30 Fighting for treasure

Xander analyzed the situation and postulated that there might be a poison sprite hibernating in the depths of the marshlands, which stopped the government from changing the terrain and establishing a town or into small farmland. He cross-checked with the government's database on beings of interest within their country and a total of 25 poison sprites were listed.

No government in the world dare take action against these sprites because there was a superpower behind the sprites: The Heavenly Tree sprite. Towering over the planet of Eteria, anyplace from around the world would you be able to see its towering trunk and branches reaching to the starry skies above. After all, they believed that the sprite was more than 1,000,000 years old, as well as their defense again alien invaders that may chance upon their planet. Although there were Divine class magicians in Eteria, most if not all were in cultivation seclusion.

However, it doesn't mean the sprites are free to do whatever they want, such as mindlessly causing disasters and killing innocent people. According to the established rules set forth by the Heavenly Tree Sprite 800,000 years ago, sprites were:

1. To have their own semi-private domain; meaning, other beings may visit, pass through, or gather materials within their property, and as long as they do not proceed to do a large disturbance to the property such as destruction of property, sprites cannot harm them. In turn, these sprites cannot be harmed by other beings as well.

2. Sprites can retaliate if another being is being aggressive to the point it is turning into a fight. The sprites can now then decide to kill or maim these beings. However, if the sprite initiates the fight, other beings in the vicinity would be free to reciprocate in action, however, they can only maim or disable the sprite, not kill it.

3. Sprites must help the people in their jurisdiction when a natural calamity has struck unconditionally, but still, of course, ensuring its own safety.

Xander quickly scanned the list of poison sprites in Eta's database and saw one that matches: it was a 50,000-year-old natural poison sprite named Ehlena. It seems to live deep under the largest marshland in the area, where the target material, Moonshine Clover, grows. He wouldn't have any problems dealing with a sprite, but it was a hassle to make a fuss since he was just there to collect plants.

After moving around the marshlands, he was surprised that he was able to meet a group of 4 mercenaries in the marshlands. He approached their location since it was on the way towards the largest marshland, and he saw them fighting off against a pack of magic beast direwolves, roughly around Master-7. It seemed to be no problem for the mercenaries since it seems that they were all in the legendary class.

When he saw them, and they saw him, they merely nodded at one another, before Xander continued to towards the place where the Moonshine Clover grows.

With the same pace, he had entered the marshlands, in a few minutes, Xander had already reached the area where Ehlena lives in, and from afar, he could see several plants growing by the side of the marsh. Upon closer inspection, they were Moonshine Clovers, and there were several tens of them growing at the bank. Rather than collect them all, he only picked 5 stalks, at was going to head out when something caught his eye.

He was about to approach it when he detected an attack approaching him. Using [Absolute Time], he reversed the spell's existence, causing it to vanish into nothing. Almost by reflex, he launched a total of 4 attacks under the 5-elements series, with each attack comprising of 16 magic spells. This was after he activated [Heavenly Divination] and ensured all his strikes hit the weak points of his targets. Although his current cultivation was Elite-8, he could handle anyone below Mythic class easily.

Before his spells could reach their targets though, a barrier appeared on the targets, taking the brunt of the spells before breaking apart. However, this was enough time for Xander to get the item that caught his eye.

Briefly looking at it, he immediately identified it as an Alexandrite Cat Eye, a type of crystal that is formed from compression of certain elements at a specific ratio. The value of this item is considered priceless, because such a crystal is classified under flawless category, and there is a large market for it but no supply.

People in the past have attempted to compress elements into crystal form, which successfully took off and created many products, from jewelry to magic accessories, to even raw materials for weapons as well as used as weapons themselves. Imagine, compressing fire element particles into a crystal; what if you could sequence them to rapidly expand when their physical structure receives a shock? Immediately, elemental bombs became a trend, to the point that you actually need to have a license to use or even carry them in public spaces.

