Chapter 1241 Demonic Exchange Vaule

Michael's expectations immediately changed.

He pulled an elemental crystal from another crate. This one contained concentrated fire energy. It floated toward the Dominion Conduit.

The result was noticeably better.

[Energy Points Gained: 3]

Michael's eyes narrowed. He tried another elemental crystal.

Again.

[Energy Points Gained: 3]

So ordinary elemental crystals of this quality were worth roughly three times as much as pure mana crystals.

That at least made some sense. Elemental crystals contained not merely energy but a more concentrated and specialized form of it.

Michael decided to test with an even rarer element. Unfortunately, the only one available in sufficient quality for immediate testing was a dark-element crystal.

Michael fed it into the Dominion Conduit. The crystal vanished.

[Energy Points Gained: 4]

Michael stared at the number.

Though it was higher, it still wasn't particularly impressive.

He looked toward the soldier standing nervously on the formation. At this point, Michael had already realized something.

Universal transportation was expensive. Potentially very expensive.

Even if transporting a weak individual ultimately cost relatively few Energy Points, the resources being converted into those points were not cheap.

And if stronger individuals required substantially more, then moving Rank Three or Rank Four existences across worlds could easily become a luxury.

Michael nevertheless continued and attempted the transfer again.

[Insufficient Energy Points.]

He added another. Then another. Still insufficient.

Eventually, after consuming enough crystals to bring the stored amount to a hundred, the interface finally changed.

[Required Energy Available.]

[Target: 1]

[Destination: The Eternal Crown]

[Energy Cost: 100]

[Initiate Transfer?]

Michael's heart ached slightly at the number.

One hundred Energy Points.

One had to understand just how ridiculous the value of those crystals actually was. The normal exchange between grades was roughly one hundred to one.

A single High-Grade Mana Crystal could be exchanged for around one hundred Mid-Grade Mana Crystals. And a single Mid-Grade Mana Crystal could, in turn, be exchanged for around one hundred Low-Grade Mana Crystals.

The difference was enormous. One High-Grade Mana Crystal represented a truly significant amount of lower-grade resources.

Michael's expression became complicated.

Expensive. Very expensive.

But after thinking about it from another angle, it suddenly stopped feeling quite as outrageous.

This was not ordinary teleportation. It was not even long-distance teleportation across a continent. It was dimensional transportation across entirely separate worlds.

The destination was the Origin Battlefield. A place that normally couldn't simply be entered through conventional spatial methods.

From that perspective, one hundred Energy Points no longer sounded completely unreasonable. If anything, the fact that such a transfer could be performed at all using ordinary energy resources was already absurd.

Michael glanced at the open crates. There was little point being conservative now. He needed proper testing data.

Michael raised his hand. Hundreds of crystals began floating out of the crates at once.

The soldiers nearby watched in stunned silence as streams of blue, red, green, gold, black, and countless other lights rose into the air.

The crystals formed several rotating rivers of energy before surging toward the Dominion Conduit. The moment they entered its range, they began disintegrating one after another.

Crack.

Crack.

Crack.

The sounds overlapped continuously.

The number on the panel began rising rapidly.

[Energy Points: 127]

[Energy Points: 241]

[Energy Points: 468]

[Energy Points: 903]

[Energy Points: 1,537]

Putting Michael's expression aside, even the Silver Guard soldiers and Arianne, who couldn't see the panel and had been excited earlier, now looked pained. They knew exactly how much wealth was disappearing before their eyes.

Michael felt it too. But he didn't stop.

Soon, the final crystals disappeared into the Dominion Conduit. The twenty crates were empty.

Michael looked at the panel again.

[Energy Points: 8,720]

At least now, he had enough Energy Points to properly see what the Universal Cornerstone's transport network could really do.

Michael did not initiate the transfer immediately. Instead, he turned toward the other soldiers he had selected. The first test had already established the minimum cost for a single weaker individual. Now he wanted to know how much personal strength actually mattered.

He gestured for the stronger Silver Guard to step onto the formation beside the first. The man obeyed.

Michael mentally adjusted the transfer target.

[Targets: 2]

[Destination: The Eternal Crown]

[Energy Cost: 200]

Michael paused.

Exactly one hundred more.

His eyes moved toward the first group of three weaker soldiers. They stepped onto the platform.

[Targets: 5]

[Destination: The Eternal Crown]

[Energy Cost: 500]

Still one hundred per person.

Michael's interest grew. He immediately added the three strongest Silver Guards he had selected. These soldiers were considerably stronger than the first group, yet the moment all three entered the formation, the result remained strangely simple.

[Targets: 8]

[Destination: The Eternal Crown]

[Energy Cost: 800]

"It's uniform?"

So at least among everyone currently standing on the platform, personal strength made absolutely no difference.

The weakest soldier required one hundred Energy Points. The strongest soldier required one hundred. Adding weaker soldiers cost another hundred each. Adding stronger soldiers also cost another hundred each.

Michael's gaze finally moved toward Commander Aldric.

The Rank Three existence had been waiting beside the platform. Michael gestured. Aldric stepped forward.

The moment his feet touched the enormous magic circle, the panel changed.

[Targets: 9]

[Destination: The Eternal Crown]

[Energy Cost: 1,800]

Michael's eyelid twitched.

The commander had added one thousand Energy Points by himself.

There it was.

So strength did matter. It simply didn't matter by individuals, but by rank. Everyone beneath whatever threshold Aldric had crossed cost one hundred Energy Points each. A Rank Three individual, however, immediately required one thousand.

Ten times more.

Would a Rank Four cost 10,000 Energy Points?

Michael looked at the remaining balance.

[Energy Points: 8,720]

[Energy Cost: 1,800]

His heart hurt again. Nearly one fifth of everything he had just poured into the structure was about to disappear in a single experiment.

But Michael had already gone this far. Stopping because the test was expensive would make sacrificing twenty crates of crystals in the first place rather pointless.