Next, he sent out Mightyena and had it work with him to dig out the Hard Rock Ore here, expanding their haul.
After emerging from its Poké Ball, Mightyena first widened the hole Krokorok had dug, making it easier for itself and Xinhai to enter.
Xinhai picked up his mining pick and entered the newly widened hole with Mightyena. Then they began striking and prying at targeted spots, breaking large chunks of ore into more manageable sizes.
The excavation proceeded in an orderly fashion. About twenty minutes later, just as Xinhai and Mightyena finished digging out the Hard Rock Ore inside and were preparing to wrap up—
"Haso!" Zigzagoon suddenly called out from the other side, contacting Xinhai through Telepathy.
"You found something?"
Xinhai wiped the sweat from his forehead, stepped out of the shallow pit they had dug, and headed toward Zigzagoon.
Zigzagoon nodded. It was crouched before a hole it had just clawed open. The hole was deep and looked pitch-black inside.
It pointed a paw at the hole, then pointed at something lying on the ground before it.
Xinhai walked over and first checked Zigzagoon's clean mouth. He nodded in satisfaction—clearly, the little fellow had remembered his instructions.
Then he took the item Zigzagoon pushed toward him. It was an irregular stone about the size of an adult's fist, covered in dirt.
He brushed away the loose soil on its surface, then wiped it with a tissue. One corner of the stone revealed a crystalline interior—under the dim light, it gave off a gray sheen, with tiny starlike specks of light seemingly glittering within.
"This is... raw Rock Gem ore?" After examining it carefully, Xinhai's face lit up with delight. "And judging by its size and color, it's quite high quality!"
Raw ore was an uncut, unpolished