Cage had a very strong urge to vomit. There was so much blood and gore and death. He really wanted to vomit but suppressed the urge, he didn't want to waste any energy.
Regardless of the gore, he had gained a lot of insight through the fight. Watching someone of his past self's caliber gave an explosive increase to his combat power.
He couldn't even begin to imagine what he could do if he replicated the mastery that his old self had shown.
Cage had woken up quite early, he had quite a bit of time on his hands. He got into a comfortable position and began to gather mana.
Half an hour passed by while Cage was immersed in absorbing the ambient mana.
A small smirk began to form on his face. 'Hmm, it should be about time to wake up Andrew...'
Cage got up and prepared to perform the sleep ending chop that Andrew knows so well.
However, before he got a chance to he was interrupted.
Knock!
Knock!
Knock!
"TEAM LEADER, OPEN UP!"
The door was blown of its hinges with a kick and hit the wall on the opposite side. Following which, someone whom Cage was familiar with entered.
She had a blonde ponytail and blue eyes. Her face was adorned with freckles and she was grinning from ear to ear. Zaria, the team leader of group 4.
She scanned the room with they eyes of a predator, her eyes eventually fell on Cage. She licked her lips.
Cage felt an indescribable sense of fear well up. 'Why did she do that? Why did she lick her lips when she looked at me?'
Before Cage could even react, she had appeared before him. She wrapped her arm around Cage's waist and began to carry him like some piece of cargo.
Cage was in a state of confusion from this turn of event. His mind blanked. "eh?"
Zaria then flicked Andrew's forehead. The strength behind the flick though was no joke, a small wind current followed.
Fwap!
A red mark appeared on Andrew's forehead. Clutching it, Andrew sat up abruptly. He was about to curse out Cage for doing that, but then he saw Zaria and his eyes widened in surprise. He looked over and saw Cage being carried like a piece of luggage and could already guess what was going on, "Sorry for holding you u-"
Zaria just smiled and grabbed the collar of his shirt and hoisted him up like a cat would her kitten. "Okay, lets go!"
'Is this an abduction?'
Cage tried to wiggle out from her grasp, but it was futile. 'Just how strong is she! Isn't she a mage!?!'
Despite her appearance, Zaria was a Stage Four mage. She was naturally stronger than a Stage Two enchanter. Of course there were a few exceptions, but only for those who possessed a special or strange physique.
Shortly after, they arrived at one of the gates where a group of 50 or so stood. Zaria let Andrew fall to the ground, but continued to hold Cage. Seeing as he was still being held, he wanted to ask why. He glanced upwards but before he could even ask, Zaria had already seen through him, "No, I'm going to keep holding you. Why? Because you are my precious..." She flashed a small smile.
Hearing her response, he could only resign himself to his fate. His only hope was that he would eventually be released when they were going to mine soul-stones.
Zaria stored a hammer, a chisel, a pickaxe, and a dagger in her storage ring for Cage.
Seeing as Cage couldn't carry them but he still needed to work and Zaria being the one inconveniencing him, it was the least she could do.
Zaria addressed the group, "Now that you all have your tools, we are going to set out to our usual location."
Half the group groaned in annoyance, the other half had expressions that were ashen. No one liked quadrant seven, some found the crawlers annoying, others found them scary. Cage was no exception. Going from his experience last time, he figured he would easily be able to kill them short term but he wasn't sure if his stamina could hold out for long periods of time.
'Clearly in my four years away from this place, it hasn't changed one bit.'
There was still the familiarly ominous skull pattern that was naturally formed, the only difference was the skeletal corpses that weren't there before.
No one payed any mind to the skeletons, not because they didn't care but because they had already grown used to it. After witnessing that gory memory, it would take more than a few skeletons to make him nauseous.
Going past the skeletons, they continued deeper into the area. Cage didn't forget to check above him this time, he had learned from the last time he was there. Now that there wasn't any crawlers in the way, he had a clear view of the are above him. It was more or less normal, there was just the occasional web between the stone arches.
