Soul of Searing Steel
chapter-237

At the bottom of the vast underground cavern, all of the black-red lava was in molten state. The temperature of the air was extremely high that even wood could burst into flames out of nowhere. If all of the people on the ground were not using various means to protect the basic rope with elemental resistance, these pendants would have dropped to the ground because the rope had been burned.

But even so, the horrifically high temperature was already attacking the members of the expedition party before they even stepped foot into that area. It was still considerably endurable for the warrior and the archer because their bodies were strong and tough. Their Combat Auras were also dense. Together with the support of the talismans in their hands, they were able to shield their own bodies from the heat that seemed to be able to ignite their bodies into flames spontaneously. However, for the infiltrator and the hobbit who were standing beside them, the heat would be a little too much for them to endure. Upon noticing the danger of having their robes and staffs caught on fire, the mage had no choice but to wave his staff around to activate a fire barrier around him and the infiltrator. Only then was their situation eased.

The current situation was not suitable for them to use any sort of frost magic to cool the temperature around them. That would be an act against the forces of nature. Any attempt would only be deemed as the stupidest behavior. Hence, it would be better to use a barrier of the same element that could absorb the elementals in the surroundings. Although the temperature in the surroundings remained extremely high, at least the barrier was being activated by the mage himself, in which the mage could gain control over the spell of fire and control the situation.

Meanwhile, white translucent rippling waves could be seen flowing all around the body of the holy knight like water ripples. The holy power and the dense fire elemental energy were like water and oil, separated from each another, repelling all threats and high temperature in the surroundings. Meanwhile, Black behaved as if great enemies were approaching them. It was cautiously turning its head around, observing the surroundings as if it was receiving strange messages. Meanwhile, in the surroundings of its body, there were two obvious and yet unexplained fire elementals surging around as if the flames were boiling while they emitted strange red ripples that were visible to the naked eye.

"Is this the mysterious area you spoke of?"

Joshua remained calm as usual. His face did not change one bit. The high heat that could potentially evaporate frost into thin air instantaneously, causing wood to ignite, was merely a warm wind of summer to Joshua. He took a step forward through the entrance into the area and walked into the vast and empty underground pit.

Right behind him, Ying and Ling were expressionless as they followed the warrior. They who possessed psionic bodies were immune to all sorts of harm in their surroundings. Only the overly dense fire elementals in this area could cause little changes to their bodies—for instance, having their skins dyed with a faint layer of red.

That scene itself had already left the members of the expedition party in shock to the point that their eyeballs looked like they were about to fall out of their sockets. The young girl and boy that appeared delicate and slender were actually able to accompany their master on his journey through the mountains and hills. Now they could actually withstand such high heat. So they should be at least a few times more powerful than any of the members of the expedition party. That was truly awkward and hard to accept. That had truly challenged the ability to accept of the members of the expedition party.

Roland appeared to be remaining calm for the moment. He knew some of the secrets that ordinary people did not. Ying and Ling's special identity was one of the secrets he knew about. So he was not shocked at all. However, in the next moment, the holy knight had also widened his eyes like the others.

Because at that time, Joshua has stepped onto the ground of lava underneath the empty pit that was still in molten state!

The outermost layer of the black and red molten lava seemed to be cracking with every step the warrior took. Circles of gold and red light were faintly seen underneath each of his footsteps. The boiling lava could be seen slowly flowing around as the warrior was taking one step after another. With every passing second of lava flowing and boiling, there would be visible distorted hot air and fire elementals colliding into each other leaving impacts around the crack marks that the warrior left behind with his footsteps. The impacts were no less powerful than the power of Beginner's Hot Air Spell and Fire Impact Spell combined. Also, because of that, the expedition party had to retreat as fast as they could to the previous cave area that they had explored. They could no longer explore deeper into the place at all.

Meanwhile, there were hundreds of thousands of similar cracks in the surrounding area. This means that as long as you were stepping on the molten lava ground, you would be handling hundreds or even thousands of fire spell attacks from time to time. The captain of the expedition party, the warrior with a sturdy and tough body who was leading on the front was about to remind his baron to be careful. However, the next scene he witnessed before his eyes had led him to stay rooted on the ground, speechless.

That was because the surging heat and fire elementals had naturally stopped right before Joshua.

Along with his footsteps moving forward, the dense elemental forces were separated naturally. With the warrior's body as the center point, a semi-circular shrouding barrier made up of translucent black waves was formed all around him—there was not much to say about it. Well, Roland could attain a similar effect if he used his holy strength.

However, where Joshua walked past, hot air would stop. The lava cooled and condensed into black rocks. Even the boiling elementals slowly condensed and calmed down. The elementals were no longer pulsing violently like before as if the force that drove them to behave violently was subdued, leaving only their remains behind.

"Interesting."

The soldier was slightly curious. When he walked for hundreds of meters and left a black rocky road behind him, he stretched out his right hand. That strong arm seemed as if it was cast in steel. The greenish-blue veins pulsated with the power to destroy everything. Using his mind, the infinite elemental energy in the surroundings began to converge and gather onto his palm, forming into a flame that kept swirling around his hand.

"… Mastery!"