The Alexandrite Cat Eye involves 6 different elements, naturally complementing one another and formed this crystal. The raw Cat eye could actually improve affinity and control of elements, and if it was processed, more functions could be added.

Looking at the greedy eyes of the mercenaries in front of him, he knew they planned to rob and kill him so he couldn't report them, as technically, mercenaries aren't allowed to harm other mercenaries. Xander eyes turned cold. Since they wanted to kill him, he can't be blamed for reciprocating the gesture to them.

No talks were done. Both groups had their objectives, and they were magicians, meaning they were smart and they think very fast in situations like this. Xander immediately launched his own attacks, causing multiple rays of spells to target the mercenaries.

A few of them attempted to dodge as well as cast their counterspells, targeting the spells that Xander released, hoping to cancel out the attack.

They didn't realize that the attack was more than 1 magic spell, and only when they saw the attack continuing towards them did they notice something was wrong. immediately, one of the mercenaries brought out a rolled up banner, unfurled it, and a voice no human was capable of saying were heard,

"Fa14V^434&32!@A F6*((@$))VDFD"

Immediately, the winds began howling in the marshlands, with several dark clouds covering the sun, as if a storm was approaching. On the banner, there were multiple runic writings squirming and forming a blurry image.

From the fluctuations, Xander paled for a bit before casting two spells, [Void Rejection] and [Space Crush] in the area where the scroll was.

Immediately, the runic writings in the scroll stopped moving, before disappearing, evaporating from the scroll. At the same time, the space where the one holding the scroll was visibly compressing, and the man was slowly crushed into meat patty, in the horror of the other colleagues, they could see the meat being compressed, all the blood and innards compressing into speck of red sphere. Even the scroll wasn't left unscathed. The scroll was ripped apart causing an elemental explosion, but it was quickly contained by the spatial spell. It was compressed in such a way an elemental crystal was formed in its place.

For a few seconds, the mercenaries couldn't react. All their control over their spells suddenly collapsed, as if there was a pull that removed the elemental essences in the area, and even if they

This time gap was enough for Xander to launch another set of attacks, this time, due to the effects of [Void Rejection] he could only use physical attacks enhanced by magic. With his hands infused with [Absolute Time - Slow], he began to strike towards the mercenaries.

Instantly, the mercenaries began to react quickly. They began dodging Xander's attacks, after a while, they realized the elements stored inside their bodies were still usable and began to infuse their elements to their physical bodies.

However, their faces changed; they realized that the elements' movement in their bodies was slowing down. If before they could easily cause the elements to cycle in their body with a second, right now, the speed was 50 times slower. If they wanted to cycle the elements in their body, they needed roughly 5.9x10^15 seconds, or roughly 1 billion years. This effect doesn't last long, however, merely 30 minutes. However, they soon realized another horrifying thing: their bodies were slowing down!

Even their physical bodies were beginning to slow down with every hit from Xander. With [Absolute Time - Slow], it was beginning to slow down the characteristics of the targets, starting from the extraneous to the intrinsic characteristics.

Theoretically, Xander could cause them to move so slowly to the point that in the eyes of others, they weren't moving.

However, right now, with his abilities and comprehension of space-time, [Absolute Time- Slow] Could easily slow down extraneous characteristics up to 100x slower, while intrinsic characteristics are only up to 5x slower.

If he improved his understanding of space-time, he could probably derive a new use for the spell: [Absolute Time - Stop], where he can literally stop the time of every function, characteristics of a target for a period of time.

He also believes that in the future, he could extend the use of this spell from physical contact to an area, allowing him to affect the time of everyone beside him indefinitely as long as they are in the area of effect.

After another few seconds of fighting, the 3 remaining mercenaries collapsed, all of them couldn't be more dead. Xander exhaled before deactivating [Absolute Time]. Although he could use it indefinitely and without repercussions, it would be quite problem if he accidentally slowed someone's time.

