“How often do they crack?” I asked, moving closer and studying the crystal in the wall.

“With me removing the crystal?" She chuckled. "Every other one. With someone else removing the crystal? More than that.” Sang pulled a knife out of her belt with a narrow crystal tip. It glowed as she used it to cut around the edges of the crystal, which was the size of a small bag. “We cut the rock. Leaving some of it on the crystal is fine, since we will sing it off later. Right now, we only care about not cracking them.”

I pulled out my knife. “Where do you want me to start?”

“You can take over this one,” Sang said as she moved to one of the glowing sections that was completely covered by rock. "I’ll start digging deeper in."

I hummed, getting closer to the crystal I needed to remove from the wall. It glowed for a moment and I understood where the edges were located. As soon as my fingers touched it, I felt warmth pulse up from my fingers. It was a strange feeling, like when I’d worked with the crystal and shaped it into the ring on my belt. Then I got to work cutting into the stone bit by bit.

Eventually, the crystal came out of the wall and I held it up in triumph, humming. It glowed in my hands, along with the one hidden under my shirt and the ring on my belt.

Sang glanced up. “You made good time. Your knife must cut faster.”

“I have plenty of experience using it in combat.”

Matt suddenly appeared near me and I almost growled. “I can add that to the cart,” he said. He pulled a cart behind him that had several large chunks of metal. “I’m doing a run to the cavern.”

In the time it’d taken me to remove the crystal, the other side of the mine had activity going on. Miners were, well, mining, while Hawk and another guy paced the far end of the cavern. Now that more red light filled the cavern, the far opening loomed larger than ever. It had to be twice the size of the tunnels we’d walked through to get here. Broken stone filled the area, but it wasn’t solid.

The hair on the back of my neck stood up while looking at it and I quickly glanced away. This cavern was bigger than I’d thought, only slightly smaller than the compound.

“Yeah, thanks for taking it,” I responded to Matt, carefully setting it into the cart with the rest of the goods.

He nodded and headed off.

I turned back to the wall. “So, what’s next?”

“Hum and find more. The more you use the ability to locate good crystals, the easier it will become. Search for ones that feel right.”

I almost rolled my eyes and instead hummed. The wall in front of me glowed again, but this time I moved toward my left, away from Sang. A small section within reach reacted strongly near the floor. I got to work. Cutting into the stone again and again was harder work than I thought it would be. Sweat dripped down my forehead. I sipped water from my canteen, and wished I had some snacks. It took a long time until I reached the crystal behind the stone.

When I hummed again, it glowed with a strong light that left spots in my vision.

“You found a big one like me,” said Sang. At some point she’d approached. “It's deep in the wall. You're going to need to carve a big loop around it.” She paused. “It might be worth looking for something smaller. Though, it would be a great crystal if we cut it in half for a fence or something. Still, the time it’ll take to remove it might be the rest of the time we're here.”

I glanced at the area she had been working. A gaping hole sat in the wall. “You got that one out.”

“It was smaller than this monster.” She wiped a hand across her forehead. “They’ll be serving some food soon for lunch.”

“Slime!”

Sang’s head snapped around, but already others had responded to the far end where the mining took place. The sound of fighting was short lived, so short I hadn’t even taken a step forward.

“That’s weird, it’s a little early for slime,” she mumbled. “We better get back to work. I’m going to target some of the smaller ones. Aim for quantity, so we can arm people who can use crystals.”

“Is that really a problem?” I asked. “Everyone at the settlement who can use crystals has at least one crystal object.” I tried to think of anyone who didn’t, and couldn’t come up with a name.

“Really?” she asked, looking confused. “I thought there was a shortage of them.”

“Maybe for safe spaces. I know the hunters would love to create a few safe spaces for long distance hunts.” My mind went to the crystal on a sled. “John wants two more for the extra shuttle he’s working on as well.”

Sang frowned like she didn't like what I said. “Well, let me remove a few more smaller ones, then I’ll help you with your big one.”

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I nodded and got back to work. The conflicting information that Sang had, verses what I’d seen in the colony, didn’t make sense. Why would she think we needed more crystal weapons? While I’d love a backup, you couldn’t store them inside other crystals, and inventory crystals only worked for those who could attune to begin with. Now, would it be nice if those with the skill received both an inventory crystal and a weapon? That'd help in all sorts of ways. Not that I was biased at all, having borrowed John's inventory crystal and not really wanting to give it back.

That reminded me to see if she'd teach me how to make an inventory crystal, so I could give John back the one he’d let me borrow. Plus, couldn’t we store all the ore into an inventory crystal in the ship? It would free up so much room.

“Sang,” I called, deciding to ask. I knew John worried about fitting everyone and everything. “What if we create a massive inventory crystal for all of the ore and stone? For the ride back…”

She looked thoughtful and scratched near her ear. “It limits what that crystal could be used for in the future, but it might help with fitting everything into the ship." She paused, then nodded her head. "It's a good idea. I don’t have much use for one myself, but I can see how it’d be useful.”

