Chapter Sixty - We find crystal in rock, fish in water

Leon and Troy sidled slowly for a few metres along the narrow tunnel, unable to turn around with only the option to move ahead. So when the tunnel widened to reveal a new cave, both breathed a sigh of relief. Troy giggles sheepishly; it was not as if he hadn't known that they would be fine and not get stuck, but the closed feeling within that small space was discomforting.

This tunnel had a few openings, Troy pointed to one and mentioned that after a series of twists and turns it would lead back to an opening on its left. But it hadn't found much of interest in any of the linked caves. The opening to the left of those connective tunnels lead to the larger cave where he'd discovered the void stone, so they entered this cave first.

Just like the one which contained the mushroom grove, ochre blended with brown, but this time the colour deepened to a deep grey in one area. As they approached this part, the floor sloped downwards and the walls stretched outward, the cave seemed so much bigger than when they had entered it. The vein was buried deep, there was not much chance that they could mine it well, they could only hammer the softer rocks about it and hope that they could harvest some of the stone itself.

Neither was particularly strong, though Troy had much more endurance and after an hour or so, they managed to free a palm sized stone to bag. Void stone was usually pure, without mix of other earths and stone types mixed in, as if it could not abide the taint of others. It was only down to this that they were able to chisel portions free. However, that which was enclosed in rock that was comparable to flint, they had to give up. They were also unable to dig too deeply, so their prize was three stones about the size of a sparrow egg, as well as that first stone, plus a few small pebbles.

Exhausted, they rested for a bit before Troy suggested that they make their way back. "What ab-bout the ch-changing stone?" Leon enquired.

"I found it in a cave adjoining the last one," Troy recalled.  "That's where I also found the crystal."  They picked up their aching selves and made their way to that small space.  It was different to the caves they'd seen before as instead of stalactites, there were transparent, thin crystals hanging from the ceiling as well as embedded like upper and lower teeth in a scar like indentation in the wall.  One by one they picked up stones and crystal shards, the latter they kept, while the former they tossed back onto the ground seeing that none changed colour to their touch.  It seemed as if they would not be able to solve the mystery of that spiritual root sensing stone at this time.

Roman was waiting for them by the lake.  He too had not much fortune when exploring the rugged walls of the narrow tunnel close by, just discovered another ametrine vein.  However, as valuable in terms of money this gem was, it would not give them points for the challenge.  So he'd just collected a few of the more attractive crystals and left it at that. 

He glanced over as the two unkempt youths scrambled out of the slender rift in the wall.  Their hair was dusty and tangled and their faces smudged and lined with dirt.  When Roman pointed this out, Troy and Leon just glanced at each other in the increased light of the extra mage globe and chuckled.  As it happened, the water in the lake was clean, even if it was a little salty, why not use it to wash?

With the worst of the dust wiped from their faces, one heart pills taking to deal with the scratches so they healed without chancing infection, Troy happened to take a second glance into the lake.  "Do you think it contains fish?"

"Why do you ask?" Roman asked, slightly frowning.  Troy's stomach rumbled on cue.  Leon covered his mouth before he could giggle.  Roman shook his head then lifted his hand, palm upward.  A delicately glowing ball appeared above it and gently floated over the water's surface.  It rippled almost in a frenzied way before settling once more.  Troy's eyes widened; he'd noticed shadows moving swiftly away from the light at the bottom of the lake.

"D-don't like the light?" Leon murmured softly, his voice echoing through the cave even then.

"Let's leave them alone," Roman decided, extinguishing his light.

*****

As was part of Pike's design, while others were adventuring in the depths of the earth and rock, he and the others were on guard; he guarding the entrance and keeping watch over the area in which the falls fell, Caelus was secondary defence within the cave. Velana and her fox-beast had traversed the steep and sometimes treacherous slope to the part of the river/lake that fed the waterfalls. During that time, the woman had taken the opportunity to observe the treasures of the water, but unlike Troy and the others, was much more decisive and successful in her hunt.

As the youths returned to the other half of their team, three large fish were turning on the spit, the gold dusting their gold scales glinting in the fire light. On seeing Leon, Caelus was quick to complain about the creatures' fishy smell, glaring at him to fix it. He'd become too used to the flavour of Leon's dishes.

It wasn't that the alchemist was a great cook, it certainly would not compare to cuisine of top restaurants nor of chefs from noble and royal houses, but there was a homely warmth from it and the seasonings he used made the plain fair taste so much better. Actually, this seasoning was just a mix of dry herbs, salt and black pepper, not unlike seasonings from his previous life. In his humble home, he'd experiment from time to time with edible herbs and had even found some interesting spices from a merchant, who'd travelled to the western continent to try his luck. But they were not to the palates of eastern people, so he sold much to Leon fairly cheaply. Aware that his team might also dislike the taste of such and due to the fact he was lacking space, he just threw this herb seasoning together at the time.

Taking out said seasoning from his interspatial bag, he approached the hot fires and roasting fish, generously sprinkling it on each one.

"They so b-big," he mentioned in awe. This type of orange scaled fish was not uncommon in their realm, in fact, it could be considered a staple food affordable to most townsfolk or to slightly more affluent villagers. Merchants might eat it when not showing off their wealth to outsiders, while noble houses purchased it to feed the lowest servants on occasions. It spawned quickly and frequently, being such an easy food source for predators, its had an ability to camouflage its eggs like no other, even if itself was unable to hide well. But also, it wasn't as tasty as other common fish, so it was unlikely to be over-sourced, despite everything.

However, the adult fish were only half the size of one of these ancestors!

Velana theorised that these fish had bred to this condition over time, with the weaker and smaller ones dragged over the falls edge to their doom, leaving the larger and stronger ones to breed. The upper lake was fairly wide, only narrowing at the point of the falls and it was likely deep. With no ingenious mortals or Cultivators to regularly fish and predators only hunting the edges or waters surface, the large ones survived longer to breed more.

But their evolution was to the advantage of the team of six, who ate until their bellies were round and full of flaky, white meat.