Chapter 268 The second phase (1/2)

[We need more of this. As soon as you can get it.]

…

[Uh, okay? Maybe take it out of my face a little so I can see it?]

An unusually forceful and intent Enid is waving something in my face with shaking hands. As soon as I waddled my way into the village someone had gone to fetch her and the normally dignified older lady had arrived at a dead run, her skirts hiked up with one hand and the other clutching this, object.

As she withdraws the object slightly I can see that it is, as suspected, the mana infused wood that I delivered to Beyn a day or so ago.

[Ah. Finally got your hands on that did you? So what is it?] I enquire.

[It's mana infused wood.]

[I can see that plain as day! What is it good for?!]

Enid huffed with her hands on her hips.

[Well that's a different question, isn't it?] she held the branch tenderly in her hands, like a newborn babe, [this wood has absorbed the plentiful mana of the Dungeon and taken on the attributes that surrounded it.]

[Yeah?]

[These kinds of materials from the Dungeon are treasured and worth just as much as cores. Nations fight over the rights to expanses and other regions that produce this kind of thing fiercely. They are rare and incredibly useful! Not to mention valuable. In the past I dealt with some things like this that my husband managed to bring up. They sold high, I can tell you. Enchanters and craftsmen love this stuff.]

[For what?!] I'm losing my patience here.

Looking down at me disapprovingly, Enid sniffs before answering. [When making items designed to channel certain types of mana, materials like this will amplify the effect. For example, if a staff where made for a water wizard with materials that were imbued with water mana, any spell cast through the staff would be more powerful.]

[Ooo, that is handy.]

Enid smiled triumphantly at my growing enthusiasm. [Not only that. You could make s.h.i.+elds, swords, armour, or artefacts that would add that element to their offense or defence.]

[But this wood has double elements in it] I pointed out, [water as well as earth. Is that good?]

[That!] declared Enid, once again waving the stick with vigour in my face, [is the most important thing! Double affinity! Double the offensive boost, double the defensive! This kind of material is extremely rare! In Liria, anything like this was claimed directly by the crown!]

[Okay. So it's great stuff. That's nice. But what exactly can we do with it? I doubt there are any master enchanters hanging around the village currently, and the colony certainly doesn't have the ability to make anything with it.]

Yet.

With how hard working and dedicated the workers are, combined with their new smarts, who knows what they'll capable of in a few years? In my mind scenes of the great ant forges begin to appear, the cavernous halls under the earth where thousands of teeming artisans craft ant weapons and armour at an industrial scale.

Gweheheheh.