I Pioneered Scientific Magic-Chapter 526: Even in the harshest environments, life always finds a way!

Raphael, though unaware of what Lynn was orchestrating, trusted him enough to take the "Arcane Ring."

Orlando, Tiek, Ivina, and others also gathered their instruments, readying themselves for the journey.

Lynn did not deliver a long motivational speech but cautioned everyone to be careful and discreet. If necessary, they could retreat and regroup, allowing the council to prepare a second team for exploration.

"We will be cautious, see you later!" Raphael said solemnly, stepping into the swirling temporal gate first, with the others quickly following.

"Seems it was severed, huh?" Lynn muttered to himself as he watched them disappear into the portal, pondering whether the soul-splitting magic would work on the other side.

...

Upon entering the temporal gate, Raphael felt dizzy, as if his consciousness had been stripped away and his body spun around dozens of times in a massive vortex.

When Raphael regained his senses, he found himself on the other side of the portal.

"The magical energy here is dense."

That was Raphael's first impression, wondering if it was due to the portal, as the magic levels here seemed comparable to the annual magical tides of Mondays.

Beside him, Orlando, Tiek, and Ivina emerged from the time vortex into a dark, cold, and desolate world.

As the intelligence had described, the temperature here was extremely low. Tiek shivered and took out a temperature gauge, which soon confirmed the ambient temperature was around minus twenty degrees Celsius.

"No wonder it's so cold," Orlando muttered, having already enchanted his wizard's robe with cold resistance, yet still feeling bitterly cold.

"Also, the gravity here seems lighter," Ivina noted, leaping up and easily reaching three to four meters high.

Although she was physically fit, she couldn't achieve such heights without magical or divine aid under normal circumstances.

Prompted by Ivina, Raphael and the others also noticed they felt lighter.

"According to the universal gravitation theory proposed by Chairman Lynn, this world's mass must be much smaller than our planet," Orlando, who specialized in astronomy, observed the sky.

There were no stars, moon, or sun, only darkness.

"Now is not the time to consider these matters. Once we find a place to settle, we can perform a gravity acceleration experiment," Raphael refocused everyone's attention away from gravity and temperature explorations.

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Indeed, one of their mission objectives was to study the elemental composition and gravitational constants of this world, and they had brought the necessary instruments.

If possible, the council also wanted them to estimate the area of this continent or planet using Lynn's parallax method, but Raphael thought that idea absurd given the lack of light here.

"Let there be light." Raphael cast a spell, conjuring a shimmering orb of lightning above their heads, which immediately dispelled the surrounding darkness.

The group then realized that the temporal gate was also situated within a valley, likely due to the Holy Church's expeditionary forces having slaughtered nearby magical beasts not long ago, leaving the air tinged with blood and stench.

"Magic works smoothly here," Raphael breathed a sigh of relief, his greatest worry unmaterialized, giving him more confidence. He then looked towards the psychomancer Tiek.

Tiek nodded and opened his voluminous wizard's robe.

Ivina's pupils shrank as she saw dozens of small, pitch-black bats hanging inside.

"Are those magic bats?" the wizards recognized immediately. These creatures, though weak individually and typically blood-sucking, often moved in swarms, capable of decimating a town if unopposed by wizards or diviners.

However, Tiek had brought these bats not for combat but for reconnaissance.

Using echolocation, these creatures were excellent scouts in alien, dark environments, minimizing their exposure risk.

Orlando also acted, placing his hand on the ground.

His inclusion in the exploration team was not just for his astronomical knowledge but also for his ability to sense ground vibrations—an invaluable skill in an unknown world.

For instance, right now...

As soon as Orlando touched the ground, his expression changed drastically, and he suddenly shouted in alarm. "Underground... Underground!"

At the same moment, Ivina sensed a premonition in her mind, and the solid ground beneath her collapsed suddenly, revealing a gaping maw filled with sharp teeth, lunging at her from below, its blood-red eyes gleaming with murderous intent.

Ivina had already leapt into the air, facing the attacking abyssal maw. Her expression unchanged, she swiftly drew her slender blade from her waist and stabbed precisely into the creature's bloodshot eyes.

Hot blood and greenish fluid sprayed out, freezing into ice shards upon hitting the ground, accompanied by roars of pain and fury. The two-meter-thick body thrashed wildly, plowing furrows in the solid earth like a drilling machine.

Ivina, using the creature's momentum, pulled her blade free and retreated

to safety.

However, the surprise attack wasn't isolated to one giant worm; another unfortunate male wizard was also targeted, albeit without Ivina's quick reflexes, and was swallowed whole by another emerging giant worm.

"Damn it!" Raphael cursed, his overhead lightning orb compressing into a tight ball before firing a powerful laser, severing the worm's body at the surface, causing it to collapse violently, stirring up clouds of dust.

