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Post by Fiera Ferella on Mar 6, 2024 15:25:30 GMT -6
"A little tolerance never killed anyone." She continued with a nod before turning back to the swiss cheese style rock. She was now pretty sure that it had aired out enough and readied her pick axe again, raising it over her head and bringing it back down again loudly. Mango flinched again, unseen by Fiera but slowly getting used to the sound. Fiera kept working and soon she felt even larger patches of stone giving way and... saw what looked like a faint glow coming from the hole? She slowed again, unsure of herself. That wasn't a great sign. Light shouldn't be coming from a hole in the wall. Had she managed to mine into someone else's tunnel? Was it a fancy enough one to be pre-lit? Or was she bothering someone that was actively mining, like her? Well... she could always make the excuse that she was here first, regardless of who actually was.
Fiera 6 Mango 13.1/15.1 26
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Post by Fiera Ferella on Mar 6, 2024 15:48:05 GMT -6
That was her usual tactic at least- just out-bitch them until they conceded. Something felt different this time, however. Turning her ears to face the gap, she noted that she couldn't hear anything through the hole. Sure that meant that whoever was in there was simply on break or using quieter tools than usual, but something told her that wasn't the case. She couldn't hear the hum of electrics either for pre-lit caves. Usually anything electrical down here required beefy generators and temperamental lamps, and the resulting hum was usually quite audible. There was no sign of either this time though, though she could hear something like flowing water down below. She glanced up at the cave ceiling again, the stalactites hanging from above, dripping water onto the floor below. It made sense that the water would collect and flow below, but that didn't answer the question of why it was glowing.
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Post by Fiera Ferella on Mar 6, 2024 15:52:39 GMT -6
Well, there was only one way to find out. Fiera kept mining and soon more and more rock fell away, revealing the glow. Finally enough of the hole opened up that Fiera could actually fit herself through. There was a short slope down below her, and she could see the chunks of rock she had accidentally kicked through sitting at the bottom of it down below. It was about as steep as the slope leading down to this room to start with, so she knew she could get the mine cart back up it- after all, someone else had already to to get that fire elemental crystal out. Carefully, she picked up the mine cart's lead again and started pulling it down the slope, with Mango clinging to the floor of the cart. "It's alright, Mango." Fiera said, looking at the ground instead of him. "We're just going on another adventure, that's all!"
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Post by Fiera Ferella on Mar 6, 2024 15:55:49 GMT -6
Soon the cart came to the bottom of the slope, and Fiera looked out across the new room. Ah. That would explain everything, now wouldn't it. Instead of an empty room, or another miner's tunnel, Fiera was looking out across a vast field of lava. That explained the glow- while a thick crust had cooled over the top of it in places, she could still see it rippling. Every so often a massive bubble of gas expanded across the surface and burst, kicking out a hot wave of air and liquid rock and revealing a glowing patch of magma just beneath. Fiera was very glad that that didn't seem to be happening close to shore though, only out towards the center of the lake. She didn't have the right safety equipment to navigate this in the slightest, and frankly she wasn't sure if she should even be breathing these gasses in.
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Post by Fiera Ferella on Mar 6, 2024 15:58:23 GMT -6
Still, it couldn't hurt to take the briefest of looks around. (It absolutely could, but Fiera was more stubborn than she was clever.) Mango tentatively leaned out of the cart to look at the lake a bit more closely, his large eyes twitching around, but Fiera nudged his little head back in. "Maybe take a back seat for this one, bud." She said, cringing at the sight of the bubbling lake. She supposed this also explained the fire elemental crystals that had been lurking just above as well. Elemental crystals grew naturally just about everywhere, but they especially showed up close to strong sources of their element. This place likely had all sorts of fire crystals and probably even earth crystals growing around it, though accessing them was going to prove to be incredibly difficult. Fiera couldn't feel any thrumming right now anyway- not that she wanted to risk herself to dig them up.
