Chapter 164: Deep-sea bait

The Undead Mage could withstand heat, but its bone armor had already been damaged many times inside the Abyss Tower. If it were dragged down to a place with even higher pressure and temperature, relying only on deathly energy and a few buffs from Mumu would make it difficult to guarantee its safety.

Ethan opened his storage space. One Lava Crystal after another that he had obtained from the fish earlier flew out, including ordinary crystals, the higher-grade crystal he had just obtained from the Mutated Lava Fish, and even several chunks of dark red material that still carried extremely high temperatures. Red light reflected across the Undead Mage’s bone armor, making it look as though it were about to be thrown into an enormous forge. The moment Ruo Yan understood what Ethan intended to do, she wanted to speak, but he had already placed his hand on the crystals.

"Decomposition, then Primordial Fusion."

The crystals dissolved one after another into streams of red-gold energy. The Primordial Armor on Ethan’s arm lit up, black-silver metallic lines spreading outward and weaving themselves into the scorching energy. Ethan did not allow them to form rigid armor, because a shell that was too heavy would affect the Undead Mage’s movement inside the lava. Instead, he created only a thin transparent membrane over the bone armor. Its surface resembled water, but red-gold crystalline patterns continuously flowed within it.

The instant the membrane was completed, the heat surrounding the Undead Mage was pushed back by a small distance. The deathly energy inside its body had originally been dark, but now it was covered in a faint layer of red light as well, making its appearance even stranger. Mumu stared at it for several seconds before jumping up and touching the membrane with its two short arms. The Slime was not burned. Instead, it happily cried out, as though it had just discovered another new toy.

Ruo Yan checked it through the Soul Threads and exhaled. "This membrane is automatically absorbing the surrounding fire-element energy to sustain itself. As long as it is not attacked by a creature that is too powerful, the Undead Mage should be able to go much deeper."

"That is enough." Ethan looked at Laira. "This time, throw it really deep."

The Undead Mage slowly turned toward him. If it could speak, perhaps it would ask one very important question right now: Why did a high-level inheritance of Owin have to do this kind of work?

Unfortunately, it was still a puppet.

Laira held the Boundless Fishing Rod and smiled brightly. "I will be careful."

Five minutes later, the Undead Mage had been thrown into a layer of the Lava Sea so deep that the red glow above had become only a faint light. The black fishing line continued extending, Mumu generated a new buff every three seconds, while Ethan stood on the floating stone field watching the notifications and waiting for rare creatures near the bottom to bite.

Far away, more than thirty nonhumans were still struggling with pieces of Crabfolk meat that had almost been burned black. From beginning to end, they had not caught a single target, while Ethan Ashford’s score on the ranking board had already risen to a number that made many of them uncomfortable just looking at it.

At that moment, a shared notification covered the sky above the Lava Sea.

[Challenge Announcement: Currently, only one participant has successfully caught a target.]

[Fishing Point Trading has been unlocked. Participants who possess fishing points may freely trade points with other participants.]

[Points obtained from targets will still be used for ranking.]

The entire stone island fell silent.

A few minutes later, Ethan sat on a stone platform near the shore and took a flat metal plate out of his storage space. He used a small flame to burn a line of extremely clear black letters across its surface.

One Rank B Energy Crystal for one point.

The nonhumans who had secretly come over immediately turned pale when they saw the words.

The horned nonhuman standing closest stared at the black metal plate in Ethan’s hand for a long time before finally raising his head. His face had already been dark gray, but now it looked even uglier.

"One Rank B Energy Crystal for one point?" he asked through gritted teeth. "Are you trying to rob us of all our resources?"

Ethan remained seated on the stone platform, one hand resting Realm Breaker across his knees while the other lightly tapped the sign. He did not look angry, nor did he show any intention of explaining too much.

"I am not forcing you to trade," he said calmly. "The sign is here, and the price is here. If you do not want it, you can go back and fish for yourselves."

The horned nonhuman clenched his fists. He wanted to argue, but at that exact moment, the sound of a fishing line violently tightening came from behind Ethan.

Laira, standing at the edge of the stone field, immediately lowered her center of gravity and gripped the Boundless Fishing Rod with both hands, while Mumu happily bounced on her shoulder. The Undead Mage, protected by the lava membrane, had been dragged very deep below, so the target this time was completely different from the ordinary fish near the surface.

A diamond-shaped fish nearly six meters long burst out of the lava. Golden spots like stars covered its scales before Laira pulled it directly onto the stone field.

The point notification appeared before everyone.

The fish was not particularly large, but it was rare, and the number of points received made the nonhumans even more silent.

Ethan did not need to say anything himself.

Just by watching Laira continue pulling fish up, watching the Undead Mage being thrown down and then dragged back up from deep within the lava, everyone understood that he truly had a source of points they could not obtain themselves within the remaining time.

A Dark Elf standing behind the horned nonhuman stepped forward. He opened his storage space and took out a small stone box. Inside were one hundred neatly arranged pale blue crystals.

Each one was only slightly larger than a thumb, but the energy fluctuations inside were all extremely stable.

"I will trade for one hundred points," the Dark Elf said, his voice cold but clearly already conceding.

Ethan quickly checked the entire box of crystals with the Eye of Truth. The energy inside had indeed reached Rank B, the structures were also quite pure, and there were no signs of forgery.

He reached out and accepted them, opened the Fishing Point Trading interface that had just appeared in the System, then directly transferred one hundred points to the other party.

The ranking board in the sky flashed slightly.

The Dark Elf’s score immediately increased.

The expressions of everyone around changed.

Ethan pointed at the sign.

"Next."

Several nonhumans immediately turned and left.

In their opinion, the price of one Rank B Energy Crystal for one point was absurd.

They would rather continue fishing or wait until Ethan ran out of fish and was forced to lower his price than hand precious resources over to a human everyone wanted to kill.

But some remained.

These people looked at the ranking board, at Ethan’s score climbing higher and higher, then at the challenge timer slowly counting down.

In the end, they still could not remain calm.

A lion-headed Beastkin was the second to step forward. He did not immediately take out any crystals. Instead, he stared directly at Ethan, his voice carrying a trace of anger.

"You know we need points to advance, so that is why you set this price."

"Yes."

Ethan nodded very frankly.

"I also know crystals can be obtained again, but an opportunity to go deeper into ruins like this may not come a second time. Without points, you will be stopped at the very first layer. When that happens, all the items and Fortuitous Encounters in the later layers will have nothing to do with you."

The lion-headed Beastkin narrowed his eyes.

"You are confident you can take all of it?"

Ethan looked toward Laira.

At that exact moment, the Boundless Fishing Rod bent again.

A creature below had dragged the Undead Mage hard enough to make it spin through the lava, but the crystalline membrane around its body remained stable, while Mumu continuously generated buffs such as Fishing Luck, Bait Attraction, and Steady Angler.

Laira pulled hard.

A silver-scaled fish more than eight meters long was dragged into the sky before crashing heavily onto the floating stone.

Ethan turned back toward the lion-headed Beastkin, his expression still calm.

"At least in this round, I will take most of it."

Those words made the lion-headed Beastkin fall silent.

He knew Ethan was not boasting.

Since the challenge began, only Ethan had successfully caught fish, while they had already used Crabfolk meat, wrapped their bait in energy, and tried several different locations, yet still had no results.

If they continued clinging to their pride, then in the end, not only would they lose the chance to reach the top ranks, they might even be eliminated before the next layer.