Toby's rocks swirled the wrong way, obstructing his sight for a moment, he had been observing his new door design.
"Damn rocks, get out of the way!" A man-shaped conglomeration of rocks attempted to speak, but just a few dull noises had been produced. The elemental he was possessing waved its bulky hand to get the floating rocks out of the way. He should be able to control it, but the body of an earth elemental had proved to be challenging to control, he was glad that he was holding together somehow, controlling the little floating rocks around him was out of the question.
The door in front of him had the form of a huge cylinder, the flat side was the front of the door, while the round surface rolled back and forth when he wanted to close or to open the door. The main difficulty with the stone door was to make it regular and smooth enough to reduce the force needed to push it back and forth.
At this point he had finally reached the level of precision when only one [Earth Elemental] was enough to push the thing and he had completely gave up on the idea of a critter operating the door. The round door was two meters high and one meter thick and Toby guessed it had to weight at least a few tons
Wait! Maybe . .
What if the critter operating boulders sent a boulder that would push the door?
Toby stood still for a moment in a daze, he was a genius!
He applied the idea without delay and actually managed to get a door that could be slammed shut with a boulder that kept pressing it to stay shut afterwards. Yes, the mechanism had to be opened manually by some earth elemental, but the priority was to have the ability to shut the door remotely and keep it that way and that had been achieved by Toby's contraption.
In addition to the door and a boulder trap, Toby had constructed some pitfall traps which consisted of thin rock surface that would break under intruder's weight and sent them falling down a deep vertical shaft. For the time, it was enough, he did not think that the truly dangerous opponents would be stopped by simple traps anyway, for anyone else there were boulders and pitfalls. Toby had even rounded the edges of his tunnels a bit to prevent any truly slim intruders to dodge the boulders by squeezing into a corner of a tunnel.
With a labyrinth of tunnels with traps and doors around his core room, he had finally the time to focus on matters of strategic importance.
THe main issue was, should he even go near the surface?
Toby thought that digging deeper and silently farming resources could be a viable option, but there was a problem with that strategy. Knowledge and understanding tended to be accelerated by sharing and teamwork and by shutting himself in, he might make some fatal mistake he would not have done if he had some contact with the surface, where surely at this very moment thousands of bright minds were thinking of the best ways to utilize magic. He had to have some channel to interact with the surface to know how strong he was compared to them and if he had not overlooked something crucial concerning magic.
However, he doubted several days would matter considering the initial chaos, he would explore the underground around him in that time.
Toby's possessed elemental moved in the direction of the six scouts he had sent out earlier, starting with going down, he decided that the way leading up would be the last.
Looking around him on the way, he saw some usable materials, but he ignored them as it was only a minuscule amount, he needed a rich vein to rely on, not a few grains of dust.
The hardest part was to learn the swirling trick the elementals used to climb down the vertical tunnels, but he managed to do it after several failed attempts that cost him nothing but a few additional summons.
Only after he had traveled for hours he had realized how vast and deep the underground was, it was strange that the temperature was not rising with depth, as if the core of whatever the core of the demon world was, was cold.
Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.
Wait, was the demon world even a planet? He knew that in the center was that blasted Sea of Void that he had unvoluntarily visited once. Thinking about it further, Toby had no idea. He had reached some marginal level of understanding of the demon world while he had been constructing sewers, but it was mostly superficial knowledge and rumours. He only knew that this was the dry and hot part of the demon world and that he had to fly to get to the other parts that were far, far away.
He believed that the other world that he had arrived to when he had first reincarnated, here in the demon world called Seelael, should be a planet as well as the demon world, but there was something vital missing, as there were some phenomena that could not be fully understood with his ordinary concept of planets. Especially how was he able to fly through space if the demon world happened to consist of multiple planets, or how was it possible that he had to fly if it was just a single planet.
Reaching no reasonable conclusion, he had been roughly ten kilometers under his base and had finally found some notable vein of a promising resource. There were even two veins in front of his eyes and thanks to his singular convenient passive ability, he was able read something about them.
[Rudichron] - A material that is usually found in the form of torquoise crystals that are transparent when cut into thin layers. It it a good conductor of magic and is commonly found next to [Adamantit].
[Adamantit] - Also called Fool's Adamantium, as it looks very similar to [Adamantium], but it is more brittle.The two materials look very similar, possessing silvery luster when reflecting light, but the true [Adamantium] differs by not losing its luster when it is wet. Aside from being more brittle than the true [Adamantium], the forged metal's mechanical properties are still better when compared to steel. It is usually found around the veins of [Rudichron] that is the cause for adamantit ore formation.
