About a good 30 thrown stones and a dozen large flames later Jack and Rash ran out of targets in the little valley leading to the cave. It was also a few degrees hotter, but that was to be expected if you lit up that much gas. They might have been a good distance away from the flames, but most of this distance being a height difference didn’t really help.

The two of them paused, realizing that there was nothing to throw at and then grinned at each other. For all that Jack wanted to be the more mature person, explosions and giant flames were why he was so absorbed into magic in the first place, so he couldn’t really help it.

The amount of joy he got from playing with flammables and explosives was questionable for sure, but as long as he didn’t do any damage to other people it should be totally fine and these weird flowers had turned out to be a good opportunity to light something up.

He did wonder what kind of gas they were holding inside of their weird rings and, looking at how said gas was very reactive at contact with air, how the plant kept it from burning inside of itself. 

The flowers were already replenishing their reserves though, so the pair would have to get moving or the situation could get a little heated.

Jack smirked to himself at the pun as they descended into the valley. That those plants were replenishing the gas this fast was good news for him, because once he had a bit of time he could come back and experiment. He would definitely not play around.

A few minutes of climbing later they reached the bottom of the valley and made their way towards the cave, which was actually quite large with a diameter of around 10 meters. During their walk, Jack made sure to [identify] all the new or semi-new plants like the silver grass, now that he was close enough. His skill level wasn’t high enough to reveal anything new to him, but who knew if there was some tidbit of knowledge somewhere in his head that he had read about in the internet and the name’s themselves could be quite helpful.

[moon grass]

This is some silvery kind of grass that you have come across in multiple environments already, so it has to have some serious adaptation abilities.

Yeah well, he knew that one already and, considering that there was no way this grass came from the moon, it wasn’t that helpful. The thing with the adaptation was new though and it was interesting that the system made this conclusion for him. Then again, had he thought about it for a few minutes he would have come to the same deduction, so it wasn’t that much of a gift.

[Volcano rose]

The blossoms have the same shape as roses, but aside from that the plant looks more like a gnarled tree without leaves.

Hmm, this one didn’t really help, he already knew this was a volcano, the occasional smoke coming out of the top of this mountain made this much obvious.

[Haphephobic blowwood]

Haphephobia is the fear of being touched, something that this flower clearly does not like. Still, its ability to rotate its blossoms inwards, produce and store a highly reactive gas and letting said gas out to incinerate its surroundings without harming itself is quite fascinating.

Jack absolutely agreed with the status screen. The more he was thinking about this flower the closer it got to becoming his favorite plant, no matter how weird it looked like.

The closer Rash and Jack got to the cave entrance, the hotter the air around them became and once they entered it became almost unbearable. If Jack had to guess, he would say it was about 60°C to 70°C hot and he was already sweaty beyond belief or at least his head and hair was. The rest of his body was surprisingly fine, though that might have something to do with him having become more lizard-like.

He eyed Rash for a moment, somewhat envious that the guy had pretty much completely changed and didn’t have the sweat problem at all, but decided not to bother in the end. Both of them still felt uncomfortably hot after all and the sweat was actually helping a bit.

The heat did mean they had to hurry up however, as it couldn’t be healthy for them to stay in this environment, much like it wasn’t healthy to stay inside of a sauna for a prolonged amount of time.

“Give me a minute and I will make us some light.” Jack said and began to concentrate on guiding his mana into the right pattern as well as making sure that his intent was correct, something he had to learn himself to look out for as the spirit had never mentioned anything of the like to him.

Rash just grunted in response, much more interested in the dark tunnel in front of him. The ground of the cave was actually rather loose and dirt like, not stony like he had believed. The gray stone of the mountain slowly transitioned into something darker, in some spots entirely black and he was able to make out more plants deeper in the cave. 

A somewhat problematic discovery as he believed triggering one of the blowwood flowers would spell trouble for them, even if they were a good distance away. Down here the heat created by the flame couldn’t escape into the sky like outside and no matter how rash he liked to act, he would prefer not to be cooked alive today.

Jack finally got his light spell going and after a quick discussion about how to proceed and what to look out for, the pair ventured deeper into the cave, going to great pains to avoid the blowwood flowers.

