Black Onyx - Phoenix Resurrection

The excavation effort resulted in the workers discovering a separate cavern from the known system. It was unknown when the place got separated from the rest, considering it was so close to the main hall, but that quickly became irrelevant as people began to die.

Time was of the essence and we had to quickly subjugate any monsters inside. Well, the problem was that whatever was in there wasn’t a monster. It was a nightmare.

The place was like an endless abyss, the light shining in barely reaching a few meters deep. And even then, the resulting shadows simply peeled off the walls, the resulting tentacles growing from them attempting to crush anyone that came close.

[The fuck is this?] I asked as I stomped down on a shape growing out of the ground beneath me.

“Dark Beast. Looks like it’s a strong one too.” General Red frowned. His twin swords began to glow with Spirit Qi, and he began cutting the tentacles trying to stretch out of the cavern.

“Yuck. That’s disgusting!” Sunfire exclaimed and blasted the shadows with a flamethrower-like spell. Her column of flames was quite impressive, pushing deep into the hole, yet even then, no light reached the cavern walls.

I could see some small plate-sized puddle of sparkling milky white liquid that reflected the flames, but that was about it. Everything else was swallowed by darkness.

“Die you scum!” Sunfire shouted as we advanced, spewing out even hotter flames and pushing back the darkness. However, as one of the tongues of fire neared one of the puddles, General Red yanked her back.

“Careful! Even one of those puddles is worth more than your life. We can’t afford to be reckless.”

“Sorry.”

As the five fought against the darkness, slowly pushing it back, I crouched down to one of the puddles and touched it with my pinky. I then brought the milky-white drop of liquid to my nose and sniffed it.

It felt… fantastic! As the refreshing smell spread, I felt my body get reinvigorated even more than it already was, which I found extremely surprising considering I was in the best shape of my life already.

I let the drop of Pure Spirit Water on my tongue, and the effect was even more pronounced.

My body suddenly felt a surge of energy and I released a roar while blasting Arcane Blaze out of my eyes, mouth, and hands.

The plumes of fire were giant! The closest comparison would be to that of a rocket engine taking off, just a thousand times more destructive. The shadows receded and melted like cotton candy sprayed with water, revealing a large black mass of wriggling tentacles.

The creature shrieked and attacked, using its countless limbs to strike at my teammates. Torin jumped in the front with his shield, the tentacles producing explosions where they struck. He was pushed back but otherwise held, especially with my flames threatening to burn the creature. It had to spend a lot of energy just to keep me at bay.

Unfortunately, I felt my energy soon running out, the great boost quickly diminishing. I quickly took a handful of the Pure Spirit and slurped it up. My body almost immediately felt like it was on fire, and my core felt like the sun, threatening to explode. It was just a feeling, I was still fine and had everything under control, but the desire to just release that energy was too great, and I blasted the Dark Beast with an even stronger flame, imbued by the purest Qi yet.

The cavern was consumed by flames, the darkness turning into day, and with one last hurrah, I incinerated the creature.

“Stooooooop!” General Red roared and I quickly came back to my senses, cutting out the Fire magic.

“Damn it, man, I just said you need to be careful! What was that?!”

[Uh…] My body was still filled with energy originating from my chest, so to better control it I quickly spread it all over my body, pushing it deep into my bones. I then pointed at the tiny puddle not far away. [I had some of that. Felt like I needed a release.]

As General Red looked and saw the puddle, his eyes enlarged. “Are you insane?! Okay, I can understand why you did that then, but do not ever do something like that again! Understand? That’s Pure Spirit Water! Concentrated Qi in physical form. A single drop can be enough to kill an early Spirit Realm Cultivator if they are not careful.”

It was my turn to be surprised. [It can do that?]

“Yes! It's an extremely valuable natural resource, a source of extreme energy only used in extreme cases because of its rarity. A single drop would be enough to allow people like us to Cultivate for a month. So, please… be careful with it. If you blow up it could trigger a chain reaction and then we would all die. Not to mention that the city above us could be instantly destroyed despite the great layer of stone between us. We don’t know how much of it is in here.”

[Huh…] I decided not to tell him I took a big gulp of the stuff. The fact that I was feeling really bloated I also kept to myself.

