The cavern I'd gotten punched through the mountain into was the molten heart of an active volcano. How was I even alive?

Lava bubbled all around, spitting boiling jets of molten flame into the hot, stinking air. It smelled like every rotten egg in the world had gotten dumped on my head, and with every breath, my lungs seared with the burning pain of acid. The air must be blistering hot, but somehow the heat didn't bother me.

Spinning, I noticed a ledge of stone about 50 yards up one craggy, stone wall. The entire huge cavern glowed with an ominous red light, and with Wolf Sight I easily pierced the shadows. In seconds, I shot up to the ledge using Tether Slide. As I burst from the lava, molten stone sprayed off of me and dripped from my clothing.

When I landed on the rock shelf, I laughed. "This is so cool!"

My voice echoed from the far wall. I laughed again, barely believing it was possible to hang out in the heart of a volcano, surrounded by lava and superheated air and not instantly die. My heat and fire immunity even extended to my clothing, otherwise everything would have melted away long since.

"Thank you Ashkaroth," I grinned, glancing down at my gloved hand where I wore the One With Flame ring. The fire lord demon had nearly killed me, but now his loot had just saved my life.

The cavern extended over a quarter mile across, full of deadly lava below while rising thousands of feet above me until not even I could easily pierce the darkness to the top. I did spot a point of brighter light high up one wall, so there had to be some kind of exit, but the ultimate cone of the mountain was not visible from below.

So maybe this was just a single mostly-sealed pool of lava deep in the heart of the mountain. I pulled a chair from my inventory to sit down, but it immediately burst into flame and disintegrated. Right. Superheated air and lava. Bad.

So I plopped down and checked my status and inventory. My health was about half, my mana full, and my Tesla Coil bracelet's charge extremely low. The waiting achievements helped me piece together what happened.

"Congratulations, Lucas! For surviving the full-powered Crushing Judgment blow of the Ironwood Colossus, you receive a platinum Cockroach loot box."

"Congratulations, Lucas! You can breathe lava! Who knew? With your One With Flame ring's immunity to fire and heat, lava poses no threat to you, even when you try drowning in it. Your high Constitution, combined with the accelerated regeneration of your level-11 Wolf Blood, reinforced by the constant healing of your Tesla Coil bracelet, can keep you alive even while taking a 10 minute lava bath. You receive a diamond Smaug loot box."

Perfect title for that loot box. I never imagined I might be able to survive breathing lava and taking a lava nap. That was insane, especially since I'd been badly injured to start with. Healing while keeping myself alive despite drowning was insanely awesome.

From the platinum Cockroach loot box, I received a single scroll. Thankfully it was made out of magical paper so it didn't just ignite instantly. Losing it before getting to read it would have sucked.

"Ability scroll. Gain the new ability: Iron Lung."

"Iron Lung. Rare. Level 1. Continue breathing freely for 10 minutes per level in any otherwise deadly environment, including liquids, void, and solid stone. Your lungs now purge all airborne contaminants, including spores, acids, and harmful gasses."

"Now that's what I call an ability!" I laughed as tingling warmth pulsed through my body, then concentrated in my lungs. I breathed deep, no longer getting melted on the inside with every breath by the acid in the air. I could breathe underwater for 10 minutes even without an amulet or scroll of water breathing. Some magic was simply incredible.

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The diamond Smaug loot box appeared, flashing with inner light like a bright star and casting prismatic beams of light across the dim cavern. If I lacked Wolf Sight, I might have just kept the loot box hovering nearby to help light my way. I hadn't heard of a time limit before one had to accept the loot box and will it open. I usually couldn't wait more than a few seconds, so I wouldn't be the one to find the limit.

When I willed the beautiful loot box open, it flashed with blinding light and trills of fanfare before disappearing. A single, small metal pin in the shape of a Spartan helmet hung in the air.

