Chapter 268 Final Prep Pt. 2

Simon

To my surprise, a lot of this plan rested on my shoulders. I was the lead armament tech, and my Starbound ability to change mineral properties was vital to phase two of our plan.

Pressure was nothing new. Neither was the trembling in my hands when the stakes were high.

My life and others' hung in the balance, and my already fragile reputation couldn’t afford another blow. Yet everyone was counting on me.

I was the only second-year here, for Patheon’s sake. I couldn’t afford to let them down. I had to pull my weight and more.

With my resolve strengthened, I left the cave and pushed a large granite boulder toward the exit.

As I walked through the cave tunnels, many students tried their hardest to excavate the sparkling ore. There was a lack of tools, so some ended up using barbaric means, like clawing at the sediment with their bare hands.

I couldn’t bear the sight.

Celestium was one of the most precious minerals in all of Valonara, fetching hefty prices on the trade market. Some would even kill for it. It was the only mineral that could absorb and amplify cosmic energy without breaking down right after, making it an essential building block for advancing our society.

Despite its properties, we didn’t fully understand it. I wasn’t fully sure it was even a mineral to begin with, since my abilities never seemed to work on it.

I went around loosening the earth around the celestium at the different workstations, while continuing to push the large boulder through the tunnels, hoping to speed up their process. Time was of the essence, because any moment could be our last here in this nightmare.

When I got outside, I pushed the boulder over to a wooden trough that one of the Slytharion students had made beside the cave wall, where Stravos stood waiting for me.

Our plan required two different excavations. Mining enough celestium to make weapons, and mining the granite-rich cave to create our reflective disks

Stravos was in charge of crushing the granite boulders into smaller pieces, so that I could conserve my energy.

“Step aside,” Stravos said, trotting up to me.

He took over, lifted the boulder, and placed it into the wooden trough; with one swift fist, the large, hulking rock crumbled into small pieces.

“I'll leave this to you until it's time for you to make my weapon,” Stravos said, trotting back into the cave.

I nodded, grabbed a log to sit on, and got to work.

One of my first tasks was to create reflective surfaces to dry out the rift guardian.

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Simple enough, but our plan demanded hundreds, and I could only produce one at a time.

You got this.

I picked up a rock, loosened its mineral content, and spread it across my hand in a large circle, then used my ability to harden that shape. For the final step, I used my node ability to change its contents into silver and tossed it into another bucket beside me.

Making a single silver plate took two minutes.

At this rate, I won't be done for days. Come on, Simon, I can’t mess this up.

I continued working as fast as I could until my cosmic energy was nearly empty. That took only roughly an hour.

I'd made only about forty discs.

I could hear murmurs from other students walking in and out of the cave.

“That’s all he made?”

“He’s already taking a break? He knows our lives are at risk, right?”

“Now I see why he didn’t pass the first time. Maybe he just can’t handle a higher capacity.”

My fist tightened, and I gritted my teeth. Their words stung. They knew nothing about my past or what I’d sacrificed to get here. They had no idea what it had taken.

A concordant could help replenish me, but those nobles wouldn’t risk their own cosmic energy.

Still, I couldn’t completely dismiss what they were saying. For the first time, I wondered if I really was in over my head.

Could they depend on me?

I grabbed another rock and forced myself to continue. The moment I activated my ability, however, my core began to ache. I was nearing my limit, and if I pushed any further, I could trigger a cosmic energy backlash.

So I had no choice but to stop.

“Here.” A voice from behind me slammed a pile of celestial cores onto the ground beside me.

Looking over my shoulder, I saw Voen.

“It doesn’t feel good to be looked down on,” he said, passing me a celestial core.

“Most of them never had to work for much. So seeing struggle is like a plague to them. Sadly, they really don’t know any better. But I can tell you that surprising them and proving them wrong is the best medicine you could ever give. And if that's not enough, I'll help you get a little payback,” he said, throwing a couple of pellets into his living satchel.

Voen’s kind words eased the tension I felt, so I picked up a couple of the celestial cores and absorbed their energy.

Voen got up.

“Hey Simon, when we get out of here, I got a proposition. I want you to hear; it will be right up your alley.” He said, winking at me as he continued walking away.

In the physical realm, Voen seemed like someone I could have been good friends with. Even though I could tell he sometimes had ulterior motives.

I didn’t have any.

For the next couple of hours, I kept making the silver dishes, my speed increasing with each one. To the point where I could make forty in twenty minutes. I reached a flow state where every process seemed to streamline, a builder's high, or whatever the professor used to say.

It consumed tons of cosmic energy, and the process forced me to recharge multiple times, but I got the required amount done and handed the bucket to the remaining Truth seekers, who were preparing to load the drones.

Pride sparked in my heart as I looked at my achievement, but I couldn’t rest on my laurels. I still had one more task, and it could possibly be the most important.

It was time to smith some weapons.