At this point, after all the discussions, if I try to run away it will just make me a coward. Besides, at this point I have thought about it enough that I don't want to run away. I am tired of being alone and I don't want to be alone for the rest of the time I have.

It was fine when I wasn't thinking about it and had plenty of things to distract me. Now that the thought is firmly planted in my head, it isn't going to go away. In fact, I have been having trouble thinking about anything else, especially when I am near her.

Then again, with how beautiful she is, I doubt any straight male could not think about it. Most of them would think that I am absolutely insane for having turned her down. This line of thought is dangerous, so as soon as I have finished eating I leave to return to mining.

Of course, that doesn't really save me since I think about it all the way back to the volcano. Even when I fly down, find the next lava tube, shapeshift into an elf, and start mining gems, I am thinking about Lin. She has definitely taken up permanent residence inside my head, but luckily she doesn't know yet.

She is still being patient and waiting for me to make up my mind, with a little teasing. She is being really respectful of my wishes, no matter how silly I have been about it. If she knew that I have already made up my mind, she would probably be teasing me a lot more.

These thoughts are just me tormenting myself and to get out of it I need something else to think about. In order to distract myself I start going over the planned modifications to the ship. This is another set of thoughts that has no end, but it is less torturous for me.

Luckily, there is nothing weird in this lava tube, just a few gems here and there. It even ends when it reaches the surface just like it is supposed to, with no surprises. Heading back to the shaft and choosing another tube only takes me a few minutes.

Once I am in the new tube and back to mining, my mind goes back into a loop. This time it is all about the ship modifications so it isn't as useless as thinking about Lin. I am planning the modifications in two phases, one to do now, and the other to convert to an airship.

Phase one needs to fix all the problems with the ship as well as make preparations for phase two. There are just too many things that I want to do to the ship and I keep thinking of more. Whether or not I will actually be able to do all of them remains to be seen.

One thing is for sure, no matter what I will have enough gems to do all of them. The main concerns will be the time I have available and if my skills are up to it. There are also several problems that I have set to solve, like how to deal with water.

I know that on modern ships it is dealt with by bilge pumps, but I don't know how they work. Considering my lack of knowledge, my best bet is probably to figure out a magical solution. Water magic isn't really my specialty, so I should probably ask for Lin's advice.

She will probably know of a spell that will work, then I only need to convert it to my use. I have to say that Lin has an amazing memory, she knows hundreds of spells. Despite all my random questions, I have never seen her have to refer to a book to answer me.

What is more impressive is that she has no problem admitting that she doesn't know something. She also doesn't seem to mind when I know something that she doesn't. She is highly intelligent, has a good, stable personality, and she seems to genuinely like me.

This is exactly what I was trying to avoid thinking about and yet here I am thinking about her again. I force myself to go back to thinking about the ship modifications again. This time I do my best to avoid anything magical that I might need advice about.

A few minutes later I am pulled out of my thoughts because I scan an extremely large gem. It is about the size of two fists pressed together, but it is deep in the wall. I start mining it out and as soon as part of it is exposed a bright orange glow becomes visible.

At the sight of the glow my mouth suddenly starts to water, but at the same time there is a rumble. The rumble doesn't last more than a few seconds, but I can feel the lava tube shake. The shaking ends as soon as the rumble does, but it is enough to make me nervous.

After looking around to make sure the tube isn't about to collapse, I go back to mining. When another piece of rocks breaks away, revealing more of the gem, there is another rumble. Hearing the rumble and feeling the shaking I freeze until things quiet down.

Once could be a coincidence, but twice means the rumble is related to the gem. However, leaving the gem where it is, is something I can't make myself do. Just from the little of it I have exposed, my mouth is watering so much that drool is dripping from my chin.

Whatever this gem is, my body obviously wants me to eat it very badly. Considering what has happened previously when I listened to my instincts, I want to eat it. However, at the same time the rumbling and shaking are very worrying.

To verify things I wait a minute and then carefully expose a little more of the gem. As soon as I do there is another rumble and the lava tube shakes a little more. That confirms it, but I am still not willing to give up on getting and eating the gem.

After carefully looking at the gem I start working on the stone around it. Once I have weakened the surrounding stone enough, one good hit fully reveals the gem. As the gem comes free from the wall, the temperature inside the lava tube rockets up.

The rumble this time is much louder and lasts a lot longer, as does the shaking. The shaking is so bad that I can see cracks forming and some chunks fall from the ceiling. I am almost ready to abandon the gem and run when things finally settle down.

I have learned my lesson about touching strange gems without checking them out first. The last thing that I want is to end up getting sucked into another god gem. I do not want to end up as a god, no matter how attractive the goddesses make it seem.

Once the shaking stops I finally turn my attention to the gem and scan it thoroughly. From the scan I can tell that the gem contains a massive amount of heat, but nothing else. It does not contain any strange energy like the god gem does, so it should be safe.