I'm The supreme Fairy King

'By the way,' the old man said, 'that gold sand is really useful.'

"What?" Jim was speechless there, "Why didn't you tell me that before? How can I take it in now? Huh?"

Jim turned around fast and glanced all over the place. The golden sand there was scattered in the air, covering a large area where the old cave was.

'You have to wait,' the old man said, 'or else you won't be able to get anything. Plus you have something to attract them to.'

"Don?" By habit Jim turned to glance at the Seson pet stuck to his leg all this time.

'No, what can Don do about that?' the old man laughed, 'It's the ores you got from before. Take one out and see the results yourself.'

Jim didn't hesitate to take a fiery ore out. It was so big to reach the height equal to him. He grabbed it from one narrow end and let it land on the ground on its board end.

"Swoosh!"

The moment he took it out, the entire world around changed. All the golden fine dust was stirred up and moved in unison towards the ore piece, like magnet drawing iron shards.

"That's... impressive!" He was amazed to see this while watching the golden sand entering fast towards the ore piece he held.

'But this isn't enough, it's far from enough,' the old man said, 'you'll need more than one piece. C'mon, get more out before Hector and others come.'

"Alright," Jim left the ore piece on the ground to fall on its side before taking much more. The more he took, the more restless the gold sand around became.

"You are right old man," Jim whispered, "that piece wasn't enough to take all this sand within."

After a few seconds the fiery piece got saturated it seemed and couldn't absorb anymore. Jim watched the other pieces do the same job while grabbing that one and started to examine it.

"It's turning... the sand into golden liquid," he watched the specks of golden dust passing deeply inside the core of the ore piece and turned liquid. "Is it melting them or what?" he asked.

'They are getting purified and condensed,' the old man said, 'but there is no time to explain things now. This process will take days to be finished, and you still have much of the sand loose.'

"I got it," Jim moved at once and took out more ores while scattering them all over the place. Then he returned to collect his ores one by one, as long as they stopped absorbing more sand.

This process seemed to take a long time but in fact in less than a couple of minutes he got almost every speck of golden dust around and stored the ores inside one of the rings.

And then he waited at the new entrance of the cave, just next to the first pit.

"Whoa! You renovated the entire cave! I really like what you did here," Hector's voice came all the way from the depth of the new cave even before Jim could see his features clearly.

Then Hector appeared, walking by the help of one of the giant disciples while putting his hand over his shoulder.

"You... Are deeply wounded," Jim was shocked to see that scene while seeing Hector slowly climbing and walking with the aid of his friend towards him.

"I got it hard back there," Hector said in a cheerful voice, "but after what you did, that spider bitch ran all the way down to the bottom of her pit."

"She is a coward," Larry said, "she should come and face the little bro here and see what she can do against him."

Jim couldn't help but bitterly smile. "What do you think of this? I can't pull such an attack again without losing my and your lives," he said while others laughed.

"It will be a hell of a fight to behold," Hector said, "and now listen up..." he stopped just beside Jim, turned to face the exhausted faces of his team.

He patted with his free hand over Jim's shoulder as he added:

"Thanks to our little Jim here, we got this pit secured boys."

"I doubt it's empty," Jim interrupted him.

"Surely it isn't," Hector nodded, "but for my boys what weak monster can stand against us? We crushed their queen, we killed their superior monsters... Hell we killed dark hunters, howl!"

"Howl!"

"Howl!"

"Howl!"

The entire team howled in a spirit that told Jim they got a bit of strength remaining in them for another fight.

"We won't let our trophy lie there without grabbing it," Hector continued, "let's go down there boys, let's show our little Jim how weak these monsters are and how strong and capable we are."

"Yeah!"

"Howl!"

The team shouted in high spirit and some even howled again. "Damn! I want my team to be like yours man... I'm all envy!" Jim couldn't help but say while watching that jeely piece appear once again and all the team members jump over before they descended down below.

"You have a long way to come over such a team," Hector said in a strange serious tone, "but as far as I'm concerned, you are a good team leader and surely you'll get yourself a good team as well."

Jim nodded in appreciation. For him if he didn't come out of this expedition but to know of such a team he wouldn't regret it.

His few days experience with those people here opened his eyes over things he would miss without doubt.

"I have to do many things when I return," he muttered to himself while watching the team descend through the pit. "Wouldn't we follow them?" he asked.

"No, the two of us have their share of the fun," Hector pointed to his helping friend to take him to the corner of the new cave opening, "they should play a little and we need to rest."

"And..." Jim didn't continue as he went to sit beside him while gazing up towards the depth of the cave.

"She is a coward," Hector simply said, "plus the light of the morning is almost upon us. They fear the light, pretty much lethal to them. So they won't think of coming out until the next night."

"So we have one daylight only, right?"

"No, we have as much as we want," Hector laughed, "did you forget the priceless ores down there? Oh man, this is my last year in the academy and I want to get out of being rich."

He laughed and the disciple that stood beside him laughed as well. "You said it right boss. I want to retire with enough wealth to buy myself a nice planet somewhere."

"You'll have that," Hector joyfully said, "I promise you that."

"Do these ores worth that much?" Jim didn't know the true worth of such ores.

"They are my dear friend," Hector said in a tired tone, "anything in this world is measured by its quality, its availability, and how hard it is to acquire it."

"I understand," Jim felt all the three parameters here applied to such ores.

"Plus there are many rings laying down at the bottom, don't forget them as well," Hector turned his head to him in a weak way. "Now I'll go to sleep. I need some rest."

Jim nodded and didn't speak before Hector went to sleep in no time. His face was ashen white and his body looked much weaker than before.

"What happened down there?" he couldn't help but turn to that disciple and ask.

"He... got bitten by that motherf*cker," the disciple said in faint anger. "He is poisoned."

"What?" Jim's eyes got instantly widened.

"Don't worry, it's not that big of a deal," the disciple hurriedly said, "or else you'd see all of us panicking the same way you just did."

"So you got an antidote?" Jim turned to Hector, "but he looks in a very bad condition."

The kid's face showed his hesitation for a moment there. "Actually we all felt the same way as you, but the boss reassured us it's nothing. He said he used some sort of antidote that would save his life. But it needs some time to work and lot of time to rest."

Jim was doubting these words. That disciple lived his entire life following the lead of Hector and so he developed a habit to listen to whatever his boss said.

But not for Jim.

Jim was a leader of a group himself and he could tell if the person in front of him was telling the truth or lying to protect his team from panicking.

'Can you assess his situation for me?' Jim said to his old man, 'please!'

'I can use bits of my power to investigate him but you have to put your palm over his forehead and chest and maintain that posture.'

'Alright,' Jim didn't wait and instantly moved.

"What... Are you doing?'' His actions alarmed the kid and startled him.

"He is lying," Jim simply said, "and I'm going to see what his condition truly is."

"No way," the kid seemed to be believing his boss blindly, "he never lied to us, not even in the darkest moments."

Jim put his two palms like the old man asked and the next moment he felt some warmth coming out from him. He felt this was his own energy and the old man was simply manipulating it.

'You are cheating old man,' Jim sneered, 'you are using my own powers as yours.'

Just before he could continue his words, a sudden gush of sinister and dark power came to clash with him, sending him off flying backwards.

Then he gushed a full mouth of dark blood with a strange stench.

"Cough," Jim weakily leaned over the walls of the cave entrance while standing up with a white ashen face.

"What happened?" the kid was instantly alarmed, "what did you see?"

'He... is dying!' the old man gave Jim the answer, 'he doesn't have much time, only less than one day and he will be gone.'

"Damn it!"