As soon as they stepped inside the cave, the young queen set up an intricate illusory field to prevent any potential curio or foe to bother them.
But as soon as the calescent darkness overtook their sights, Lyshisha produced a few mana lights out of her bracelet, allowing the group to make sense of their restricted surroundings.
The stone cavern bulged with multifaceted rocks wedged between and across each other.
But what distinguished them was how they gathered the ambient mana to strengthen themselves.
Some did so in a spiral fashion, others in a rectangular or square fashion, clockwise or otherwise, giving them a different hue.
Minutes later, they chanced upon the type of ore she needed.
The gilded Ihuako stone were spinning the ambient energy in X, going from high left to low right, then low left to high right before it refined the energy within itself, growing a little rougher, and its glint shinier each time.
"That's the one, but let's find a much better one further in, okay?" she said.
"Understood, Your Royal Highness," Kame replied with a proud smile.
His quality requirements seemed to have rubbed off on her.
That's very good…
As they ventured deeper, they indeed found better stones who refined mana at a better rate than the previous ones, and soon enough, the young queen found the stone that suited her taste.
As she began to unravel her clothes, the merman said, "But Your Royal Highness, there's even better ores further down, especially since there's not much distance between here and the cave's end, so why stop here instead of going down there?"
Lishi smiled.
Of course, he would think that way.
However… "While there's better ores down there to take, I have to be cognizant of my abilities, and this one I feel is my limit since the others would be too tough for me to excavate you—"
"But Your Royal Highness, you know you can make use of my excavation tools to expedite the extraction, so you don't—"
"And that's where you're wrong. I've got no choice but to extract them on my own, if not, why did the one who gave me this mission not provide me the tools to go along with it? No, this I must do it with my own hands like plucking up bad herbs from the good ones, OK?" she patiently replied while her clothes disappeared inside her bracelet one by one.
"Then at the very least, let me help you do this with you, then," Kame proposed.
But she shook her head. "No, Kame, you can't, since anyone with half a discerning brain would realize that your energy signature would also be all over the stone once we dig it out, and that can't happen, so I know you wanna help, but please don't ask this in the future, okay? Unless I ask for your help, how's that sound?" She added when she saw the long face the merman drew on her, by which an awkward smile bloomed on his face.
Kame sighed, before he replied, "Understood, Your Royal Highness. For you, it's gonna be more painful than usual, so be careful, all right?"
She nodded. "Will do," she said, then turned away from him as her naked self sat cross-legged on the uneven rocky floor after she pushed away the most annoying stones hampering her basic comfort.
She couldn't even get the ground dust off her twat, but what could she do about that?
Just let a cool feeling flaring up the groove between her black a*s…
Shunting these useless thoughts aside, she closed her eyes to even her breathing, her sight revealed when everything was clear.
Her eyes focused on the steady pattern the ore she chose gathered energy, observing every revolution it made before she could feel its pace.
Then, her broken core swirled with mana, matching the pace the stone had but in a reverse motion, a tingle blooming in her bowels as a pair of serrated hands glimmering across the dark tunnel put the chiseled ore in their grasp.
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Remaining Mana: 100%—> 99.9%
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When she felt the hollow between the stone and the rock wall, she sharpened her right hand's mana digits…
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Remaining Mana: 99.9%—> 99.8%
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Remaining Mana:…
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… and steadily began to excavate the ore, while she covered the stone's midst with her left hand thrumming with mana across its aureate shell, disturbing the stone gathering process.
The disturbance prevented the ore from strengthening itself, as the low thud from a growing mound of excavated pebbles was the only sound reverberating across the cave.
However, the more she chipped away the rocky fetters holding the stone, the more her stomach reared its ugly head as well, from cramps to audible grumbles, some even loud enough to startle Kamealoha from his meditation from time to time…
Especially when the smell coming from her sh*t wafted inside his nostrils a little more than of fifteen minutes later.
It wasn't his first rodeo, but he sure didn't know whether he'll get used to it or not…
Or if he should in the first place.
Lyshisha took a break when her growing headache became unbearable after she emptied everything she ate earlier on the floor.
After she cleaned the floor and herself after she popped a Mana Pill in her mouth to hasten the recovery of her nearly empty reserves…
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Your Mana recovers!
Remaining Mana: 0.1—> 0.125/100% ¤Recovering 0.025% Mana every second¤
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… almost two hours elapsed before she resumed her work, her mind cleared of any dizziness—as well as her stomach.
Her belly emptied prevented her from shitting again, however it brought up her headaches at a faster—and even stronger—clip than before.
Headaches that grew beyond dizziness to nearly simulate drunkenness.
The sights around the corners of her eyes growing unstable, slowing, but oftentimes interrupting the extraction process as she forcefully tried to regain her bearings.
The annoying ringing sound blaring across her ears that she managed to ease with a few swivels of her head.
She avoided falling into delirium every time she was on the brink by her sheer will of saving her incapacitated sibling.
By the time she finished, when they left the cave glittering stars dotted the sky, below which a warm but cool wind ruffled their heads, easing its way inside their legs and arms.
Night had fallen.
She found her two tigers lounging on the ground, who seemingly long fled her side when the "wondrous" fragrance pouring from her a*s percolated through their large nostrils hours ago.
She smiled.
She forgot how developed their sense of smell is unlike theirs.
After she hailed them, she summoned her Impundulu…
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You lost some breath! You lost 15% Stamina.
Remaining Stamina: 100%—> 85%
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… taking advantage of a cooler wind when they flew their way back towards Fang Valley…