Two days had passed since Heimart's group departed from the rocky forest.
Daniel was currently staying within the pocket dimension along with Buriath, and the younger earth elementals.
Buriath had turned into a blanked of rock and encased Daniel completely. It then started to change his mineral composition at a high speed.
Daniel pressed his hands against the inside of the stone shell that encapsulated his body. From a small hole at the top, a ray of light shined through and bounced against the different colored minerals, which then split it into different rays of light and reflected from one side of the encasing to another, creating a show of multi colored lights.
Daniel had spent the past two days sitting within this stone sphere, and comprehending every composition, density, and quality of the various mineral included within the wordly plane's earth essence.
Now, he was finally done.
In just two days, and at the price of more than ten thousand karma points, Daniel had managed to make his comprehension of earth essence reach the level of his wind, water, and lightning essence comprehension.
"I am done." Said Daniel in a low tone.
Buriath turned back into his human-like form, and while looking at Daniel with a dubious expression, he said "Show me."
The next moment, Daniel forced a large amount of spiritual essence out of this body, then turned it into earth essence.
In the air, a large multi colored stone started to form.
The cluster of minerals started to quickly change in shape and formation, showcasing thousands of different minerals. Diamonds, corundum of various colors, fluorite, celestine and many others..
The more time passed, the more shocked Buriath became. He could list every form of mineral by memory, and whenever he saw one, he would check it out of his mental list.
After two long hours, Daniel had finally finished showing every mineral of which he had comprehended the composition, density, and qualities of.
While Buriath stood in place looking at Daniel with a shocked expression, a small cluster of floating diamonds, hematite, and other precious minerals approached Daniel, and stopped right in front of his face.
As he observed the beauty of these multi colored stones, he cursed at the fact that he would not be able to create one and keep it as his.
As for every other form of essence, constructs made out of earth essence would dissipate once one would give up his control over the earth essence.
This point had been a source of disappointment for about every single spiritual cultivator in the world.
They would dream of comprehending metal essence and create mountains of gold coins, or comprehend earth essence and produce thousands of diamonds and other precious minerals, but each and every one of them, at some point, had to learn the cold hard truth.
The first time Daniel had learned that a spiritual cultivator wasn't able of keeping a construct made out of essence, was back when he had been stuck into the underground cave. That time, Daniel had used his spiritual essence for the first time to create an earth golem, and after giving up his control over it, the golem had turned into an inanimate clump of stones and soil.
The only reason why the golem had not dissipated in the air, was because in that case, he had simply took control over the surrounding stones and soil, instead of creating it out of his own spiritual essence and basic comprehension.
Furthermore, an essence construct created out of a person's spiritual essence, would carry the unmistakable mark of that spiritual cultivator.
Many ignorant cultivators in the past had tried to sell precious minerals and metals to the various shops, but after a quick look, the merchants would always be able to feel the spiritual mark within the items and realize that they were fake.
Those cultivators all faced the same fate. They were arrested and prosecuted for fraud.
The various schools always used the same example to easily explain this important flaw of spiritual cultivation. This example had to do with water essence, and it said that a person would be able to use constructed water to wash themselves, but they would not be able to drink it, as once they would inevitably give up control over it, the water would dissipate from inside their bodies.
Daniel now possessed an impressive ninety percent of comprehension of earth essence, and he only needed to understand the various effects that other elements had on earth essence before he could reach a complete comprehension of it.
Fortunately he had Buriath, an earth elemental born from pure earth comprehension.
Buriath was weak to some effects other elements had on him, but that didn't mean he wasn't aware of their existence.
Once out of his shocked state, Buriath said with faint surprise still present in his voice "You weren't kidding.." The sudden realization that his dream may not be as far as he had thought in the beginning, made Buriath so enthusiast that he felt like screaming.
Without wasting any time, Daniel formed a large generic rock, and started to expose it to the elements he had a comprehension of.
With fire, he comprehended the melting and solidification of rock, and through the use of sand, he learned the process of vitrification.
Through the exposition to water and wind, he comprehended erosion.
With lightning he learned about electrical conductivity.
Mixing stone, water and air, he comprehended a nigh perfect state of soil, which only lacked an organic component.
Finally, through the use of his various metallic weapons, he was able to learn hardness.
These types of tests not only aided him in the comprehension of earth essence, but also in the comprehension of the secondary essence used to conduct the test.
For example, in case Daniel ever decided to comprehend fire essence, he would not need to repeat these tests because he had already comprehended the effect he would obtain by mixing fire and earth.
With wind he had learned the suppression of a flame, while with water he had learned extinguishment. Mixing fire, wind, and wood, he would be able to understand combustion, and so on.
All these processes had taken another half a day, and in the end, Daniel had finally managed to reach a perfect state of comprehension of earth essence.
The first thing Daniel felt, was the familiarity to the earth treasure hidden within the large stones. He now could understand every bit of comprehension it emanated, Just like an earth elemental would.
