In a silent exchange, Arka and the others didn't even see where the man who had come to replace Crackstone was.

In this way, he was carried by the cracked stone in a daze, and walked into the mountains in front of him.

At this time, they finally knew how the cracked rocks moved on a daily basis, and it was as if they were melted into the rocks and rubble.

You probably don't even need to come out and walk directly through the earth. If it weren't for the fear that Arka they wouldn't be able to keep up and wouldn't know where. He probably won't even have his head out, and he will just dive into the dirt.

As a last resort, Arka they can only bounce on the surface.

Fortunately, although the mountains are steep, most of the area is gentle and sloping, and you can walk it.

And contrary to what they thought before, the so-called stone forest is not in the center of this mountain forest area, but in the edge of the area.

They didn't go far.

Not far from where they had just stayed, it was about twenty or thirty kilometers away.

No wonder they came across a sentry crack here, it turned out that they had forced themselves around someone else's gathering place.

As he got closer to the gathering place, Crackstone no longer kept swimming in the ground, but instead emerged from the ground with his entire body and began to walk on his normal legs.

Or rather, double hooves.

So I came all the way to a steep overhang.

Arka looked up at the height of the stone wall in front of him, at least 20 meters, and it was full of sharp and steep stones.

It takes a lot of effort to climb from this rock wall to the top, and of course, Alka can fly directly.

However, instead of continuing upwards, the cracked stone stopped in front of the stone wall.

"We're here."

Saying that, he directly sank into the stone wall.

Keeping Arka, they stood on the ground and looked at each other.

Two seconds later, Crackstone walked out slowly, and although there was no expression on his face, everyone could feel his embarrassment.

"Sorry, forgot."

After saying that, he walked over and rubbed his clay arm, which seemed to be made of clay.

A few small pillars appeared in his hand.

Clutching the stone pillars, he made a sound that sounded like a spell, but like a rhythmic sound made by striking a stone.

As the sound sounded, Arka and the others clearly felt that something was different on their bodies, and a simple brown totem appeared on the back of their hand.

"Now you can go in, come with me."

As he spoke, the cracked stone once again passed directly through the stone wall.

Alka was able to go straight through with a land card, but he still didn't use it. Instead, he reached into the stone wall and put it in, as if his hand had reached into the mud, and fell directly into the hard stone wall.

This experience made Arka smile: "It's interesting." ”

As he spoke, his whole body was submerged in it.

They followed.

Start walking through the stone wall, through the stone wall, they need to hold their breath. It was only about seven or eight seconds before they saw the light, and the whole person came out of the stone wall.

Looking at the scene in front of him, Arka stood in place, and Xia Daiti and the others who came out couldn't help but stop in place and look at the scene in front of them.

They were in a depression, surrounded by a rock wall that rose into the sky. It's completely encased.

In the center of the depression, sharp stone pillars protrude from the ground and reach into the sky.

Each stone tow is like a tree in the forest, and this arrangement forms the stone forest.

Perfectly matching the name of this place, Arka felt the extremely strong earth element aura of this place as soon as he entered.

But it is not pure, because the air inevitably wafts through the water element that spreads throughout the world, and even here the water element is still a little thick.

The problem is the inhabitants of the stone forest.

At first, they thought that the Rockhoof were like Cracked Stone, with an upper body similar to a human, and a lower body consisting of ox hooves and tails.

But apparently it's not at all what they think.

The first thing Arka saw was a resident whose lower body was still a cow's hooves and tail, but the upper body had completely turned into stone and didn't even know what his head was.

The strength is only about three stages, and the body size belongs to the middle and lower level among the overall residents.

There are also half-elemental creatures with an upper body that looks like a lizard. Of course, there are many upper bodies that are still similar to humans.

Compared to these strange appearances, the cracked stones that could already be regarded as weird in front of them before seemed somewhat normal.

From this, it can be seen that the upper body of these half-elemental creatures does not seem to be fixed.

Right next to them, there was a guard watching them.

This guard, Arka looked at him and nodded with sudden satisfaction.

Because this is the most harmonious and normal he has ever seen.

The upper body of the half-elemental creature in front of him was not a human, but a half-elemental creature with a human body and a bull's head.

With the hooves and tail of the lower body, it looks very, very harmonious.

The harmonious combination makes Arka look very comfortable.

It is equivalent to the feeling of a minotaur shaman with a strong earth element style, and even makes Arka have a sense of intimacy.

It comes from the kindness of the previous works.

Even his weapon was a stout stone pillar-like totem standing next to him.

"Strange flesh creatures? Did the Cracks bring you in? ”

The sound was stumbling like a cracked stone, and even the spacing was long, and there was a cacophony of tapping.

