Even though they laughed it off, both of them were actually really nervous and cautious. Oliver went to all his friends and even warned their parents directly, trying to make sure that none of them told anyone outside the village. Emerald, who was technically the current Village Chief, directly ordered that no one was allowed to go outside the walls until the caravan arrived. She also made sure the guards kept a close eye on the carrier pigeons. They also started preparing for the worst, organizing the hunters and miners into a militia to help the handful of guards keep a proper watch over the walls.

Oliver in particular was keeping a close eye on his shed. Of course, he didn’t just stare at the shed all day. Barilo brought over some big rocks he found and the two of them took sledge hammers to smash them into smaller rocks. Then those little rocks were placed in a metal mortar and then pulverized by a steel pestel.

Eventually, when there was nothing but powder, they would put everything onto a thin wire mesh screen, jiggle it a bit. Pour the bigger pieces back into the mortar and smash it up a bit more. Instead of just slamming down, they also twisted the pestle around and crushed everything more evenly. After separating the dusty part from the slightly larger pieces of rock once more, they started panning.

A metal tub of water was placed in the middle of the yard. The two boys sat on the sides and dipped a little bit of water into their layered pans. Then jiggled the pans a bit to get all the heavy dust wet. It turned into a grayish brown muddy mess. Oliver jiggled the pan a bunch of times and slowly separated the heavier metals from the lighter muddier material.

Soon enough, the water in the tub was really muddy, but the water in the pan was almost clear. There was a thick black sand resting on the lower three layers of the tan ceramic pan. He smiled and looked down at the glittering dots of gold and silver. Then he took a decently powerful magnet and collected up a lot of the black sand, which was likely iron. After a little more sifting and shimmying, when there wasn’t much left. Instead of swirling the water, at this point, he tapped the side of the pan a few times and the water quickly separated the black from the shiny bits. Then he took out a small plastic bottle with a tube on the end, sucking up all the flecks of gold and silver that were all clustered around on the left side. He opened the bottle up and dumped everything out into another black pan afterwards.

Compared to Barilo, Oliver was obviously many times faster at every step of the process. Putting aside any differences in physical strength or even the benefits of being a ‘Miner’, he simply had far more experience because he was several years older. Even so, the bald-headed boy was actually really talented and had been gold panning for a few years already. He didn’t need any help or advice. The two of them just chatted about random things the whole time.

Eventually Forest, Peridot, Irving and Myrtle also came over to ‘play’. They didn’t all pan for gold. Forest was making arrows and bolts. Irving was cutting firewood. Myrtle watered and took care of the flowers in the garden nearby. Only Peridot was having fun panning. It should be noted that during the crushing process, they did wear simple masks and eye protection that Oliver created with his Cursed Word.

“It’s so cool that you can just like, create something out of nothing. I’m so jealous…”

Peridot pouted and looked at the black pestle in her right hand, “I don’t know if I would want to be a Miner though. When I grow up, I’ll probably be too tall and I’ll have to bend over all the time.”

“It’s not out of nothing though.” Oliver shook his head, “When I use this power, it feels like… Well, exhausting. That’s the best way to put it. The bigger the object, the more tired I’ll get. Uncle Klein said that if I use this power too much, I could pass out or die.”

“How long will these things last before they disappear? The paper Grandpa makes usually disappears if it gets wet or rips a little.”

“I don’t really know, because the things I make aren’t that easy to break. I usually just release them to get my energy back. I still have some gear my Dad made before I was even born, so I know that Mining equipment can last a really long time.”

“That’s so cool!” Barilo shouted on the side.

“Yeah, damn it, I’m so jealous!” Peridot grumbled, put on her mask and safety glasses again, then started smashing up some rocks with the pestle.

“Instead of getting angry and feeling like things are unfair, you should find something you’re really good at and enjoy doing. If you work hard enough, then maybe you’ll be able to get recognized by the world?”

“That’s easy for you to say, Ollie.” Forest snickered on the side, picked up a crossbow and easily shot a tiny green fruit from a tree branch on the other end of the yard. He looked over at everyone with a proud expression, “Look how awesome my archery is! But I’m still not good enough to be recognized by the world!”

Barilo snickered, “I don’t know about the world, but you’re definitely gonna be recognized by your Grandmother.”

“Crazy Bastard! Watch where you’re shooting!” A loud high-pitched voice came from next door. A short but muscular brown-haired woman hopped over the short green fence with a sandal in her hand, “Stop running! I’m gonna beat your ass!”

“Hahahaha~!” Of course, Oliver and the others didn’t bother trying to help their friend escape. The sweet and innocent-looking Myrtle even tripped him, so that he was easily captured and spanked until he started crying. Only then did the ‘old lady’ who wasn’t even forty yet, stop embarrassing the poor brat. Besides, she was in the middle of cooking, so she didn’t have that much time and energy to spare teaching her naughty grandson a lesson.

There were no bandit attacks. Nobody died. Overall, it was a relatively peaceful day in an ordinary mountainside village named Verde.

At night, Klein came over to keep watch over the shed, while the guards/militia also took shifts to watch different parts of the 2 meter high stone wall. The village really wasn’t that big. There were a lot of trees for cover though, some of which even had branches that reached over from the outside or inside of the wall to the other side. If someone really wanted to sneak in or out, it wouldn’t be difficult at all.

When Oliver finished taking a bath downstairs and went upstairs to go to sleep, he stopped suddenly.

“What the hell? Marble Mom, this isn’t your room. I know you wanna yell at your daughter, but this is getting kinda creepy.”

The Angry Woman statue was pointing at the bed and her white eyes seemed to be filled with hatred as she opened her mouth to ‘curse’. On the bed, the teenage girl was turned over onto her stomach. The hands were still sticking up in the air and the wrists were stuck together. The feet were also ‘dangling’ with the ankles fused. On the large bed, even stretched out as much as possible, the girl was still unable to reach the brown wooden headboard or the foot of the bed. The whole body was also still under the thick green quilt and another thin white sheet.

“Maybe I really should’ve sold you to Verna’s parents for twenty gold? Hehe~! Then again, a haunted statue is definitely worth even more than a regular masterpiece, right?”

Even though he said that, Oliver just picked up the statue and brought it down into the basement. Found a mostly empty storage room for old mining tools and even locked the door from the outside. However, when he walked through the dark basement, he noticed that some of the other sculptures had moved from their places slightly… Not much, but it was still pretty disturbing.

“Are they all haunted? Damn it, I definitely got ripped off! What’s the going rate for a haunted statue though? I’ll have to ask Klein tomorrow.”

When he came back to the bedroom upstairs, the Stone Sister was laying on her back. Though she still had that pained, scared, sad and remorseful expression on her face. What Oliver noticed more than that was something else though…

“Why does it seem like… Hmmm, I’m probably hallucinating.”