Chameleon: My True Face 50 Underwater Cave

They were Ethernum Crystals that were one of the most precious and expensive materials in the world. With so much potential inside of them and hidden uses that scientist is yet to be discovered, the value of it was understandable.

The whole cave was about five meters tall and had more than ten meters in diameter. The whole ceiling was filled with Ethernum crystals that were bigger than a fist and there were many more, the size of a watermelon. From what Wuxing learned, just this one watermelon sized Ethernum crystal was worth more than a villa. This is why he didn't wonder why the miner was so crazy when he found a crystal like that.

"Yeah, it is indeed pretty here," Wuxing confirmed Dongmei's comments, feeling she was hugging onto his arm, waiting for his remarks. With him admitting it, he couldn't scold her anymore so Dongmei relaxed, returning into her happy mood.

"I have to show you something more amazing. Come, get out of the water." Knowing it wasn't everything, she got out of the water tunnel and reached out to him to pull him with her.

Wuxing could hear some sounds as if waves were hitting something in the distance so he suspected there was another outlet from this cave which led to the sea, and only when lifted himself a bit, getting out after Dongmei, did he see the source of this noise.

Just a meter away from the tunnel exit, he saw another pool and what surprised him was that there were hundreds of colourful fish swimming all together as if a whole swarm was gathering there. One had to know that the diameter of the poor was only less than five meters and because of many fish, they could not even see the bottom of it.

Looking at the water level and how it was raising up and down, Wuxing guessed that it was still connected to the sea somehow. He didn't exactly know how close they were to it but it should be far.

"Look how pretty they are… I think they gather here from the see because of those crystals. The energy produced by them probably lures the nearby fish." Dongmei thought as she squatted in front of the pool and felt the water with her fingers. She tried to touch one of the fish but none approached her hand.

"Yeah, this pool should be connected with the sea which is not far away from us. I guess there must be a crack in the mountain somewhere close and the water from the sea is entering through there." Wuxing theorized as he watched her play with the water.

"Yeah, I thought so too," Not getting any fish to play with her, Dongmei stood up, hugging into Wuxing's arms once again and suddenly recalled another action that she found amusing. She pointed towards the nearby wall filled with many Ethernum crystals and asked, "Do you know what is more interesting? Watch what they are doing. It should happen in a bit."

Just as she said it, one of the fish decided to make a leap of faith and jump out of the water only to hit the wall and bounce back towards the pool. In the next second, another fish decided to jump herself too, aiming at the wall but she also bounced back.

"What do you think they are doing?" Dongmei asked curiously, letting Wuxing's arms wrap around her so she could feel his warmth. Even if it was warm outside, inside of this cave the temperature was lowered by a few degrees.

Instead of replying, Wuxing pulled her with him and they approached the wall as close as they could by walking around it and Wuxing started examining the wall. With him so focused, Dongmei laid calmly inside of his embrace and waited for his opinion. The wall was covered with a lot of mucus from the fish bodies with some scales still lingering on them but there was nothing that indicated why they were doing it.

Splash.

Another fish jumped out of the water, doing exactly what others did but this time Wuxing was up close and could see what was going on. As the fish hit the wall, one of the Ethernum Crystals shook from the vibrations of the hit and one could see it was very loose already. He could guess that with a few tens of hits, the crystal would probably fall into the water.

Dongmei also saw that and commented, "That crystal is about to fall into the water."

"Wait… Maybe that's what they want? To get the crystal into the water. They are gathering here because of the Ethernum Crystals in the cave so maybe the crystals have some special effects on them? Those fish spend some time bashing against that wall to make at least one crystal fall. Look many of them have a lot of scars on their bodies." Wuxing figured out a theory which even made Dongmei think that it might be true.

If one thought about it, there was no other rational explanation of why they would do it. There could be one more reason which is a special tradition during mating but Wuxing found that to have little probability. They all hit one spot on the wall, trying to hit the crystal which was sticking out the most out of all of them. If they were mating it would be more of which fish jumps the highest kind of deal.

"I think that might be true. Do you want to find out what happens when the crystal finally falls into the water?" Dongmei asked, thinking that maybe he wanted to do the same as she did and she was not wrong as Wuxing nodded to her question.

"I can hold your hand while you will reach out to grab the crystal. What do you think?" Wuxing proposed seeing that it would be hard to get any other crystals out of the rocks without any tools.

"Alright. Just don't drop me." Dongmei didn't find that impossible to do so she quickly agreed, knowing he wouldn't do anything funny with her. With him holding onto the wall with one hand and her with the other, she slowly reached out and grabbed onto the crystal.

Just as they thought, it was loose and it was not hard for her to pull it out from the socket which she did after a few movements. The Ethernum Crystals were really fragile so she had to be careful not to crush it on accident.

