New System, Who Dis?

Thursday, April 4th, 2069

[Unleash hell!] I don’t know how others would act in my current situation, following behind the massive wall of a shield, but I couldn’t help picturing myself as a Hunter. Imagining myself following a tank like Sturdy Jeral as we conquered this Rainforest Portal. My eyes only left the large shield on the man’s back to marvel at the changing scenery for a few moments before they coasted back to it, and my daydream.

It wasn’t hard to picture the Monsters that could be attacking us in my imagination. I’d seen pictures and byproducts of the creatures my whole life and even played with action figures the way my parents supposedly played with Barbeh’s and G.A. John’s. In my imagination I wasn’t afraid, but I will admit that in my heart I questioned whether I was simply lying to myself.

Then again maybe the Mental Fortitude Skill would make it true?

Regardless, at that moment, it felt like my father was more than just downplaying his job as a Miner.

“I can hear your increased heart-rate from here!” Smegma commented. “You want to be a Hunter but you can’t even hike a mile in Miner’s gear. It’s kind of pathetic.”

[Stop being a dick!] I said to my Demon companion.

“Stop broadcasting your thoughts like some sort of reality love story!” Smegma countered. “He’s just a man, and a rather weak one at that. If he’s a B rank, then his abilities and Stats are on the lowest end I’ve ever seen.”

[Stats?] I asked, wondering what he meant. Sure, I knew that certain Skills awoke a ‘Stat’—and you could increase how much power that Skill could use by increasing it—but unless you had multiple Skills—wait—was that—

“See dat over there,” Willa commented from slightly behind me, stopping me from mentally questioning Smegma.

I followed her finger and saw a massive mountain that looked wrong. It was like someone had turned on a sepia, black and white filter changing the mountain into a painting or some artistic masterpiece. My head tilted involuntarily as I tried to understand what I was looking at.

“It’s what is called Scenery in the Portals,” Willa explained. “There’s a kind of film—”

“Barrier,” my father corrected, and Willa gave him a look that both thanked but threatened him. I noticed he made a face that seemed to suggest he feared interrupting Willa again.

“I call it film, because it kinda looks like we’re inside of a bubble of soap when you’re near it. It looks like a casual poke should destroy the thing, but it only gives a few inches, before it becomes impossible to move. That and everythin’ on the other side looks like it ain’t real. Almost like it's frozen in place, under water, or just drenched in black soap, oil or stuff like that. No wind blows the leaves. No, sound reaches your ears. It’s real disturbin’.”

“We don’t usually go near it,” my father added. “Only if our Mining spot happens to border it.” I nodded along but had my eyes on Smegma and the black and white landscape his eyes were glued to.

[What’s up?] I asked mentally wanting to know what the Demon was so intently focused on.

Smegma looked up, scanned the area above him and then looked at me, his expression conveying his confusion. “Up? I have no idea. I don’t know what the locals of Sective Agora called their sun or sky.” he answered, his tone also confused.

[No,] I mentally said while avoiding a physical sign of exasperation. I failed because my father and Willa both looked at me.

“What? You don’t believe us?” my dad said.

“I’m tellin’ you kid, you don’t want to go near the Film,” Willa said, her voice filled with both humor and performance to try to make the warning seem more profound.

I laughed. “I believe you. I just can’t believe how different yet similar it is in here.” I answered them. Then sent, [What’s up, just means ‘what’s wrong’, or what are you thinking so hard about,] to Smegma.

“That’s an oddly specific idiom for this particular situation,” Smegma answered while giving me a piercing look.

[Idioms are kind of our thing, it feels like we have one for every occasion—okay? So what’s going on?] I responded to him but realized I needed another response to Willa and my father. They were both looking at me funny. “I’m just overwhelmed.”

They both shrugged, as if they shared the same mind and then even nodded to themselves, like they were deep in their own thoughts and memories of their first time in a Portal. I let them stew there so I could hopefully get a response from Smegma. However, the DemonIimp was gone when I looked back to find him.

