Chapter 483: Mining KB-22

Silas walked over to the primary tool rack resting on the floor, hoisting a heavy, runic-forged dwarven pickaxe.

He stepped forward into the kaleidoscopic light, with Thor, the Princess, Aurelia, and the women gathering in a tight semicircle around him.

Thora stepped into the center of the ring, her face instantly shedding all lewdness, replaced by the stern sacred focus of a dwarven master craftswoman.

"Listen closely, all of you!" Thora barked, holding up a polished steel pickaxe. "Mining is not ditch-digging... It is not swinging a warhammer into an orc’s skull! In my clan, mining is treated as a sacred craft discipline. Remember the golden rule which I’ve distributed to the other dwarves... You don’t fight the mountain... You simply read it."

She walked up to a smooth vertical slab of limestone where a massive cluster of brilliant cerulean Mana Diamonds jutted from the rock like crystalline fruit.

"Step one," Thora commanded, pressing her bare soot-stained palm flat against the cold limestone. "Bare flesh to the rock with no gloves and close your eyes too. You have to feel the internal grain of the stone, the exact same way a master carpenter reads the grain in ironwood! The mana creates micro-vibrations so you must feel where the earth wants to part."

The Princess and the recruits leaned in, their eyes wide as they watched the dwarf.

"Step two," Thora continued, opening her eyes and tracing a blunt finger along a faint grayish streak running roughly eight inches below the blue crystals. "Look right here... This discolored track is what we call the bleed-line. When high-density mana crystals sit in bedrock for centuries, their internal spiritual heat slowly pushes impurities outward into this specific fault path so now... mark this down in your skulls. Never strike the bleed-line directly!"

"Why not?" Thor asked, crossing her massive arms, genuinely curious.

’Thor did mention that she didn’t know how to mine.’ Silas thought with a sigh.

"Because if you strike the bleed-line directly," Thora explained, glaring up at the tall blonde god, "the shockwave travels straight down the fault path like lightning and violently detonates the crystal lattice behind it... You’ll shatter fifty pounds of flawless Mana Diamonds into worthless inert gray powder before you ever see them!"

Thora raised her pickaxe, stepping back.

"Instead, you measure roughly six inches outside the bleed-line which is riiiiii...ght here." She tapped the limestone with her boot. "And when you swing, you don’t use your back! You don’t channel elemental mana! Pure technique! Let the weight of the forged head do the work, and snap your wrists right at the point of impact!"

Thora took a relaxed fluid stance as she raised the pickaxe in a smooth arc, letting the tool drop.

Right at the bottom of the swing, her wrists snapped.

TINK!

The sharp high-pitched chime resonated cleanly through the vaulted cavern.

A circular hairline fracture spider-webbed outward through the limestone, and with a clean scraping sigh, an entire slab of outer bedrock separated, sliding smoothly to the floor.

Behind it, completely pristine and undamaged, lay three massive glowing cerulean diamonds, humming with concentrated mana.

"That," Thora smirked proudly, "is how a dwarf harvests the earth, It’s technique over brute force."

The recruits cheered, clapping softly in admiration as Thora turned, her amber eyes locking directly onto Thor.

"Alright, giantess," Thora challenged, handing a spare heavy pickaxe to the blonde demigoddess. "You boast of celestial strength! Let’s see if those big arms have any finesse! Give us a demonstration on that section over there!"

Thor grinned, snatching the pickaxe easily with one hand.

"Finesse? Little smith, I am the master of the storm! A simple rock is child’s play!"

Thor stepped up to a protruding wall of limestone heavily encrusted with royal amethyst diamonds.

She pressed her bare palm to the rock, squinting her storm-blue eyes in exaggerated concentration.

"Ah! I see the gray line!" Thor declared proudly.

"Six inches outside it!" Thora warned, taking a step back. "Light touch! Snap the wrists! Don’t swing with your back—"

"I know, I know!" Thor laughed.

Thor raised the heavy dwarven pickaxe high over her right shoulder.

’Let me hold back...’

If she didn’t, she might release the power that had wrestled world-serpents and shattered mountain ranges in Asgard.

She snapped her wrists forward.

KRA-WHACK!

The impact was not a crisp musical tink but a concussive deafening crack of a thunderbolt.

A shockwave of raw, unmitigated kinetic force blasted out from the point of impact, blowing the hair back from Silas’s face and making the recruits shriek as they shielded their eyes.

The pickaxe didn’t strike the limestone like Thora wanted at all, instead the head sank four inches deep into solid bedrock.

CRACK-CRACK-SHATTER!