About two hundred meters into the winding cave they came across a junction where a smaller cave branched away from the main one. The two of them didn’t pay too much attention to the smaller tunnel though, already somewhat exhausted by the heat and pretty much ready to leave the cave as soon as possible.

When Jack walked past the opening one of the blowwoods suddenly lit up further down the small cave and he squicked in surprise. “Hiih!”

“Hah, very manly of you!” Rash laughed out, but Jack didn’t listen to him, his mind occupied with the giant spiked lizard he had seen inside of the cave for a second. Not only was the thing at least three meters long and one tall, but it had also ignored the massive flame as if it was nothing.

Holy moly, but he definitely did not want to get close to that thing as long as he didn’t know if it was dangerous!

With that in mind he slowly coaxed his partner to carry on. He did not want to give Rash the chance to do something stupid. “Yeah, yeah, very funny. Let’s not waste time and get out of this sauna.”

Rash grinned at him and saluted. “Aye aye madam!”

Jack rolled his eyes at the remark and punched him. Just stay cool and endure it, for your own safety, he told himself.

Thankfully they didn’t come across another lizard as they continued further into the cave and it only took them a few more minutes to come across what they had come here for, rubies.

Jack nearly missed the mineral as it wasn’t that obvious in its natural state, but one of the red spots in the wall actually reflected the light a bit and thus earned his attention. Noticing the other few spots in the wall naturally followed this event and the pair stopped to look at their find.

Really, the deep red spots in the rocks were disappointing when compared to a polished ruby. They completely lacked the luster and transparency that the gem was known for to most people, though he supposed they were bound to have a lot of impurities when they formed at or close to the air. He didn’t really know if that had an impact and neither did he care.

Jack put down his back and got his pickaxe, if you could call it that, before he offered it to Rash, who looked at the thing that could only be described as a solid steel rod attached to a wooden handle with a puzzled expression. “What?”

“Well, you are the stronger one of the two of us, so I figured it would be faster if you did the mining. I will carry the stuff back home afterwards.” Jack explained with a shrug.

Rash scrutinized him with his gaze for a moment before he took the pickaxe and positioned his spear and back out of the way. Jack similarly made sure to get out of the way, though he made sure to position his light close to the wall.

Rash returned to the cave wall a moment later and looked at it for a minute before he chose a spot where some of the rubies were closer together as his target. None of the two had any idea about mining, so this had to do for now.

Having chosen a target, he got in a stance to help keep him steady and then took a mighty swing. A second later the pickaxe hit the cave wall and stone pieces flew everywhere, as well as the steel rod that hadn’t been fastened enough to the wooden handle. Luckily, it arched away from Rash and flew deeper into the cave.

Jack came over and looked at Rash concerned. “You alright?”

Rash waved the handle through the air and shrugged. “I’m good, don’t worry.”

Then he pointed at the mess of stones at the base of the wall. “I’m not going to collect that though, you can do that yourself.” And with that he went and collected the steel rod, no need to leave that thing here when they had use for it in the village.

Jack scratched his head, but decided not to question it and started to collect the rocks with rubies in them. The spirit didn’t ask for a specific size or quality so he figured these would do.

After he had packed away a good handful of the rocks, he took the pickaxe back from Rash and the two of them slowly left again, though Rash seemed to be somewhat grumpy.

—-

Unbeknownst to the two of them they had been watched the entire time out of the deep shadows. At first the creature had been weary of these unknown beings and wasn’t willing to engage them without any information. 

When they hit the wall and actually damaged it, the creature had been completely taken by surprise and nearly ran for it. Staying still and not moving had been a feat of will and curiosity on its part.

The creature followed the two beings for some time after they had attacked the wall and became more and more comfortable in its ability to defeat them as it watched them. There was only one more test to make sure if it was worth it and see if, perhaps, they were hiding something.

Before it could do anything however, its prey, for that was what the two beings ultimately were, left the shadows and ventured into the light.

The creature following them hissed in irritation and clacked its teeth together. A wasted opportunity! Prey left alive!

It tapped its pedipalps against the stone of the wall it was sitting on in agitation and hissed again. Then it vanished back into the dark, not willing to waste any more time near the hateful light.