ALL NOVEL Chapter 47: Hunting For Salt (3)
Due to the size of the Cavern and the distance away from the entrance, in conjunction with Glacia's short stature and pace, it took nearly half an hour for Aoni and his summon to reach their destination, which, in fact, was the glowing lake.
Upon reaching the shore, the fluff ball darted around side to side, with her arms spread wide as if trying to say, "LOOK! LOOK IT AT!" drawing a smirk from Aoni as he did one of the first things he was taught to.
Walking forward and crouching by the water, he dipped a single finger into the chilly clear liquid before bringing it to his tongue and nodding.
"It's freshwater, but what is that?" he stated while wiping his finger on his pants and standing back up, observing the still waters as they pulsed with light similar to the Energia Crystals embedded all around the Cavern.
From where he stood, Aoni noticed a clear drop off as the bottom of the lake deepened and changed in color to a hazy blue.
'Either there's a strong current down there…or,' quickly looking around at the rocky floor for anything to confirm his theory, Aoni noticed several light grey crystalline minerals scattered everywhere.
And upon picking one up and tasting it, the lad's eyes widened into crescents because…they were pure, naturally formed Salt.
"So something must be filtering the water at the bottom of the lake and removing the Salt, where it's deposited on the shoreline. It must be the multitude of Energia Crystals all over the place; even the lake bottom is saturated in them." Shrugging off his pack, Aoni began filling it with whatever he could get his hands on, and soon enough, even Glacia joined in.
"Grab as much as you can and bring it here, Glacia; once the pack is full, we can make a trip back home and come back for more." Looking over his shoulder as the furry missile darted all over the place, Aoni thought about his next move.
If he wanted to turn this rock salt into a usable form, he'd first have to crush it up into a fine powder; only then would he be able to coat the hides and begin the tanning process.
And given how many hides he had waiting for him back at the cave, it didn't take a genius to understand one backpack wouldn't be nearly enough.
'This place has basically all the necessities required for life, a water source, protection from the harsh environment outside, and most importantly, a metric fuck ton of Energia Crystals.' Pausing his salt collection, Aoni gazed out toward the center of the lake and frowned.
'It's too perfect, almost as if it was created by something. This space is far too large to be naturally occurring; something made a den here, and that something must be huge.' Taking a slow and steadying breath, the lad slowly took in his surroundings, looking for anything that could represent lifeforms having nested here in the past, such as scattered bones or even literal nests. Still, as far as he could tell, there was nothing.
'It certainly wasn't any humanoid lifeform; there would, at the very least, be cave drawings or dwellings; it's truly as if this place has been untouched by life, which is making me even more uncomfortable.'
'Once the barrier recedes, and it's open season on my territory, there is a strong possibility something immensely powerful will return to claim this space.' Looking down upon seeing a happy fluff ball with arms filled with rock salt toddling her way toward him, Aoni quickly stored them away, gave her a few head pats, and stood up.
'I've already spotted at least half a dozen different mineral stones, and that's only at a glance; I don't know what they are because they can be practically anything, but they all have distinct colors when compared to the cavern walls and floor.'
'Combine that with the Salt and water source, and only a single thing is missing; I need to know how many exits this place has. If there are too many, it will be impossible to manage alone, and I'll have to collapse them first if I plan on creating a settlement here.'
"Glacia, I have a very important mission for you," looking down at his summon, who was also looking around the Cavern curiously, Aoni drew her attention and watched as the fur ball showed rare intelligence in her eyes.
"I'm thinking about moving down here, but first, we need to make sure it's safe. I need you…" pointing at her, Aoni continued to explain that he wanted her to search for any way out of the Cavern, apart from the tunnel they came in from.
While it took some explaining, Glacia caught on pretty quickly and was off, running as fast as her little legs would carry, leaving Aoni alone before he could even say another word.
Watching as the blur of white ran around the lake to the opposite end, Aoni noted that there appeared to be another path down, similar to the one behind him. He nodded before turning around and trekking back up the original way.
His reasoning was simple: Glacia was heading in one direction, and since he had instructed her to travel along the walls going clockwise, he would do the opposite and eventually meet up with his summon.
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Two hours and a decent amount of exploration later, Aoni, after doing his best to decipher and understand Glacia, had a rough outline of the Cavern, including how many exits, what types of rock formations were present, and most importantly, whether or not it was feasible as an underground settlement.
And, after finally getting a proper answer from the hyper ball of fluff, the lad was left with a pensive expression as he tried plotting out his next course of action.
'I found three other exits to the cave, one below and two above, and if Glacia's intel can be trusted, she found five more; that brings the total to eight, and I really only hoped to have two, maybe three max…shit.' Clicking his tongue, Aoni calmed himself down and motioned for Glacia to follow him back toward the tunnel leading to the Sled.