Chapter 336
"They're going to arrive at our location in 2 minutes," Gale said.
"Why isn't there a base formed around the entrance?!" Kyle shouted.
"It doesn't matter!" Rachel punched forward.
Streaks of yellow and orange flew through the air as fire shot from her fists, aimed at the approaching dust cloud.
Multiple fireballs shot from her fists, streaking across the desert toward the approaching dust cloud. One after another, Rachel kept punching, launching more blasts at the incoming, potentially slimey dog sized worms.
The first fireball hit.
An explosion bloomed in the distance, sand and dust flying upward in a mushroom cloud. Multiple booms shook the ground as Kyle, Clyde, Lily, and Gale all looked at the explosions in the distance with a look of disbelief.
"What?!" Rachel shouted. "I hate slimy things!"
More explosions rolled through the ground as multiple fireballs exploded in succession. Rest in pieces worm dogs. Gale didn't even get to catch one for potential research of monster jerky that he had somehow grown to like.
"They're not slimy, though," Gale said.
"You don't know that! They're worms!"
"Rachel, calm down," Lily said.
"Calm down?!" Rachel's face turned red. She punched again, and another fireball whistled through the air. Her signature flared, and this specific blast had more heat to it.
The explosion caused by this one created the biggest mushroom cloud they saw. Presence Between caught the signature of the oncoming swarm drop to nearly 0 signatures.
Clyde pulled a twinkie from his pocket and took a bite. "Rachel needs to go to therapy or something."
"Lily is with me on this," Rachel said, smiling proudly. "No slimy thing is going to get us this rift."
"Sure..." Lily muttered.
"You're with me!"
"Yes, yes. I'm definitely with you." Lily sighed. "I know a good therapist if you need one, though."
"I don't need one," Rachel pouted.
"There's like 2 left incoming," Gale said.
Two worms crawled toward them through the sand. They left a trail of green blood as they moved slowly. Both were about the size of a large dog, at most a german sheppard. Their bodies had hairs all over, segmented into multiple divisions in the same colour as the orange sand beneath their feet. Circular mouths revealed rows of teeth that glistened in mucus that didn't seem to catch the sand.
One of them lunged at Rachel.
Gale's hand moved first, catching the worm mid air, fingers wrapped around its body. It tried to squirm, but one squeeze ended the poor worm's life.
[Awakened Sand Dune Wormling felled.]
[Extracting Origin from Prey...]
The second worm had jumped at Lily. In one quick motion, she unholstered her deagle, shot it mid air, and then holstered it back without a sweat. The worm dropped lifeless onto the sand, making a thud.
Instead of Rachel, Lily didn't even flinch. She raised her deagle, tracked the worm's arc through the air, and squeezed the trigger.
Gale brought the dead worm closer to his face. "Smells like frog."
"What?" Kyle asked.
"It smells like frog." Gale poked at the worm's mouth with his free hand. "And it's a bit slimy too. But only around its mouth. Not everywhere else. The rest of it is actually pretty dry. Here, wanna hold it?"
"Put that thing down!" Rachel shouted at Gale.
Gale poked it even more. For some reason, he could tell the meat was tender. "But it might be tasty."
"WHAT?!"
Dematerializing it to his space storage, he smiled. "I'll keep it until we need food. Never know when we might get hungry."
"I'm definitely not eating that..." Rachel muttered.
"I wanna try it," Clyde said as he finished up the last bite of his twinkie. Gale was now really curious whether the man had his own space storage.
"Same," Kyle said. "I'm in for beast meat."
"I'll pass," Lily said.
"See? Lily's with me," Rachel said.
Erin floated forward, pointing west as she stared at Gale. "Make haste. Enough wasting time on unnecessary worms. We must acquire the materials."
"Can we go cook it later?" Gale asked.
"After we attain the Yinidium alloy and Fraedium gems."
"Yes!" Gale fist pumped.
Turning west, he started walking. The group fell into formation behind him. Lily and Kyle on the flanks, Rachel, Erin, and Clyde in the rear. Running on the sand would've exhausted their energy even as Awakened.
The group trekked through the sandy dunes, tendrils sweeping across constantly around them to check for hostile signatures or any monster, beast, or food that was nearby. This was a desert world, though, not the forest. There was barely anything moving around except for the wind that pushed the sand hills.
An hour passed.
