Liam crouched over the lifeless body, his fingers deftly prying open the storage pouch as he scanned the surrounding area with a sliver of his mana sense. No immediate threats. Good.
He pulled the pouch open and peered inside. His eyes flickered.
Most of it was useless junk—standard rations, minor healing potions that wouldn't work in higher-tier battles, some basic materials, and a few crude weapons. Nothing that interested him. But what did catch his attention was something else.
The guy had soil. Lots and lots of it.
Only then it hit Liam as his gaze immediately wandered to the soil under his feet. If the trees were not that special and the environment wasn't anything to write home about, then it was the soil. Or well something in the soil.
It seemed off at first. How could there be something so valuable spread out everywhere without any restriction whatsoever? Was this event simply about who collects the most soil?
Liam let out a sigh. There was no point in getting frustrated. He still lacked some information that others just seemed to have. But it was fine. He would catch up quickly enough. He dug through the soul of the dead guy again to see if he knew anything more, but that was a dead end.
As far as the event itself was considered, the guy only knew as much as he did, possibly less than him. He had lucked out by spawning directly on a rocky platform and had stumbled into this world when the platform collided with the portal. Pretty much the same thing. The guy only collected soil because he thought it could be useful.
Liam clicked his tongue and started processing the soul in his possession. Now that his capacity had increased why waste a good one? The entire forging was over in a few seconds much smoother and easier than his earlier ones. The improved first constellation was showing its effects.
After he was done with the soul, he dismissed the minion and put away the dead man into the same basic storage pouch he had retrieved from him only moments ago. The simple storage pouch had apparently gotten some sort of upgrade inside the event.
"Well, what do you know… it works and can even store dead bodies. Perfect." Liam chuckled wryly at the petty sales move by the system. Well, whatever. He moved on.
Next was the soil. Was it really all that special?
Liam sat down on the ground and started meditating. He hadn't yet formed a dao seed of the earth elemental and he had barely focussed on earth-type magic. But he knew enough to see if there was anything out of the ordinary in the soil.
Liam closed his eyes and let his consciousness seep into the soil beneath him. His breath slowed, his senses sharpening as he focused, not just on the physical texture of the dirt, but on its essence.
Almost instantly countless numbers of mana specs glittered all around him. The soil was full of the usual brown earth-elemental mana. Liam continued observing when he noticed once in a while a stray spec of an interesting mana particle.
A green mossy nature elemental mana. No, it was not purely nature elemental. It was mixed, part earth and part nature.
He had never sensed mana particles before, joined together at such a fundamental level. Ordinarily, elemental manas existed as separate entities, even when they complemented each other.
Fire and air, water and ice, light, and life—all had clear distinctions. But this… this was different. It wasn't earth supporting nature, nor was it nature feeding off earth. It was something new.
Liam tried to gather more of these special particles to take a look but they were extremely rare. He furrowed his brows, deepening his concentration. The hybrid mana particles weren't just rare; they were elusive.
Unlike ordinary elemental mana, which simply drifted in the atmosphere or pooled in concentrated areas, these specks moved unpredictably.
He extended his mana sense, stretching it as far as he could without disturbing the balance of energy around him. The specks continued to flicker in and out of his perception, slipping through the dense weave of regular earth and nature mana.
After a few minutes of intense focus, he sifted through an area and gathered almost nothing, just a small rock-sized clump of soil. But even that was enough to make Liam contemplative. There was something different about this particular soil more than the type of mana they were nourished with. There was something else.
Just as he was thinking about this suddenly something unexpected happened. The trees all around him started showing signs of movement. It was subtle at first—like a breeze rustling through leaves—but there was no wind.
The leaves started falling out and the trunk started decaying. The massive trees that had seemed almost eternal just moments ago were now withering, their thick bark cracking and crumbling into dust. Leaves browned in an instant, shriveling and falling like a dying breath.
"So I am not wrong…" Liam stood up, placed the small clump in the storage pouch, and flew forward to find another patch of green healthy trees. After a few minutes, he drained that patch as well.
The same thing happened again.
The moment Liam extracted the special portion of the soil, the once-thriving trees surrounding him began to wither, their towering forms crumbling into decay as if their very essence had been stolen. The cascading effect spread outward in waves, like a slow death rippling across the forest.
Liam hovered in midair, watching the process unfold. The land was vast and there were so many trees. His fingers flexed as he eyed the vast expanse of untouched forest stretching into the horizon. It looked like he had a lot of work to do.
Without hesitation, he shot forward and continued doing the same thing again. Soon he arrived at a place where there were no longer just trees. For the first time, he came across some settlements.