Elemental Crystal

Su Weiwei and Tang Ge both pushed their battle aura to its peak. Clear, resounding booms echoed through the cave as they used their battle aura to slice through the rocks, producing a piercing shriek that made Xia Ming cover his ears.

"It's almost done!" Xia Ming's eyes lit up.

"Rumble!" With a thunderous crash, the entire Earth Essence Gold vein broke through the ground. Su Weiwei and Tang Ge had been fairly meticulous in cutting away the rock, leaving the Earth Essence Gold remarkably intact.

The earthy yellow gleam left Tang Ge staring wide-eyed, practically ready to hug the Earth Essence Gold and drool over it.

For this chunk of Earth Essence Gold, Tang Ge had worn down his two-handed greatsword considerably and expended an enormous amount of battle aura, but it had all been worth it.

This Earth Essence Gold ore was even larger than Xia Ming had imagined, weighing at least five or six hundred jin. Once refined and forged, it would be enough to produce six sets of weapons and equipment. After all, each set only needed a fist-sized piece of Earth Essence Gold to raise its quality, and this ore was enough to forge six full sets.

"Th-this..." Tang Ge swallowed, gazing at Xia Ming eagerly.

After all, Xia Ming had contributed the most to this endeavor. Without him, they would never have found the mineral vein in the first place. More importantly, Xia Ming had broken through Scarlet Nightmare's illusory disguise; otherwise, they would not even have caught a glimpse of the Earth Essence Gold.

It could be said that without Xia Ming, the group would not have gotten so much as a drop of oil from this venture. Therefore, Xia Ming should be the one to decide how the Earth Essence Gold was divided. This was also one of the unspoken rules of the adventuring world.

Xia Ming smiled. This Adventurers' Guild mission had undoubtedly been exceptionally lucky, and both Tang Ge and Sherlock were good companions. Especially when the Earth Giant Lizard had appeared—Tang Ge had taken the initiative to cover Xia Ming and the others. That had left Xia Ming with an excellent impression of this Level Five Battle Master. He truly was a friend worth making.

Besides, without Tang Ge's original invitation, Xia Ming would never have had the chance to come here at all.

"Ah Tang, take one-sixth of the Earth Essence Gold here. It'll be enough to forge an entire set of warrior equipment," Xia Ming said with a smile.

Tang Ge's eyes brightened. He chuckled and clapped Xia Ming on the shoulder. "Good brother! From now on, anything that happens to you, Brother Xia Ming, is my business!" Just imagining a suit of armor and weapons forged from Earth Essence Gold was enough to make Tang Ge wildly excited.

After getting his share of the Earth Essence Gold, Tang Ge became so excited that he actually began singing at the top of his lungs in that cracked-gong voice of his, leaving Xia Ming utterly speechless.

Xia Ming then turned to Su Weiwei. The female knight remained peerlessly cool and aloof, her clear, starry eyes holding a distant air. Yet Xia Ming knew that Su Weiwei would certainly be interested in the Earth Essence Gold as well.

"Miss Weiwei, you can take one-sixth of the Earth Essence Gold too." Xia Ming nodded to Su Weiwei.

This time, Su Weiwei had at least generously given the saber-toothed tiger fangs to Xia Ming's group. Besides, when the Earth Giant Lizard had appeared, the female knight had stood alone at the rear to hold it back. Xia Ming could hardly be too stingy. Moreover, Su Weiwei was a super genius with immense potential. Building a good relationship with her now might bring unexpected rewards in the future.

"Thank you." The corners of Su Weiwei's lips curved slightly, as though a captivating radiance flowed across them. An indescribable spiritual grace blossomed around her like shimmering, flowing light. This was likely what it meant to enchant all living beings.

Xia Ming turned his gaze toward Sherlock and was just about to speak when Sherlock beat him to it. "Brother Xia Ming, there's no need to give me any. Earth Essence Gold isn't much use to me. If you really feel bad about it, just give me some gold coins later!"