I scanned my immediate area under the guise of taking in more of the scenery but couldn’t see him. For a moment I worried that something had gotten him, or he was somehow un-Summoned, or something like that. But a quick check in my Mental Universe, showed me a connection from the Demonic Vault Skill existed. Where it led, I couldn’t discern, but Smegma was certainly with me still, but hiding. [I’m going to remember the question,] I mentally sent. [You can’t avoid me forever.]

No response came, but my scanning for a sign of the Imp allowed me to find the likely site of our Mining before my dad or Willa. I pointed to the rocks that seemed out of place in the rainforest. The two snapped out of their introspection and followed my finger. Sure, enough the large black structure only grew the closer we got, right up until the entrance to a cave became apparent.

From a distance the darkness of the entrance could be mistaken for the dark rock that surrounded it, but the sun gleamed off the stone in a dappling pattern, suggesting that the stone itself might have a metallic quality to it. The entrance, however, was more like what covered the ATV, and consumed what light filtered through the canopy. A few Miners pulled out Cores of some variety upon seeing the darkness of the cave—my father and Willa amongst them.

“Just stay close to us for today,” my dad responded to my scrutiny of the item. “These are Light Stones. Mine’s cheap and only lasts a few hours, but Willa’s is better and can usually last for a few days. They always pair people with someone who has a good Light Stone like hers, so we’ll probably get one or two more Miners assigned to work with us. I’ll only use mine for entering and exiting.”

My frown must have conveyed my confusion to Willa because she explained further. “This Light Stone isn’t ‘mine’, per sé, it’s ours, Gary. Your kid is goin’ to think you’re leechin’ off me if you say it like dat.”

“Well, I mean, I kind of am. Half the days I forget to take my stone out of my gear so it recharges—or I’ll forget it in the car. You have our stone because I can always count on you to bring it. Plus, have you ever taken a sick day?”

“I’d rather get paid out for unused sick days than take ‘em,” Willa whispered to me. “Plus, once you Awaken do you really get sick?” she added with a smile.

It was true. Sick days were kind of a hangover from before the Advent of Portals on Earth. Not to say that they didn’t still have value, but the name probably was due for a change. Most illnesses were entirely eliminated from the planet with the Awakenings—so sick, might be better as injury or mental health days. Since I didn’t have a lot of experience with work, I shrugged, and dismissed the conjecture. Someone smarter than me should be revamping that stuff.

However, there was a caveat. Now when people were sick, it was always serious. So, forget about taking a few days off and getting paid. If someone had an illness or disease, it meant an emergency trip to a hospital and fighting for one’s life. Some illnesses even required a certain ranked Healer to treat them. I’d read plenty of articles on SmileBook about that change to the health industry. Most of the articles were complaints about the massive cost those trips entailed.

Since my family still lived in the borders of Canada, the people who took those hospital trips and were now in massive debt, simply from getting ‘sick’ complained loud, and often. One of those, ‘back in my day, healthcare was free,’ sort of deals. However, most survivors were only alive because a sufficiently ranked Awakened gifted with a healing Skill was at the hospital the day they were rushed in. So, the question was, would it be better to be alive and working off a debt that insurance couldn’t cover or… the alternative.

That was also why if you were Awakened with a healing gift, it pretty much meant you were set for life…

Sturdy Jeral didn’t even hesitate and neither did the Mana Bank group that followed him into the dark cave.To my surprise the Miner’s didn’t even have a hit in their steps either—unlike me. Illumination sprang from people’s Light Stones as they activated them at the threshold. From my place only a few rows back, it looked almost like auras around the people in front of me. Curious, I watched as Willa pressed on an embossed circle on the core of hers. I didn’t catch my father engaging his, but noticed a similar circle as I quickly panned my gaze over. It would seem these Light Stones, made from Monster Cores, stored internal Mana and could be activated by anyone, which likely made them more expensive than ones that needed a Mana Pool.

Still, the difference in price between one that ran off internal Mana, or recharged and used its own wasn’t important to someone like me who didn’t have the funds to consider either option.

