Crystal Clear

As the trio of adventurers were about to leave the jail room, Garrett stopped and looked at the Flame-Gunner that he had taken down. The robot laid on the ground, unable to get itself up with its legs. The fire in the tube had gone out and the robot flailed helplessly like an overturned turtle. Preparing his fist, Garrett walked over to the robot and stood over it. Quickly, he brought a raised fist down, smashing through the armor. The robot's legs seized up before falling limp.

Inside the robot were various circuit boards, all of which were now useless from Garrett's punch. However, there was a medium red crystal inside of the robot, which was wired into the tube that connected to the flamethrower.

"What's this?" Garrett picked up the crystal, feeling the intense heat that was coming off it. It was uncomfortable to hold, but not burning his hands. It looked like the crystals that were all around and giving off light.

"Whoa, that's a solid chunk of crystal Xir," Vanessa said, coming over to look at the crystal. "I'd say this would fetch a good couple of silvers." She handed it back to Garrett. "Though your punch damaged it, so maybe knock it down a couple of copper."

"Wait, this is crystal Xir?" He looked up at the ceiling towards the crystals that were in the ceiling. "Then what are those?"

"Those are also crystal Xir," Vanessa said, a bit confused at Garrett. "How do you not know this?"

"It was my schooling," Garrett said, not really lying but also not telling the full story, "They never taught me about these things."

"Then here is a refresher." Vanessa pulled out her paintbrush and began to paint onto the ground. Despite not having any paint to dip into or anything, she drew on the ground without any issues. Plex also now came over to observe. She drew 12 crude symbols and pointed to each of them. "There are 12 elements that govern this world. Fire, water, earth, air, electricity, metal, ice, plants, light, darkness, life, and death. Together, these make up the fundamental elements of Xir, the energy that courses through everything."

"Ah, yes, I function off of a system of six electricity Xir and one ice Xir crystals." Plex opened up its chest, revealing seven crystals, six yellow and one light blue, inside, hooked to various wires. Plex then closed its chest and sealed it back up.

"Yep. Crystal Xir is super useful." She pointed up to the crystal on the ceiling. "That is a Light Xir crystal. They're pretty common. The rare stuff that's really strong is Life, Death, and Darkness." It was then that Garrett realized he misunderstood what Iadre had said before. She didn't say that the Darge didn't have rare minerals or crystalized Xir; she had said that the Darge didn't have rare minerals or rare crystalized Xir.

"Thanks for the refresher, Vanessa," Garrett said as he put the crystal away. Vanessa had a wide smile on her face before turning back to the jail room door. "Okay, we have to go quietly. It detects sound. Those vines I had put around that turret have to be gone by now."

As the door cracked open, they all saw the turret, free from vines, swiveling around and searching for its next target. Plex went first, followed by Garrett, and finally Vanessa. Once they were past it, they rushed to the Mob room where the cave-in was.

"Whoa, you weren't kidding," Vanessa said, staring at the mass of rubble. "How in the world did this happen?"

"Robot attack," Garrett said. "So, how does that paintbrush of yours help us get through this?"

"Like this." Vanessa hopped up onto some of the rocks and began to paint large black circles with a long brown line out of them.

"Wait, are those paintings of bombs?" Plex asked, watching Vanessa.

"Correct!" She painted a total of five bombs before hopping down.

"How do paintings of bombs help us?" Garrett asked, tilting his head to the side.

"It's because of this special brush," Vanessa said, tucking it away safely. "With enough Xir, I can turn my paintings made by this brush into the real thing." She smiled her big toothy grin. "I mean, sort of. They're still 2D, but they function like the real thing." She walked to the other side of the room and gestured for Plex and Garrett to follow her. "Come on. We don't want to get caught in the blast."

"Okay," Garrett said, but turned to the pile of rubble. He cupped his hands around his mouth and shouted. "Cerezie! If you're at the pile of rubble here, stand back! We're going to explode away the rock!" He didn't hear any response, but he felt confident that if Cerezie was on the other side of the rubble, she would have heard him. With that, he rushed over with Vanessa and Plex.

"Into this tunnel. This should be far enough away," Vanessa said as Garrett entered the tunnel. "Just don't stick your head out." She stood at the entrance and held her hands out. She closed her eyes and chanted something, a red glow from her hands appearing. Strangely, Garrett could feel his arm weaken at the same time, the arm that he had put on Vanessa's shoulder. Then, the glow disappeared and Vanessa rushed into the tunnel. "Everyone get down!"

Moments later, the caverns shook with a loud explosion. The three of them felt the rush of wind blow past them and bits of rock and stone flew throughout the tunnel. Garrett held his shield up to block as much as he could, and Plex also stood in front of Vanessa. Then, everything went quiet and calm again. The trio emerged from the tunnel to see the results.

Dust flooded the air, causing both Vanessa and Garrett to cover their faces with their hands. Thankfully, it was still thin enough that they could see. The room had bits and pieces of rubble scattered everywhere, mixing with the bodies of the robots from earlier. The tunnel entrance was gaping open once again, with no signs of life on the other side. There was no sign of the other half of the Flame-Gunner nor any sign of Cerezie. Garrett sighed in relief at the fact that Cerezie hadn't been near the explosion when it happened.

Plex gestured for them to continue on, firstly to find Cerezie but secondly to get out of the dust. Vanessa and Garrett both followed behind deeper into the Darge in search of their missing elf.