The Dawn of the New World

'Trace amounts of Ether Crystals found. The whispers were right yet again.'

Hao Xuan looked to his left at the wall beside him. It had inch deep horizontal tracks of various widths going across from one end to the other, connecting every single hallway and room.

There were traces of dark-purple colored crystals along the length of the tracks, most of which had either been taken out by force or fallen out due to natural wear and tear.

Hao Xuan closed his eyes and let his spiritual sense wander around him. Whenever it came into contact with such crystals it would simply disappear, as if it never belonged to him to begin with.

'What exactly are ether crystals?' Hao Xuan inquired.

A short video popped on the top left of his vision. It was showing an asteroid field somewhere in deep space. The camera zoomed in on one of the larger asteroids that had dark blue crystals all along its sides.

"These are Ether Crystals. They are only found within the deep space where there are no other celestial objects within 300 light-years to-"

While Baracus was explaining what Ether Crystals were, where they were found and how they were harvested and for what purpose, Hao Xuan's attention was focused on the thing that was in the background of the asteroid field.

A large, cylindrical scally body could be seen slowly flashing in and out of existence, as if it was dematerializing over and over again while moving through the asteroid field, providing quite a horrific backdrop to an otherwise ethereal scene. But just when it was about to reach open space the video cut off, waking Hao Xuan from his daze.

He had goosebumps all over his body just from looking at the video of whatever that creature was. For some reason he felt like it was able to see him as well, which was obviously impossible.

Hao Xuan cleared his throat, recalling Baracus's words and reiterating everything, 'So to summarize, Ether Crystals are an extremely rare type of re-usable spirit stone, yes? They can gather and store spiritual energy, spiritual sense, and some of the more refined ones can even hold souls, as long as they are not too powerful.'

'Precisely. Those are some of the basic uses, among others.'

'But...when you say rare, how rare are they exactly?'

'Given there is an asteroid field that fulfills all other conditions, only 1 out of 30,000 asteroids would have Ether Crystals growing on them. But the main issue is not of their rarity, rather the method of locating and harvesting them.'

'Since they absorb all spiritual senses and the standard techniques of identifying resources do not work them, only an in-person inspection would bear any fruitful results. They also absorb almost every type of energy which means you would have to go to them yourself and harvest the crystals using traditional, physical means.'

'So I would have to walk out there, in the vacuum without any cover, and use my hands to gather them?'

'Affirmative.'

'But then....isn't this a bit too much?'

The Barbarian party had been sprinting for well over three-quarters of an hour now. Even though they slowed their pace in case of any unexpected events, they had still covered several kilometers long hallways, all of which were lined with the same tracks that at one point should have all been filled with these Ether Crystals.

That alone was worth several hundred tonnes. How long would it have taken to gather all of it? But rather than the excessive use of crystals, Hao Xuan was more concerned with their usage. Why line the walls with them like this?

While he was busy ruminating all the possible reasons, the Barbarians slowed down even more and came to a quick stop in front of a closed door. Hao Xuan was not paying attention so he ran headfirst into Burak's back, hurting himself in the process.

'Ouch, what the fuck is this guy made off?!' Hao Xuan rubbed his forehead cursing the wall of meat in front of him but Burak didn't even register anything happening.

Right now the previously cool and collected attitude that Burak usually put up was replaced by a pensive mood that was shared by everyone present. Even Isak who appeared to be unfazed by most things seemed a little somber.

They were all staring at the 10-meter long and 4-meter wide sliding door blocking their path. It was made of some kind of metal that was bronze in color. Its gleaming exterior perfectly reflected the light coming off of the handful of torches that the Barbarians had carried in.

The door's surface was covered in various scratches and dents probably left behind by past encounters.

While the other Barbarians were taking their time to recover their strengths and energies once again, Hao Xuan walked up to the door and examined it carefully.

Burak walked up behind him as well, running his fingers through the three giant claw marks in the dead center of the door.

Authors Notes:

I is sick fam, sorry for the late chapter. Took some medicine and passed out.

Edit 2: FINALLY! Finished the god damned privileged chapters (almost) which you can read on the app I think. I'm so sorry it took so long, WN didn't give a single notification before turning them on and I was already sick so it took way longer than it should have, sorry again :(