142 Rooting For You!

Vy could hear the stall keeper calling out the prices of the rocks and geodes so she gave Lycster a small amount of money to spend.

-This should be enough to pick five.-

Lycster nodded and turned to squeeze through the crowd to look at the options available. He kept the money safely in his pocket before he looked at the rocks and geodes. Vy on the other hand carefully watched him from a safe distance while keeping an eye on the crowd.

-I'm rooting for you, Lycster, do your best!- Vy whispered to herself.

Lycster looked at all the rocks of different sizes, colour and shape. To the untrained eye, these were merely physical traits that differed each rock from the other. But that was simply not the case.

From the streaks that covered the rocks, the weight, each groove on the surface; one could decipher what was inside to a certain degree. If you have heightened senses, such as good hearing, you might even be able to hear something within the rock.

Lycster picked up one of the rocks for a closer look. Since he was just a child, the stall keeper and his assistants paid him no mind. The first rock he picked was about the size of a fully grown watermelon. Yet Lycster picked it up with not much effort at all.

Its exterior resembled the cracked ground that had been baked in the heat for an extended period of time, with a dirty brownish yellow colour all around. He placed the rock close to his ear and closed his eyes.

"Look at that weird kid! What on earth is he doing!" one of the onlookers said to another when he spotted what Lycster was doing.

The person he talked to shrugged his shoulders and replied, "Maybe he knows what he's doing."

The onlooker rolled his eyes, "What would a kid his age know?!"

Vy chuckled, she was rooting for her younger brother to prove these people wrong!

After some time, Lycster made his pick and was ready to pay up. The shopkeeper was disinterested in the purchases of a kid like him so he did not say much as he took Lycster's money.

"I would like to have these rocks cut please!" Lycster said with a smile.

One of the assistants took the rocks Lycster selected aside to a different workstation. Most people have had mediocre luck throughout the day, with only a handful of rare finds found. When people saw the purchase was made by a kid, they paid him no mind.

Instead of a regular cutting machine, this stall cut the rocks with magic. The rock cutting assistant asked Lycster which rock he would like to cut first. He looked at the ones he had chosen and decided to go with the largest one he had picked out.

It was almost twice the size of the watermelon shaped one he had picked out earlier. This rock had a dark coloured exterior. The assistant introduced himself as Naxus.

"Are you ready, boy?" he asked Lycster.

Brimming with excitement, Lycster nodded. Naxus waved his hands over the rock and cast a simple spell. His right index finger lit up as he trailed in on the surface of the rock. When he made a complete round, the rock-cut cleanly in half.

When he revealed the cross-section to Lycster, it was clear to see the slight disappointment on his face. It was a solid rock through.

-It's alright, keep going.-

"It's alright boy! It happens all the time. You still have a few more to go!" Naxus encouraged him.

With both Vy and Naxus's encouragement, he asked for the second rock to be cut. But unfortunately, just like the first one, it was a solid rock through. Some of the crowd who happened to be watching laughed at Lycster.

Lycster's expression looked a little more worried with each passing minute and Naxus noticed it too. Before Vy could say anything, Naxus drew Lycster's attention.

"Hey, it's alright! Look, this second one might not be a geode or whatever but if you take a closer look. It's actually iron! You can see them from the lines around here and smell it too!"

Lycster took a whiff and realised what he said was right! Moving on to the third and fourth, there was still not much luck to be had. Now the last one was left was the brownish-yellow one Lycster first picked out.

-Good luck Lycster!- Vy said to him.

Naxus used the same spell and cut through the rock easily. As he opened it up, the reflected colours inside shone onto their faces. Lycster's emotions were running high on adrenaline.

It was a geode!

"YES! I did it!" Lycster exclaimed.

Realising he had said that out loud, he quickly covered his mouth as his cheeks blushed bright red. Vy who watched from the side was over the moon for him.

-You did well, my little brother~-

Lycster was brimming with pride as he looked at the sparkling geode. The colours sparkled in shades of blue and purple in swirls, something he had not seen before. Even Naxus was surprised by the contents of the geodes.

Was this kid secretly a genius?

When the stall keeper saw it, he quickly rushed in and introduced himself to Lycster. His name was Dawson.

"My my boy! What a find you have here! I would love to buy it from you if that's alright," Dawson said with a wide grin.

"Sir, I think …." Naxus looked flustered.

Dawson shot Naxus a look. His face was twisted in anger. Naxus immediately quietened down and assisted the next customer with the cutting of their purchased rocks. Dawson then turned back to Lycster with a grin and continued.

"If you were to sell it here to me, right now, I would give you 40 silver coins, how about that?"

Lycster looked back at the geode and focused on its details. From the way the colours circled the lines and the depth of the geode, it was likely to be the Midnight Swirl Geode! Thinking back to the times Vy had explained to him the prices of geodes in their raw form, coupled with their frequent trips to the rock market, Lycster realised something.

There was no way it was only worth 40 silver coins!