Alka threw all the living demons into the World Forge.
He had been planning to do this for a long time.
The problem was that, despite the shattering chaos of the World Scar, the combined efforts of various forces had stabilized the space.
While the barrier between the real and dream worlds wasn't impenetrable, forcing living creatures into the dream realm with the power of a single individual was still somewhat difficult.
Even Alka, the king of the dream realm, had many limitations.
Otherwise, the dream world wouldn't have remained intact even amidst the threat of apocalypse.
Furthermore, demons didn't belong to this world, making the difficulty even greater.
Unless these demons opened a portal directly into the dream realm and walked through it.
That would be as easy as entering the real world.
However, as Alka grew stronger and connected the dream realm to the corresponding area,
He was finally able to drag the demons into the reverse dimension of his mirror, channeling the power of dreams.
This was the result of the synergy between the treasures.
However, it was primarily through the use of some powerful dream creatures as a transit point.
Forced dragging was still somewhat difficult.
Alka managed to spread the pressure this way; he was, after all, the king of dreams.
With this ability, the demons who continued to claim the bounty and come to kill them would have to think twice.
As more and more demons were completely eliminated, they would have to consider whether the reward from the Devouring Mouth was worth it.
Although there would still be some fearless wretch, demons were just that way. But at least it would reduce the number of attackers. Even if it didn't, completely eliminating them would still alleviate his hatred.
Soon, they had completely crossed the border of this alien territory.
Looking at the map in his hand.
The orange beam of light is located in this relatively wide area.
[Cloud Staff]
[Difficulty: Soul Scavenger (Level 5)]
[Notability: 112,000]
[Treasure Information: Treasure of the Cloud Sage. In the ancient Saralan Empire, the Cloud Sages were known as the protectors of the common people.
They wield a staff surrounded by clouds, their bodies shrouded in white clouds like the heavens. They traveled throughout the empire, providing aid to all its citizens.
The last Cloud Sage died fighting demons during the empire's fall.
The area where the staff resides is filled with fallen souls, willing to sacrifice their own souls to protect this final staff.]
Just ahead is a rolling hill. Although the hills are not high, you can see the ebb and flow of the mountain wind behind them.
This is a mountain range, spanning approximately three to four hundred kilometers.
It's called the Ghost Mountains.
The hills are bare of soil and vegetation, just bare, strange rocks piled one on top of the other.
This fits the characteristics of an area imbued with the aura of the Abyss.
"What kind of alien race live in this area?" Alka asked, turning his head as he gazed at the mountains before him.
I can only say that this area seems like a good choice, with winding mountains like this. Perhaps we can find a good, well-hidden gathering place, easily defended against demonic attacks.
It's a pity, though, that many demons can fly, making them highly maneuverable.
But at least they can stop a large attacking force; we only need to worry about defending against a few elite, powerful demons.
Hearing Alka's question, Sofia said directly, "It's said to be a semi-elemental creature."
"Semi-elemental creature?"
Julia asked with some confusion, not knowing much about this subject.
However, Alka did know, having diligently studied various theories about elements in order to craft elemental cards.
He explained directly, "Although they're called semi-elemental creatures, they're actually more like living creatures. It's just that, perhaps due to the area they live in or some other reason, they've been completely saturated with a single element.
Long-term survival and reproduction have altered their overall racial attributes, transforming them into creatures naturally able to manipulate this single element and adopting certain characteristics of that element.
These creatures are collectively known as semi-elemental creatures."
"What do they look like?" Pororo asked curiously. They looked like a very powerful species.
Because he didn't understand much either.
Upon hearing this question, Alka shook his head. "'Half-elemental creatures' is just a very general term, just like we call all creatures living in the ocean marine creatures.
What exactly they'll look like is unknown, because there's so much randomness."
After all, their main problem is that they've been infected by a single attribute of their living environment. So who knows what they were originally like?
There are so many attributes in the world, so what will it look like if a single attribute is altered? How profound will the change be? These are all unknowns.
Furthermore, depending on the degree of environmental influence, even if altered by an element, the changes will vary depending on the original race and various experiences.
After all, the fluctuations of elements are so strong.
Even in elemental theory, once you reach the elemental interface of a single element, all sorts of strange creatures appear. But these can all be collectively referred to as elemental creatures.
"Then we should know which element they're leaning towards, right?" Julia asked. Alka looked at Sofia.
Sofia nodded and said, "Just like the environment here, it leans towards the earth element, or rather, the earth element.
And they're not hostile to humans, perhaps because they're more human-like, both in appearance and in their past."