I got back to work digging out the massive crystal I’d found instead of arguing about how my inventory crystal had saved my life. Having a place to store food and water had kept me alive more than once. Not to mention, it held my other knife, which wasn’t crystal.

Matt stopped back again but only Sang had crystals to put into the cart. She’d harvested several smaller ones the size of the inventory crystal under my shirt. I needed to get my hands on two more. One for me and one for Dad. We both had weapons, and I bet he’d find it useful to have inventory space.

I regretted trying to go for the large crystal at this point, but I didn’t dare back down. If we split it evenly it'd be the right size for John’s second shuttle project.

The next time Matt came around, it was with food and water.

“Here you go,” he said, holding out a bowl. It was the same mixture as breakfast, but I quickly scarfed it down, wishing it was meat. “We’re getting a ton of ore, though I hear John’s getting frustrated with the mess.”

“We might be able to solve some of that later this afternoon,” I said.

Sang approached to grab a bowl and set two more smaller crystals down at her feet. “I hate it when they shatter,” she mumbled. “These two are scrap. I might be able to mend them to use as a knife, but nothing bigger than that.” She grabbed a bowl of food. “More mushrooms," her voice sounded resigned.

“Of course," said Matt. "We're using up the current harvest. David’s gathering everything he can in the growing cavern.” Matt took my bowl back and waited for Sang to finish up. “I’ll let John know you have an idea for the ore.”

“You might want to hold off on that,” said Sang. She glared at me. “We don’t know if we should commit today’s finds to inventory crystals.”

He leaned forward with a worried look on his face, speaking softly. “Then I’m not sure how everything’s gonna fit on the ship, between you, me, and the wall.” He shook his head. “Mars is trying to take everything.”

Sang shook her head. “Fine, let John know there might be two inventory crystals we can spread around. I can take one, and John can have the other if he doesn’t have one.”

“I’m borrowing his at the moment," I quickly added, touching the one under my shirt.

“Okay, John can take one." She paused before adding. "I think David can use one as well.”

“David would love one for the mushroom stuff," said Matt with a smile. "You'll make the kid’s day. He’s worried about not packing enough food for the compound, and that Doc guy said food is tougher there.”

Sang ran a hand over her face. “Okay, three inventory crystals. We need to find ones that will work.” She motioned for me to join her at the wall. “Hold off on your project for the moment.” She waved at the wall and hummed again. Different areas glowed, and she started walking slowly down the wall. When she ran out of breath she paused. “We want something that feels right, and is about the size of a flat baseball. Inventory crystals don’t like to be cut smaller. Sometimes they don’t mind being shaped, but we need to start with something close to the correct size.”

She tapped one area of the wall. “There should be one here. You can work on getting it out. I’ll search for another.”

I eagerly got to work, wanting to see how one made an inventory crystal. As I cut into the wall, I came across a much smaller crystal, about the size of a deck of cards. Behind that one was the one Sang had mentioned. It didn’t take long to get it out whole.

The flat baseball sized one felt like any other crystal, while the smaller one almost buzzed as I touched it. I slipped it into my pocket and could feel it through the cloth.

I hummed and tried to find another location that was similar to what she’d described, and that felt like the one I’d just retrieved. Another area glowed too high for me to reach.

[You have leveled up, Crystal Singing.]

The notification caused my humming to stop and I felt the rush of the stat points as I got another level in Crystal Singing. While it didn’t have as many stat points as my Devourer class, every little bit helped.

Quickly, I started humming again to find another crystal to target. The next glowing area that felt good was low to the ground and I sat down to dig it out.

By the time I had it in hand with the other one, Sang returned with one the same size.

“Oh, you already found two,” she said with a frown. “Your Dexterity must be higher than mine.”

My mind raced to connect the fact that Dexterity would be a good stat for the class. “It’s my highest stat.”

She nodded, looking more relaxed. “That makes more sense, why you shatter less of them.” She sat down on the ground next to me. “Let me show you how to tell if a crystal wants to become what you want. It’s pretty simple.”

“Let me guess, you ask.”

She elbowed me in the side. “Yes, smart ass, you ask, but don’t let your energy do anything while you ask. Otherwise, you might taint the crystal. Just watch.” She wrapped her hands around the crystal and began to hum, her eyes closed. Warmth came off of her, and I could tell she did something with the crystal. For a second it was like the crystal hummed back in response. Sang smiled, and more light poured into the crystal before it snapped out.

Her eyes opened. “One inventory crystal for me.” She held it up and I touched it.

It didn’t give off any energy at all now. It felt like the one under my shirt, which made sense, since she had created it, too.

“Alright, my turn,” I said.