Chapter 214 214 - Mining
Chapter 214 214 - Mining
Shrugging, Ryan explained his situation, "We don't have any other option, I know you have contact with the merchants' association."
Putting his hand to his head, Wrynn was still analyzing the situation. But nodding, he gave up asking questions, "You're not a joker. I'll send you the contact details of a salesperson on your number," he said as he clicked on a hologram next to the table.
Ryan's cell phone vibrated and with that, the conversation was over. Getting up, he turned to the door where he opened a portal to return to Neodrazzil.
"Wait," said John.
Ryan slowly turned his head, looking at the guild's regional officer.
"Actually, don't worry. We can talk about this another time," he said.
* * *
"So the ores should be transported to the Silvermoons' warehouse by the end of this afternoon?" Rin asked.
Ryan nodded as he stretched out his hands to divert the flow of an entire river, "At first he didn't believe I would actually do it. This kind of market strategy is unregulated when it comes to second world items."
The two were in the middle of the wind forest practicing river manipulation. Although Ryan had an understanding of water magic, his mastery wasn't so great that he could deal effectively with mining.
The training was simple: Rin was creating spheres of water just above the ground. As soon as Ryan found one of the spheres, he would direct the water there and release the flow of the river. Although this process could damage the forest, the two of them were being careful not to create complete chaos in the area.
Controlling the water was a more complex task than Ryan could have imagined, it was like an indomitable energy that he couldn't understand specifically how it worked. A single faulty movement would cause the entire flow of water to go the other way, and it would gush out, creating a muddy mess in the middle of the forest.
"You have to imagine it like a hose, if the water pressure is low you can increase it with mana," said Rin.
Ryan already knew how to manipulate smaller streams of water and even create giant waves. But the still water of a pond was simpler to handle than that river. Gradually, it became easier to manipulate that river, so that Ryan was even able to lift all the water upwards, creating a kind of artificial waterfall.
The water was rising upwards at high speed, creating a kind of arc before falling back down and following its course. This sight was even more impressive when you looked back and realized that the river was completely flat, the forest didn't have many slopes.
This simple workout was enough to reveal some surprises on the ground. In the area where Rin was standing, the water began to run over the ground, revealing some small fragments of magical iron.
"Ryan, that's scary," said Rin.
"I've never seen a place so full of ores, probably the accumulation of mana from the crystals did it," Ryan concluded.
For a moment, Ryan thought about the possibility of tracking these ores using his Demon Sight, but they didn't have an energy flow while they were underground.
Opening his talent tree, Ryan checked his Demon Sight status, for the time being, there was still no skill he could unlock at his current level and even if he could evolve the level of his sight, it wouldn't make it any easier to find ores.
An idea popped into his head and, kneeling down, Ryan placed both hands on the ground. "Come on, I'm going to need your help too," he said, looking at Rin.
The girl did the same in front of him, and then they both started emitting a wave of mana downwards. "Have you seen what sandworms are like? They emit mana and vibrations to understand where they are," Ryan said.
This explanation was enough for Rin to grasp the idea, so the two of them began to channel their energy and throw it downwards. Some of the mana would dissipate into the trees and living beings, but magical iron and other minerals with this kind of characteristic would suck up the energy.
Once the mana had been sucked up by the iron, Ryan could easily observe it through Demon Sight. And even Rin could understand with the smell of the material.
"Over here!" Rin shouted, quickly getting up and running a few meters behind Ryan.
The girl began to jump down, and stretching out her hands, she used water magic to pull something out from under the earth. The water mixed with earth began to erode the ground, while the girl's feet became dirty with the clay. The flow of water increased as the liquid washed the ground, and seconds later a vibration rose from the ground as Rin slowly stood up.
Underneath the girl was a stone of more than four tons of magical iron, glued to the iron were some condensed mana crystals much larger than normal.
Ryan's eyes widened as he approached, "Condensed mana crystals... But these are the size of monster cores," he said.
A traveler's whole life is based on two things, exploring and killing monsters. Monsters are organic creatures with mana, this mana condenses in their center and creates an energy core. But a monster's core can arise outside of a living being, they are an agglomeration of mana.
But this energy needs to be condensed in a warm place, maintained with constant feeding for years. A natural core hardly grows more than two centimeters, but there were dozens of condensed mana crystals the size of footballs.
Carefully, Ryan pulled out that red crystal. With difficulty, he managed to hold it in one hand; that pure energy was amazing, like a unique show for his Demon Sight.
That energy was vibrating at him, like it was screaming at him to consume that pure power. With all his might, Ryan slammed that crystal into his chest.
"Ryan! No!" Rin shouted, trying to stop him.
Ryan's body began to glow with a red energy around him, the sensation Ryan was feeling in his chest was a kind of burning. But that was good, it was an invigorating sensation of pain and energization. That pure, condensed mana was entering his body, channeling itself into Ryan's chest as he felt completely energized.
An ordinary person would have died of mana intoxication, but Ryan's body had no energy of its own. All the mana he possessed came from Nyx, so that energy was channeled in seconds through the receptacle in his chest.
Rin was confused as she looked at him, Ryan was on the ground, breathing heavily as he adapted to his upgrade. The scent he was exhaling wasn't dangerous, but at the same time it made the girl more worried.
The amount of mana Ryan was storing in his body was hundreds of thousands of times greater than that of an experienced human traveler. And that was just by consuming one of the crystals they had in that forest.
"If my mana reserve increases even more, I'll become invincible," he said aloud.
Rin and Ryan sat by the river for a few more minutes, there was a silence between them. Partly because Ryan was still adapting to the energy he had received and partly because Rin didn't know how to act in that situation.
"I had no mana, it's funny to think that I have so much energy now," he said, as he looked up at the sky.
The trees were swaying in the wind, their leaves fluttering against the blue sky. The silence in the forest was soothing compared to the turbulent situation going on in Ryan's chest.
"Now you have enough energy to kill someone with an aura," said Rin, who was playing with the river water.
With a quick jump, Ryan stood up and held out his hand to the girl. She accepted his help and the two walked down to the river. "It's not because I have a lot of mana that I'm going to be carefree about training," he said with a smile.
The girl laughed a little, shaking her head and saying, "I'm not going to accept such a strong clan leader with a worse level of elemental mastery than mine".
The two then went back to training, now it was much easier to control the flow of water, partly because Ryan could expend much more energy than before and partly because of the discovery the two had made. Ryan's eyes were shining with a little greed, after all, he knew he was very close to becoming one of the richest people in the world.
When Ryan and Rin finished their training, they took the gigantic piece of metal and condensed mana crystals to the island above. Using a portal, they were able to take the items from one side to the other with ease.
Aiden and Brigitte were incredulous at what they were seeing.
"You know how much this costs, don't you?" asked Aiden.
Rin shook her head in denial.
"At least fifty million," replied Brigitte.