“It’s Ten-Thousand-Year Cold Sand! — You should have heard of it.”
Lega Weilin stated with a solemn expression.
“Down there… there’s actually Ten-Thousand-Year Cold Sand?”
How could Elizabemouse, known as a ‘living encyclopedia of ores,’ not recognize the name? After her initial shock, her trembling gaze drifted softly back to the girl: “…Did Big Sister call me over just… just to tell me this?”
Why was she helping her?
But… this was so important to her!
Right now, Elizabeth needed money by any means. If she could just beg a little from this Big Sister… maybe it wouldn’t be so bad?
“Then let me be direct… I need you to be my tour guide for a while. The Ten-Thousand-Year Cold Sand underneath us will be your payment. Acceptable?”
“Uh… Of… of course!” After eagerly agreeing, Elizabeth hesitated, looking at the frosted ground. “But, how are we supposed to dig it out? I can’t even sense the burial depth…”
“So easy. Just dig down another 836 meters and you’ll get it.”
“…Okay—WHAT, 836 meters!!” Elizabeth’s face flushed with shock. With her meager mana, digging 6 meters would be a miracle. “Is… is there another way?”
“Don’t worry, in for a penny, in for a pound. I’ll dig it for you.”
Weilin flashed a thumbs-up.
“Give me the pickaxe.”
“Ah… oh! O-okay.” Clinging to an unrealistic hope, Elizabeth offered her Mining Pick to Lega Weilin with both hands.
“Forgive… ugh, I mean, the safety helmet.”
“Eh, the hat… too?”
“Yep, I don’t mind, hurry up and give it.” Weilin urged.
Though reluctant, Elizabeth gritted her teeth, took off the Safety Helmet, and handed it to Weilin.
“Stand aside and wait two minutes.” Weilin efficiently put on the green safety helmet. It fit perfectly. She turned her head and commanded again.
“Big Sister… where are you going to dig?!” Suddenly sensing something amiss, Elizabeth asked hurriedly.
“Digging from top to bottom, the brain will get congested if your head is down below. So, naturally, you dig vertically upwards from the bottom.”
“…HUH!!?”
What kind of godforsaken theory is that?! What’s this about brain congestion?! Are you digging with your head?!
“Um… the basket, don’t you need it?”
Seeing the miner’s three-piece set missing one item—the pickaxe and helmet taken from her—Elizabeth, with a touch of OCD, wobbled the small Wooden Basket on her back and asked weakly.
“No need.” Weilin seriously added, “Don’t wander off. Wait for me here.”
“…Ah… okay…”
“‘Spatial Warp’!”
Whoosh—
In the blink of an eye, Lega Weilin completely vanished from the spot.
“What… warp?”
Elizabeth found herself too ignorant to even recognize the spell’s name, staring blankly at the spot where Weilin had bizarrely disappeared. (It was 7th-Tier Magic, after all.)
If not for the traces of Weilin’s fake fall on the ground, Elizabeth might have thought she hallucinated.
Oh right!
Elizabeth suddenly remembered something.
Could it be that Big Sister Weilin’s claim of being the “Strongest Mage” was… real?!
Even if not the strongest, she had to at least be an Advanced Mage, Archmage… or even Legendary level?!
But…
In Elizabeth’s understanding, even a Legendary Mage would find it nearly impossible to dig an 836-meter tunnel in two minutes!
The deeper the rock strata, the more solid they become, causing mana consumption to multiply exponentially;
With bad luck, you could detonate unstable energy ores. Worldwide, mining fatalities from explosions were no fewer than five digits annually;
Not to mention the terrifying Demonic Beasts dwelling underground… Lava Giant Lizard, Triangle Demonic Snake, Divine Retribution Shadow! It was said that if you laid eyes on these legendary Underground Demonic Beasts, it meant… you were already dead!
And thus she scared herself silly.
Just letting her imagination run wild made Elizabeth feel utterly unwell.
“Big Sister… should… be fine, right?”
