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”I don’t know if my expectations were wrong, but I have to admit I expected something a little different from the world you so highly recommended," Tsumi said while erecting a field of energy above her to keep the rain and wind away, before adding. “This place is really gloomy.”

As far as Tsumi knew, their landing spot had been chosen mostly randomly when Karna brought them out of the dimensional rift and into the atmosphere of their destination. They’d picked a large enough clearing that their huge airship could set down, and the clearing was on the border between grasslands and a large forest dotted by some mountains. The star of this world was quite dim, so the world itself was cast in what looked like a constant twilight when it was not plunged into the darkness of night. Or it would be twilight if the sky had not been covered in thick storm clouds, which were releasing a slow but consistent drizzle that would get everything soaking wet quite quickly. Strong winds were also buffeting them and making the nearby trees sway in ways that almost tore them out of the ground.

“You say that, but I find this place quite pleasant. The shadow element is really strong in this world.” Arjuna argued with a pleased expression. “Besides, we aren’t here on a vacation. Just because a world is potentially filled with resources, that doesn’t mean it’s also a pleasant place to live.”

“Quite right. This world is actually quite inhospitable all things considered. Or at least that’s what I gathered from the quick glance I got of the place before we landed. On that note, I would avoid flying any vessels too far south. From what I sensed, the equator of this world is covered in what looks like a perpetual storm, and the winds there are probably on a level that requires some heavy defensive spells to survive. By extension, the rest of this world is quite windy as well.” Karna explained.

She could also learn a lot from just observing the surroundings. All the trees and plants were relatively short and flexible while having long and strong roots, hinting at the fact that strong winds and storms were the norm on this world and not the exception. Many of the trees were also filled with lightning energy, which suggested that thunder and lightning strikes were a common phenomenon. “Besides, you’ve already been here for several minutes and you haven’t noticed the most significant difference between this world and many others. Try drawing power from the surroundings.”

The two of them glanced at Karna curiously before doing what she had told them. It did not take more than a second for them to realize the difference. “The air is so thick with power, yet I have trouble drawing it in. This is…” Tsumi already knew the reason as Karna had hinted at it several times in the past.

“The power in the air is too pure.” Arjuna had also started purifying his mana and ki on Karna’s instruction, which was why he could channel the mana in the air though only barely. “Divine power?”

"In a way," Karna said a bit non-committaly. "The name is a bit deceptive. Just like the spiritual power of the Higher Planes, this is the ambient power of the Divine Planes. Most call it divine power, because of course they would as they lack imagination, but the name is deceptive in that it doesn’t really have much to do with any Divinities or gods. This isn’t holy power or anything, just very pure ambient power that occurs naturally. This power is also not quite at the level of the Divine Planes since this world is only halfway between the planes."

To her with her supremely pure mana and Aura the power she could sense was much more beneficial than the ambient power of the Higher Planes. As her nature was also that of a Godling, she benefitted more from this power just by her nature. If she focused on cultivation, she would grow in power dozens of times faster here than on any other world in the Higher Planes and could probably rise to the sixth rank in a matter of months instead of years. The problem was that she did not have the time to waste on just sitting around and cultivating.

On the other hand, for people like Arjuna and Tsumi, the purity of the ambient mana was actually a problem since it was purer than their own mana. It was hard to take in and process. That was also the reason why many newly Ascended immortals had such trouble once they reached the Divine Planes. They would have to refine and rebuild most of their cultivation and learn new techniques to utilize the ambient power in proper ways. That was how most of them ended up as members of the Host, as the military arm of the Divines would help new immortals deal with these issues in exchange for service. The new immortals were free to refuse, at least in theory, but most could not because it would take such a long time to deal with the problems. And that entire time they would be vulnerable, where most of them were used to being the top dogs of wherever they came from. The change in status was simply too much to bear without the support of the Host.

“This might be a bit of a problem. It’s going to take more time for us to regain any mana we spend.” Tsumi noticed the problem immediately. Cultivators regenerated much of their mana internally, but a decent portion of their regeneration was also from taking in the ambient power.

"True, but you've already gained something from coming here. Now you know why you must purify your mana as I told you. You have actual experience with what to expect and have a goal to aim towards. By the time you've purified your mana to the point that you can match the ambient power here, you'll be ready to Ascend anyway. Just the act of purifying your mana will push you over that edge." Karna encouraged the two.

“While you’re mostly right, I think we should get to what we came here for. I believe you promised that there would be some great resources and treasures to find.” Arjuna urged his daughter with a smile. “And I don’t believe for a second that you chose this landing spot at random.”

