My Brother Is The Hero Of Earth 23 Chapter 23 - Buried Natural Treasures

With the morning excitement, Yue ordered everyone to spend an hour reformatting crystals to top off the power reserves. It wasn't a hard process, just every boring, as we had to sit around quietly while we channeled our mana through the stone until the energy stabilized at the right frequency then move onto the next. A boring, yet calming which gave me plenty of time to calm my head. I wouldn't have to worry about what 'favor' Katye may ask for, but I knew she wouldn't push the matter if she asked for something I was uncomfortable with.

"Okay, that's enough for now. We are over the mithril deposit," Yue said, stopping everyone.

"Mithril? Like from "The Lord of the Rings"?" Katye asked.

"Tolkien got it from the old tales, just like other famous authors," Ella said.

"Come on, this is going to take a while," Lesedi said as her armor suddenly covered her body with a flash. Instead of her normal hammer, she was shouldering a giant pickaxe.

Gustavo, Terri, Katye, and myself nodded and followed Lesedi off the side of the ship. We were high enough up that the trees were minimal which made for an easy landing. The ground was covered in a thin layer of ice-covered snow that crunched loudly when anyone took a step. Unlike with Kiara, where we had to search through the forest, Lesedi was a lot more straight forward as she swung her pickaxe filled with her mana into the ground and explosion of dirt erupted from the ground. All of us knew how Lesedi could be when she was mining, so we pulled Katye back and kept our distance from the raining frozen mud and rocks.

"Who's jumping in the pit to stay with her?" Terri asked since she obviously wasn't a good choice.

"I can go," I offered.

"Yeah, but you also have the best sense, so you should stay above ground," Terri argued quickly.

"You could just ask me to go down with Lesedi," Gustavo sighed.

Terri chuckled and kissed his cheek, "But you still understood, right?"

"Women," he sighed again, shaking his head as he walked towards the hole that was still spewing dirt.

I touched my cuff and focused on Terri, so that I could whisper into her ear alone, "I swear to G.o.d, if you start bulls*** while we are on a mission."

"Relax, I promise to be serious," Terri replied.

"You better," I grumbled.

Terri chuckled and turned to Katye while her tool bag appeared, asking, "Would you like to see some of my traps? I can teach you how they work."

"That sounds neat!" Katye said, happily.

My eyes narrowed, but before I could accuse, Terri asked, "You're coming too, right, Becca? I mean, you're our frontline attacker, right?"

"Yeah..." I said suspiciously, but they seemed out of place as Terri honestly explained her traps.

"I used shattered monster cores to inscribe special runes onto them which allows them hold a spell inside that will activate when something living crosses into the formation the 'seeds' create. By having this charm in your storage ring, my 'seeds' will recognize you as a friend," Terri said, showing her a silver coin with a bow and arrow on it. Next, she pulled out a handful of blue crystal shards and handed them to Katye. "You only have to give them a little mana to put them into an active state then you can just sprinkle them down on the ground. The more you add, the stronger the attack. What I gave you was my Ice Thorn trap 'seeds', it takes five to make a single spike. I usually use two handfuls for a ten-by-ten region."

Terri retrieved another handful tossed it around before motioning for Katye to do the same which she did, except for saving one shard. She held it up close to her eye as she examined the runes. Suddenly, her wings appeared as her eyes gave off a violet glow.

"Katye?" Terri and I asked in unison.

"Sorry," she said, blinking until the light faded from her eyes and she tossed the crystal to the ground. "One of my innates is an understanding of various magics," she explained.

"So wait, you understand my 'trap' magic?" Terri asked surprised.

"I do, but I don't think it would be safe for me to practice it. When I learned enchanting with Sophia, she had me create something, but because of the nature of my magic, although it worked, the final product was destroyed after a single use," she said with a sigh.

"The 'Chaos Energy'?" Terri asked.

She nodded, "It can be very unstable and volatile."

"Heh, you don't say," Terri snickered as she gave me a sideways glance.

I stuck my tongue out at her in response.

"Alright, try these," Terri said as she pa.s.sed Katye a single green shard this time.

"High-temperature flames?" Katye asked as she looked over it.

"Yes, Emerald Flame trap seeds. Can you tell the difference between the two I've shown?"

"Hmmm... These will constantly consume their energy reserves while the other..."

"Here," Terri said as she excitedly pa.s.sed Katye a blue shard.

"The ice spell... it uses natural energy to allow it to recharge slightly before completely extinguishing its energy."

"Yes! It does!" Terri laughed as she grabbed Katye by the shoulders excitedly. "No one else has been able to make heads or tails of it, even Alice! You've got to work with me, even if you can't create the seeds themselves!"

Katye giggle and agreed, "Sure."

I gave Terri a look which made her release Katye while laughing. I turned my attention away from them as I scanned our surrounding. The charm reached a lukewarm as I stirred my enhances sense, causing my horns to grow a few inches. There was definitely sort of life that made its home on in the snowline of the mountain. I could sense a few embers of life, but they were too weak to be anything more than a rabbit or, most threatening, a regular wolf. Terri made a large ring around Lesedi's pit of her Ice Thorn traps while she started talking with Katye about different ideas for new traps. I ended up tuning most of it out as, while I found Terri's traps interesting, I never understood any of the things she said once she brought up her 'runes'.

