As they began to walk through the crystal forest, Sage could hear Rocky mumbling under their breath, “Why do I have to babysit this time, did I not do a good enough job last time? That other guy died because of his own fault, not mine.”

Sage coughed loudly, trying to remind Rocky that he wasn’t here by himself and that Sage could definitely hear what he was saying. Rocky didn’t seem to get the hint as he kept on grumbling. Sage distinctly heard things like ‘sick weakling’, ‘diseased lungs’, ‘feeble legs’, and many other more colorful insults. It’s too bad that Sage had no idea what exactly they were supposed to be doing in this Hidden Domain or he could distract himself with work. Instead he was just supposed to follow Rocky around and help with his work. Since Rocky continued to walk, Sage could only follow along in his footsteps.

The scenery was certainly astounding, they were walking through what seemed to be a thriving forest, yet every bit of vegetation was replaced by a strange facsimile made out of crystalline materials. The ground itself was also strange, the very earth itself seemed to be unusual minerals instead of the usual brown or yellow soil. The ‘dirt’ was similar to grains of sand, but when it stacked up it appeared to be a dark blue color. From a distance it could be mistaken for normal dirt, but not under close examination. When he asked Rocky about it, he just snorted at Sage, “Hah. Don’t worry about it, just keep your mouth shut and don’t bother me.”

Suffice it to say, the journey was pretty silent. Sage was still impressed by the landscape, but the lack of animals or other life was strange. He wanted to ask about it, but when he cleared his throat Rocky growled at him. Literally growled! This guy is like a wild animal or something, what is his deal?

Eventually they came to the edge of a canyon, the sand like ground giving way to huge translucent rock formations. The rocks seemed to have been torn asunder and pushed to the sides, creating a large gap between them. At the top of the canyon, Rocky looked over at Sage and spoke, “Wait here. You’ll just slow me down in there. Don’t try to follow me or you’ll probably lose your life and I’ll get in trouble again. I’ll be back tomorrow evening.”

Without giving him a chance to ask questions, Rocky just sunk directly into the ground like there was a trapdoor beneath him. Sage couldn’t help himself, leaning forward and looking at the ground as if he could understand the nature of the trick with just some observation. Well, looks like I’m on my own for now. Might as well explore a bit.

Rocky said it was dangerous to follow him down into the canyon, but Sage didn’t plan on heading down. Instead he’d just wander around the area nearby on top of the canyon and do some experiments on the strange ‘plants’ and soil. He brought out all the tools he had from his many different professions and started doing basic science experiments. His chemistry background and knowledge was pretty weak, but he could still learn things by finding boiling points and watching heat reactions of the materials. He could also test whether things dissolve in water or a few of the acids he had, and whether things could be heated and worked like metals or if they quickly went to liquid or gaseous states.

After a few hours of testing the ‘trees’, ‘leaves’, ‘grass’, ‘flowers’, and other crystal plants, Sage tried some rocks and stones and he came to a few conclusions. This was probably a place that held a gemsteel mine. When he was dissolving various sorts of stones in acids, he found that one of the acids that was used for gemsteel working had an unusual reaction and with a bit of messing around he confirmed that there were small amounts of gemsteel ore in the crystal boulders and rocks at the cliffside. It was quite likely the canyon was a natural mine, or Rocky was using his powers to treat it as one.

With a bit more experimenting, Sage figured out how to use the acid as a tool on the crystal trunks of the trees. With the acid, he could etch and cut through the crystals with precise clean cuts. He’d only dabbled in a little bit of gem cutting during his training as a blacksmith, and that usually involved careful chiseling and lots of slow grinding and polishing. Doing such delicate work with large structures like tree trunks and branches would take forever so he was glad of the shortcut.

The other thing he discovered was more surprising and also interesting. Somehow, the crystal plants in this crystal forest were in some sense… alive! It was hard for Sage to figure out how to check, but he took a small crystal plant and some of the special soil and liquids, putting them into his Beast Bag to test. After a few hours, the roots of the crystal plant had absorbed the liquids, far more of it gone that to what evaporation might cause. Sage even double checked the experiment a second time with a new plant and an empty batch of soil with liquids in it to have a control test. He wasn’t sure of the mechanism, but the second test seemed to confirm his suspicions.

The liquids he found in the ground weren’t just water, so Sage filled a few bottle gourds and water barrels with the liquid so he could figure out what it was later. While he was at it, he also took a bunch of sample plants and vegetation. Inside his beast bag he cleared out some of the empty cages and put them into his storage ring and set up a little garden with the strange soil, unknown liquid, and a few different plants and tree saplings. Inside the storage ring he gathered some different types of flower blossoms, tree cones, fruits, nuts, and any other seed like crystal plants that he could find. They would stay in stasis there and maybe he could find a way to germinate them in a different area. He also filled a few big sacks with the strange soil, just in case. He had plenty of empty containers and room in his storage ring so he saw no harm in taking ample amounts of sample material.

The day and a half of waiting passed quickly with all his experiments and resource collecting, finally leading to Rocky climbing up out of the ground like he’d just finished going for a swim.

“What’s all this now?”

Sage currently had a table set up and was conducting tests on one of the many plants. He noticed Rocky and tried to think up an excuse before just stating the truth, “I’m testing the ‘plants’. What are they made of, how do they work? You were gone so I couldn’t ask you.”

He chose not to say ‘since you wouldn’t tell me anything’ and went with absence as the excuse instead. Rocky stared for a moment before he waved his hand and walked over to sit on a large boulder of a crystal.

“We’ll rest here for the night and head to the next site in the morning.”

Sage wasn’t about to get cut off again this time so he spoke up quickly, “Would you like any help at the next place? What can you tell me about the place we’re in?”

He kept from asking even more questions, especially leaving out his deduction of the gemsteel. He wasn’t sure if knowing such a thing could get him in trouble, so it was best to leave his guesses unsaid and keep his toes out of that dangerous water. As expected, Rocky was brief and uninformative, “You wouldn’t be any help there. Just do what your told and you’ll be fine.”

Rocky turned away from Sage and started to slowly sink into the ground before Sage could ask anymore questions. While he was doing so, Sage actually noticed that Rocky’s cloak was torn in many places when it hadn’t been before the canyon. There was also a few dark stains near the tears.

Looks like that place was dangerous and Rocky wasn’t just trying to keep secrets. Maybe something is down there living in the mine?