Chapter Fifty Nine - We go spelunking

The rock with the colour of a thundercloud at night was really not very large, no bigger that Leon's pinky nail. Troy had picked it up as it was roughly in the shape of kidney bean, which had amused him, but he was truly no expert in things like crystals or geodes. But Roman was.

"This is void stone," he announced with an air of awe as he examined the stone between his fingers. He'd only seen one once and that had been in the process of refining, but just inserting a slither of his spiritual energy after placing it down and he and the others could feel the minute changes in the air around the stone for a brief moment; void stone could warp the space around it. Fortunately this piece was small and the energy he fed it tiny, so it could not have a strong effect or their bones could be crushed or even pulled apart as the space altered!

His words and demonstration completely dumbfounded the team. It was not as if veins of valueable or even priceless materials had not been discovered in the isles before. It was even rumoured that there might be some extremely good veins in the floating roots of the islands, but no one would dare attempt to harvest them for the risk of death was too great. But Pike and the others could never have imagined finding a vein in this hidden cave. The last vein to be discovered was on one of the smaller isles some two hundred years ago and that had been of a rare metal called Mithril. No one had managed to find their way back to that island since.

Void stone was not as rare as Mithril, but it was still highly sought after. Without it, there would be no interspatial nor interdimensional products, no hidden dimensions or enlarged zones, such as the common herb fields within the outer alchemist school. In the network of caverns, however, Troy had found this stone in the farthest one, meaning only three individuals could traverse the slender crevasses and shallow gaps to get to it; Troy, Leon and Velana's Fox.

Pike handed over the interdimensional bag to Troy, who then guided Leon with excellent memory to the back of the first cave. This one had the most generous opening just up a steep and slightly crumbling step, their teammates could easily follow them into this cavern. It was smaller that the first, dryer however, but otherwise no different that the first. Caelus placed a Mage globe in the centre as they glanced around. To one side, there was a long, but thin fissure, almost unnoticeable at first glance.

Rubbing the small amount of stubble beginning to develop on his chin over the past few days, Pike made a slight plan. "Caelus, you can remain here, Velana and I will keep an eye on the entrance by the waterfall." Just because this cavern was empty of beasts now, did not mean that it had always been so. Also, there were other teams upon the island to be wary of. It was not unknown for teams to ambush and steal from others. While it was frowned upon, as long as it did not result in death, it was not against the rules. The Institute would not shield their students from harsh realities of being a Cultivator. Cultivators tended to be greedy and selfish after all and not too few would step on others whilst on their path to immortality.

"Roman, go with Troy and Leon as far as you can. See if there is anything else interesting inside," Pike continued and the tall, slender man nodded and followed the two smaller youths sliding through the crevice. Actually, Roman was eager to do so, hoping to find other crystals or stones of note. Even more of the reactive stone within his pocket as well.

The larger cavern beyond the crevice didn't have too much of note at first glance, however there was water slowly trickling down a small portion, carving the rock into interesting shapes beneath its gentle and persistent pressure. Above it and them, there were stalactites in varying lengths. They could only conclude that they must be directly under the river that fed the falls at that moment.

"I collected some of the worthless stones from around here," Troy mentioned. Roman nodded and placed a palm against the walls of the cavern. He was not an earth type Cultivator nor a metal type, so his senses were not sharp, but certain crystals would react to spiritual energy alone and there were not too few that favoured his light root, but he was not able to sense anything of interest here. He was slightly disappointed.

They moved to a section of the cave that curved around before narrowing then opening out once more to reveal a sizeable hole in the ground. Although it appeared to be one large opening, in fact it led into two different caves. "That side just leads into a tunnel like space with a dead end," Troy pointed out. The walls of that tunnel had been jagged and uneven as had the floors and ceiling of it. There might be something within it, but it was difficult to see and manoeuvre. They decided to leave it, deciding not to gamble and descended towards the other cavernous space instead.

This cavern was where the mushrooms were.

It was a large space and the walls in the light of their Mage globes were a mix of ochre and brown shades. The stalactites above them were less pronounced and the walls sometimes jagged and sharp and occasionally pockmarked and smooth. The floor beneath them was much the same, but traversable and lead to a decent sized and very deep spring fed lake. Surrounding which, growing upon damp and mossy rocks were the familiar mushrooms of varying sizes. One, that was towards the rear and unfortunately unreachable, happened to be as large as their heads.

Leon poked a finger into the water before tasting it with the tip of his tongue. "Salty," he murmured, with a knowing nod. It seemed that this type of mushroom favoured salty spring water, in dark, rocky caverns. With practiced ease, the alchemist began to harvest the mushrooms growing around the accessible portion of the lake, leaving the smallest ones and claiming those palm sized and larger. It was a very decent harvest, at least three times larger his first harvest at home.

Memories flickered before his eyes of when he and Russ used to pick wild edible mushrooms when they were most abundant in the woodlands beside the village. A fair few villagers used to supplement their diets this way or sell them in town when they had the time and inclination.

After the mushrooms had been gathered, Leon gave the lakes abundant treasures one last look before following Troy towards another rock fissure. This one did not have the height required for Roman to follow them nor the width that he could crouch down to do so. Roman was disappointed as he couldn't follow them to the cave in which Troy found the reactive stone and void stone.

"Take these," he urged them, passing a small chisel like tool and hammer to them. They would help them mine the vein a little, though if it was buried to deeply into thick rock, they would have to give up still. They thanked him and Troy advised him that they'd return shortly before disappearing into the next cavern.

Roman did not remain idle and decided to explore around this cave and the tunnel they had missed for a bit.