Ella connected another portal above the sand after grabbing her ore, and the four of them walked through it. They were even further out of the city than she realized, but all of this sand and cracks of earth had turned into pink.
"You really did it this time, Mistress."
Penelope nodded. "Yeah, I am not even sure what to say."
"Well, maybe thanks would be the proper reaction. I might have just provided this place with an infinite money glitch in the form of pink sands and ore."
Naela walked over and squeezed each of Elanore's cheeks. "You have also brought the potential for invaders, Mistress."
"Hey! We know that's not true, right? People would have invaded before if they wanted minerals from the dwarves."
"Mistress...Please understand that the ore you produce will not be ordinary, and this lies outside of their city. There will be a fast response if other countries nearby find out about it. Do you remember that king who was all too eager to marry you to his son?" The dragon clenched her teeth and fist while remembering it. "People will yearn for power if they can get their hands on it."
Penelope nodded in agreement.
"You too, Mom?"
Mother reached her hand out and patted Elanore's head. "Naela is right. Do you remember what all of those super hero movies said? With great power comes great responsibility. If you change this world with your power, you will become responsible for the ensuing problems it creates. Though, you can also change it for the better. I personally like the idea of this pink sand and ore, but if it's as problematic as Naela says, then we need to find a way to protect the local people."
Elanore sighed but knew that they were correct. She floated towards the sky with the mass of pink below her, and she started inspecting every single piece of sand and ore beneath the ground. Though, how will I make it so all of this stuff vanishes in a way that doesn't leave a giant hole?
In the first place, this is all that dragon's fault! If she had held back on her magic...Like I am really one to talk.
Feeling every single particle in the ground was a mind-numbing experience on its own. It wasn't quite to the level of freeing her mother from emotional turmoil, but it was still odd.
I guess this can serve as a new way to practice magic.
She focused on her strands of magic gripping the particles of sand, but a voice sounded inside of her head at the same time.
"Do you need my assistance, great one?"
"Shelf? I...mean uh...Palentis? Do you have some idea of what to do here?"
"In all of my years being a shelf, I had plenty of books and materials stored within me, so I believe I can be of assistance. While you are certainly an extraordinary being, it's clear to me you are inefficient in using your vast scope of power. There is no reason you should have been exhausted from bringing your mother here."
"Seriously?"
"Yes, the more I've been stored inside of your [Inventory], the more I understood this phenomenon. You are constantly holding back, and you have a lack of intrinsic knowledge of how to use your power. In comparison, Synnaria is much more advanced in magic theory than you are."
The witchpire pouted and summoned the shelf. He floated in the air next to her in all of his pink glory. She crossed her arms. "What do you propose we do?"
"The answer is actually quite simple. You don't have to do much of anything. You can simply replace all of those pink particles with other sand particles from the desert, and at the same time, you store them away in your [Inventory] for the future benefit of our kingdom."
Magic started to channel through his form. "I can move all of the sand, while you store all of the sand. Just provide me with enough mana, great one."
Elanore nodded but tilted her head. "Couldn't you have just told me to do that and skipped back off to the space? After knowing how to do it, I am sure I can manage now."
Palentis grumbled. "No, great one, it can actually be quite boring sitting in that space sometimes. I need to listen to the senior butler, but over time, I start to get bored. The only ones to keep us company are those wolves, and even they are starting to get bored."
The witchpire smiled wryly before scratching the back of her head. "Oh, I had no idea. If you had all told me from the beginning, I would let you out more often."
"The head butler has told me not to bother you, great one."
Ella clicked her tongue. "There is no problem with any of you bothering me within reason. If you are bored, you only need to say so. In the first place, the entire purpose of the energy drink kingdom is to have fun. That is our main motto." Ella pushed her magic inside of the shelf, overflowing him with mana. He gained a pink aura all around him. "Now then, let's do as you said."
The shelf grinned and started covering distant pieces of sand and ore with his magic power. He carved out shapes of metal that were in the exact same shape as the pink below them.
Elanore coated every single pink ore, pebble, and spec of sand or pink dust in her magic power and started counting down. For safety measures, she floated her three comrades into the air, until they were far enough away from the ground.
"Are you ready?"
"Of course, I have selected all of the sand and materials to transport here. As soon as you give the word, we can go."
"Alright, I will count down from 3. 3...2...1...now!"
All of the sand and particles she was touching with her magic vanished in an instant to some space within her inventory. For a split second, there was a giant crater where the ground used to be, but before that second was up, all of it was replaced by hard brown sand.
Ella breathed a sigh of relief as it all turned back to normal.