The world on the other side of the portal unfolded before all as they entered it.
Arthur and the others landed on solid ground, though "solid" felt like an overstatement. The surface beneath their boots was a slab of greenish-white floating landmass made out of rock that floated freely in midair. Around them were hundreds, no, thousands of other floating landmasses drifting around slowly, some small as boulders, some vast as entire cities.
Below them, there was no ground. Only an endless abyss whose depth was immeasurable, and was vast like an endless ocean. In the distance, strange glowing waterfalls poured from a few of those floating islands to another, yet the water never fell past the edge. It simply flowed upward again, defying logic.
Finn was the first to whistle. "Okay, this place is… nuts."
Selene stood beside Arthur, her eyes narrowing as she scanned the horizon. "These islands… How are they floating? There's an energy field beneath them, probably ancient runes keeping them stable."
Arthur nodded quietly, he could feel it too, faint distortions of gravity and mana converging beneath every floating landmass. "Feels like this entire space was designed to stay balanced. A single disruption in the runic array and the landmasses would fall."
Finn gulped. "Is this place even safe?"
"That, we need to figure out by exploring," Arthur replied dryly.
Leon, Eva, Natalya, and Sophia all looked around, their expressions were a mix of awe and tension. And the others who entered the place were no different, they too had tense looks on their faces, even the stronger ones.
The place was breathtaking, but everyone here knew better than to let wonder dull their instincts, as no one was stupid enough to let their guard down in a place like the ancient realm. If the Ancient Realm had taught them anything, it was that beauty and death often came in the same package.
Arthur's group wasn't alone here. Hundreds of other explorers appeared from the portal on the floating landmass, demons, dragons, elves, humans, demi-humans, all scanning their surroundings with sharp eyes, and with their weapons ready. The sound of murmured conversation filled the air.
Just then, the tense atmosphere was broken by a loud shout.
"Oh my god!" a voice screamed out.
Heads turned instantly, not far from Arthur's group, a young elf woman in a flowing white-and-gold dress had dropped to her knees in front of a patch of strange, luminous plants. Her long olive hair covered her back, and her eyes were wide in shock.
Arthur recognized that look in her eyes, it was the look of someone who had just stumbled onto something valuable.
Her companion, another elf wearing leather armor, rushed up to her. "Luna? What happened?"
The elf woman barely looked up, her gaze fixed on a small pink plant that had motes of pinkish light surrounding it. "This… this can't be real."
Arthur and Selene exchanged a look and walked closer, along with several others. When they saw what the elf was pointing at, they paused.
The plant was strange. It had thin, needle-like pink leaves that had the most concentration of the motes of light, and every few seconds, a pulse of mana rippled through its stem, like a heartbeat.
"This plant is called Dawn-weed," the elf woman said excitedly, almost as if she couldn't contain her excitement. "It was supposed to be extinct in the outside world! In the era of gods, it was one of the main ingredients for high-grade mana regeneration elixirs."
A ripple swept through the crowd.
Arthur's brow arched slightly as he looked around, the entire floating island was covered with the same plants, and there were thousands of them.
Finn let out a low whistle. "Extinct, huh? Guess we just hit the jackpot then."
That was enough to break whatever restraint people had left. Several groups started to move toward the nearest patch, their hands outstretched to pluck as much as they could.
"Wait!" Luna shouted sharply, holding up a hand. "You can't just pull them out like that! If you do, they'll lose all their potency!"
Her words slowed a few people down, but not all. One of the dragons nearby, a tall man, with a head full of pale red hair scoffed. "You expect us to believe that sh*t? You probably just want to keep the good ones for yourself."
The elf sighed softly, pinching the bridge of her nose. "Of course you'd say that."
The dragon smirked. "Watch and learn, sweetheart." He bent down, yanked one of the plants out of the ground with a flick of his wrist, and grinned triumphantly when nothing happened. "See? It's still here. You're just…"
Then his grin vanished, the pink glow from the plant's leaves faded in an instant, turning dull gray. Within seconds, the entire stalk shriveled, its mana evaporating into nothing.
"…what the…"
Luna just stared at him like he was a child who ignored a very obvious warning. "And there goes a priceless relic of history. Congratulations."
