I pulled one of the crystals into my lap and closed my eyes while humming. Surprisingly, I still saw the crystal in front of me. It was like when I received a notification from the system. The glowing rock sat there and I asked the question about it becoming an inventory crystal.

At first, it didn’t seem to understand, though I had no clue how I knew that. I tried again, picturing the crystal storing things inside it, like a bag or drawer. This time it hummed in response. Energy streamed out of me before I could think about it.

Then this horrible feeling washed over me as my stomach churned and I cut the flow off. My eyes snapped open to find Sang staring at me.

“Congrats on your first inventory crystal.”

[Skill Upgrade: Crystal Singing and Attunement: By singing you can find and resonate with power crystals. You have the ability to superheat the crystal point to cut through almost anything. In addition, you can marginally bend, shape, and adjust crystals creating inventory crystals.]

[You have leveled up, Crystal Singing.]

The notification popped up at the same time that my stomach growled loudly. I needed to eat, and soon.

Sang chuckled. “You should see if Matt has some more food. It can take a lot out of you until you’re used to it. I’ll do the third one, then you can give one to John and the other to David.”

I blinked and nodded, climbing to my feet. My stomach growled again as concern rushed through me. I needed food badly.

Matt stood across the cavern talking to a miner, and I quickly headed in that direction leaving the inventory crystal behind. The cavern floor wasn’t smooth or even, with rocks jutting in every direction. Yet, it didn’t take long for me to reach his cart.

“Hey, Matt, do you have an extra bowl of food? Seems using new skills is draining.”

He smiled and grabbed a bowl out using a spoon to fill it up. “Oh, yeah that can be the worst.”

My stomach growled as he passed the bowl over. I quickly ate the mushrooms by tipping the edge of the bowl into my mouth. My stomach stopped growling as I fed, but I didn’t feel full.

Seconds passed and the bowl was empty.

“Woah, you can eat,” said the miner, with wide eyes.

“Yeah, it's a talent,” I mumbled, not meeting their eyes. I handed the bowl back, wishing I could ask for another. Yet, I needed more than mushrooms and tubers. Maybe once in the tunnels, I'd sneak some of the meat from the inventory crystal. “Thanks again.” I gave Matt a nod and headed back toward Sang.

I took my time crossing the space, being careful to watch where I was going. Water dripped on me from above a couple of times and I couldn’t wait to see the sun again. The red light was getting to me.

Sang held out the two inventory crystals to me. “You can hand these off to John, he’ll make sure David gets one.” She pointed back to the big crystal I had been working on before I’d gotten distracted with inventory crystals. “I’m going to keep going on your project, but don’t take too long.”

I nodded and headed toward the opening of the tunnel. Hopefully, it wouldn’t be hard to find my way back.

As soon as I was in the tunnel, I carefully held the two crystals and yanked out a chunk of meat from my inventory. It was gone in three bites. Another piece followed, and another. After that, I felt better. My meat inventory was running low and I’d need to hunt sometime soon, or find a way to stockpile more food. Already what I had was drier than it’d been before I put it into the crystal, and I didn’t know how long it’d stay good for.

The tunnel stretched before me as I quickly moved forward. I passed the offshoot that was blocked and kept going to the big meeting cavern. A pile of ore and stone sat near the far end, and a miner stocked another cart full.

“Hello,” I called out.

His head snapped in my direction. “Oh, you came with the ship. The freaking shuttle isn’t big enough.”

“Well, if you can point me in the correct direction, I might be able to help with that.”

The miner pointed down the tunnel behind him. “Take the right fork every time. You’ll find the ship hole.”

I nodded and went on my way as he continued to grumble.

The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

It wasn’t hard, and eventually I found sunlight and a frustrated John. He kicked a pile of stone, swearing. Then he saw me. “What are you doing here?”

I held up the inventory stones. “I have a present for you.” The covering blocked most of the opening, but spots of sunlight poured in through holes. The drastic difference from the red lights in the tunnels made me want to leave the mountain even more.

“I was gonna ask for mine back to deal with all of this.” He motioned to the piles of stuff, crates piled on one side with more boxes on the other. “Is this to replace mine?” he asked with a glare.

“I'll switch everything over if you want…”

“Just give me one of the damn things.”

I handed over the one I’d made. He stomped over to one of the crates and it vanished. He let out a harsh breath. “Thank god that worked. Now I need more crates…” He said, glancing around, studying the piles of stone.

“Do you know where to find David? I have one for him as well.”

“Now you’re a lifesaver.” John held out his hand. “I’ll get it to him. He’s the one packing all the food they have, plus everything from the healing room. He also knows where I can find more crates.”

