A Single Mother's Farm of the Gods
Chapter 365: Gemstone Mining [II]

Chapter 365: Gemstone Mining [II]

It didn’t take too long for Elaina to arrive once again at the village of the Dwarves. After her collection with some Silver Ore and some Gold Ore which didn’t take too long to do so, Elaina arrived at the place where the Dwarves were staying. When she arrived, the Dwarves quickly gathered around as they immediately noticed her arrival before she could even react.

"It’s the human female! She came back and is free from the curse!"

"I wasn’t expecting much but she actually managed to remove the cursed tool from her hands without the chief’s help!"

Elaina heard that and remembered that the chief did say that she could come to him and remove the cursed tool from her hands but in return, the tool will not be blessed and will remain cursed until its specific requirements are satisfied. She did feel like she wanted to take the help of the chief but she ultimately didn’t and managed to remove the weapon’s curse in the end. Based on the reactions of the dwarves, it seems that they couldn’t bear to handle the curse’s way of hampering regular work as they have their hands filled and as a result of this, they are stuck with asking their chief to remove it.

"Is the chief still present here?"

"Yes! He is currently doing some work but you can just go and head over to his house. He should be willing to see you seeing that you have done the impossible."

Once the dwarves left and returned to their current work, Elaina headed to the chieftain’s house. Since she has yet to dive deeper into the mines and with the Dwarves being experts in the mines’ layout and resources that can be gained, there is a large chance that they can help pinpoint the other resources she will be getting. Easier to focus on which floors she needed to stay on and clear again if necessary.

Upon her arrival at the chieftain’s house, she saw a pile of raw mithril being processed and purified by the chieftain. He didn’t notice Elaina as he was still busy heating up the forge.

"Hello, hope I haven’t disturbed you, Chief," Elaina said as she entered the workshop.

"Ah, the human female who visited us the other time. Was your name Elaina? I forgot what it is..." the Chief wipes his hands using the dingy towel he grabbed on the table.

"Yes, it’s Elaina. How are you, people?" Elaina smiled as she looked around the workshop. There are more weapons that she has seen there compared to the last time she have been there.

"Ugh, not too great. With all these resources in our hands, I will be happy if someone steals them from us. We would definitely be grateful for taking our resources off of our hands."

"Eh? Why?" Elaina frowned. They would be happy if someone took this stuff from them?

"Well, we are overflowing with these mithrils since the overflow of the nodes in the lower floors these days. Mithril has been so common nowadays that even some of the coals we needed to mine have been replaced with mithril nodes. We have been trying to get them processed and a few of us planned to go up to the surface and sell them or barter them with coal as they have just been useless for us."

"Is that why you are making weapons out of them?" Elaina asked.

"Indeed. With how many mithril we have here, we have already outfitted all of our villagers here with weapons made from mithril themselves. You won’t see anyone from us who doesn’t have anything related to Mithril."

"Then all these mithril..." Elaina looked at the raw and unprocessed ores on the ground.

"Yes. Those are excess. I am planning to process them into ingots so that I can just sell them to the people on the surface even though we have no need for money. We just needed to get a way to remove this thing from our hands."

Elaina sighed in relief hearing this.

"If you are that desperate to find ways to get rid of these mithril stockpile, I am willing to take them off your hands. I happen to require these things raw and seeing you have an ample supply, might as well take these off your hands. However, I don’t have any good thing to barter that you people might be interested to get."

"Oh? Is that the case? Then feel free to take them off. I am sick of seeing these ores every day it would be a very good idea to get these things out of my hands. And don’t worry, we don’t need any kind of exchange just for you to take this. With how desperate we are to get rid of these, it would be wrong for us to exchange something for this."

"Ah, thank you very much. With that, one problem down, many to go."

"Many to go? Do you need many mithril that much?" the Chief frowned.

"No. What I mean is that aside from these mithrils, I needed to collect more of these other minerals. I needed it for some ritual to solve this problem that has been happening due to some scumbags who thought they can do anything even though they have made trouble not too long ago."

"Hmm, can you tell me about this matter? Being underground for so long, hearing stories from the surface somehow makes me curious about what is happening there right now."

Elaina has no need to hide the problem from him and it could also help with the resources problem. If he knew about it, the chief would understand why she needed all these materials in the first place."

So, Elaina took her time to explain all the nuances and all the problems and explaining how it would affect the livelihood of everyone. She also explained why she needed the materials, allowing the old dwarf to understand what Elaina needed to do.

"That’s an expensive ritual, but I can see why. A ritual that relies on the power of the minerals and gemstones. It is going to be expensive. With how troublesome this witch is going to be, she is more likely preparing these materials as a failsafe. They are not necessary materials per se, but materials in case the ritual fails. This will allow her to retry without you heading back to the mines just because the materials needed are all gone."

Elaina nodded as she understood why the witch needed all of the materials. She is just not confident the ritual will succeed in one try and she expects to fail a lot hence the need for the ridiculous amount of materials.

"That’s why I needed to know if the mines do have these materials available. It would save me time if I know which areas of the mine these things are available."

"I do have knowledge about these items. In fact, the remaining items you are looking for exist deep within the mines. But be warned, the deeper you go, the more dangerous the monsters are present. We don’t dwell further into the mines more than we need but since you will be going to need to find these materials yourself, you need to be careful."

"Yes. I know the risks. But if I don’t take action, nothing will happen."

"Alright, here is the location of each of these minerals. And wait a bit, give me your weapon. I happen to have additional mithril here that I can use. Since you are already in here, might as well use this chance to strengthen and make your weapon stronger."

"You will do that for me?"

"If it adds a bigger chance for your survival, then it is a small favor."

Elaina handed her sword to the old man. He nodded as he admired her weapon for a bit.

"Good weapon. And even though it is an old weapon, it is maintained quite well that I can say that it still looks brand new even though these scratches on the blade are enough to tell that it has slain lots of enemies in the past."

"You can tell?"

"As a blacksmith, that is part of why we can make good weapons. If not for our work, these weapons will just break to pieces instead of doing their intended purpose."

He then fired up his furnace and started to do the work. With the old dwarf busy with the work, Elaina decided to take her time putting all the mithril into her bag and wait until the weapon was done.

...

...

...

By the time she was done with the mithril, the old dwarf was also done with her weapon as well. Elaina approach the old dwarf as he carries a sword that she couldn’t recognize anymore due to its difference in color and looks.

"It came out pretty well. But as a result of the forging process and the material used, it came out in different colors and its properties have changed completely. Because of how well it came out, I decided to take advantage of it and change a few factors."

He then points out a slot on the handle. It looks like something can be put into the weapon handle but Elaina has no idea what would they need to put there.

"You can’t use magic, right?" the Chief asked.

"Yes. I am unable to use mana and magic without the aid of using magic tools. But utilizing magic myself is not possible."

"Well, with this one, I think you will have your first taste of magic, albeit it will be utilized by your weapon."

"Eh?"

"Watch closely."

The Chief Dwarf pulls out a mana stone and inserts it into the slot on the handle and all of a sudden, her sword suddenly erupts into power, full of mana as the old man raises the sword up.

"With the aid of the conductor I installed to your sword, you can now call upon the ether and use magic even if you can’t utilize it yourself. Now, with the help of your sword, you will be able to use mana to decimate your enemies."