They transferred the stones to a pre-prepared slot on their leather chest guards, which allowed their hands to be free. It did block the light at about a hundred and eighty degrees, and I couldn’t help but wonder how this light would work when we started Mining. However, that thought was dismissed when I saw the light reflecting off the numerous clusters of Mana Crystals that seemed to spring out of the stone walls, ceilings and floor like weeds.

I pointed them out, unsure why we weren’t collecting them. My father chuckled. “This isn’t a low ranked Portal, it might be a low Ranked Mine, but that doesn’t mean it won’t be huge. So, these dregs at the front aren’t worth the effort my boy. Just wait…”

I frowned but tried to follow his words and remain patient. I was only successful because I used the time to try another attempt to find my missing Demon Trader. I failed and assumed he was somehow phased through the walls. The tunnel was too small for him to be elsewhere.

It didn’t take long before the lights from the stones of people in front of us indicated a widening in the tunnel. My eyes grew larger as the light appeared to change color, first becoming the blue of Mana Crystals, and then changing to refracted rainbows. A moment later I thought the orbs might eject from their sockets.

The group in front entered the room and moved to the side. I had a moment to wonder why they ‘stopped’ but soon found out. The floor was almost entirely covered in the sharp relief of Mana Crystals. The walls and corners of the room looked like bladed carpets of the Crystals, only broken up by veins of varying shades of metal.

I looked first to Willa and then my dad, and finally at the other Miners. We were supposed to get through this entire room, today?

Jeral returned across the cavern, a group of other Hunter’s and their Banks towed behind him. He coughed politely and then said, “Four teams here, the rest follow me to the next cavern.”

“There’s more than this?” I said in utter shock. Then added, “we have what? Forty Miners?”

My dad smiled. “Just me and Willa could likely clear this room if we spent the day. Those four teams will be done in three hours at the most. Watch where you step now though, son. These crystals can cut through the sides of your work boots if you aren’t careful. The soles are reinforced with ET41, so you can step directly on the crystals or in an empty spot but watch out for diagonal jags.”

“How about I follow your lead today?” I suggested.

“We might have to carry you out on a stretcher if you do dat. Your da’ is the clumsiest guy in here. But he’s also the only one near your height, dat has canoes for feet. So, I guess that works,” Willa teased and received a light punch in the arm from my father.

“Willa often tries to get lost, so she doesn’t have to work. That’s the real reason I gave her the Light Stone,” my father retorted, and Willa returned the shot to his arm, along with a hurt face.

“I would never try to get lost,” she said, before laughing. “Except if we have ta’ mine Palentine. Husk that noise.”

“People don’t really use that saying anymore,” I said, trying to coach her out of using the old slang of ‘husk that noise.’

“Na, I literally mean the noise it makes. It feels like your eardrums are goin’ to shatter if you’re in the same cave system when someone’s pickaxe collides with da stuff.”

“Oh,” I said stupidly, while blushing. She jostled my shoulder letting me know she accepted my ‘apology.’

Our group was left in the next cavern which looked a hell of a lot like the last one, just a quarter of the size, and obviously deeper in. Sure, some of the metals were smaller or larger, and different shades, but it had the same density of Crystals poking out all over the place.

Willa transferred her Light Stone into a metal cage, and then pulled something out of her pants pocket. With a click, it extended up into an eight-foot staff that looked dangerous. She hung the Light Stone on it, and my father turned his off, but left it in the slot on his chest. With a grunt, Willa drove the point on the staff into a gap between crystals. The metal scraped audibly before thumping into the rock or loose dirt below.

Willa wiggled the staff a few times, before wedging it into a place she was satisfied with. She then looked up and behind me. “Miquel.Fat Gary, good to have you with us. This is Brodie’s first time, so why don’t you two work on that side to avoid Crystal shards hitting ya. He mines like he’s tryin’ to pay back the Crystals with all the ills in the world.”

“Hey,” I hissed. “You’ve never seen me mine.”

Willa smiled at me then whispered back, “Trust me, you ain’t going to be a savan’, kid.”

The way she said ‘savant’ confused me for long enough that I didn’t respond in an appropriate amount of time.

