God Ash: Remnants of the fallen.-Chapter 1147: Hammering Away (1).
The most important part of sustainability, was of course access to materials.
And of course, there was the access to knowledge on how to make use of those materials.
Three days had passed, and just like he had initially thought, there had been no attacks yet.
But Cain was sure they were coming. It was only a matter of when.
In three days, the human cum demi-human camp was fully assembled with outposts, tents... All the works.
In just three days, there had been several Starfall incidents. However, compared to the worst of the worst Cain suspected, these were no more than light showers.
And they had been horrible.
Thankfully, the art of magic was lenient. If not for the barriers that could be conjured of mana, the humans would have long since been turned to red stains on the ground of this strange world.
Cain wiped the sweat off of his face as he carefully examined the material before him.
The day they had arrived in this strange world, he had released Pudding into its depths.
Mainly for two reasons...
The first was to get a feel for the local topography. The second was to know what kind of treasures were buried underground.
The answer to the first one had him concerned. The second on the other hand filled him with joy and excitement.
The layout of this world was as he had though.
Strange.
Unlike back on Urbus, the ground didn’t stretch out in all directions uniformly.
Instead in some areas, it jutted out towards the sky, sometimes tapering off to form incredibly long pillars attached to the ground, other times meshing together with the curtail of broken stars above.
Then, there were some areas that existed as giant basins formed form craters, with some even existing as deep canyons and crevices in the world containing nothing but violent, rampert energy, or on the rare occasion, nothing.
Both cases were equally as dangerous.
There were plenty of other strange things, some of which his mind couldn’t even quite grasp.
But that was just by the way. He wasn’t too interested in that.
Instead, what made him all jittery, were the raw minerals, special stones and ores hidden in the ground.
Most of them, he had seen, after an analysis, contained little to no mana, simply due to the strange nature of this world. Those that did only contained trace amounts of it. Although that made him curious, it all still paled when he got to learn of most of their characteristics.
Despite only holding onto a very small piece of the ore in his hands, he could still feel a tremendous amount of strain in his muscles.
And that was solely because of the weight of the ore.
Cain sighed and dropped the chunk of unrefined metal. 𝒻𝘳𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝘯𝘰𝑣ℯ𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝘮
There was a loud bang as the metal sank into the dirt by a few centimeters before stopping.
He turned to the side.
Beside him was an enormous pinkish purple worm-looking thing. It was Eldritch and looked quite comfortable and at home in this strange realm.
Regardless, Cain fwlt nothing but warmth from the beast.
He lightly patted it on its soft yet durable exterior,
"You did well, Pudding."
Besides that sample, there were plenty more the Eldritch Abomination he was raising had gotten for him.
He glanced at a piece of floating rock.
Then at a slab of a solid black substance constantly oozing purple bolts of energy.
There one one with incredibly green luster. A luster so green, Cain doubted that was its true color as it seemed as though the lights were playing tricks.
There were a few other special rocks and ores. However, most of them were not run on mana.
Instead, they were powered by the strange, chaotic energy of this place.
Cain frowned. Although he was excited about making use of these things, he still had no idea what effects they would have on magic and vice versa.
And since experimentation could be dangerous, lethally so, especially now that his body absolutely couldn’t take a hit, he decided to consult something greater than he was.
’System... What exactly is this chaotic energy?’
{Replying to Host: This energy is called Chaos Ether. It is a highly chaotic form of Mana with mana flow patterns that always break down}.
Cain raised a brow, "What? How the hell did that happen?"
So this energy had once been mana. However now, it was Chaos Ether.
{The natural flow of mana within this universe was broken upon the death of the stars that held it together. Because of the high energy output, most of the energy has been thrown awry, with a decent portion of it trying to form back up into the stars they once were, and others trying to dissipate and fill this world with the chaotic energy}.
Although he knew there was still more to be discovered about the strange energy, Cain believed he had more than enough information to get started.
However, there was some final thing...
Cain huffed and asked, "What is its compatibility with mana and magic circles?"
The system’s reply was cold and brutal,
{Replying to Host: None whatsoever. Traditional magic circles breakdown when introduced to chaotic and complex systems of energy}.
Cain grimaced as he turned his head down,
"Well, since it cannot form mana flow patterns, then that can only be expected as well."
He grabbed a piece of metal then gave a mental command, sending Pudding back into the depths of this strange world, he turned around.
Behind him were entire piles of metal and glowing stones. Pudding really had outdone herself now. He rose to his feet and began storing the piles of material into his inventory while humming happily.
Very soon, he was done.
With a yawn, Cain stretched his hand out again. But this time, there was nothing coming out of his inventory. Instead, something enormous shot out, broken away from the immaterial into the material world.
Standing at the door of the {Draconic Blast Furnace}, Cain rubbed his hands in excitement.
"Let’s begin..."
