Chapter 800: Isolated Island

Mages would always have connections with the Elemental Planes as mages made use of elemental powers.

Not long ago, the mages had even established bases in each of the Elemental Planes in order to gather the resources there as well as improve elemental powers. The smallest base in the Four Elemental Planes was the one in the Fire Elemental Plane. In fact, this base was so small that it could only be described as a camp.

In the Cloud Tower’s records, the other bases were recorded with names such as ____ City or ____ Town. However, the base in the Fire Elemental Plane was only recorded as the Fire Elemental Plane observatory.

When I arrived at this place, I discovered that even calling it an observatory was quite an exaggeration. All that this place had was a Dimensional Door buried deep underground and some rations which were magically preserved.

There was only one mage stationed here. When he saw me arrive through the Dimensional Door, he greeted me happily with astonishment. But, he then became obviously depressed when he found out that I wasn’t here to take his shift.

“Master Roland, if you could, please recommend to the higher-ups to cancel this location as an observatory. It’s fine to just leave the Dimensional Door here. Last year, I only received two visitors for the entire year…”

The mage was a middle-aged man named Moti. He began to endlessly complain about the terrible work environment here after he saw the Truth Emblem on my chest.

It was quite obvious that he didn’t know who I was. This was the best evidence that he hadn’t been back to the mortal plane for quite a long while already.

Although conditions were also harsh in the other Elemental Planes, there were many benefits for a mage of the corresponding element to cultivate there. The high Elemental Tide would be extremely helpful for magic cultivation. The elemental resources there would maximize the mage’s cultivation effectiveness. Many mages would volunteer to go to the bases in the other elemental planes for their own element.

However, I learned from Moti’s complaints that not a single mage ever applied to come to the Fire Elemental Plane’s base. The task of staying here was always forced upon a fire mage.

The extremely harsh environment and high temperature were only some of the reasons why nobody wanted to come. The main reason was that the local residents of the Fire Elemental Plane were far too “warm and friendly”.

Low and mid-level elemental creatures didn’t need to eat. If nobody commanded them to do anything (all elemental creatures in the mortal plane would be under someone’s command, as it was impossible for them to come to the mortal plane without someone summoning them), most of the time they wouldn’t be that aggressive. However, only fire elemental creatures would forever be as aggressive as rabid dogs and unhesitatingly attack every living being that they saw.

Additionally, fire elemental creatures were similar to extremist terrorists. If they lost, they would often try to self-destruct. Working so hard to defeat a fire elemental creature might not even result in being able to obtain any elemental resources due to the resulting explosion. This was the fire elemental creatures’ home territory, and it would be impossible to kill them all. Nobody would like fighting against such opponents.

From a certain standpoint, the Fire Elemental Plane was the Elemental Plane that was most similar to the Chaos Abyss. Many Fire Elemental Lords were both demons and fire elemental creatures. Many demons would also have some fire element bloodline, which was why they had such superb fire resistance.

The high temperature and toxic sulfuric air here made it impossible for ordinary humans to survive here. The incredibly aggressive fire elemental creatures here made it highly dangerous for any outsider to come here.

The mage Moti in front of me had faint runes flowing across his skin. The slightly flickering fiery light in his eyes indicated that he was obviously had the bloodline of a Chaos Abyss descendant. The red runes on his arms and legs indicated that he was a fire archmage.

A fire archmage with a fire demon bloodline. It seemed like his power level was also quite good, which made him really rare.

I was beginning to pity him. Apparently, he had been here for seven years already. Normally, the Mage Country would cycle out the mages stationed at a base once every three to five years, so someone else should have taken his shift long ago. Since Moti had already completed his task here, he should have returned to the Mage Country for a promotion, salary increase, and get married to someone pretty and rich… Obviously, either nobody appropriate had been found to come here, or the Mage Country had already forgotten about him. Hence, Moti was now so warm and friendly towards anyone who came to visit him in hopes that they could remind the Mage Country of his existence.

