Some time later James awoke, sore from the awkward position he had passed out in. His armor felt heavy and restrictive on his body, and it took several tries to stand back up. He scanned around, ensuring there were no monsters nearby and he was within the wards, then removed his helmet.
The gentle breeze felt cool on his sweat-damp head and hair. Now able to see clearly, or as clearly as possible in the dim light, he saw that in fact there were still monsters about. There was a mess of dead and broken bat monsters strewn about the cavern floor, dozens of them, twitching and writhing, trying and failing to crawl on broken wings. James confirmed that they were no threat and sat down on a nearby rock and pulled out bread and his water jug. He was famished to the point that his stomach was cramping. Slowly he sipped water and ate bread until the cramping stopped. He didn't want to overeat when he had more work to do.
After checking for spiders and mole monsters and anything coming out of the plant passage, James put his helmet back on and headed out with his Earth War Hammer in his left hand and a shovel in his right. He left his Tower Shield propped up within the ward nearby. The dead bat monsters James would flip into a pile against the wall with the shovel, this task requiring the more dexterity. The not-yet-dead monsters James would smash with the hammer, for the most part just letting gravity do the work. The hammer was heavy enough on its own to finish the job with minimal effort.
Once finished, James put the shovel away and re-equipped himself with his Green Iron Tower Shield and his Green Iron War Hammer. He moved slowly across the cavern, less with caution and more with fatigue. His mana felt more than it had before he'd passed out, but still not fully recovered.
At the halfway point he froze. He saw movement up ahead. James was astonished at the sheer number of bat monsters lying on the ground outside the passage where he had been swarmed. And that might not have been all of them.
Two mole monsters, apparently juveniles, were snuffling around the pile. James watched with stillness as they both picked up writhing bat monsters and carried them back to their own passage. It wasn't far, but the mole monsters were by nature slow, so this process took a minute. When they returned, James made his move.
Shield at the ready, with an eye on the ground and his footing, James advanced towards the mole monsters. At first they didn't notice him, more interested in the bat monsters, but when he reached ten yards close, they saw him.
And they panicked.
Squealing somewhat like frightened pigs they jerked back reflexively, then turned and ran back to their passage.
James watched them go, still on alert in case the huge mole monster came out, but after several minutes the cavern remained calm. Save for the uncountable number of dead and dying bat monsters on the ground.
What followed was tedious, messy, and nerve-wracking.
James smashed the head of a nearby twitching bat monster, killing it, and then used his knife to dig out its magic crystal.
Purple.
He tossed the purple magic crystal in his bag, stood, scanned around for approaching enemies, and then smashed the head of another nearby bat monster.
James repeated this process well over a hundred times.
Anyone with even just one combat class, even a Mage, would have acquired an [Alert] or [Presence Detection] skill from attempting to collect materials in hostile territory the way the Smith did.
And yet the Smith and Enchanter acquired nothing but the materials, the fatigue brought on from stress, and the habit of constant vigilance.
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Sadly, habits are not nearly as powerful and useful as Skills.
Finally, James smashed the last bat monster head and dug out the last magic crystal.
Green.
He put it in the magic bag and stood upright. He was soaked in sweat from the constant workout of crouching down and standing back up and mentally exhausted from the stress of working outside his wards.
The pile of bat monster carcasses was now almost as tall as James was, and several times broader than that.
James put the pile behind him and began the long trek back to his camp, to bake more bread and tally up his loot.
The walk was blessedly uneventful.
After baking and setting a dozen loaves to cool, James started counting magic crystals and fell asleep, exhaustion finally overwhelming him.
When he woke, James felt much better. He stored the now cold loaves of bread in the magic bag and ate a hearty breakfast of porridge and wood-smoked monster meat. He did some light stretches, massaged his sore muscles as best he could, and then sat down and finished counting the magic crystals.
Four Earth Magic Crystals.
One Water Magic Crystal.
Ninety-four purple Magic Crystals.
Eighty-two Wind Magic Crystals.
James felt simultaneously thrilled to have such a treasure trove of enchanting materials, and disappointed that there was nothing he really wanted to enchant. [Wind Resistance] or [Water Resistance] would be the next logical choice, or perhaps [Frostbite], but judging by the pattern, similar to the pattern for [Rapid Blow] and [Heated Blade], it was designed to be etched into a blade, or some kind of two-dimensional, flat, long surface. He had managed to make [Rapid Blow] work on his war hammer, but it was clearly not as strong as the enchantment for [Heavy Blow], which James guessed must have been designed for hammers to begin with.
James decided, once again, not to enchant anything. Besides which, although his mana felt restored after sleeping twice and eating his fill, it was now cold and stiff from lack of use.
James stretched once more, filled his water jug, and re-armored himself. He activated the [Reflect] enchantment to stimulate his mana again and set out, Earth War Hammer in hand. Pausing only at his forward warded area to scan for enemies, he continued.
He was somewhat surprised that the juvenile mole monsters weren't digging into the pile of bat monster carcasses, but they were absent. James supposed they may not be interested in already dead monsters, given that the previous day they had picked out still living monsters.
As he passed the reeking pile, James slowed, growing more cautious. This was the final passage. He carefully scanned the floor, the ceiling, and the walls, which looked like they had been carved out of the stone intentionally, although there were no tool marks. He moved down the center of the passage, shield up, hammer ready, and about twenty yards in discovered-
A door.
There was a door in the cavern.
James was dumbfounded for a moment before he turned and scanned for approaching monsters behind him. Finding nothing, he turned back and inspected the door more closely. It appeared to be made of iron and was featureless, just a smooth slab of iron other than the handle to pull the door open. Yet there were no hinges on the opposite side of the door, which suggested it was a push door.
First, James poked the door softly with his hammer.
Nothing happened.
Then he poked the handle with a finger.
Nothing happened.
He debated knocking for a moment, but decided that, being in a monster infested cavern, alerting whoever was on the opposite side of the door was a dumb idea, and if they got mad about it he could apologize at that point.
Slowly he wrapped his fingers around the handle, and pushed.
Nothing happened.
Chagrined, this time he pulled, and the heavy door slowly opened.
The room was dim, yet more brightly lit than the rest of the cavern. In addition to glowshrooms on the walls, there was what appeared to be torches in the distance, or at least open flames here and there on the walls. The room was also large. At least as large as either of the other two big caverns, with a suspiciously flat floor given the scattered boulders. Before James' feet was a set of stairs, ten steps leading down to the floor of the room. And in the dimness at the far end of the cavern there appeared to be a mole monster, judging by the shape.
James cautiously proceeded down the staircase, keeping his shield raised and focused on his footing. When he reached the ground he felt his cleats dig into the packed dirt floor, and then two things happened.
First, the mole monster moved. It seemed to crouch, and then somehow fold in on itself like a ball, and then it started rolling towards James.
Second, there was a screech and a slam as the door shut behind the Smith.