During breaks, time always flew by. In the blink of an eye, more than half an hour had passed.
However, Zigzagoon and Krokorok, having recovered, were starting to get restless.
The two exchanged a glance, then rose in tacit agreement. After informing Xinhai, they began carefully searching the nearby rock walls and ground again—the morning's huge haul had given them a taste for it and sparked an even stronger desire to explore.
Xinhai did not stop them, merely reminding them, "Don't go too far. Be careful."
"Haso!" "Heylo!" The two answered and eagerly threw themselves back into work.
However, Krokorok and Zigzagoon were soon dealt a blow, as their afternoon search yielded far less than the morning's.
Perhaps the morning's excavation had already cleared out the nearby high-value deposits that were easier to detect, or perhaps the surrounding resources had long since been mostly mined out by previous Trainers.
Over the next few hours, Zigzagoon and Krokorok found only some decent-quality Hard Rock Ore and a handful of scattered Type Gem Fragments.
The only real highlight was a small, egg-sized piece of deep-yellow Ground Gem Ore with remarkably pure energy, which Zigzagoon dug out from deep within an extremely concealed rock crevice using its Pickup Ability.
"It seems the big catches in the surface and shallow layers of this area have mostly been cleaned out by us and the Trainers before us." Xinhai looked thoughtfully at several newly excavated, ordinary-quality pieces of Rock Ore before him. "Anything more valuable is probably buried deeper."
Krokorok and Zigzagoon also looked somewhat dejected. Zigzagoon, especially, had even stopped wagging its tail.
Xinhai patted their heads and comforted them. "It's fine. This is normal. If good stuff were everywhere, it wouldn't be good stuff anymore. We've already had a very fruitful haul. Come on,