Jasper walked toward the mountain range, thoughts crowding his mind—most of them about the blue stone, the rest about how to increase his income. His mother's condition seemed to be worsening day by day. That morning, when he had seen her in the kitchen, her face had looked pale and exhausted.
He considered working late again, like he had done yesterday. If he truly felt as good as he did now, he could collect far more than before.
However, when he reached the edge of his usual mining spot, something unusual caught his eye.
There was a massive crater on the ground, stretching long and deep.
Walking closer, he froze.
This was the place where he had attacked the predator the previous night.
He stared at the trench-like pit in stunned silence.
Had his attack created this?
After inspecting the area carefully, he found neither the broken piece of the pickaxe nor any trace of a predator's remains.
Suppressing his unease, he entered the same cave where he had been mining the day before. He went deeper this time. After choosing a suitable spot, he set up the lamp. The balance felt awkward with the pickaxe's broken side, but he had no choice until he could afford a new one.
He raised the pickaxe.
Boom!
A deafening sound erupted through the cave.
Jasper stood before the wall as the obsidian-black rock shattered and collapsed to the ground. For a moment, he couldn't comprehend what had happened. He had swung the half-broken pickaxe just as he always did. Yet the rock that once resisted dozens of strikes had crumbled like fragile glass under a single blow.
When the dust settled, a five-meter-deep hole had been carved into the wall.
Jasper stared at the pickaxe in disbelief.
Is this the stone's doing?
There was no other explanation—for the trench outside, or for this sudden surge of strength.
"Hahaha… I got a magic stone!"
After a long moment of stunned silence, Jasper burst into wild laughter.
Without hesitation, he stepped toward the opposite wall. Clenching his bare fist, he drove a punch into the obsidian surface.
Crumble!
His fist sank into the rock, forming another large cavity.
No pain.
He struck again.
The result was the same.
He could punch through obsidian without injury.
Excitement surged through him, his heart pounding violently. Yet a small doubt crept in—what if this was a dream? How could something like this be real? He had found a blue stone… and it had granted him immense physical strength.
If he told anyone, they would think he was insane.
But how could he prove to himself that this wasn't a dream from which he would soon awaken—lying in his bed, back aching as usual?
Gradually, Jasper forced himself to calm down. He began collecting the white crystals scattered among the shattered obsidian fragments, silently praying he would not wake up and find everything gone.
After carefully searching through the debris, he realized the number of crystal shards far exceeded his usual harvest—almost equal to what he had gathered yesterday, and all from a single strike.
"If I work for half a day, I could collect at least ten gold coins' worth of white crystal. That would cover Mother's medical bill."
Motivated by the thought, he continued gathering as many crystals as possible. Before, breaking the rock had consumed most of his time. Now, collecting the crystals took longer than destroying the stone itself.
Within an hour, the cave was cleared.
The crystals formed a large heap at the center. The weight must have exceeded fifty pounds—worth at least sixty to seventy gold coins.
For Jasper, that was an enormous sum.
Though it might not pay for the entire treatment, it would certainly be enough to diagnose his mother's illness.
If the disease proved severe, the cost of curing it might be far higher. But now that he could earn with such ease, even dungeon mining—or dungeon raids—seemed possible. Perhaps he could hunt alone and sell monster corpses for profit.
"That's a solid plan. My strength has increased many times. I can hunt predators without fear of dying," Jasper muttered.
Still, he knew he couldn't act recklessly.
If he suddenly displayed abnormal strength, people would grow suspicious. Even if he sold all these white crystals to Mr. Erminio, the blacksmith would question how a fifteen-year-old boy had mined such a massive amount in a single day.
"I should sell small amounts to different smithies. That way, no one will suspect anything," Jasper thought, forming a cautious plan.
Since he had gathered enough crystals within an hour, there was no need to continue mining. He could divide the haul and sell it gradually.
"It would take too long to sell this much crystal. Would the auction house even buy such low-grade material?" he wondered.
He doubted it.
"Well, I can ask around. If they do, I can sell it in bulk instead of wasting time selling small portions."
With that decision made, Jasper packed around 5 pounds of crystal and left the cave. He would sell this portion first, gather information, and plan his next move.