Rise of the Phoenix - Apocalypse Rebirth

Chapter 30 - Energy Sources

May 18, 3031 - Country C, City H

Little Eros: Master, there should be one stone that went downstream and ended near where the Xing Plants were found. Should we retrieve it or leave it?

Aria doesn't know if these types of energy are easy or hard to find. Even though they took the whole lake's worth of stones just now, should one lone stone make it less important? Thinking about the fact that the stone was responsible to mutate two plants ahead of the ZA, it must have a lot of energy.

Aria: Let's go get it.

Aria changed into a swimsuit and put on the air mask before she jumped back in front of the crack behind the waterfall. She looked down at the bottom of the waterfall debating whether or not to jump down or pull herself back up.

It's always easier to descend than to ascend so she grabbed the rope and tethered it to her waist again. Slowly working her way down the waterfall, she finally reached the water while the flow of the waterfall rushed down her body.

Touching the rope to store it, she swam to the edge and pulled herself out of the water. Going behind some bushes to change back into her original hiking outfit, she made her way back to the trail and location of the Xing Plants.

It was now later in the day and getting colder. Although the sun sets around 7pm, the tall trees' shadows cast the temperature down at least 10 degrees. There were less people hanging around the clearing.

Aria: Little Eros, can you detect where it is?

Little Eros: Yes, it's located right around the middle of the stream. The rock should be the same pale white as the others found in the lake.

Aria took a stick and made her way into the river. This caught some people's attention but they have seen some people looking and searching for plants in the water earlier in the day so they didn't think it was too unusual.

Aria felt a slight pulling sensation as she got closer to the middle of the stream. Feeling the strong sensation at a certain part, she poked the flooring with the stick dislodging the mud around it. Seeing a white color peeking from under the rest of the stones in the water, she bent down and stored it inside the G Space. Then picked up another stone next to it and walked to another place nearby and collected a few more random stones.

Eyes were still observing her to see if there was anything unique with the stones she'd picked. But they saw her walking back to the clearing and setting up a blanket before taking out a water and food container to eat. The rocks were thrown casually outside her blanket.

While drinking water to wash her mouth after eating, Aria then turned to the rocks and piled them up artistically before taking a picture with the Xing Plant sight as the background. Then she took a selfie with a smile on her face before fiddling with her mobile phone.

The people who were secretly staring at the rocks then relaxed. It was just a silly girl taking pictures for her social media accounts. The scientists on the other side of the clearing also removed their eyes from the young hiker after she took out her phone. It doesn't look like she found anything important.

Aria then threw the stones into the river before packing up her picnic setup and left the park. Going back to the copied SUV, she drove away from the park towards the same abandoned farm building she hid behind the first time she visited the park.

Storing the old and generic looking SUV inside her E Space, Aria switched to the dark SUV in her space and drove to the city center. Passing by a completely blacked out car, she hurriedly copied it to use for this city's pharmacy collection later.