Seeing that they had arrived to a location with soul-stones ready to be harvested, Zaria placed Cage down gently and handed him his tools. She began to assign different segments to different people.
Cage found Andrew not to far behind and met up with him so they could talk while they worked. The quota for today was 30 soul-stones per person.
Cage and Andrew found an open area without anyone close by. Seeing as Cage had never done this before, Andrew spent a little time teaching him how to properly gather a soul-stone without damaging it.
Soul-stones had a lot of uses because they contained large amounts of mana. They could be used in blacksmithing, alchemy, cultivating, enchanting, experiments, even as energy sources. Hence, it was important to harvest them properly and to not damage them.
It was a lot easier to demonstrate than to explain so naturally, Andrew chose to demonstrate.
Andrew swung his pickaxe to take off large chunks of rock around the base of the soul-stone. Close enough to be able to dislodge it, but far enough to not damage the crystal. Once he had chipped away the rock around the soul-stone, he brought the hammer and chisel off his waist.
This part of the process was the most important and most delicate, he needed to shave away the rock that kept it attached and the rock that was still stuck on the glowing crystal.
Dink!
Dink!
Dink!
Dink!
Dink!
The steady sound of hammer hitting chisels could be heard throughout quadrant seven. Once the last bit of rock was removed, the soul-stone began to glow brilliantly.
Overall, the entire process took about twenty minutes to get one soul-stone. Cage realized that if it took around twenty minutes to get one crystal, to get thirty it would take almost ten hours. This was also assuming Cage didn't mess up, but he was pessimistic about his odds because he had never done it before.
Seeing that he was wasting time, he immediately got to work.
Clang!
Clang!
Clang!
...
Dink!
Dink!
Crack~!
The crystal broke, his hand slipped and the crystal broke.
Cage tried again.
Clang!
Clang!
Clang!
...
Dink!
Crack~!
The soul-stone broke, he put too much force into the hammer.
Frustrated, Cage went to try again. He was determined to get it right.
Clang!
Clang!
Clang!
He had taken off the base, now he just had to shave off the remaining rock.
Cage was about to swing down the hammer onto the chisel, but had an idea. Why should he have to play by the rules.
He gripped the chisel with one hand and place his other on the head of it.
[Burst!]
Cage repeatedly used a small scale version of his skill to produce intense vibrations through the chisel. Thankfully, the mana expenditure was small enough that he could passively regenerate it. He originally had this idea from his old world because it was a tool for construction that chipped away at hard surfaces.
Using the now vibrating chisel, Cage slowly brought it down to the rock.
Like a hot knife through butter, the chisel scraped off the rock easily. Not only was it almost three times faster than the traditional way, it was also much easier to control.
'Success! If I keep it up at this rate, I'll be done before everyone else!'
With newfound efficiency, Cage accomplished his task at breakneck speeds compared to the others.
After a little more than eight hours, he had finished. Seeing as Andrew was almost done, Cage decided to help him a little as well.
Andrew was inwardly astonished, 'I only showed it to him once, and he's already faster than me! He even has perfect control over his skill!'
Andrew, who had now met the quota, decided to spend his time increasing his mana control. He had resolved himself to not fall behind Cage and ha wasn't going to waste that resolve.
Cage on the other hand, had already brought his mana control to the limits of Stage One. He went a little ways away from the main area as to not disturb anyone. After enhancing the chisel with vibrations, Cage remembered something he learned from his fragmented memory from last night.
'In a fight, anything and everything can and should be used as a weapon...'
Cage brought out his dagger and slashed it to the nearby rock face.
'As expected, it barely even cut a centimeter in...'
Cage slashed at the rock face again but this time using his skill.
[Burst!]
Using the same trick as he did with the chisel, he sent shock waves through the blade to produce vibrations.
The dagger slashed against the rock with a scraping sound.
To Cage's delight, the cut had reached the four centimeters deep into the rock face!
'As expected, I can use this to make something have stronger piercing or slashing power...'