The weather on Faus VII was still an endless haze of yellow sand. Naturally, what other weather could a planet covered in sand expect to see very often?
Only when this desert planet reached the farther end of its elliptical orbit, during summer, would the polar glaciers melt into clear water that crossed the entire desert, creating a two-month window in which some plants could barely manage to grow.
As a pureblooded M'tok, Ulrom had always been proud of being one of the Stone People, even if he was only an ordinary miner.
Like most Stone People, Ulrom loved crystalline quartz and gleaming gemstones. Jade ore covered his entire body, giving him a jade-like texture that shone pale greenish-white in the light and was even slightly translucent.
That counted as handsome among the Stone People, and Ulrom was pleased with his looks.
Outside the main city of Faus VII lay the planet's largest mineral vein. In Xi Yan's words, it had "two mining districts."
Ulrom worked as a miner in this vast deposit. Naturally, he did not primitively chip away at rocks with a pickaxe; he drove a mining machine and drilled underground.
The Stone People's mining machinery was much simpler than humanity's. All it needed was a large drill bit and a powerful vehicle.
Ulrom's daily job was to drive one of these simply constructed mining vehicles and drill straight into the ground at an angle.
He would bore a long passage without ever worrying about load-bearing capacity or cave-ins.
With his smart communications device in hand, Ulrom began his day's work.
His coworker was an ordinary member of the Stone People whose outer skin contained limonite. Stone People with this kind of skin were uncommon, and his coworkers all called him Limonite.
Limonite was outgoing. As soon as