Cain stared at the piece of ore for a while. He finally remembered where he had gotten it from. One of the goblins had had it and had refused to let go of it even upon its death. He had only picked it up because he thought it looked precious.


    Looking at the glinting ore, he was a little captivated. He found, much to his surprise, that he could tell how good the quality of the metal within the ore was, based on how dense the metal elementals within it were.


    ''So potent. However, it is not overtly dense


    An even distribution as well.'' Cain thought to himself as he studied the metal ore.


    He immediately activated the system to ess its description. If it had magical origins, then he would be able to ess its information through the system.


    ***


    {ck Tungsten Ore}: Special


    Description: A metal ore with magical properties that have been influenced by a strange mixture of energies.


    ***


    Cain''s brows furrowed upon reading it...


    ''Hmmm... Tungsten, is it? It seems to have also absorbed special properties from the dense Aether within the mountain.'' Cain frowned when he thought about this. However, his expression quickly rxed.


    ''What magical properties does this thing have exactly?'' He was a little bit excited to find out. After all, one of his main abilities had something to do with metals and their properties. He had managed to upgrade {Metal Creation} into the {Divine Essence of Metallurgy} skill. Maybe he would have a new road opened to him by studying ores.


    Killing the goblins and orcs had granted him a handful of system points, so he wasn''t shy and asked the system...


    {Replying to host: The magic properties of the metal within the site are enhanced durability, tensile strength, conduction, heat and corrosion resistance, and malleability. It also allows energy to flow within it without too much resistance, making it more receptive to ki and magic runes}.


    Cain was shocked, but not overly so. He had no idea how these magical properties would be useful to him.


    As if it could sense thoughts, the system continued,


    {Since the host possesses an internal skill that is rted to metal and metal control, special ores like this will prove to be quite useful}.


    Cain raised an eyebrow, ''How so?''


    {Replying to host: That is for the host to figure out for himself. Metallurgy is one of the backbones of any civilization, and the host possesses a skill that grants him the ultimate form of the craft...}


    Cain almost felt like the system was trying to berate him for not wanting to use his head, causing him to let out a small chuckle.


    ''I guess you are right.''


    Cain studied ore for a while before trying to use the {Divine Essence of Metallurgy} on it. To his surprise, the m3metal.particles within the ore didn''t react strongly.


    Cain tapped its rough surface, ''I guess I''ll have to purify it then.''


    Cain suddenly remembered an item he had received from Azazel...


    ***


    Draconic st Furnace: Used by dragons to forge weapons and equipment with immense power.


    ***


    He opened his inventory and summoned it.


    BOOM!


    The cave he was at trembled a bit as the structure manifested from empty space and filled up arge portion of the cave.


    Cain stared at it,pletely perplexed...


    ''I think I should have done this somewhere with a bit more space.''


    The st furnace was covered in intricate designs and dragon-shaped motifs that looked as though they had life in them. Cain could spot hundreds of hundreds of runes upon its stone and metallic exterior.


    It didn''t even look like an object. It was more like a structure. It also didn''t look like a traditional st furnace. It was more like a cksmith''s workshop than a st furnace.


    Cain remembered Azazel''s words;


    "Do not worry about its size. Since you are very in tune with the metal element, I figured it would do you good to learn how to craft weapons and equipment. I am considered a divine cksmith by many, so I should be able to give you one or two pointers..."


    Cain remembered the demon telling him how he woulde to get him in a month.


    ''I''m pretty sure a month has time by already...'' Cain said with a small chuckle.


    When the Demon told him he would have toe back in a month, he had no idea what he actually meant. He had alreadye to realize that the concept of time varied from one to another, which was a very terrifying thing to think about.


    Shaking his head, he stepped through the entrance of the st furnace...


    Cain''s eyes immediately became wide. Not only was the thing huge from the outside, it was even bigger on the inside. It was like a big, circr room on the inside. There were a few empty shelves and racks, As well as trolleys that were used for heaven knows what within the furnace.


    ''I guess calling this ce a furnace wouldn''t make much sense. So smithing room?''


    It was more urate to alloy a smithing room than a furnace. Cain''s mind spun as he thought of all the possibilities.


    He quickly moved closer to the center of the room where the forge was. It was veryrge and reached the high ceiling of the room. There were vents covered in runes, arrays, and magic circles, a smithing table, a thermostat, and a mana valve to control the amount of mana the operator could pour into it.


    What filled him with awe the most was the main part of the forge. Four dragon heads with their jaws wide open were pointed at an altar at the center of the room. There were four apertures on the sides of the altar, and its ck stones were covered in runes and magic circles as well.


    Cain was a bit puzzled by this.


    ''Are there usually two furnaces within a smithing room?'' Thinking about it for a while, he decided to put it at the back of his mind...


    He was filled with excitement as his hand rubbed across the glinting metal. The metal was worn, and the furnace had marks across its surface making Cain almost certain it had been used countless times before.


    ''Incredible...''


    He then began studying the runes on the surface of the constructs. As he did so, he began thinking...


    ''Can this ce be used to store things as well? It has spatial properties, and this room is many times bigger than the space within my inventory. I can most definitely use it to store things!''


    With this thought in mind, Cain quickly essed his inventory and dumped all the items within it out. All except his stash of beast meat, of course...


    There were a lot of items, so they quickly formed a small pile. Not wanting to waste any time in testing his theory, he quickly ran out of the forge. Then he ced his hand on the body of the forge and sent a magicalmand.


    The huge {Draconic st Furnace} began shrinking and shrinking until it became as small as his palm. It then disappeared into his inventory.


    Cain opened his inventory and saw the forge sitting there within his inventory unperturbed. Cain was speechless for a while before a nasty grin appeared on his face...


    ''Oh, the possibilities...'' Now that his ability to store items had increased exponentially, there was so much he could do  With the existence of the {Draconic st Furnace}, these possibilities were further solidified.


    Cain''s heart sped up as his mind went wild. Then he began to consider other things. Light shed within his palm and a metallic ore settled between his fingers.


    Despite being called {ck Tungsten}, the metal gave off a subtle glow that spread across the darkness.


    ''If there is one ore within the mountains, then there is bound to be more. A whole mountain of untapped resources, just waiting for me to take. How exciting...''


    On Urbus, the ground had been excavated to the point that there were areas that had just caved in due to excessive mining. The parties that had engaged in the series of wars that had urred a thousand years ago had a dire need for resources. As such, they hadpletely put the''s wellbeing out of their minds and focused on getting as much as they could.


    The results?


    About three-quarters of the was leftpletely uninhabitable to most creatures. The creatures that could actually survive there had to adapt heavily. The rest had simply died off or were moved to better pasture by the humans after the war.


    As such, since the was barren of all natural resources, the world government had sought extraterrestrial resources instead.


    Space exploration has be more prevalent since then...


    Cain shook his head, ''I bet I have ess to more ore than the entire world has seen for years.'' He thought with a grin.


    Cain threw the ore back into his inventory and sat on the ground in the darkness...


    There were so many paths for him to take towards the future, he was left feeling dizzy. He knew if he wasn''t careful, he would be left feeling overwhelmed and would fall behind.


    ''So much to do...'' Cain heaved a sigh as he stood up and dusted his clothes.


    Another hunting party had been sent out...


    From what he could gather, the Chief of the Chaos creatures had decided to increase the numbers within each group. Before, there were a hundred {Chaos Goblins} and ten {Chaos Trolls} per group. Now, each group contained two times that amount.


    Cain had a hungry look in his eyes as he melted into the darkness...