“Alright, let’s check on the Dark Beast and then spread out. I want to know exactly how many pools of Pure Spirit Water we have.” General Red ordered. He seemed much more serious than before.

If I took his words to heart, and every drop could feed a Cultivator for a month, then… Each drop would be worth more than 100 Spirit Stones.

And I just swallowed like a hundred times that. Whoops. Well, nobody has to know.

The Dark Beast was dead. Well, we didn’t find its body to confirm, but that’s because there was nothing left. Its Soul, however, was already safely consumed by me.

The creature was at the Fifth Level of the Spirit Realm. After looking through its recent memories I discovered it found the cave just a decade ago. It kept smelling the Pure Spirit Water instead of consuming it, and just that was enough to skyrocket its Cultivation.

It was alone for such a long time that it became complacent. When the miners barged in, it just played with them, not even really trying to kill them. And then we came, instantly vaporizing it. Its Soul held a grudge after death because of it. Well, until I wiped it, of course.

No doubt the monster would make a great zombie, given the chance. It had the right mentality, desperately clinging to life and with a strong desire for vengeance.

Well, too bad.

There were seventeen pools of Pure Spirit Water. General Red calculated there were between 100.000 and 500.000 drops of liquid inside. It was hard to estimate exactly from the uneven shape of the puddles.

In any case, that was tens of millions of Spirit Stones! And with that knowledge, an idea was born.

Should I just kill everyone, take the stuff, and run? Or maybe just knock them out...

Was that even a question? Yes, the answer was yes. Besides, it was for the greater good. Mine!

I’m terribly sorry about that. I’ll try to make it quick.

I secretly began to gather energy just as we heard a commotion on the other side of the cavern where the monster used to be. The entrance to the cavern there got blasted wide open by my magic, and it seemed like the smell of Pure Spirit Water spread deeper into the labyrinth.

Dozens of hungry eyes shone in the darkness, the monsters gathering at the edge, growling, ready to pounce.

“Oh, great. Just our luck…” Tori grumbled and picked up his shield in preparation for a fight.

“Hah! Let them come, my body is ready!” Magnus grinned and took out his weapon. Madness swirled in his eyes and in equal measure, bloodlust. The crazy warrior was ready for a fight.

“Looks like we’ll get our money’s worth today.” General Red chuckled and then pointed at them with his sword. “Kill them all!”

Well, the creatures were dead. They were even weaker than the Dark Beast, so the fight ended quickly. Well, it was more a slaughter than a fight. A few more Souls for me, and some extra cash for the rest. Although…

The Pure Spirit Water was still too tempting to let it go just like that. But did I really want to become a thief? For just a few million measly Spirit Stones?

Well, duh, obviously. Every man had his price, and I had found mine. With that kind of wealth I could even reach the Sky Realm! Probably. 20 million Spirit Stones would most likely be enough to buy whatever I needed. If not, it would be close. How could I let such an opportunity slip through my fingers?

I barely had just over twenty thousand. To 1000X my wealth in an instant? I would be crazy to hesitate. And so I didn’t.

Energy began to swirl in my chest, completely hidden from the outside world.

“Woah, look at that!”

I heard someone exclaim and internally cursed. We had company.

“Oh my-! This place… It’s another ancient ruin! This is not a natural cave, look here! Under the stone!”

“I never thought that Pure Spirit Water would be right under our noses… Looks like the collection basin here was removed, filling the puddles instead. I’ve never seen anything like it. How about you, Grand Elder?”

“I wish. It’s a first one for me too.”

[Fuck.] I closed my eyes and sighed. The old men came.

I could maybe fight one early Sky Realm Cultivator if I used all the tricks at my disposal, but a group? No chance. And so my plan went up in smoke. I slowly turned, looking at them and then at the ceiling, where a massive spiral of Void Stone was covered by rock and was coiled around a giant crystal crown, both of them encased in gold and mithril.

A drop of Pure Spirit Water sat at the tip of one crystal point, right above one of the puddles. An Elder waved his hand, creating a gentle current of air, and I watched as that milky white drop fell down into the puddle without so much as a ripple.

I was sad. It was a sad day.