The two men nodded seriously, Fat Gary not seeming to take offense to the nickname. I guessed it was because he wasn’t fat, just wider, and more muscular than even my father, who was taller and more lithe. Both were muscled far beyond my teenage frame though.

Without a word of acknowledgement, the two spun and moved to the edges of the light the stone gave off. They un-shouldered their pickaxes and swung almost in step with their arrival.

“They’re like robots,” Smegma said from beside my right ear. I jumped.

“Don’t worry you’ll get used ta’ the noise,” Willa said and pointed to the nearest wall. “The ones on the wall are a better place to start. So, try your hand there. Your father and I will be over there,” she pointed to an area opposite Fat Gary and Miguel. “The only tip I have is don’t hit yaself with the pointy end, okay kid?”

I snorted out an exhale in amusement through my nose. That would be a shitty way to get injured. My dad gave me a look that told me I shouldn’t find that thought amusing, and instead very possible.

“Son, I don’t care how slow you work today. But don’t get cocky and try to do too much. That’s how newbies get carted out of here with a pickaxe in a foot or leg.”

I gulped, and he nodded like that response satisfied him more. Carefully, I started to move to the wall, but my father held up a quick hand. “Oops, forgot you don’t even know the basics. Let me clear out the spot you can stand.”

Willa moved off to begin working on her area, and I scanned back to Miguel and Fat Gary, who had moved into the area they had just been ‘attacking’ with their picks. I could see a pile of shards from the Crystals surrounding them.

Smegma hovered closer to my father as he began chipping out Crystals in a small circle clearly intended for me to stand in. Smegma scoffed and then with outrage in his voice stated, “Your dad and all these Miners are just shattering the Crystals with no care for quality maintenance!”

[What do you mean?] I asked. My father had been at this for nearly twenty years. So, if anyone knew what they were doing, it was him.

“The first couple are fine, but now that he has a clear avenue to the stems, he shouldn’t be Sharding a perfectly good F-rank crystal.” Smegma responded.

[Maybe, it’s just for the clearing of a standing spot?] I suggested but Smegma made another noise of disgust.

“Nah, the ones in the other chamber and over there,” he pointed to Fat Gary and Miguel, “are only marginally doing better after clearing a spot to stand.”

My father finished which forced me to hold onto my response to Smegma’s outrage. “Alright, so stand here and clear off as much of the wall as you can. Call me when you’re finished, and I’ll show you again how to clear a new area to stand like I just did.”

“Nope, I’ll be the one showing you things,” Smegma said as he hovered back to me with crossed arms.

Nodding to my father, I fought to keep a neutral and serious face, thanks to Smegma’s condescension. I needed to show my dad Iunderstood his instructions. He thankfully seemed to interpret my nod the way I wanted him to because he patted my shoulder and seemed to consider saying something more before pulling me into a quick hug. The moment was over quickly, and he moved to join Willa in the area she was still clearing. I transferred a glare to Smegma.

[Don’t think I forgot about you leaving my question earlier unanswered! Also, you’re trying to tell me you, a Trader, are a more knowledgeable Miner than my dad—who mines for a living?]

“Admittedly I’ve never mined before, but I’ve read about the way to do it properly, and if this is a discussion on whether or not your people or mine were better Miners? If the quality comparison is similar between your Hunters and ours, then yes—I, as a proxy for my people, know vastly more about how to Mine than your vocational Miner of a father. I could shit all over everything I’ve seen of your race, but I’m trying to be generous. How long have you had the System in your world? One? Two Decades? You think you know more than a civilization that’s had it for thousands of years? How about you open up your ears and just maybe you can learn something and start making some real changes and advancements for your entire race. With my help, of course.”

Smegma almost stopped there, ending his rather imperious speech arrogantly as he normally did but I saw the moment he thought of something more to add. He pointed a talon at me.

“Also husk-off with that shit about answering all your questions, I’m certainly allowed some time to myself. Not to mention, if you haven’t forgotten. I’m still a merchant. I don’t owe you anything. You want to know things I haven’t voluntarily offered?” He held out a hand, rubbing his fingers together. “Everything has value, and information has more value than most things in the wide universe.”