Sherlock was no fool. Earth Essence Gold truly had limited use for a mage, so he might as well do Xia Ming a favor. Sherlock had already seen that Xia Ming was extraordinary. Rather than take useless Earth Essence Gold, he would be better off leaving Xia Ming with a good impression.

"All right." As if seeing through Sherlock's thoughts, Xia Ming agreed readily.

The Earth Essence Gold ore weighed around six hundred jin. After subtracting Tang Ge's and Su Weiwei's shares, there were still a full four hundred jin remaining.

At that point, Xia Ming began to worry. How were they supposed to carry so much ore back?

As though seeing Xia Ming's concern, Su Weiwei's cool voice rang out again. "I have a spatial ring. It can hold all of this Earth Essence Gold. If you trust me, you can put it with me."

Only then did Xia Ming notice the silver ring on Su Weiwei's right arm, fair as frost and snow. It sat upon her slender, nimble fingers. At first glance, the ring appeared ordinary, but upon closer inspection, its delicate craftsmanship became apparent.

A spatial ring!

Of course Xia Ming knew what a spatial ring did. In fact, spatial equipment was not particularly rare on the continent, but ordinary spatial rings had extremely limited capacity. A spatial ring capable of holding more than six hundred jin of Earth Essence Gold was exceedingly rare.

Xia Ming did not hesitate. "Then I'll have to trouble you, Miss Weiwei."

Su Weiwei said nothing. The silver ring on her finger merely flashed, swallowing up the Earth Essence Gold.

After the Earth Essence Gold had been divided, Xia Ming turned his gaze toward the deeper reaches of the mineral vein. A faint glimmer shone from within it, making his heart surge with excitement.

"There really is an accompanying magic gemstone!"

Xia Ming suppressed the wild joy in his heart and stared intently.

It was a hexagonal crystal roughly the size of a goose egg, giving off a faint icy-blue glow. Its facets were flawlessly smooth, and Xia Ming could almost see his own reflection within the six-sided crystal.

"It's an Elemental Crystal!" Xia Ming shouted inwardly.

An Elemental Crystal was an exceptionally precious magic gemstone. It contained terrifying amounts of mana and abundant magical elements, hence its name: Elemental Crystal.

Elemental Crystals were generally extraordinarily rare. Under normal circumstances, mages could only dream of using elemental gemstones. As for crystals, even Profound Meaning Mages above Level Eight rarely had any in stock.

Elemental Crystals had many wondrous uses—at least a dozen were recorded in the Book of Eternity—but their greatest use without question was this: concocting [Mana Source Potion] with an Elemental Crystal!

An Elemental Crystal was one of the primary ingredients needed to refine [Mana Source Potion], and the greatest characteristic of Mana Source Potion was that it could increase a mage's strength and mana!

For mages, mana was the source of everything. One could well imagine how important a potion like [Mana Source Potion] was. Not to mention that it could also improve a mage's strength—its value went without saying.

As it happened, the Book of Eternity recorded the method for concocting [Mana Source Potion], and Xia Ming had already mastered it completely. He could do it as easily as lifting a hand!

Just as he was about to sleep, someone had delivered him a pillow—there was simply nothing more comfortable than that. Xia Ming picked up the goose-egg-sized Elemental Crystal, gave it a shake, and said, "This magic gemstone is mine."

Naturally, neither Su Weiwei nor Tang Ge objected. To them, a magic gemstone was as tasteless as chicken ribs. As for Sherlock, his eye for treasures was not particularly keen, and unlike Xia Ming, he did not have a treasure like the Book of Eternity to guide him. He had not recognized it as a precious Elemental Crystal at all, so no one raised any objections.

The Elemental Crystal felt ice-cold in Xia Ming's hand, but his mood was incomparably bright. With this Elemental Crystal, [Mana Source Potion] was now within reach!