# Chapter 33: Peeping and Acceleration
And while the warrior set out, on the other side of time and space.
"Haha! I told you, with our strength, dealing with mere native Ultimate-rank is as easy as reaching into a bag!"
Hidden temporal coordinate, Super Large Rich Mana Vein Mine World No. 13, 'Superconductive Magic Silver World'.
The dark clouds had dispersed, the storm had ceased, and the thunder and lightning that had once rained down like a torrent had now turned into insignificant electrical currents, flowing across the rugged semi-metallic ground.
Five humanoid figures with explosive hairdos, their bodies charred black as if they had been roasted in an oven seven or eight times and then electrocuted by millions of volts, lay sprawled on the ground alongside a thunder jellyfish that was mostly dead, with only a few tentacles able to twitch slightly. In front of where they had all collapsed together was an irregular massive explosion crater, about a hundred meters wide, several hundred meters long, and over seventy meters deep at its deepest point.
And at the very center of this explosion crater, immersed in golden magma, was a breathtakingly beautiful, dangerous yet magnificent purple-blue energy crystal. This spherical energy crystal, with a radius of twelve meters, was releasing extremely dangerous mana arcs into its surroundings. One could see a random spray of mana arcs splashing from the crystal's surface, vaporizing a human-sized rock.
This dangerous yet beautiful energy crystal was none other than the final remains of the Overlord Thunder Elemental, an Ultimate-rank creature born from the atmospheric magnetic field of the Superconductive Magic Silver World.
Working together with the thunder jellyfish, which was naturally capable of controlling lightning and even feeding on high-voltage electricity, the five-member Elite Squad had faced off head-on against an entire lair of thunder elementals. The battle process was naturally arduous and bitter. Even though the thunder jellyfish countered the thunder elementals in every way, facing an Ultimate-rank creature that was a full major realm above all of them and fighting in its own lair, the group still paid a considerable price to slay it.
Slaying an Ultimate-rank with Gold-rank—even for a fully equipped Mycroft Elite Gold Squad killing an Ultimate-rank native that had almost no intelligence and only fought on instinct—was still an extraordinary achievement. For beings that had surpassed the limits of life, capable of destroying armies, cities, and nations single-handedly, Gold-rank existences were merely slightly larger flies. A single casual strike from the Overlord Thunder Elemental contained energy exceeding an entire small city's annual electricity consumption—it was output on the level of atomic fission.
Facing such unreasonable power, the Elite Squad's victory came mainly from being wealthy enough to carry all kinds of elemental resistance potions and some lightning-immune equipment. Otherwise, their fate would certainly have been miserable.
At this moment, the knight and Priest, who had the strongest endurance among the group, slowly stood up and gulped down some recovery potions, then quickly began feeding potions to the others. Unlike Priest, who was fulfilling his duties as team leader, the knight, upon seeing the remains of the Overlord Thunder Elemental not far away, seemed to shake off all restraint in an instant. Pointing at the purple-blue energy crystal, he laughed heartily: "Now that we can slay Ultimate-rank at Gold-rank, once we reach Ultimate-rank in the future, won't we be able to slay Legendar—"
"Splash! Shut up, you Southerner!"
At first, everyone else was too exhausted from the intense battle, preferring to lie on the ground waiting for Priest to feed them recovery potions rather than get up. But upon hearing the knight's arrogant words, in just an instant, the priest completed a series of actions: 'opening eyes,' 'filling with rage,' 'sitting up,' and 'instant-cast Word of Silence.' The process was so smooth and fluid that the mage and alchemist, who had also gotten up, began applauding instinctively.
"Nice one!" "Beautiful, Saide!" After their habitual applause, the two spellcasters immediately took out their own recovery potions and took hearty gulps. Soon, their complexions improved considerably, and fresh, tender new flesh began growing beneath their charred black skin.
Although the effect was extremely fast, this rapid recovery potion, brewed with No. 4 Holy Water combined with Druidic secret methods, all cost exchange points. The five bottles they had just consumed alone required a full 1,250 contribution points.
The preciousness of exchange points went without saying. If the situation hadn't been critical, even a wealthy group like their Elite Squad wouldn't dare use such life-saving potions recklessly. After all, summoning even a Gold High-rank, or even a Gold Peak-rank civilization Heroic Spirit only cost 5,000 exchange points.
But now, the situation was different. Upon seeing the enormous thunder elemental crystal not far away, everyone knew they had hit the jackpot.
"A large amount of high-purity superconductive magic silver mixed with thunder elements formed the core of that Ultimate-rank Overlord Thunder Elemental..."
The mage quickly calculated the value of the elemental crystal in his mind and arrived at a number that made him dizzy: "At this size and purity, just this single thunder elemental crystal is worth over 100,000 exchange points!"