A violent, jagged fracture shot directly across the fault line as right before their horrified eyes, five massive fist-sized royal amethyst diamonds... worth a small fortune in the markets instantly destabilized.

Their internal crystalline matrices shattered under the brutal shock, violently disintegrating into a shower of worthless, inert gray dust that tumbled down the wall like sand.

Dead silence descended over the geode.

Thor stood frozen, holding the buried pickaxe and blinking down at the pile of gray powder at her boots.

"Uh..." Thor muttered, her voice remarkably small as a nervous sweat broke out across her forehead. "...The rock was softer than I anticipated."

Silas winced, slowly pinching the bridge of his nose.

’Five flawless diamonds... gone in half a second. I hope Thora doesn’t crash ou—’

Beside him, the dwarven forge master completely crashed out.

Her pale, soot-stained face violently flushed into a terrifying shade of volcanic purple.

Her amber eyes bulged in rage, and the veins in her neck strained against her leather collar as she threw both hands into the air.

"YOU BRAINLESS THUNDER-STRUCK BLONDE APE!" Thora screamed, her voice reaching a decibel level that literally vibrated the stalactites overhead! "WHAT DID I JUST SAY?! WHAT DID MY MOUTH LITERALLY JUST SPIT OUT INTO YOUR THICK GOD-EARS?! SIX INCHES OUTSIDE! SNAP THE WRISTS! DO NOT USE POWER!"

"I barely tapped it!" Thor protested defensively, waving her hands. "It was a tap!"

"A TAP?! YOU JUST PULVERIZED FIVE FLAWLESS MANA DIAMONDS INTO PUDDLE-MUD, YOU HEAVY-HANDED HEIFER!" Thora roared, marching straight up to the towering demigoddess and jabbing an angry trembling finger directly into Thor’s massive sternum! "THAT IS THREE WEEKS OF FOUNDRY COAL...! YOU ARE A DISASTER AT MINING!"

Thor, who could have flattened Thora into a red paste with a single flick of her little finger, actually shrank back, visibly intimidated by the raw fury of an insulted dwarven artisan.

"I... I can forge some new ones?" Thor suggested weakly.

"YOU CANNOT FORGE A DIAMOND, YOU CLUELESS TROLL!" Thora shrieked, stamping her steel-toed boot against the bedrock! "THAT’S IT! AS MASTER LOGISTICS OFFICER AND CHIEF OF THE FORGE, I AM INVOKING TERRITORIAL EMBARGO! NO MORE ALE FOR YOU! NOT A SINGLE DROP OF DWARVEN STOUT! AND NO ROASTED BOAR! YOU ARE BANNED FROM THE MESS HALL! YOU GET DRY HARDTACK AND WEED-WATER UNTIL THIS MINE IS EMPTY!"

Thor’s storm-blue eyes went wide as dinner plates.

The terror that had not touched her against frost giants, armies, or primordial beasts instantly seized her divine soul.

’No ale? No roasted boar?!’

THUD!

Without a single shred of divine pride remaining, the towering world-shaking God of Thunder slammed both knees directly onto the limestone gravel, dropping into a groveling kowtow at Thora’s boots.

"HAVE MERCY, MASTER SMITH!" Thor cried out, clasping her massive hands together in desperate pitiful supplication. "Do not take the meat! Do not take the ale! I will be gentle! I will touch the stone like a newborn fawn! I swear upon Mjölnir’s shaft, I will not break another crystal! Please, Thora, have mercy upon a thirsty warrior!"

The Princess stared at the groveling god in utter shock, her hand flying to cover her mouth.

Aurelia closed her eyes, offering a silent prayer of pity, while Vala and Reina struggled violently to suppress their laughter.

Silas stood with his arms crossed, watching the immortal thunder god beg a four-foot-tall dwarf for boar chops with an exhausted smile tugging at his lips.

Thora crossed her arms over her chest, puffing out her cheeks as she glared down at the kneeling demigoddess.

She let the silence stretch for five agonizing seconds, reveling in the terrifying authority of a logistics master.

"Hmph," Thora finally grunted, turning her nose up. "One more chance... You break one more diamond, giantess, and I’m personally locking the pantry with a mythril deadbolt."

"THANK YOU, NOBLE SMITH!" Thor gasped, wiping phantom tears from her eyes as she scrambled back to her feet.

Thora whirled around, facing the rest of the women with her fierce dwarven authority radiating across the shimmering geode.

"WELL?!" Thora barked at the top of her lungs, slamming the butt of her pickaxe into the stone. "WHAT ARE YOU LOT GAPING AT?! YOU HEARD THE LORD! WE HAVE A QUOTA TO FILL! SPREAD OUT, READ THE STONE, AND GET TO BLOODY WORK!"

