Infinite Mana - Chapter 164: Something Worth Digging For (Thank you for your support, Tzucaza .!) (Patreon)

Sieghart continued deeper through the dungeon, following the broader mana disturbances whenever the tunnels twisted away from obvious routes. Smaller earthworms attacked regularly, but Magic Vision gave him enough warning that most died before fully breaking through the surrounding stone.

Wind Blades handled the majority. When two emerged together, Sieghart simply adjusted their angles and cut both apart before their circular mouths reached him. The repetition was useful, forcing him to improve targeting without wasting movement or unnecessary spells.

Several corpses contained mana cores, though many did not. Sieghart quickly noticed the larger worms possessed them more frequently, while the smallest creatures often died without leaving anything valuable behind. He pocketed those he found instead of absorbing everything immediately. Twenty Experience each was useful, but continuously stopping after every fight would turn training into bookkeeping, and he could deal with the collection later.

Another tremor passed beneath his boots. Sieghart waited. Nothing attacked.

“Still hiding. huh? Smart…”

He continued forward until a metallic reflection along the right wall caught his attention. At first he assumed it came from moisture beneath the lantern-like mana glow surrounding several dungeon crystals.

Then he stopped. A cluster of mineral deposits protruded directly from the stone. Sieghart stepped closer and activated Magic Vision more carefully. The deposit contained mana, but its structure felt different from both the surrounding rock and the crystals he had already passed.

The formation itself looked strange. Minerals on Earth were usually scattered through veins, mixed with stone, or buried inside ore that needed crushing, sorting, washing, smelting, and considerable processing before becoming useful material. This was different.

Several fist-sized masses had formed together inside one compact section of wall, all sharing nearly identical coloration and texture. Very little ordinary stone remained trapped between them, making the deposit look almost preprocessed.

“I guess it must be some magic bullshit… can’t let this explanation be enough forever, though.”

Sieghart had never studied mining seriously in his previous life, but even he understood that valuable metal rarely appeared politely gathered into clean lumps waiting for someone to pull it from a wall.

Dungeon mana apparently had different opinions about geological realism. The material possessed a dark bluish-gray surface with faint silver lines running through it. Those lines caught mana differently whenever he shifted his viewing angle, producing subtle internal flashes beneath Magic Vision.

Sieghart reached toward the largest piece with Telekinesis. The surrounding stone resisted briefly before cracking. With another pull, the entire mineral mass came free and floated toward his hand, leaving behind a jagged hole nearly thirty centimeters deep.

It was heavier than expected. Sieghart caught it carefully and rotated the chunk between both hands. The surface felt cool and unusually smooth despite having formed naturally inside rough dungeon stone. Nothing about it reminded him of iron, copper, aluminum, or any other metal he had handled on Earth.

That admittedly meant very little.

Sieghart had never been particularly interested in metallurgy before reincarnation. Even in this world, most of his crafting knowledge centered around rune placement, magical circuits, and modifying objects somebody else had already manufactured. Raw materials were another subject entirely.

He knew certain metals conducted mana better than others, some resisted magical heat, and expensive equipment often depended upon materials he could not identify without someone explaining them first. That suddenly seemed like an embarrassing gap.

“I should probably fix that.”

Runic engraving could only become more useful if he understood what he was engraving. Learning how different metals, crystals, woods, monster parts, and processed materials interacted with mana would open far more possibilities than carving everything into ordinary steel.

Sieghart placed the strange ore inside a storage pouch and turned back toward the hole. Something moved. The stone behind the extracted mineral cracked inward. Sieghart leaned aside just as a pale mouth erupted from the opening, spraying dirt across his coat while an earthworm lunged directly where his chest had been.

A Wind Blade flashed horizontally.

The creature split from mouth to tail. Both halves fell from the wall and hit the ground beside Sieghart, twitching several times before becoming still. He looked at the corpse.

“You were sitting behind my ore?”

That sounded territorial. Sieghart crouched and checked the remains anyway. His fingers eventually found another small core buried inside the thicker central section, which he pulled free and wiped against the worm's skin.

Not every monster carried one. The pattern was becoming clear enough, though. Greater size meant a better chance of finding a core, probably because larger creatures accumulated enough mana for one to form or persist inside them.