Tiek and others rushed forward, restraining the giant worm with magic and slicing open its body to rescue the unfortunate wizard.

Thanks to being swallowed whole, the wizard was not bitten into pieces by the worm's sharp teeth. Quick rescue ensured he was relatively unharmed, though covered in sticky green fluid.

Relieved that his comrade was safe and not severely injured, which would have necessitated a retreat, Raphael then coordinated with Ivina and Orlando to kill the attacking worm and collect parts of its body and blood for research, identifying it as the "Sandworm" mentioned in their intelligence.

"This must be the Sandworm. I didn't expect its movements to be so stealthy," Raphael said gravely.

He had thought such a large creature would show signs of its presence underground, yet he hadn't noticed it at all.

"No, I think they've been waiting here to hunt," Orlando explained, having detected the two worms hiding underground while casting his detection magic.

"It's quite cunning to wait by the temporal gate, just expecting someone to step through," Tiek remarked, visibly shaken by the close call, knowing he wouldn't have been able to evade if targeted.

Tiek even suspected these giant worms could distinguish the strength of their prey, as the optimal moment to attack would have been just as they emerged from the portal. The fact that they didn't immediately attack suggested they were biding their time, waiting until they detected the slight vibrations from Orlando's magic before launching their assault.

"We need to be even more cautious moving forward," Raphael stated, raising their alertness level before looking to Tiek, inquiring about the scouting results from the magic bats.

"Everything appears normal for now. I've spotted a few magical beasts about two kilometers to the west. They don't seem very strong, but it's best to avoid them…"

Tiek reported everything he saw through his psychic vision, pausing briefly with a puzzled expression before quickly updating Raphael with his new findings.

"Are you sure?" Raphael also seemed puzzled, pondering for a moment before deciding, "Then let's leave this place."

Orlando and others nodded, confirming their instruments were still operational before leaving the valley together.

Before departing, Raphael extinguished the lightning orb above their heads, noting that such a bright light source was too conspicuous.

While the valley was relatively safe, thanks to the church's frequent expeditions that made more noise than they could, the outside world was not guaranteed to be as forgiving.

As the group of nine departed, the valley returned to its previous quiet. About half an hour later, three small, fur-wrapped figures hurriedly approached from the outskirts of the valley, clearly aiming for the two dead Sandworms.

Their movements were unusually skilled as they swiftly wielded bone knives to slice open the worms' bodies, draining the greenish fluid from the surface before cutting through an inner membrane to expose the slightly brownish flesh below.

The fluid from the Sandworms was highly corrosive, with only a small part of the flesh inside being edible. However, given their large size, it was enough to feed a small tribe for a week.

With practiced efficiency, the group separated all the meat from the carapace in just twenty minutes.

They didn't bother with the portion of the body that had burrowed back into the ground, as digging it out would take too much time, and every second spent here was perilously risky due to the potential for powerful magical beasts to detect their presence.

In this godforsaken world, greed and death often went hand in hand. To survive, one had to be exceedingly cautious.

The small figures wrapped the separated meat in the membrane from the Sandworms' bodies and began to drag it away.

However, their path out of the valley was blocked by a rapidly approaching glowing lightning orb.

A sharp cry rang out from the leader of the group, while the other two didn't hesitate to drop the hard-earned meat and scatter, running in different directions.

Unfortunately, their speed was no match for lightning; the approaching orb of electricity exploded on impact, spreading its arcs like a spiderweb and enveloping the surrounding hundred meters.

The one who had cast the spell was none other than Raphael, who had camouflaged his presence with polarized magic and returned to the scene. He was also holding another small figure—a lookout.

Several magic bats descended from the sky, landing on Tiek's shoulder. He had already spotted the four individuals hiding outside the valley but hadn't taken immediate action, unsure of their identity and intentions.

Upon receiving this information, Raphael didn't want to startle them into premature action. Considering the distance between them, relying solely on a few magic bats was insufficient to detain them all. He had therefore pretended to be unaware, waiting for the others to make the first move.

Unexpectedly, the three individuals were not targeting him but the two Sandworms killed in the valley.

Were they here for food?

Raphael glanced at the membrane bags spread out and pieced together the situation.

"Seems like they are just children?" Tiek approached, surprised at the small figures twitching from the electric shock.

"No, they are likely halflings," Raphael corrected him, recognizing them immediately from his many encounters with Lydia and his knowledge of the halfling community.

"Are they natives here, or did they accidentally step through the temporal gate? Or were they driven here by the church?" Orlando speculated in quick succession, surprised that halflings could survive in such a desolate world.

There was no sunlight here, the air was scant in moisture, numerous dangerous magical beasts roamed, and the halflings seemed woefully weak.

"Never underestimate any species. Even in the harshest environments, life always finds a way!" A sculptural wizard specializing in biology spoke up, having dissected thousands of species, he knew well how tenaciously life clung to survival under the drive of instinct.