The Stargazing Witch & The Dungeon Planet
Chapter 129: To Core of The World

Chapter 129: To the Core of the World

I quickly returned to Darragh.

“It’s good to see that you are still alive.”

He looked up out of the large pit he had made. “Pardon..?”

“I’m simply complimenting you. How is your progress and mana reservoirs?” 

He had made a decent hole, but he should still have had plenty of mana left–

“I am nearly out,” he declared.

“...I gave you a few mana recovery items…” 

“The sand is hard to work with…”

Yes, but I think your control is also just shit.

I groaned and tossed him three mana recovery potions. I preferred using the crystals anyway, and others normally preferred the potions.

While the progress he had made was commendable, it would take a lot more work to be done if we ever wanted to break into the underground.

I told him, “I will help you out now; I want to break through before daybreak.”

He looked up at the sky. “We should still be far off from that happening, no?”

While there was no light source in the sky, it did get progressively lighter and darker to simulate a sunrise and sunset. 

“I don’t want any more risks to occur, and potentially all our progress could be reset if a storm comes.” 

“The faster I go, then.” He chugged the potions and got to work. 

I opened my hand and created a Starlight shovel. 

He looked at me. “Huh?” 

“Just let me deal with the piling of the golden sand; you focus on digging.” 

That’s how Ceella and the mining partner started to get to work. 

We spent the next two hours trying to dig a bloody hole. If this hole were on any other planet, this would be easy, but the mana-disrupting sand was mixed into the ground itself, making any large-scale Earth magic from Darragh’s end useless. It also made any fire explosion from my end much less effective, and I didn’t want to waste the buttload of mana required to make the hole, as the time investment and physical labour required were by far the smarter option to take. 

The desert itself also seemed to want to throw the sand back into the hole. Even with Darragh's reinforcements to the walls and barrier, the sand kept trying to sneak back in. 

I let Darragh complain through the process. I knew sometimes to work, you had to get the steam out of the system. 

After a large chunk of sand, rock, and a portion of roots in a large stone hand grip were launched out of the pit like a catapult. “I think I’ve got it!” Darragh shouted. 

We had ended up creating a pit over thirty metres deep, impressive considering the sand was nearly fighting us not to be moved.

I looked at the hardened ground we had reached. It was mostly rock, but I could see some roots within the dirt as well now. 

“What else is needed?” I asked. 

“I just need to break through this last layer of rock…” He spoke tiredly.

I tossed him another mana potion. “I will deal with this last layer.” 

“How will you–”

My Starlight shovel morphed into a massive pickaxe many times larger than the shovel.

“It would be for the best if you got out of the way.”

Darragh quickly stumbled, standing up and trying to drink the potion as he tripped while attempting to reach the wall of the hole.

I slammed down my pickaxe once.

Bang

Then again.

Bang

And again.

Bang

Bang

Bang

Rumbled

Bang

The ground below my feet cracked with every swing, and I was smiling all the while. Oh, was it fun to break something again! After another mighty downswing. 

Bang

The ground crumbled, and the rock split. 

Both of us fell into the pits below

Woosh

We landed on more sand and rock. The light followed us through the entrance we made to this new world. 

I landed on my feet while the digger was face-first in the ground.

“You are terrifying!” Darragh said before collapsing to the ground again.

Finally…

Now, within the large hole we created, we found ourselves in a large cave; sandstone and roots that grew across the ceiling held the desert sand in place. 

I took a moment to examine the surrounding area. “Wow, this is… basically what I was expecting.” 

“Huh…?” Darragh, who was pulling himself off the ground, looked at me as if I were a weirdo.

If I find out after all this that he actually wants to die, then I guess I am the bloody fool.

“What?”

“You’ve never played a video game? Unearthed ancient structures, all that fun stuff.” 

“..?”

“You are such a bore, but not the most boring thing I have the displeasure of interacting with.” I continued looking around the area, and there were a few oddities between the structures. 

From a passing glance, it looks standard… but these structures aren’t the same…

Old stone structures that have been ground away by the sands of time, of a culture before, one long forgotten, made sense and would’ve made a good setting, but the structures were different.

Different styles of walls, different carvings, some built by carving solid stone, others built with small or large bricks. While the finer details had been erased away, there was still enough detail with structure, layout, and in some cases, material that made the collapsed mess of ancient buildings feel like a puzzle that was put together with pieces of various sets.

There were also some very small remains of wooden structures. Anything that had been made of wood had been partially erased by time and the moving sand. 

That tower was definitely not built by the Nelatta.

There was a large tower that had mostly crumbled around that went from the cave’s floor to the ceiling. Deeply carved patterns were barely visible in the stone after time had degraded it. While the stone’s material certainly was similar, the design and size of the thing were completely alien to what the Nelatta would make.

The Nelatta themselves had quite a weird city when you looked at it. The buildings within made sense, and they were clearly built from the stone dug out from the cave system in the mountain, but the mountain and the wall surrounding it were strange. If I had to bet, then it would be that some powerful Earth made the mountain; maybe they pulled the Earth up to create it, then the wall was built. The wall was so durable that no matter how long the Nelatta have lived there for, no matter how many attacks they had faced, it had never been destroyed or seriously damaged. 

How many… different types of buildings are there…

It was strange. Certainly there didn’t exist that many different types of communities in this world; the place was so damn small.

I sighed, “Next order of business, figure out what way we need to go.” 

“That seems like an issue…” Darragh wasn’t exactly wrong. 

Looking around us, these ancient ruins went on for what seemed like the whole damn world. There were stones and large chunks of sand everywhere, and that created walls, but this underground system still stretched everywhere, which meant knowing what the correct direction to the core would be was a pain.

Where underground, everywhere, of course! Sigh, digging closer to the meraimaka might’ve been the smarter idea. It is basically the centre of this world. 

Espr suddenly spoke. 

(“ See the tower you noticed before? By heading that way, you will get to your destination ”)

Thanks.

Maybe it was because I was in the deep end now, or going the wrong way would be risky; I didn’t know, but if Espr was finally giving good advice, I was sure I was going to take it.

“Darragh, we will be moving towards the tower over there.” I pointed.

“I… will trust your judgement.” He surrendered. 

“Cool.” He began our walk, but it didn’t take long for trouble to begin forming.

Creak

Bony arms emerged from the sand, and pulling themselves out of the ground were numerous annoying sand walkers. 

“MBones…” I clicked my tongue in annoyance.

Darragh asked, “MBones?”

“Yeah, it is what I decided to call these monsters.”

“Wasn’t there a better name for these freaks…”

“Eh, probably? I think the Nelatta call them Sand Walkers.” 

“That’s a better name…”

“No, it is not.” I smiled. “Now, I will help you move.”

“What are you–ahhhh!?” I swung Darragh onto my shoulder and booked it. 

Crushing them wouldn’t be hard, but I wanted to be able to keep my reserves up for at least a little bit. I jumped from the sandy rocks through the ruins of what once existed while more and more creatures emerged from the ground.

“They are certainly determined.”

But no matter what they did, I was going to get out of here.

Let’s see how long you can hold me back.

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