The further I float down into the square-shaped hole, the more prominent the upward flow of Qi becomes.
The temperature grows slowly as I continue to fall hundreds of meters underground, watching the ladder fly by on my right side, and begin seeing a faint white glow beneath me.
The black stone that makes up the walls begin to change in composition, shifting from just regular dark stone to the same jet black material the monastery in the platinum district is made of.
I allow a finger to touch the stone to my left as I float further down, and my system flickers as my touch glosses over layers of the mana-negating stone.
The interesting thing I find when I do this is, my Soul Energy is not negated at all. Even though it is technically half part mana, the fusion of this energy with Qi has created a new source of power that is not negated by the black stone.
As I fall further down, the mana-negating material grows more and more abundant until nearly 100% of the rock surrounding me consists of this stone.
My feet gently hit the bottom of the incredibly long shaft, to the point where I can't even see the surface.
My body is flooded with dense Qi.
Nearly 20x as dense as the Qi inside the monastery, but still nowhere near the levels that the Qi density reached inside the isolation pods when we saturated and destroyed them to push their limits.
Still, as I take a step forward, I can feel immense amounts of Qi flow through me. It feels as if just standing in here could fill my core up to full in a few hours with minimal effort if it were empty.
The steel ladder stops right at the ground level where my feet have landed and the thin shaft has opened up to a medium-sized cave opening.
There are jagged black rocks on the walls, floor, and ceiling, but the faint white glow that fills the cave makes my vision extra clear.
There are small areas where white flowers grow inside the rocks, and as I walk forward and turn the first corner in this cave, I see the source of all this Qi.
Dozens of long white crystals emerge from the black rock.
More and more of the delicate white flowers grow near these gems, and as I use my Soul Energy to stare deep into the crystal stones, I can sense thousands of Qi pills worth of energy inside each one.
They each slowly disperse warm energy into the air at a constant rate, but for some reason, it feels as if the source of this energy is not dwindling even though the rate at which they let the stored energy flows out is rather extreme.
I take steps closer to the nearest cluster of crystals, and at the same time, sense my teammates floating down to follow me.
I stare at the crystals in wonder, waving my hands around in the air to push the densest form of energy around that comes directly off the crystals, even bringing my fingers close enough to the point where I'm about to touch one of the white treasures.
Monk's voice rings out and his head pops around the corner before I do.
"Wait! Just wait! Do you know what you're about to do?"
I pause and pull my hand back, turning to him as Ember follows behind him, and the sound of the others falling down the narrow hole sound in my ear.
"No... I guess not. I don't know exactly what these are, but I can make a good guess."
Monk nods while walking over, and based on his tone and expression, touching the crystals isn't a good idea. I feel no danger coming off of them, if anything it feels like I'd be able to absorb its power even faster. However, listening to whatever he has to say will most likely be a better move.
"These are Qi fragments. The leftover energy source of the originators. Once fragments are touched by human hands like ours, the eternal flow of power will cease."
He turns his head to the back of the cave and points to a portion of the wall where about 6 clear crystals jut out from the stone. They look just like worthless glass, and don't have any more power coming out from them.
"That is what happens when a fragment is drained by a selfish and impatient entity. My guess is those ruined fragments are the product of the Dark One's greed."
His gaze turns to the other 30+ fragments of still glowing crystals and smiles with a glow in his eyes.
"If left untouched, it is said that one can gather the Qi radiation for an eternity. Its power is limitless if left in its natural resting place. We have 2 medium-sized crystals beneath the monastery. We have been using its power for decades without their supplies wavering at all."
Ember walks over to join the conversation.
"It's true. Disrupting a fragment will expel all of its energy at once, it would not be of any use to us now. Leaving them in their natural state and cultivating or capturing their excess energy would be a far more productive method."
I look around the open cave area as my other teammates all arrive, and Monk reexplains his points to them so they don't accidentally touch anything they shouldn't.
I take a stroll around and come to a conclusion.
"Good. This area needs to be well guarded. It will only be accessed by us for closed door cultivation as needed, as well as Qi pill manufacturing."
I turn to Monk.
"Considering there are far over 10x the amount of crystals here as there are in your fortress, does this mean you'll be able to secure 10x as much usable Qi without diminishing the source?"
He nods.
"That is exactly right."
I cross my arms and smile while breathing in even more of the dense Qi in the air.
"Perfect."
Everyone else does the same, taking in the beautiful sight, and letting the natural Qi flow through our bodies with its calming aftereffects.
