Chapter 30 – Let’s go farming! Or not?

Sitting on the ground waiting in patience, Jefferson curled up his lip whilst staring at two butterflies hovering a few inches away from his nose. “Shuu Shuu away,” he said, blowing out air on them. He then laid on the ground and complained like an old man. “I cannot believe this! How can they be so indecisive?!! Is it that freaking hard to pick up a location?!”

Few metres away from him, Nick and Kane seemed cut off from reality, immersing themselves into the sea of maps that surrounded them.

“This cave looks promising enough, what do you think?”

“Hoho, what about this one? It’s giving me that mystery vibe!”

“Wait! Look at this! It seems so big!”

“You think that’s large? What about this gigantic cave I just found on this map?!”

Jefferson sighed, shaking his head at them in incredulity. “It’s useless! I’ll just have to patiently wait until they’re finished with this trumpery!” He then brought out one of his carrots and took a bite. “What an odd group I’ve found myself mingled with! Two map loving nerds and one weird overpowered girl… and thinking of whom, where did she go? Meh, not like—whuuoaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!”

Out of nowhere, the intruding head of a loveable squirrel appeared, almost touching Jefferson’s face. This frightened Jefferson, who screamed like a little girl. On the other hand, this temporary distraction proved the perfect opportunity for the adorable squirrel. Thanks to its swift body movement, it stole Jefferson’s carrot, then joyfully fled away.

“St-stupid squirrel!! That’s my freaking carrot!! Give it back you little pest!!!” Jefferson cried in shock, struggling to bring himself to stand up. He was about to commence pursuit but the squirrel had already disappeared, god-knows-where.

Kane and Nick looked at each other with an amused expression, then they burst out in laughter. Jefferson, who was already pissed off, felt vexed by their laughs. “Haaaa… haaaa… sooo freaking funny!!!”

However, Jefferson rantings did nothing to lessen their laughter. They kept snickering at their heart content, until being interrupted by a distant shout.

“Kyaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhh!!!!!”

Kiona’s sudden screaming voice alarmed the trio, as Nick soared up using force, blowing away all the maps and forcing Kane to cover up his face from the dust. Nick flew straight towards the location of the shout, with both Kane and Jefferson worried about what might have happened to her, their heartbeats accelerating.

It didn’t take long for Nick to reappear again, holding Kiona in his arms. Her entire body trembled, her eyes filled with tears as sweat began forming on her face.

“What happened?!” Kane asked with a concerned expression. “Her hand!! Why is it violet?!!”

Nick seemed worried, snatching out his storage device, then taking out a pill and a yellowish looking bottle. He assisted her to swallow the pill, then poured the liquid of the bottle on her tender hand.

“Relax yourself Kiona. The poison will hurt for a while but it is now under control. You just need to rest for a few hours until your body recovers.” Nick comforted her whilst bringing out a resting bed from his device.

Kiona smiled, then with a lot of effort laid on her resting bed. “Th-thanks, Nick… why me… feeling too cold…” She said whilst her fragile looking eyes began to close.

“It’s the poison’s induced fever. I have administered the antidote, you just need to rest now,” Nick explained.

The severity of this powerful poison had shocked Jefferson. “Nick, did you kill the animal that poisoned her?”

Nick sat down on the ground, playing with his moustache. “It’s not an animal, it’s a flower. One of the rarest ones too. People of this planet call it the ‘Venomous tongue’ and is considered one of the most poisonous flowers in the entire galaxy!” He then let out a sigh. “Off to a bad start! We now have to wait for her recovery before we can go and farm those crystals!”

“Why? Can’t we start the exercise already?” Jefferson asked.

“Apathetic brat, your companion needs healing! It is my duty as invigilator to stay here and protect her!” Nick replied.

“I know! I meant me and Kane, it’s getting boring waiting here doing nothing!”

“Out of the question!! It’s too dangerous for you two to go alone! Look, I distracted myself for a few minutes and one of you already got injured!”

“Hey! Since when crystal farming became so hazardous?! What danger could there be?” Jefferson was trying his best to convince him. “Besides, who would dare to harm a disciple of the great Bordas clan?”

Nick frowned at Jefferson’s stubbornness, then sighed. “Fine! Fine! I’ll allow you to go there—”

“That’s great! Hey Kane, let’s head out!”

“Wait a second you brat! I’m not finished yet!” said Nick, bringing out a communication device. Jefferson instantly understood Nick’s intentions. He reached out his arm, then used his powers to attract the device, which landed over his hands.

“You are only allowed to go to that mountain ridge over there,” Nick said.