Arka nodded.

Crackstone waved his hand beside him, and communicated silently with the minotaur in front of him.

His strength is the same as that of a Split Stone, and the thickness of his energy may be a little stronger than that of a Split Stone.

As they communicated, Aka saw a half-elemental creature much taller than the Crackstone approaching slowly.

The overall look is inexplicably harmonious, but the sample of the upper body Alka has not been seen.

It looked a bit like some kind of ferocious beast, with three extremely thick horns on its head.

There are also bone spurs on the back of his elbows.

The tall half-elemental creature looked extremely intimidating, and caused a certain amount of pressure on Arka, who was not weak.

Arka blinked and looked over.

The energy reaction has actually reached the seventh stage, which is very powerful.

He walked over, glaring at Arka with his weird vertical eyes, then nodding politely.

Crackstone then turned to look at him, and there was another silent exchange.

Then Crackstone and Arka introduced: "This is our Elder, Steel Hornstone. ”

Arka looked at the elder named Steel Horn and nodded to introduce himself.

"Humans are friends, I can feel the demonic blood stained in you, you are a powerful friend."

The Elder's voice was still the same as that of tapping, but it was very smooth.

"The treasure hunters who have been here before, they are all interested in areas further inward. There are a lot of abandoned mines, but there are evil spirits inside. ”

The elder seemed to know exactly what Arka's goal might be, and said directly. Or most of the treasure hunters who come here will look inside. Won't stay with him too much

He was really right, and Arka immediately became interested.

"Evil spirits? Can you tell us roughly what area it is? Arka asked curiously.

"It's all in there." The elder stretched out his finger and pointed in one direction.

There is the direction that continues into the deeper interior of the mountain range.

Listening to this, they only know some of the things inside.

Arka thought about the information on the map, even if there were evil spirits in it. The strength is no more than five stages, why don't these half-elemental creatures go inside?

"Are those evil spirits powerful?" Alka Q&A.

The elder shook his head: "It's not strong, but it's very restrained, so we rarely enter." ”

Hearing this, Arka understood, and did not continue to ask questions, because if he continued to ask questions, he would have violated the secrets of other people's races.

"Are you going in that direction?"

Looking at Arka, who was thinking, the elder asked.

Arka nodded, although there was no clear goal, but they had a map after all, so they definitely wanted to go in.

In the original bad situation, he was also worried that the aborigines here might affect or interfere with his treasure hunt.

The good thing is that the aborigines are very friendly with humans and are even willing to be guides and provide more information.

The result is neither.

"If you're going in, help me find out if there's a core of our people inside. It's important to us. ”

"Core?"

Listening to Alka's puzzled voice, the elder nodded, "That's right, three of our clansmen have disappeared inside. They should have melted into the earth, but their core should still be there.

If you can, you'll find out if you can bring it to us. We'll offer you some of the remuneration you might need. ”

Hearing this, Arka couldn't help but think of the blue spots in this area.

"What does it look like?"

"It's like the crystallization of the earth, and you can feel the thick earth element."

"How long have you been missing?"

"13 days and nights in 810, 21 days and nights in 723, and 6 days and nights in 557."

"......" Hearing the elder's words, Arka was silent, don't you have to remember it so clearly, right?

And has it been missing for so long?

Listening to the elder's tone, Arka thought that his people had been missing for only a few years.

It seems that every treasure hunter who goes inside will be entrusted with this elder's task.

So Crackstone heard that they were treasure hunters, and didn't have much repulsion.

After all, no one likes to have a treasure hunter, and such characters will wander around their own turf and rummage around.

If they focus on certain areas that they can't go, they will go specifically to those areas that they can't.

If you don't wander around, how can you hunt for treasure?

"Every time a flesh creature like you wants to go inside, I ask for their help.

It's too dangerous for me and my people, and my people can't afford to lose even the slightest.

Thank you very much, friends, you have helped us find the core of the two clansmen. ”

The elder said.

Is it really a universal mandate?

Then looking at Arka and them, the elder said, "There are a lot of evil spirits there, and flesh creatures are mentally strong, but you also need to be careful. ”

Arka nodded: "Thank you for the offer, we'll take note." ”

"We're not flesh and blood, so we can't treat you well, forgive me."

After all, they don't necessarily eat.

"Out of the way, out of the way."

Arka said hurriedly.

After a few words, the elder left.

As for Arka, they followed the Crackstone to wander around the entire stone forest, and the entire stone forest was unusually silent, because all the half-elemental creatures did not communicate with each other through sound.

