Sara is in a Good Mood Today

Sara waved her massive pincers, her stinger held high, her legs moving up and down as if she were in an exceptionally good mood.

“Clack, clack, clack! Clack, clack!”

A series of rapid clicks and hisses escaped her mouthparts. Elon leaned in to listen. The expression on his face shifted from initial confusion to surprise, before finally turning into a wry smile as he looked at Shane. “She says she found a Moon Sand vein. It's about eight or nine hundred meters northwest of the Dry River bank.”

Shane looked in that direction. It wasn't very far. That left only the question of how difficult it would be to mine. “How deep is it?”

Elon relayed the question to Sara, listened to her response for a moment, and then translated, “The vein isn't very deep. We should hit it at about three or four meters down. However, there's groundwater seeping in, so she couldn't burrow inside to take a closer look.”

Shane nodded. Although earth stingers could easily tunnel through sandy soil, hard or wet earth was a different story.

However, just as Shane was figuring out how to mine the Moon Sand, Sara let out another series of rapid clicks, impatiently tapping her massive pincers against the ground, looking extremely eager.

Elon's expression turned odd upon hearing this. After confirming with Sara a few times, he turned to Shane. “She says there's something else in the vein—dense earth elements. She can smell it in the seeping water. That thing is very important to her, and she wants to trade extra labor for it.”

Shane looked at Sara with a hint of surprise. He had originally thought Sara was at most a clever beast that could understand simple commands, similar to a pet. But looking at her now, her intelligence seemed far higher than he had anticipated. No wonder Elon had given her a name.

“What do you think?”

Seeing Shane hesitate, Elon added, “Sara has been a big help to us during this time. Whether it was monitoring the quicksand or attacking Greystone Post, she put in a lot of effort. If she really needs that mineral, I think we should agree.”

Shane nodded. He hadn't intended to refuse anyway. Sara's presence made her an entirely beneficial ally. “Alright, let's go take a look.”

He turned to look at the residents, who were hard at work. Old Karl was leading a few people, working up a sweat on the riverbank. Shane wasn't worried about them. “They can handle the work here on their own. Let's deal with the vein first.”

Elon nodded and gestured to Sara. Sara immediately turned around in excitement, her massive body crawling toward the northwest, her stinger swaying gently behind her.

Shane was about to summon a skeletal warhorse to follow when he remembered Sern, who couldn't be left too far behind. His footsteps faltered.

Sern was still in her dazed state, staring up at the sky while completely bound. It was obvious that being trapped under the restriction order and unable to move freely was driving her mad, but she was entirely powerless against Shane.

Left with no choice, Shane summoned three humanoid skeletons to carry Sern on their shoulders. Then, he summoned a skeletal warhorse and followed Sara.

It didn't take long for Sara to stop.

Near a slightly low-lying sandy patch, the surface was covered in light gray sand, looking much firmer than ordinary sand. A few grayish-white stones lay scattered around.

Sara raised her foreleg and tapped the ground twice.

“This is the place.”

Elon turned to tell Shane, then squatted down to inspect the condition of the sand.

Shane also dismounted, scanned the surrounding terrain, and began to summon skeletal hounds.

He first directed the skeletal hounds to dig up the loose surface sand at the designated spot. Once they had dug a pit about half a meter deep, three or four humanoid skeletons arrived from a distance to take over, using tools to continue digging downward.

When they reached a depth of about three meters, the bottom of the pit began to show clear signs of moisture. The color of the sand darkened, quickly turning into mud.

After digging down another forty centimeters, the shovel blade suddenly made a dull clunk, sounding as if it had struck hard stone.

Right then, Sara let out a sharp hiss and raised her massive pincers once more.

“Looks like this is it.”

Elon glanced at Sara's reaction, knowing they had dug up what she wanted, and leaned over to peer into the pit.

Beneath the damp soil, a deep brown rock layer was exposed. It had a dense texture, scattered with fine golden flecks.

“Earth elemental essence!”

Elon raised an eyebrow, looking at the item in the pit with great surprise.

