He had walked a lot and he was sure he was near the mines since he saw more groups of people carrying pickaxes. There were a lot of children as well.

  "What are they even mining?" he asked.

  "They are mining Rainbow crystals"Celestes said.

  "What are those?"

  "The night sky here is due to a type of aether called rainbow aether. When ores react to this,they become rainbow crystals. The crystal is a very important ingredient in a lot of things."

  So a transcendent item. But these are normal people interacting with aether. There must be a side effect.

  "If two sides have similar amount of aether, there is not much problem between them. Rainbow crystals do not contain that much aether to do something. But when normal people interact with it for a long time it does do something"

  "What do they do?" He wanted to know.

  Being able to learn from Celestes is an opportunity given to him by fate.

  "There is a disease called Rainbow Hardening that affects only those mining Rainbow crystals. It hardens their blood vessels. It is called that because those hardened vessels have the color of rainbows."

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  "So no blood to that part then?"

  "Yes.That body part starts to decompose. The worst thing is their nerves are still working and the patient feels all that pain. Only cure is to cut off that part, but those hardened parts are strong. So it takes few hours and the patient suffers. Many patients die in treatment since it feels like someone is chopping you again and again."

  His fists clenched. He can't even imagine how much pain they are going through.

  "What about pain relievers?" He asked, hoping there were some.

  She felt his emotions but sadly this is reality.

  "You cannot use pain relievers that need to be injected in the body. Since the vessels are hardened, the drug wouldn't reach that part anyway. You cannot inject it directly on the affected part since those vessels are hard. You can use aether, but novices aren't that skillful."

  So those affected by this disease has no option but to suffer.

  "What about transcendent above novices?" he asked, still having some hope. But then his hopes were finally crushed.

  "Normal people can't work with seniors or Experts. They will straight up die or turn into mad beings."

  He looked at the people with pickaxes and the kids. He noticed that some of the adults were rigid and walked with difficulty.

  He remembered how rigid people were back at the market square.

  "How much time does it takes for the disease to show up?"

  "It takes around 20 years to become fully infected. After that, a year or so and they will show symptoms, but by that time it would already be too late."

  He grit his teeth. So these people only live around 30-40 years? Seeing the state of people at the market, he can tell they don't earn much. Taking care of a working family member is already hard enough, how can they take care of the disabled?

  No wonder he didn't see any old man or woman yet.

  "Do woman not work in the mines?" He asked. He hasn't seen any woman yet with pickaxes.

  "Females are more vulnerable to this disease. Their symptoms show up quickly. In just 10 years the women are unable to work. Females who are infected cannot give birth or cannot even become a prostitute since their reproductive organs harden up. So women here becomes s prostitute from early on to earn some money."

  He exhaled loudly. Child prostitution was banned in his world for very good reasons but here no one cared.

  Why would anyone care? If a child girl cannot earn, then she is a liability to the house.