He quickly checked for their identifications by hacking into their electronics, and checking their owned properties and money in their bank accounts. Upon seeing the money not even cumulatively surpassing 7 digits, he distastefully shook his head and began to transfer the money into different charities all over the world under anonymous donations, ranging from 100,000 to 800,000 Etas worth of donations.

He activated [Absolute Time] and accelerated the time of the clothes and the remains, to the point that nothing was left but dust and ashes that quickly dispersed into the air and ground. He collected the red sphere as well as the elemental crystal.

It seems he has opened another avenue of possible profit: elemental crystals. With [Space Crush] he could create them in batches; he also wondered: if the range of [Space Crush] increases to the point of covering a whole planet, or even an astral star, would he be able to create a black hole? Although he could naturally create them, as well as spatial rifts and spatial blades, but he technically has no self-made skill for them, meaning the effect is not controlled. Even when he was booby-trapping the entrances to his underground laboratory, he had to test several times in isolated space the spatial blades and rifts he made, to ensure they were at the right size to be deadly and undetectable to anyone.

He observed the elemental crystal formed as well as the red sphere; could the latter be a solidified magic sphere? Xander thought to himself, curious about its purpose and function. It could be a simple amalgamy of blood, bones and tissues of the person, solidifying into a red sphere because of the spell. He tried injecting a bit of magical power in the red sphere, which immediately started to show runic writing and quickly vibrated.

Xander saw this, and unhesitatingly, he threw it into the marsh, before his face paled and realized his mistake.

Wait, isn't there a sprite living here? Damn it! Xander immediately utilized the space elements to surround the sphere and time elements to attempt to reverse the activation of runic writings. Seeing the time elements barely reversing it, Xander sighed before he teleported the orb with him into an uninhabited planet 15 light years away, and escaping into the space outside the planet within a matter of seconds.

A few seconds later, a bright, pulsating light began to emanate from the red sphere, covering the surface of the planet with a round, red light roughly with a diameter of 5000 kilometers. From afar, it looked like a giant pimple.

However, Xander the elemental fluctuations Xander could feel surprised him. The elements... these were elements above the space-time, yin-yang, and life-death elements!

Order and Chaos elements!! Xander was in ecstasy; he began to change his position into a better form and location, a bit closer to the red sphere radius.

He immediately began delving into understanding the mysteries of the 2 elements that beget the three pairs in the Origin series of elements.

seconds became days, days became years. But this was because the time deceleration field... covered the whole planet. Although he could only touch living things to slow down their characteristics, non-living things were a different story. As he had earlier confirmed that there was no sign of life, not even sprites, not even microorganisms, existed in the planet and the space nearby, where he was located.

He slowed the flow of time of the area of the planet, but accelerated his body's time, to understand and deconstruct the runic writings, the representations and numerous conformations creation element can bring forth.

Inside the red sphere, it was a different story than the rest of the planet; a few sprouts of green appeared, before grasses began to grow, turning into a fertile green plain, before trees began to grow and disseminate over the area; slowly, the trees began to grow and thrive, changing into different species, some of the grass became different types of flowers, these flowers began to bore fruits as well as the trees. All of this happened in the span of less than 5 minutes.

After the trees, the grass, the flowers were thriving, more and more things started to appear; there were vines, there were puddles of water slowly coalescing into a small pond, small rivers diverging from the said pond. The mountainous peaks were becoming covered in lush greenery, with more different species of plants appearing. The red sphere wasn't a border that stopped them from growing; they were rapidly growing more and more from the red sphere outward, producing enough chemical products that produce the formation of the atmosphere. More and more water sources are also appearing outside the red sphere, but more diversity and evolution occurred inside the red sphere.

However, this process of creation didn't continue for so long; some of the vines were parasitic, as well as the other plant species formed. Slowly they killed the other plants, devouring their nutrients to survive, before heading to the next hosts. They also became a victim of parasitism, and they died as well. However, as more plants died, more were born.

Slowly, the leftover materials were transforming into some kind of source of energy, an amalgamy of life present. Elements converged into this source of energy, and microbial organisms were born. Viruses, bacteria, eukaryotes, and prokaryotes rapidly grew and diversified from these ancient microbial organisms, as if guided by something, but their growth and evolution was skewed.

