Rise Of The Infinite Sovereign-Chapter 340: Essence Refiner

"This...!" Zydrax’s eyes shook, taking a closer look before carefully breaking off the ice around it.

Only after, did he attempt to pull it out.

Surprisingly, there was barely any struggle as he pulled it free.

Pulling it out the long hole, he simply floats, taking his body and the orb off the ground without much hassle.

Adequately above the ground, he puts himself back on his feet.

Placing the ice source into the space ring, Zydrax dusts off his clothes, heating himself with a little fire to dry it off.

Having seen all there was to see, Zydrax sought to get away from Sirion, and do his findings elsewhere, forcing him to postpone researching the ice source against his will.

Right now, his mind was burning with curiosity, wanting to confirm his suspicions.

Taking to the sky, Zydrax couldn’t stop smiling.

"Would you tell me why you’re suddenly so jittery?"

Ezra could feel the waves of excitement buried beneath his facade of calmness.

"I’m unsure at the moment" says in a tone of utter smugness "But I suspect it’s an essence refining artifact"

"Annnnd?" Ezra stressed, confused.

"It might be just what we need to complete my masterpiece!"

"So, to Lumeria?"

"To Lumeria" Zydrax nods. "For one thing, we didn’t explore last time, and we need to check the dungeons there"

Ah yes, while sightseeing in Sirion, they came across a dungeon.

It was unsurprising. From Zydrax, Ezra learnt that the enemy had the view of the whole planet, so they half expected it.

With the ice savages being so weak, they didn’t affect Zydrax’s plan and even assisted in deceiving the enemy.

After culling the majority of them, Zydrax realised-thanks to Ezra’s timely reminder-that a monster outbreak would push them into extinction.

As such, Zydrax skillfully cut out the ice below the dungeon, causing it to fall straight into the ocean, before filling up the gap with ice of his own.

The inside of the dungeon was a separate space, the water would be unable to enter.

This way, when monsters broke out, they would find themselves at the depths of the ocean and drown in no time.

Burning with excitement at the prospect of his findings, Zydrax said nothing else and wholly focused on getting to Lumeria.

Two weeks later. In an unknown location.

"Khasavar" the draped figure beckoned. "It’s as you said, there is something unnatural going on with the fifth landscape, the gateway has become harder to access, the troops are dying minutes after their release, and its location has even shifted slightly"

"It’s shifted? Could that be where the strongest natives lay?" Khasavar wonders, shaking his head. Hissing "This is difficult..."

From the basic view they had of Orion, they deciphered that the fifth landscape was made or largely contained ice.

As such, it could simply be that a crack on the ice surface had tilted the gateway a little.

"Don’t put in any more troops and cut off it energy" he says. "We won’t be using it as a starting point anyway. It’s better to conserve our forces for a concentrated"

The draped figure nodded, quickly executing Khasavar’s command.

"The time for our takeover is near, we have a good grasp of their strength, while they know nothing of ours" he says with conviction. "We’ll strike once the time is right, so speed up preparations"

The workers moved frantically.

Khasavar’s eyes shone "There can be no mistakes"

On Orion.

Zydrax lay seated in a hidden self made ditch covered in ice.

It was modelled after the one back in Quartez.

Taking out the glowing ice source and the mana cube, he freezes his body, leaving only his palm and head untouched.

Taking a breath to control his nerves, he pulls both items towards him.

The Mana Cube shimmered, showcasing transparent speckles within, these were the numerous pieces of the dungeon crystal.

On the other hand, the ice source shone white light.

The transparent oval orb had a white core within it constantly rotating whilst in the same spot, churning out ice attributed mana in every direction.

Zydrax watches closely, and for a while it churned out ice elemental mana, but soon, it stopped, and without warning, it began sucking in mana from every direction.

Channelling his mana to cover the ice source, he forcefully halts the mana absorption, smiling as he confirms his suspicion.

"There was a first, but I overlooked it as a simple coincidence, but for there to be a second..." Zydrax muttered, his eyes narrowing.

"What have you found out?" Ezra chimed in.

"For one thing, we might not have to head to the demon world anymore" Zydrax replied, his tone rising. "Since we have an essence refiner tight here!"

"Essence refiner? What does it do"

"I’m yet to understand how it formed, but this ice source is a treasure just below the mana cube in terms of rarity, even though they both perform the same function"

"So it’s a diamond rank artifact?"

Zydrax explains better. "An essence refiner is simply what its name connotes, it takes in a particular essence and refines it into another, like gathering mana and purifying it or even turning it into negative mana-automatically!"

"The ice source can do that?" Ezra inquires, astonished as the possibilities begin to bubble up.