“Understood! Thanks Nick!” Jefferson said, expressing an evil grin as soon as he turned his back on him.

Kane expressed a weird look towards Jefferson. “Are you sure we will be fine? What if we get ganged by an army of squirrels?”

“Hoho! Hoho! Good one Kane! Hoho!” Nick laughed.

Jefferson frowned comically, then babbled something to himself in annoyance, with the words ‘stupid’ and ‘squirrels’ the only ones making sense. “You two… Come on Kane! Move your lazy ass already!!”

Kane laughed, before saluting Nick and followed after Jefferson. The duo then began walking towards the mountain ridge, with Jefferson stopping at times to check the current distance from Nick.

Kane noticed this and asked, “What are you planning?”

“Shusshh! Don’t turn around as well or he will notice! Here, take a look at this map!”

Kane grabbed the map. “What’s this map?”

“It’s a secret map, one of the many documents that I had stolen from the archives of my clan! It pinpoints the location of a particular mountain ridge. All the marked caves should contain countless of crystals!”

Kane inspected the map for a while then uttered, “This doesn’t look like the mountain ridge we are heading to?”

“Yeh, I know! It is a different ridge, not that far from here.”

Kane felt uneasy. “But we promised Nick…”

“Come on! Don’t be a pussy! Aren’t we two proud fighters of the Royal Academy? What is there to worry about?!” Jefferson rebuked.

They kept walking for a while until Jefferson came to a halt. “This distance should be enough…” He opened his storage device and brought out a jet booster, much to Kane’s horror.

“The hell! I’m not riding one of those!”

Jefferson expressed an irritated face and pointed his hand. “Fine, you can always walk. Move in that direction. Meet ya in 10 hours.”

Kane was stunned. “You’re joking right??!!”

“Just hop on it you wuss! I hate these things myself, but I still prefer them then walking such a long distance!”

In the end, Kane had no other choice but to surrender his stance. They both rode on the jet booster, which swiftly elevated up. Unlike the ride with Laydon, this one was much smoother.

“See? It’s not that bad after all!” Jefferson said.

After travelling with the jet booster for half an hour, they finally arrived at the bottom of the small mountain ridge. The top of the mountains were covered with fresh snow, whilst the remaining parts were brown coloured with some vegetation here and there. Several caves could be seen scattered around.

“Hey Kane, select a cave from the map. Let’s get this shit done.”

Kane inspected the map, then asked, “Hey Jeff, why is there a cave marked with two circles and dot instead of an ‘x’ mark?”

“Eeeee? Let me see!” Jefferson snatched back the map and carefully examined the mark. “What the feck is this…?” He pondered, moving the map closer to his eye to examine it better. After a while, he suddenly yelled, “Wow, it’s a drawing of a boob!”

“Ehhh???!!!” Kane replied.

“I don’t know and don’t ask me! I’m curious myself to know why there is such a drawing! Let’s check this cave first!”

Jefferson instantly changed direction and headed towards the ‘boob’ marked cave, before finally landing on a narrow pathway in front of the cave. He then stored back his jet booster into his device.

Both of them walked inside the cave, which at first glance looked pretty normal and uninteresting. Then they began their search for the crystals. They spent two hours examining the cave’s walls for crystals, walking deeper and deeper. At one point, Jefferson stopped and itched his head. “This is strange, this cave should have had countless of crystals!”

“Hey Kane! Brace yourself!” Jefferson shouted out of the blue. He accumulated energy over his hands, forming a powerful magnetic wave, which he smashed directly against the wall, creating a potent impact that left a crater the size of a human.

Kane struggled to protect himself from the powerful blast. When the dust receded, he stared at Jefferson with shocked eyes. The strength of the magnetic wave was at least twice more powerful than the ones Marcus Junior created back then. Kane understood that if a blast of that size had to hit him, he would end up maimed for life.

Jefferson began checking the crater for any hints of crystals. After a few minutes of searches, he frowned. “It’s useless, there is nothing to be found here! I suggest we leave for—”

“Hey Jeff! I’ve found something! Over here!”

Jefferson’s eyes shone with excitement. “That’s great! I’m coming!” He shouted, sprinting towards Kane. When Jefferson arrived, he experienced the biggest shock of his life.

On the floor, next to Kane’s feet, there was a large violet crystal.

Jefferson looked at Kane with his mouth open, seemingly not believing that all of this was real. “It’s a violet crystal! It’s a freaking violet crystal!!!” Jefferson screamed whilst grabbing Kane from his shoulders, shaking him violently. “We have found a violet crystal! Woohoooo we’re rich! We’re freaking rich!! Woohoooo!”

