Over the past year, although Roy's main task was to build the city, he would occasionally send people to explore underground.
Just as everyone had estimated, due to the existence of demon worms, the underground world here had been dug to the point that it could be described as riddled with holes. Countless caves and tunnels crisscrossed deep underground, forming a network that was even more complicated than an ant nest.
In Roy's words, this was a huge underground maze.
Previously, Roy had used the Demon Eye he created to explore underground, but he did not expect that even he would get lost. There was no light at all in the dark underground world. After exploring a few more places, Roy lost his sense of direction and did not know where he was. As a last resort, he could only send people to explore.
He had sent a total of four waves of low-rank demons, but unfortunately, these low-rank demons were either eaten by demon worms or other underground creatures, or they were completely lost in the maze and could not find their way back. In the end, Roy could only summon them back. The efficiency of the entire exploration plan was astonishingly low. So far, he had only explored about one kilometer underground.
After successive setbacks in the underground exploration, Roy could only put this matter aside for the time being. But after Frostfire City was mostly completed some time ago, this matter was put on the agenda again.
It could not be helped. After this year of exploration, Roy found that the surface of this fragment world was too barren. The extremely cold climate caused no creatures to survive on the surface, and even some frost monsters could not be seen. Occasionally, he would find some mineral veins, but without exception, these mineral veins were all poor ores. Moreover, he could see traces of excavation from a long time ago.
This also made Roy wonder if this fragment world had other masters in the past …
If he wanted to dig these mineral veins, he needed to dig through thick layers of ice, and it would not take long for the ice to freeze again. It was extremely troublesome, and the efficiency of mining was very low. In the end, Roy simply gave up and turned his attention to the underground.
The good news was that Roy had the giant demon worm, Big Black, in his hands. Although this mutated demon worm could not speak, it had high intelligence, and he could communicate with it in some simple communications.
During this period of time, Benia had been communicating with Big Black and training it. Her goal was to at least make Big Black understand her requirements and be able to navigate the underground world for her. Now that Benia had asked Julia to inform him, it meant that there had been progress.
So Roy and Julia left the demon palace and flew toward the crater.
On the ground at the foot of the volcano, a huge cave had been dug. Benia was already waiting by the side of the cave, and not far behind her was Big Black, who had coiled up into a pile of … poo.
Fat Tiger, this silly fellow, was lying beside Big Black. From time to time, he would straighten up and stretch out his claws to touch Big Black, as though he wanted Big Black to play with him. In the end, after being scolded by Benia, he lay down sullenly.
Roy could not bear to look at this scene. After he landed, he tried his best not to look at Fat Tiger's aggrieved eyes and asked Benia, "Are you going to go down personally?"
"Yes!" Benia raised her wings and floated. She came over and hugged Roy's arm. "Now, Big Black can basically understand my orders, so I think we can go down and take a look."
"Okay, let's go!" Roy nodded. "Julia, you stay up there. I'll leave the Demon Eye with you. If there's anything, I'll contact you. You can also watch Fat Tiger."
Julia nodded. "Okay."
Benia put her right hand in her mouth and whistled at Big Black. Big Black's enormous body slowly bent down, and Roy and Benia jumped onto its head. After sitting down, Benia patted Big Black's hard skin, and Big Black entered the enormous cave.
Roy felt his vision suddenly turn black, and he had already entered the ground with Big Black. This cave was dug by Big Black, so it was extremely huge. Even sitting on Big Black's head, he was still dozens of centimeters away from the top of the cave. Big Black carried Roy and Benia all the way down. At this moment, Roy's night vision began to work, and he gradually became able to see in the lightless underground.
Along the way, Roy saw a large number of forks flash by. Needless to say, these were underground tunnels dug by demon worms, and he did not know where they led to. Moreover, magma was flowing in some of the tunnels, as though the demon worms had dug through the volcanic walls, causing magma to flow out.
"This tunnel we're taking should be one of the tunnels that Big Black dug in the past!" "These demon worms have a sensitive sense of smell. The tunnels they dig will leave behind their own scent to help them identify the direction. I originally wanted Big Black to bring us to find the mineral vein that caused it to mutate, but this description is too complicated, and Big Black can't understand it, so I got him to bring us to the place he goes most often!" Benia said to Roy from the side.