“Pfft, what am I thinking? She’ll definitely be fine. There’s no way she’d run into something like a Lava Giant Lizard, Triangle Demonic Snake, and Divine Retribution Shadow! Underground Demonic Beasts are so rare, how could Big Sister be lucky enough to run into them, right? Haha… ha… ha…”
At that moment, Elizabeth’s self-consoling expression froze like flowing water hitting absolute zero.
Because the ground beneath her feet was transmitting a slight, yet undeniable tremor…
Time passed slowly…
Though she wasn’t timing it, the agreed-upon two minutes were probably almost up, and Weilin hadn’t shown any sign of emerging.
No… even if she hadn’t encountered any trouble, 836 meters in two minutes was absolutely impossible to dig.
Elizabeth couldn’t imagine any creature capable of such a feat!
This had to be a lie…
Right, Weilin was a liar! A big liar who sweet-talked her pickaxe and helmet out of her and just left! That was entirely possible!
Strangely, Elizabeth found herself hoping Weilin was a liar.
Because if Weilin really did go down there, then the current ground shaking was far too unsettling!
“Time is almost up…”
Elizabeth’s heart felt so high-strung it was almost suffocating her. The tremors from underground were growing increasingly distinct, as if some Demonic Beast was about to burst from the earth and unleash carnage.
“Can she… really succeed? With this much commotion, did Big Sister really not encounter any Underground Demonic Beasts?”
Stabilizing her footing, Elizabeth bit her lip tightly, her gaze locked dead onto the frost-covered ground, not daring to look away for a second.
BOOM CRASH… BOOM CRASH——!!
The ground shook more and more violently.
The mineshaft groaned and trembled under the earthquake, threatening to collapse at any moment, but Elizabeth stood unwavering, her eyes complex, laced with regret… She didn’t hope for the miracle of an 836-meter tunnel; she just wished Weilin would come back safely.
Finally…
At roughly the exact two-minute mark.
“BANG————!!!”
Accompanied by a thunderous boom like a muffled clap of thunder, the ground directly in front of Elizabeth was violently hurled upward. A shower of shattered rocks and gravel shot out everywhere. A humanoid figure, ablaze with light, shot forth uncontrollably, slamming into the mine ceiling before bouncing back to the ground in a disheveled heap, the mana glow around her body slowly dying out.
“Big Sister!” Elizabeth’s heart filled with worry as she rushed over.
And this figure who flew out of the earth, thoroughly disheveled and covered in dirt—who else could it be but Lega Weilin?
“Thank goodness, Big Sister’s alright, phew… I was afraid you’d run into some sort of Underground Demonic Beast.”
Elizabeth finally breathed a sigh of relief, the weight on her heart lifting, and spoke gratefully.
With a “Ptooey!”, Weilin spat out the grit in her mouth, gritted her teeth, and said darkly: “…Mother@#$%er! How could Lava Giant Lizard, Triangle Demonic Snake, and Divine Retribution Shadow all be living down there?! Underground Demonic Beasts are so freaking rare, how did I manage to run into all three at once?!”
“Huh…?”
The relieved smile instantly vanished from Elizabeth’s face. She was dumbstruck.
“Big Sister, what… what Demonic Beasts did you just say?”
“What else could they be? Lava Giant Lizard, Triangle Demonic Snake, and Divine Retribution Shadow! The three chased me for a whole damn minute! Dammit, since I don’t have any attack spells, I could only draw doujinshi to mentally humiliate them.” Weilin fumed.
“You ran into… all three?” Elizabeth’s eyes widened. Looking at Weilin, who, aside from being a bit messy, was completely unharmed, her little face filled with disbelief. “Then how did Big Sister get out?”
“Spatial Warp, obviously… If it weren’t for them, I’d have finished ages ago.”
“Um… what’s a doujinshi? Is it some kind of psychic attack magic?”
“Uh, that… how should I put this.”
