Chapter 288: Found it!

The upcoming days were filled with an unending amount of irritation as Mira's group was forced to sift through all of the Fake Cores because they didn't know what the real one's appearance might look like nor could they tell the real from the fake.

To make matters even more annoying, Mira was the only one who could actually tell which one's were fake due to her Storage Space.

Mira tried wrapping her Qi around a bunch of the Fake Cores and transporting them to her Storage Space, but doing that exhausted her much too quickly that it was faster to grab them one by one or by doing just a few at a time.

When they first started this little project, Mira was constantly checking her Storage Space to see if they actually found the right one, but that didn't last for long.

After the first day, Mira stopped checking her Storage Space and would only look at it once every few hours. It was just faster this way.

Mira also wanted Elenei to fly straight up from the center to see how many kilometers the barrier is from the surface, but that idea was almost immediately rejected. It's not that it wasn't a good idea, but it would be a huge waste of time. Also, Elenei was the one who has contributed the most in finding the Core since she can easily scoop up hundreds or even thousands of them at a time and place them in front of Mira.

It would be unrealistic of Mira to send her best worker on a wild goose chase that most likely won't produce any results. She can't place tracking markers in the air, so keeping track of her position and how high she is will be much more difficult.

Sure, there might be ways she could figure out the height of the Formation, but to them it seemed realistic to keep her on the ground.

Instead, Mira had Maria start digging down and clearing out some of the surrounding area to see if the Core is actually hidden somewhere below them.

She also ordered Celaine to search the space above the ground just in case the real Core is actually covered in an illusion, floating in midair somewhere and they can't see it.

Elenie is the wild card of this operation. She would scoop up large amounts of Fake Cores and put them in front of Mira for her to check them. Then she would help out Celaine and Maria as they were too weak to finish this task in a reasonable amount of time.

This continued on for several days, but what they never expected was how shameless this Natural Formation was. Not only did it make a bunch of copies of the Core to waste their time, but it kept on sending them! If they searched through a thousand, it would send a thousand more. If they checked ten thousand, then it would send ten thousand more.

Mira, who spent days, weeks, or who knows exactly how long, getting tortured in the F.LD.I.L even found her eyebrows twitching occasionally.

Doing this is far from any form of torture nor is it causing her any sort of pain, but Mira found herself getting mildly infuriated from all this.

It felt like someone was poking her with a stick while saying "Am I annoying you?" over and over again.

She just wanted to scream "Goddamit! Yes! Now fucking stop!" and she wasn't the only one. The rest of her group was constantly cursing how shitty and unscrupulous this Natural Formation is.

Finally, sometime near the end of the sixth day since they've been stuck in this Natural Formation, Mira reached for the next fake Core in front of her, but before she grabbed her desired Core, her hand landed on the next Core, but it wasn't the one she originally wanted to grab.

She wasn't paying too much attention to where her hand landed because she's spent almost the past week grabbing cores.

What she didn't know was that whatever she just grabbed was actually invisible. In the end, Mira transferred it to her Storage Space without her even knowing what she just grabbed.

Suddenly, everything changed!

The Fake Cores in front of her all disappeared without a trace and she no longer felt like she was suffocating.

Mira blinked her eyes in surprise that everything around her started to feel so much more... real.

The grass she was sitting on felt slightly different than before, the air she breathed felt more fulfilling almost like it was slightly polluted before but now it's clean. The sky above her didn't seem so... unnatural and programmed.

With all that said, Mira knew she had finally grabbed the real Core and canceled out this shitty Formation.

She checked her Storage Space and saw a small metallic pyramid with a small vortex swirling around the top that wasn't in here before. Since there's nothing in this Storage Space other than this pyramid, it doesn't take a genius to figure out that this is the Core of the Natural Formation.

The pyramid was only around 50 centimeters tall, so it wasn't very large, but Mira noticed that there were thousands upon thousands of small engravings all over this thing. She had no idea what they meant, but she could feel a profound meaning contained within those engravings that made her feel like she was looking at a vast illusory space.

She stopped looking at it a few seconds later and started contemplating what she could do with this thing.

She could probably sell it for an overwhelmingly large amount of Spirit Stones, but she felt like that would be a waste. Not only that, but if she had to fight against a Clan, Family, Sect, or whatever and they had gotten their hands on this item...

Wouldn't she essentially be shooting her own foot if such a situation ever happened and knowing her luck, it would definitely happen.

Thinking about it some more, Mira realized that this thing could actually be quite useful. If she could study and learn those engravings, then she might be able to engrave them on her scythe!

Just the thought of slashing her opponents across space and confusing them with illusory scythes made her blood boil.

In the end, Mira decided to keep it and study it later.

After briefly examining the Core, she left the Storage Space and noticed her companions were in front of her looking around, confused.

"What happened? Where'd everything go? Did Mira finally grab the right one?"

"It looks like she did. I guess we should go ask."

Celaine and Maria approached her and before they could open their mouths, Mira spoke.

"That's right. It seems we finally found the Core. I don't want to bring it out just yet because who knows what might happen if I do. I don't really feel like going through this shit again so I'll just keep it for now. We can look at it later. For now, I say we take a break and then start searching the surrounding area for any treasures or resources. I'm sure there weren't only a few hundred Mid-Grade Spirit Stones in this place to begin with."

Their eyes lit up as soon as Mira mentioned 'treasures' because they almost forgot about that part. Now that they thought about it, they remembered that they would receive a Core recipe if they broke out of this place within 2 weeks.

Well, it hasn't even been a week yet and they've already taken down the Formation...

So not only will they get a recipe that will help them form their Core, but they will be able to snatch the loot that this place has to offer!

What a deal!!

Now, they were almost glad they went through all that annoying bullshit as the rewards are more than worth it.

What they failed to realize was that this was basically only possible because they had Mira and Elenei with them.

When Maria and Celaine eventually separate from Mira to go do their own things for a while, they'll realize just how much they rely on the icy princess.

Though, it's not like Mira is complaining. She knew this would happen when she 'took them in'. She knew they wouldn't be of much help to her and even though there were times when they were able to assist her, they were few and far between.

Now, they were strong enough and skilled enough to go out there and face the world. It was about time for Mira to let them go so they can face their own struggles and figure out their own path.

Perhaps they'll meet again in the future or maybe they won't and they'll move on from Mira to go do their own things. Only time will tell.

Anyways, now that they aren't stuck in this Formation anymore, the stress that has been accumulating over the past week has dissipated and they can take a break without worrying they won't meet the deadline of getting out of here within 2 weeks.

The group spent the next several hours relaxing before they couldn't take it anymore. The thought of treasures beneath their feet was too exciting, so they jumped back into work with more gusto than ever!

Mira found it quite interesting how Maria hated the idea of digging holes for a week straight in order to find the Core, but now that there might be treasures involved, she started tearing up dirt like there was no tomorrow.

Just like that, a week went by and it was time for them to leave. Hopefully this time, they'll actually make it to their destination...