"Yes, if Big Black mutated by devouring ores, then the mineral vein must be the place he goes most often!" Roy nodded.
Big Black's speed was not too fast, and Roy could feel that it was not going all the way down. Instead, it often turned around. It seemed like the tunnels it had dug in the past were basically whatever it wanted. Now that it wanted to go back, it could only follow these tunnels. Otherwise, the tunnels dug by the other demon worms were too small for it.
But even so, Roy and the others descended about two kilometers in a short time. Roy did not know exactly how much it was, and he only roughly estimated it through the temperature changes.
Since there were volcanoes, it meant that the veins of the volcanoes were connected to the magma layer underground. Generally speaking, magma generally formed in the depths of the crust or the upper mantle. This distance was about thirty to fifty kilometers from the surface, and it was filled with a large amount of high-temperature liquid, which was magma. If the magma layer was connected to the volcanic tunnels, it would be transported to the upper part of the volcano bit by bit under the pressure of the tectonic plates. If the pressure of the tectonic plates was too great, it would form a volcanic eruption. This was why volcanic activity was often accompanied by seismic activity.
Now that Roy and the others were going down, the temperature they felt did not decrease but instead became hotter and hotter. This heat came from the heat emitted by the magma layer. In the tunnel with no ventilation at all, it was extremely stuffy.
As Big Black continued to go deeper, the temperature in the air had already risen to about a hundred degrees. This temperature had already exceeded the temperature of the Abyss, and even Benia felt a little uncomfortable, so Roy gave her a layer of ice armor to help her resist the heat.
"How far is this guy going?" Benia said in surprise. "Don't tell me the mineral vein it's looking for is in the magma layer? In that case, it'll be very difficult for us to mine even if there are ores! "
Before Roy could say anything, he suddenly saw an object flash in a tunnel beside him. He was shocked and quickly said, "Stop! Stop! Benia, quickly make Big Black stop! "
Benia did not know what was going on, so she quickly took out her foot and kicked Big Black a few times. After receiving the signal, Big Black stopped running and slowly stopped in the tunnel.
Without waiting for it to stop, Roy spread his wings and flew back along the tunnel. Benia followed behind him. Then she saw Roy suddenly stop at a fork and look at it in surprise.
"What's wrong?" Benia chased after Roy and asked. Roy did not answer and pointed at the fork for her to see.
With this look, Benia was extremely surprised because she saw obvious traces of man-made objects in this fork!
It was a broken wall, or rather, it should be a part of a building. This thing was embedded in the rock wall of the tunnel, and a part of it was exposed. If not for Roy's sharp eyes, he would have missed it.
Roy flew over, pulled it out of the rock wall, and carefully sized up the fragment.
"It's a demon creation!" Benia said with certainty. "This style is very familiar. It should be … a part of some kind of statue!"
"In that case, demons really existed in this fragment world before!" Roy said. "It should be a demon lord, but he's different from us. He built his lair underground!"
In fact, Roy had his suspicions from the beginning. This fragment world was very suitable for frost demons to settle in. There was no reason why no other frost demons had found this fragment world after so many years. But Roy had been here for more than a year, and he had never seen any demon stand up and say that Roy had invaded his territory.
Recalling what Demon Lord Anivia had said before that someone was hunting frost demons, Roy thought that even if this fragment world had been occupied by other frost demon lords in the past, they would have probably been hunted to death.
But when he saw the fragment of this demon creation, Roy realized that he had guessed completely wrong. It was not a frost demon who had occupied this fragment world before. On the contrary, this former master had placed his lair in the extremely hot underground world!
"Could it be a demon lord of some insect-type demon?" Benia clearly thought of this and guessed. "In my impression, only insect-type demons like to place their lair underground."
"Won't we know if we look for it?" Roy waved the statue fragment in his hand. "However, even if it's really an insect-type demon lord, I think it's most likely gone. This thing looks very old, and I don't know how many years it has been since it was created …"
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