Weilin glanced at the innocent and pure Elizabemouse, feeling a slight pang of conscience. She thought, she’s just a child, after all—so I absolutely must not let her off!
“You want to see?”
“Of… of course!” For an unattainable psychic-type magic, Elizabeth was filled with envy and anticipation. Even if she couldn’t learn it, just a glimpse would broaden her horizons.
“Let me be clear upfront: you’re the one asking to see this. You’re responsible for the consequences.”
Only after repeatedly declaring this, with a feigned “helpless” expression, did Weilin pull a black-covered notebook from her System Backpack.
In the world of Divine Crystal, paper made from fibers was already in widespread use. Unless for inscribing spells, silk or parchment scrolls were rarely used.
But the notebook in Weilin’s hand… was clearly made of the most ordinary fiber paper.
“Eh, shouldn’t magic be written on parchment scrolls…”
Elizabeth still believed this ‘doujinshi’ was a psychic magic spell.
Although doubtful, Elizabeth still accepted the notebook with reverent curiosity, as if handling a divine artifact. She even closed her eyes for a brief prayer before daring to flip it open.
The doujinshi…
What was depicted wasn’t any profound, esoteric magic spell, but a vividly colored, erotically charged, scroll-painting-style explicit comic book…
A girl, dragging the lower body of a giant lizard, her expression one of despair and grief, was tied up tightly with ropes by a group of violent, ugly Goblins, and subjected unabashedly to all sorts of vulgar and unbearable abuse and humiliation…
Elizabeth: !???
Unaware that her cheeks were now as hot and red as a branding iron, turning her into a steaming mess, Elizabeth didn’t immediately throw the book away. Instead… her eyes scanned these lifelike, lasciviously vivid images without blinking…
As if eager to see the ending, or maybe to hide something, her trembling fingers increased their page-turning speed.
It certainly didn’t disappoint. The three-eyed Demon Snake also met the fate of being genderbent into a girl, captured by a tribe of soon-to-be-extinct Beastmen who, in order to propagate their species, kept the snake-girl pregnant without rest, day and night.
As for the already-female Divine Retribution Shadow, her tragic treatment in the doujinshi went without saying. The scenes were intensely blood-pumping.
With difficulty, Elizabeth closed the thick notebook, feeling as if her arms and body were drained of strength.
…This doujinshi was terrifyingly effective! It had silently drained her life force while she was reading without her even noticing?!
“What… is this?!”
“Underground Cruelty of the Three Demonic Beasts Collection“
“Beastmen and demon snakes… is there no reproductive isolation?”
“That’s what you want to complain about?” Weilin narrowed her eyes, her smile full of approval and delight. “Ah, I get it~~ Little White is the type who looks all pure on the outside, but is secretly super lewd on the inside…”
Elizabeth jolted, her pupils constricting sharply, as she slowly regained her composure.
Then, a belated, surging wave of shame instantly drowned Elizabeth’s sanity…
“KYAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH————!!!!!!!!!!!”
Lega Weilin couldn’t help but stick out her tongue, then quickly cleared her throat twice. Calmly walking over, she pried Elizabeth’s hands away from her tightly covered face, grabbed her, and dragged her forward, saying:
“Don’t waste any more time. Let’s get that Ten-Thousand-Year Cold Sand and get out of here.”
—She stopped at the spot where Weilin had burst out of the ground.
It was a vertical tunnel with a 60-centimeter radius, pitch black and bottomless, dark and deep, as if it led straight to the earth’s core, inspiring awe and dread.
But…
There was light within this tunnel… yes, embedded in the dark rock layers, a Magic Lamp had been placed every ten meters. Although the tunnel was still quite dark, it instilled much more reassurance.
Elizabeth was about to ask how they’d get down. A jump from over eight hundred meters would surely smash them to pieces.
Before she could ask, Elizabeth was stunned to discover a brand-new Metal Slide Rail firmly anchored to the vertical rock wall.