After another 5 minutes, the first multi-cellular lifeform was formed: It was a worm that survived in the pond, living its life there. Slowly, more and more of these worms appeared, and some of them began their path to evolution. Worms became small fishes, fishes became amphibians that could move in both land and water, and these amphibians diversified into more and more land and air species.

Some of them began to move further and further from the red sphere, producing byproducts that reinforced the atmosphere as well. After a total of 12 minutes, the red sphere shimmered before collapsing on its own, the red dome parts manifesting into physical items.

Immediately, Xander utilized the space elements and carried the physical shards to his location, and began to observe them, realizing that they contained both Order and Chaos elements, solidified into runic writing. He then placed them in his spatial storage, planning to comprehend more of these shards in the future. This was a fruitful trip. Not only did he gain enlightenment to the Order and Chaos elements, his space-time and the other 2 sets of elements, yin-yang and life-death comprehensions also increased.

He immediately left the newly-terraformed planet, leaving it to its own devices. It was a pity, though, that he had removed the bodies of the other legendaries. He might have gained more of that red sphere if he hadn't removed them.

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In the marshlands, deep in the largest marsh.

"Huh? It seems that powerful guy already disappeared." A young looking humanoid female was lounging on her bed, playing with her phone. Her hair was dark green, with her face and skin pale in tone. This was the poison sprite Xander was looking out for, Ehlena. She looked like a teenager, but in truth, she was thousands and thousands of years old.

"Who was that human? Grandpa Tree didn't tell me to watch out for that person." Ehlena muttered to herself, before checking the surveillance she recorded. She then compared it to the database that Elves had on human beings of interest, and after a few minutes, she found a match.

"Homer Simpson. Hmm. That's weird, this person was listed as a low priority, but the power he showcased..." Ehlena visibly shuddered at the thought. She could still feel the magical fluctuations in the area as if permanently leaving a scar in the environment. It was slowly distorting the area above the marsh. It wasn't noticeable at first, but as more and more years would pass, time would continue to slow down in that area, to the point of stopping. Of course, for now, Ehlena only thought that something was done in the elemental properties of the area, causing one's movements to slow down as well as cycling elemental energy from outside and inside the body. The good thing was that it was limited to a few tens of square meters, so Ehlena didn't have to move about or ask for help from Grandpa Tree.

Ehlena, however, filed for a change in priority for Homer Simpson, raising it to medium level priority. She had a feeling that there was more than what meets the eye to this person.

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Xander's first day was tiring. There was just too many things happening.

He checked his stats once he returned to his room in the hotel. That breakthrough in the marshlands was unexpected, as well as the sudden enlightenment he received about space-time and the Order and Chaos elements, and although he almost started a fight with the sprite and had an encounter with depraved people, it seemed that all is well.

When he checked his stats via the system, the system displayed his comprehension levels as well.

Xander Cloverfield

Lvl 7

Elite-9

Str: 180

Vit: ?

Int: ?

Dex: 180

Luck: ?

Comprehension:

Space-Time: 10%

Yin-Yang: 5%

Life-Death: 5%

Order: 2%

Chaos: 1%

Skills:

Time Mastery: Max

Space Mastery: Max

Basic Magic Foundation: 10/10

Intermmediate Magic Foundation: 10/10

Advanced Magic: 5/10 - [Space Crush] [Temporal Replication] [Elemental Dominance] [Heavenly Divination] [Void Rejection]

Legendary Magic: 1/? [Material Transformation]

Mythic Magic: 0/?

Demigod Magic: 0/?

Divine Magic: 2/7 - [Ordered Life Regeneration (no Limit)] [Chaotic Life Evolution (no Limit)]

Sage Magic: 1/5 - [Absolute Defense]

God Magic: 3/3 - [Absolute Time] [Absolute Space] [Origin Universe]