SSS Ranked Awakening: All My Skills Are at Level 100

Chapter 729: First to the Fire

Tobin’s party took the broad stair. Leon took the narrow one, and by the time the first Hall disciple reached the fourth row, Seraphine was already crossing its eastern court.

The ground still looked thoroughly uninteresting.

Leon stepped over a shallow drain and stopped beside the rear channel. Behind him, Ira rested a hand on the stone, feeling for what he had sensed from below.

”It’s warming,” she said.

”And the supply’s increasing.” Leon looked toward the neighboring court. ”Leave that western approach clear.”

Tobin came up with two disciples, then halted when he saw where Leon stood. His remaining people followed at a more measured pace with their equipment.

For a moment the young man examined the channel without speaking. Steam ran slowly along it, scarcely visible against the pale wall.

”You turned before the upper vents changed,” Tobin said.

”I felt it gathering here.”

”So did our fire specialist. Once we were halfway up.” He looked back toward the summit. ”I hoped we’d reach this row first.”

Leon could have pretended the outcome had been accidental. He saw no reason to.

”The east section is taken.”

”I can see that.” Tobin crouched beside the drain, then called one of his people forward. The older disciple touched a small instrument to the stone and showed him the result.

They spoke quietly. Leon let them finish while he watched the supply build beneath his feet.

The cold current above was thinning. Fire was gathering along this channel, and the surrounding Earth remained stable enough to hold it. Feeling those changes together had let him choose earlier than someone watching only the steam or waiting for the ground to warm.

He still did not know how much hearthseal lay underneath.

Enough to justify running up all those bloody stairs, I hope.

Tobin straightened.

”The west section will receive the same turn, though less of it. We’ll work there. Our rear ledge reaches the channel without crossing your bed.”

Leon followed his gesture. A narrow strip of solid stone ran behind the channel, accessible from the Hall’s side.

”That drain is the boundary,” Leon said. ”Your ledge stops where it meets the line. Don’t undercut our side.”

”Then don’t cut past it from yours,” Tobin replied. ”The rock’s joined below.”

”Agreed.”

Tobin hesitated over the best channel mouth, which lay east of the drain. Leon waited, quite prepared to refuse if he asked for it.

Instead, the young man turned to his people.

”Frames on the west. Keep the ledge clear.”

Vyra passed Leon on her way to lay out their boxes.

”A reasonable neighbor,” she said quietly.

”So far.”

He had the better section and a workable boundary. That suited him far more than throwing twenty people down a staircase and spending the harvest window dealing with the consequences.

Within half an hour, a red flush appeared beneath the grey surface near the rear wall.

Ira knelt to examine it. A thin covering of pale grit loosened as the bed warmed, revealing darker seams below.

”There’s an old deposit under this,” she said. ”The current’s opening the surface.”

Seraphine tested one seam with the tip of her blade. It parted along an existing weakness, exposing a rounded mineral enclosed in red rock.

Ira leaned close enough that Leon caught her by the back of her belt when he stepped around her.

”You’re in my way.”

”Go around the other side, Young Master.” She did not look up.

He did, smiling despite himself.

The first hearthseal was small, but its weight settled heavily in Ira’s palm once she lifted it with a supporting piece of rock. She adjusted her grip and passed her other hand over its dark skin.

”Barely warm.”

Leon examined it with his perception. Fire filled the interior in close, dense bands, with very little escaping through the outer layer.

Ira saw his expression and grinned.

”Yes. That.”

They began collecting in earnest.

Seraphine opened seams with fine cuts, leaving generous margins around the hearthseal. Ira checked each specimen before it went into a lined compartment. Vyra marked damaged pieces separately and packed the intact ones so their supporting beds could not knock together.

Leon stored each completed box in his ring and moved along the rear wall to find the next promising seam. There was ample room for what they could collect. He was more interested in taking the best pieces than in proving he could empty an entire court.

Loriel examined an adjoining pale shelf below their section, within easy calling distance. It held ordinary Earth- and Water-bearing accretions exposed by the same shift. When she asked whether he wanted them, Leon went down to inspect a sample.

Bai Heng would still need to prepare it, but the quantity and character of the stored energy looked useful.

”Take the cleanest sections,” Leon told her. ”I’ll bring another case.”

On the neighboring bed, Three Willows worked with the advantage of practice. Their covered frames supported cut pieces while the collectors freed the underside. Tobin corrected a young worker’s angle, then returned to the channel instead of watching Leon continuously.

Leon was glad of that. He had no wish to spend a good morning performing for an audience.

Ira called him back near the second hour.

She had found an egg-sized hearthseal in a shallow cup of red stone. Its skin was darker than the others, even in color, and so intact that she could detect almost no escaping heat.

”Look at this one.”

Leon crouched beside her. The Fire within was densely contained, with none of the obvious breaks he had found in several lesser specimens.

”It’s a good piece.”

”It’s an excellent piece,” Ira corrected. She turned its bed carefully between her hands. ”Whether it likes my fire is another question.”

”You haven’t tried?”

”Not while I’m still deciding which part I can touch without ruining it.”

He liked hearing that from her. Ira could be impatient, but she knew the difference between a fight she could win and material she could spoil with a careless experiment.

Vyra found a separate padded container for the specimen. Ira watched it being secured, then asked Leon to keep it apart from the general harvest.

”That one’s mine to test.”

”I had noticed.”

By the third hour, the supply had stopped increasing. The court held a steady warmth, and most of the easy seams on their side were open.

Near the deepest part of the rear channel, Leon found a darker patch beneath a thick slab. Ira joined him and felt along its edge. Through the surrounding rock lay a larger hearthseal, its inner Fire even denser than that of her first choice.

”I want that one too,” she said.

Leon examined the seam holding it. ”You’ll need to take the whole bed.”

”I can. Give me room along this side.”

They had barely begun exposing its edge when the steam stopped above the channel.

Across the drain, Tobin raised his head.

”Off the beds!” he called. ”It’s turning!”

The steam reversed. Beneath Ira’s hand, the slab shifted, and loose stones began lifting from the rear of the court.

She looked at Leon rather than retreating.

”Hold the pieces around it. I can take the specimen clean.”