And beside her, Weilin had produced a simple Small Remote Controller from somewhere. With a light press, an electric lift platform connected to the rail within the tunnel smoothly slid up into Elizabeth’s terrified view!
“Stand on it. There’s no danger. Once you’ve retrieved the Ten-Thousand-Year Cold Sand, just get back on the lift.”
Having gone to such elaborate lengths, Weilin clearly wanted Elizabeth to personally dig out the Ten-Thousand-Year Cold Sand.
Elizabeth obediently stepped onto the lift, and the platform immediately descended with swift yet stable speed…
The White Mouse girl’s consciousness was still lost in the most surreal of dreams when the 836-meter tunnel reached its bottom. Only when the piercing cold of the Ten-Thousand-Year Cold Sand, right in front of her, assaulted her body and its gorgeous blue light stole her vision did Elizabeth snap back to her senses in shock.
“…”
She steadied her heart.
Elizabeth took out a delicate Small Jade Box, endured the extreme cold, and with her pale little hand, pried out the tiny crystal grain, less than half a fingernail’s size, embedded in the ice wall. She carefully placed it in the jade box to isolate the cold, then stored it close to her body.
She took the “elevator” back up.
There was light, there was a lift, so the entire process was impossibly smooth.
No, it was precisely because of the magic lamps and the lift that Elizabeth found it inexplicable… even horrifying!!
Back on the surface, Elizabeth looked at Weilin as if she’d seen a ghost.
“Got it?” Weilin asked.
“Mn…”
“Then let’s go. It’s not safe to linger. Although I lured the Lava Giant Lizard, Triangle Demonic Snake, and Divine Retribution Shadow down three thousand meters into the mantle, there’s no guarantee they won’t come back soon… They’re all intelligent Demonic Beasts. To prevent their doujinshi from spreading to human nations, they’ll definitely kill me to destroy the evidence.” Weilin said grimly.
“Those doujinshi… if I remember correctly, it had 120 pages?”
“119 pages.”
“Full-color…?”
“Yeah, didn’t you just look through it?” Weilin noticed Elizabeth seemed mentally dazed, but still answered patiently.
“Are you feeling unwell… Ah, I know, you must be hungry?”
Something suddenly occurred to Weilin. She quickly used magic to access her backpack and brought out a large, steaming bowl of fragrant, spice-laden Cumin Magic Mushroom Soup.
Elizabeth stared at the soup: “……”
“Timing’s perfect, as expected!”
Triumphantly, Weilin pulled out two small bowls and spoons. She filled one first and confidently held it out to Elizabeth, her eyes crinkling in a smile. “Try it? I made it on the spot using a Fire Lingzhi I found down there! Very nourishing!”
The mental daze was inevitable.
Elizabemouse wasn’t ignorant. She had collaborated with the ingeniously inventive Goblin race and had witnessed with her own eyes the radiant achievements of the Eternal Steel Empire, with its pinnacle of technological civilization. Yet, even with these experiences…
…what Weilin had done still inevitably shook Elizabeth’s worldview, shattering it mercilessly and completely.
Elizabeth looked straight into Weilin’s eyes, trying to discern a clue. She drew a deep breath before finally asking:
“So, Big Sister, you were chased by three demonic beasts for a minute, drew 119 pages of full-color doujinshi, then went back to humiliate and enrage them, leading them three thousand meters down into the mantle; on top of that, you dug an 836-meter tunnel, placed 84 magic lamps along the way, installed an electric lift platform… and even picked a Fire Lingzhi on the way and cooked a pot of soup! ……………These! These! You actually did ALL of this within 2 minutes, 120 seconds?! Are you really human?!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”
Clatter—
Her hand trembled, the bowl overturned, scalding soup drenching her shoes.
Weilin grimaced, dumbfounded, looking up at the equally dumbfounded Elizabeth.
“Y-y… Why Are You Yelling So Loudly?!”
“……………S… sorry.”
“Never mind, I was just doing it to test out my skills anyway…”
