God Ash: Remnants of the fallen.-Chapter 945: Management and Opportunity (3).

Cain scratched his chin as he narrowed his eyes,

"These thing looks suspiciously familiar "

Alvi grinned,

"They are called {Sandbile Worms}. My blessing is the ability to summon them. I believe each one takes fifty units of mana to summon."

Cain frowned. He glanced at Alvi with the {Eye of General Observation}. He only had a little over ten thousand MP.

"They are slow and not very intelligent, so they do not possess much offensive capabilities. However, what they do have is a rather powerful abrasive corrosive agent in their stomach. They feed of sand and rocks so they are quite easy to manage too."

’Then they are just like Pudding. But pudding eats metal.’

The work-like creature Alvi had summoned was rather ugly.

But not in a bad way...

It just looked like a worm that was several times bigger than an actual worm.

He tilted his body down to get a closer look at the thing. It didn’t have any teeth. Instead, its mouth was a large fleshy hole. With his enhanced vision, he could see countless small barbs within its mouth and tongue.

"They are rather efficient for digging up stuff. With them, the only thing we need to worry about is transportation. Luckily, the nodes and spatial anchors are now a thing so it is less risky."

Cain nodded,

"I see."

"So? Why did you ask?"

Cain leaned back in his chair.

The view from Alvi’s balcony has changed quite a bit. But it was still rather pleasant. With night fast approaching, the artificial magic lights were already turning on.

"There’s been news from City A..."

City A, also known as the City of Avalon, was a large city located at the base of a mountain somewhere further inland.

In the past, it had been a bustling city that ran and thrived on the geothermal energy produced by the mountain which has once been an active volcano.

Now however, just like the rest of the world, it had been reduced to ruins as well.

"Apparently, there are a few survivors. It seems like they have also beaten the Devils back. However, that place is no longer hospitable for humans."

Alvi raised a brow,

"How do you know this?"

Cain chuckled,

"My eyes are rather sharp, you know..."

Alvi clicked his tongue,

"If you don’t want to say, just say that."

He paused for a moment then nodded,

"If there are survivors, it would do us good to get them on our side. We are experiencing a severe lack of manpower after all."

Cain nodded.

Alvi placed his hand on his chin and stroked his beard,

"The {Sandbile Worms} already have an ecosystem at the quarry. Trying to change things now might have adverse effects. Besides, most of what we get from there is {StarIron} and {Brass Stone} anyway. I doubt you will find any special materials there."

{StarIron}. A rather normal metal. However, its strength would be increased if it is subjective to mana within a limited threshold. It was very effective in creating magical tools and weapons.

{Brass Stone} on the other hand was a rather special material. When mixed with regular stones or even sand and a little touch of mana, it would create a rather strong composite that was resistant to tremors and strain. In other words, every builder’s dream material.

Most, if not all of the buildings in Valestorm were made of this composite material.

"No, that’s not it. I was thinking of ways to boost production."

Alvi’s eyes narrowed, "That..."

Cain chuckled, a strange gleam flashing in his eyes,

"In order to keep expanding, resources are a must, the most important of which, is time."

Indeed, although they had made a lot of progress after six months, to him, it wasn’t enough.

They had not even expanded to cover twenty percent of the city, much less the entire world.

And he could clearly remember what Azazel has told him.

The more time went by, the more danger the world of Urbus was in.

As time went by, the Devils would only get more powerful and the humans will fall short.

That was just how it was going to be.

Forget the close victory they had pulled off, even surviving would be an issue.

To avoid this fate, they had to accumulate as much resources as possible.

"Have this." Cain said as he pulled out an item from his inventory.

Alvi stretched his arm out and Cain placed the item at the center of his palm. It was a small, dull gem.

The same gem he had pulled off the sword he bought from the metalware shop.

Alvi raised a brow,

"What is that?"

"It is a mana catalyst. Allows to store a charge of mana for a long period of time. It can also be used to cast spells by imprinting a magic circle or rune into the stone itself. On its own, it isn’t that special. But..."

Alvi’s eyes widened in surprise,

"So that’s what it is."

"I think we can find a whole bunch of this in that mine of yours. Of course, you can make use of your worms. However, I doubt they have what it takes to reach the required depths."

Alvi fell silent,

"You want to do it yourself?"

Cain nodded,

"I’ll be honest with you. It’s been a while since I last got any action."

Alvi chuckled,

"Is that so..."

That was only half true, of course.

The real reason he wanted to go the mine, was because he was search for something.

Some time ago, Pudding had discovered a strange stone deposit under Valestorm.

The same mana catalyst he had just handed to Alvi.

The presence of a god had changed the land fundamentally.

Under the very earth, countless treasures lay. That was what he was after.

However, the deposits were rather hard to find.

Trying to look blindly would result in adverse changes to the terrain. He would rather not go about it that way.

Instead, he would make use of the mines. Perhaps he would be able to make some good progress that way...