If it were an ordinary Ultimate-rank thunder elemental crystal, the price wouldn't be so outrageous. But this Overlord Thunder Elemental's remains, due to years of accumulation, contained an incredibly vast amount of mana. Moreover, because of the surrounding environment, it stored a considerable amount of nearly 100% pure superconductive magic silver. In other words, this thunder elemental crystal could be directly used as a warship engine, and its efficiency might not be inferior to a proper high-grade mana engine!
After all, many mana engines were originally designed based on the cores of high-level Transcendent beings. This massive elemental crystal alone had a reference value exceeding 30,000 exchange points.
"Disciples of the Reborn One." On the side, a mental communication link connected, and the thunder jellyfish's voice, clearly panting heavily, sounded in Priest's ears: "Don't you think this actually has my—"
"Alright, alright, we'll add extra compensation for you later." Without any hesitation, Priest directly used the psychic terminal to reopen the teleportation array and forcibly sent the thunder jellyfish back. Of course, besides the original 5,000-point reward, he also added over 8,000 extra exchange points—all the savings he had on him personally.
As the saying goes, when dividing spoils, how can outsiders be allowed to stay? Although these were battle spoils, not stolen goods, and the thunder jellyfish wasn't an outsider, the principle was the same.
It wasn't that they were unwilling to share the spoils with it. Priest simply knew how tempting this kind of thunder elemental crystal was to Transcendent beings of the same element. What if the other party insisted on keeping the elemental crystal?
They had already negotiated the price, and adding extra compensation was already generous of them. Strictly speaking by contract, the Elite Squad could have just paid the 5,000 exchange points and been done with it.
"Speaking of which, I've been in Moldavia for four or five years now, and soon Braney will be attending Winterfell Academy... I don't mind being poor, but little Braney's textbooks must all be the best. Her talent is no less than mine."
Thinking of this, the young warrior felt no more guilt in his heart. The next second, he turned around and enthusiastically discussed with his companions how to take this massive thunder elemental crystal back and sell it for a good price.
"In the future, we'll eat well, drink well, buy one set of weapons and armor for use and one for collection, and even buy a new house in the inner city district!"
But just as Priest and his teammates were eagerly looking forward to the future...
A small spatial rift appeared unnoticed behind the five, not far away.
Hiss...
With a faint noise, it slowly opened, using the rift's natural temporal-spatial breath to exchange various elements and material particles between both sides of the rift.
Then, the next instant.
A blazing holy light, shooting forth like the descent of a blazing sun, fell from beyond the world at a speed of light impossible for anyone to catch!
Boom! In an instant, the holy light completely enveloped the spatial rift, which seemed to sense something and tried to close rapidly. An incredibly sacred and terrifying pressure descended. An aged humanoid figure stepped out from the holy light. The five members of the Elite Squad, who had been enthusiastically discussing how they would live the good life in the future, now stood frozen like stone statues, not daring to move.
A moment later, a silver streak of light followed closely, also descending before the spatial rift. At this point, the already injured Elite Squad members began trembling like sieves, their knees starting to buckle.
Joshua stepped out from the silver light. He naturally noticed his disciple's squad nearby. The warrior smiled gently at them, but the Elite Squad, who had just secretly kicked his minion back to the silver world, couldn't muster a smile at all. Even though it was completely justifiable, Priest and the others couldn't help but break out in cold sweat, their stomachs cramping.
But Joshua naturally wouldn't mind such trivial matters. He hadn't come here to chat with his disciples. Even if he knew about it, he wouldn't care at all. Just as Priest had thought, paying only 5,000 was the contract, paying extra was goodwill—neither was wrong.
Civilization Heroic Spirits from other worlds should also learn a thing or two about Mycroft Civilization's human relations.
"Well, Your Holiness the Pope."
Walking to the side of the aged holy light humanoid, Joshua looked at the spatial rift that was continuously dissipating in the other's hand and asked with a serious expression: "Did you catch the other party's tail?"
"...No. Even though I attacked at light speed, the other party seemed to react in time. When I was about to explore the other side of the passage, they annihilated the rift on their end."
Pope Israel shook his head. As the only Transcendent powerhouse in the entire Mycroft World capable of transforming into true light and moving at light speed, if even his speed wasn't enough to catch the tails of these small spatial rifts, then Nostradamus and the others, who would need to use space-time sorcery and couldn't avoid alerting the enemy, wouldn't be able to either. The old pope's holy light incarnation frowned: "Clearly, the one presiding over the ritual on the other side is also a Legendary-rank expert... Not weak in strength, one could even say 'very strong'!"
"Is that so."
Said Joshua in a low voice, staring at the spatial rift that had completely vanished into nothingness in the pope's hand. He spoke solemnly: "Then our plan must accelerate further."
"Before the year 842 arrives, the joint void fleet must set out!"