Chapter 11: Losing It

Of Zushi's group of eight, the five boys walked barefooted in the shallow water of the river, less than a meter from the river's banks, where the three girls followed at the same pace.

Zax turned his Soul Sense On and Off every ten minutes as if it was a light switch. If there were Earth's Cores in the river, his Soul Sense only enabled him to tell where they were not. One positive thing, which evolved from this tedious repetitiveness, was that little by little Zax got more used to the oppressive environmental essence of cave zero thirty nine and could separate tiny bits of its various past residues. This helped Zax to keep clear mind, outer and inner alike, and distinguish between the illusion of the past and his Soul Sense's present discoveries.

As time progressed, many grim faces, sullen faces, pouty faces and many more facial expressions could be seen around the flowing river. Cave zero thirty nine was one of the tree searching grounds of the Great Earth's Core Pursuit. It had meadows, forests, hills, which were not far off from being called "Mountains", a very deep and large lake and a river that was flowing to it.

Of all the wonders of cave zero thirty nine, two places where the epicenter for most of the participants in the Great Earth's Core Pursuit. Throughout the cave, they were told by their representative Guardians, the lake and the river possessed the greatest deposits of Earth's Cores. But did it mean that whoever searches in those wondrous places could really find an Earth's Core? The answer was unequivocally No. What the representative Guardians of cave three, eight and ninety nine meant when they recommended the young participants of their caves to search in the said two locations, was that they, the young participants, will have a higher success rate for finding Earth's Cores in the lake and the river than anywhere else in cave zero thirty nine.

This transparent interpolation of the representative Guardians' words, only at the latter half of the event, became evident to the many young participants.

"There it is!" Zax nearly announced aloud. "Almost missed it. Truly can't trust our eyes, lucky my Soul sense detected it". It has been a hour or so since they started searching in the river and while doing so it was difficult to determine by eye sight which stone was a dark pebble and which one could be an Earth's Core.

"Dane, Dane, pass on some of your snacks". Zax called using their new agreed upon sign, repeating twice the name of the last of them who spoke, which meant for everyone to stop and gather beside the one who called it.

"The nutrition tablets filled us". Anet politely declined. In her response she actually included Mi and Serah who looked at her perplexed.

"Wha- Anet ... A fair warning, we will eat up all the snacks. If you don't eat some with us now, don't complain later..." The confused Weysey tried to sway her mind. An ugly expression was on his face. "Anet, Serah, Mi, come!"

"I don't feel like eating snacks, either", Zushi surprised everyone and completely shocked Weysey. "And my legs are cold. I'm going ahead with the girls on the river's banks".

"What?!" Merly was about to oppose this madness, but then...

'Okay", Dane lowered his head to his open backpack. "Us four will eat by ourselves". His tone sounded as if he was smiling.

"Hahaha ... your loss, guys". Zax stuck out his tongue. At that moment it hit Merly and Weysey, too.

The girls, Anet, to be precise, might have found another Earth's Core! At the same time as Weysey, Merly, Mi and Serah reached that conclusion, they also understood why she did not use the sign. Calling twice in Zax's name right after he called twice in Dane's name would have made it too obvious.

Zax did not rush to pick up the Earth's Core that was five centimeters behind Dane's foot. Since it was too sudden, he could not grasp more than the external shape and so it still was not conclusive that the round object his Soul Sense located bulging from the bottom of the river was an Earth's Core. A perfect sphere with a smooth surface, yes, an Earth's Core ... Zax reached out for the candy bar Dane offered him. "Let's see". He whispered as he took the first sweet bite and wrapped his Soul Sense around the stone.

Unlike the earth and pebbles, Zax's Soul Sense could not probe into the round stone, therefore he asserted with absolute certainty. "An Earth's Core!" Slightly hesitating, Zax accepted the opportunity to survey the surrounding of the Earth's Core, the environmental essence around it and finally the Earth's Core itself.