“Glad I could help.” I took a step toward the tunnel and then paused. “Sang also has one, so she might be able to carry things as well.”

John nodded and he headed toward the tunnel alongside me. “That’s good to know. We might just fit everything on the ship. How's the fighting?”

I shrugged. “Not much fighting for me, though I'm learning a few things about crystals. I made the one you took.” The spiders and slime that the miners had fought so far weren't worth it as far as I could tell.

“That’s really useful. Dad would love one.”

“I need to find another crystal that can become one, and it’ll be for him.” It’d be a great way to show up back at the settlement. I got a class and created an inventory stone for him. I’d be his favorite kid at that point. Maybe it would distract him from the fact the shuttle had crashed to begin with. At some point, Dad had to understand we weren’t kids anymore.

John didn’t say anything as we headed down the tunnel.

“Make sure you don’t leave without me,” I added before I left John behind.

“Don’t worry, the shuttle’s not leaving without you…”

I stuck to the leftmost tunnel and he headed down a different branch with a wave.

Hopefully, John would be able to keep that promise. While the miners were worried about the monsters in the tunnels, so far we hadn’t seen anything concerning. Hopefully, it’d stay that way.

Finally, I made it back to the big cavern. The miner with the cart had just started pulling it toward the tunnel entrance. “John’s in a better mood, but he’s looking for some crates to load the stone into.”

“I can help with that.” He started moving faster down the tunnel than before.

I shook my head and kept going. When I got to the branch that led to the left, something felt different. The metal door had a second bump, in addition to the one from before. I slowed down and listened.

All I heard was noise coming from the tunnel that led to the crystal cavern. Shaking my head I hurried on, wondering what was on the other side of the door. Miners in the cavern were busy as ants, piling more stone in front of the tunnel that kept going. While some folks were talking, it was quiet other than the sounds of stone being quarried and moved.

Sang waved me over to the spot that I’d been working before. “Good timing, we need to remove this crystal.”

“What happened?” I asked, glancing at the miners, and Hawk, who looked tense.

“Some stones fell from the tunnel opening. Nothing to worry about, I’m sure.” She motioned to the big hole she had carved around the right side of the crystal. “I’m almost behind it if you want to start carving a path around the left side.” Chunks of stone covered the floor and a pile was near the wall.

I nodded and pulled out my spear, making it glow. Then I carved a big chunk off. The rock slammed into the floor and I kicked it out of the way before doing it again. Sang’s eyes were on me, then she knelt down and reached into the hole getting to work.

This crystal had to be the size of a large dog. Not that we had dogs on this planet. Hopefully, John could power a shuttle with it. It was twice the size of the one I’d carried through the jungle on the sled. It'd make one heck of a safe area as well, if it couldn’t power the second shuttle.

I hummed to myself as I worked, one of those songs from Earth that stuck in your ear. It was a pop hit when we’d left, but I didn’t know all of the words. The crystal glowed in response and it made it easier to see where I was cutting. The red light worked well enough, but not when I stood in the way.

I kicked more rock chunks out of the way, making good time as I carved a path to remove the crystal. It had to be wide enough to reach around to the back of it. From what I could tell, Sang didn’t cut as deep as I did with each pass. She focused on more precise cuts, verses me taking out large chunks at a time.

I wanted to get this done as soon as possible. There was no way it wasn’t going to be heavy.

The ground shook and I jerked away from the wall. My humming cut off, and the crystal went dark. Sang’s head snapped toward the far tunnel, but the miners were scrambling. The rumble kept going for a second, then paused.

“Quiet!” Hawk’s voice filled the cavern for a second as he glanced around. Nothing moved near the tunnel entrance.

The sound of metal hitting stone echoed down the tunnel we’d used to enter. My head snapped in that direction, eyes wide, thinking of that metal door with the bumps.

Hawk started running, along with the other miners, as my brain caught up to what I’d heard. “You three stay here, the others come with me,” Hawk yelled. Then he rushed out of the cavern, the three he’d pointed out trying to catch up with him.

“Keep working on the crystal,” said Sang. “Once this is out, were done here.” Her voice stayed low.

The cart clattered as Matt pulled it in our direction. “I have room in the cart if you're done.”

“Just a couple more minutes,” she said with gritted teeth. Sang moved and started cutting below the crystal into the rock.

I cut another piece away and hit air behind the crystal. Now, I needed to completely disconnect it. My heart pounded in my chest as my ears strained to hear anything from the tunnel entrance.

All I could think about was that if we were cut off, we'd need to carve our way out of this mountain to get out.