Lumian sat on the ground, breathing heavily, and it was difficult for him to even move a finger.
He quietly watched the clusters of red flames on the ground around him swaying in the wind, gradually changing from blazing to dim until they went out.
During this process, Lumian simply leaned forward, picked up the "Fallen Mercury" with his left hand, and still held the iron-black axe in his right hand to prevent possible accidents.
He was not distracted and was extremely alert.
Of course, he couldn't help but secretly pray to the "Eternal Sun" and that great being whose name he didn't know, hoping that they could protect him and prevent him from encountering any accidents in the future.
After all, in his current state, not to mention that the fire monster was not completely dead and suddenly resurrected, just an ordinary enemy like the skinless monster would most likely be able to deal with him.
As time passed, Lumian's spirituality and physical strength slowly recovered, but his injuries became more serious, so that his mind occasionally became dazed and he could not concentrate all the time: "Hunters must not only be careful, cautious, calm, patient, and know how to use the environment and play to their own advantages, but also have courage.
"The courage to face unexpected situations, the courage to never give up in the face of great crisis, the courage to make up your mind when there is no way out, the courage to seek a way out in the face of death..."
These thoughts flashed through Lumian's mind, distracting him involuntarily. He suddenly felt that the "Hunter" potion in his body had been completely digested: it was as if some barrier had been completely broken, as if a little spark had merged with every part of his body.
Most of Lumian's remaining signs of loss of control disappeared, and his condition instantly improved.
He slowly stood up and sighed silently: "It's indeed digested." This meant that he was ready to take the next dose of potion.
With a bandage wrapped around his left hand and a silver-black dagger in hand, Lumian looked around, occasionally staring at the body of the fire monster, patiently waiting for the extraordinary characteristics to emerge.
Unlike the shotgun monster which responded quickly, Lumian waited for a full half hour this time. He waited until he suspected that the fire monster was not dead yet and wondered whether he should hit it a few more times.
Finally, when he was about to faint from his increasingly serious injuries, a little bit of red spark-like light flew out of the monster's body.
They were like a large group of fireflies, surrounding the corpse tightly, then slowly shrinking inwards, condensing into a red object similar to a heart.
The "heart" slowly expanded and contracted, and its surface was covered with dense small holes, and each hole had a tiny flame spewing out.
“Is this the main ingredient for the ‘Arsonist’ potion?” Lumian whispered as he bent down and picked it up.
The intense burning sensation traveled from his palms to his mind, making him subconsciously want to throw away that "heart" and get rid of the corresponding pain.
Fortunately, Lumian had been burned by the fire monster before and his skin was paralyzed in many places, so he could barely withstand this not-so-serious injury.
He tried to wrap the "heart" with a cloth, but the cloth gradually burned and turned into ashes.
Lumian thought for a moment, put this extraordinary material on the ground, wrapped the "Corrupted Mercury" with the remaining black cloth, and put it back into his waist.
Then he opened the bag of lead bullets, took out the few remaining items inside and put them in his pocket.
Next, Lumian dug up the surrounding soil and filled the bag with it.
When the bag was half full of dirt, he picked up the "heart" with a tiny flame and threw it in. 26 This was not the end. Lumian continued to stuff dirt into the bag until the "heart" was filled with this non-flammable brown material from front to back, left to right, top to bottom, layer by layer.
He then exhaled, and walked to the edge of the ruins while holding the cloth bag, thinking about a problem he had just discovered: "I only have Sequence 9, and this is the main material for Sequence 7 'Arsonist'. I can't just upgrade to Sequence 7, right?" This will get out of control!
"I originally thought that the fire monster would have one 'arsonist' extraordinary characteristic, one 'provocateur' extraordinary characteristic, and one 'hunter' extraordinary characteristic, but it turned out that they were mixed together..."
Not knowing what to do, Lumian staggered back.
Along the way, he was extremely lucky and did not encounter a single monster, otherwise things would be quite troublesome and tricky in his current state. His only hope before was to rely on his strong observation ability and sensitive senses to detect danger in advance and prepare to hide and avoid it.
After an unknown amount of time, Lumian left the ruins of the dreamland, crossed the weedless wilderness, and returned to his semi-underground two-story building.
He climbed up to the second floor with difficulty, took down the "corrupted mercury", the cloth bag containing the main materials of the "arsonist", the iron-black axe and other items one by one, and placed them on the bedside table or threw them on the ground. Then he walked to the full-length mirror embedded in the surface of the wardrobe.
Lumian saw in the mirror that his face was abnormally pale, with many marks left by the flames, and there were faint silver-black patches on many parts of his skin.
In his blue eyes, an illusory silvery white loomed, entwined with itself, stained with black.
This is the outward manifestation of being seriously injured and almost losing control.
