The more Jasper mined the stone, the more white and blue veins branched out from it. The energy veins stretched like the roots of a tree. After a few meters of straight digging, the veins started to descend deep into the ground.
It had taken around five hours of mining to reach that point. Now that the veins were extending downward, Jasper could tell it was almost four in the evening, and he had not eaten lunch.
He was so eager to find whatever lay inside those rocks that he did not bother to eat. He quickly started digging deeper into the ground, where brighter blue lights were bursting out. He could not rest until finding out what it was, so he continued.
The energy veins descended straight into the ground, which made it hard for Jasper to swing the pickaxe. He slowly widened the trench so that he could swing the pickaxe more easily until he found the treasure. However, that required a lot of effort and time. When he finished digging the trench, Jasper guessed that the sun had set and night had begun to descend.
For a second, he thought about continuing tomorrow, but he quickly discarded the thought and continued digging. Though being late would make his mother and little sister worry, they would not make a fuss about him being late from mining. In the beginning, he had often worked until very late to collect as many crystals as possible because of his slow mining speed.
With that decision, he slowly chipped away at the hard stone. Suddenly, Jasper felt that the stone was becoming brittle. With a few swings of the pickaxe, the stone loosened, and the spreading energy veins started to narrow down, indicating that he had neared the treasure. The bright glow illuminated the whole pit, and he no longer needed the oil lamp.
Cling! Cling!
With a few dozen swings, he broke a hard section of stone. As it loosened, rock fragments dropped to the ground. A bright blue light illuminated the space behind it. Jasper carefully removed the surrounding stone shards with his hands until he found a stone brightly illuminated in blue, sitting amid the obsidian-black rock.
The blue veins he had followed were illuminated, penetrating through the rock and stretching outward. Jasper gulped as he scrutinized the glowing blue stone, which looked rough yet bright. He slowly removed the remaining debris with his hands. Once everything was cleared, he readied himself to pick up the stone.
He slowly brought his hand toward the glowing rock and gently wrapped his fingers around it before pulling it out of the stone. To his surprise, it came away easily without any struggle. He brought the stone closer to his eyes as it illuminated blue within the deep pit.
Name: Problem Stone (Bind)
Grade: ???
Origin: ???
Description: ???
Suddenly, text appeared in his mind, which he could automatically read.
"Problem Stone… What does this mean? Is this an expensive stone that could fetch money?" Jasper wondered as the text appeared in his mind.
After a few seconds of contemplation, his eyes focused on the word attached to the name.
"Bind," Jasper read.
In the next second, the blue glow brightened until his eyes went blind. Jasper quickly closed his eyes as the deep trench became too bright to keep them open. After a few moments, he realized something was missing from his palm.
Jasper opened his eyes hurriedly to look for the blue stone. However, he saw an empty palm—the blue stone had disappeared.
Jasper's face turned pale.
"Where the fuck did it go?" Jasper cursed. He had worked non-stop without eating or considering his body's pain to obtain a treasure. Now it had disappeared without a trace.
He rummaged through the pit as darkness returned to the cave; the oil lamp's light was the only source of visibility.
"Oh man, where did it go? Did it crumble into dust?"
He quickly brought the lamp closer and checked the ground for dust or broken shards. However, he found nothing but obsidian stone shards.
Jasper's heart lost all the expectations he had while digging the pit—how he would earn a lot of wealth once he found the treasure, how he would take care of his mother and cure her disease, how they would not have to worry about food anymore. All those thoughts crumbled within a second. He couldn't understand what had happened.
He sat down on the ground for a moment to think it through. What had he done before the stone started to illuminate? He had read the name of the stone in his mind. Realizing that, he tried to find the details of the stone in his mind. However, he couldn't see the details now.
He thought of the stone again.
Suddenly, a light illuminated the pit where he was sitting, and a blue glow materialized in front of him.
Jasper quickly extended his palm toward the glow, and the blue light slowly dissipated until the rocky blue stone rested on his palm. Jasper was shell-shocked by the sudden appearance of the stone that had disappeared before.
Where had it gone? How had it appeared again?
Stupefied, he thought of the stone disappearing, and it disappeared from his palm. When he thought of the stone appearing in his mind, it appeared again.
"What is this? Is it magic?" he smiled warily.
Suddenly, an idea appeared in his mind. What if he sold this stone to someone and, after receiving the payment, made it disappear and reappear in his hand? That way, he could earn some money.
However, Jasper quickly discarded the idea, since that was not the right way to earn money. It would definitely put his family in danger.
"What should I do now?" Jasper had expected a precious gem that could fetch a huge amount, not this stone with cheap tricks.
'What else could this stone do other than appearing and disappearing?' Jasper wondered.
With a disappointed heart, he decided to leave the abandoned cave, since he had to walk almost five kilometers to reach the town and it was almost 9 p.m. Though disappointed about the precious gem and the struggle he had put in, he had gained almost double the amount of common white crystals. It would fetch around two gold coins.
With that thought, he slowly climbed out of the trench and the pit, finally exiting the cave.