53rd of Season of Fire, 57th year of the 32nd cycle

The night was drawing to an end, and the campfire was slowly fluttering out, flames dying and only embers glowing in the dark. Obsidian had grilled the fattail kebabs over the spell seal Newt had scribed onto the ground, and once they finished preparing the meal, they scrapped the temporary seal and started a fire just for the sake of creating a warm, homely atmosphere. Basically, it was more trouble than it was worth, but everyone remained polite about it.

Newt had offered to take the night watch while his friends meditated and gathered mana, but the notion appalled them. Regardless of how thoroughly Newt displayed his ability, the trio were not willing to risk their lives by staying completely helpless in a zone with practically zero visibility.

"The gains earned through an evening of meditation aren't worth the risk," Roselilly said, and Newt partially agreed with her. The part that disagreed was his pride, since Newt knew he could keep his friends safe from whatever lurked in the mists of the valley's outermost ring.

The chatter came to an end, and Obsidian started throwing dirt on the last of the embers. "We're in the middle of a forest; leaving an open flame might cause a wildfire."

Newt didn't believe the trees of this forest could catch fire that easily. Even when starting campfires, they used Newt's flames to ignite the wood. Mundane means seemed quite questionable with the wood as damp.

"How far is the geyser field?" Newt tried to breathe new life into the conversation, despite knowing the answer.

"Two to three hours," Roselilly said. "Hopefully, there's enough mysterium there; otherwise, we will need to veer off course to check the rest."

"I doubt we'll find enough there." Jasmine seemed to be the designated killjoy, but the other two seemed fine with her eternal pessimism. "As far as I could tell from the journals, everyone taking the right path thoroughly searches the first deposit before moving on to try their luck with the others."

Obsidian yawned through a shrug. "It's like with the cores, Sis, you have to check every corpse, otherwise you might miss a treasure. Even if it's a long shot, we might get lucky and find enough mysterium to complete our mission."

Nobody argued his logic. As the ever-present myst turned from black into dancing strands of white, heralding the new dawn, the team took their leftovers, tucked them into their food sacks, and left the campsite.

The sun had fully risen by the time they left the sparse woodland and entered another open plain. The light smell of sulfur soiled the air, visibility decreasing to a mere twenty feet. Suddenly, Obsidian jumped back, barely strangling a yelp.

"What is it?" Jasmine asked.

"A geyser! Just appeared out of nowhere, spraying steaming-hot water everywhere."

Newt heard nothing, smelled nothing out of the ordinary, and did not even feel the heat of scalding water less than thirty feet away. He took two steps forward, and suddenly the heat slammed into his perception with nearly physical force. The air was sultry, stank of rotten eggs, and it was wetter than the surroundings, as scalding drops landed on his nose, accompanied by an angry, hissing roar.

Newt stared at the giant geyser, it really was like Obsidian had said. It was difficult not to feel like the gushing water had ambushed him, despite being obviously a stationary terrain feature.

Good thing Obsidian embarrassed himself for all our sakes.

Newt was certain everyone would have reacted more or less like the big man had.

Jasmine stepped next to Newt, gasping in surprise. The scene wouldn't have been as surreal had the geyser itself been more unassuming. But the column of water was as thick as a five-hundred-year-old oak, spraying upwards into the myst, and returning to the ground as a light drizzle. It was something impossible to hide under normal circumstances, even from half a mile away, yet the group could only see it after approaching it to a mere handful of feet.

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Newt glanced back. Roselilly was approaching from his left, the space behind him completely empty. He took a step back, and the colossal column of water disappeared as if it had never existed. The fog consumed its form, the gushing roar, and even the heat and the stench. The only clue was the spray of lukewarm water falling from above, the droplets so fine it was nearly impossible to tell them apart from the rest of the warm fog.

Roselilly stepped into the range of the geyser and pinched her nose.

"There should be some mysterium around here." Roselilly's snobbish nasal voice was mildly amusing as she moved towards the column of water, spraying a torrent into the air just beyond Newt's senses. He followed, and the stench returned.

"Guys, let me. I'm immune to heat, and a high-pressure jet of water can't do anything against my defenses." There was also the unlikely and very unlucky possibility of the geyser shooting a chunk of mysterium just as someone searched it for the valuable ore. Depending on the size of the nugget, the damage varied from insignificant to life-threatening.

That's a horrible way to die. Imagine struggling all the way to the third realm and then dying to a rock shot by high-pressure water. The worst part was that library texts contained specific warnings regarding watching out for high-speed mysterium projectiles and their devastating force of impact. Since it was written down as an actual warning, death by mysterium probably happened at least once over the centuries and millennia.

Since nobody said anything about his offer, Newt advanced towards the geyser, his two defenses compounded atop each other. Granite Crust was segmented into three layers, Newt's had taken Lady Alabaster's suggestion to heart, his armor considerably boosted.

From a step away, he could feel the incredible force at work as it continuously shot such enormous quantities of water straight up into the air. Newt wondered where all that water was coming from as he reached his hand into the column.

And where is it going?

The water was as hard as stone, its turbulent flow allowing next to zero visibility as it slapped Newt's probing touch away. He pressed harder, his hand sinking into the geyser, and he started blindly groping for mysterium. He almost laughed aloud when he grabbed a nugget on his first attempt. Newt pulled it out, and his victorious grin turned sour.

He was clutching a common, fist-sized chunk of volcanic rock. He examined it with his mindcore just in case; nothing out of the ordinary. A regular rock, with a regular concentration of mana for the region they were in. Newt chucked it to the side and tried again, and again, and again.

A quarter hour passed, and Newt had fished out and discarded nearly a hundred stones, with zero mysterium nuggets to show for all his effort.

This isn't working.

He pulled his arm out of the column, throwing away yet another random rock, and decided to change his approach. He condensed a strand of mana and sent it into the geyser. Newt thought himself clever, but the raging torrent shredded the energy tendril as soon as it touched the water.

He muttered a curse and considered his problem yet again.

Jasmine was right. The odds of finding something at the edge of the geyser are slim, everyone can blindly grope, and with enough patience they would have already emptied the entire reserve of mysterium inside the geyser. What if I stepped inside it?

Newt wanted to try it immediately, but his experience with rash decisions stopped him. Instead, he turned away and rejoined his party.

"Guys, there's little to no chance of finding any mysterium like this, but I have an idea, and I want your input."

The trio nodded, and Newt explained his idea.

"Absolutely not." Jasmine glared at him. "If the geyser throws you into the air, we won't be able to find you, and you might get seriously injured."

"It is needlessly risky." Roselilly nodded. "And we're not desperate to find mysterium right here right now, there are other deposits."

"That must be what everyone else thought too," Obsidian said, the most careless of the lot as always. "We just need to tie him with a rope and take it slow. Even if he shoots up from the geyser, we'll stay together, and I don't think Newt is careless enough to push beyond his ability."

The group argued for around five minutes, after which Newt had three ropes tied around his waist, each member of his team holding the other end.

He activated Granite Crust and Magmin Scales, then stepped into the pillar of water. The sensation was strange, solid water slamming into his foot and trying to tip him over, but Newt sent a surge of mana through his body to reinforce it and stepped in.

Half submerged, he rummaged through the stones on the ground. Suddenly, he found one stuck in a ledge that felt different from the rest. The stone was soft to the touch, and Newt pulled it out, falling on his butt right outside the geyser. The nugget was a dull shade of gray, with wisps of smoke rising from it.

Newt grinned, his hand shooting up, grasping the mysterium nugget in victory. They had taken their first step towards completing their mission.

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