"Will it be like before?" The question played in his mind as he waited for the answer. No. It was not. Or at least not right away. First was the bottom of the river that the Earth's Core was stuck to. Soil and small pebbles, there was nothing to elaborate about it. Next was the environmental essence. Water and sparkling shreds, fragments really, that when he split them were arduous to interpret. However, when he looked at them in his mind, like the pieces of a great puzzle, he sort of could, inconsistency, see, hear, touch, smell and taste the nature's of this portion of cave zero thirty nine.

What it was, an Earth's Core? Then he moved onto his last hurdle. He tried to understand what his Soul Sense perceived when it wrapped the brownish stone he determined to be the subject of his pursuit. "Tough", Zax first analyzed. "Impenetrable", at the very least to an inexpert ten years old boy. "More? Try to get more of it!" Zax scolded himself, but apart from external analysis, he acquired nothing from the abnormal object that was an Earth's Core.

All this probing of the surrounding, the environmental essence and finally the Earth's Core only took place in the span of three bites and the time it took Zax to bend the knee and reach out with his hand for the Earth's Core. In spite of this, as fast as it was, getting into the root of a matter, formless or not, was several times more tasking than grasping the considerable presences of anything that passed in the domain of his Soul Sense.

By when Zax's fingers felt the half shape of the Earth's Core that bulged from the bottom of the river, he depleted a third of his soul energy and was ruled by a couple of flustering emotions. "Is that it? Then what was the cause of the misperception I had before?" He thought of the contradictions of the Earth's Core that was not there and the many that were. "Environment essence, was this all the cause of adjusting to the environmental essence?"

Zax concentrated his Qi in his left arm, and as much as he could in the tip of each finger. He grabbed the Earth's Core and pulled it out with ease. "Eh... ?" He noticed something in the water, floating on the river. The sheer bewilderment made him stood up, holding the Earth's Core in the open for others to see, that is, not bothering hiding it.

"Zax", Dane said in a subtle voice. "Zax..."

"Quick, Zax, what are you doing?" Merly moved to one side, Weysey to the other, both of them covered Zax.

"Why aren't you picking them up?!" Zax voice ranged. There were just so many, enough for every participant for the next couple of days. "So many Earth's Core!" Pronouncing it aloud, Zax immediately got the attention of all of the participants searching in the river and river's banks.

"Crap! I think he lost it again!" Dane said to Merly and Weysey. The look in Zax eyes before he turned, his imprudent conduct with the Earth's Core that he picked and his disregard of his friends and the other participants around them. "Don't let him lose control again!" Dane called for Zushi and the girls so they will also pay heed to Zax before he will start breaking rock, or his bones...

Unfortunately it was too late. With a swift movement Zax slipped through the enclosure of Dane, Weysey and Merly. It did not seem intentionally or with effort to not allow them the chance to hold him back. His body moved on its own. His Qi energy supplied enhancement for physical superiority and his mind, inner mind, was already at the level of F level Mist User. It was ridiculous to expect from three average ten years old boys to keep Zax in place.

"One for Serah, one for Zushi, one for Weysey, one for Mi, one for me, thousands for all of us to pick!"

Zax actions confused not just his friends who were helplessly chasing after him but also the other participants who heard him mindlessly talking to himself and picking what seemed to be imaginary Earth's Cores.

"This guy ... he can use Qi!" Some stared with awe at Zax's light and agile movements, knowing that obviously it was due to Qi utilization.

"Yeah, but what good is it for him if he lost it?" Others were able to hold their disbelief at bay.

Among the thousands participants it was not unimaginable if there was a double digit number of participants who could utilize their Qi. Still, though, it was rare to meet them. A participant that could utilize his or her Qi would usually – according the gossip and rumors that originated from the mere stories of participants from previous year – ventured to the most hard to reach places, in the designated cave for the search, after high end Earth's Cores.

"Poor guy ... Is that an Earth's Core he is holding?!"

"How many are we?" Someone immediately asked.

"We share the same idea?" Another replied.

"Three guys are already after him". A fatty boy pointed.