“If you can conjure these expensive batteries, lights, wires and tools, then why can’t you just sell them?”

Jade crouched down next to Oliver in her overalls, gas-mask and helmet. The two of them were shoveling pebbles, rocks, dirt, clay and other random materials into the 150 cm long mine cart. Once the cart was relatively full, she pressed the button on the remote that was connected to a wire along the tracks. The cart was able to travel a hundred meters back to the central area and dump out the materials inside, then return back to them without the two of them needing to make the trip every time.

“It’s illegal to sell ‘Conjured’ items without a license. There’s also a shitty conjuration tax. Plus, there are patents, distribution rights and all kinds of stuff I don’t understand. I just know that it’s considered forgery to create stuff that has trademarks on it or patents… Otherwise, there are probably dozens of other Miners on Greenstone Mountain. If we worked together, maybe we could compete with the factories in the big cities?”

“That doesn’t make any sense. What’s wrong with Conjured items?! As long as you don’t break them, they’re the same as any real items!”

“I don’t know.” Oliver shrugged and continued digging for a while, “Umm… I remember Klein saying that it was so that the Wordless wouldn’t lose their jobs? A lot of people work in factories across the Country. Oh, he also mentioned an incident where a certain big building was destroyed because of conjured building materials.”

“How was it destroyed?”

“I think he said…” The boy stopped shoveling for a few seconds and said, “The person who made the materials just… Unmade them. After the building was already built, half of it suddenly disappeared. Thousands of people died. Including some really important Nobles and maybe a Princess or Prince. I’m not sure exactly.”

“That’s smart-I mean, that’s so horrible. Why would anyone do something like that?”

“Revenge? Maybe it was during a war? Who knows?” Oliver snickered and pressed the button to send the cart back to drop off some more debris, “Although most of the stuff we dig will just be thrown away, we can actually hand it over to some of the old miners and younger kids to pan out later. Whatever they find is their luck. At least it’ll give them something to do and better than just giving them money directly.”

“It’s still nice.” Jade giggled, “I remember… My village wasn’t as nice as yours. Everyone was so… Mean.”

“Nice? Hah~!” He shook his head and started digging again when the cart came back, “Even in a group of less than a hundred people, there are still plenty of assholes. I can’t imagine what it’s like in a town or city… Otherwise, why did Klein decide to come back to Verde to settle down instead of taking Emy back to Kale Town? He’s basically a celebrity over there! He saved the whole town from a Plague years back… I wonder how many people actually hated him for not being able to save their friends and family fast enough?”

“People are so complicated.” Jade sighed and picked up a pretty rock up off the ground, which had a shiny golden nugget sticking half-way out of the side.

“I like stones better. They’re much more simple…”

As she spoke, the stone suddenly warped. The edges became much smoother and the gold nugget fell out directly. There were also a bunch of other tiny pieces of various minerals like white quartz crystal shards, slivers of silver metal, blackened iron and some glowing yellow crystals.

“Look! Oliver! Look! Ehahahaehahaha~!”

“I see it! I don’t really understand it, but I can definitely see you doing it! Hahaha~!”

Oliver grinned under the mask as he quickly conjured a pan to catch the gold nugget and a few other pieces of fine gold that flickered in the light. After a lot of the metals and crystals were gone, the gray stone sphere still floated above Jade’s palm as if by magnetic repulsion.

“Your Rank went up!”

“Did it?! Yay~! Now I’m already back to where I was hundreds of years ago, ehah-ehaha~!”

The stone ball fell into her palm and she tried to make it levitate again, “Umm… I feel really tired and hungry now.”

“Just like conjuring stuff.” Oliver wasn’t too surprised, “It takes so much energy just for you to move around normally. Using this power probably drains even more. We’ve already finished digging a few hundred kilos now. This nugget should also be worth a few gold coins. Let’s go back and take a break.”

“Okay. Sorry…”

“There’s nothing to be sorry about. I’m getting a little hungry too.”

After sending the cart back, Jade followed Oliver to the central area of the mine. A lot of dust was everywhere, so it wasn’t really the best place to eat. At least not for humans. On the other hand, when Jade took off her mask and inhaled the glowing green particles into her lungs, she suddenly felt reinvigorated.

“It’s so weird. I’m not coughing or choking at all.”

“If you can remove the impurities from a random stone, then maybe you can do the same thing to your body?”

Oliver started shoveling the pile of dirt, rocks, clay and other junk into a few big metal buckets. Then he placed one on a hook at the end of the rope and climbed the ladder in a few seconds. After reaching the top, he used his superhuman strength to easily pull up the hundred kilo bucket without bothering with the hoist.

“Hey, can you put-”

“I already did!”

“Thanks!”

He pulled up the second bucket, then the third and finally the fourth before he was done. The buckets could just stay in the shed, since he could conjure up some new ones whenever he needed. At least he already conjured enough over the years that he wouldn’t have to waste his energy any time soon. The whole shed would be filled with buckets before that anyway.

“Coming down!”

Instead of using the ladder, he actually slid down the rope with his gloved hands. When he reached the bottom, he widened his eyes in shock.

“What the hell are you doing?!”

“Ah~! Umm, uh, it’s not what it looks like!” Jade stopped licking the glowing green crystals on the wall and covered her face in embarrassment, “I just… I couldn’t help myself…”

“Are you okay?” He made his gloves disappear, then reached out and opened the girl’s mouth to look inside. From his perspective at least, normally dark-gray tongue was glowing bright green, just like the wall. In fact, just touching her face and getting his hands near her mouth was enough to burn his fingers a bit.

“Ow! It’s so hot! Not just your tongue, your forehead and hands are-ah!”

“Oliver! Be careful!” She quickly backed away, “We should go to the Doctor!”

“No, no, I’m fine. This is normal for me…” He took out some ointment from a small cabinet up above the pantry. The moment he used it on his wounds, they healed within seconds.

“I get burned every now and then. It’s not a big deal. I’m more worried about your condition. Even if something tastes good, it doesn’t mean you can eat it. We still don’t know that much about your condition.”

“I’m sorry… I promise I’ll try to restrain myself a little more.”