She fleeced the remaining two mines in town, taking half of their stockpile. After this, sometime at midnight, she shifted targets to the sole ruby and sapphire mine in the area.

Ruby and Sapphires were generally found in the same mines. Technically speaking, they were composed of the same mineral, corundum.

Ruby was just red corundum, and sapphire was, well, every other color.

The mine was on a marble rock type. It was light-colored with isolated white crystals.

However, the difference was bigger than she thought.

This mine was mining illegally at night. There were twice as many guards as there were in the jade mines. She wasn’t sure, but their guns seemed bigger, too!

Most prominently: there were also teens and children working hard labor!

"Whoa."

Later, she’d find out that after the legal workforce gets off work, a new batch of ’night workers’ would take over the work.

Did they think doing two illegal things together (night mining + child labor) would make things alright?

For a moment, she wondered what she should do. This was a different country that had its own rules and laws. If she did anything, she might just make things worse for these people.

She didn’t do anything for a while, observing things. Now that there were people, she naturally had to change strategies.

This mine felt nothing like the jade mine. The pits were shallow, rugged, and overlapping.

The gravel heaps glowed faintly under the moonlight, though the sludge troughs that should be silent were now bustling with activity.

These gems were loose. Although technically buried, her control was good enough that she could grab those within her scope directly from the ground. This was provided that the gems were on the surface and the soil wasn’t compacted by the weight above.

"AHH!"

"Damnit! What a waste!"

There was even an accident when she was peeking, but the poor worker who fell down a pit was carelessly pushed aside after getting pulled up. He was expected to tend to his own wounds, and his colleagues were forbidden to help, as it would reduce the manpower.

He was also called a waste because he blocked the productivity of the area for a whole ten minutes.

Greedy bastards.

After a thought, she took out one of the few fireworks she had in space.

To fleece this place, she needed these people out. What better reason for guilty people to scurry away, other than attracting attention to where they were?

Bang! Bang!

"Huh?"

"What’s going on?"

"Did someone take a shot?"

"Maybe a wild animal entered?"

"No! Look up!"

It was at this moment that the whistle overhead stopped, followed by large explosions.

BOOM!

BOOM!

BOOM!

"What’s going on!?"

"It’s coming from here!"

"What?"

"It’s behind the mine entrance!!"

People scurried to the source but at this time, Naia was already tinkering with the warehouse window.

They left the other areas minimally guarded, so it made Naia go around quite easily.

Her eyes sparkled at the sight of what was inside the warehouse. This time, because she already made a splash— and the fact that the owner of this particular mine was a slave owner—Naia had no qualms taking everything!!

She was so excited that she accidentally took in one of the container house Offices, complete with the items inside.

"..."

She hastily put it back out, a little surprised that it was so effortless to do so now, but most of all, she thanked the heavens there was no one inside!

She patted her palpitating chest, but...the blunder also gave her an idea.

Container-style houses, hmn?

...

Naia headed back to her inn an hour or so before dawn, excited to see how much the space would change.

She purposely left her window open before leaving so she could easily teleport back to her room. Looking over, making sure there was no one inside, only then did she jump in.

She closed the window and the curtains, heading back into her space to do her favourite thing: Seeing it grow.

She studied at the large hills of jade stones and the pile of sapphires and rubies. She experimented and saw how a few cubic meters of jade would affect the space in contrast to the same mass of gems.

In the end, she concluded that the type of energy jade and gems emit was a bit different from that of things like gold.

To summarize: Jadeite and nephrite formed due to long periods of pressure, compression, and deep tectonic activity, so its energy was deep, earthy, and stable.

The gems, like ruby and sapphire, were formed under extreme heat and pressure, placed in chemically active environments, with energy that was sharp, radiant, and directional.

Jade could expand her territory more than gems. They also worked best to enhance the soil and the plants. Meanwhile, gems, from what she could see, could add more height and energy.

By the end of the mass absorption, the void space increased to more than ten hectares! Her cubic meter area reached 7 digits!

She then went ahead and assigned a full 2000 cubic meters as a static area for her perishables!

With this, she could store more ready-made food, slaughtered meat, easily perishable goods, medicine, and so on!

The forests and gardens also got an advantage from the latest increase. The gardens she had were thriving, and their growth rate was at least three times that of normal, with the quantity of their fruit also multiplied.

She smiled. So excited!

She decided not to go out of the space anymore. She just took on the bed from the hotel instead, and she slept with the kittens. Anyway, her sleeping habits weren’t too bad, and she’d place them above her head!

To sleep with fluffy kittens? The best!

With a happy mood, she did not even realize when she fell asleep.

...

What she didn’t see was that a figure appeared inside the space as she slumbered. He stood next to the bed, observing the beautiful girl that laid there. The kittens were above her head, and the snakes were below the bed.

She was comfortable and careless, her sleepwear climbing up and showing a bit of skin. A lot of emotions passed inside Kael’s pupils, but the most predominant one was regret that he could not cover her properly.

He just stared at her figure for a long time before finally leaving. Before he left, he leaned down and whispered to her ear.

"I’ll see you soon."