DISCLAIMER- I do not own anything, all credit goes to Kingsisle Entertainment.

Zarek went silent for a few minutes, his body shook harder with every moment gone by. I was going to ask him to forget about it, but he soon gave me a response.

"I'll need some sample crystals from each elevated dig points. Those'll help us to figure out where the best ones could be found." He then dug into a pouch by his foot, retrieving a pickaxe and another pouch. "Use these to gain them crystals. And I don't want no stealing from ya either!"

I took the pickaxe and pouch, swinging them over my right shoulder," I have no reason to steal these nor anything from this world." I bowed my goodbye to him. "I will return as soon as I have enough."

Just as I was walking towards the inner grove, Zarek spoke out again."

"Wait! don't go there, you won't be finding me any crystals!"

"Hmm?" I hummed over my shoulder, "this is a grove. Now why wouldn't I find any?"

Zarek pointed a shaking thumb to his right, "because you blind wizard, someone has already grabbed them all here. Be wasting sunlight looking for more around these parts." To his right emerged another wizard who was covered in purple dust, also carrying a good size pouch behind him. "This young man has been here since noon, working with no complain." He shot me a stink eye, "or none of that back talk."

I held my position along with my facial expressions as the man came into view. He was about six inches taller than me, though skinnier than me. He wore pitch black from head to toe, only color came from the silver shine from the chains around his stomach, arms, legs, and neck. The black elegant hat of his hid away his face from my view.

"Here you go," with a swing of his arm. The man brought the bag of crystals in front of Zarek. From the look of it, it did seem as if the entire grove was inside it. He straightened his back then spotted me. "Well, seems that I'm not the only one stationed here." His tone came off as disappointed.

I stared at him, sizing him up in case he pulled something. Zarek was crouching down to examine the haul. "Now missy, go to the south grove and pick me some of them crystals. We'd want to cover all the bases to see if any of them are flawless." He grabbed the bag before walking back to his tent, disappearing behind the drawn curtain. "Edward, you go and see if you can't pick anymore!"

I was left staring at the man, whom was to my guess Edward. He returned the look. It was me however, who broke the silence.

"I don't recognize you." barely above a whisper, "you're not from Division Two are you."

Edward fixed his hat then spoke with a smirk on his face. "No I am not, though you seem like a smart girl. I'm sure you can figure it out."

Still holding my stoned face, "I have no need to know which Division you are from. Knowing that I will be working with you is enough I need to know." With that, I turned left and headed to the south grove.

The walk to the second grove wasn't a far one. More spiders did however appear, bigger with a stronger radiance of magic coming off of them. I remained by the sidewalk with it's barrier which must have been too weak to hide my sent. The spiders spotted me after being out for five minutes. After the discovery of my presence, a few bold ones crawled their way to me to taunt, inspect, or to find food. None of them dared to attack me.

The second grove laid below me, the crystals were the same here. As I made my way down the purple and tan bridge, there was evidence of spiders, though none to be seen. The bundles of egg sacks scattered around the area told me otherwise. I couldn't keep track of how many new spiders would soon emerge.

I got right to chipping away at crystals which gave off the most magic radiance. Burning the egg sacks as I spotted them one by one. The collection went longer then I would have thought, didn't help that I busied myself with burning the sacks. I'm sure that I would be thankful for this little act later on.

My pouch was full of color once I was finished. Purple, red, orange, green, blue, and many others which I had no name for lite up the pouch. The weight of the pouch along with the pickaxe was more than myself. Slowing me down even more, though I didn't let that stop me. I've grown used to the heavy weights since the start of this mess.

Back on the road, I noticed that there was a shortage of the spiders. Actually, I didn't see any.

"Here, all the crystals I could gather." I placed the pouch in front of Zarek who instantly picked it back up and brought it to his tent.

"Hehe! More crystals for me!" He cackled. "I'll tell you which of these here are flawless once I've got a good look at them." I had a feeling that the results won't be coming back for a while.

I was planning on sitting out front of the tent to wait for the results. Until a screech took my interest. I walked towards the sound, expecting another ghost who roams the grove.

I rounded the giant cluster of crystals only to see hay flying around, though this hay was dead.

The man from earlier, Edward, stood off to the right with a serious look on his face. He didn't seem to have noticed me yet. With nothing else to do, I continued to watch him. He wasn't from my Division yet was stationed here. Either he was hidden from me in the field or is from another. I had a little time to figure out which one was which.

Another pair of spiders crawled up to him, these ones seemed to be ancient, big with bright venom dripping from the fangs. Edward looked at them as if bored. He brought up his right hand with a single card between his index and middle finger.

"Cucumeraio formido."

I barely heard the whispered words before the dead hay went flying again. I could recognize the spell now that I had a clear view of it. The power of the spell was always weak, this one however, gave off an immense power. One that the spell should never have reached.

Scarecrow.

The screeching was loud, it sucked at the spider's life source until they were dust. the spell continued on even after they were dust, picking up the remains before turning to Edwards to give it's master his strength back.

Once the short scene was over, he happen to look my way.

"Hey it's you," he said while he walked over to me, brushing off a few stray straws. "Back from collecting those crystals I see."

I nodded my head with my hands behind my back, "of course I am finished. I now have to wait on the results if any of the crystals that were gathered are actually flawless or not."

He gave me a questionable look, "I don't believe any of the ones I collected were flawless." He turned his back to me while he looked for something. Most likely another spider. "All of the ones I found had the same magical radiance coming from them. There's no way in Tartarus that there's that many flawless around here." A spider came into view, this dragged his attention into fight mode again.

Seeing that it was going to be useless watching any further, I made my way up the grove back to Zarek's tent. I had nothing else to gain from staying there.

"Could have said thanks!" Edward shouted before I was out of earshot. "Some of those spiders were stronger than I thought!' The last thing I heard was the screeching of Scarecrow.

Of course, why didn't I think of it. While I was mining for crystals, Edward was clearing all the spiders from the area. Though the reason behind it was still a mystery for me. He had nothing to gain from killing them. Unless he had the same thought process as me while I was burning the egg sacks.

Either way, I still had other things to worry about while I continued to wait for Zarek to tell me the news. Everytime I tried to think of my other problems, Edward kept on appearing in my head. When that happened, my instincts told me to run. I don't know the guy well, other than a few facts.

He might have helped me.

He was at the same station as me.

He was a Necromancer.

He held great power.

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