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Post by Fiera Ferella on Mar 7, 2024 10:07:55 GMT -6
But still, even though it looked dangerous, it was probably worth taking a look around... carefully. Very carefully. In fact, Fiera left the mine cart behind a moment, not wanting to get it near any of the spurts of lava bursting from the surface of the lake. To her surprise though, she heard a clattering noise coming from it, and turned to find Mango tentatively following after her. "Oh? Feeling brave, are we?" She asked with a chuckle. He made a soft snuffling noise, nervously glancing between Fiera and the cart. It looked like he didn't want to be left behind, even though he felt safer in the cart. She could understand that. "Alrighty then, come along!" She said, picking up the young wild repointe's leash. "Let's see what we can find!" She said, and began walking along the shore of the lava lake, with Mango anxiously following along behind her.
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Post by Fiera Ferella on Mar 8, 2024 15:43:39 GMT -6
Sure enough, there were a ton of crystals of various sizes sprouting up out of the ground here. Fiera knew that crystals tended to grow the largest where lava took a long time to cool, and this place was... definitely pretty hot still. As a result there was a huge variety of crystals here in various stages of completion, bursting from the floor and ceiling. They reminded her of the stalagmites and stalactites from the room upstairs, albeit much more valuable. For all she knew they were simply plain quartz, but even quartz was valuable at this size. She couldn't help but snap a few off as she walked by, shoving them into her pockets to take back up the slopes. She was glad that she wouldn't leave this mining trip empty handed at least- or empty pocketed, as it were. There was more than enough crystals here to make the trip worthwhile.
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Post by Fiera Ferella on Mar 8, 2024 15:47:28 GMT -6
Mango sniffed at them as well after seeing Fiera take an interest in them, but when he realized they were still hot he quickly cringed away. He didn't have the same heatproof gloves as his owner, after all. Fiera on the other hand was stuffing her pockets and even grabbing a few even larger crystals to tuck under her arm. After all, this room wasn't too far off of the main thoroughfare. It wouldn't be long until other miners swooped in and cleaned the place out. So that meant that she had to do it first. The humanish did a full perimeter around the lava lake, taking note of the most valuable looking caches of gems while keeping a wide radius from the shore. Couldn't be too careful, after all- someone with a pet that could swim in lava could have those closer crystals. She wasn't THAT hard up for cash.
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Post by Fiera Ferella on Mar 8, 2024 15:50:00 GMT -6
Once she made the full loop, Fiera was back in front of her mine cart. She dumped all of her findings in, and they quickly filled the bottom of it now that Mango wasn't taking up space. He cringed at the clattering noise as they hit the bottom- there was no way he was riding that back up. Alas, the downsides of bravery. Sometimes it meant giving up your comfy seat. Then, Fiera grabbed her pickaxe, chisel, and hammer, hooking the latter two onto her belt. She was ready to get to work. Fiera went around to each major cluster of gems she had found, Mango following along behind her, and cracked off the biggest pieces, making sure to carve out the bases of regular stone as well to keep the crystals as intact as possible. The better shape they were in, the more she would be able to sell them for.
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Post by Fiera Ferella on Mar 8, 2024 15:52:34 GMT -6
Then she made her way back to the mine cart, depositing them in. After an hour the cart was full of colorful crystals in all shapes and sizes, grown out of the shores of the lava lake like cattails. There were still more to be harvested, but her cart was actually very full- and incredibly heavy. "Oh yikes." She said, tugging on the lead. "Maybe I should have left this like... half full." She groaned, feeling the wheels just barely moving on flat ground, to say nothing of the steep slopes she now had to pull it up. She was nothing if not stubborn though, so she couldn't bring herself to be disappointed. This was an incredible find for the record books, and she would get this mine cart back up to the surface even if it killed her. "Follow me, Mango!" Fiera said, bracing herself against the back of the cart. "It's time to go home!"
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Post by Silver on Mar 8, 2024 17:37:26 GMT -6
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