Hearing his exclamation, Shane also peered into the deep pit with a look of surprise.

He then watched as a skeleton carefully dug the essence out of the mud and passed it up, hand over hand, until it was delivered to Shane and Elon.

“I didn't expect to see this in the Golden Sea.”

Elon took the essence with a look of excitement and wonder, beginning to explain to a somewhat puzzled Shane, “Earth elemental essence is a type of elemental gem. This deep brown variety with golden flecks is considered high-grade.”

“They usually only form in areas rich in elements. The elements in the Golden Sea are chaotic, so logically, something like this shouldn't be able to coalesce here. I really didn't expect to find one.”

Shane stared at the essence in Elon's hand. To be honest, he wasn't particularly interested. After all, he was neither a mage nor a mountain dwarf; to him, an earth elemental essence was useless except for selling.

But for Sara, it seemed to be a different story.

Shane watched as Sara approached them. She was stepping anxiously in place, her stinger swinging restlessly back and forth. Seeing her agitation, Elon tossed the essence to her.

“Alright, here you go.”

Sara's entire body leaped off the ground. In an instant, she caught the essence in her mouthparts and swallowed it.

In the next second, a sudden change occurred.

Sara's body suddenly stiffened, her stinger freezing straight. Her entire being seemed to be pinned to the spot, as if petrified by her own power.

The original blackish-brown color of her carapace began to dull, turning grayish in no time. Right after, a fine crack appeared on the surface of her shell, spreading from her head all the way down her body.

“She's evolving!”

Elon's voice carried not only surprise, but also curiosity and excitement. “As a pure crystallization of the earth attribute, an earth elemental essence can provide earth stingers with a massive amount of the elements needed to construct their carapaces. It can also strengthen their petrification rays. Since she ate an entire piece, she must have received a massive boost.”

Just as he finished speaking, a crisp cracking sound rang out. The grayish-white outer shell split open, and a brand-new earth stinger broke free from the old casing.

The newly born Sara was nearly a full size smaller than before. The color of her carapace had shifted from blackish-brown to a deeper black, and a yellowish-brown gem now sat in the center of her head, looking like an embedded forehead ornament.

Though she had shrunk, her stinger was noticeably longer than before, and the dark green glow at the tip was so dense it looked ready to drip.

“Clack!”

Sara let out a sharp click and began to shake her body. Her massive pincers rose and fell alternately, her tail swayed rhythmically, and she spun in a circle.

Watching this display, Shane's eye twitched.

Elon, on the other hand, cooperatively smiled and even clapped twice. “Not bad. You've gotten prettier.”

Sara was clearly very pleased with the compliment. She raised her stinger even higher, looking exactly like a little girl who had just received a beloved gift.

Sern, standing not far away, rolled her eyes and let out a series of muffled grunts.

Soon, Sara calmed down. She approached Elon, tapped his leg with her pincer, and made another series of clicking sounds.

After listening, Elon turned to Shane. “She says she needs to go back and rest. She needs to get used to her new carapace. You can call her again in a day.”

Shane nodded. Sara turned and dug into the sand, her body quickly sinking into the ground and disappearing from sight.

Shane looked back down into the depths of the pit. With the earth elemental essence gone, a layer of white crystals was revealed beneath—it was indeed Moon Sand. Compared to the crystals on the well walls, these were of exceptional quality, looking pure white and fine.

He didn't hesitate, immediately directing the skeletons to continue digging.

About half an hour later, Shane had excavated a sufficient amount of Moon Sand. Once the containers brought by the skeletons were filled to the brim, he turned around with satisfaction. “That's about enough. Let's take some back first and modify the wellhead to test the effects.”

Elon raised no objections. The group departed, leaving only a few skeletons behind to continue working.

However, when they returned to the wellhead, they found the atmosphere was somewhat tense.

By the well, two groups of people were facing off. One side was led by Rhine, while the other consisted of residents who looked like adventurers.

Both sides were at each other's throats, and the air was thick with tension.