Soul of Searing Steel

Boom!

The clouds over the skies erupted with living bolts in the company of deafening rumble, while the thunderstorm brush over the world like sparks flickering incessantly in a laboratory. The world that had been enshrouded in dense, magical electric currents was immeasurably dangerous, but was also why the Superconducting Arcane Silver was fully preserved since Creation despite its tendency to decay rapidly.

However, what left the Elite Party was not the mundane thunderstorm.

Terrible lightning was assembling and forming over thunderclouds that were almost a hundred miles above, while a massive elemental had awakened because of the intruders. A roar ten times louder than the thunder resounded from its maw that barely formed, while shockwaves visible to the naked eye engulfed the land, throwing the five elements of the Elite Party in windy confusion just as powerful static electricity gave them all afros.

It was not unusual for an elemental to be born here given that there was a high-mana environment coupled with the presence of one of the greatest magical minerals. Nevertheless, it was still very ridiculous with the Tyrant Thunder Elemental that was growing every stronger even in its sleep thanks to the world’s magnetic field and the thunderstorms, along with what were hundreds of ordinary thunder elementals.

“An entire nest of thunder elementals.”

Reaching out with his right hand to flatten his afro while directing his blood and aura to restore his face’s complexion briefly loss due to the elementals’ presence, Priest the young Gold-tier warrior sighed, seemingly unsurprised by the matter. “Thanks to Rider—if we were any other team, we would have been panicking over encountering some colossal magical creature.”

“That’s right.”

“Ain’t that the truth.”

“You get used to it.”

Alchemist, Mage, and Clergy all nodded, the spellcasting trio having shared a tacit friendship all along. “Thanks to Rider, we have long since made a habit out of it.”

Such was the danger in otherworld exploration. None would know what devilry lurks beneath the surface, with each entry into a different world being the equivalent of opening ten card packs at once—there was telling whether it was Legendary cards (SSR) inside or normal blues and whites.

Beside him, Clark the Rider was making a long face while pulling out his weapon from his enchanted armor. He was not bothered to say anything to his teammates who were actually assuming by default that it was all his fault whenever they encounter something unexpected, and were not actually complaining.

It’s all my fault, huh?

However, it was troubling that his party always meet such monsters whenever they brought him along!

With every Elite Party member commanding Gold-tier ability and being armed to the core, it was not as if they could not get rid of a Supreme-tier Tyrant Thunder Elemental and its little thunder elemental lackeys. If they were willing to assume the cost, there was no reason a group such as them who had gone through hellish training and brawled countless powerful monsters would lose.

Furthermore, various ability, combat skills and top legacies from other civilizations had been spread far and wide across the world of Mycroft thanks to Continental War. Gold-tier champions could now fight seven to ten otherworld beasts of their level at the same time, while several Gold-champions joining hands may allow them a chance against Supreme-tiers.

But was that necessary?

Certainly not.

As the Tyrant Thunder Elemental trembled in rage at the sight of the invaders, mustering power and prepared to blow away the five little maggots into ash with a plasma breath from its maw, team leader Priest raised his right hand solemnly and activated the spirit terminal on his fist.

Having been running on a stand-alone capacity without the Mana Net, the Spirit Mana suddenly emitted a silver flash. Then, amidst Steel Strength resonance, a summoning circle that was over dozens of meters tall materialized before Priest out of thin air!

“We are the sharing the summoning costs this time!” Priest yelled at his teammates as wild winds billowed ahead of the plasma breath. “I was killed when I foot the bill last time. Don’t try to escape this time!”

With the summoning words, the silver flash abruptly brightened. A pale-blue dimensional doorway hence opened, revealing what appeared to be another blue sea of thunder—then, in accordance to the contract, a powerful being came out of the doorway, crossing half the galaxy and meeting the surging plasma breath head-on!

Bang!

The formless blast of burning plasma was suddenly caught by a layer of barrier, its surface flickering with various unusual runes that absorbed all thunder currents and energy.

There should not have been sound as energy and barriers clashed—but now, when both forces collided, there was a thundering crack that stirred in the hearts of the Elite Party.

The Tyrant Thunder Element’s angry bellows echoed from the distance, its tone at once displaying vigilance and puzzlement, as well as the rage of having its attack blocked. Meanwhile, on the other side of the summoning circle, Priest and the others looked up at the massive creature that blocked the storm.

The creature which resembled a jellyfish, but its numberless tentacles were composed of magical runes and half energy. Encircled in thunder bolts, it was cheering while absorbing the energies from the plasma breath, appearing to enjoy the high voltage environment in the Superconductive Arcane Silver World very much.

