The Golem Mage

This time, Alec had truly run out of patience, the act of playing prey to lure out a Tier 7 demonic beast was over, the moment he stepped out of the encirclement, the wolf pack's attention zeroed in on him.

But Alec didn't flinch. Calmly, almost casually, he walked toward the lead wolf at the rear, swinging his bone katana with graceful ease, each swing was followed by a flash of sword Qi, cutting down the demonic wolves that lunged at him one after the other.

While these wolves might possess battle power comparable to Tier 7 beasts, they were still fundamentally Tier 6.

They hadn't yet undergone the qualitative transformation that marked a high-rank demonic beast.

Their defence, though formidable, still remained that of top-tier Tier 6 creatures.

And now that Alec himself had entered the Tier 6 realm with his power much stronger than before—so dealing with mid-level beasts that didn't even belong to the apex of their realm posed no significant challenge to him in the slightest .

One minute. That was all it took. In less than sixty seconds, Alec had turned the battlefield into a massacre.

And none of his golems had even summoned their minions—only Alec and his eight core golems had acted, and that was more than enough.

Now, Alec stood before the lead wolf—the only one left alive.

The beast trembled in place, staring at him with wide, fearful eyes.

Alec's bone katana, was now soaked in blood, hissed as he casually sliced the air to clean it before sliding it smoothly back into its scabbard.

"I won't kill you," Alec said flatly, locking eyes with the wolf.

"If you tell me where I can find a Tier 7 demonic beast."

This time the wolf didn't take it as mockery, not anymore.

It knew with bone-deep certainty that no Tier 6 hunting group in the central region could stop this human and his terrifying golems.

"The Holy Land is where the Lord-rank demonic beasts and above gather and reside, though some may occasionally come to the central area, it's rare. The only reason multiple Lords would descend into the central region is if a war breaks out," the wolf explained, still trembling.

Alec fell into deep thought, as he recalled his descent into the third level—how he'd seen various smaller regions that seemed connected to the central zone, they might have been smaller, but they were undoubtedly linked in some meaningful way.

"So, the 'Lord-type' demonic beasts you refer to… what Tier are they exactly?" Alec asked, intrigued by the wolf's intelligence.

"Tier 7," the wolf replied without hesitation.

"Let him go," Alec ordered after he got his answer, and then the laser spear that had hovered threateningly behind the wolf vanished as it was retracted, causing the wolf to waste no time, bolting from the clearing without looking back.

"I guess I'll have to head into one of those regions, then," Alec muttered to himself.

He tried to ascend into the air but immediately felt a denser pressure pressing down on his body, stronger than what he was used to.

Still, after channelling more energy, he finally managed to take flight, scouting the area from above.

The closest region appeared to be an endless stretch of desert, without hesitation, Alec unsummoned his golems and shot off alone, a blur through the treetops, holding his katana at the midpoint with his left hand.

His speed was terrifying, so fast that many demonic beasts didn't even register his presence until he was long gone.

Alec was clearly showing off his high agility stat.

After fifteen minutes of rapid movement, leaping from branch to branch, he finally arrived at a large traveling bridge that linked the central zone to one of the outer special regions which is called holy lands.

According to the wolf, this was where the Tier 7 demonic beasts resided, the very opponents Alec was looking for.

But as he stood before the bridge, eyes narrowed at the horizon, he realized something.

This wasn't a desert.

He had arrived at a land engulfed in fire.

There appeared to be a translucent, bubble-like shield separating Alec from the other side, but what truly surprised him was how he'd ended up here at all, he knew he wasn't bad at navigation, so missing the desert region so badly made one thing clear—something else was interfering.

Regardless, he was already at the entrance of one of the special regions and couldn't afford to backtrack.

His original plan had been to enter the desert zone where he'd have the advantage, as earth was his dominant element, after all.

Still, he didn't feel too disappointed about this fiery realm either.

Summoning both Legion and Titan to stand guard, he stepped through the energy barrier.

The moment his body crossed the threshold, a wave of searing heat slammed into him, like a living furnace trying to crawl into his very bones, for an instant, it felt like his body was being cooked alive.

He reflexively tried to activate his mana to form a protective shield, but before he could, something unexpected happened—something within him began pulling the fiery particles from the air directly into his core.

"Ohhh shit," Alec gasped, dropping to one knee.

He couldn't even care about the possibility of being ambushed, like what had happened in the central region, the sensation was unbearable—it felt like he was truly going to die from elemental overload, the thought of being burned alive not by an enemy, but by the elemental particles saturating the air made him unwilling.

But the fatal burning never came.

Though the pain remained intense, it slowly reduced to something bearable, closing his eyes, Alec pushed his mental sense inward, focusing on his cosmic universe to figure out what was going on.

That's when he saw it—his phantom image of a dual-coloured flame heart, half black and half crimson, pulsing with the essence of his fire element, the high-quality flame particles were now swirling around it like planets caught in orbit.

The heart began to devour them.

What followed was a gruelling, agonizing thirty minutes of internal struggle as his elemental heart forcefully absorbed and harmonized with the foreign fire energy.

When he finally completed the process, Alec noticed something, he was no longer in pain.

Steadying himself, he opened his eyes, only for his gaze to land on a massive red salamander staring back at him in surprise.

"Ohhh, what a surprise—you actually survived the fiery pressure with just mid-rank cultivation. Impressive," the salamander said.

Alec, however, could barely register the talking beast's words, he wasn't even shocked anymore by the increasing number of demonic beasts in the third level who could speak, what truly unsettled him was the state of his own body.

He felt weak—dangerously so. It was as if something had drained him dry.

The only thing keeping him upright was the stabilizing force of his Devourer bloodline, his elemental powers had all been suppressed, with only his fire element showing signs of recovery.

Though the rest of his elemental energy was slowly replenishing, it was clear that it would take time.

And that was because the region he had entered was saturated with almost ninety percent being fire-element particles.

The remaining ten percent was pure mana, barely enough to restore his other elements at any meaningful rate.

He remembered the thought he'd had earlier—how any fire spell cast in this land would be greatly enhanced.

But now he was also experiencing the downside first-hand: any non-fire spell would be heavily restrained and weakened.

And what truly made his chest tighten was the presence before him—the red salamander.

Alec could feel it clearly, It was a Tier 7 demonic beast.