"YES, MASTER THORA!"

With a unified roar, the women scattered across the glittering geode, their pickaxes rising into the prismatic light as the music of Blessed Land’s true harvest began.

...

The geode of Cavern KB-22 quickly transformed into a cathedral of rhythm and light.

The prismatic shafts of noon sun cutting through the ceiling fractures danced across a tempest of glittering dust.

At first, the women moved with hesitant jerky motions as their leather-clad fingers fumbled against the cold, jagged limestone walls, their knuckles raw and chalky as they tried to remember Thora’s strict dwarven lecture.

But once the initial fear of turning high-grade gems into gray dust faded, the discipline drilled into them on the training grounds took over...

Tink!

Tink!

Tink!

The sounds began to overlap in a crisp musical tune.

Near the western curvature of the chamber, Brenda pressed her bare palm against a jagged outcrop of rock.

Her freckled face scrunched up in intense concentration, her eyes shut tight as she felt the subtle hum-like vibrations of the subterranean earth.

"I feel it..." Brenda whispered under her breath.

Her eyelids snapped open.

Tracing a faint, discolored line running roughly eight inches beneath a protruding cluster of cerulean stones, she stepped back, set her boots wide, and swung.

TINK!

Her wrists snapped clean at the point of impact as the steel pickaxe sang.

A perfect circular hairline fracture spider-webbed across the rock, and a slab of outer limestone parted with a clean sliding scrape, tumbling away to reveal three uncut cerulean Mana Diamonds glowing in the shadows.

"Yes!" Brenda gasped, her face flushing with pure triumph as she carefully pried the pristine gems loose with a runic chisel and dropped them into her canvas haul-sack. "I did it! Not a single crack on the facets!"

"Don’t celebrate yet, rookie!" Helen called out from a few yards away, effortlessly dislodging a massive chunk of raw emerald diamond with a single fluid flick of her wrists. "We’ve got thousands of pounds to clear before the sun dips! Keep your spacing and keep your tempo!"

While the recruits worked in pairs, leaning heavily on technique and steady endurance, Aurelia moved with a serene grace that felt out of place in a damp mining cavern.

Her pristine white under-tunic glowed in the multicolored light, and her golden eyes sparkled with a playful light as she approached a vertical face of porous limestone.

Instead of swinging her heavy pickaxe with brute force, Aurelia treated the entire process like a sacred dance.

She pressed her slender palm flat against the stone as a microscopic tracing of pure Argent Flame flickered from her fingertips.

The warmth naturally expanded through the porous bleed-lines of the rock, gently softening the impurities surrounding the gem deposits.

Tink!

Aurelia tapped the outer boundary with the iron tip of her pickaxe.

CRRR-SLIDE!

An entire five-foot section of limestone separated cleanly, sliding down like butter to expose a breathtaking cascade of royal amethyst and cerulean diamonds.

’This is actually quite fun,’ Aurelia thought with a soft genuine smile gracing her porcelain features. ’Thank you my Lord...’

To simply stand in a glittering cavern, listen to the rhythmic music of pickaxes, and harvest the bounties of the earth for the man who had sheltered her soul... it felt remarkably light.

It felt peaceful.

A few paces deeper into the geode, however, peace was entirely absent.

TINK-TINK-TINK-TINK-TINK!

The strikes came so fast they sounded like a hail of iron ballista bolts.

Thor was a terrifying blur of blonde hair and boundless divine energy.

Having received the fear of the gods from Thora’s earlier threat of a territorial food embargo, the God of Thunder was working with mad desperation.

She didn’t dare channel her thunder, nor did she dare swing with her colossal back muscles.

Instead, she relied purely on her supernatural lightning-fast reflexes and wrist articulation.

Tink! Tink! Tink!

Her pickaxe danced across the limestone walls like a humming woodpecker.

Her massive gravity-defying chest heaved against the tight leather harness with every breath, beads of sweat glistening across her collarbone and running down the chiseled valley of her abdominal muscles.

Every single flick of her wrists sent hairline fractures shooting through the stone with perfection.

Huge slabs of limestone buckled and fell away, and Thor would swiftly catch the exposed Mana Diamonds with her bare hands, tossing them behind her into an ever-growing pile before immediately striking the next seam.

Within twenty minutes, the pile of harvested gems behind Thor looked like a small shimmering hill.

"Gwahahaha!" Thor laughed under her breath, a nervous sweat beading on her brow as she wiped her forehead with a soot-stained forearm. "Take that, mountain! Clean facets and not a single grain of dust! The ale is saved! The boar meat remains on the spit!"