The sand beneath their feet started to change, giving way to flat ground. A firmer step allowed them to increase their speed, but not too fast as rocks and pebbles still littered the ground.
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After another hour, the terrain changed to a red rocky sandstone. The landscape became more rugged, uneven in footing. Red stone jutted up from the ground at angles that would poke at their shoes. At this time, Lily had cast another temperature sigil on all of them again, as the desert world was at a blistering 55C, making her sigil work harder than it should.
Gale led them around a massive boulder and stopped.
Ahead of them, the sandstone gave way to something else entirely. Massive rocks of orange-granite-like material rose from the ground, forming natural pillars and walls that stretched toward the sky. From Presence Between's scouting, the walls were at least 2km high. High, but still climbable.
What was interesting was the scaffoldings on them. Wooden platforms, ladders, and what looked like a makeshift elevator using counterweights. Empty carts at the base and dusty saws. The tents were empty, but it had some leftover sleeping bags that looked recently used.
"Well, if you look at that," Kyle said.
"You think these rocks are worth something?" Clyde asked.
"I mean, it looks like there's gold glittering on the rock. I kinda want it for my countertop," Lily said.
"You sure? I can take a piece for you," Gale said.
"Grandma would probably want one as well, maybe for a new table," Rachel said.
"Silence," Erin said. "The rock has no inherent value. Gold is abundant throughout the cosmos."
"Ok, if she's saying it like that, it means that gold is actually gold. I want it even more now," Kyle said.
Rachel threw a fireball at the wall, making chunks of it fall down. "Gale, go!"
"I got them!" Gale dematerialized all the large chunks that fell down into one slot in his space storage.
"A meaningless venture," Erin said deadpan.
"Worth it," Kyle and Clyde said at the same time.
Moving on, the terrain continued to change. The massive orange-granite-like rocks gave way to canyon walls. Two towering cliffs on either side of them formed a narrow passageway that looked like a giant sword had passed through a single stone. The walls were close enough that only four of them could fit side by side.
Entering the passageway, Gale caught sight of a strange pearlescent glitter that leaned more towards the colour of white. Canyon walls sparkled through the narrow sunlight that filtered through from above.
"Make haste. The yinidium is near," Erin said.
As they went deeper into the passageway, the glittering became more pronounced. The flecks grew larger, more concentrated. The rock itself started to change colour, shifting from orange-red to swirls of silver and brass.
Then they found it.
A large vein of metal ran through the canyon wall, stretching from the ground up to about three metres high. The metal had a strange swirly like appearance with strands of brass-like colour running across the whole vein.
Erin floated up to the vein and pressed her palm against its surface. Brushing her hand against the vein, she said, "This is Yinidium alloy. The quality is subpar, however, it will suffice for our needs."
"What's good quality?" Kyle asked.
"The quality depends on the alloy's purity. The more uniform the alloy, the better its properties for synthesis, multifaceted energy conductivity, and heat resistance," Erin said. "Your eyes can observe that this alloy's appearance is not uniform. The Yin and In ores are not fully integrated. The alloy must be further refined to increase its quality before fabrication of the synthesis facility."
Looking at the alloy itself, how were they supposed to pick at it? Gale could probably make Erebus into a pickaxe and smash at it. That would be fun. But the others might not find that fun.
"Are we supposed to pick at it now?" Gale asked.
"Exactly," Erin said. "The five of you will begin the extraction."
"What about you?" Rachel asked.
"The elder shall supervise while the children do the job," Erin said.
Everyone groaned.
"I knew it," Rachel muttered. "We were duped into coming along."
"We're basically free labour," Kyle said.
"Child labour," Clyde added.
"We're not children," Lily said.
"She literally called us children."
"Hush now, children," Erin said. "You came of your own volition. This expedition was supposed to be training for Gale. He would have extracted the metal alone using Erebus in the form of a pickaxe."
Gale nodded, smiling. He always did like smashing things. Materializing Erebus into a pickaxe, he swung it a couple of times to get a feel for the balance. "Smashing stuff is fun, right guys?"
"Fun?" Rachel asked.
"Yeah. Like mining in those games Kyle and Clyde play. Dig dig dig, get resources, make stuff."
"This is manual labour!"
"Kid's got a point, fire boots," Kyle said. "But this ain't minecraft. Where's my pickaxe?"