With a smile, Toby immediately looked up what he could do with his new-found wealth.
* * * *
"I wonder where is that insane fossil?" Sivian was wandering in ruined tunnels of the shelters that had been provided by the crusaders.
She remembered when she had seen them for the first time, at that point she had decided to take the risk and join the lot.
Naturally, she was glad to be here, because from what she had seen, Toby and Irwen had gone beyond repair. She still had the carnage Irwen had unleashed in the castle in front of her eyes. That, that . .thing was definitely not Irwen anymore. She was better off sharing the cramped tunnels with the weird fluffy people here. They had fur on their tails and big ears and were rather friendly.
Lately there had been a lot of talk about the future of the crusader's campaign, as something of great magnitude happened. Not only the magic had transformed in an unpredictable way, Randolf, the leader of the crusade was said to rebel against The Guild and declared independence after the interplanar portal technology ceased to work. A process that could be called the foundation of a state or a federation could be observed around her, as Randolf's new policy had shifted by a lot, if the fluffy people had told her the truth. He appeared to be gathering support to establish a reformed Magic Guild that was based on the original principles, caring more for knowledge and people opposed to hoarding resources, while using any kind of excuse to serve that exact purpose.
She felt thrilled and insecure at the same time, the turbulent times might just be around the corner, but the crusaders were the only camp she could join, as other races would have certainly sought to enslave her, instead of making her a proper citizen. It was obvious, because all the wars had not helped to create a favorable impression of humans.
"Long Live Rudichron Federation!"
"For the Federation!"
"Long live founder-archmage Randolf Trudou Allenheim!"
She heard loud voices from the outside and she knew that it had begun.
* * * *
[Primordial Auxiliary Dungeon Core of Unity] Item Description: [Build a beacon that enables you to connect with [Primordial Consciousness] and grants you the ability to bend the very principles of mana to your will slightly, materializing your will to a certain degree that will depend on the depth of the connection.; cost: 200 mana 100 rock 100 Rudichron 1 Adamantium 10 000 Souls 0,1 Netherweave Silk 2 Nivrit 0,6 SteelGlass . . . . / 500 mana ]
[The Well of Souls] Item Description: [When build, the well grants you the ability to communicate through soulspace with any willing souls; cost: 200 mana 30 rock 30 Adamantit 1 Black Soul 1 White Soul 10 Rudichron 6 Erborit 100 Souls 2 Mana Wyrm's Blood . . . . ./ 80 mana ]
Like.. like two cubic meters of blood?
Toby stared in shock at the abilities that required [Rudichron] or [Adamantit], the trouble was that the truly powerful ones needed many more than just one of his newly found materials. He began to read, but was quickly lost in the incomprehensible names of additional required materials.
There were hundreds!!!
He would certainly look up the abilities for losers too, but he would be unable to construct anything similar to [The Well of Souls] on his own.
"I could really use something like an adventurer's guild to get me the materials." Toby laughed, but his laugh stopped after a few seconds.
"That's it! I need an adveturer's guild!" Toby jumped with joy, looking incredibly funny given he had the body of an earth elemental now.
Of course there was no such a thing in this world, but why would he not just become one? He could mine mundane things like gold or other valuables under the ground and the money-grabbing adventurers would get him the materials!
With these kind of thoughts, Toby returned back from the heavens and looked at the few measly abilities he should be able to buy.
{Golem Artificer] Item Description: [ A weak golem that is skilled in crafting, it is able to manipulate mana and will execute your commands with precision.; cost: 200 mana 0.05 Rudichron 0.4 Rock 0,1 Adamantit / 30 mana]
[Adamantit War Golem] Item Description: [An elemental creature capable of smashing anything in its path; cost: 200 mana 1 Adamantit 0.01 Rudichron / 20 mana]
[Adamantit Golem] Item Description: [An elemental creature capable of smashing anything in its path; cost: 200 mana 1 Adamantit 0.01 Gold / 20 mana]
[Auxiliary Adamantit Dungeon War Core] Item Description: [It can sustain summoned creatures using Rudichron or Gold as core in two kilometer radius up to the total cost of 300 mana; cost: 25 mana 1 Adamantit 0.5 Rudichron 0.1 Gold 1 Soul / 25 mana]
Fine, he had to take it back. The abilities he had found were not measly at all, but he would have to test them out due to the lack of detailed description.
Founding the Adventurer’s Guild would come after that!