8th of Season of Air, 57th year of the 32nd imperial era

Despite his mindcore capturing the entire scene, Newt had no idea what had happened. One moment, Puresnow was soaring, cleaving down with her sword, the next she was lying on her back, gasping for air with Dandelion holding her weapon in one hand, her wrist in the other, Puresnow's arm bent to the point of near snapping.

"That was foolish." Dandelion's voice was cold, his glare colder, freezing the ice mageknight in place.

Newt's mind processed what he had seen, the sword going down, Dandelion pivoting and bending his body, the hand shooting for Puresnow's wrist, the woman's speed and inertia used against her as Dandelion disarmed her with his other hand, and finally, slammed her against the ice, kicking up frozen mist as she lay there, staring at the ceiling in shock.

"Disarming her would have been tougher had she used a sword without a guard." Newt took a moment to realize Dandelion was explaining things to him. "I used the guard against her to wrestle the weapon free from her hand."

Newt noticed no wrestling. Dandelion grabbed the sword and took it like Puresnow had passed it to him. The only explanation was technique combined with a body stronger than normal for their realm.

"What?" Everlast finally found her words. "Puresnow, what have you done? Master told us Sir Dandelion is the leader and that we are to obey him as if he were her. Sir Dandelion, please forgive Puresnow's rudeness. I… I don't know what came over her."

Dandelion let go of the prone woman, but kept her sword.

"Nothing to forgive. Hotheadedness is normal in youth; just look at Newstar here."

Hey! Newt frowned, but Dandelion flicked a flake of ice at his head, and it evaporated with a hiss.

"Hot Head," he explained, yet Newt still crossed his arms. "But such behavior can lead to injuries and even fatalities as we explore this cavern, so I would like to ask you to guard the entrance to the cave, Puresnow, somewhere Lady Frostgrave will be able to see you."

The woman, still prone on her back, looked at Dandelion with hollow eyes.

"Unity is more important than numbers, or even strength," Dandelion explained. "And I fear you lack what is needed to play well in this team."

Suddenly, his voice turned gentler. "That is not to say this is your fault. Our chemistry is conflicting, it causes you to clash with me and Newstar, so it would be best for you to perform a different, no less important role of guarding the entrance and warning us of any potential outsiders or wandering high-realm monsters."

Dandelion was spewing utter rubbish, and everyone knew it, but that rubbish was Puresnow's way out with which she could keep some dignity and maybe not get reported by Everlast.

"The three of us can keep going." Dandelion moved his attention to Newt and Everlast. "You two can tackle the third realm frostworms on your own, while we will work together to bring down the fourth realm ones."

He shot Newt a flat stare. "And before you complain, Newstar, no, I cannot handle a fourth realm frostworm on my own without paying a significant cost. And there is no reason to torture or bankrupt myself when I have friends and allies to help me deal with them."

Dandelion looked towards the corpse of the third realm frostworm.

"Is there anything inside it you wish to harvest?" he asked Everlast. Newt looked towards her, and he could have sworn he saw a light blush as she shifted her gaze from Dandelion to the dead serpent.

"We could sell the carapace plates for a handful of third realm crystals, and we should check whether the core is still intact." She sounded disinterested, almost like the process was a chore, and Newt wanted to cry that his entire clan had not seen that kind of money in years.

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"I'll work on the carapace," he volunteered with more enthusiasm than seemed necessary, and Everlast gave him a quizzical look.

"All right," she said slowly, then started butchering the frostworm while Newt removed the much smaller plates.

"Newstar," Dandelion suddenly spoke as Puresnow left their group. "You need to learn how to use your time wisely. Sculpting your realm will take a lot of your time, more with each passing layer, exponentially more with each realm. Simple constructs you make will take hours, while more complex ones will demand weeks, moons or years to complete, and they will fall apart or decay should you stop before finishing them."

Newt stopped separating the thick plates from the frostworm's carcass and even Everlast paused to hear what Dandelion had to say.

"Sometimes, quite often in fact, you must let go of a treasure for those of lower realm, or even for your own, for the sake of greater goals. You need not spend hours carefully dismantling a saurian's corpse if two minutes of reckless butchery will yield a third or even a tenth of the bounty."

Newt didn't understand. His family needed the money. He needed the money to find information about his parents. That was the only thing that mattered.

Dandelion sighed.

"Listen. While it might seem like awakened live extremely long lives, even for us, time is a resource more valuable than manarium. With the right skills, you can convert time into manarium very effectively, but the way of converting manarium into time is well outside our power. Even Lady Frostgrave lacks the resources for such a luxury."

Newt hesitated, but gathered the courage to voice his thoughts.

"But I need the money now. How can I pass the opportunity when it's right before me?"

Dandelion's deep breath revealed he was testing the man's patience, but Dandelion still answered without a speck of annoyance in his voice.

"Let us assume that removing all the carapace from this frostworm takes two hours, and there is an average ten percent chance of finding a core in a saurian after a difficult fight, twenty when it dies before using too many abilities."

Newt nodded as Dandelion spoke about odds. The youth wasn't certain about the exact chances of finding a core, but he knew they were slim and the less the saurian used its power, the greater the odds of recovering the core.

"That means you would need twenty hours on average to gather a core, and about a fifth of its worth in carapaces. Alternatively, you could earn a core in one hour, or less once you become more proficient, and use nineteen hours on crafting something useful to you or for selling."

Newt nodded. Slowly.

"Shouldn't I stay in the city and just craft if that's the case?"

"No, because hunting saurians gives you experience and helps you refine your combat abilities. Training, sparring, and dueling others is also important, however none of those can prepare you for a life or death battle against another man." He glanced at Everlast and added, "Or woman."

Newt was about to ask about how he was supposed to know which was worth more and whether the worth of certain actions changed with time, when Dandelion started running back towards the depths.

"If you have any questions, discuss them with Lady Everlast."

Dandelion suddenly sped up, and Newt just watched his departing black, inwardly muttering curses. Then he raised his gaze and met Everlast's.

"Um. Lady Everlast," Newt stuttered. "Do you know what Dandelion was talking about?"

"Some of it." She nodded and got back to work. Newt thought that was the end of their conversation, but the woman unexpectedly explained her words.

"He is correct regarding mana refinement and realm sculpting. Master once spent three and a half years locked up in her private chambers, alternating between drawing mana and sculpting her realm. I heard Exalt Everfrost had gone into seclusion over a hundred years ago, and she still hasn't finished."

Over one hundred years? Newt's mind spun at the number.

"Beyond the third realm, you cannot advance on the ambient mana, even just the third realm is really difficult, because you would waste a ridiculous amount of time, so we rely on potions, manarium, and spell seals which gather mana from vast spaces and refine it for you. You could say that is buying time with crystals in a way, so Sir Dandelion is technically wrong."

Newt considered the words, and they sounded like a technicality more than anything else. Still, he continued to listen to what Everlast had to say.

"As for optimizing the use of your time, he is once more right and wrong. Master sometimes brings us out of the fortress monastery, to experience the real world and the tribulation of unsheltered life. She claims it would temper our hearts and fortify our resolve."

Yeah, I don't need that. Not anymore.

"Order also issues simple monster subjugation missions from time to time. They breed and evolve like crazy in areas with rich ambient mana, and our leaders don't allow us to exterminate them completely, probably to give the new generations of disciples a chance to train as well."

"Your missions are in icy lands? What are the cold weather saurians like?" Newt asked, changing the subject since he had a feeling Everlast was going in circles and diluting the lesson Dandelion tried to teach him.

The woman smiled. "Well, for starters, they have white feathers instead of scales…"

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