If it weren't for the strong "home advantage" in this dream ruin, and if it weren't for the "Corrupted Mercury" that gave him the "invisibility" ability, Lumian would have had almost no hope of hunting down the fire monster.
He chewed some dried meat and cheese, fighting the intense hunger left by the possession, and lay down on the bed...
He urgently needed to return to reality and rest for some time to help his body heal quickly.
The light penetrated the curtains and shone into the bedroom, outlining Auror's desk filled with reference materials, reading notes, and stacks of manuscripts, as well as the wardrobe filled with skirts and an exquisite full-length mirror next to it.
As soon as Lumian opened his eyes, he saw his sister's light blue eyes.
Aurore watched him wake up and asked with concern: "How is it, is everything okay?"
She knew that her brother was going to the Dream Ruins this time to hunt fire monsters.
"Successful." Lumian fumbled to sit up, his head felt empty, his skin was stinging, and his bones seemed to be broken.
But this was nothing compared to the severe pain that almost killed him in the dream.
He lowered his head to check his body and found that many parts of his skin were red and swollen, as if he had an allergy.
"That's good..." Aurora breathed a sigh of relief, "You were twitching all over and moving your hands and feet around almost an hour ago, and you kicked me awake."
Lumian laughed at himself and said, "It was indeed very dangerous at that time. I almost lost control."
"I was hesitant about whether to wake you up directly, but you soon calmed down and acted less scary," Aurore said with relief.
Lumian's heart moved: "And you just kept looking at me like this?"
"Yes." Aurore nodded calmly. "If anything happens, I have to wake you up immediately and bring you back to reality so that you don't die in your dream."
Lumian suddenly felt that the hardship, pain, struggle and fear of almost dying in his dream were all washed away and drowned by the warm current that surged from the bottom of his heart.
He asked subconsciously: "You weren't actually woken up by my kick, but you haven't slept yet, right?"
Aurore smiled and said, "That was my original plan, but I didn't know how long you would be hiding from that monster, and I had just finished my night shift. If I don't catch up on some sleep, you'll be groggy in the second half of the shift, and I'll be more likely to make mistakes, and I won't be able to wake you up in time." So, I finally decided to keep my hands on you while I took the time to get some sleep.
"This way, if you make any movement, I can sense it and wake up quickly. Haha, you did kick me!"
As she spoke, she pointed to her right calf, where there was an obvious bruise.
Without giving Lumian a chance to respond, she asked, "Tell me about the details."
Lumian lowered his voice and recounted how he had set up the trap, how he had ambushed in the middle of the road, how his clothes had been set on fire and he could no longer turn invisible, so he had to flee to the basement and rely on meditation to fully activate the black thorn symbol.
Aurore listened very attentively, and from time to time she showed a worried expression for her brother's dangerous situation. At first glance, she was the kind of person who was particularly easy to empathize with when reading.
At the end, Lumian asked the question: "How do you separate the 'provocateur' from the extraordinary characteristics of the 'arsonist'?" Moreover, he didn't know where to get the potion formula.
Aurore pondered for a few seconds and said, "I don't know how to separate them. I just heard someone mention that in similar situations, you may need to ask a high-level Beyonder for help."
"Demigod?" Lumian guessed.
He now knew only three people who might have reached Sequence 4: the mysterious lady, Mrs. Puaris, and the one lying in the coffin in the tomb.
Aurore nodded. "It should be. Actually, you don't have to worry. I suspect that the mysterious lady will come to you soon and provide some help. She always appears at the key points of your growth. This time should be no exception. After all, the cycle has not been resolved, and the secret of the dream ruins has not been solved."
“Go to the old tavern to find her?” Lumian frowned.
The agreement between them and Lai En and others was to try not to go out.
Aurore said, "Wait a minute, she might come to visit directly."
At this point, Aurore sighed and said, "For normal Beyonders, the potion formula is not a big problem, but you are different. There is pollution sealed in your body. If there is a slight problem, it may go out of control. You still need a complete and correct Provocateur's potion formula."
"Why don't normal Beyonders need potion formulas?" Lumian was a little surprised.
Aurore explained: "It's not that it's not needed, but those below Sequence 7 can be promoted by forcibly taking the main ingredients."
“Won’t this get out of control?” Lumian asked in astonishment.
Aurore hummed, "In the past few years, there was a high probability of losing control by doing this, but in recent years, the Beyonder properties of Sequence 9 and Sequence 8 can indeed be used directly, but it is only about 20 to 30 percent more dangerous than mixing them into potions.
"Well, this is the conclusion of the investigation conducted by our president Gandalf."
Why? Just as Lumian was about to ask, he heard familiar singing outside the house.
The brother and sister looked at each other immediately, and their expressions became solemn.
Lent has begun and the "Spring Spirits" are parading here.