It was at this moment that Daniel realized something. His cultivation at the late moderate spiritual synchronization was not enough to create a perfect essence sphere.
Daniel's perfect connection to the spiritual plane had changed the composition of his spiritual essence, making it similar in effectiveness to that of a cultivator at the mid profound spiritual synchronization.
Unfortunately, once he became capable of feeling the worldly perfection of the earth treasure, he understood that the purity of essence required to create a perfect sphere, would be no less than that at the early faint spiritual merging, or early seventh rank.
In order to reach the power and effectiveness of an early seventh rank spiritual cultivator, Daniel would need to reach the mid sixth rank at the very least.
Daniel had read books regarding the formation of essence spheres, and in none of them the notion that one required to have reached the seventh rank of cultivation was written.
The reason for that was simple to guess.
Nobody under the seventh rank of cultivation would be able to have a perfect comprehension of an essence, and even if they did, it would be very unlikely for them to be able to find themselves in the possession of a perfect essence treasure. The third and last obstacle, would be that nobody but Daniel would be able to produce such a relatively infinite amount of spiritual essence in a small enough amount of time, unless they were at the seventh rank of spiritual cultivation.
Daniel still did not understand what how precious a perfect essence treasure and his perfect comprehension meant together.
If an essence sphere formed with ninety percent of cultivation could be used to buy a small city, a perfect essence sphere could be exchanged for a large and rich kingdom.
Wars had been fought in the past for perfect essence treasures.
Earth treasures were not only not an exception, but in fact, were one of the most valuable treasures of all. After all, earth essence was the most difficult essence after time, sound, and space to comprehend, due to the thousands of minerals that one needed to encounter and familiarize with.
Of course, all these informations were outside of Daniel's knowledge.
His only understanding of the treasure's value was based on the fact that, in case it was successfully turned into a perfect essence sphere, it would be able to aid the entire race of earth elementals.
Right now, the only thing that prevented him to realize this species' dream, was his low cultivation rank.
When the group of cultivators had noticed the earth elementals and had guessed that a treasure essence nearby, not even in their wildest dreams did they imagine that it would be a perfect treasure. Because if they did, a bloody war would have already started.
With a hint of embarrassment in his voice, Daniel approached Buriath and said "I'm sorry. It seems like I am unable to create the earth sphere right now.. I might need some time.."
With what looked like a comforting smile, Buriath said "I already expected you to need years to comprehend earth essence.. Waiting for you to cultivate is of no difference."
"Thanks for your understanding. It won't take long.. We only need a large amount of money to purchase the resources." Said Daniel with reassuring a tone. He then bid farewell and left the pocket dimension, reappearing right next to Heimart.
The group nodded at Daniel in greeting, then they kept traveling towards Drester.
While in the middle of running, Daniel checked once again his group window, which after a single thought, had appeared in his mind.
____________________________
Group of the Karmic System's Wielder.
Name: Group of the Karmic System's Wielder (Provisory)
Number of members (Details): 5
Overall Karma: 500,000
____________________________
Shared Karmic effects (Details)
Reputation (Details)
____________________________
Daniel almost lost his footing and dropped on the ground by surprise.
The rest of the group turned to look at him in confusion.
Trying his best to hide his surprise, Daniel said "It's nothing, I didn't see that rock on the ground."
"Maybe you should fly.. For your own safety! Hahaha!" Said Ligart with a teasing tone.
Daniel giggled in an embarrassed manner, then followed the rest as they started to run once again.
"Sewah, what the hell are all those karma points about?! When did I obtain them? And how do i have 5 people in the group already?" Asked Daniel within his mind with a shocked voice.
"You don't need to invite people for them to join your group. If they trust you as a leader, follow you, and follow your orders.. Then they are considered part of the group." Said Sewah with a matter-of-fact tone.
"What about the points?" Asked Daniel with a calmer tone.
"You, the quiet one, the tanned girl, and the two idiots got those points when you've defended the elementals. Apparently the system decided that that action was worth 100,000 karma points for each of you.. Don't ask me if I agree with it." Said Sewah with a slightly irritated tone, almost as if in disagreement with the unconscious part of the system.
"What the hell is your problem?" Asked Daniel with a dissatisfied tone.
With no response from Sewah, Daniel decided to give up on the matter for now, and talk to his group members. "Guys.. I remember this valley.. It's just one and a half days from the rocky forest. How come we are still here?"
As embarrassment filled Ligart's face, and a faint smile appeared on Alis and Heimart's mouths, Heimart looked at him and responded "We let Ligart pick the course.. And ended up lost for a full day.."
"Great.. I was actually thinking who to ask to make an inventory of the weapons we have and an estimate of their value.. I guess Ligart volunteers.. Right?" Said Daniel with a teasy smile.
Heimart and Alis couldn't hold it any longer, so they started to laugh loudly.
At the back of the group, a quiet Jerigh followed the rest at a close distance. On his face, what looked like a faint yet genuine smile had appeared.