Shock team

On the surface a group of people wearing hazmat suits were experimenting with a little crystal.

The people inside the protective clothing had many different nationalities, from a Chinese person to a South African guy.

-Experiment Number 13077-C has failed. Said the man looking at the empty table where a time crystal used to be.

-This time the light analysis has… Suddenly a man entered the room running.

-Emergency!

-What happened Louiz, didn't we tell you to not enter the room like this anymore, last time …

-I AM NOT PLAYING AROUND THIS TIME! The sensors detected a massive drop in energy signatures. It's possible that a depression is forming according to the Flaux theory!

-Holy SHIT LOUIZ!! WHY DIDN'T YOU STOP ME EARLIER!? Let 's go everyone!

Everyone else ran towards a special side room, they took their clothes off while on the run without a care. The first to reach there was the same man who screamed earlier, a middle-aged man with a sharp look.

-This is… The signatures from our sensors are decreasing at alarming speeds… what about the camera feed?

-It doesn't cover so deep into the caverns. We can't put such sensitive equipment close to the crystals, boss.

-Fucking hell… Send a shock team… NOW! I DON'T CARE ABOUT THE COST, THE PRICE OF THE EQUIPMENT OR WHATEVER, WE NEED TO FIND OUT WHAT'S HAPPENING SO THAT WE CAN DETERMINE IF ITS A THREAT OR NOT!!

-What are you guys waiting for?! To your posts no… The middle-aged man was tired after speaking for so long that he had started to take deep breaths.

-Don't worry boss, that's bad for your health. I already sent a team down there. Said Louiz

The boss just looked at Louiz before saying:

-WHY DIDN'T YOU TELL ME LOUIZ!?

…

Back at the caverns.

-One becomes two and two becomes four. And so like this, my love for you returns to one…

{That was awful.}

Shut it, I'm all out of ideas, and I am not a fan of wasting my power only to rime well.

Anyway, it's getting rather cold here, how deep are we right now?

{We descended 745 Meters since we started this. We also collected around 70 of the big ones.}

Alright. Just remember to put those crystals in the market, see if we can find someone to buy them.

{I already did that and already found some people, but their prices are not satisfying.}

Can I ask you something? Can I use a wish to finish my IS? I have had this feeling ever since we started this...

{I can finish it if you want. But we will have to think of the price. Materials that we don't have, the processing of these materials into parts, technology you don't yet have, the difficulty of all of this and some more. Are you sure of this?}

… I am sure. Start slowly, you can use my IS parts if that amounts to something, make only the husk pretty much. Make all alterations you find necessary.

{... What a colossal waste of units… I will do it slowly since it allows us to spend less.}

Fine by me, as long as it doesn't take too long.

…

9 hours later, it has already been 12 hours since they started.

My back hurts…

{You are too young to be having back problems}

Say that to the thousands of crystals I picked up! Isn't there a way for you to collect these from afar?

{There is but… It will cost energy...}

Do it then!

{It's not worth it!}

...We can collect the crystals much faster, and it isn't going to be useless forever. Don't tell me a goddess such as yourself can't see such an obvious thing.

{I will have to increase my rank, not once but several times in order to achieve it.}

I see. But how much and how long?

{The first rank costs 100 units, but the second costs 200 and the third 400 and so on.}

So do it. It would happen anyway. Unless there is an underlying problem…

{There isn't, I just wanted to make a bigger profit on the net, since I will have to transform more of the energy I absorbed into my own instead of selling it.}

… It's just a few hundred…

{I found a few sellers but most of them don't want to buy the energy from the crystals in large bulks…}

So you are keeping them in case you do find one. We can't win them all, and sometimes, having a loss in order to survive is better than dying and losing everything.

{I know, I know. Done, five ranks, 3100 units, the pain... }

Come on we did much more than that, you should be happy we were so lucky in the first place. Now, start getting the energy, it's getting unbearably cold here. My sensors already started to give me some warnings.

{I do feel much better, not being as restricted as before, but we still have a loooong way to go}

Most people can't even start with a few dozen units. But here she is complaining about spending a bit of their money when they made much more.

(They were lucky with this world, with just how "accessible" the energy was. They also didn't have competition, although that's rare in the first place. So doesn't that mean all of the Champions are bound to achieve success? No, most die trying to get to the source of energy. A bunch of noobs, and also, not all patrons are like Lylia, most tend to just watch and leave their Champion to work, some even have multiple.)

A small light suddenly appeared atop my head and started to "zap" all of the crystal fragments around us. Collecting their energy.

…

2200 M, 2300 M, 2450 M, 2685 M. They continued to go deeper into the cavern system, most of the time, they would have to use some tools like propellers and so on.

(This might sound deep to some, but your mom… I mean the deepest cave on Earth is around 2000 M deep, and it takes 3 days or so to go down there. But that is for weak, normal humans without technological equipment. So I think this is pretty reasonable. I am not making light of the real difficulties of doing such a task, I love watching these types of documentaries.)

- 16 hours since we started, I said.

It's still rather cold, with the temperatures fluctuating between -80 and -120 Celsius.

{Take a left over there since the other way will end up being a dead-end after 400 meters.}

Sometimes you have to go up in order to go down, but...

Why is this cavern going deeper and deeper?

{It's because of some geological movement.}

Then what would have happened if this cave was never found and the crystals just moved due to geological movement?

{That's why I said this place is a miracle.}

Finally after 30 hours of continuous exploration… They found themselves at a depth of 3400 M.

Is this the end?

{There are more crystals everywhere, but we can't get to them. Just like you said, we win some, we lose some. Now let's leave this place.}

I had already found a piece of time crystal perfect to my core:

[Flawless Time Crystal-Superdense

This particular time crystal is in the process of becoming an anchor, but due to some special reasons, the tilting point of the transformation has been elevated, making it accumulate an extreme amount of energy to its size.

Very volatile, don't throw it.

Ener...]

With this my own core will be complete, and with the shell being done by Lylia, the only thing I have to do is to put both cores inside the IS. Making it the very first dual-core IS. Once I finish it…

{Your parents aren't going anywhere. We made a lot of money so when we leave, we can put a strong barrier in this world and make a rather big time distortion}

...That's what I wanted all along.

…