The thunderclouds around them began to slowly assemble, while streaks of lightning shot towards the jellyfish. In response, it simply extended its tentacles to tame the powerful bolts, converting everything into its own power.

“Pupil of the Recreator—have you the exchange points to summon me this time?”

Priest could hear a youthful voice at the depths of his mind, the voice of the Thunder Jellyfish. “That Tyrant Thunder Elemental—or whatever you call it—is much stronger than I am. I could subjugate it though it would be a challenge, but if your offer is not enough…”

“5000!” Priest did not hesitate to name a price.

“At your service, employer!”

***

Similar scenes were happening to almost all official Imperial External Exploration parties.

The Heroic Souls that came from foreign worlds and civilizations inside Joshua’s body commanded great power. Apart from meditating daily about how their previous world had fallen and how they could rebuild it, they would play a special version of Continental War which Joshua had designed for them to conduct practical society simulation. Those who performed best in the practical obtain certain quota to establish territories over floating islands, as well as creating their tribes and guide them in rebuilding civilization.

Still, there was no question that the conditions to develop and spread civilization were too complicated, and Joshua could not help them unconditionally even if he could help them rebuild, or it would defeat the purpose of educating them. That was why—through a moment of inspiration, the warrior connected the redemption system of the External Exploration Department to his own world, so that that the Otherworld Heroic Spirits could exchange for things they wanted, including his aid.

And the way they would get exchange points were signing contracts with parties from the Exploration Department and help them gain their rewards.

Both sides would be happy that way, with one side gaining help from powerful Heroic Spirits, and the other obtaining exchange points to cultivate their own race. Joshua found it satisfactory as well—as the Heroic Spirits offered more aid, their unique living form, civilization skills and ideas of supernatural powers would be compiled and stored in the archives.

After all, living otherworld beings employing their skills would make better data than those in records. With exchange points, if any expedition members asked, they would learn about them from those Heroic Spirits in cordial terms.

To Joshua, it was also a fine method for grinding off the Chaos: With the Heroic Spirits in his body strengthening, the Chaos would diminish in the presence of the superior force. It would not take the warrior years when that combines with the cleansing effect of Continental War, and even less time should his ability increase. Then, he would return to normal, with both his divinity and Chaos memories suppressed.

Beyond that, Joshua had done much over the last two months.

Firstly, he had placed the demons of Order that Goliath mentioned to the Bloodmoon Abyss.

Goliath appeared reluctant at first, but could not refuse for the sake of appearances and simply went with it—but when it realized the that the environment of the Bloodmoon Abyss was great, and that the surroundings that was a middle ground between Order and Abyss was very fitting for the demonic species converted out of Order, Goliath’s reaction changed and became fully cooperative all at once.

It even intended to form an agreement with Light: if there are any newborn demons, all would be moved to the Bloodmoon Abyss where they would grow and flourish.

In response, the luminous humanoid that yearned for intelligent life had wanted to agree at once, only for Joshua to step between them.

“The most important thing is cooperation, Goliath.”

The warrior spoke quietly. “We won’t use those demons as hostages, but the prerequisite is that you must cooperate with us: send your most elite troops to join the Combined Void Fleet, and remember, the most elite—not the uglies causing a ruckus down at Fort Pioneer.”

The Abyssal Liege was silent for a moment, and slightly arched its back.

“…As you wish, my master.”

***

The public beta testing phase for Continental War had pacified the Abyssal demons who had proven rather uncooperative while pleasing Light, not to mention finding work for the civilization and Heroic Spirits in his own world. Joshua hence believed that he had basically finished everything he could do recently, and what was left is to wait for the Combined Void Fleet to take shape and head for the other side of the stars.

Though it appeared to be a dangerous quest which takes a long time, it actually was not so. With the Legendary champions’ calculations, coupled with the experienced Great Khan’s estimated resource requirements, it was discovered that apart from slight insufficient rations, other resources could simply be solved with the power of multiple Legends—such was a part of the perks as an Extraordinary civilization, since a sufficiently powerful champion could substitute for stores of lacking resources.

Joshua thought that he could briefly rest for a moment, and keep fighting in his spirit against divinity and Chaos memories.

But the first bit, an unusual piece of news left the warrior’s plans disjointed.

“…Dimensional rift?”

“They thought that it was some unexpected special magical natural phenomenon or the sign of some treasure appearing. However, after we compiled the information, we believe that things are not that simple.”

Joshua looked at Zero Three, frowning as he repeated her words, “You’re saying that there were many who saw those peculiar dimensional rifts?”

Zero Three nodded, speaking with a formal tone as if simply and officially repeating a Mana Net report. “According to more than twelve otherworld explorers who had gone out alone, they would all occasionally notice well-hidden dimensional rifts behind them.”