Chapter 2128: Space Stones?!

Space stones!

Holy Crud!

Althea belatedly remembered the shock amongst the orcs, though she was touched that they consciously didn’t bother her.

"Sorry," she said. "I think I found something useful. For those with sensitive eyes, please close your eyes."

She lit up the flashlight again, and she went closer to the stone. Space Stones, in general, came in pebble form. The sizes might vary a bit, but they were all essentially pebbles.

To describe what a space stone deposit looked like, it was like a rough mortar wall with the intermittent pebble buried on it. It looked like it was stuck very well.

She asked someone to hold the light, and she tried to dig through it.

Clank!

She realized that the rock around the space stones was extremely hard, practically metal itself. This wasn’t too surprising. Forming something so magical like a Space Stone was bound to change the composition of things in contact with it for a long time.

For example, turning rock into metal.

Obviously, harvesting this good thing would take a while. The orcs were all still shivering and injured, so she knew she couldn’t dawdle here for long.

"Is it very important?" Ohara asked as she walked alongside her. Althea nodded honestly.

"Yes. You know how your space can only hold the full body of a level 15 monster and below? Absorbing one of those could double your space."

"WOW!"

Ohara, along with other eavesdroppers, gasped. They always had to leave a lot of good meat outside because their spaces couldn’t fit any more. They couldn’t hold too much with their hands either, since they had to defend themselves against monsters!

Althea wasn’t stingy with telling them because this was their home. Anyway, they wouldn’t stop her from getting what she wanted!

She really wanted a bigger space garden!

...

About an hour later (because they had to dig to widen some holes), the group settled down in a cavern they found deeper inside. It had a lot of small creatures, but orcs had hard skin so they didn’t have to fear bugs or similar creatures.

Althea, on the other hand, had soft skin so she wasn’t immune by default. This was why she always had beast repellent patches in her space.

The cavern was isolated and stifling, and as the hours passed by, it would only get worse. The accumulated waste and body odor of so many orcs would soon become stagnant, and not only would it be dizzying, it could get dangerous.

Speaking of scent, it was also their remnant scent on the old cave that pretty much guaranteed the monsters would be there for a long time, so they really couldn’t wait until the mobs dispersed.

Althea held the metal in one hand and a wall on the other. The effect was not as profound as when she was ’seeing’ through soft earth, but her sight was still a few hundred meters, which was somewhat enough.

With her mind’s eye, she traced the openings, possible pathways, and the cave networks within the scope of her ability. She had two digger orcs help her explore.

One was similar to Roof, a naked mole rat, and another was a variant of the rabbit. She was not like Maomao, who liked to kick, but her skills leaned more toward digging.

They all wore masks made of fabric, just in case, and then they proceeded to explore.

Whenever they found a path with potential, they would go through it and widen it if necessary with the diggers.

However, after a few hours of exploration, Althea realized that there...really weren’t a lot of choices.

One path looked like it was big enough, but it led to a dead end, the kind that wouldn’t be practical to open new paths to. In another path, they could crawl through for about a hundred meters, but then it would actually lead to a cliff that would ultimately lead them nowhere good.

Sigh

The orcs were also anxious. They were unable to stock up a lot of food and water. Even if they had some in their spaces, a small space of one cubic meter would only feed an orc for two or three days at best.

Babble, the young chimpanzee who had somehow imprinted on Althea as an elder, held her shirt, his large eyes shimmering in tears. "Are we gonna be okay?"

"Of course, little one," she said, though technically an adolescent orc was already at her height. It was just that this one liked squatting so much, and also acted a lot like a baby with her, so Althea unconsciously treated him as one of her juniors to specifically take care of.

The terrain underneath the soil was far more complex than she thought, especially since the soil here was hard, part karst but the rest were hard rock, some of which probably connected to the granite mountains.

She would have preferred it if there was more soil in this case; it wasn’t like she was going to construct houses here (which was the situation where a hard underground area was advantageous). Even with the help of the special enhancing metal, the scope she could see was not that far.

However, fortunately, it wasn’t hopeless.

She remembered that the desert metal enhanced the effects of aether, which was to say that the scope she could see was ultimately dependent on her own skill.

By improving her own skill, then its effect could be said to be multiplied, too.

In time, once she was able to handle such hard rocks, then rocks like adobe would be easy, probably with no less ease than Reno, who had a natural mutation for it.

During this time, she went to master handling the type of rock there, focusing on the karstic part because it was softer and tended to have more cavities to serve as caves.

Its composition was close to granite and was also very dense, so she thought it was a great practice session. Mastering it could perhaps allow her to manage the stone attached to the space stone. Ultimately, even if it looked metallic, it was still stone.

Althea settled in the dead end they found earlier. She liked her own space, and it would help her meditate more efficiently. She also decided it was safe to absorb one aether crystal at this time. They’d be trapped for a while, and the additional strength could help her move forward.

The wood energy in this side of the world was also denser than the other side, so meditation was bound to give a bit more.

Before she went into complete isolation, she asked the diggers to slowly explore the passages, and she taught them various safety notes so they didn’t accidentally perish while going around.

Even if there was no end path, it would at least give rise to more space for the orcs to settle down.

She had also seen a small pathway earlier. It was very small, but it was leading upwards. The chances of it finding light were therefore higher than other places.

It might be too cumbersome and dangerous to widen it, but they should at least create an opening to let air in. Althea was no wind user, but she had always been sensitive to the chemicals around.

The orcs consumed large amounts of oxygen and released a lot more toxic gases than humans did. She had to create ventilation if they would be trapped here for a while.

Fortunately, it really did open up a bit. To make sure air was circulating, the original entrance connected to the previous cave was slightly opened up. They put the hole at an angle or location that monsters wouldn’t be able to detect easily, even if they attempted to dig through. There were orcs stationed right behind, ready to roll some big rocks to fortify the way.

They were already trapped; they didn’t need pests entering their nest.

"Do you think we should just wait for the monsters to leave?"

"When would that be? How many days can you go without food and water?"

Even powerhouses needed their basic sustenance, especially so since their bodies absorbed much more energy than their peers.

Althea also took out some of her potted plants and lent them to Ohara for safekeeping. Orcs are omnivores; even if some of them preferred meat, they’d survive with plants and fruits.

She specifically took out those that would regrow repeatedly after some time, and those that gave a lot of fruits. For example, there were the modified tomatoes and strawberries. They were also juicy, so they could be water sources, too.

She also planted some shade-loving plants like lettuce and radishes, fungi like mushrooms, and so on, using her wood ability to hasten growth.

If they budgeted well and ate just enough to survive, these plants would be enough for them to live; even if many would be hungry, at least they wouldn’t starve to death.

She stood up and clapped away the soil. When she turned, she realized every orc was gaping at her.

It seemed like after she did all these things—handling breathing and food—the orcs had begun looking at her as if she was a god.

"..."