Chapter 263: Pandemonium

Because he had been searching for runemasters and blacksmiths, Shane could tell whether a runemaster was good or not, and it was an undeniable fact that the one he saw in front of him was definitely the former!

The Astral Artisan hall was searching for both runemasters and blacksmiths but runemasters were the most sought after by them!

Other than tools, they required runemasters to inscribe certain runes on all kinds of building constructions, weapon frames, and even ammunition for large-scale weapons!

The latter was what Shane's Astral Artisans required the most right now because the magic bolts were unable to unleash more than 10% of their might without runes inscribed on them!

This meant that they were not valuable enough for other races to purchase them! It would be great to exhibit [Tier-2 (Rare] graded ballistae for 10,000 gold coins along with up to a thousand magic bolts with wide variability in their effect.

If they could achieve that, their income would rise a lot, however, Shane knew how expensive it was to nurture a runemaster.

Furthermore, the one in front of him didn't appear to be a complete amateur. Considering that he looked like he was probably around 18 years old, Shane was able to tell that he would have nurtured himself well.

'Even if his occupation's quality is low, knowledge, accuracy, and mana perceptions are the three fundamental points for a runemaster.'

Shane was completely immersed in his thoughts and didn't even realize how well the large group of 40 members was able to fight against the Demonized winged glacier goat!

He could predict the outcome of the fight correctly since the [Intensified sun light] magic circle had been manifested!

The goat's ice affinity was rendered useless against the magic circle while the pitch-black eyes regained some of their white color.

It was a bit astonishing to see the latter part as it was not something intensified sunlight could cause, but Shane didn't even realize this.

After the demonization effect had been weakened and the goat's affinity had decreased, the large group was able to take the upper hand.

Nevertheless, more than ten minutes had passed before the winged goat bleated one last time as black smoke left its body.

Shane regained his senses when he heard the bleat and his eyes immediately followed the winged glacier goat, which was covered in small injuries, releasing black smoke.

The goat's eyes returned to their normal color, which dampened the large group's mood. Luckily, they could rejoice after the goat's body stiffened before it went limp.

Meanwhile, Shane couldn't help but stare at the black smoke as he mumbled,

"That caused the demonization... Or am I wrong?...Does that mean something different than an incident was the reason for the goat's demonization? But what or who?"

Shane tried to remember all kinds of scenarios that might cause a demonization, but the worst-case scenario he could visualize was something he sincerely hoped to not be the case.

'Could it be a foreign race that has a shelter in the Radiant mountain ring dimension? There are so many races and it's not unlikely for one to be able to control other beasts...maybe even through demonizing…'

This would be bad news, and Shane decided that it was important which caused him to share his assumption via message with the family group chat.

He included the fact that superior awakened stage beasts that showed signs of being demonized, could be controlled by someone.

It was not an established fact, but a mere possibility still it was important that the military was informed about everything.

If he could prevent the death of innocent soldiers, why shouldn't he help to his fullest extent?

After the winged goat had been defeated, Shane lost his interest in the large group, and he was only curious about the runemaster.

However, instead of approaching them, he felt that it was better to take his time.

It would look weird to simply walk up to the runemaster and offer him a contract with the Astral Artisan hall,, even more so after their group had defeated one of the superior Awakened stage beasts a moment earlier.

Thus, Shane left the group of overjoyed men and women as he took out a magic device that fitted perfectly in his hand.

It was a compass that perceived the surroundings mana fluctuations and Shane wanted to utilize it in order to find a small elemental crystal cave.

There were many open elemental crystal caves in the vicinity, and he found himself standing in front of the first one, twenty minutes after he had left the small battlefield including the student group and winged goat.

Yet, after deciphering the signals shown on the radar in his hands, Shane turned around to search for the next cave.

This continued for several hours until he found an elemental crystal cave with an enormous entrance and he walked inside.

The amount of mana fluctuations he received from the cave in front of him was neither too high nor too low.

While elemental crystals had roughly the same mana fluctuations, with the sole difference in their quality and elemental transmutation, every living being possessed individual mana fluctuations!

With that in mind, Shane was able to figure out how large the caves he had been before were.

At the same time, it was not difficult to roughly decipher how strong a beast was.

Adding those two pieces of information to the readings from the radar in his hand, helped him find the best possible cave in both size, number, and strength of beasts!

After he had found the best cave to initiate his plan, Shane took out several bottles from his spatial ring before he diverted his attention to Cosmo, who was unaware of Shane's plan.

"Cosmo, do you want to show me how great you are? Can you reach the last layer of the elemental crystal cave that is in front of us? Please give it a try!"

Cosmo, who was oblivious to Shane's plan, nodded his small head before Shane opened a spatial portal large enough for both him and Cosmo to pass through.

After they passed through the spatial portal, Shane noticed that the mana density had increased by a large margin. As his eyes adjusted to the darkness, he saw the sheer mass of elemental crystals that shocked him greatly!

However, instead of wasting too much time which might attract the overlord of the elemental crystal cave, Shane carefully placed one of the bottles that he had previously taken out of the spatial ring on the ground. He then stepped through the spatial portal once again.

"There are a total of three layers, right?" Shane asked Cosmo, who was much more proficient in detecting the surrounding mana fluctuation.

Furthermore, Cosmo was able to perceive everything in the surrounding area much better than Shane.

This also stemmed from the fact that Cosmo had a spatial affinity which improved the perception of one's surroundings by a small margin.

Seeing Cosmo nod again, Shane couldn't help but smile brightly as he said, 

"Alright, please take me to the other side of the third floor, and then we will do the same with the left, center, and right part of the second and first floor, alright? If you need more mana to create a total of seven spatial portals through which I can walk, tell me!"

Shane had purchased a total of 9 bottles and he was ready to use all of them at once if that meant that he had three floors filled with elemental crystals all to himself!

It was still a mystery to Cosmo what Shane was talking about, but he did as his master said.

Less than five minutes later, they were already done and Shane was left with one last bottle as he looked at it, mumbling.

"To think that each of those small bottles is worth 1,500 gold coins!" 

Shane had saved lots of gold coins during the last few months which he had used to purchase the radar and nine [Tier-2 (Extraordinary)] Molotov vials.

Eight of the Molotov vials had the [Burning mana] ability while the one in Shane's hand had the [Wildfire] ability.

The [Burning mana] ability Molotov vials were evenly placed throughout the elemental crystal cave. The vials held combustible mana that would burn the cave and every living being within. while the [Wildfire] ability would create huge flames, igniting each of the [Burning mana] Molotov vials.

This would create a chain reaction and in a matter of seconds, the whole elemental crystal cave would burn down to ashes.

The flames would only dissipate once the remaining mana, permeating the air, was completely burned, which would probably take a few hours.

After that, the whole cave would be freed of beasts and Shane could take care of the elemental crystals within the cave!

From what he could tell, the beasts inhabiting the cave were a variation evolution of bats and their strongest individual was at the peak awakened stage.

He had figured this out because one single bat had entered the cave earlier, and the mana fluctuations were similar to the ones one could see on the radar!

Shane was confident that he would be able to defeat it head-on, but this would take very long. He was also unsure if he could defeat thousands of peak-Elite stage bats that populated the elemental crystal cave!

He felt cruel and bitter as his old life on earth echoed in his mind, but Shane's new life was different, and killing beasts almost felt like an everyday job to him.

Grasping the Molotov vial in his hand, he threw it inside the large cavern entrance, initiating an inferno that resembled the entrance to Hell!

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