Chapter 21: Dust

Earth, stone, sand, or crystals, they were all faces of a multifaceted coin. To master any of these branches, one had to invest effort, time, and intellect, simply to find the connections back to the primal element of earth. As someone who had already mastered a fairly complex sub-skill, it wasn't that difficult to begin learning new ones; it wasn't like learning an entirely different element of bending. While the Avatar could worry about mastering completely new elements, I needed only to anchor the power of crystals to my existing foundation.

The only thing was… in my attempts to learn from my neighbors, the other laborers, they had started calling me a "mole." In local slang, that meant someone who pestered you to sniff out the secrets of your bending. Simply put, I didn't get off on the right foot with anyone. Perhaps crystal benders were natural loners, their defining trait being a solitary nature, but something told me not to take that as gospel.

"Hey, kid, looking for advice?"

I had returned to the excavation zone, frustrated after observing people, and had begun striking the crystals with my fists when a voice rang out. Turning around, I saw a cheerful guy sitting on the ground, surrounded by a pile of crystals.

"Can you tell me how to develop crystalbending?" I felt a surge of hope. Even in the murkiest depths, there’s always a beacon of light. This was the first person with a respectful smile I’d met in the last few hours. I stopped in front of him, and forgive the tautology, Wan Shi Tong, and saw him holding out a crystal-clear blue gemstone toward me.

"To master crystalbending… you must think like a crystal. You must become the crystal," he spoke like some sort of Guru, in riddles and obscurities, which caught my attention. Then he placed the blue crystal on the ground, crushed it into dust with his fist, leaned down… and snorted the whole thing. "I’ll sniff it a-a-all up!"

...That day, the only thing I realized was the razor-thin margin between a junkie and a Guru. Since no one was helping, I decided to figure it all out myself. I stood before the crystal wall and, through sweat and sheer effort, began trying to excavate it while simultaneously subduing it to my will. My only hope lay in my first opened chakra; after all, was I any worse than the other miners?

The next day, after spending the night in a truly spacious room that nonetheless contained nothing but a bed, a small table, and a washroom (elite Spartan conditions where leisure was limited to books), I returned to digging the tunnel. I realized that not many people worked with crystals, maybe a dozen, though there were about a hundred in the entire cavern. Novices tried to subdue the new branch in hopes of earning double pay, but the crystals didn't yield much under their crude strikes. Some had given up entirely after yesterday’s incidents, when the masters got tired of freeing the rookies and decided, as a joke, to let them "crystallize" for a while. I was the only one who came to their aid, awkwardly chipping away pieces of jennomite to get them out.

I wasn't doing it for the money; it had become a matter of principle. Like a jackhammer, I pounded the wall for several hours straight, tearing my knuckles open. My experience as a blacksmith, where one must constantly deliver strikes with an unyieldingly high standard, helped. I began to understand. Only through relentless attempts to fight the growing crystal, only by being more persistent than the mineral itself, could one master the material. That was what distinguished the veteran miners from the novices: they were all stubborn. Just don’t confuse persistence with being high.

"Rookie!"

Just as I managed to separate several massive chunks with a few well-placed punches, a smile blooming on my face like the world had never seen, someone called out. A man walking through the cave with a small container beckoned me over, asking me to bring the harvested crystals along.

"Since you've learned to harvest properly, you’ll be crushing it yourself to make abrasive," he said. I took a deep breath, focusing all my attention on the man. My goggles hid my intense, seemingly angry gaze, which allowed me to interact with people calmly. "Watch closely, I won't repeat this. Take the container, put the crystals in, and hammer them with your fists. Have you ever struck sand? I hope so, because that’s the main secret."

Thump!

Without a word, I raised my fist, echoing a movement I had been refining since childhood. With a light touch, I sent vibrations through the crystal, shattering its bonds and causing it to crumble, literally like sand. The man, who had been watching closely, blinked rapidly and rubbed the back of his head.

"That was… fast. Anyway, you can use that skill to deactivate its growth property. You could try eating it, but if you aren't sure of your abilities, don't even think about it. First, your digestive tract crystallizes, then your veins, and finally your skin starts to shatter."

The guy seemed to be trying to scare me, but I was only interested in one thing.

"Is this the abrasive already?" I asked, bewildered, running my hand over the sharp particles. It was light, but far sharper than the sand found in the desert.

"...Yes. Press them into small discs like these, and at the end of the day, turn them into the warehouse. You'll get paid. Though I wouldn't count on a huge profit from them," he grunted, leaving me to my own devices. I spent the next few hours having a blast, breaking crystals and creating sharp sand. In turn, this sand could produce much sharper blades, which could be honed far thinner, down to ten degrees like a straight razor. It could be used to create handy circular saws suitable for processing more crystals, but most importantly: it was compact. I made myself several rings, one for each finger. Every crystal was a different color, and I limited their growth so I wouldn't wake up one night in a trap. I really didn't want to win a Darwin Award. Only when I wanted to, by nudging them to grow, could I produce the material and then grind it into sharp sand.

It was a bit of a makeshift setup, but now I could produce sand even while high in the sky. It was worth coming to work here for that alone. But the crystal itself was also quite useful for many tasks. In my attempts to learn how to better apply it, I continued to spend my days there.