In Alka's eyes, he was able to see fluctuations that should resemble spiritual links to communicate.

It seemed that the whole gathering place was unusually silent.

Moreover, the entire stone forest is much smaller than what they had seen before in Arka. One sharp stone pillar after another is probably equivalent to their place of residence.

It's a completely solid stone pillar, but it gathers more earth elements, which should be equivalent to a dormant pod. Arkabean gives a more vivid analogy.

In addition to the small gathering place, the number of people in the entire Rockhoof clan is also very small.

If you do the math, it may be a little more than 300.

That's just the number of small villages, it's too few.

These half-elemental creatures can probably be distinguished according to their size, their weakest strength is the second stage, the strongest is the elder seventh stage, and most of them are around the third stage.

"How do you reproduce?" Lucilia, who was sitting on Alka's shoulder, finally couldn't help but ask, albeit with some precaution.

But after all, these half-elemental creatures have been here for more than 800 years, but there are only more than 300 of them, which is really frighteningly rare.

Hearing Lucilia's words, Crackstone replied in a stumbling voice, "We can't reproduce...... This is no longer the home we once were, we are the Rockhoof clan but we are only a branch of what remains here, and that's all our people have. ”

Although the voice was calm, Arka could feel the loneliness and desolation in the voice.

In simple terms, they are called semi-elemental beings, and it is obviously unlikely that they will be fertile like normal humans.

The process of reproduction is perhaps more akin to the birth of elemental organisms.

And how could this place have such a strong concentration of elemental elements with a single attribute like the elemental interface of their former home.

Without external conditions, they naturally have no room to continue to reproduce.

As time passes, they will lose more and more of their clan due to various accidents, until the entire race dies out, which is their visible future.

Because they have no hope for the future.

If their minds are biased towards humans.

Maybe elemental beings don't have such troubles, not necessarily.

Arka couldn't help but think nonsense.

As you wander around to learn about Arka through your own eyes, you also discover more questions. That is, although the concentration of elements here is indeed high, it may be too chaotic for these elemental creatures in front of them.

And there are also water elements that don't seem to be suitable for them.

Arka had thought that the rift on their body was some kind of decoration, after all, it seemed that every member of the clan had such a existence.

But apparently, he was overthinking.

These rifts are proof that they are malnourished.

Ordinary elemental creatures obviously do not eat any food, but absorb elemental energy to live.

In this boundless sea, the concentration of water elementals is much higher, and even if they gather so many earth elements here, it is still not enough for the world it once was.

This race of only a few hundred people remains, which is much more pessimistic and miserable than Arka imagined.

I couldn't help but sigh silently.

"What's wrong?" Lucilia, who was sitting on Alka's shoulder, asked.

"It's nothing, it's just that I see some problems."

After wandering around, there's not much to do in this place.

They walked out of the stone forest from the other side directly through the stone wall, and in the eyes of the cracked stones, they advanced towards the interior of the mountain range.

"Their future prospects are pessimistic, right?" Lucilia asked.

It's hard to say just now, but now only they are left, Arka nodded and said it.

"Ah, what a ......" Bororo didn't know what to say for a moment.

But the word miserable can indeed be placed on them.

After a few small talks, they didn't move forward quickly, after all, it wasn't very safe here.

Arka looked at the map in his hand.

Look at some of the blue dots of light on it.

The scope of the map is so large that it encompasses almost the entire mountain range and its surroundings.

And there is certainly no very detailed exploration of the mountains, so the area of the mountains is drawn in a blur, but it is a correct map.

This also results in a small location of interest, but on such a large map.

If it is reduced, then it will definitely take up a large area.

In other words, the location is very vague.

It seems that when we get to the area around the point, we will definitely have to probe it and let Xia Daiti draw a more detailed map.

With that in mind, Arka reached out and touched the blue spot.

There are more than a dozen blue dots here.

So only a few of them should be their targets, if the core of the so-called half-elemental race after death is considered a magic item.

Clicking on a few in a row is a three-no information bar.

Arka finally found one of the fields that showed the message.

【Stonehoof Elemental Life Crystal】

[Difficulty: Elemental Senser (Stage 2)]

[Popularity: 325]

[Treasure Information: The deceased of a member of the Stonehoof tribe of the earth semi-elemental creatures, the elemental crystals left behind after death.

For them, such an elemental crystallization is equivalent to the core of the body, and it is also a very precious and rare elemental material. It seems to be important for half-elemental creatures.

Normally, it is only available in regions with extremely high concentrations of a single element or at elemental interfaces. 】

Arka looked at the message above, and it seemed that this thing should be the item that the elder had asked them to find.

(End of chapter)