Chapter 16 – Crystal Cavern.

‘Hm… What about this bigger one?’

‘It doesn’t seem like I can store them though. I bet they would probably come in handy inside the tunnels as those Ant things don’t seem to like the light. They are fine with those other glowing bugs though, I guess it’s the light element part and not the actual glow?’

Rusty had arrived at a strange area filled with various light sources. There were crystals coming out of the ground and walls. Everything in this place was being illuminated but something similar to his Basic Elemental Charge skill. Thanks to this effect, a safe zone was created where no monsters wandered in. Even after waiting more than an hour, no ants dared to jump down the waterfall.

‘I can store these though… at least the petty ones?’

The light crystals were producing a white light while the mana crystals were shining in a paler blue color. To his surprise, his magic points were for some reason recharging at a much faster pace than before. He deduced that it was thanks to these many blue crystals that were exuding magical energies.

‘But how do I use these to restore my MP?’

After realizing that he was relatively safe, he explored the area and found these two resources. The white glowing light crystals could provide him with a place to rest and run away to, while the blue ones could perhaps make battles easier. Basic Power Thrust and Slash were his two main attacking skills but they needed MP to be used. After a few swings, he would be drained of that resource and need some time for it to recharge.

His identification skill suggested that it might be possible to use the smaller blue crystals in some manner. Thus, he decided to test this by using up most of his mana while away from the area with the mana crystals. There was another path leading out that eventually turned into a dark corridor that the passive effects could not reach. There he held one of the small mana crystals to see if it would do something.

‘It’s not really doing anything? I was recovering more mana back in the crystal cave…’

Rusty wasn’t sure what he was doing wrong or how to tackle this issue. He tried holding the crystal closer to his body and even attempted to place it inside his own metallic body. These attempts went unrewarded as nothing seemed to be happening but then, with some luck he managed to figure it out.

When he attempted to retrieve the crystal from within his body, he fumbled a bit. The shiny stone landed on the ground and cracked slightly. It seemed that these strange minerals were quite brittle and even a small fall would cause some damage to them. However, once some cracks were revealed, a tiny amount of strange blue mist emerged for a second.

‘Oh? My MP bar jumped up by a few points?’

The moment his body came in contact with this blue mist, he recovered some magical points. To further test this incident, he picked up the cracked stone and crushed it into fine powder. This produced a more intense mist that somehow was sucked into his metallic body and quickly restored his MP to full.

‘So that’s how you do it! Just crush it and it’s done!’

Rusty cheered at his new discovery and quickly made his way back to the cave filled with these crystals. He was able to store the smaller ones that were about the size of his thumb in his stash tab.

When he focused on the mana crystal he was eventually given a prompt by the world’s system. Under the window with the message, there were two buttons, one in red that said no and one in green that said yes. He had learned that he could either will it to be activated or press it down with one of his metallic digits. For some reason that he didn’t fully understand, it felt better to poke at it with his digit instead of forcing it with his mind. It was also a bit faster when he didn’t have to focus his brain too much.

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‘Oh? What is this now?’

After acquiring exactly ten of the crystals into his stash tab, he was unable to put in any more. There were hundreds of these small ones in this cave and even larger ones that he couldn’t even process. However, for some reason, there was a limit to how many of them he could carry in this stash tab. He could see the number under the icon representing them and was unable to switch to any of the other squares inside of his inventory grid to fit any more of them.

‘Strange… I guess there are some limits?’

Rusty was not sure why he was being limited by this system but perhaps if he leveled up, more inventory space would be freed up. It seemed that something was trying to keep him from acquiring too many of the good items early in his evolutionary journey and having too many of the lesser ones wasn’t possible either.

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

‘Hm… Ten isn’t bad though, should be enough for now.’

He wasn’t deterred by this turn of events, as having more mana was always a plus. With the help of these crystals, he would be able to defeat more enemies, and returning here to restock was always an option. Perhaps this was a blessing in disguise as it would keep him more grounded. Otherwise, he could end up venturing too far into the unknown caves and get himself slain by some entity he doesn’t yet understand.

‘I did overdo it with those adventurers, maybe if I didn’t kill so many, those strong ones wouldn’t have appeared?’

Rusty pondered over his recent experiences and decided that a more cautious approach might be more beneficial. The illuminated chamber with crystals had provided him with a sanctuary of sorts, a place where he could recover and strategize. This would be his new base of operations, the lair of Rusty the Corroded Twilight Bronze Armor.