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Post by Noa on Jun 15, 2022 17:42:49 GMT -6
Now that they had actually cut to the point where they could see the stone, Noa traded his pick for a hammer and chisel, and began the finer work of cutting out the part of the stone that he wanted. This was more painstaking, but honestly he preferred it, since you didn't need strength so much as you needed finesse. He wasn't someone who considered himself particularly gifted in sculpture or delicate work, of course, but at least he was no longer playing with a handicap, so to speak. And for this kind of task, what he was capable of was more than enough for his purposes.
It took some time, but eventually he managed to free the bigger chunk. Then came the even more delicate work of cutting around the small, long shard, which came with it the very real risk of cutting into it, and breaking it altogether.
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Post by Noa on Jun 15, 2022 17:45:22 GMT -6
Rhys watched attentively, and Noa wondered if the Faeron had any plans to stop the chisel telekinetically if Noa did make a misstep. Luckily it didn't come to that. Noa wasn't so clumsy that he would mess up something like that, even if he had to go slowly in places. Eventually the second mind crystal was worked free, and Noa pocketed them both.
"Where to next?" he asked Rhys, and the Faeron turned his attention to trying to sense valuables once more.
In this manner they proceeded through the tunnel. They didn't progress quickly, but that wasn't the point; they made frequent stops to cut away a bit of rock, or occasionally even to dig through some rubble for valuables that had somehow been missed or left behind by a previous party who had stopped by here. At one point they discovered a plain stone that, when cracked open, turned out to be a geode.
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Post by Noa on Jun 15, 2022 17:48:26 GMT -6
It was topaz, which was a good find. Anything that was more valuable than amethyst was good. Noa didn't personally care for the color, but fortunately whether he liked a stone had no bearing on its value, and he didn't intend to keep any of these anyway, except maybe if it was one that he didn't have in his collection before. And even then, well, collecting different types of stones was just a passing fancy of his. It didn't matter in the face of a more serious pursuit, such as that of amassing magical power. Rocks with no magic weren't going to cure him, no matter what some people might believe about energies and crystal therapy and natural remedies. At least with plants, there was some basis in herbology, but he couldn't fathom how a piece of quartz could possibly bring him any real, tangible health benefits, and so far nothing had proved otherwise.
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Post by Noa on Jun 15, 2022 18:01:21 GMT -6
The tunnel began to narrow the further in they went, but the pickings got a little better too. There were a couple of finds that had some genuine value to them: a small and nondescript rock that turned out to be a fossil, and then, a very small vein of titanium that yielded two sizable chunks of ore. The latter was unpleasant to dig out, but given that titanium fetched a good price, Noa applied himself to the task with more dedication than he might otherwise have done. Ores weren't his favorite things to mine or to carry around, and he wasn't much of a smith except for a brief stint in dabbling with jewelry -- though he had abandoned it just as quickly upon discovering that he would never be able to cut or socket elemental crystals, and in the meantime the workshop had also closed down, with no sign of reopening.
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Post by Noa on Jun 15, 2022 18:08:01 GMT -6
When he worked free the second chunk of titanium ore, he sagged against his pick, lowering himself slowly onto the rock floor of the tunnel. It was dirty there, and he was ruining his clothes, but he hadn't had the energy to bother changing out of what he was wearing and into something more plain and worthless for a trip down to the mines at the time. And clothes were easy to clean or mend with magic, or even to replace altogether if he needed to. What did he care for whether or not he looked disheveled? He felt like crap. And the fact that he could kill someone from ten paces didn't change whether he had dust on him or not.
But he really was exhausted. He had energy for perhaps one more such excavation, after which it would be time to turn back and teleport himself back to the estate.
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Post by Jack on Jun 15, 2022 19:00:14 GMT -6
Yellow stones could be found pretty quickly, they were pretty in the light!
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Post by Noa on Jun 19, 2022 12:26:46 GMT -6
The next time they were here, he thought, he would definitely bring along the gargoyle. He was still loath to explain his condition to one more curious bystander, so he knew he would have to wait for a spell when he wasn't so visibly unwell, but maybe that was just as well. he wasn't exactly eager to come back after having exerted himself to this degree today. When he returned, it would be to observe someone else straining for these stones, not to re-exert himself.
He took a short break to stop and count the stones that he had found with Rhys's help. It wasn't an especially fortuitous haul, but it wasn't terrible either, he supposed. He could probably afford a single pure or tainted crystal with this. It meant he would have to keep coming back for a while; it took an inordinate amount of crystals to make one such node.
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Post by Noa on Jun 19, 2022 12:30:56 GMT -6
Even thinking about it filled him with bitterness. Nine whole crystals... Having lost access to his family's accumulated wealth of nodes felt like a particular blow whenever that thought came to mind. But there was nothing he could do about it, especially with the fact that light magic offered the widest range of healing spells. Maybe it was the difficulty of access that had stymied his family's research for so long. Even a wealthy family took time to build up such a cost intensive resource, and he wasn't a fool; he was aware that there was infighting among the Saint-Clair clan even at the height of their power.
