Alira raised her hand slowly, staring at her glowing palm. "So we’re in danger again?"
Treasures always co with danger and risk.
"Not unless another person shows up." Derek’s gaze grew serious. "And that’s close to impossible. This place splits everyone apart when they enter. You could search for years and not find anyone else. It’s ant for trials and recovery."
Kaelen let out a breath. "So how many hours do we have?"
Derek smirks. "No, not hours but exactly three days. Then we will be kicked out, no matter what. That’s how this realm works."
Derek shifted, trying to sit up straighter despite the exhaustion weighing down his body.
"Listen closely. I won’t be moving much. That last fight had drained . And Neal will be staying here too. We’ll grind this floor down to powder. If we take so of it ho, we can slow-feed it into our cultivation."
He stomped gently on the white floor. "This stuff is priceless."
Neal nodded.
Derek smiled again and nodded in approval. "Smart. But I want the other two searching."
Kaelen tilted his head. "Huh?"
"You and Alira." Derek looked at them both. "I want you to go out, search the outer reaches. This place doesn’t just give XP, it hides treasures too. Seeds, crystals, cores, weapons... all ancient, all valuable. Anything you find in this place its all priceless treasures."
Alira still looked hesitant. "What if sothing attacks?"
"Nothing will." Derek’s voice was certain. "There are no monsters here. Just relics buried in the light."
Kaelen stretched his arms. "I’m in. I need the XP. I’m still the weakest one here."
Neal snorted. "You were. Not anymore."
Alira stood slowly, brushing dust off her cloak. "I’ll go too. I owe you guys."
Kaelen looked at her, then turned to Derek. "Do we split up?"
"You’ll cover more ground that way." Derek looked at them with his usual calm expression. "Three days. Every minute counts."
Kaelen nodded.
So did Alira.
And like that, the plan was set.
Derek and Neal began breaking the white ground into fine, glowing powder, storing it into special containers Neal summoned from his system storage.
Kaelen and Alira walked to the edge of the white expanse, where the light grew softer and the mist began to part.
Before they split, Kaelen gave Alira a soft grin. "Wanna race?."
Alira raised an eyebrow. "Don’t get cocky."
Then they turned in opposite directions, one heading west, the other east, toward the glowing unknown.
Neal slamd his heel into the glowing white floor. A clean crack echoed through the air. With practiced hands, he broke off a chunk the size of a plate and used a dagger to chip it into smaller pieces, each about the size of a pebble.
He dropped the fragnts into the special container, satisfied. "That’s about two kilos right there."
Behind him, Derek groaned. "Stop. Stop. Stop!"
Neal blinked. "What? I’m just speeding things up."
Derek stood up slowly, limping toward him. His face was serious. "That’s not how this works. We can’t take it like that."
Neal tilted his head. "Why not? It’s the sa floor."
Derek pointed at the fragnts. "Not to the outside world. Only fully processed items leave this realm. If you want to bring this floor back with us, you need to finish it. Fully."
Neal frowned. "aning?"
Derek crouched next to one of the glowing patches he had been working on earlier. He picked up a handful of sothing that looked like white dust, almost like powdered snow, but soft and smooth as silk.
"This," he said. "Only this."
Neal reached out and touched it. The powder lted slightly against his fingers, warm and oddly alive.
"It’s like mana powder."
"No." Derek shook his head. "It’s purer than mana. You could grind a thousand years and never get sothing like this in the real world."
Neal stood still, thoughtful. "So how do we make this?"
"Manually," Derek said with a sigh. "No magic. No aura. If we use mana, even just a bit, the energy here will reject it. It’ll spoil. All that effort will go to waste."
Neal stared at his hands. "So we just... grind it?"
Derek nodded. "We grind. We polish. We filter it with our bare hands."
And so, they began.
It was slow. Painfully slow.
They knelt on the floor, using flat stones they had shaped earlier to rub the white ground down bit by bit. At first, it felt like trying to grind marble. The surface resisted, as if alive, as if it knew they were trying to steal its essence.
Each handful they shaved off had to be filtered again, removing flakes, specks, anything too large or uneven.
It took over an hour just to produce 100 grams of fine powder.
"I didn’t an to complain but Gods," Neal muttered, sweat running down his forehead. "This is worse than fieldwork back ho and this will take forever."
Neal was a noble but not the kind of nobles who just stays at his pretty palace and waits for their people and servants to do everything for them.
The Throdan were quite strict and their origin roots back to being commoners before they beca a powerful noble household, so they still practice and every mber has to learn how to farm or the ways of a commoner. Not even the Head of the family was exempted.
But this slow process of grinding was too much even for Neal who was very patience in his work.
Derek smiled faintly. "But it’s worth it. One gram of this could strengthen soone’s foundation more than a decade of training."
Neal wiped his brow. "And we’ve got... what? Three days?"
Derek nodded. "Three days. So pace yourself. We’ll take turns grinding and filtering."
Neal hopelessly sighs.
They worked in shifts.
While one ground the floor, slowly and carefully, the other would sift the powder, spreading it on smooth slabs and using soft cloths to rub away impurities.
They weren’t allowed to be careless. The mont they tried to speed things up, the powder would lose its glow, turn gray, and crumble like ash.
Each ti that happened, Derek would sigh, pick up the ruined dust, and toss it into the air.
"Start again."
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