I sensed discomfort in his voice at first, which he tried to cover up with the sales pitch. I quickly turned my mental teasing tone off. [Is the reason you needed time something bad?]

Smegma rubbed his face with his hands as though considering whether to answer. After a moment, he straightened, clearing his throat. “Crendalar Five has completely fallen to the System’s Portal Invasion. My people are barely surviving underground, and it’s been nearly a generation since a new Portal formed on our planet. So no one has seen a Time Bubble like the one Willa was pointing out earlier in centuries. At least not from this side—It hasn’t exactly brought back good memories…” Smegma explained softly.

[Okay, let’s just take a big step back here for a second.] My mind was spinning. I subtly gestured toward the ‘Bubble’ distorting the skies in the distance. [Willa called this thing a ‘bubble’, sure—but you’re calling it a ‘Time Bubble’ with the kind of emphasis that makes it seem pretty damned significant. What exactly is a Time Bubble, and how does it work?”]

Smegma froze at my question, slowly turning towards me, shock and exasperation written across his features. “Are you trying to tell me that you’ve had the System for two decades and you don’t know how Portals work?”

I chose not to correct the Imp and add the additional four years he was missing. Instead I took a quick look around to make sure the other Miner’s weren’t watching me, and noticing my distinct lack of work. They weren’t so I figured I had a bit more time to get to the bottom of this. I did make a show of studying my Pick and the Sharded Crystals my father worked on as we continued talking.

[If by ‘you’, you mean me, Brodie Flacarada, then yes.] I nodded, pointing at myself. [If you’re talking about all of humanity, then I have no idea how much we know about Portals, collectively. This is my first time inside one, and I don’t work in that scholastic field, so I’m not aware of everything we may or may not understand.]

“Brodie,” Smegma shook his head. “I’ve been here long enough to learn about the existence of schools. I’d be stupid not to, since you’re a student. Basically, what you’ve just told me is that your world’s education system is in as bad a shape as the rest of what I’ve seen.”

[Yeah, yeah,] I clenched my fists, unable to make too much of a scene, despite my frustration with the Demon's constant negative comments about humanity in general. I also wasn’t sure how to explain to Smegma that humanity was somewhat still stuck in the past, fixated on lessons about important topics that happened or were discovered before the Advent. Frustrated with my lack of a path forward that wouldn’t lead to more arguing and not get me an answer to my original question, I sarcastically added, [We’re all dumb and your race is the best, smartest, and greatest. Now, I’ve stroked your ego, can you please tell me about the Time Bubble and how it applies to Portals?]

Smegma sighed. “Fine. Basically, a Time Bubble is where the Portal leads. Always. No matter what Portal you go through, or to what World you will always be within A Time Bubble.” The Demon stared off toward the shimmering barrier. “Think of a Portal as a connection between your world and a portion of another planet that has been sectioned off by a System created Time Bubble. In this Dungeon’s case, the connection is between Earth and this portion of Sective Agora.”

[That’s it?] I frowned. There was no way that was all it did.

“Of course not, but don’t give me that look. Even if that was all it did, it would still be pretty badass. Spatial manipulation across the vast reaches of the Universe? Connecting one planet to another? That’s mind boggling on its own. But you’re right. There’s more.’

[I’m guessing it's not called a Time Bubble, for no reason, for example.]

“No. It’s called a Time Bubble, because time works differently inside of Portals than in the world’s beyond their barriers. The Worlds that connect to yours are all failures. They have rampaging Monsters upon their surface and struggling races desperate to survive.”

[That’s why you were surprised Humanity hadn’t met any locals?]

“Yes, now stop interrupting. Fat Gary and Miguel have looked over twice. I’ll give you the abridged version. It’s called a Time Bubble because it freezes time inside itself, and opens four about four hours a day to re-establish its connection to the world it's on. In those four hours the System resets something so the Time Bubble stays strong. In some cases it resets the things inside as well. Needless to say it’s a Time and Space Bubble. Good enough?”

