The floating island had fallen eerily silent again. The once-beautiful surrounding of the island had been scorched with big craters surrounding the pond, the pond itself was in pristine condition as even the attackers were careful enough to not damage it. 

Now, only Arthur’s group remained on the floating island, Selene, Finn, Leon, Eva, Natalya, Sophia and a few who tagged along with them stood at the edge of the pond as they saw everyone else was fleeing from the island.

The weaker teams didn’t even look back, scared witless that more enemies might arrive any minute. The smell of scorched rock and ozone still lingered, mixed with the smell of blood and smoke.

Arthur’s gaze rested on the four unconscious enemies sprawled in front of them, the two demons and two martial artists.

He’d already tied them up with energy restraints, ropes made out of Chi keeping them still. Their bodies were battered, at least a few bones in their body were broken if not most of them.

“Let’s wake them,” Arthur said flatly.

Before anyone could protest, a thin arc of lightning jumped from his fingertip. Four simultaneous zaps lit up the clearing, followed by very undignified yelps.

“AAAGHH…!”

The bandaged martial artist spasmed so hard he almost flopped into the pond. The two demons groaned, their skin twitching as faint smoke rose from their robes.

Selene folded her arms, her golden eyes glinting faintly in amusement. “You really couldn’t just shake them awake?”

Arthur shrugged. “This was faster.”

The scarred martial artist hissed through his teeth, blinking up at them in panic. “W… What… where…” He froze when he saw Arthur and Selene standing over him, both calm and very much with an angry look.

Fear crawled across his face like frost.

Arthur crouched, his eyes narrowing slightly. “Why did you attack us?”

The demons stayed silent, their glares sharp and defiant even while blood trickled down their temples. But before Arthur could press again, one of the martial artists buckled under his intense gaze and told him everything.

“I… It was because of the pond,” he stammered. “The demons… they said if we helped them kill you two, they’d give us a share of the mana essence in it. P… Please! Don’t kill us! We won’t tell anyone about this place. You can take all of it, I swear!”

Arthur tilted his head slightly. ’Mana essence…? So that’s what this is.’ As he looked at the pond emitting dense mana. He exchanged a quick glance with Selene, and she nodded slightly, finally confirming their guess was correct. The name fit, considering how dense and refined the mana was inside the pond.

‘But how did they plan to take it?’ Arthur wondered silently. When he’d tried earlier, it had evaporated instantly once removed from the pond. Then his gaze shifted toward the demons, the main culprit behind the attack.

“Alright,” he said, as he stood up. “Let’s hear it from you two then.” His tone wasn’t threatening, just casual. “You want to talk, or do we need to do this the hard way?”

The taller demon, his wounded face twisted with contempt, as he spat blood to the side and sneered. “You think I’d tell a human anything?”

The other whose name was Anwir sneered. “You have no idea what you’re dealing with, if word gets out of what is in your possession…” He didn’t complete his sentence as he tried to threaten Arthur.

Arthur sighed. “Okay then.”

Without another word, he unsheathed his sword, and slashed once in a clean and precise hit.

The demon who was trying to threaten him, his head fell before the others could even process what happened, the silence that followed was heavy.

Selene didn’t flinch seeing the gruesome scene, she just watched quietly. The surviving demon’s expression turned pale, disbelief warping into fear. The two martial artists began trembling so hard it was audible.

The demons had planned to bind Arthur with a mana oath in exchange for the information on how to take the mana essence. Mana Oath was an extremely dangerous oath, as anyone who went against it lost the ability to use mana forever. But he killed one of them, without even blinking.

Arthur wiped the blade before dismissing it.

Arthur crouched beside the body and pulled the demon’s spatial ring from his finger and infused a wisp of mana to check its contents. Inside were the usual things that he expected: monster cores, rare herbs, a few fruits, but there were a few other objects and among them a single object attracted his attention.

It was a small wooden box, carved from dark, unknown wood, etched in runes that appeared dull at first look.

Arthur’s eyes narrowed as he recognized those runes. ‘Sealing runes.’

When he pulled it out, the surviving demon’s expression changed instantly. That was all the confirmation he needed.

“So this is how you planned to carry it,” Arthur muttered, half to himself.

To test it he started walking towards the pond. The group watched silently as he lowered the box to the pond’s surface.

He started to pour the faintly glowing blue liquid into the box. He felt the box appeared much bigger than it looked, but still it was only able to hold only a fraction of the mana essence the pond contained. As he filled the box, the runes surrounding it lit up and a translucent veil of mana sealed the top.

Arthur waited a few seconds and felt that the mana inside didn’t dissipate.

“It works,” he murmured.

After confirming the box worked, he walked back to the others, still carrying the box with him in his hand. The demon’s breathing quickened, but before he could speak, Arthur’s sword flashed again. And the second demon’s body hit the ground with a dull thump.

The two martial artists stared at Arthur, appearing as pale as ghosts. Arthur turned to them briefly, his gaze was flat but not cruel. He understood fear, he just didn’t trust them.

“I could let you live,” he said quietly. “But if I do, someone else comes after us. Maybe people from your sect, or maybe the demons’ friends.”

The martial artist opened his mouth, but Arthur’s expression silenced him. He didn’t make them suffer; it was clean and efficient. Two more slashes of his sword and they were dead.