Jefferson celebrated and danced around Kane. Upon seeing Jefferson’s festive mood, Kane couldn’t help but laugh at him.

“Time to pick this crystal out!” Jefferson screamed in delight whilst lowering himself to reach the crystal. As soon as he touched it, the unexpected occurred.

Jefferson’s touch triggered a hidden door mechanism under the floor, opening up a tunnel. Both Kane and Jefferson were caught by surprise, as they fell through the hole and straight into the long slanting tunnel, amidst their screams. After a long descend, they exited the tunnel and crashed on the floor below.

“Urghh!!! My head!!” Kane said, holding his head.

“Ouch!!! My butt!!” Jefferson yelled, pressing his butt.

Kane stood up straightaway and started exploring his surroundings. They found themselves in a large underground bronze construction, with towering walls covered with flush vegetation. Engraved on the walls were several crystals of different shapes and colours. Light rays penetrated from the various cracks and holes located on the roof of the construction, enough to light up the entire building.

Kane and Jefferson were at the start of a narrow pathway that connected with several platforms, whilst the rest was empty space. If they had to fall off from the pathway, they would end up dropping in a bottomless abyss.

“Jeff, what is this place?” Kane remained staring completely stunned at the sight before him.

Jefferson stood up, still holding his lower back. “I can’t believe this!” Jefferson said as he slowly walked towards one of the edges of the pathway. “I’ve read about these ruins in history books before, but not in my wildest dreams I would have had ever imagined… that one day I would be seeing one with my very own eyes!”

“Ruins?” Kane asked.

“This place is a Grigullian Ruin!” Jefferson replied, his mind busy marveling the construction.

“Grigullians were intelligent reptilian-like creatures that ruled the southern parts of the galaxy millions of years ago. During that era, the Grigullian Empire flourished and was the dominant force of the galaxy. Their technology was top notch, much better than anything us humans dreamt back then.”

These words had shaken Kane’s mind. “What?!! There are other intelligent beings besides us humans?”

“There were, not anymore,” Jefferson said.

“During that time, we humans remained confined to our home planet; Planet Chain. Still, there were a number of freaking powerful immortals who managed to survive space flight, which enabled them to establish colonies on nearby planets. As time passed, various space fairing clans formed, consisting of several powerful immortals, which marked the start of the human empire. There were pretty badass!”

“At first both the Human Empire and the Grigullian Empire coexisted peacefully. However, things changed when a certain man appeared 20 million years ago. His name was Justin Crawford, a man with unprecedented strength, a man that had the ability to throw the entire galaxy into chaos.”

“He rebelled against the Government of Planet Chain, then proceeded in conquering all space faring clans, forming the Imperial Government and giving himself the title of the ‘Supreme Kanklar’. But he didn’t stop there. He created a powerful army and began advancing southwards, straight into Grigullian territory. Relationships between the two empires quickly deteriorated and a massive scale war broke out.”

“At first both sides were in a stalemate. The Grigullian Empire relied on their superior technology whilst the human empire counted on the raw powers of the Cultivation Centre. However, the Grigullians began finding it hard to deal with the most powerful immortals of the human empire. According to our history records, our powerful immortals were capable of surviving any attack that the Grigullian’s forces threw at them. Little by little, the Grigullians began losing ground, until their territory shrunk down to two sectors; the Southern and South Eastern Sectors.”

“When they sensed their looming defeat, the Grigullians lost their minds and turned into sadistic psychopaths. You know what those bastards did? They believed that if something wasn’t theirs, then nobody had the right to have it! They began destroying their own planets, unleashing powerful toxins on the remaining habitable planets, turning all planets in these sectors into barren wastes! They freaking wiped out billions of life forms!”

“Then the cowards retreated to their Homeworld and gathered all their remaining forces for one final defensive line. Yet, it was this very move that sealed their faith. After a massive assault by the human forces, we exterminated their sorry asses along with their home planet!”

Jefferson then began walking along the pathway, carefully examining each step he made. “Some of the Grigullian culture and technologies have survived to this present day. The language of the academics is the language the Grigullians used. The crystal technology is also something we stole from them.”

He then turned around to look at the thoughtful Kane. “Come! Follow me! We may be able to find something interesting in here, maybe something even more precious than that violet crystal!”

Kane nodded and began trailing behind him. After walking for a while, they arrived before a notice written in Grigullian language. Jefferson glanced at the notice and uttered, “What does this thing says?” He used his hand to clear the dust, revealing the words inscribed on it. He then read it out, “Welcome to the Grigullian Ascendency Ceremony.”