100 3.12 Space Magic - Part 4

"Hey kid, fly as high as you can and don't go near the water."

"Okay, but what's in there?"

Zagan was making it sound like there was something really dangerous there. We were flying towards the Mithril island, and I was already at a significant height. But since Zagan was the one saying it, I moved a little higher. Being cautious was better than regretting it later.

The ocean was quiet, unlike how Zagan described it to be. I was keeping an eye on the water below but there was nothing significantly noticeable there. After flying for a while, I noticed a small islet at around 500 meters away from where we were.

"Oh, there it is, King of the northern seas," Zagan said when he noticed the islet.

This was my first time hearing that name, so I was curious about what or who that could be. Zagan smiled when he saw me staring at the islet.

"Do you want to know what he really looks like?" Zagan said with a grin on his face.

He flew a little forward and raised his right hand. He then created a dark arrow made up of condensed miasma above his hand and shot the arrow right at the islet.

"URAAAAR!"

A loud cry was heard from the islet, but before I could be surprised, something else happened that left me in shock. A large squid headed monster, with a gigantic head and hundreds of tentacles showed up out of the water.

"Well, he will just quiet down in a while. This monster that you are looking at is one of the 4 largest creatures in this world. Without this single beast, the food chain of the whole world will be unbalanced."

"That's ginormous!"

Only those words came out of my mouth to describe the sight in front of me. He was so big that even the whales would look like dolphins in front of him. All my questions about why dwarves left this place were answered by the sight I was watching.

"Yes, this is my first time seeing such a creature too," Flare said. Considering the fact that Flare could only be summoned through a ritual that needed a lot of fire mazes, I wasn't surprised that she wasn't summoned in these uninhabited parts.

"Anyways, let's go to the island."

After Zagan said that, all three of us continued flying towards the Mithril island. But even when we were flying forward, I couldn't help but look back towards that gigantic creature.

From closer, the island was full of ruins. There were several broken walls covered in mosses and fungus. But just by looking at the ruins, one would tell how sturdy the structures were made.

"Let's go towards the mines in those hills," Zagan said after we reached the island to which Flare and I nodded.

On our way to the mines, I noticed things like broken rails and carts. This all pointed towards the fact that even back then dwarves used to use railway carts. Looking at all that made me wonder what kind of place really is the Dwarven nation.

The place was dangerous considering how old it was. In several places, rocks had fallen from above and blocked the way. We removed those using earth magic and continued walking inside.

After walking for almost an hour, we came to a dead end. It looked like this was where the mining had stopped. Till now, we hadn't come across anything that looked like Mithril so I think the dwarves just ran away before they could find the ore.

"Kid, use the earth magic to dig more. Don't worry about the exit, just leave enough space for the air to come through."

After Zagan said that, I moved forward. I hadn't tried using earth magic for a purpose like this before, but it didn't look like it would be that hard.

I touched the surface of the wall in front of us with my right hand and transferred the mana within me into it. I then converted that mana into earth magic so that I would be able to manipulate the soil and rocks on the wall. 

I slowly concentrated the soil there into a big sphere and deposited it on the side. The path up until this point was wide, but the one I was making would be narrower the further we moved. I was hoping to come across an ore quickly because the further we moved inside, the harder it would be for us to move. 

Even after digging for a while, we came across nothing. My mind was starting to drift towards the thoughts like: Dwarves were probably wrong about this. There wasn't an ore here in the first place. This could also be the reason why they stopped digging.

"Kid, stop digging. What we need is here," Zagan said while rubbing the soil on the side wall. But despite what he said, I couldn't see anything like Mithril around.

He plucked off a stone from the wall and passed mana through it. And as he did that, the stone started shining. It wasn't as bright as the lighstones which was pure crystalline, but it was definitely glowing.

When I looked closely I could see the silver color metallic shine on the surface. It was only then I realized reality and expectations are a different thing. Normally, people expect to find a huge chunk of Mithril in a place like this, but in reality, it was different. The impure ores from mine needed to be processed into useful metal.

"So, do you know of a way to purify these ores?"

"Yeah obviously. But for now, let's go to my space and purify these ores. It will at least take you a month to completely grasp space magic, so we can slowly be able to create a device till then."

I was hoping that I would be able to learn this magic like I did elemental magic. But this one turned out to be a lot complicated then I thought.

"Then should we collect the ores and take it back?" I asked since I wasn't sure how he was going to refine these ores.

"Nah, there is no need. We will also need some soil during the refinement process, so I am going to teleport the whole thing. Let's filter out the rest later. I am tired now. My body needs a nap."

"Ah okay, so you are able to teleport things that you touch using surrounding mana too."

"Yeah, I thought you would have already figured that out… Anyways, let's get going."

With those words, he snapped his finger and we were back at his space.

This turned out to be a lot more work than what we expected but it was all worth it. We still needed a few more metals but we could always bring it some other day. For now, it was a good idea to focus on meditation and build proper concentration.

I looked behind and there was a huge pile of soil with ore mixed in it. By the looks of things, we wouldn't be doing the purification today. It was also getting late so, in the end, I decided to return back to the dormitory and call it a day.

: A good morning