This was all the information they'd gathered earlier, and Sofia was primarily responsible for collecting this information.
Looking at the hilly area ahead, it was indeed true.
"Don't be fooled by the desolate mountain range. This was once a mineral resource producing area for the Saralan Empire.
The semi-elemental creatures living here now are primarily responsible for obtaining these mineral resources and trading them with humans."
After listening to Sofia's simple explanation, Alka nodded. "So that's how it is." If semi-elemental creatures were mining, it would indeed be twice the result with half the effort.
It was basically certain that they were semi-elemental creatures of the earth element.
Their special abilities could greatly reduce the human effort involved.
After all, you can't just leave a Stage 3 force digging for rocks here; that would be a waste. And if they weren't Stage 3, they'd likely be infected by the deep aura of the Abyss, causing all sorts of problems.
So sometimes, even though important areas like this should be occupied and held, they have to be abandoned.
This is also why many areas in World Scar are occupied by alien races; it's a win-win situation, after all.
They chatted as they made their way up the mountain. It must be said that this place wasn't a place for normal people to live. The terrain was incredibly steep, and there were virtually no mountain paths.
They relied solely on their own strength, hopping from place to place on any surface they could stand on.
After climbing a slight height of six or seven meters, they finally reached a gentler platform.
Arka frowned as he jumped up.
Sofia's detection wave continued to spread across the ground, but the area around the scout wasn't detecting anything.
"Is there a problem?" Sofia asked, already prepared for battle, seeing Alka's expression.
Alka nodded, and a brown Earth Card appeared beside him.
Through his mastery of the Earth Card, he could sense more in this area of extremely high concentration of a single earth element.
He gently raised his hand.
The nearby Earth Card emanated a brown light, and a sudden bulge of earth appeared on the gentle slope in front of them. Something was pushed out of the soil.
The creature looked extremely surprised at its own emergence.
Alka and the others finally understood why the semi-elemental creatures here were said to have a relatively friendly relationship with humans: they themselves were humanoid.
This was a bald man with his upper body exposed, if that was still possible.
Except for his eyes, his mouth was completely shielded by a stone block, like a thick brown face shield.
On his limbs, dirt could be clearly seen, staining them like skin.
Up to his forearms and palms, his entire hands felt like clay sculptures.
Cracks like cracks in stone crisscrossed his body, making him appear fragile.
Yet, he felt incredibly heavy, a truly strange thing.
However, his legs resembled cow hooves, and he had a short, slender tail that swung back and forth.
Furthermore, his earthy brown skin was adorned with grayish-white patterns.
The patterns were a bit like the patterns on stone, very messy, yet contrasting with the color of his skin.
The eyes staring at Alka and the others seemed dim and cloudy, as if his vision was impaired.
"Who are you? Why are you here?"
The half-elemental creature before him spoke, but it was clear that his organs weren't his mouth or throat. The sound was a bit like knocking, quite peculiar.
The voice wasn't deep, but rather a very clear, crisp sound, though a bit intermittent and unpleasant to listen to.
"We're a treasure-hunting group, and we're here to enter the Ghost Mountains."
"Treasure-hunting group? Aren't they soldiers from the defense line? Okay, another treasure-hunting group, but I'm not sure if you're in danger."
The intermittent voice echoed.
This was clearly the place where the Cloud Sage died, making it easy to locate. And there had indeed been no further reports of the Cloud Staff since then.
Any normal treasure-hunting group, upon receiving such information, would have undoubtedly visited this area.
While there was no guarantee of gain, if they didn't come, there would definitely be no gain.
"We're just taking a look. It won't affect you. If any demons are affecting you, we can even help you."
Alka explained briefly, revealing no ill intentions.
After all, they weren't frontline soldiers right now, but treasure hunters.
The half-elemental creature before him paused, thought for a moment, and said, "Wait a moment."
With that, he suddenly squatted down, more stones spreading across his heavy hands, and then pressed his hands against the ground beneath him.
The ground before Alka cracked, and with it, a stone tablet protruded from within.
Looking at the tablet, Alka didn't sense the aura of treasure.
Instead, he sensed a strange aura, a power that didn't quite resemble a spell.
The tablet was engraved with patterns that looked like totems.
As the patterns flickered slightly, Alka clearly felt they were being scanned, as if detecting something. "You are friends, and you are safe."
The half-elemental creature before him seemed to understand the stone tablet. Finally, he stood up with confidence, and the stone tablet slowly disappeared into the earth.