Sieghart stored it with the others. If the larger worm Lysa had warned about followed the same pattern, its core might actually be worth considerably more than twenty Experience. That improved his motivation slightly.

The tunnel continued downward until reaching a three-way junction. Each passage looked nearly identical, disappearing into rough darkness beneath shallow arches of naturally reinforced stone.

Sieghart stopped in the center. Magic Vision showed mana everywhere. That did not help. He closed his eyes and activated Wind Magic instead. A faint Breeze spread into all three tunnels, moving carefully enough that it would not announce his position through obvious pressure changes or disturb loose material unnecessarily.

Sieghart waited for the returning currents. The left passage narrowed quickly. The center tunnel descended but contained several collapsed sections that restricted airflow. The right passage remained wider and carried a noticeably larger volume of stale air from somewhere farther ahead.

Sieghart opened his eyes.

“Right.”

That small test pleased him more than it should have. Wind Magic had always been useful for movement and cutting attacks, but using airflow to read tunnel structure gave it another practical application.

He entered the right passage. The floor gradually became smoother beneath his boots. Worm tunnels intersected the main route more frequently here, leaving rounded openings along walls and ceilings where pale residue still clung to stone.

Several smaller creatures attacked during the next stretch. None reached him. One emerged beneath his left foot and died to Glacial Fist before fully opening its mouth. Another came through the ceiling and received an Earth Bullet directly through its head.

A third attacked from behind. Telekinesis twisted its exposed body sideways before Sieghart cut it apart. They were aggressive enough that he barely needed to search for them.

“The girl mentioned a bigger one.”

Sieghart glanced farther ahead.

“That thing is really taking its time.”

He had expected the larger creature to chase the retreating expedition, especially after hearing how aggressively it had attacked them before the rescue. Instead, the biggest disturbance had withdrawn deeper while the smaller worms continued throwing themselves at anything moving through their territory.

That difference bothered him slightly. Not because he expected every monster to behave identically, but because the last dungeon creature carrying corruption had displayed almost ridiculous aggression toward him. The unfinished guardian beneath Bellhaven had treated Sieghart like the final meal in existence the moment his mana attracted its attention.

This creature had not. Perhaps that meant nothing. Or perhaps the large earthworm simply was not corrupted. The smaller ones certainly seemed hungry enough without needing unnatural influence.

A worm erupted from the floor before Sieghart finished the thought. He stepped sideways and released another Wind Blade. The creature's head rolled across the passage.

“Point proven.”

He kept moving. The mana density increased gradually until Sieghart could feel it even without Magic Vision, pressing faintly against his senses like warm humidity gathering beneath the mountain.

The tunnel widened as well. Natural stone gave way to broad walls covered with mineral clusters, mana crystals, and strange layered deposits that reflected pale light whenever Sieghart passed. He wanted to stop. Several formations looked completely different from the ore he had already collected, and at least two crystalline deposits seemed useful enough to justify removing immediately.

Sieghart forced himself onward. The materials were not going anywhere. Probably. Then the ground trembled. This time, the vibration did not fade quickly. Loose grit bounced around Sieghart's boots while several mineral fragments clicked against the walls. Somewhere ahead, something massive shifted enough weight to disturb the entire passage.

Sieghart stopped walking. Magic Vision sharpened. Mana gathered farther ahead in a concentration dramatically larger than anything he had encountered since entering the dungeon.

The tunnel ended perhaps fifty meters away, opening into what appeared to be an enormous chamber hidden beyond a curved wall. The mana inside that space moved differently.

Slowly. Heavily.

Almost every surrounding current bent around one enormous presence near the chamber's center, making it impossible to mistake for another cluster of smaller creatures. The ground shook again. Closer this time.

Sieghart lowered his stance slightly while Wind Magic gathered around one hand and Protection tightened across his body.

A scraping sound rolled through the darkness ahead.

Stone cracked.

Something enormous shifted. Sieghart smiled faintly.

“Found you.”

Whatever had terrified the trapped expedition was finally close enough to stop hiding. And judging by the amount of mana gathered inside the chamber, the larger worm was going to be considerably more interesting than the rest.