******

"Dagoth, I still don't get how you learned to break this damn jennomite so fast. I’m ready to bash my head against it, but nothing works!" A guy, exhausted from the monotonous labor, slumped onto his rear and pulled out his daily ration. I have to say, they fed us well here – plenty of meat and a bunch of other vitamins to keep the dusty workers healthy. For me, it was practically divine nectar. Since I didn't spend much money and had no family to support, I spent part of my wages on extra rations. It helped me grow faster, because while I was an adult, it was only by local standards.

In my old world, I’d still be considered a growing brat.

The guy who had latched onto me was the only novice who hadn't given up; his name was Roach. Everyone else had ignored him too, nearly labeling him the "second mole," but he was lucky enough to run into me. I didn't mind helping with a bit of advice.

"Don't give up."

"Yeah, yeah, I heard the same thing from my mama," he rolled his eyes dejectedly. "But what do you think I'm doing? I’ve been breaking my back here for almost a week and I’ve earned next to nothing. You only get paid for the volume of work and the abrasive discs, and I have neither. I guess I just don't have the talent."

"Then why don't you go to the forge?"

"Because! I want to learn. I'll get paid way more later if I master such a rare specialty. And then I’ll join the army. I’ll be the first soldier in crystal armor with a sword shining in the sun! I like the thought of being remembered in history."

"I hate to disappoint you, but in the history of the Earth Kingdom, there have been several benders who used crystals. Take General Cheng, for instance, or Master Terracotta, born over three hundred years ago..." I trailed off, seeing the boredom on his face. "...In that case, listen to your mother's advice. The secret of crystals lies in your own persistence."

"There you go again," he rolled his eyes, finished his meal, and decided to channel his emotions into diligence. The kid wanted to achieve something; his fists hammered the target like a machine gun. I offered a few pointers so as not to witness such a mindless waste of energy, and finally, I started to see results. "Oh, not bad, right? Tell me that was good!"

The impact of his fists created long cracks in the quartz wall.

"Um… wait, Roach," I said, sensing something was wrong, as if my advice had slightly tilted this kid's luck in the wrong direction. I tried to stop him.

"You said yourself I shouldn't stop. I'm going to be like a ram; they’ll call me the Crystal Bull!"

CRA-A-ACK!

At that exact moment, his next strike triggered a massive web of fissures. He had channeled his power incorrectly, causing the ceiling to be covered in a terrifying spiderweb of cracks. The veteran miners recognized the sound instantly, looked up, and began to retreat immediately.

THOOM!

Debris began to rain from the roof. While a large stone wasn't too hard to deflect, a cluster of crystals, which was much more resistant to bending, could only be tanked. That was why some workers wore various types of armor as they fled the cave as fast as possible. As for Roach and me, who would’ve guessed, we were unlucky. A large crystal instantly cut us off from the exit and continued to bury us from above. Black dust even appeared; there must have been a coal deposit nearby.

Seeing how dangerous the collapse was, I instinctively shattered several crystals around me, turning them into relatively smooth sand, and cocooned myself along with the terrified boy. Powerful, heavy blows struck my barrier from above. Chunks of earth piled up without stopping, and moving was nearly impossible.

"H-Holy Spirit, what have I done!" the boy lying under me screamed, clutching his head. "We’re going to die! I’ve killed us both!"

"I doubt it," I said calmly.

"H-how can you be so calm?!"

"We aren't far from the exit; they’ll dig us out quickly. Worst case, we’ll get out ourselves. I can definitely feel a hollow space right above us."

"Whew… so we aren't going to die?" His pants were nearly wet. I instinctively moved away to avoid getting soiled. If he hadn't been screaming, he would have noticed the cave-in had already stopped. I could feel particles in the air, so I had to put on a filter. It would save us for a few seconds until we settled the dust.

Guided by cold logic, I did everything necessary to survive, even clearing the stones from the roof of our sand dome. And when I finally removed our protection, I saw dust swirling in the air… a mixture of coal, crystals, and stone, racing through the air rapidly due to the remnants of mischanneled bending energy. It was a mesmerizing sight, during which…

"Is that lightning?" Roach was surprised too, seeing several electrical flashes generated by the rapid vibration of the dust. I watched this beauty with bated breath, wondering how such a thing was possible. Unfortunately, the dust settled quickly as the culprit of the chaos forced it to the ground to avoid ruining our filters.

I blinked, frowned, and turned to the boy who was still trembling with raw fear. Looking at what was supposed to be a promising bender wishing to study the craft, I decided to give him a life lesson. I grabbed him by the shoulder and looked him harshly in the eye. His knees began to shake.

"Before you try to master crystals, you’d better study the earth itself. Learn the mentality of simple earthbenders, what they are like at their core, and only then go after your goals. If you shake at every little thing, you won't even be able to master a simple pebble."

My words, though harsh, left him stunned. While he reflected, I cleared the debris, clearly sensing that someone was digging toward us from the other side.

After that day, Roach left Factorio, citing health issues from the lack of sunlight. Because of the cave-in, a hollow space became visible, allowing us to reach the goal faste; the kid’s luck had clearly surpassed my own. We reached the cavern with the jennomite deposits and set it up ahead of schedule. As for me… still remembering that strange phenomenon with the lightning, I decided to send Afka to the library to find any information explaining what that was.

A few days later, she brought me a book by a certain scholar from the Si Wong Desert, titled: Sandstorms and Static Electricity.