“So few people come here each year. You won’t even see a single person on average each month. You truly are unfortunate.”

“Yeah. I originally thought that I was so lucky because my bloodline was suitable for this environment. Not only do I not see anyone on average each month, the worst was when I didn’t see a single other person for one year and three months. Whenever I go outside here, there’s only an endless amount of crazy suicide bombers. I originally had a disciple here, but he went outside without any protection after only staying here for four weeks, so he was sent back to the mortal plane while covered in burn injuries along with being poisoned. That little bastard was burnt like a piece of coal, but he was actually smiling when he left. I’ll deal with him when I return to the mortal plane! But, I heard from my last visitor that he’s already promoted to the same rank as I am, which is…”

The result of not having anyone to talk with for so long was that Moti immediately became a chatterbox when he saw me.

His former disciple now had the same rank that he did. Meanwhile, he was stuck in a dead-end job in a remote location for so many years now. He was wasting time while a younger person was rising above him. Wasn’t this a fantasy version of a mid-life job crisis? This seemed even more realistic and pitiful to me now.

No wonder he was so friendly to me. My Truth Emblem probably also worked in my favor because Moti was hoping that I would mention him to the Truth Symposium.

“Sure, it’s no problem at all. I’ll talk to the Truth Symposium about it after I return. Lain is the one in charge of sending people to various outposts, right? I know him quite well.”

I agreed quite readily. When seeing how archmage Moti was overjoyed, I decided against ruining his good mood.

Currently, Moti was basically like someone who was “exiled” by his company. He finally managed to meet someone “high-ranking” in the company, so of course he would do his best to get into my good graces in hope of improving his fortune.

But from what I knew, the Truth Symposium had no time right now at all to care about someone in a remote outpost, as they were completely busy with preparing for the upcoming major battle. This was just like World War 2 from my original world. When the countries were all at war, they wouldn’t have any time to remember their own citizens far away in distant colonies. This was especially more so for people who were at “isolated islands in the middle of nowhere” that had no worthwhile resources or combat information to provide for the country.

As long as the battle continued, it was likely that Moti would be forgotten for quite a long period of time. It might even be possible that the Mage Country would reorganize its hierarchy after the battle. If Moti’s original superior died or was given some other position during this battle, then Moti would also be forgotten by the new superior in charge…

Of course, saying anything now would be meaningless, as everything was still prone to change.

Perhaps having bases in the Elemental Planes would become meaningless as the Holy War continued. Maybe the base here would be canceled, which naturally meant that Moti could return. Or, perhaps the mages would have higher expectations for the Elemental Planes and increase their investment here. Since Moti was an expert on the Fire Elemental Plane, then that would become a great opportunity for him.

“Continue to work hard. At least the situation won’t get worse than it is now.”

I said something that was basically true and just normal encouragement. I really couldn’t afford to just make random promises at this time. Still, such a response already made me quite happy. Moti’s friendly attitude was also quite helpful for me.

Moti had stayed here for so long while being attacked by fire element creatures on a daily basis. He was so bored that all he could do was cultivate. Although Moti didn’t have a high rank, his power level far succeeded that of others with the same rank. I could sense that this dark-skinned middle-aged man had actually passed Legend and faintly reached Saint rank already, yet his emblem still said that he was only Gold rank.

If this had been 10 years ago, a Saint rank archmage would never have been left here to waste his time.

Moti not only understood the situation in the Fire Elemental Plane, he was also capable of traveling in this dangerous plane. His overly boring job had helped him to benefit much from staying here. At the very least, he could be called an expert on the Fire Elemental Plane.

Thanks to his explanation, I also gradually learned the recent events in this plane.

“A new Fire Elemental God? When did this happen? Why was there no report!?”

“I did report it five days ago. However, I’ve yet to receive a response even now. Did something happen at the Cloud Tower?”

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