[Come on that can’t be—]

“Enough with the bullshit. We’ve got work to do. Swing here!” Smegma cut me off and pointed at the base of a Crystal.

I frowned, unsure whether to be upset or thrilled that conversation was finished. If I was honest with myself, I didn't want to delve any further into the topic. Time and Space were concepts far too complicated for my mind to wrap itself around—Mental Fortitude or not. I let my aforementioned Skill pull me back to the more straightforward task of Mining. I looked at the wall where he’d gestured.

Wasn’t he pointing to the tiny speck of black stone wall visible between the Crystals? I looked at the point of the pickaxe and then at the small opening there. It would have to be a perfect swing. Smegma noticed my scrutiny and likely heard my internal thoughts. “This one is the hardest. It’ll be good practice, so just give it your best shot. You can’t do worse than these other imbeciles.”

I hefted the pickaxe and wedged the point into the indicated gap between Crystals before pulling it up and to the side of my head. I swung it down and somewhat found the opening. My aim was remarkably good, but the point jumped on contact with the stone and cracked the bottom of the Crystal.

“Not great,” Smegma commented. “However, it still lost less Mana than if you shattered it. Quite a bit less. I thought your people were dumber than a box of rocks for burning Crystals like they were logs, but it’s becoming clear to me that everyone on this planet is woefully ignorant and unprepared for what’s coming. You can change that.” He turned away with a sigh, but not before I heard a ‘you’re going to have to’, in a tone that made my skin go cold from the unsaid ‘or else’ I could hear in his defeated voice.

Smegma turned back toward me, rubbing his forehead as though he had a headache. “Go again but use your body more, and don’t raise the pick to the side. Choke up closer to the business end of the pick. It’ll give you more accuracy at the cost of power, but in this business—accuracy is power. You don’t actually want to smash everything apart as hard as you can, get me? The best sculptors on my planet will often talk about how stone speaks to them. When they carve—they say they just remove the pieces of stone that don’t belong and free the sculpture from its entrapment within the stone. What you want to do here is similar. Your goal is to free the Crystals from their prison, not execute them for their crimes.”

I chuckled at that last bit and followed his instructions… and missed the opening entirely. Another Crystal deflected the point of the pick by contacting the long, thinning metal a few inches from the point, which turned the blow. Luckily it turned it toward my target, but instead of hitting the same crack I already made with the pickaxe, it broke the large Crystal in two. With the second blow though, the original crack opened up, which made the two halves of the Blue Mana Crystal fall off the wall and to the floor atop others. Smegma made a disappointed noise but then pointed to a much wider area of stone. “Not bad for the first one. This gives us some needed room. Now target here.”

This time I managed to dig the tip of my pickaxe into the stone wall. However, the sound it made was vastly different from my first swing. This time, instead of a twang of metal on reinforced glass, the pickaxe made a dull crunch as it bit into the wall. A spark even formed and the pungent scent of ozone quickly burned my nostrils. The change in tone made my father pause and look over from the corner of my vision. He watched as I levered back and forth on the pick to free it.

“Oh, my mistake, Brodie,” he called. “These are just going to be used in Mana Engines, and since it’s easier to carry out shardsl, that’s what we’re aiming for. Don’t bother keeping them in full—”

“Don’t listen to him. Sharding the crystals is wasting over ninety percent of the stored Mana.” Smegma said over my father.

“—leave the shards on the floor and someone from Lynx or Snowbirds with a Storage item or Skill will eventually come by to collect ‘em.”

I missed some of the middle of his speech but hoped I’d gotten the gist of it. I nodded and gave Smegma a look with a single raised eyebrow. [See, they have their reasons!]

“Yeah, but those ‘reasons’ are frankly stupid. They’re degrading a perfectly good F-rank crystal, and not just one.” He gestured at all the shattered Crystal around the Miners. “Think about it. Over ninety-percent of the value of everything you see here is just… gone. It’s not ninety percent easier to carry, as in—it’s certainly not worth destroying the value of this sort of resource. You’re dad’s a nice guy and all, but he’s dead wrong here Bro. Think about it like this—would you rather get one or two Mana Coins from each sharded quarter or fifty to a hundred from a full Crystal?”

