The battle was over quickly, with this being a crafter run team almost all of the combatants were at level fifty-five meaning they were slightly above the strongest monsters that could be found and would have stood a chance going even one floor higher. After all no house would risk its crafters without appropriate protection.

“Trevor, this place has a solid vein but I’m not sure how deep the cave goes. Make sure to clear it all out as this will be a perfect base camp for this delve.” Nina took her role as leader of the delve even if she was below Trevor in the chain of command that only applied during combat.

Trevor sent a scout to take a look deeper inside the cave while everyone else already started setting up the crafting facilities on the outside of the cave. Everybody seemed like a well oiled machine as they started getting the base camp set up, Ajax didn’t have an assigned role so he got to work skinning his own kills as he didn’t want to get in anyone’s way.

For the first time Ajax had forced himself to push past his own feeling of wrongness. Despite goblins, kobolds and imps looking slightly humanoid, Ajax didn’t have any issues when it came to killing them, he understood that this world was different from Earth and that life didn’t have the same value here. Skinning something so humanoid however was something that he did have a reluctance to, one that he had to push himself past.

Two of the corpses he had to leave off to the side to defrost as trying to skin them otherwise would have damaged the leather. “These are some clean kills.” Another of the crafters said as they approached him after he finished with the second kill.

“Was planning to use the skin for some leatherworking so I took care not to damage it when I killed them.” Ajax replied.

“I can see that.” He nodded at the two with a few frozen patches. “You mind if I try skinning those two, the frozen patches should add enough difficulty for me to improve my skill. I’ll use my other skills to quickly tan them as well.”

“Sure.” Ajax agreed, happy to have some tanned skins to work with as well.

While the other crafter had started skinning the other two imps Ajax had gotten started at making a pair of boots out of the snake on the first floor. The boots he had on were sturdy enough for the rocky surface but sadly they were a horrible fit for the hot atmosphere.

“That’s not bad.” Nina said as she looked over his shoulder. “You already have a leatherworking skill?”

“Tried my hand at a lot of things back in my village.” Ajax responded. “My parents weren’t all that keep to have me take up anything combat related after my brother joined the city guard so I went through everything else before it came to hunting.”

What he left out was that he had picked up most of those skills, and that his talent in those areas was in question considering his Divine Witness trait meant he could pick up most skills with enough practice. For the next two hours Ajax had put together a more decent pair of boots that would allow his feet to breathe a little without sacrificing defense.

“There is nothing else inside the cave and I couldn’t find any other exits.” The scout then returned. “The cave does run a few tunnels deeper but they are all dead ends and clean.”

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“Alright, everyone with a mining skill pick up a pickaxe and follow me.” Nina called out.

Ajax traded out his boots before heading over to pick up a pickaxe. This action got a n eyebrow raise from Nina when she saw him among the three crafters and two combatants who answered her request.

“I’ve got to wait for the imps to get tanned anyway.” Ajax shrugged at her look which got a nod from her.

Besides the mining picks all of them also carried a few wooden poles that a carpenter would place to stabilize the cave when they started to mine. It was a quick ten minute trip before Nina found what she called the best spot and the carpenter quickly got to work setting up the supports.

With the supports in place all of them got to work and started picking away at the walls. Ajax was taking full advantage of his [Mana Syphon] but wasn’t using any of his own mana, just whatever he could get for free; that combined with [Precise Blow] meant he was making good progress in tearing the wall apart.

In about twenty minutes they had already started to see the Iron vein that was hidden in the wall of the cave and the slowest of the miners was sent up to get a cart so they could start ferrying it up .

Ajax could feel his body warming up as he kept going while also being careful not to mine outside of the area held up by the supports, the last thing he wanted was to cause a cave in. After about another hour of work, and the third cart of ore the sent up to the top, the cart returned with four more of the combat personnel.

“They’re ready to start the smelting process.” One of the newcomers informed Nina.

“Crafters come with me,” she said and also nodded at Ajax. “Simon, you stay here and make sure they don’t bury themselves.”

“Yes ma'am.” came the quick response from the carpenter.

Ajax and the other three crafters passed over their picks as they headed back up with the forth cart only half filled. Once they made it up at the top Ajax was surprised to see a gray fire burning in the furnace that gave off a bright blue smoke, clearly the gargoyle coal was quite something to see burn.

“Were there any incidents?” Nina asked Trevor once they were back and the cart was taken back down by one of the crafters who inspected the imp skins before deciding to mine for a bit longer.

“Only three more solo gargoyles.” Trevor responded and pointed to the pile of rocks next to the furnace. “They were quickly brought down and added to the pile.”

While Ajax didn’t join in to help with the smelting process he did stand nearby as he pushed his [Sense Mana] skill. He had felt that the iron had mana infused into it though he didn’t know what kind. He could use [Mana Syphon] on it to figure it out but since the iron most likely was less resistant than the arches if it was found out that he could weaken mana enhanced materials it would cause a shitstorm he didn’t want to deal with.

Out of the entire team only three people were involved in smelting the ore. One was Nina, one was the eager smith and the final was one of the combat members who had apparently gained the skill but wasn’t interested enough in crafting to make it his focus. Of the three only Nina and the smith were using the gargoyle coal and Ajax could see the difference between them with his [Sense Mana].

The bars the combatant smelted had a lower mana concentration than those created by the other two, using mana infused coals seemed to lower the concentration loss during the smelting process. As for the bars created by Nina and the smith the difference could be sensed in the flow of the mana.

The bars created by the smith had a very chaotic manapath whereas Nina’s had a smooth clear orientation. He couldn’t distinguish them once they were finished, without infusing some mana into them anyway, but it was obvious during the crafting process.

“We’ve got another Gargoyle incoming.” The scouted shouted while pointing towards a dot in the sky that was slowly getting bigger.

“Mind if I take it?” Ajax asked as he pulled out his bow.

“It’s all yours.” Trevor nodded

Ajax first fired an electric arrow much like he did with the imps only for it to bounce harmlessly off the gargoyle. Clearly the stone skin was too much for his arrows and his non enhanced strength to break through and the rocky texture was resistant to the electric effect as well.

His second shot was much more effective, despite it also bouncing off the ice mana froze a large enough patch to affect the wing causing the gargoyle to drop in an uncontrolled dive. The crash wasn’t enough to kill the gargoyle but it did crush one of its knees causing it to lose the leg. Ajax was quick to close the distance however and the gargoyle didn’t even get a chance to stand up before a metal infused hammer crushed its head completely.

With the gargoyle crumbling in front of him Ajax lowered his hammer as a wave of weakness traveled through him, a system notification opening in front of his eyes.

Curse of Weakness

Type : Temporary

Strength : Minor

Effect : Strength lowered by 10.

Cause : absorbing too much cursed mana

Duration : 1 hour