Earth's Greatest Magus

This time, the dwarf master offered Emery the tempering service before the latter even asked. Therefore, Emery couldn't help but be taken aback by the unexpected initiative. 

"That's 70,000 spirit stones each, with a minus 40 percent discount of course.. So everything will be 100,000 spirit stones!"

Master Dulin was smiling as he spoke those words. It was apparent that he was hoping to get his money returned. Unfortunately, before Emery could hand the spirit stones, Klea stopped him. Turning to the dwarf master, she smiled and said.

"Master, but we actually wish to work on next month's task immediately. That way, you can get all the herbs you need as quickly as possible!"

Once again, Emery was confused by her words. However, before he could say or question anything, Klea went ahead and picked up the list of ingredients for the next month before thanking the dwarf master and dragging him out of the workshop.

"See you soon, master! We will make sure we gather them as soon as possible!" said Klea as she exited the workshop, waving the list on her hand in the air.

When the two arrived outside the facility, Emery finally inquired about the matter to Klea, to which her response dumbfounded him.

"No, we don't need to spend a single stone more on that dwarf… I will wait for your new creation.. Remember?"

Emery heaved a sigh and said, "Klea, I know that I said I will do it.. But even now I can't say for sure when, especially to make it comparable to Master Dulin's one!"

Hearing that, Klea just smiled and said, "Is it going to be as long as twenty years?"

Knowing that was the deadline for the duel that decided the fate of Earth, Emery quickly responded. "No! Of course not!"

In response, Klea then said, "5 years then. You have to succeed in making one as good as the dwarf within 5 years."

"Don't joke around," said Emery immediately. "Let's just return back, this is such a good opportunity for you Klea, Those tempering will keep you safe!"

However, the girl did not budge. "Good.. It means more motivation for you…" Noticing the look on Emery's face, Klea stared deeply into his eyes and said, 

"So promise me that you will achieve it."

Once again, Emery found himself unable to resist the girl. He tried, but quickly found the efforts to be futile. In the end, he said, "I promise."

In an instant, Emery felt a weight crash against his body and a familiar fragrant smell wafted through his nose. Klea hugged him tightly and kissed him before swiftly making a new plan for him.

"We only have ten weeks left before graduation, so we can't waste any more time."

The first thing Klea told Emery to do was to send another challenge to Jai Strider. 

"Arrange the duel to happen next week."

Moments after he sent the challenge, a notification appeared on his privileged class bracelet.

[Jai Strider - Rank 7 has accepted your challenge]

Meanwhile, the two of them didn't dally and made their way to the third restriction floating island to harvest more ingredients listed by Master Dulin. With the orbirter, they quickly arrived at their destination.

The third island was a landscape of barren desert, five times bigger than the previous island, and based on the data they had, harbored an intricate labyrinth-like corridor of caves beneath the ground. This place was also supposed to be the hardest one to harvest.

[Puffapod - Tier 4 x 1,000]

[Geranium - Tier 5 x 400]

Fortunately, with [Nature Sense] and the five Chizpur brothers he took along with him, Emery managed to harvest all the ingredients faster and far more than most harvesters were normally able to.

With the little creature's burrowing ability and his [One mind] Emery could spot the plants that were buried under the sands.

The first ingredients needed to be harvested by himself, hence Emery had to do the chores and pick all the cactus-like plants one by one. As the two of them traversed through the seemingly endless desert, they encountered the inhabitants of this place.

The desert sand was filled with worm-like magical beasts. They were varied in size, from a small one which was a meter long, medium size with its three meter long body, and the big one which was a staggering 10 meters long – the latter was a legendary beast.

Emery and Klea, both spent three days wandering through the desert while once again practicing their dual Hexagram formation against the worm-like beasts. 

All these worms were earth element creatures, and during the past three days, Emery obtained an increase of 5 spirit forces from devouring them.

"Let's go downstairs now!"

On the fourth day, the two of them finally entered the underground cave network to search for the second ingredient. There, they met and fought hundreds of ant-like creatures measuring 2 meters in size. 

[Obsidian Ants]

[Magical Beast - Level 90]

[Battle power: 155]

This creature's primitive method of overpowering with numbers gives a good chance for Emery to further polish his control over the Jade Warriors. The two similarities in strength help him understand the limit of his jade warriors.

There was of course a legendary beast behind these ant creatures – a high-tier one at that. It was the ant queen that they had to face eventually.

[Beddle Ants]

[Legendary Beast - Level 85]

[Battle power: 380]

The creature had a carapace so hard that even his Tier 5 sword could only make a scratch. However, nothing could stop Emery at his current level. 

When he saw that several of his offensive spells were unsuccessful in inflicting harm to the creature, he decided to use his strongest spell. The air within the underground cave rumbled as the spell gradually took form.

[Dao Matter]

Dark energy in the left hand while Nature in the other, Emery combined both to bring about a swirling sphere of two colors. It flew towards the ant queen at breakneck speed, and a deafening screech resounded within the cave as the creature's carapace was destroyed into nothing.

Immediately after, Emery's figure shot forward and drove its claws into the exposed part of the ant queen, using [Spirit Devour] to finish off the creature and send it on its way. It didn't take long for its body's essence to be devoured, and as always, he quickly sat in the lotus position to absorb the gain.

[Spirit force has increased]

After he was done absorbing, the queen's ant and the ants he devoured the last 3 days gave Emery an increase of five spirit forces. He went ahead and accessed the symbol in his hand, checking his current amount of spirit force.

[Spirit force: 1634]

By now, seven days had passed since their arrival on this island, and both Emery and Klea had the harvest and training they planned to do. Therefore, they quickly turned their heels and returned to the surface.

Sensing that they came out of the underground cavern, Magus Shena flew down from the sky and approached the two. "Everything done?" she asked, and Emery just nodded in response.

Emery glance at the girl next to him, grateful for her companionship through those three islands. It's all finally over.

"Thank you, Klea"

They then went to the tempering facility and handed over all the ingredients he had collected. He received 80,000 spirit stones for his efforts this time.

"I've finally found an official harvester from the Apothecary Institute, but I hope I can ask for your help again sometime in the future," said Master Dulin earnestly.

Emery naturally accepted the request, since such jobs did give him a lot of benefits.

Now that the debt was paid off, it was now the time for him to prepare for the rematch against Jai Strider, the Metal Puppeteers.