A few people snickered. The dragon's face turned red from embarrassment, and rage. He was about to bark something back when one of his companions stepped in and whispered something to him, likely advising against fighting in a place full of this many high-rankers. The dragon grunted but backed off, glaring daggers at Luna.
She stood up and addressed the crowd calmly as she gave a polite smile. "As you just saw, these plants require a specific mana flow to preserve their potency when harvested. If you pull them out directly, they will become useless."
Arthur crossed his arms, listening carefully. The way she had explained it sounded authentic, not like she was bluffing. And she seems to be scheming something behind that polite smile of hers.
Luna continued, "I can teach you the technique to harvest them properly, it's simple, but delicate. In exchange, I want twenty percent of the total haul from this island."
Immediately, a chorus of complaints and whispers spread among the gathered groups.
"Twenty percent?!"
"She's insane."
"She's trying to scam us."
Luna ignored the chatter, her face perfectly composed. "You can either waste the entire field… or let me show you how to keep them intact. The choice is yours." But she cursed inwardly as she was too excited and blurted out the secret of these plants.
Still to prove her point, she crouched again, her fingers glowing faintly with green light as she circulated her mana through the soil. The pink leaves of the Dawn-weed responded instantly, their mana pulse syncing with her rhythm. Then, with a single smooth motion, she plucked it free. The plant continued to glow faintly even after leaving the ground.
She stood up, holding it out for everyone to see. "If you don't believe me, go ahead and try again yourselves."
But no one did.
Arthur smirked faintly. "Smart."
Selene glanced sideways at him. "You mean manipulative."
"Same thing, depending on who's telling the story."
After a few more minutes of murmured debate, the higher-ranked individuals, mostly the Archmages and Grandmasters, gathered in a loose circle to settle the issue. For a whole hour, negotiations went back and forth, but eventually, a conclusion was reached.
The elf would get her twenty percent share. Sixty percent would go to the strongest people here for "security and management," and the remaining twenty percent would be divided among the rest of the participants.
Most didn't like the deal, but they were the weaker ones so they had to compromise and accept what they were offered, and it was fair enough to avoid a brawl, and everyone here knew fighting at this stage would just get them all killed early. Furthermore, they have just entered the pocket dimension, and they could separate from here and collect more resources later.
Arthur and Selene quietly joined in the harvesting effort. Under Luna's guidance, the process was surprisingly straightforward once you understood the mana pattern.
Arthur focused for a moment, syncing his mana with the soil. The Dawn-weed's glow stabilized, and he plucked it easily, storing it away in his dimensional inventory.
Selene did the same beside him, though her method looked a lot more elegant. Finn, on the other hand, nearly burned one with his excess mana flow.
"Careful, Finn," Leon muttered. "You're about to turn a priceless herb into fertilizer."
Finn groaned. "Why does magic always hate me?"
Sophia grinned. "Maybe it just senses your lack of brain cells."
"Hey!"
Natalya giggled softly, and Eva just sighed, muttering something about how some things never change.
By the time they finished, the floating island looked noticeably emptier. The groups moved systematically, gathering as much as they could under Luna's supervision.
Arthur and Selene ended up with nearly two hundred stalks each, not a bad haul for their first stop. Finn and the others, having helped out smaller groups, got a few dozen each.
When the last stalk was plucked and stored, the crowd finally began to relax. The air was still tense, as the various groups looked at each other with caution.
Arthur adjusted his robe, glancing at the other floating islands in the distance. "We've got what we need here, there's no point in staying here anymore."
Selene nodded, brushing her hands clean. "Agreed. The real treasures won't be in the open like this."
"Yeah," Finn said, stuffing his last few herbs into a pouch. "Let's find something shiny before everyone else does."
Arthur smirked. "Spoken like a true hoarder."
The group gathered together once more, and as the others began bickering lightly about which direction to choose, Arthur and Selene lifted off the ground, their energy wrapping around the others.
Arthur looked down once more at the massive crowd of explorers still arguing over plants and sighed. "Too much noise."
Selene smiled faintly. "Then let's go where it's quiet."
He nodded, and in the next instant, the two of them shot upward, disappearing into the drifting horizon of floating islands, leaving behind the chaos, and heading straight into whatever secrets this strange pocket dimension had hidden deeper within.
***
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