Chương 20: The Vein Of Mana Crystals (1)

"Mana crystals can be found in veins?" Of course they can. In Night Hoppers, apart from finding the items needed to achieve their goal, Cayman and Ellie would occasionally stumble upon underground caves full of mana crystals. It was no surprise to me but it might have been a surprise for Theo, Ben and Maya. After all, most of the skill user world was still alien to them. We left the rotting corpse of the Boss behind and started walking deeper into the cave, following the faint blue glow.

Although the blue glow was present, it was still very dark where we were standing. Luckily, Cayman had a few spare torches in his inventory which we gladly accepted.

"Yes, mana crystals can be found in veins," Cayman nodded and said as we walked.

"And once you find them it's like a jackpot, since there can be lots of them in one place." Of course they were. Even the most basic mana crystals can be sold for a ton of money. Cayman then turned his attention to me.

"Good work out there," he told me, dramatically changing the subject.

"You did well to land the final blow on that monster. I saw your sword break out there, so here's a new one." He handed me a new sword, which gleamed in the darkness. It looked like it glowed in the dark. Although the cave was initially exceptionally dark and was like walking through an endless void, it got brighter and brighter the deeper we went because of the vein of mana crystals; soon, there was less need for the torches Cayman gave us.

"Mana crystals have so many uses," Cayman said to no one in particular changing the subject back to mana crystals.

"I love them so much. When you all become established skill users, you'll realise how useful they are." Maya's head dropped and she looked at the ground.

"I don't want any more lectures from him," she whispered to me.

"I want to discover everything myself and learn using the system." Theo and Ben would definitely have the same mindset; listening to Cayman for hours on end was almost equivalent to endless torture and suffering. Way worse than being stuck in a university lecture for hours on end. Cayman and Ellie then gave us a few red mana crystals.

"Take them," Cayman said.

"Replenish your mana. I've said it many times before, but it's always important to have enough mana with you at all times." I thought about the battle I just fought. I was on the cusp of running out of mana. My core only had around twenty percent left, if I could remember correctly. With warm and accepting arms, I received the mana crystals from Cayman. Cayman continued to ramble on about mana crystals for what felt like hours, and that was how long we thought we had been walking for.

At first, I had been hobbling slightly and I had a few cuts from tripping over the uneven surface. However, after using the mana crystals to recover, the pain slowly eased and I could gradually start walking properly again. Eventually, after what felt like hours of listening to Cayman ramble on about mana crystals, we reached the vein of mana crystals, and it was a true sight to behold. We were in a large chamber that had a ceiling at least twice as high compared to the start of the cave.

We were surrounded by blue all over, and it made me feel like we were in a massive reading bubble. There were crystals with sharp edges jutting out from the walls.

"Holy crap." Theo was aghast.

"I've never seen so many mana crystals before."

"We're going to be rich!" Ben screamed. There was a lot of room for Ben to scream, unlike when we were out in town the other day, and he could scream to his heart's desire if he wanted to. Maya smiled.

"Yes," she said, agreeing with Ben.

"We're going to be rich."

"Then quickly!" Ben called out.

"Let's get digging! I want to see how much these are worth." Cayman let out a wry smile.

"I've never seen Hoppers this happy to mine basic-level mana crystals in my life," he said to Ellie.

"Things are going very well here." Ellie grunted in agreement. I watched closely as Cayman reached into his system and pulled out several objects. When they fell to the floor, I realised that they were pickaxes. Were they the same as the ones we used to dig our way up to the surface? If so, was there any need to give us new ones?

"Everybody grab a pickaxe," Cayman said.

"You have all done well to complete the mission. Since you all successfully completed your first mission as Hoppers, mine the mana crystals as a reward." I could tell from his tone of voice that he didn't expect this vein of mana crystals to be down here at all. It was like his mistake of sending us to a planet with a quasi-legendary level boss had been rectified on its own. The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation. It was like he was rewarded for his mistake.

In Night Hoppers, not every planet Cayman and Ellie claimed had a vein of mana crystals this big. On some planets, all they would find were small shards sticking out of the rocks like blueberries on blueberry muffins. This, on the other hand, was probably the largest vein of mana crystals the Night Hoppers had ever seen. It seemed to stretch into the distance; it was never-ending.

Just like my other friends, I grabbed a pickaxe from where Cayman dropped them, and just like with the mana crystals and the mana sword, a system window popped up. Mana pickaxe Level: Advanced Description: A pickaxe used to mine mana crystals. This pickaxe can only mine blue basic and red advanced mana crystals. Durability: 50 (basic), 250 (advanced), 2750 (legendary), infinite (infinite) So I could mine 250 mana crystals with this pickaxe. That's a lot of mana crystals, and that meant a lot of money.

"How are these any different to the pickaxes we used to mine our way up to the surface?" Ben had the same question as me. At least that saved me the pressure of asking the question.

"Good question," Cayman replied.