"Essence refiners have ranks, only the best, or least only special types can refine an essence to its opposite form. So no, the ice source can’t change mana to negative mana"

"What it can do" Zydrax stressed, "Is refine negative mana into a better and purer form not lacking towards the mana from mana stones"

"So, with this, you’ll be able to complete the artifact soon?"

Zydrax nods vigorously.

"While I will still have to understand it better before taking any steps, once I swap out the mana refining core within and fill it with negative mana, then, I’ll switch its primary essence with a little tampering and then I’ll be able to refine negative mana"

"Hm, sounds like hard work"

"Nonsense, how can such a small thing faze me"

Ezra nodded. "Well, better get on with it"

A day passed like a breeze, with Zydrax checking the basic functions of the ice source to understand how it worked better.

As explained, an essence refiner takes in a particular essence and refines it, thereby enhancing it in some way.

For the ice source, it sucked in mana and then refined it, making it ice-attributed before sending it back into the surroundings.

Repeating this process, the ice mana it spewed gathered.

Moreover, since the ice source was in the middle of the ocean, the winds were already cold, so it didn’t take long for ice to start extending from it, making a small lump at the start, but with centuries of accumulation, turned into a continent sized landscape.

He could understand why the dungeon monsters were after it in Ezra’s past life.

The best part about essence refiners were that they were artifacts that didn’t need manual input.

As from centuries ago, the ice source had been refining mana without anybody’s will.

In short, it would have an ice mage advance faster than others for absolutely no cost.

All he needed to do now was to change it from a mana aligned treasure to one of negative mana.

Zydrax knew how to do that, but unfortunately, he couldn’t immediately begin its completion in Lumeria.

The orb of negative mana was unsatisfactory, far from enough, so he had to get more.

Luckily, he knew exactly where to go to do so.

As such, Zydrax placed it all back into the space ring, he unfreezes himself, exits the abode and then covers it up.

Rising above to survey Lumeria from abode, his senses wash over the land, looking for a particular serpent.

Their mind connection gave Zydrax a general direction, making the search a lot easier.

Blasting off, he stops just above Severus.

The serpent was in the middle of ingesting a shadow wolf when it sensed its owner.

Being large enough to force Severus to slowly ingest, the shadow wolf had been at least A rank.

Rapidly blinking, Severus finally looks up.

Upon spotting Ezra’s figure, Severus becomes giddy, shouting through their mental connection with the shadow wolf’s tail still dangling outside its mouth.

’Master you’re back! Are we going home now?!’

’Soon’ Zydrax replied, taking a better look at Severus.

Rampantly releasing its black demonic aura, the surroundings were quiet as nearby beasts hid themselves from the monstrosity that appeared from the blue.

Severus had grown a few inches the few weeks he was away, the beast now had two pitch black horns on its head, giving it an even more menacing appearance.

Seeing as how Severus held few injuries, it meant there was no other beast SS rank in the vicinity.

’They must be deep within’ thought Zydrax, but he had no inclination to find SS rank beasts.

Instead, Zydrax flew above Lumeria looking for a dungeon.

He found not one, but two, and both had released their wave of troops out in the open.

Seeing hundreds of goblins draped in rags with crude weapons in their hands didn’t faze him one bit.

With Lumeria being a beast land, there was no way the owners would standby as foreign creatures trespassed.

Right now, the Goblins and the beasts were locked in a heated battle and unsurprisingly, the Goblins were on the losing end.

Fighting beasts on their own turf was not helping, not to mention that the beasts had killed many others to stay alive.

The ways of hunting had been carved into their minds, and the goblins were learning that the hard way.

Wolf packs picked them apart by one, with one going for the leg while another attacked from behind, biting the goblins dominant hand to separate them from their weapons before ruthlessly ripping them apart into pieces of flesh.

Zydrax nodded, stronger troops would soon follow, but Lumeria, even if destroyed, was of no consequence to Lexon and the like, so he wasn’t bothered.

With the state of the dungeon confirmed, Zydrax picks up Severus-who had somehow managed to find himself another beast to snack on during that short time frame-says his goodbyes to Lumeria and shoots straight for Lexon.

Two weeks later, Zydrax is still dashing through the clouds.

Two weeks after that, Zydrax finally closes in on one of the three continents.

Puton.

Without knowing, he’d taken the long way back.

Nevertheless, with one of the continents in sight, the others were only days away.

Four days later, Zydrax touches down on Quartiz soul, ending his short but casual trip around the world.

Stretching his bones, Zydrax lands in his obscure abode without anyone’s knowledge and sleeps.

Even for him, such continuous use of mana strained him a bit.

Moreso, since he couldn’t cultivate.

But anyways, that would soon change.

Zydrax couldn’t wait to begin (hopefully) the last phase of modification for his creation!

Right after a two hour down time that is...