“Quintessence spring?” Zachary asked.

“Quintessence spring?” Wander asked as well, “What’s that? Is it fun?”

“Yeah,” Zachary replied to Wander within his soul sea, “It is a term for a special concentration of Eternum, usually of a single attribute. There will usually be far more Eternum in that location, so much so that it would clump together and form special materials called quintessences. These are comparable to anima crystals but are naturally occurring. They are very rare and very valuable.”

“Ooh! That sounds awesome! Let’s go!”

“Hold on,” Zachary ignored Wander’s excitement and asked Heather, “What type of quintessence spring?”

“I wasn’t able to get too close. There was a powerful creature guarding it. But it should be an earth attribute spring.” She replied.

“Earth…”

“Think about it. It would be perfect for your earth elemental. If you can utilize the quintessence spring, you can turn your earth elemental into your ace. It has that potential.”

Zachary had to agree. Doro could be considered the summon with the greatest potential behind Wander. It was even better than Voodoo. With earth quintessences, he could also rapidly improve Doro’s soul cultivation, thus improving his own as well in the process.

That was one of the biggest differences between the strongest survivors and the others. Take Aaron who was at least at the Six Paths Adept Rank. He could summon six adept rank creatures to fight at the same time. It was three times as many as Zachary who was still at the Two Paths Adept Rank. No matter how many adept rank summons he had on hand, if he couldn’t summon them, they were useless.

“Okay, how many soul orbs do you want?” Zachary asked.

“How many do you have?” She asked.

The two studied each other, trying to gauge the other’s bottom line.

Zachary had caught three summons since leaving the underground ruins with Wander, meaning he currently had seventy-three soul orbs to spare. Realistically, he wouldn’t be able to use all of it in a month. Keeping so many wouldn’t help improve his strength.

“Two octets, sixteen orbs.” He offered.

Heather’s reaction was muted. She didn’t act surprised at the number at all as if she expected it. She pursed her lips in thought and then raised three fingers.

“Three, three octets.”

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“Twenty-four? Fine. But only after you show me where it is.”

“Half when we set off. Half when we reach the spring.” She countered.

“Fine.”

Heather held out her hand. Zachary took it and shook it lightly. He was about to let go but she pulled him in.

“I didn’t think you would be so reliable.” She said softly, her eyes shining in the dim light. She bit her tongue and gave him a playful smile, “I knew you were my type. If you were just a few years older… Hehe.”

Zachary felt his face flush. But he wasn’t one to act shy in front of women. He also smiled and leaned in closer. Her beautiful face filled his vision and his gaze drifted downward to her lips.

“You shouldn’t worry. I don’t mind older women at all.”

She held him for a few more moments before bursting into giggles, “Alright, alright. I’ll stop teasing you. Hahaha, you’re so serious!”

He laughed long with her, noting with satisfaction that her face was just as red as his probably was.

After a few more words, Zachary left and returned to his hut. As he stepped inside, Wander came out of his soul sea, spinning around a few times before giving Zachary a disapproving look.

“Ayah… Big Bro Zach, you are terrible at bargaining. Twenty-four is so many. You could have at least countered with twenty. You shouldn’t have been swayed by her pretty face. Sometimes, you have to have the mindset of a turtle.”

Zachary laughed, “The mindset of a turtle? I’ll keep that in mind.”

He ignored Wander’s further nagging and summoned Onkie.

“Onk! Onk! Zacky!” She immediately went up to him and rubbed her furry body against his legs.

He laughed and rubbed her head which made her even happier. She squealed and flopped over, letting him rub her big belly.

“Not fair, I want a belly rub too!” Wander complained.

“Hehe, if you can roll onto your belly, I’m sure Zacky will rub it,” Onkie said.

Wander realized she was teasing him and stomped the ground in frustration. He was a turtle, so obviously, he couldn't easily roll onto his back.

Zachary laughed and patted Onkie’s butt, “Onkie, tonight, I want you to work on a new ability.”

“Onk? New ability? What’s that, is it edible?”

“No, you should already be a little familiar with it. In the past, when you search for food, you often have to dig around for roots and worms in the ground, right?”

“Oh, yes!” Onkie nodded her head vigorously, “Worms are the tastiest, especially the big, fat white grubs. Mmmm, juicy!”

To the side, Wander stuck out his tongue like he wanted to throw up.

“Yes, just like that. Digging should come naturally to you. I think it would be good to see if we can improve upon it. Before, you’ve only dug shallow holes to look for food. This time, dig should be a proper ability that allows you to hide yourself underground as well as create tunnels to go from one place to another without enemies seeing you.”

As he spoke, he touched a summoning orb on his belt and brought out Doro. The earth elemental let out a long groan in greeting and sat down nearby like a pile of dirt.

“Doro, let's help Onkie. Dig a tunnel from here to the outside of the wooden fence. It should be at least one meter deep along the way. Onkie, follow Doro and get a feel for it.”

“Alright!”

The two summons set to work. Doro sank into the ground, becoming a part of the earth. Onkie followed, furiously moving her front feet like a pair of little shovels, sending dirt flying everywhere. Since Doro led the way, the ground was softened and was easy to excavate. Onkie did not have an instinct to dig tunnels so it was a learning experience. However, she was still a creature attuned to the element of earth. She learned everything very quickly and got the basics down in one evening.

Zachary was satisfied. He now had even more anticipation for the earth quintessence spring. Doro would certainly benefit but Onkie would too. As his first summon in the New World, he had a special attachment to her. He wouldn’t let her fall behind the others.