Chapter 188: The Incubation Pool

With the fall of the two third-level magma giants, the frenzied energy in the underground cavern abruptly weakened.

But Jie Ming and the other two wizards had no time to rest.

The battlefield didn’t calm with the leaders’ deaths; instead, it erupted like a powder keg, spiraling into an even more chaotic frenzy!

Far from being cowed by their leaders’ demise, the surrounding magma giants grew more ferocious!

Their eyes blazed with fiercer fury, their deafening war cries echoing as they charged the three human wizards relentlessly, as if driven by madness!

The sheer number of magma giants in the cavern was unimaginable.

“Damn it! Have they gone insane?!” The second-level wizard, already low on mental energy, was shocked as his reserves drained rapidly.

Jie Ming’s eyes showed no ripple of emotion.

The sight of countless magma giants swarming was daunting, but for Jie Ming, their pressure paled compared to the third-level giant.

More importantly, he excelled in large-scale battles against foes weaker than himself.

He unleashed the “Grand Radiance Form,” its energy bullets spreading like a torrent, mercilessly blasting back any approaching magma giants.

High-frequency sound waves and a downgraded “Magma Annihilation” alternated, each shot disintegrating second-level elite giants into blackened ash.

The first-level wizard hid behind them, barely using healing spells to recover and occasionally aiding with small-scale attack spells.

But his feeble attacks were a drop in the bucket against the horde.

Even Jie Ming hadn’t anticipated the staggering number of magma giants in the cavern.

From the depths, more kept emerging, clawing and roaring as they charged.

The three wizards could only mechanically attack, clearing as many fearless enemies as possible before being overwhelmed.

Their relentless purge lasted nearly half an hour before the giants’ near-suicidal charges finally subsided.

Confirming no more giants emerged from the depths or wall crevices, even Jie Ming let out a slight sigh of relief.

Deactivating the soul-searing “Accelerate,” he exhaled deeply, feeling a trace of fatigue.

He checked the energy reserves of the three metal disc-like rune artifacts at the core of his “Grand Radiance Form.”

The fight with the third-level giants had only used half of one disc’s energy.

But these low-level giants had drained an entire disc’s reserves.

Worse, the battle’s intensity left no room for restraint; all three had gone all out.

After such a grueling fight, they’d gained little of value.

“Hopefully, the intelligence from the third-level giants can make up for this loss,” Jie Ming sighed, turning toward where they fell.

The panting second-level wizard looked up simultaneously.

Their eyes met, nodding in mutual understanding.

They moved toward the spots where the third-level giants had died, but Jie Ming’s face darkened upon reaching his target.

The soul of the giant he’d killed had dissipated entirely due to the intense battle’s delay.

Not even a fragment remained for soul-searching.

“A targeted destruction spell that kills the soul too… makes sense…” Jie Ming realized, feeling a pang of regret. “Bad luck, no intelligence from its soul.”

Glancing at the second-level wizard, he saw him cursing loudly, clearly facing the same issue.

Jie Ming felt some regret but no great turmoil.

In that desperate breakout, survival was the priority.

For him, the loss was minor—some mental energy and reserves, recoverable with time and potions.

But the other two wizards had nearly exhausted their resources, making this a devastating loss with no gains.

Once the second-level wizard calmed down, the trio rested briefly, restored some mental energy, and pressed on.

After such heavy losses, they needed to find something in the cavern to offset them.

As they moved, Jie Ming noticed a stark change in the two wizards’ attitudes toward him.

The second-level wizard, in particular, seemed almost deferential.

Their eyes hadn’t missed Jie Ming’s astonishing combat prowess in the battle.

The second-level wizard knew he wouldn’t last a few rounds against Jie Ming in a direct fight.

Jie Ming noted this but paid it little mind, focusing instead on another matter.

Earlier, his fifth-level “Space Leap” artifact, capable of piercing spatial barriers, had been perfectly disrupted by the cavern’s forces!

This suggested the presence of something extraordinarily unique.

If they could find something valuable, this trip might still turn a profit.

During their search, an eerie feeling gnawed at the trio.

After the frenzied battle, the cavern felt unnaturally “clean”!

Aside from scattered giant remains and destroyed plants, no lingering magma giants remained.

Unlike the smaller outpost Jie Ming had cleared, where stragglers hid after the main fight, here, none remained.

Further in, even the giants’ corpses vanished.

The cavern gave the impression that every magma giant had “willingly” perished in the earlier battle, leaving no survivors!

This piqued Jie Ming’s curiosity.

Though elemental beings, magma giants were still creatures with consciousness, social behaviors, and fear of death.

Such near-self-destructive charges were highly illogical.

Moreover, the proportion of second-level giants here was abnormal.

In typical outposts, second-level giants were rare, a tiny fraction.

Yet in this battle, their numbers neared a tenth of the first-level giants!

This was far higher than usual, even surpassing the elite ratios during the initial landing battles!

“This place is definitely not simple…”

Sensing the unsettling strangeness, the trio proceeded with heightened caution.

Near the plant “plantation,” they found a “breeding ground” where the giants raised livestock.

Enclosed by special stone, the area held otherworldly creatures adapted to high heat—rock-covered, lizard-like beings munching red leaves.

These were clearly the giants’ food source.

Every few steps, Jie Ming activated his “All-Purpose Eye” to sense discordant spatial fluctuations, heading toward denser anomalies.

Their efforts paid off.

After traveling over ten kilometers, Jie Ming detected a faint anomaly deep within a hidden rock wall.

The spatial fluctuations were subtle yet carried a warped gravitational pull.

Following this, they soon reached a highly concealed tunnel extending deeper underground.

The tunnel was narrow, starkly different from the giants’ nest.

Venturing deeper, they soon entered a spacious chamber.

In the darkness, a powerful energy wave hit them, pulsing with primal life.

Seeing the chamber’s contents, even the seasoned second-level wizard and Jie Ming, a well-versed logistics wizard, froze in uncontainable shock!

It was a seemingly man-made magma pool.

Roughly ten meters in diameter, its edges were meticulously carved with rune stones.

But what stunned them was the pool’s liquid.

Though viscous and steaming, it wasn’t molten rock but a vivid, eerie crimson, like true blood!

A rich, complex life aura and primal fluctuations emanated from it.

Though his first time seeing it, Jie Ming instantly recognized it—a magma giant “resource”: an incubation pool!

His mind flashed to snippets from wizard camp discussions about the giants’ reproduction.

Magma giants had no gender, reproducing via primitive “self-division.”

The process was simple: a giant split off a core fragment and placed it in an energy-rich magma pool.

Nourished by magma, the fragment would grow into a new giant.