“We have been exploring this cave for quite some time and no signs of that new material.” Nicole complained. “How did they even find that sample they got?”

“I was told that they noticed the material on one of the corpses of the monsters they killed.” Roger responded. “No one knows how deep we have to go before we encounter the material.”

“We are lucky our encounters so far have been easy, and we could handle them with our guns and knives.” Aria commented. “We need to conserve as much Magical Energy as possible.”

“Yeah, conserve Magical Energy. Hehehe.” Jin-Woo laughed nervously. “I’ll take on everything with just my guns and knife.”

“Don’t get too arrogant or you might get hurt, Jin-Woo!” Aria scolded. “We don’t want to lose anyone! Use Magic when needed, we can always retreat if we need to rest to recover our Magical Energy!”

“Don’t worry, Aria! As the Support, I’ll make sure nothing happens to my big brother!” Yuri said, looking at Aria and Jin-Woo. “Jin-Woo, don’t do anything reckless, you’re the only family I have left.”

“I know my limits! I won’t do anything way beyond them!” Jin-Woo replied.

“Look everyone, I believe that is the material!” Oliver said, pointing at an aqua glowing crystal on the wall. He then ran towards it, took a hammer from his backpack, and hit the crystal with all his might. Oliver was surprised his hit didn’t leave even a scratch on the crystal. “Just as they said, the material is sturdy as hell!”

“Let me try something.” Roger said, taking out his handgun. “Step back, Oliver!”

Oliver stepped back and Roger shot the crystal, yet it left no scratch. Roger got frustrated and gathered Magical Energy in the palm of his hand and after a couple of seconds his fist was covered in flames. Roger punched the crystal to no avail.

“Damn it, we found the material, but we can’t even get a sample!!” Roger yelled in frustration. “Any ideas?”

“The glow looks similar to that of Pure Magical Energy attacks.” Oliver commented. “Maybe if we use a Pure Magical Energy attack on it, it will break. So can anyone do that?”

“I knew my dad teaching me Magic would be beneficial!” Nicole said with a confident smile. “I am the only one on this team that can do it! Oliver, my dear watch this!”

Nicole quickly gathered Magical Energy and shot an aqua energy blast towards the crystal. Upon impact the crystal broke into many pieces. Everyone was looking at Nicole with admiration.

“See? All my effort paid off!” Nicole said while jumping from happiness. “Now, we can get a sample!”

“Thanks, Nicole!” Oliver said while picking up a piece of the crystal. “You’re amazing!”

“Good job, Nicole!” Aria praised. “That really helped us!”

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“You’re impressive, Nicole!!” Yuri was amazed.

“The aqua glow of your attack was quite beautiful.” Jin-Woo commented. “I see you’re going for a more elegant battle style.”

“I see why you’re Colonel Miyamoto’s daughter!” Roger said.

“Keep the praise coming, it doesn’t bother me!” Nicole said with a big smile.

“Oliver, do a quick analysis! Everyone else be on the lookout for any monsters!” Roger commanded.

Oliver began to hit the crystal pieces and apply Magic to them.

“They remind me of Magic Stones.” Oliver said. “They might work like Magic Stones. That means after we use up its energy, they become useless.”

“I guess they can’t be used for the Inter-World Spaceship.” Aria said with a disappointed expression.

“Let me test something.” Oliver took out a small transparent cylinder with a small display at the base and then he put the crystal shard inside it. “The Magic Stone Tester works! It shows an energy reading of one million three hundred thousand. This energy is greater than any Magic Stone I have seen. Wait, the energy levels are slowly rising. It’s absorbing Magical Energy, I am guessing, from the environment.”

“That crystal sounds incredible!” Nicole commented.

“Yeah, if this little shard has so much energy and continues to gather more, a larger crystal should have way more. It looks like it stopped absorbing Magical Energy, so they have a limit of the energy they can store” Oliver explained. “The Inter-World Spaceship needs lots of energy to function; these crystals will help with that. I will call them Pure Magical Energy Crystals. We should clear the cave of monsters and begin mining as soon as possible.”

“You should head back to the base, Oliver. Analyze how to use them.” Roger commanded. “We’ll take care of the Muna Imps and other monsters that pop up.”

“I’ll do …” Oliver began to feel an intense Magic Power approaching them.

“Everyone get in position!” Roger yelled in panic.

Everyone quickly pointed their guns and after a few seconds a dark purple minotaur with glowing, yellow lines all over its body appeared in front of them. The minotaur was holding a massive sword about as big and wide as a human. The minotaur roared and started swinging his sword towards the group. Everyone began to dodge and fire their guns.

“The machine guns are ineffective!” Aria said, showing a frustrated expression. “I am going to use Magic!”

“Damn it, I won’t be able to do anything.” Jin-Woo whispered to himself.

Aria fired a Fireball towards the minotaur. Upon impact the minotaur’s fur caught on fire and it began rolling around the floor to put out the fire. The ground was shaking, and Oliver could feel the ground becoming unstable. After a few seconds the minotaur had put out the fire and swung his sword at Jin-Woo. Jin-Woo evaded the attack and moved closer to Oliver. As soon as the minotaur’s sword connected with the ground, the ground collapsed. Oliver, Jin-Woo, and the minotaur fell into the newly formed hole.

“OLIVER!!” Aria tried to grab Oliver, but she was too late.

“JIN-WOOOOOO!! NOOOOO!!” Yuri desperately yelled as she saw her brother fall into the hole.

Oliver and Jin-Woo landed on a platform about 30 meters into the hole while the minotaur kept plunging deeper into the hole.

“Man, that hurt like crazy!” Jin-Woo complained as he got up. “Are you okay, Oliver?”

“I guess, I mean I don’t think I broke anything!” Oliver responded. He noticed Jin-Woo’s hand and grabbed it to support himself as he stood up.

“I hope the minotaur died.” Jin-Woo said. “I haven’t heard it hit the ground yet, so it must be a deep fall.”

“At least we have an entrance to the cave system.” Oliver said, pointing to an entrance. “We should meet up with the others as soon as possible.”

“Yeah, it will be bad if we encounter another monster like the minotaur.” Jin-Woo said.

“We still have our Magic if it comes to that!” Oliver said.

“That’s the problem, I can’t use Magic.” Jin-Woo said, smiling nervously.

“Is that true?” Oliver asked.

“Unfortunately, yes.” Jin-Woo replied. “Try to feel my Magic Power.”

“Alright!” Oliver tried to sense Jin-Woo’s Magic Power and after a moment he had a shocked expression. “This should be impossible, why don’t you have Magic Power. All organisms have some kind of Magic Power! Is that why you were excited about my Elemental Gun?”

“Yeah, I thought I could finally use some sort of Magic, but as you said it basically works as a Magic amplifier, so I can’t use it.” Jin-Woo responded.

“Then, I’ll try to make one that doesn’t need the user’s Magical Energy and only uses the Magical Energy in the environment!” Oliver said enthusiastically. “Then you'll be able to use Magic!”

“Thank you, Oliver!” Jin-Woo said with a smile, then he fist bumped Oliver. “You’re a good guy! Let’s find the other ASAP!”

“Yeah, here we go!” Oliver said as they walked through the entrance.