As the final colossal branch of the world-tree severed from the trunk, the localized gravity field shifted, safely bringing Alexander and Reina back down to the solid earth.
Looking through the thinning dust cloud, they watched as Hakon stood before the fractured base of the titan plant. With a casual, heavy grunt, he physically plucked out the core of the tree—a pulsating, luminescent sphere that measured nearly a full kilometer in diameter. He lifted the massive heart-core and effortlessly tossed it down to the forest floor. It landed at the root-line with an apocalyptic thump, sending structural shockwaves through the terrain that made the entire clearing shake violently.
The primary tree trunk itself had been cleanly chopped in two by a coordinated, hyper-dense slash attack from the Noble Rankers. Even now, Reina could distinctly perceive the faint, lingering mana signatures of Hakon and Franklin's respective Aura Beasts vibrating in the air, a testament to the raw output they had just deployed to conclude the siege.
Once the dust settled and the vanguard rejoined the group, Ketovan walked smoothly over to check on Alexander, clapping a hand onto his shoulder.
"Sorry about that, Alex," Ketovan said, his tone entirely professional. "You were passed out cold in the sphere and we were running out of precious time on the campaign clock, so we went ahead and cleared the remainder of the foliage. We saved the Normal Rank core cache specifically for you, though. Not that you don't have a legitimate claim on the rest of the higher-tier drops."
Alexander blinked, looking between the powerhouses in genuine doubt. "What? But you guys did all the heavy lifting and killed them. You faced those upper-tier variants directly. You have the absolute right to claim every single asset you slayed... why are you offering me everything?"
"It was never agreed upon that we would take a standard division of the core loot, no matter who secured the lethal blow," Franklin clarified, leaning heavily against his greatsword as his Aura of Fatigue receded. "Hakon and I volunteered for this run solely to secure a few quick levels and stretch our limbs as a warm-up for the upcoming Orc annihilation campaign. Reina came strictly for the rapid level progression, and Ketovan is representing your trusted guild anchor. It was abundantly clear from the moment we crossed the portal that every major item we harvested from this warped space would ultimately transfer to you—and perhaps a cut to the Church if they actively demanded it."
Ketovan nodded, tossing a heavy, glowing pouch directly into Alexander's hands. The exact moment the leather made contact with his palms, a series of massive, system-bound notification windows flared to life in front of everyone's consciousness:
[System Alert: Unique Beast Slain]
Target: Royal Rank Unique Beast — Gargantuan Plant Hive [Status: Confirmed Dead]
1. Resource Conversion Profile: Timber Volume
The collapsed physical mass of the unique target has been successfully converted into tangible, system-recognized assets. Standard spatial measurement units (Tons/Cords) are entirely insufficient for this volume.
Total Wood Yield: 1,200 Cubic Kilometers of Timber
Material Grade: Prime World-Tree Heartwood
System Classification: Genesis-Tier Structural Material
Inherent Properties: Absolute, everlasting rot resistance; 85% raw magic-conductivity; structural durability matching high-grade Mythril.
2. Fluid Dynamics & Byproducts: Resin Extraction
Internal high-pressure reservoirs have successfully stabilized into harvestable alchemical nodes.
Fluid Node 1 [Amber-Gold]: 450,000,000 Units (Solidified Crystalline Mana-Gems)
Fluid Node 2 [Titan Pitch]: 12,000,000,000 Barrels (Volatile Biotic Napalm / Heavy Fuel Source)
Fluid Node 3 [The Lifeline]: 5,000,000 Liters (Mythic-Grade Elixir Base / Hyper-Regeneration Fluid)
3. Cosmic Titles Earned[Slayer of the Sky-Piercer]
Description: You have successfully brought down a living biological structure that breached the upper atmosphere.
Passive Effect: Grants a permanent +30% resistance to all kinetic impacts and falling damage. Gravity-based weight restrictions on your physical attacks are heavily reduced.
[Titan Pitch Monarch]
Description: You hold absolute dominion over one of the existence's primary reservoirs of volatile biotic fuel and ancient resin.
Passive Effect: Automatically unlocks advanced, classified alchemical extraction blueprints. Grants a flat 20% probability to double the total yield when actively refining raw Amber-Gold or The Lifeline sap nodes.
[The Ultimate Axe]
Description: You have proven to the laws of reality that no matter how massive, ancient, or divine a target claims to be, it can be cut down.
Passive Effect: Inflicts a permanent, un-dispellable [Dread] aura on all nature-aligned spirits, dryads, and wood-elves. Decreases their base combat morale by 30% whenever they enter your immediate presence.
Performance Bounty: 300,000 Gold Coins have been distributed to your registry.
"Those are an astronomical amount of resources and titles..." Reina murmured, her eyes wide as she scanned the system readouts. "Who exactly got credited with the rewards?"