Karna laughed cheerily. The years they had spent as a family had not been in vain as Arjuna knew her so well. “Follow me.”

She started walking into the forest while shielding herself and the other two with a weird field of power that seemed to obscure their presence. “First things first, the trees around us. Use your senses to take a better look.”

“I don’t recognize the species but…” Arjuna stroked his thin beard in thought. “They’re filled with power, especially air, lightning, and darkness mana and they conduct mana extremely well. The wood is flexible but durable, making it a good building material. Especially if we can make it more rigid by other methods. This material would make the perfect airships or bows even as is. It would also be an excellent luxury good for other wood-carving projects.”

“The fruits! While small, they’re filled to the brim with power as well.” Tsumi realized. “I can’t wait to see what kind of potions they could be used to make.”

“You can have the crew to harvest some later. We shouldn’t stock up too much on these kinds of materials just yet when the best is still to come. Besides, we’ll need to deal with the local fauna beforehand.” Karna suggested. The ship was currently filled to the brim with storage artifacts as they were planning on plundering everything they could.

“Fauna?” Tsumi asked while sending her senses outwards, coming up with nothing. She frowned as she knew there must be something she was missing as Karna would not have said anything otherwise.

“You’ll find out.” Karna grinned while walking further into the forest.

They soon came to an opening in the forest as a large pond stretched out in front of them. Even without any mana-sight active, they could all see the mana visibly oozing from the pond, and the water itself almost seemed to have all the colors of the rainbow. Most of the pond was also covered in multicolored waterlilies with each petal shining with the color and power of a different element. If the surface of the pond seemed wondrous, then what was beneath the surface was shocking. The sheer power of different elements that they could sense was almost overpowering to their senses, and Arjuna and Tsumi could not fathom how they did not feel the presence of the pond before.

“Are those…seven-colored elemental lilies? Wait, there are more than seven elements present. Eight- and even nine- colored?” Tsumi asked in a hushed tone. These types of lilies were the ingredients in some of the most powerful and rare pills and potions alchemists could make in the Higher Planes, and that was just the seven-colored lilies. She couldn’t even estimate the price and potency of the lilies on top of the pond. You could buy entire countries for the price of just one or two.

“Karna, please tell me that I’m sensing correctly. Are those really pure elemental essences at the bottom of the pond?” Arjuna paid attention to the more important fact. Essences of sufficient purity were extremely rare and pricy as they were used by mages to attune to elements. As a Grand Medjai, Arjuna was of course attuned to all the elements he was strong in, but even he wasn’t attuned to all of them. Most mages had to settle for sub-par essences and worse attunements. And now he could sense thousands of pure essences beneath the surface. Thunder, water, and shadow essences were obvious just because of the location, but he could sense earth, air, space, and time essences as well. And there were two which he didn’t recognize at a glance. One was probably True Light that he’d seen Karna and some of the Wardens of the Academy use, but the last one…could it be the fabled True Dark?

“Well, purity is a relative thing. They’re extremely pure for the Higher Planes, but there are even better essences.” Karna replied. For example, the ones she’d gotten from the elemental spirits during her visit to the spirit world. Which reminded her, she still needed to take care of her end of the bargain.

“We’ll need to harvest all of this carefully.” Tsumi swallowed hard. Just this find alone was enough to make the trip worth it, and they’d been here less than an hour.

“Indeed. We don’t want to waste their potency. Tsumi should focus on the lilies while Arjuna takes care of the essences.” Karna nodded in agreement. It was all well and good to find rare resources. Gathering them could be much more difficult.

“What about you?” Tsumi asked, suddenly suspicious.

“Me?” Karna looked at her master with faked innocence. “I just want the water.” She pulled out a spatial ring from her sleeve. She had a long magical chain in both her sleeves, and both chains had a long row of spatial rings hanging from them. She’d made the rings herself, all in preparation for stealing anything worthy.

“Ah.” Arjuna suddenly made a sound. “I think I just found the local fauna. One of my shadows just got destroyed.” He’d sent shadow scouts into the area around them as a precaution.

“Took you long enough. I was wondering when you’d notice.” Karna laughed.

“Well, the enemies are quite adept at hiding their presence.” He defended himself as suddenly the forest around them was filled with the noise of chittering and clacking. In seconds, hundreds of crystalline figures were rushing towards them from the tree line.