Lily raised her hand. "Can we just do blast mining? Rachel is here. She can provide the firepower."
"You may extract the alloy in whatever method fits your capabilities. The Yinidium will be melted regardless to increase its quality. The form of the raw material is irrelevant," Erin said, conjuring an ice cup and water into it. "Child, bring me my tea."
Materializing a Tim Hortons pack of Earl Grey, Gale threw it to her. She caught it in one hand and steeped the bag into it. "Excellent. Now move along, children. Time waits for no one."
Lily turned to Rachel. "Feel like blowing stuff up?"
Rachel rolled her eyes, annoyance clearly marking her face at the floating bluey drinking tea above them. "Fine."
Lily conjured blue shields in front of them. As soon as they formed, Rachel cracked her knuckles and started blasting. Controlled explosions took apart the yinidium alloy from the wall.
The canyon walls shook. Chunks fell down right in front of them. Each piece dematerialized instantly into Gale's space storage in one slot, making him feel even more regret at not being able to chop down the alloy himself like in the game.
"But I wanted to start mining," Gale said, looking at his pickaxe sadly. "Like in Minecraft."
"No," Rachel said, punching again.
"Maybe just one stack?"
"No."
Gale's shoulders drooped. He had been looking forward to mining IRL But alas... the light of the city wanted none of it. Picking up his pickaxe from the floor, the satisfying crunge of the ground had been stolen from him.
"Can this alloy be sold for something?" Kyle asked, watching piles of Yinidium disappear as they fell. "Like, on the Aurian market?"
"Yeah, it looks valuable," Clyde said. "Glittery stuff always sells."
Erin sipped her tea. "Yinidium alloy is currently unknown in the Aurian market. Its meaning is lost in the market. Its value lies in crafting, not commerce."
"That's exactly why we want to sell it," Kyle said. "Everything's about crafting these days. High demand, low supply. We could make mad bank."
"Remember the super quantum nano core thing?" Clyde asked. "That barely gave us shit."
"How come?" Lily asked.
"Ollie was having a hard time making something with it," Clyde said. "Couldn't figure out what to craft. And nobody wanted to buy it."
"Isn't that your fault though?" Lily asked.
"Pfft, it had quantum nano core in the name. The market is dumb," Kyle waved his hand dismissively.
Lily rolled her eyes.
Rachel pulled back for another punch. A streak of yellow fireball flew towards the caved in vein. However, before it could reach the vein, something blurred through the blast zone. She stopped immediately, attempting to look through the dust.
Presence Between's tendrils spread across the area and found a body lying there, lifeless.
"Hold on," Rachel said. Raising her palm, she used her fire to blow a gentle gust that pushed the cloud of dust away from the scene.
Everyone could now see the human body, or what was left of it, lying there motionlessly. The right side had been incinerated by Rachel's blast, flesh completely black, and robes still slightly burning. The left side was mostly intact, its form anyways.
"That's not my fault," Rachel said. "He came onto the blasts. I didn't see him. He literally appeared in the middle of my attack."
"We know," Lily said.
"Good. Just making sure that's clear. And Gale has that GoPro running just in case the knights ask."
Walking over to the body, Gale saw the uniform. Mostly black with red linings at the edges. Two sabres were embroidered on the chest, crossed against each other like an X. The man wore a mask that was completely melted into the skin. Guess they won't be able to see the face anymore.
"Why is he wearing that in a desert world?" Gale asked. "Robes in this heat? He'd cook alive."
"Don't even ask," Kyle said. "We don't know."
"Seriously?"
"Jiuling sects have weird dress codes. It's weird, but hey, we don't judge," Lily said.
"That's stupid," Gale said.
Lily moved over beside the body, crouching. Her hands moved carefully as she patted it down where the pockets should be. Checking the sleeves first, she found nothing until her patting got down to the pants pockets by the right side of the hip.
"There's something here," she said.
Reaching into the pocket, she pulled out a small object. A gem, about the size of a fist. The colour was a strange greenish blue that somehow emitted its own light.
When Lily held it up to the light filtering through the canyon, it sparkled with an inner luminescence that strangely had nothing to do with reflected sunlight, as if absorbing the energy of the light into it.
Erin floated down from her elevated position, teacup still in hand, still taking a sip. "That is a Fraedium gem. Our next goal."