Without realizing it, I started drifting away from the pair as I followed my senses towards 'something'. It wasn't quite a creature, but it was alive. Several large rocks had piled up against a boulder that had sunken into the ground and I stopped next to the big one while staring straight at where the edge of the boulder would be, under the stack of rocks. With a shrug, I started tossing the smaller stones out of my way as I dug for my own "treasure". By the time I had reached the last, and largest, of the rocks, I heard a whistle and I realized I watch being watched.

"No, no, keep digging, Becca! We are enjoying the show," Terri called out as Katye giggled and turned away while blushing.

"Shut up, Terri," I griped as I squatted down to pick up the last boulder that was bigger than I was.

"What are you even doing?" Terri laughed as she walked up.

I slowly lifted, straining the muscles of my 'human' before I tossed it to the side. My reward was a beautiful silver flower with a blue stem. The closed petals of the flower were shaped like a lily and looked like they were carved from silver. Down the icy-blue stem, hundreds of tiny thorns covered it in a way that reminded me of scales and I knew this was something special. I pulled out a special camera, shaped like a cellphone, and snapped a shot of it before I sent the image to Kiara.

"Kiara, lookie what I found," I chuckled through the intercom.

It took a few moments, but I heard her excited voice say, "I'll be right down!"

I chuckled as I turned to Terri and said, "That's what I was doing."

"Please, that might work on Katye, but I know your tricks. That flower could have ended up being some nasty little creature just as easily," Terri retorted.

I smiled while I turned my head up and waved to Kiara as she fell towards us. Terri gave me a shove in Katye's direction, but I didn't budge. The 'figurative' push the whole group was giving me was more than enough, so I wasn't taking a 'literal' one. Kiara landed a few feet from us with a book in her hand before she hurried over to the flower. She pressed a combination of gems placed in the spine of the book before she opened it and started flipping through the pages.

"Does that book do what I think it does?" Katye asked quietly.

"It stores thousands of books which you can cycle through and the contents will appear when you open it," I answered.

"Oh my G.o.d, who made it?!?" she exclaimed.

"Sophia," I laughed.

"Then I know what I'm asking for from her when we get back."

I gulped in fear, being reminded that I also owe her 'favor' when we returned to the house. Thankfully, Kiara snapped her book shut rather loudly and pulled out one of her gla.s.s capsules. The dirt around the flower started to rise, but then so did the ma.s.sive boulder in the ground. Kiara pushed more energy into the containment jar causing it to light up in a vibrant green color. The ground shook lightly as the giant stone completely rose into the air then shrunk as it was sucked into the capsule. Despite the boulder being reduced in size, the flower itself remained the same size as when it was outside.

"You have good fortune today, Becca. This special little flower contains a very pure source of ice mana that can only be used by someone with dragon blood. It may still be early enough that, with Katye's help, I can taint it with Chaos Energy and you could get a boost to your ice magic," Kiara said with a smile.

"Thank you in advance then... to both of you," I said.

Katye giggled quietly to the side while Kiara smiled and said, "I'll head back up to the ship then. Could you give me a lift, Katye?"

"Of course," Katye said as her wings appeared.

The bottom of Kiara's boots glowed with a soft green light as Katye took her by the hand and started flying up. Katye had flown Kiara up into the trees a few times yesterday when more than ten Uktenas surrounded us, so, although it was further than the tree limbs, she could still pull Kiara up to the ship if she pushed her weight reducing enchantment like she was doing. Once they were out of earshot, I punched Terri in the shoulder before I stormed off back to where Lesedi and Gustavo were.

"What was that for?" Terri asked with a laugh as she rubbed her arm and followed after me.

"Plenty of reasons, but the number one was that I felt like it," I said with a dark chuckle.

"You're always so violent. You can't be like that with Katye, you know?" she teased.

"You know, I'm a grown-a.s.s woman. I don't need help with my love life," I said flatly.

"Yeah, you do," she laughed.

I sighed and rolled my eyes then peered down the hole. Lesedi dug, not straight down, but at a steep slope and a gradual curve. In the half hour we roamed around on the surface, Lesedi and Gustave had delved hundreds of feet underground and I could no longer see them.

"How are you two doing?" I asked, touching my ear cuff to send the message to Gustavo alone.

"Pretty good, Lesedi is harvesting the last of the ore, now. Probably another ten minutes before we start heading up," Gustavo's static-filled reply came a moment later.

"Alright, see you guys soon."

"The gophers?" Terri asked.

I chuckled and nodded, "Lesedi will be finishing up soon. Gus said ten minutes."

"I guess I'll collect my traps then unless you sense something."

I closed my eyes as I swept the surroundings with my senses once again, but still turned up nothing dangerous, so I gave her a thumbs up. Terri nodded as her finger lit up with a gray glow and she placed it on a gem on one of the pockets of her tool bag. The gem brightened and little streaks of cyan started shooting over at Terri. With the number of 'seeds' she used, she and Sophia had spent weeks developing Terri's tool bag.

"You can stay on the ship Katye, the others are almost done," Terri said through the intercom.

"Alright," Katye agreed.

"How long to the next site?" I asked.

"Forty-five minutes or so."

"What do you think, three more stops before we call it a night?" I asked Terri.

"We have plenty of time, we could get four or more," Terri replied.

I put my out and said, "If I'm right, you'll drop the 'Katye' subject until we get back, at least.

Terri laughed and shook my hand, replying, "And if I win, you have to ask her out when we get back."