He had no problem with letting them live, but he didn’t want trouble following them after letting them go. Personally he didn’t have any problem, he even welcomed the trouble, but there were his friends and Selene who could be targeted by others for possessing mana essence which he didn’t want.

The rest of the group stood quietly for a moment, processing it all. They’d seen brutality before in the Ancient Realm, so they didn’t question Arthur’s decision.

Selene simply nodded. “You did what needed to be done.”

Arthur nodded and smiled softly seeing Selene trying to justify his action, then he shifted his focus on something. With a thought, he connected to the Guardian AI of Spear of Heaven. ‘Scan the box’s runic matrix. And create a chamber inside the Spear of Heaven based on the same principle of the box.’ He paused for a second and said, ‘Also, replicate a dozen containers with the same sealing function.’

The Guardian AI replied, [Understood. Beginning synthesis.]

The Guardian AI had been analyzing the runes that he had memorised from the Codice he acquired more than a week ago. And it had successfully deciphered more than ten percent of them. So, it was extremely easy for it to create a rune matrix with simple sealing properties. 

It immediately went to work and in less than a minute it was done. The others were puzzled a bit as Arthur just stood motionless for a minute at the edge of the pond without doing anything. The others watched curiously but didn’t interrupt him.

A minute later, Arthur nodded slightly to himself. “Done.”

He took out a set of freshly crafted containers, sleek metallic cylinders lined with sealing runes, and began filling them with mana essence.

Finn let out a low whistle and muttered to himself. “That’s… unreal. How did he even make those containers this fast?” But no one had answers to his question.

When Arthur finished, he returned to the group and handed the two original wooden boxes from the two demons to Selene; they held the largest share, roughly one hundred liters each. Then he gave each of the others a ten-liter container.

Arthur could have given them more, but he felt it would be dangerous for them to possess such a resource in such a huge quantity. And since Selene was stronger it was not a problem for her to possess more of the mana essence as she could protect herself in the ancient realm.

“Only ten?” Finn said with mock disappointment, holding it up. “What if I want to start my own kingdom?”

Arthur gave him a flat look. “Then you should drink it and hope you ascend faster than you can build a kingdom.”

That got a snort out of Leon, while Sophia snickered. “You really have a bird brain, to think of selling such a precious resource.”

Finn scoffed, “Heh, it appears it is you who have a bird brain, as you clearly don’t understand sarcasm.” And they started to bicker among themselves.

Arthur smiled faintly seeing the scene. Then Selene, noticing he hadn’t kept any of the mana essence for himself, and frowned slightly. “You’re not taking any?”

He shook his head, a small smile tugging at his lips. “I’ve got a better way.”

Selene blinked, puzzled, as Arthur walked toward the pond again. He knelt, dipped his hands into the mana essence pond, and focused. A pulse of suction spread across the surface as he began transferring it directly into the prepared chamber of the Spear of Heaven.

The others watched, stunned, as the mana essence started vanishing from the pond, literally being swallowed into nothing.

“Okay,” Finn muttered. “That’s officially cheating.”

Arthur ignored him. The transfer lasted almost half a minute, as there were easily more than three hundred thousand litres of mana essence inside the twenty-meter-wide pond. By the time he stood up again, the pond was completely empty. What had once been filled with mana essence now looked like a hollow crater.

Arthur was about to leave when something caught his eye, few faint glimmers at the bottom. He crouched again, brushing away the soil. Nestled in the sediment were fist sized translucent blue crystals, each one pulsing with immense power.

He immediately used ‘Analyze’ on them.

//——————–//

Object: Mana Essence Crystal

Description: Contains extremely pure mana in huge quantities, best to consume it than to use it as a power source.

//——————–//

Arthur’s heart skipped a bit. These weren’t just crystal rocks, they were solidified mana essence. He picked one up; it was warm to the touch. The crystal held at least ten times the mana density of the liquid essence.

“Jackpot,” he muttered under his breath.

He gathered every single one he could find in the now empty pond, there were hundreds of them, then asked the Guardian AI to forge a secure rune box. Once done, he stored them inside the SOH and turned back to the others.

They were waiting at the edge of the pond. Finn crossed his arms, and grinned. “I’m just saying, man, at this point you’re rich enough to be my sugar daddy.”

Arthur looked at him in disgust as he said. “Get a girlfriend bro.”

Everyone laughed, the tension that had been hovering since the battle finally easing completely. Even Selene smiled softly, shaking her head. “You really can’t take him anywhere.”

Arthur shrugged. “He keeps the group lively.”

They finally took off, flying above the clouds. The wind felt cool on their skin as they flew, Arthur drifted closer to Selene, pulling out another small box.

“This is for you,” he said, handing it over.

She looked at him questioningly. “What’s inside?”

He smirked slightly. “It’s solidified mana essence.”

Selene’s eyes widened briefly, then softened. “You’re giving them to me?”

Arthur replied as he nodded. “You need them more than I do.”

Selene didn’t thank him, she just smiled softly at Arthur and tucked the box into her spatial ring. Between them, gratitude didn’t need words. In fact it would sound distant if she thanked after receiving something from him with their friendship.

They didn’t look back and left the floating island towards the next.

***

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