Chapter 273: Wild-Spirit

"Let’s go," Priam murmured, extending his hand toward Dandara.

She nodded with a faint smile, then firmly took his palm.

*Wooosh!*

With a single burst of power, Priam took to the skies, propelled by the wind element. He shot out of the depths of the abyss, cutting through the air toward a distant region.

Now, all the Miasma and anomalous aura that had covered the place had vanished, leaving behind nothing but a desolate, ordinary-looking fissure in the ground.

After landing on solid ground, Priam turned toward Dandara, who was radiating a deep, contemplative aura.

Looking up at him, Dandara clenched her fists with unwavering resolve.

"Boss... I want to go on alone from here. I’ve already held you back for far too long," she declared, her tone firm and her expression serious.

"I still haven’t fully assimilated everything, but the inheritance I received from the Goddess is an extremely high-level Beastmaster technique. Besides the knowledge itself, there are countless methods for searching and analyzing. I feel like I can manage perfectly well and absorb everything little by little. I’ll use these last few months to explore the area and gather allies."

Priam nodded slowly. "I already warned you about the chaos that will break out at the final moment. Prepare yourself properly. If you find other members of our faction, order them to join up immediately when the time comes."

Dandara took a deep breath, her eyes shining. "I’ll do my best."

Priam expanded his elemental perception through the air currents.

Within a vast radius around them, he didn’t detect the slightest fluctuation from any beasts or people. The area was temporarily safe.

Calmly, he waved his hand. Mirra emerged from his inner space and rushed toward Dandara, hugging her tightly and letting out happy little yelps.

Dandara returned the hug, gently stroking the little girl’s hair, genuinely moved by how excited she was about her recovery.

After several minutes of saying goodbye, Mirra returned to Priam, settling onto his shoulder.

"I’m leaving. We’ll see each other in a few months."

Without looking back, Priam leaped into the sky and disappeared over the horizon.

Dandara remained where she was, watching him leave with bated breath. An unwavering determination burned in her eyes.

She knew she had undergone a complete rebirth. But she still had to fight and work with her own hands to learn how to use all of this and become useful.

The days when she needed to be protected were over.

Her lips moved with determination. "I’ll become the most reliable person. From now on, I’ll be the only one capable of walking by your side."

...

Priam headed north, leaving the mountain range behind. He found a discreet cave carved into a mountainside, entered it, and sealed the entrance with rocks and elemental barriers.

With a massive reserve of points accumulated, it was time to put them to proper use.

Settling down on the stone floor, he focused his thoughts on the System.

[Total: 70,000 Germination Points]

His focus at the moment was purely on knowledge.

[05 Transcendental Knowledge Available:]

[2,000 GP] [Complete Ancestral Art of one of your bloodlines]

[14,000 GP] [Natural Elements] [Level: Advanced]

[20,000 GP] [Synthesis] [Level: Advanced]

[9,000 GP] [Catalyst] [Level: Intermediate]

[6,000 GP] [Arcanist] [Level: Basic]

Priam didn’t hesitate. Advanced mastery of Natural Elements was crucial in that fragmented world, which was filled with high-order phenomena. Besides, the new Synthesis formulas would drastically expand his arsenal of creations.

[-14,000 GP] [Natural Elements] [Level: Advanced]

[-20,000 GP] [Synthesis] [Level: Advanced]

[-15,000 GP] [EX Training Amplifier]

[Total: -49,000 GP]

[Accept?] [Yes / No]

He confirmed the transaction. The instant he did, an overwhelming dizziness struck his mind, accompanied by a torrential flow of data and concepts.

Without wasting any time, Priam leaned against a corner and activated the EX Training Amplifier, sinking into a deep sleep.

...

Priam woke up eight hours later in the real world — although, inside the timeless space, exactly sixty-five days had passed.

He released Mirra so she could eat until she was full.

For her, it was a little boring to stay there while he slept. But Mirra was quite obedient, and she used her free time to absorb energy and level up. She had already understood that everything had its time, and whenever she could have fun, Priam would let her out.

After the little girl finished eating, Priam accessed the System once again.

[-18,000 GP] [EX Training Amplifier]

[Accept?] [Yes / No]

After confirming, he burned almost all of his remaining points. Only 3,000 GP remained, an amount he decided to save for the future.

Immediately, he plunged into the second intensive study session.

...

When Priam opened his eyes again, a satisfied and excited smile curved his lips.

This time, a full eighty days had passed. Apparently, with each new use, the amplifier granted fifteen additional days, though at a progressively higher cost.

During this second immersion, Priam thoroughly read and reviewed the two vast fields of knowledge he had acquired. Although one hundred and forty days weren’t enough to assimilate 100% of such profound knowledge, he now possessed a broad overall understanding of both branches.

The Advanced Natural Elements module contained a vast collection of knowledge about the power of Space-Time. In that fractured world, this understanding could prove extremely useful to him.

Meanwhile, the Synthesis knowledge had revealed extraordinary formulas and creation methods, granting him new tactical weapons.

Priam stood up. When he turned around, he saw Mirra radiating a considerably more intense aura. The little girl had reached Level 2 as a Holy Disciple Mage — showing that, when she really applied herself, her pace was terrifying.