Watching the half-elemental creatures before him relax, Alka nodded and said, "I am Alka, and they are my companions."
"Hello, I am a sentinel of the Stonehoof tribe. You can call me Stonecrack."
Stonehoof, quite the name.
After exchanging a few words, Stonehoof said, "You are my friends, and I have confirmed your safety. You must wait for me nearby.
After another sentinel takes my place, I will lead you to the Stone Forest."
Hearing this, Alka nodded. They were in no hurry and found a place to sit nearby.
It seemed like there was some kind of internal system, or someone to contact if there were any problems.
After sitting down, Alka watched the cracked stone sink back into the earth. However, perhaps because Alka and the others were nearby, it didn't completely sink, leaving its head above the surface, looking a bit strange.
From a distance, however, given its skin color and the stones on its head and mouth, it looked like an ordinary stone.
It seemed to be able to exert a certain degree of control over the surrounding land based on the area of its body in contact with the ground.
"How long has your race lived here?" Bored with waiting, Alka asked directly.
After all, this area wasn't far from the frontline's magic wall, estimating it to be no more than two or three hundred kilometers.
There should be frequent demonic harassment here, given the wall's immense length, and the many peculiar demons among them. Some might have special means of bypassing it.
But as long as it wasn't a large-scale bypass, it was acceptable.
This was also why the interior of the magic wall wasn't safe. Furthermore, Alka could see through his eyes that the Stone Split before him was roughly at the fifth stage of strength.
I don't know if it's because of the semi-elemental aspect, but the manifestation of strength is definitely different from a normal spiral, but the energy reaction is roughly the same.
So, he could be considered a powerful being who possessed a Holy Grail-level earth treasure.
At least that was Aka's simple calculation. It might not be accurate, but it was effective and intuitive enough.
Hearing Alka's words, the Stone Split said directly: "896 years and 21 days and nights."
"Huh?"
Alka was momentarily surprised. Was it so precise? He remembered both the decimal and the whole number, even the day and night clearly.
"Our home, the Stone Forest, was established 896 years and 21 days and nights ago. The establishment of the Stone Forest foreshadowed our stay and residence here."
Hearing this, Alka nodded. Pororo, who was standing next to him, propped up his head and asked, "Why do you remember it so clearly?"
Hearing Pororo's words, Splitstone's head, protruding from the ground, turned slightly and glanced at him.
Though his eyes were cloudy and dim, he must have glanced.
"Because I was there."
Hearing this, he suddenly fell silent.
I've lived for so long.
Splintered Stone, who spoke at this moment, seemed to have suddenly remembered something and said, as if suddenly enlightened, "Ah, you are normal creatures. We are semi-elemental creatures, so there is no lifespan limit."
This statement was wrong, Alka noticed sharply.
The scope of semi-elemental creatures is far too vast.
To be more accurate, they are Stonehooves.
Only one clan has no lifespan limit.
"So where are you from?" Alka asked curiously.
This was actually what he was most curious about.
The ability to produce a semi-elemental requires almost perfect timing, location, and human factors to be present.
Simply put, such a creature could be explained by accident.
Alka suspected that the group of semi-elemental creatures before him, known as Stonehoofs, might have come from another world.
The elemental theory he was looking at.
In the vast ocean, there is only one type of semi-elemental creature: the water elementals.
And within the water elementals, there is a race whose classification is unclear.
That race is the mermaids, to which Julia belongs.
However, their race is controversial, so for the time being, they are classified as marine creatures rather than semi-elemental creatures.
This is, after all, an ocean, and the emergence of semi-elemental creatures of the water elemental variety in such an environment is quite normal.
But the production of earth elements in such an environment is extremely abnormal, because there's no place in this world without water elements.
Elements are relative.
Even in dreams, water still dominates the common elemental concentrations. It's that simple.
"Hengduan Diling," Lishi said.
They had never heard of this place before.
Lishi explained in his broken voice, "In your terms, it's an elemental interface, one dominated by earth elements and supplemented by life elements.
However, due to some unexpected circumstances, the elemental concentrations decreased, the world was collapsing, and we subsequently arrived here through a broken dimensional passage."
Simply put, it was a lucky accident they needed.
After all, the Infinite Ocean wasn't a normal world. It was perfectly normal for creatures from outsiders to fall, or for creatures from other worlds to arrive here by accident.
Perhaps it wasn't common elsewhere, but in this world, Scar, such situations were far more common. As they chatted, Alka and the others gradually learned about the race to which Yilishi belonged.
"My replacement has arrived."