While everyone in the expedition party was shocked to the point that they could not speak a word after seeing that scene, Roland took a deep breath and spat out a few words from his mouth, "He has actually reached this far already! The first step of resonance between life and soul, having the ability to wield the power of nature anytime…"

Without knowing the reason behind it, Roland felt a huge sense of loss that could not be explained with words. Meanwhile, the members of the expedition party around him had finally broken the silence and spoke out. They immediately discussed it in loud voices. Well, it was incredibly unbelievable for them to witness it. Their loud voices filled with excitement and astonishment were heard reverberating through the entire underground tunnel.

Well, they could not help but lose their calm—Suppressing the high heat of the natural volcano with his own strength… and he made it seemed as if it was an easy task to do. This sort of strength was no longer a realm they could touch or even imagine already.

For a holy knight, the young man felt even more lost because he could see clearer and understand deeper about it.

His adoptive father, Pope Igor had once evaluated Roland's 'gift'. Even if Roland was placed in the presence of the emperor who founded the Northern Empire, the fifth queen of the forest elves, the holy swordsman of the God of Wind and other legendary people, he would still make it to the second-tier on the list. Of course, under the circumstance that he would stay disciplined and train himself hard every day, he would stand a chance to become a Legendary. However, even though that was the case, he should require at least forty to fifty years before he could advance into Supreme tier and reach Legendary tier.

The fastest person in history was a psion in the western kingdom. He awakened the bloodline of the ancient Sage and had the honor to become an apprentice to a Legendary-tier mage from the Council of Seven. However, even though that was the case, that legendary man only managed to break through to Supreme-tier after he was thirty years old.

However, in a year and a half, Joshua was still an ordinary knight with only the strength of a Silver tier… Now that he was only twenty-two years old, he had actually reached the threshold of advancing into Supreme tier. All he had to do now was to get closer to that door and cross it.

That sort of improvement was otherworldly. Perhaps only the gods that descended down to earth or even the resurrected Sage could have done it.

Unaware of the people behind him, the young girl and boy that were following Joshua stuck their heads out looking at the flame that was igniting in the warrior's palm. Ying could feel that the presence inside the flame was somewhat similar to Black's presence. It felt wild and ancient as though it was carrying the violence of the wilderness. In the meantime, Ling noticed that this flame was extremely vibrant as if it had a life of its own, pulsating as if it had a heartbeat.

Meanwhile, Joshua looked at his own hands with a calm expression on his face. He was basically staring at the blazing flame that was swirling in his palm without doing anything else.

The power of life was the strength of Steel. Its representation was very simple. It could be Combat Aura as well. Such a unique power that belonged to an individual would naturally repel every other existence from the external environment of course. With where Joshua was currently at, he did not need to forcefully activate it anymore. He only needed to think in order for him to naturally use his own strength, completing his own request.

Meanwhile, the power of the Soul was the power of Fire. This primitive force for the creation of the world was widely differentiated into many things. Magic and spirit were considered as part of it. Glorious Strength was also deemed to be one of it.

Breaking through Supreme tier would necessarily require one to penetrate through the so-called [Limit Break]. However, the trials in the quest that was laid out by the system would not be the only way for one to complete that task. As long as he understood the truth behind Life, Soul, and Strength, he could become capable of combining all of the strengths he had in him into one. By then, he would naturally become capable of breaking through the limit in himself and attain the realm of Supreme tier.

However, now was not the time to think about all that.

"There's no mistake about it."

Joshua clenched his right fist tightly and extinguished the flame that was flowing along his arm. Then he nodded and had a serious expression on his face as he muttered to himself, "This is really the dwelling place of an Ancient Dragon."

"The elementals here still have the traces of residue left behind by it. Just like everyone's Combat Aura and Glorious Strength, the elementals gathered around here belong to that dragon. They repel any intruders that attempt to enter here. This should be the reason why the members of the expedition party suffered the symptoms of elemental corrosion."

It should be noted that the normal state of elemental corrosion would only likely to occur if a person was exposed to high-density of elemental radiation for a couple of days.

"This is truly strong."

Joshua ignored Roland's expression, who had activated his holy barrier in order to follow Joshua from behind. He just muttered to himself. By the end of it, he could not help but chuckle. "If nothing went wrong, this should be where the Ancient Dragon, Blazing Black Dragon Alatreon dwelled, where it was awakened approximately 400 years ago. Its awakening nearly caused the eruption of the Great Ajax Volcano and the distortion of the dimensional rift."

Only a Legendary-tier Ancient Dragon was capable of turning a temporarily inhabited area into a deadly land in an instant. Besides, the place had not change a bit even after hundreds of years. Meanwhile, the awakening of the Blazing Black Dragon and the trembling of the dimensional space were the main reasons for the arrival of the Radcliffe family in the North. They were there to suppress and seal the dimensional rift. That would be the origin of the entire story here.

After locating its previous dwelling, Joshua was very satisfied with that accomplishment. Although he already had his suspicions and made some assumptions before this, he felt much more real in revealing the truth after knowing that his guesses and assumptions had been confirmed at that moment.

"Look at you now."

Roland saw that Joshua was smiling. He could not help but sigh. "You've been impassive throughout our way here. You only look a little happy now… Do you really feel so contented after you've found a powerful existence that's worthy to become your opponent?"

"No, Roland. That's where you're wrong. Even though I love to battle…"

Joshua shook his head gently, and he looked at the countless boiling movements across the surface of the lava around him that looked as if molten lava was about to burst. Then he calmly spoke, "But I have no enemies."

Even if it was fate, it could never stop me.

If it dares to stand in my way, it would no longer be fate.