The destruction of the existing nodes might even have been engineered by one or another of his parents against the other, or against himself, though he liked to think that they weren't quite so foolish. By the time of Noa's birth, there had been very few Saint-Clairs left.
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Post by Noa on Jun 19, 2022 12:33:45 GMT -6
Whatever it was, however, it had come to pass, and he could do nothing about it except continue on with the setback. And in light of everything that had been stacked against him, he felt that he had done pretty well for himself.
Not that it mattered, when he still didn't have a cure. But then, it wasn't as if any of those powerful ancestors of his had found one either, so at least he didn't need to concern himself with measuring up against them.
Once he had caught his breath, and the ache in his arms had dulled into something more manageable, he asked Rhys to show him to one more stone. Rhys searched for some time, then retrieved something from a pile of rubble from what looked like a minor cave in. Noa had expected to do some digging, but he was just as glad not to have to do anything of the sort.
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Post by Noa on Jun 19, 2022 12:39:59 GMT -6
He inspected the stone that Rhys had brought him. Was it a topaz or a citrine? It was hard to tell in the dim lighting available to them this deep underground. He hoped it was the former and not the latter, since the difference in values between the two stones were significant, but he wouldn't know for sure until he was back at the estate and had better tools with which to assess the stone's quality. He could have brought them with him, but it would have meant even more things to carry and keep track of, and it wasn't exactly convenient to manage a pack animal down here. He used to bring down larger parties of creatures with him, but lately he didn't have the patience to spend time with more than one or two at the same time.
If his life had any semblance of normalcy, he might have said he was getting old.
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Post by Noa on Jun 19, 2022 12:43:05 GMT -6
But his condition being what it was, he might genuinely not have the opportunity to experience real old age... Though, then again, if his physical state was any indication, maybe he wasn't missing much.
He pocketed the stone, then took one last look around him to see if there wasn't anything that would catch his attention. The spell on Rhys would be wearing off soon anyway, and he was tired. The haul he had managed to get wasn't a bad one by any means, and it wouldn't have been productive to throw himself into trying for more stones past this point.
It was time for them to go home.
"Rhys," he said. The Faeron alighted on his shoulder as Noa began to prepare the teleportation spell to send them home. At least the trip had passed without incident, and he hadn't had to use his mana on anything else, so he could afford a little extravagance.
50 (last roll with Glimmer's Boon active; exit)
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Post by Jack on Jun 21, 2022 13:18:50 GMT -6
That's a pretty blue stone being shown on the way out!
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Post by Noa on Dec 26, 2022 1:32:20 GMT -6
It felt as if it had been eons since Noa had last been back here, though realistically he knew it had only been a few months. Maybe half a year. The days had sort of started to blend together this year; since he had gotten his hands on a light node, it felt like he basically lived in the library or the research workshop. And then there had been the issue of his health this year; as if to remind him that time was running out, it had taken an especially bad turn... Actually, had that been the last time he was here? He couldn't remember too well. If it had, maybe that was why Rhys had been so against him coming here again.
But it wasn't as if he had the luxury of staying away. His magic research had stalled in spite of his best efforts, and more mana was the obvious solution.
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Post by Noa on Dec 26, 2022 1:35:24 GMT -6
To get more mana, he had to have more nodes, and if he wanted more nodes, he needed more magic crystals. And even if he couldn't find more of those, at least he might find something to trade that absolute greedyguts of a shopkeeper in town for some, though his prices were frequently more than Noa wanted to pay.
... No, he should be glad that there was a steady source of them at all now. And any price was worth it if he could save his own life. Sometimes he forgot about this when his frustrations with these limitations got the best of him, but it was still true, even if he wasn't necessarily happy about it.
Rhys was accompanying Noa today, but then, when wasn't he? The more notable thing was probably the gargoyle's absence, but Noa's mood had been sour for a long time, and he hadn't felt like humoring another presence.
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Post by Noa on Dec 26, 2022 1:38:29 GMT -6
Rhys was, unfortunately, a necessary companion, both for convenience and to monitor Noa's condition; and more to the point, their minds were linked in so many ways that it simply wasn't possible for the Faeron not to be able to read the room, so to speak. That didn't mean they were never at odds, or that Rhys never got on Noa's nerves, but at least it was a lot faster to address that sort of thing when you could speak mind to mind, and you knew each other so well.
He didn't bother with the hike up to the caves today, opting to teleport there instead. Rhys didn't protest this use of his magic, perhaps figuring it was better to do this than for Noa to tire himself out. If that was the case, then they were of a mind. And now that it had become painfully clear his research had stalled, he had mana to spare.
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