"These are specific pickaxes that can mine mana crystals. The pickaxes I gave you to mine to the surface were just ordinary pickaxes. Those ones don't have any mana. You can't mine mana crystals with those pickaxes." Once Ben got his answer, he began to frantically mine the crystals closest to him like a mad man, whilst Theo and Maya were taking it slow and taking their time. So those pickaxes were just normal pickaxes, I thought.

I had definitely deluded myself into thinking that I had been using pickaxes ingrained with mana when in fact they weren't. After walking towards the crystals closest to me, I swung the mana pickaxe and began mining the crystals. Clang! Clang! Clang! It sounded like plates dropping; it might have been a horror show for the ears, but mining the basic mana crystals was still extremely satisfying. It felt like I was getting a reward. No, more than that.

It felt like winning the grand prize on a TV show, or winning the jackpot in a huge lottery. I was going to be rich. After a while, there were smaller shards of blue mana crystals scattered on the floor which were similar in size to the crystals Cayman gave me after the first training session and the crystals I had looted when defeating basic-level mana beasts. I picked one of them up. I didn't know how much these crystals were worth, but it didn't hurt to try. Because I was going to be rich regardless.

After all, Night Hoppers never mentioned how much mana crystals were worth in terms of Earth's currencies. Mana crystals have a whole variety of uses, and different actions are required for these different uses. If you ingest and swallow a mana crystal, it automatically replenishes the mana in your core. There isn't a specific system message that tells you that you've swallowed a mana crystal; you would have to check your mana consumption window to see how much mana has been replenished.

If you break a crystal, however, there are several other uses, such as upgrading skills and traits. I had done that many times during this mission, and I was so grateful to have a handful of basic mana crystals on me. If I didn't have those at the start, then I might have been toast. Mana crystals can also be used in skill creation, and they can also turn normal items into items imbued with mana. For example, by fusing a mana crystal with a regular toy sword, there is a possibility of creating a mana sword.

But that would make more sense when Cayman teaches us about skill creation. Mana crystals can also be exchanged for money. In Night Hoppers, if a skill user wishes to exchange a mana crystal for money, they have to hold on to the crystal tightly without breaking it and say 'exchange' in their head. Exchange, exchange, exchange. I held the mana crystal in my hand apprehensively, and I waited for the system window to open whilst taking a deep breath.

And soon enough- [You have decided to exchange a blue mana crystal on the market. Do you wish to proceed with the transaction? Yes/No] Just like in Night Hoppers. I clicked on 'yes'. [You have sold a blue mana crystal on the market and earned 25 pounds.] 25 Great British Pounds? One mana crystal? A basic one? That was a lot, and it was for just one basic-level mana crystal. I prayed that the value wouldn't decrease as we level up.

Considering how many basic mana crystals there were in this vein, that was a really good deal. I wondered what Ben would think. At any moment, he was going to shout 'We are rich!' I could feel it. The system window then turned into something like an ATM and printed out my money seemingly from out of nowhere. This is cool, I thought, though I was never going to get used to it, despite the fact that I had already read Night Hoppers ten times.

I took the money and stared at it like I was admiring the statue of my favourite person ever. It was definitely real. I was holding twenty-five pounds in place of a blue mana crystal. Suddenly there was uproar.

"We're rich!" Ben bellowed.

"I'm going to be a millionaire in this life! Holy shit!" I knew it. I knew he was going to say it at some point. Theo and Maya smiled.

"Go for it," Theo said.

"If you want to be a millionaire that badly, go and dig up the rest of the crystals."

"Not so fast." Although Cayman appeared to cut Theo off, there wasn't even a single drop of hostility in his voice.

"Save some for later. You don't have to dig up the whole vein now. This planet is ours. We've claimed it. Nobody can take this vein of mana crystals from us." Ben nodded.

"You're right. Then I can have a stable source of income." Although Ben wasn't going to be a millionaire overnight, he was still extremely giddy and elated. He was going to have a source of pocket money from this. I picked up a few more blue mana crystals and sold them on the market. In total, I was holding a hundred and fifty pounds in my right hand. On a different planet. This felt unreal. Putting the bank notes in my pocket, I continued digging.

I had almost finished mining the group of crystals nearest to me, and with my heart racing, I began to mine. Clang! Clang! Clang! After a few more swings, I got used to the noise. But that wasn't the biggest surprise I encountered. As the mana crystals continued to break off from the main vein, they appeared to be sinking deeper and deeper into the floor, which I found to be strange.

So I continued to hit the crystals with my pickaxe in the hopes that I could salvage the rest of the mana crystals from potential oblivion. But then- Crack! Shit. They all fell. Hurriedly, I grabbed the torch I had been holding when we were walking and aimed it at where the mana crystals had fallen. I didn't want my money to disappear from me. I wanted to be rich extremely badly, like Ben. I didn't want to lose that batch of mana crystals. But the oblivion I was thinking about wasn't what I was seeing.

Instead of the pitch-black nothingness that I had envisioned, the mana crystals had fallen into another cave. I peered around, and what I saw almost made me pass out and fall into the cave. It was a red glow. A sinister red glow. That could only mean one thing. I had stumbled upon a vein of advanced mana crystals.