“Ugh. I hate spiders.” Tsumi commented before sending a thick bolt of lightning at the closest wave of spiders. To her surprise, the bolt of energy seemed to be absorbed by the crystal on the creature’s back that started glowing with the new power. “Ah. Right. Storms. Of course they’d have some way to defend from lightning.”

"Also from shadow, fire, air, and pretty much anything that doesn't have the destructive power to crack their shells," Karna added with a chipper tone.

“So, the usual adventuring fare then. Just keep your wits about you and you’ll be fine.” Arjuna stated firmly as hundreds of large shadow warriors appeared from the ground around him that now seemed to have become pitch-black. As if to defy Karna’s words, the closest soldier plunged his black lance straight into the head of the closest spider. “And just because they’re resistant, that doesn’t mean they’re immune.” He wouldn’t have gotten the nick-name Shadow-Weaver if simple resistance had been enough to nullify his greatest asset.

"Don't get too complacent though. These are just the closest danger. There are much more dangerous creatures in the surroundings." Karna reminded them, though it wasn't necessary. Both Arjuna and Tsumi were professionals with a lot of experience under their belt. They wouldn't be caught off-guard easily.

------

“It seems following the girl and Arjuna was the right idea.” Ashanti smiled happily as their airship set down on the dark and shadowy planet. “Good work disciple.” They’d managed to sneak a tracking spell on Arjuna’s ship and Karna had piloted the perfect path through the turbulent spatial forces to this world.

“My thanks, master.” Shaheera made a small bow. It wasn’t hard to figure out that wherever Karna was sneaking off to would be significant. Karna always seemed to be mixed right in the thick of things. “Was it a good idea to not follow them to the north?” He asked as the Leonid crew hand-picked by Ashanti started disembarking. Most of them had received training either from Ashanti directly, or from those that he had taught. The area was already showing signs of a sandstorm, so erecting shelter was also a priority.

“Hard to say. It might be that we missed on something really important by not following them, but I refuse to believe they knew exactly where to go to find the greatest treasures. Otherwise, there would be no need for exploration. And even if they did, I can already sense this entire place is filled with things we can benefit from. Sometimes it’s better not to get too greedy. They can take the north of the storm while we take the south. We can both focus on looting instead of fighting each other for what might not even be the juiciest bits this world has to offer. Odds are that we have an equal chance to run into the best things here in the south anyway. Besides, we’ll need that girl’s help if we want to find our way back as easily as we got here. Best not to create trouble with her.” Ashanti was all about win-win deals, and this sounded just like a win-win deal to him. They could fight over the best loot later when they returned.

“Sir! We’ve located an enormous vein of spirit stones beneath the sand! The purity of every stone is on a scale that we’ve never seen before. Sir, we’re pretty sure there are gravity stones among the biggest deposits!” One of the crew members that had started running a magical survey of the dark desert sand beneath their feet reported.

“See? I told you.” Ashanti had a feral grin. Decent quality gravity stones were perfect for the cores of airships. A big enough gravity stone could keep even a ship-of-the-line afloat and thus more magic could be directed to weapons and defensive magic. It also allowed for bigger and faster ships. “Start excavating immediately while broadening the search perimeter.” They would mine the best parts of the vein using earth magic while at the same time looking for more things to loot. More traditional mining was better for the economy of the area as using magic carried a lot of waste, but they weren’t here to settle down. This was a smash and grab to loot as much as possible before running away.

“Incoming!” One of the mages shouted and pointed towards the ominous wall of storm clouds that stretched all the way from the sky to the ground where the strong winds pulled up debris and sand. They'd landed quite close to the perpetual storm in the north, and the area around the equator was like a solid wall made of hurricane-level winds and storms circling the planet. And from that wall, several bright forms were emerging.

"Elementals. How quaint. Their presence in this sort of place isn't exactly a huge surprise. We can see lightning elementals but be ready for air elementals as well. Those buggers can be almost invisible. Also, be on the lookout for earth elementals coming from under us!” Ashanti ordered, and the entire group of Leonid moved like a well-oiled machine as everyone took their positions.

“We’ve only been here for few minutes and we’re already under attack. I wonder if we’ll have to fight constantly while we stay on this world.” Shaheera speculated.

“That’s a gloomy outlook. I think once we show that we’re not easy prey, most of the local creatures will leave well enough alone. Of course, that’s the point when we’ll start drawing the attention of the really dangerous creatures lurking on this world. But with risk comes reward. The locals are the best source of information as well. The biggest and baddest monsters will be perched on top of the greatest treasures as well.” Ashanti had a much more positive outlook.