Mirra opened her eyes, staring at him with a vibrant gleam the moment she saw him stand up. For her, traveling and seeing new things was genuinely fun, even if she only experienced them from inside his inner space.

Priam nodded. "Let’s go. We don’t have much time, and there’s nothing wrong with exploring this place in search of some good treasures."

---

Heading north, Priam entered several lush valleys.

During the time he had spent among the Impure Beasts, he had managed to extract valuable information about the geography of that Inner Realm. Since the creatures didn’t use maps and passed on knowledge purely through word of mouth, getting a complete picture of the territory was challenging. Even so, Priam had a pretty good idea of where the most valuable treasures tended to be concentrated.

After several hours of nonstop running, the sharp whistle of wind cut through the air.

Out of nowhere, a projectile shot toward him like a cannonball.

Caught off guard, Priam dodged on pure reflex. Only after the object grazed past him did he realize what it was.

"A Wild-Spirit Stone?"

He picked up the artifact, his eyes glowing with interest. He remembered hearing from the Impure Beasts that the energy emitted by those stones was the most nutritious and efficient resource for accelerating the growth and strengthening of young native beasts.

Although they were difficult to obtain in large quantities, they could be found all over the place.

Looking in the direction the projectile had come from, Priam found himself facing a dense, impenetrable curtain of fog. It was impossible to determine exactly where the throw had originated. However, he didn’t detect any killing intent or living aura from a long distance away.

That made sense. If an enemy actually wanted to ambush him, they would never be stupid enough to fire such a valuable stone as a surprise projectile.

"Could there be some kind of strange formation spitting these stones out?" he muttered, although the hypothesis seemed rather absurd to him.

The stone fit comfortably inside his closed hand. He could feel pure life energy pulsing within it, intertwined with an aura very similar to that of the three major beast races of this world.

"Hmm... Mirra probably won’t be interested in this. This nourishing energy was made for the natives of this world," he thought.

Priam was about to turn around and ignore the discovery, but suddenly stopped and lightly slapped his own forehead.

"Dandara! She’s definitely going to tame native beasts to fight alongside her. This will be extremely useful to her."

Priam focused all of his perception on the air currents.

"Another fragment!" he noticed immediately, sensing an energy fluctuation identical to that of the stone in his hand.

Running toward its source, he found another stone half-hidden beneath a patch of weeds.

"There’s more around here!" Priam exclaimed, celebrating the find as he dug another specimen out of the ground.

Without wasting any time, he began sweeping the area, collecting both the Wild-Spirit Stones and the medicinal herbs scattered around them.

Eventually, he took a side path through the terrain. There, he noticed recent tracks and marks indicating that at least one person had passed through that path not long ago.

"Whoever came through here probably didn’t recognize most of these medicinal ingredients and had no idea how valuable these Wild-Spirit Stones are."

Priam collected a total of eight Wild-Spirit Stones from that small area.

Although the terrain showed signs of having been recently excavated by other explorers, he still managed to gather more than ten valuable herbs that had been overlooked.

To others, some of those herbs looked no different from weeds. But Priam could sense their energies and even use the System to see their true value. The young Mages sent on this mission would never have guessed that those herbs were actually worth anything.

As he ventured deeper into the region, the density of rare ingredients only increased.

Finding more than a hundred powerful medicinal herbs originating from another world gave Priam the same excitement as a beggar stumbling across a treasure chest.

After three days of nonstop exploration, even he had no idea how many valleys he had crossed.

Many of those plants possessed properties and energies similar to ones he already had. However, thanks to the space inside his Life Ring, the seedlings and roots he collected wouldn’t die. He could bring them back to the Sect while they were still alive, where they could be replanted and sold for an exorbitant price.

In the market, a living medicinal herb was worth at least twice as much as a harvested, already-dead plant. The major Sects maintained vast medicinal herb fields, and by acquiring intact seedlings, they could speed up the harvest of valuable fruits in a much shorter amount of time.

Since they were specimens originating from another world, they were one-of-a-kind. Alchemists would pay fortunes to obtain such rarities and create pills that didn’t exist in this world.

For Priam, however, their origin mattered little. If their energy was equivalent to that of herbs he already possessed, their practical benefits remained the same. Since many of those herbs were identical to ones he had collected on the Exile Planet, selling them to the Sect would be infinitely more profitable.

Over those days, Priam accumulated not only rare herbs, but also an impressive one hundred and thirty Wild-Spirit Stones.

As he ventured deeper into the territory, he noticed that the purity and quality of the stones kept increasing.

"Huh?"

[Great Wild-Spirit Stone detected!]

Priam abruptly stopped, a perplexed expression appearing on his face. The System’s treasure-sensing function had been triggered.

Another stone emerged from the fog, shot directly toward him.

Priam raised his hand and caught it in midair. When it collided with his palm, the force of the impact pushed his arm slightly backward.

"What power!" Priam exclaimed in surprise.

The energy contained within this particular Wild-Spirit Stone was incomparably purer than all the previous ones — in fact, it was thousands of times denser.