The First Legendary Beast Master

Chapter 1923 The Good Kind of Stone

While Dana and most of the others were following the opposite branch of the tunnels that Rae was, in order to clear out the Tunnel Worm nest more quickly, Karl was silently checking the area around the spots where they usually found things related to the Manticore.

They had found one tunnel so far, hidden from everyone who had done the dungeon. And his team had found more good stuff hidden on lower levels last time by sending spiders down into traps.

So, there was a chance that this time they could more thoroughly explore those less travelled regions, and perhaps find another group of monsters.

That would give them two out of three, and hope that this was an actual full dungeon, whose mechanisms everyone had been missing.

Naturally, the miners had noticed what Karl was doing, and they were hoping that he knew what he was up to, as he had left the fighters of his group to go and clear out the Tunnel Worm nest.

But they didn't try to stop him, as they were secretly hoping that he could find another hidden section of the dungeon, along with more monsters.

The additional monsters would help them in the future, as it should lead to greater rewards, especially if it allowed them to fight one boss at a time.

However, no matter how hard Karl searched, he couldn't find any signs of unusual tunnels, and the badgers hadn't found anything else as they searched the rest of the dungeon.

That was a bit disappointing.

{Dungeon Clear} All occupants eliminated

{Dungeon will Close in 24 hours}

"Well, I guess that answers it. There is no extra loot in here for us, just those Tunnel Worms.

Now, your other groups just need to find their way into the tunnel, and then they can kill off the tunnel worms. That should be more rewards, if they do it before eliminating all the bosses, I think."

In these dungeons, the loot boxes dropped with the bosses, but they had killed them all before clearing the rest of the dungeon, so they were unlikely to get any more rewards out of the area, unless it dropped directly from one of the Tunnel Worms.

"Well, that's everything cleared. Gentlemen, we will meet you again in a few hours, once we have fully cleared the tunnels."

The miners groaned, while Karl waved happily at them and left to go back to the right tunnel and restart the mining.

There were badgers all over the dungeon at this point, looking for anything shiny at Cara's direction, so they should do even better than they did last time. Not necessarily because they got a larger portion of the dungeon for themselves, but because badgers were so much better than most species at finding treasures.

And they were finding treasures.

The loot pile that Cara had dedicated to the stuff that they were finding in this dungeon was growing at an insane rate, loaded up with precious metals, gems, elemental stones, and even magical items that didn't seem to have come from a loot box.

How the badgers had managed to do that was a mystery. But the items definitely didn't come from the loot boxes, as they were all degraded and damaged items.

They might have been in the Tunnel Worm nests somewhere?

Karl kept collecting resources from the veins, and then paused as he hit the jackpot.

An Immortal Rank Mana Jade Vein.

That wasn't just a bit of ore, it was an entire section of the dungeon, hidden twenty metres from the main dungeon area, beneath a pit trap.

Karl started to collect it all, heedless of the fact that he was creating a pit mine in a dungeon. Mana Jade was simply too valuable to their crafting. It wasn't something that you could make with [Earth Manipulation], and it would allow them to put even more mana storage on items, even without using up a bonus slot from the inscription.

Every item could have mana storage on top of what they had already carved into it with runes.

But more than that, with what Karl knew now with [Ancient Runeforging]. The new knowledge would let him use the Mana Jade to make Immortal Grade items with self-sustaining effects.

He did a similar thing with mana gathering arrays. But those would stop working if you used a skill like [Mana Suppression] near them.

That was a hard reset for almost all magical artifacts, but ones that operated with stored mana from Mana Jade would have an internal timer, and wouldn't collapse immediately. They could also keep a special effect active while you slept, without the wearer needing to maintain the effect.

"What did you find down there that you've dug such a large hole?" One of the Yizimon Elders called down to Karl.

"A Mana Jade vein. It's nearly played out, but if you want some, come join me."

The Elder dropped into the pit immediately.

"Oh, now this is a great find, and there is so much of it. Not just small stones, but large blocks as well."

"Right? It's not often you find a Mana Jade large enough to make an entire statue. I might have to make a new centrepiece for the store after this find. A little something to show off the wealth of the Darklight Host."

The Yizimon Elder laughed.

The Guild House at what everyone was calling the "Blackwoods Village" after the Lycan Pack that made up most of the population was already filled with immensely valuable items, including Peerless Grade weapons and accessories.

They didn't need to show off with some Peerless Grade area buff statue.

Karl briefly regretted that Rue was a Runic Smith, not a Runemaster. But this was all Immortal Rank stone anyhow, it might not hold up to a Supreme Ranked inscription.

Now, he just needed to decide what he was going to carve into it. Rue would do their defensive wards, so he didn't need that. But it had to be something impressive enough that people would remember it.