I knew the answer but couldn’t figure out how I was supposed to mine as instructed without my father hearing the difference and coming over to scold me.

[I don’t think I have a choice,] I answered and Smegma looked over to my father.

After a moment he pointed to the base of the Crystal. “Nicking the Crystals on the edges here is about the best you can do and not make it obvious that you’re not listening to your dad’s advice. It’ll sound normal to them but you won't have to completely shatter everything. It will likely halve the efficacy of the Crystals but that’s better than ten percent you’d be getting otherwise. I’m almost wondering if it’s worth ignoring your dad’s advice even though, yeah—he’s your dad, but right now you have some leeway, being new and can ‘discover’ how much more Mana undamaged Crystals have and then maybe we can convince the others to do away with this whole process of just smashing everything to bits entirely.”

Smegma was clearly not understanding the power a single human voice carried. I wondered for an instant if things like this changed drastically on his planet all because one person said so. Surely that was impossible. Was the Demon naive because he was a researcher?

Naive or not, I still wanted more mC rather than less…

With Smegma’s direction I began again. This time I targeted the very base of the Crystals where they exited the wall. I missed multiple times, cracking many Crystals in half, completely sharding others, and even hitting only air once or twice, but with each swing I started to get marginally better. Finally, I managed to knock a large Crystal off the wall in two swings and in one solid piece.

“That’s better. Put your hand on that piece and I’ll tell you the sale price,” Smegma directed. My fingertips barely touched it when Smegma said, “Thirty-five mC. Shit that’s horrible. Likely only a third of the actual value.”

[What happens to the Crystal after sale?] I asked.

“Normally it becomes clear and this quality would maybe make a Low Grade Spent Mana Crystal. However, this particular one will just become clear, and useless because you’ve damaged it slightly. Plus since you likely don’t want evidence of tampering, I’ll port the Spent Crystal, damaged or not, back to my Sect in Crendalar Five. I won’t even charge you a disposal fee.” Smegma said this all in a very uninterested manner. I stood back up and kept Mining for now, not wanting a huge break in noise. Not after the long chat we’d had at the start. “What are you doing?”

[Thinking,] I answered.

It wasn’t like I could just sell every Crystal and get away with it . The question was how many I could get away with. So far, I had struck down around ten from the wall. But even as I swung my pick at the next Crystal, I saw a problem. Each fallen Crystal left behind a small blue part of itself embedded into the wall. So someone could easily count those marks and know how many Crystals should be on the ground, especially with the full Crystals Smegma wanted. However, I was supposed to be sharding the things— which would make a count impossible, right?

I changed my next swing, copying what my father had done, and hitting the dead center of the Mana Crystal I was aiming for. It shattered off some pieces and I raised my pickaxe to do it again. Smegma flew into my path and said, “What the husk are you doing?”

Smiling, I swung the pick right through him, even as I responded, [Covering my tracks.]

Smegma didn’t react to the pickaxe going through his skull, which was disappointing. He looked at the floor, with its blue pieces and the shards falling to it, then the wall, and scowled. “I guess the Crystal roots are a bit too obvious but what a husking waste,” he said with a dejected sigh.

It was another fifteen minutes before I was willing to try for another Crystal. This time because my father, Miguel and Willa had moved farther away, I followed Smegma’s direction and aimed for the rock wall. When the Miner’s pick hit I glanced toward my father and Willa, smiling when they were indeed too far away to notice.

It took three swings before I felt and heard the Crystal being released from the surrounding rock, like the snap of a shattering Prince Rupert’s drop—and then the Crystal simply fell from the wall. I hurriedly bent down to place a hand on it.

“One hundred mC, with the Crystal intact,” Smegma said, excitedly. “This one is good enough to become a Low Ranked Spent Mana Crystal once the Mana inside it is sold off as well.”

Suddenly, it started to feel like we were making progress. Slower progress than my Demon companion would like, but progress!