"Embersteel Battle Helm shard. Uncommon. Attach to any hat, and the shard will generate an ethereal battle helm, invisible until struck. It provides very good defense against most forms of physical attack, just like the famously durable embersteel battle helms from the legendary shock troopers of the Fyrvaldir empire. Can be reinforced with fire mana for extra protection."

The small pin looked unremarkable, but that description suggested it would provide exceptional protection. Perfect. The invisible shield my goggles generated helped, but not nearly enough. I attached the pin to my wide-brimmed leather hat.

That was better loot than I probably deserved for getting my butt kicked by that giant Colossus, but I wasn't about to complain.

Without warning, a stone spike shot out of the wall behind me, stabbing me in the back and catapulting me off the stone shelf. It didn't penetrate my armor, but definitely caught me by surprise.

With a yelp, I activated Tether Slide and shot up to a higher shelf. As soon as I landed, another spike tried to impale me. I danced aside, but more spikes drove out of the wall and even the floor of the shelf.

Cursing, I jumped off, summoned Switchblade, and banked in a looping descent back toward the lower shelf, trying to figure out what was going on. Switchblade's metal components turned red-hot. Crap, my hover bike would melt in seconds.

I aimed it back toward the lower shelf, then banished it even as my mind puzzled about the spikes. Were they a trap, or an invisible monster?

No, dummy. It had to be the Colossus.

That monster was really starting to piss me off. I stoked my annoyed anger to help bolster my Fear defense. If it could extend its senses and power that deep into the mountain to hunt for me, my brief respite was over.

How had it not crushed me inside the lava? Maybe it only sensed through solid stone, not liquid magma? Good enough guess for now. I triggered an earth elemental immunity potion to help mask my presence, just in case. Then as I fell toward the lava below, I summoned another item from my inventory.

"High lord observation platform. Restricted. The favored lounging patio of elite lords, Ashkaroth's hover platform was customized for elegant comfort. The patio can rise to over 50,000 feet to grant the very best viewing angle for any entertainment, while additional seating options can be configured from the owner's menu. Current configuration: feathersoft hammock and endless fruit dispenser."

Landing on the floating luxury platform, I banished the hammock and awning, both of which had already caught fire. Hopefully they'd self-repair. Even the endless fruit dispenser started to glow from the heat, so I banished that too, leaving an empty platform. Thankfully, the platform base seemed impervious to the heat.

So I sat cross-legged on the tiled floor and willed it to rise. Within moments, I ascended high up the side of the cavern and finally slowed at a wide tunnel glowing with the outside light I'd noticed from below.

Banishing the patio, I jumped into the tunnel. The welcome yellow glow of sunshine beckoned me from the far side. Wide enough for 3 people to walk side by side, the rough stone walls meandered around while rising gently toward the distant light.

Thankfully, no spikes erupted from the walls to try killing me. Hopefully that meant I'd climbed out of the Colossus's range. Sooner than I expected, I reached the outside. The tunnel couldn't have been more than 100 feet long, and emptied onto a small shelf of stone on the cliff face overlooking the top of the valley.

About 10,000 feet below me, the boxed-in valley I'd just gotten smashed away from sat like an emerald jewel. Most of the valley was covered by the dense crowns of the gigantic ironwood trees. Near the cliff, a break in the coverage allowed me to see the Ironwood Colossus standing against the cliff face, one hand driven into it, no doubt still questing through the stone to find me. Its head had regrown and it looked totally healed from my initial strike.

Lame. Monsters that healed were so annoying.

So how the hell was I supposed to kill the blasted thing? I had mighty weapons, but short swords weren't very effective against something the size of a football field. That meant magic, but what?

Mana beam might affect it, but would that be enough? Could I use my convergence mana to transform all the mana in the valley into convergence mana so the monster couldn't use it? That could probably weaken it eventually, but I didn't have days or weeks or even months to wait for its internal reserves to dry up.

No, I needed something big, something powerful, something not even the Colossus could stop. I needed . . .

"Oh, yeah." I grinned, pumping a fist into the air as I embraced a crazy plan. "I need that lava."

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