level Magical Beast—a Diamond Dragon.

The Diamond Dragon was a Seventh-level, light-element magical beast. Among dragons of the same level, its defense ranked second only to the Spineback Iron Armored Dragon. The Diamond Dragon was also highly agile and capable of flight.

The Diamond Dragon got its name from the countless tiny, granular diamonds that naturally grew on its wings.

The Earth Guardian Sacred Armor cast by an earth-element Saint Domain Magus was at the diamond tier and possessed exceptionally strong defense. However, the diamonds on this Diamond Dragon were not used for defense. They were a special kind of energy that could be activated in a crisis, allowing the Diamond Dragon to flee at high speed.

Therefore, although many mercenary groups coveted the diamonds on its wings, there was nothing they could do about it.

Arnold's battle with the Diamond Dragon was remarkably easy.

First, Arnold cast a Seventh-level Earthquake Sacred Armor on himself. Then, with the release of a Greater Gravity Spell covering a semi-elliptical space, he followed it with a Seventh-level Spiral Sphere at the Diamond Dragon, severely injuring it in a single blow. Yet at the most dangerous moment, the countless tiny diamonds on the Diamond Dragon's wings emitted a dazzling radiance. They not only illuminated the entire semi-elliptical Gravity Space, but in an instant, the Diamond Dragon vanished.

However, the Diamond Dragon's move deeply inspired Arnold, because it reminded him of his earlier idea of merging with Earth Element.

This move was extremely similar, as though the Diamond Dragon's entire body had merged into the light elements before slipping away in an instant.

Arnold then remained in a stone forest within the Black Forest and began testing his new idea.

Time passed quickly. In the blink of an eye, Arnold had been in the Black Forest for nearly a month.

That day, a villager named Los from a village near the Black Forest came to its outskirts to gather medicinal herbs for sale.

Los was a Third-level Warrior. The magical beasts at the outskirts of the Black Forest were relatively low-level, and Fourth-level Magical Beasts rarely appeared. Still, Los remained very careful whenever he gathered herbs. Back when he had been a Second-level Warrior, he had encountered two Fourth-level Magical Beasts fighting while collecting herbs. Since then, Los had been extremely cautious.

This time, Los carefully made his way inward from the outskirts, intending to gather more valuable herbs. Sure enough, he found five Rockheart Grass plants in a patch of brush. Rockheart Grass was a primary ingredient in an extremely valuable medicinal herb.

As he picked the second Rockheart Grass plant and placed it into the herb basket on his back, Los suddenly noticed a shadow moving in the brush over ten meters away. The shadow moved incredibly Fast. In the blink of an eye, it disappeared.

Absolutely confident in his own eyesight, Los knew he had likely encountered an unusually Fast magical beast, and his heart sank. He did not even care about the Rockheart Grass anymore and wanted to flee.

Los moved slowly, trying his best not to make any sound in the brush as he prepared to leave the area.

After crawling along like a turtle for half the day, Los had finally moved far away from that patch of brush. Leaning against a large tree, he panted heavily. He had finally shaken off that magical beast. Even a Fast Fourth-level Magical Beast would have left a visible trail that Los could follow with his eyes. Yet the shadow he had seen earlier was Fast beyond comparison.

Just as Los relaxed and casually glanced around, the sight nearly scared his heart out. A young man's head suddenly emerged from the ground not far from the tree, and it was moving Fast.

The shadow Los had seen earlier had probably moved Fast beyond his field of vision, which was why he had only caught sight of it once. But this head was different. The stretch of ground near the tree was wide and mostly free of weeds, making the path of the head's movement extremely clear.

"Undead! Undead..." Los was terrified out of his wits. He abandoned the herb basket on his back and ran madly toward the outskirts of the Black Forest.

The moment Los left the Black Forest and returned to his village, he spread word everywhere that there were signs of undead in the Black Forest. A month later, the Radiant Church even sent people to investigate. Fortunately, the investigators were not very high-level, but they still forced Arnold to leave the Black Forest.

The shadow Los had seen, as well as the head moving through the ground afterward, had actually been Arnold.

Arnold had previously come up with a new idea: he wanted to merge his entire body into Earth Element. But he had never had any clue how to do it, until he saw the Diamond Dragon's final escape technique and was inspired.

Thus, Arnold began a new experiment deep within the Black Forest!

The entire world was filled with all kinds of elements, but these elements were mixed from the seven basic elemental types. In certain special places, some elements might be especially active. For example, near a volcano, fire elements might outnumber the other six types combined. Likewise, above the sea, water elements would undoubtedly be the most abundant.

Arnold had no idea how to merge into pure earth elements, much less the mixed elements of the world. But Arnold's mind worked quickly. Almost 99 percent of the entire earth's surface was composed of earth elements. Merging into the ground should be easier than merging into Earth Element, right?