Chapter 284 First Dungeon Room: Manathryll
'Gates?' The blue-robed kid said under his breath, walking over to where Lyrian was. As he did this, everyone else followed him.
"Hey! Those are real gates!" The kid who dueled the lizard exclaimed in excitement, rushing over to it.
"Hey!" The blue-robed kid barked, "Don't run off on your own. You don't wanna end up like those two!"
Hearing this, the excited-haired kid slowed down to a walk as he approached the gates. By this time, they weren't so small anymore and instead had a robust look to them. Over 20 feet in height, they had multiple large nuts and bolts made of raw and rusty metal. Each one was as large if not bigger than the domes of the students.
Students gazed in awe, and some tried to push it open immediately. Among these few were Jiller, the short-haired kid, and also the leaf boy, of course.
The blue-robed kid stood back with his arms crossed. As he did this, another kid came up to him, "This door doesn't have a lock, meaning it requires pure strength to open. We should all push together."
At that moment, Lyrian backed off slightly from the door, his eyes wide in shock.
'Holy fuck... I tried my best to push it open, and it didn't even budge.' It had been a while since he had been humbled, and by a door no less.
On the blue-robed kid's command, everyone lined up against the door.
lightsnοvεl "Heave!"
They all prepared themselves, putting pressure on their back legs.
"Ho!"
They all shouted, driving all of their weight into their front legs as they pushed forward with utmost force.
*Creak*
The door moved slightly, but not enough to fully open. This was only one door as well. Lyrian grimaced at the thought of trying to open both doors at once.
"One more time!" He exclaimed as everyone caught their breath and lined up against the door for the second time.
The blue-robed kid began to shout again, "Heave!"
"Ho!"
This time, Lyrian infused his legs and arms with a good amount of mana using Enhance and pushed forward.
The door slid open a bit faster, as everyone delightfully walked inside. Immediately, they were met with a completely different interior to the previous place they were just in.n(/0velbIn
No longer were the walls made of gray stone, and no longer was it dark. Instead, the walls looked to be polished light-gray stone, and the floor was flat, made of slabs of the same material as the walls.
The ceiling was no different, and several large pillars of smooth stone held the room together.
The light source inside of this room was piles of some sort of blueish ore encased in the gray stone from the cave. They were in each of the corners and in masses.
It gave the room a very bright, light-blue glow to it. Lyrian saw the ore and immediately thought about what it was.
He also saw another gate to the other room, but before he could act on that, a student rushed over to some of the ore.
"This is Manathryll! Be it a low grade, it's still the stone of mana!" He observed a bright smile on his face that was already reflecting off of the crystal.
"Huh?" Lyrian said, walking closer to one of the stones.
"You're right!" A student said, as everyone quickly scattered around.
"Damn it! I wish I could collect it! It would sell for a nice amount of Riftstones." Jiller exclaimed, looking at the Manathryll with glowing eyes.
Lyrian, who was next to him, inquired a question, "How many Riftstones are we talking about?"
In a daze of awe, Jiller unconsciously replied, "A pound of this stuff sells for 100 Riftstones. Encased in all the stones here, there is at least over 20 pounds of the stuff."
"I... see." Lyrian looked at the Manathryll, now also in awe.
'Hmm... what do I have that can mine it? I have my obsidian blade, but I'm not going to ruin it by mining this ore. Plus, I don't want to disgrace Brokkr's weapon, meant to be used in battle.' He mused, as others around him also wondered how they could extract the material.
A few went a different route from Lyrian, opting to sacrifice their weapons to get the ore.
It seemed quite brittle, and easily breakable with a tool. Lyrian then got an idea. He Enhanced his fist and then threw a punch at the ore.
As soon as it landed, Lyrian felt all of the strength in his fist disappear. The ore rippled with a blue color as if it had absorbed his mana straight from his hand.
All of the force from the mana was also absorbed.
"Woah," Lyrian said in genuine surprise.
"Haha!" Jiller suddenly laughed. "That's natural Manathryll dude. It can't be effected by magic."
"What!?" Lyrian was shocked to hear those words and quickly retorted in bewilderment.
"Yeah... after it's refined, it takes a skilled blacksmith to actually use that natural property of its—to negate a lot of magia. When it's raw, it doesn't need to be tampered with, so it retains its natural power. The only way to collect it is by using a tool."
Hearing this, Lyrian wondered how he could extract the ore again. He wanted it since it provided a good amount of Riftstones. On top of that, it could also pose to be a good item for cultivation.
'Oh... maybe this.' He finally mused. Reaching into his storage ring, he pulled out a simple long spear.
'These are the spears of the Magma Dwellers. They were in the pile of treasure, but I never intended to actually use them. I just wanted to take all the treasure at once.'
He began swirling the spear in the air. 'Not bad... they would be better than my original obsidian blade, but currently, they are useless to me. I might as well use them.'
As he neared them toward the Manathryll ore, Jiller intervened, "Hey! Don't tell me you're wasting that perfectly good spear for this! L-Let me take it!"
Lyrian ignored him, stabbing the ore right in between the stone and the Manathryll.
*Crack*
A chunk of blue crystal fell onto the floor.