"Well, that is kind of disturbing."

Krenocia says "I think you should get out of there while you still can!"

"I want to! But I don't know if this is enough diamonds for the ship and coming back again would be even more dangerous!"

Krenocia says "You already grabbed all the diamonds. What else can you do?"

"There are other lava tubes, they might have diamonds in them. Besides, I want a different exit that doesn't have an undead T-rex outside it!"

Krenocia says "Well, I know arguing won't stop you. Just make sure you stay alive!"

"Yes ma'am!"

With my mind made up to risk it, I return to the main shaft of the volcano. I remember seeing several other lava tubes, but since I didn't explore them I don't remember exactly where they are. So, I return to my normal body and start flying down the shaft in circles looking.

There is no sign of the undead, they must have all moved down to the island by now. Although, it does make me wonder how they get down to the island, do they fall? It was quite the distance from the end of the shaft down to the island.

The only other way down would be to crawl along the ceiling and then swim to the island. That would take a really long time, even for undead who don't get tired. The maker probably figured out some sort of trick to speed things up using magic.

While I am curious about how powerful her magic is, I am not curious enough to fight her yet. As soon as I spot another lava tube I fly into it and start searching for gems. After traveling for a few miles I come across an area where the rocks are different.

When I grab one it easily crumbles in my paw and inside I find a red gem that looks like a ruby. Tossing it in my pouch I grab and crush another rock, this time the gem inside looks like a sapphire. The third rock contains another ruby, but the fourth rock rewards me with a diamond.

Since diamonds are what I am after I decide to collect and crush every rock in the area. After about a hundred rocks or so I come up with something different, a purple gem. As soon as I touch it I can feel a massive amount of mana contained inside, about five thousand.

The mana is a mix of fire and earth mana, it was probably formed deep down in the planet's core. With this I can make a magical item that people without mana can use, it would just be a limited amount of uses. I could even use it to replenish my own mana in an emergency situation.

There are several uses I can think of just off the top of my head, so I am hoping for more. The more I have the more uses I can come up with for them, so I collect the rocks as fast as I can. Not wanting to miss a single one I scan the walls with mana and dig out those I find.

I have no idea how this many strange rocks all ended up in one place, but I am glad they did. Now I also want to check the other lava tubes, I don't want to leave a single gem behind. As I am crazily opening rocks to get the gems I suddenly freeze with a red gem in my paw.

It is slightly different from rubies and has a slight golden glow around it. The reason I froze was because the instant it was revealed my instincts reacted to it. Following the instinct I toss the gem into my mouth and bite down, shattering it.

The pieces turn into liquid inside my mouth and flow down my throat as I swallow. Instantly a warm feeling rushes throughout my body and it is quite pleasant. It feels kind of like the feeling you get after finishing a delicious bowl of soup.

*DING*

Congratulations! Skill Fire & Lightning Mastery has progressed to level 2!

Fire & Lightning Mastery

Level: 2

All Fire and Lightning spells have an extra 20% effect.

'What skill? Where did this skill even come from? I have never seen it before!!'

Looking at the name and effect of the skill my best guess is that it is related to my new race. Maybe I got the skill from being inside the red gem and just didn't notice it before. After all, I had a lot on my mind at the time so missing a skill is quite possible.

It does explain why my fire and lightning spells have been doing more damage than I expected. If it is increasing by ten percent per level that means at level ten my spells will do double damage! At that point anything that isn't immune to fire and lightning will die easily!

Shaking my head to clear those thoughts I go back to smashing the rocks. Now not only am I hoping for more mana gems but also another gem like that one. While I am finding plenty of normal gems, I am not lucky enough to find another one to eat.

However, I do find a total of five of the mana gems before I run out of rocks. The lava tube lets out on the other side of the island from where I started. Now the question is, do I go back and search another lava tube or fly away while I have the chance?

It is night now, but there are still several hours until dawn so I have the time. The problem is that I doubt the maker is going to just let me keep harvesting in peace. She should have come up with another plan by now, so why isn't anything attacking me?

The smart thing to do would be to get out while the coast is clear, but I am fighting my greed. Just the smallest chance of there being another edible gem makes me want to risk it. On the other hand I probably have enough diamonds by now, not to mention the other gems.

Krenocia is still watching me, I can feel her eyes on me, so if I risk it I will get a lecture. Even knowing that, I still want to go back down and look for more gems. Maybe the maker isn't doing anything right now because she doesn't want to lose more energy?

Thinking of that, I still have the hundred Origin Energy that I haven't used yet. Now that I have plenty of diamonds I may as well go ahead and use it on my soul. When I do my soul recovers another ten Soul Hp, meaning my theory was correct.

So, just another three hundred energy and I could completely repair my soul. Sticking around to look for more gems will most likely give me the chance to collect more energy. Sounds like a case of 'two birds, one stone' to me, so I turn to re-enter the lava tube.

"Oh, right. Krenocia, did you figure out what happened with the lifeforce earlier?"

Krenocia says "Yes, the extra came to me once you couldn't hold any more."

"So, right now I am full??"

Krenocia says "Yes, basically."

"Then how long do I have currently?"

Krenocia says "About fifty years."

"Does that mean I can live beyond your time limit?!"