The cave area isn't too large, so it's easy to search every bit of it and locate all of the crystals and log their locations before we leave.
The way back up is a bit faster, because we just use soul energy and Qi to push ourselves up, rather than limiting the fall speed on the way down.
Once we're all back in the lobby, Lith is still mesmerized by the control box at the back of the room.
I speak as I come back up and he turns.
"Alright, we have a new plan here. There's no question about it, I need that control box moved to the Galeheart tower, and this building needs to be renovated and double mana-shielded to give no one access other than the people in this room here. There are delicate resources down there that need to be dealt with by the correct parties, I don't want any of your men inside there either. No one enters this building but us. That's a very serious order."
Lith nods, and I continue.
"The other two towers, I do not care what happens to them. Strip them down from top to bottom to reuse the shielding, build more Galeheart infrastructure in them, do whatever you want. However, this tower is all mine."
As everyone comes up from below, he feels the seriousness of the matter instantly and replies.
"Of course. The shielding on those two buildings is worth a fortune. We'll make sure to secure this building to your liking and give you the only key inside. We can even make some of the floors above this one more presentable and accessible. Consider it your private fortress in Valor City."
I give a thumbs up while using earth magic bonded with red soul energy to cover the square opening in the center of the building, then respond.
"Perfect. Some extra renovations would be excellent, but no one is allowed in this lobby during construction unless you're watching to make sure no one tinkers with this sealed off underground path."
He nods.
"Understood."
"Great. My business here today is done. I'll be getting started on those 6 large foreign trade deal orders now. This was a very productive visit."
We all walk outside, and I continue seeing Lith's men start their jobs as instructed, transporting people from the second tower and start sorting loot from the first tower, then soon after begin dismantling the emptied-out towers for their raw mana-shielding materials.
Their teamwork and professionalism is impressive.
Lith has been building this team for many years, but it is still something I aspire to turn my workforce back in Sector 2 into soon.
We make it back to the Galeheart tower and give our goodbyes again before using the elevator down to the Red Ogre dungeon and using my dungeon walker skill to make it back to the canyon of dungeons.
As we're making it back to the town, Maria speaks up.
"You know, we need to get one of those teleport platforms like Lith has. It'll be a lot easier to get around... and to have guests without you having to be our personal chauffeur."
I laugh a bit, and reply.
"Totally agree. I'm going to get these trade deals sorted today, and hopefully get our transportation problem fixed too. Soon, we'll be able to travel anywhere in the world and have transport crystals to come right back here. I'll consult the person that knows how to get it done tonight."
Everyone overhears this conversation and is excited for this change.
We make it back and go our separate ways for the day.
Lydia and Fisher meet up with the army recruits and enjoy the rest of the day off together. One of my doubles stays with them, and I plan to start their new training regime tomorrow.
Monk goes back to check on his master.
Abby and Maria set off to explore the town a bit, and take the night off.
Arie speaks before he turns away from the group to meet up with Luna who has been looking over the town while we were gone.
"I hope to set out with Luna tomorrow to Sector 4. We want to begin our investigation into the abyss, to find what happened to the lost remains of our village."
I give him a handshake and a grin.
"Of course, thank you for waiting. Your help in the war was needed. I'll give you two a ride first thing in the morning if that's where you wish to go. I hope you find what you're looking for."
He shakes my hand back, then him and Luna go off to enjoy their night as well.
I'm left standing with Ember as we walk toward the construction team workers finishing up building a new street of small empty shops on the opposite side of town.
I relay my goals of creating even more housing, roads to nearby smaller villages all over Sector 2 and nearby Sectors to expand trade, a reconstruction of the center guild hall in the city to make it more presentable and professional and even a small prison system to reform people like the 21 workers that have been slaving away under the spell of a suggestion elixir.
I'd like for them in to pay for their wrongdoings and come out as regular citizens after they've faced their time rather than being branded as bad forever. This will be an important function of society once more people come to live here. No one is perfect, there will be people that make mistakes, but there will always be consequences equal to those mistakes in the form of punishments as well.
After this brief explanation of the town's future, he agrees to come up with an even larger order of materials by tomorrow to fulfill for him as soon as possible for expansion.
Ember and I float back over to the canyon of dungeons as the sun starts to set for the day.
I use my concealments skill and items to change my appearance, then we dungeon walk to the black market dungeon hub beneath Vice City.
With an item storage full of multi-nation trade deal papers, and 6 fragments of luminite ready to be used in a series of rare crafts; Ember and I walk toward the entrance of Bri's workshop.
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Author's Note:
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