"Here you go." Dongmei passed him the crystal after he pulled her back into his arms and asked sweetly, "Are you going to just throw it into the water?"

"Let's do half of it for now. I want to see the effects it has on fish and later we can maybe pass it to another animal to test it. Maybe even that panther would want to eat it. Who knows." Wuxing a nearby rock and broke the crystal in half after a few soft hits. Not hesitating anymore, he threw the Ethernum Crystal into the water.

The moment it broke the surface, the fish which were more passive a moment ago suddenly awakened as if they sensed the most delicious food they could ever have. All of them swarmed on the crystal and Wuxing lost the sight of it. After two or three minutes of fighting for the crystal, the fish suddenly calmed down and returned to their slow-paced swimming.

"They don't look like predatory fish but they munched on the crystal so fast." Dongmei commented as she squatted next to the pool to have a closer look before asking, "Did you notice any changes?"

"Nothing at all. I don't think it happens this fast. We would have to wait to see if anything changed. Let's come back tomorrow and see for ourselves. Maybe one crystal does nothing and they would need more for anything to happen. They seem to enjoy it, so my guess is that it's just really tasty for animals to eat." Wuxing shook his head and proposed to postpone this test.

"Mhmm, but what if humans can also eat it and it actually improves our bodies? I doubt anyone tried to eat one before. It's just a huge source of unknown energy so maybe they are really edible..." Dongmei wondered as she looked at the crystal in Wuxing's hand.

"Do you want to give it a try?" Wuxing asked playfully as he passed half of the crystal to her. He thought that she would only roll her eyes at him but she hesitated for a moment before actually trying to lick the purple crystal.

Wuxing quickly too the crystal away from her and scolded, "Dongmei! Don't do it. I was only joking. We don't even know if it's safe…"

"Hah, I know dummy. I was only teasing you back. But thinking about it, the fish are safe, why shouldn't we?" Dongmei laughed as she hit Wuxing on the chest playfully before she glances at the fish which looked very normal right now, with barely any changes.

Bang!

Just as she said so, they heard an explosion and water splashed more than half a meter out of the pool. Wuxing quickly caught Dongmei, hugging her into his arms on instinct and shielded her with his body before the water could ever reach them.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Another three explosions could be heard this time some of the fish were thrown outside the pool almost hitting them. Seeing many fish laying on the ground around them, flapping around with their tails, Wuxing didn't hesitate for long and jumped back towards the tunnel, keeping Dongmei in his arms the whole time.

With their heads submerged underwater, they could see fish intestines flying all around the cave and one by one, they all exploded in dramatic fashion. Some small parts of the fish started dropping into their tunnel and they could see up close how the fish dissolved with the speed visible to the naked eye.

"Gooo!" Wuxing quickly called out underwater spitting bubbles as he pointed downwards, ordering Dongmei to swim towards the exit. They were just talking about eating the crystal and now the events turn so fast to the point they had to run. What Wuxing was worried the most was one of the fish exploding right inside their tunnel so he wanted to get away from there as soon as possible.

Splash

Just as Wuxing thought about it, a fish which was launched into the air, suddenly dropped into their water tunnel and began swimming towards them. They were already about to enter the connecting tunnel but if the fish exploded right next to them, they would be dead for sure.

Even if he was fine thanks to his regeneration, Dongmei would not survive it as her lungs would collapse due to the pressure in the water after the explosion. Wuxing could only do one thing to save her which was to push Dongmei as far as possible. She was the first one to enter the tunnel so he grabbed her legs and pushed forward as strongly as he could, before going back to chase away the fish from getting closer.

Dongmei quickly got into the middle section of the tunnel where she took a mouthful of air before continuing to swim forward without looking back. She expected Wuxing to be right behind her so she didn't stop for a chat, knowing exactly what would happen if they were close to such an explosion.

Finally getting out of a tunnel, she swam upwards towards the surface and only after she finally breathed the fresh air back in the jungle did she turn her head down, with a smile on her face, happy that they were able to escape. Unfortunately, her smile disappeared second later when she realised that Wuxing was nowhere to be found.

'Did he…' Inside Dongmei's mind, one thought appeared, but she couldn't get herself to finish it. Their last moments flashed through her eyes right after. Wuxing pulling her into his arms to protect her from the explosion and him pushing her first when he saw the exploding fish getting into the tunnel. She couldn't help but choke imagining that something could happen to him.

"Idiot!!" She cried out on top of her lungs as dived back down without hesitation. She couldn't leave him there alone. He just became her boyfriend, she didn't want it to end like that. Swimming back down she cursed Wuxing in her mind, 'Idiot, idiot, idiot! If you die, I will curse you forever!'

...

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