"Hakon secured the final lethal strike on the primary core trunk, so the clear system credentials must have anchored to him," Franklin explained, opening his personal log to verify the loot distribution.
Alexander hesitated for a moment, looking down at his system tray before raising a hand. "I have a small doubt regarding the math here."
"Spill the tea, kid," Hakon nodded, crossing his thick arms.
"Is that 1,200 cubic kilometers of timber an overall total number for the entire squad... or is that an individual drop value?" Alexander voiced the inevitable question.
A heavy silence fell over the clearing as all five party members simultaneously accessed their personal inventories. Sure enough, resting within each of their system slots was an identical, high-tier spatial container.
[Item Name:] Reward Bundle: Gargantuan Plant Hive
[Description:] Contains the absolute duplicated rewards extracted from conquering a unique beast of a warped space.
[Contents:] 1,200 Cubic Kilometers of Timber, 300,000 Gold Coins, 450,000,000 Units of Amber-Gold, 12,000,000,000 Barrels of Titan Pitch, 5,000,000 Liters of The Lifeline.
The reality of the system mechanics hit them like a physical blow. Because the unique beast rewards duplicated across the party registry, the expedition was suddenly left holding an astronomical, logic-defying mountain of... well, everything.
When calculated as a collective whole, they now possessed billions of units of Amber-Gold, tens of billions of barrels of Titan Pitch, 60 million liters of the sacred Lifeline elixir fluid, and a combined total of 1.5 million gold coins—which equated to approximately 150 pure Mythril Coins.
"Alright, how exactly are we going to share this level of loot?" Franklin asked, looking toward the other four for input.
"Keep your individual gold rewards and your respective shares of the Lifeline fluid," Hakon decided instantly, without a single trace of hesitation or greed. He unhitched his rewarded bundle bag from his belt and tossed it directly into Alexander's hands. "As for the rest of the structural and fuel assets... transfer everything over to Alexander."
Reina stepped forward, looking up at Alexander with literal puppy eyes. "Can I please keep the Titan Pitch that was dropped into my reward bundle? Just a small part of it?"
"Sure... I guess?" Alexander replied, a bit overwhelmed as he glanced toward Ketovan to check his consensus. "Keep as much as you need for your progression and return the remainder to the main pile."
"A million barrels will do perfectly for my crafting loops," Reina cheered. She rapidly extracted her desired fuel allotment, repackaged the remaining billions of barrels, and tossed her pouch over to Alexander.
Moments later, Franklin and Ketovan smoothly handed their respective reward pouches over as well, consolidating the entire world-tree's worth of wealth into Alexander's storage.
"Hakon and I will be taking exactly five Royal Ranking cores from the secondary loot pools as our standard baseline compensation," Franklin stated, gesturing toward the very first spatial pouch Ketovan had handed over from his looting domain. "Not the primary tree's core, mind you—just a few drops from the Ant Queen pile or the high-tier Elemental reserves."
Alexander opened the secondary spatial pouch to inspect the baseline mob drops, his breath catching at the sheer density of the numbers:
[Item Name:] Spatial Space Pouch (Royal Rank)
[Inventory Manifest:]
Normal Rank Soulless Cores: 25,678,941 Beast Cores
Soldier Rank Soulless Cores: 589,326 Beast Cores
Noble Rank Soulless Cores: 3,678 Beast Cores
Royal Rank Soulless Cores: 56 Beast Cores
Core of the Wood: 347 Cores
Core of the Leaf: 20,473 Cores
Cores of Amber: 1,245 Cores
"There is so much here..." Alexander whispered, staring blankly at the massive haul.
For a fleeting, intoxicating second, he felt as though the entire world was resting directly in the palm of his hands. But then, a cold flash of reality hit his mind. He remembered the two gargantuan Divine Rank cores the Flaren prince had just revealed to him in the void buffer—the Time Crystal Wyvern Core and the Arcane Dragon God Essence Core.
He realized with absolute clarity that no amount of raw gold, world-tree timber, alchemical amber-gold, or even standard Royal Rank monster cores could ever truly rival the cosmic value of those two Divine entities. True power in Eternis didn't belong to the merchants; it belonged to those who commanded the high-tier concepts.
Breaking his train of thought, Hakon walked over, hoisted the massive, one-kilometer-wide heart core of the world-tree, and smoothly channeled his mana to compress and drop it directly into the spatial mouth of the pouch Alexander was holding.
With the primary world-tree entirely stripped of its value and the warped space effectively cleared, Reina turned toward Ketovan, her eyes flashing with a newfound, hungry determination to level up.
"Dragon hunting next?" Reina asked, her voice tight.
Ketovan looked out toward the distant, uncharted horizons of the zone and offered a slow, decisive nod.
"Dragon hunting."
***