God Ash: Remnants of the fallen.
Chapter 960 - 960: Stones and Leaves.

Magic had pervaded everything that existed within Urbus.

Down to the air and the waters.

There was nothing that had not been touched by the mystical arcane, so much so, that even the regular mundane humans were no longer what they once were, possessing above normal physical capabilities at the very least.

Then, there was the ground and everything that came off of and below it.

The storeroom was the largest room Cain had seen so far. If he didn't know spatial magic was being used, he would have doubted all these rooms were in the same building.

'So much in such little time?'

The entire room was lined with rows of wooden shelves.

He noticed that strange black boxes occupied every square inch of every shelf on the storage.

"Some plants and herbs can't survive under the complicated environments within magical subspaces so those are kept elsewhere. Everything else is in here."

Cain moved to one of the boxes. He knew exactly what they were.

He placed a hand on one.

Sure enough, he was able to observe the contents of this box.

From what he could see, there were thousands upon thousands of the bark of a strange three that possessed hardening qualities when ground up.

This tree bark was a rather useful material for building. In fact, most of the buildings within this settlement on Redscale Island had been built with it.

The only downside of the material, was that it didn't seem to conduct mana all too well. However, that wasn't much of a downside either considering that while defensive runes couldn't be etched into surfaces that contained the material, offensive magic would also experience a hard time trying to get through it as well.

A double edged sword.

The only thing within this {Storage Box}, was of course the {Brass Acacia} tree bark. And there was a lot. Enough material to make ten times more buildings than there currently were in Valestorm.

'I am impressed. The {Storage} has a lot of room. However, it isn't very portable. But still...'

Cain quickly counted how many there were before making a mental note and moving on.

The next {Storage Box} was filled with mana shards.

Cain couldn't help but freeze for a moment.

'There's at least a million in here.'

And it was not just any mana shards, but mana shards of the highest quality.

They were all grade 5 to 2 mana shards.

Grade 1 mana shards could come from only come from Celestial grade creatures, and while it was indeed possible to run into those, unfortunately, doing so likely meant death.

However, they could still be purchased using the system.

But they were quite expensive, even more expensive than lower grade mana cores.

The Grade of a mana shard or core usually determined the quality of the Mana stored within. The quantity on the other hand, was a different thing, but most of the time, high quality mana shards and cores possessed more mana.

Legendary, Half-god, Godly and Heavenly grade mana shards were Grade 5 to 2 on the quality scale respective.

Of course, the more powerful a creature was, the more likely it was to contain a higher Grade mana shards or core.

While there weren't a lot of Heavenly Grade mana shards, Cain had counted at least five.

"Impressive."

Steve chuckled when he heard that,

"This forest is filled with all sorts of monstrous wonders. But this is only the tip of the iceberg."

Cain raised a brow,

"There's more."

"Of course there is," Steve said with a grin, "What do you think I've been doing here all this time? Surely, you don't think I've been laying on my ass, right?"

Cain chuckled and shook his head.

Then he moved on to the next {Storage Box}.

And then the next.

As he scanned through each one, he made sure to mentally note down what each one contained as well as every other thing pertaining the contents.

The weight, number, nature, and even volume.

He made sure to store them all in his mind.

The room was done shaped so the shelves formed concentric rings along the walls leading to the very ceiling.

Besides the shelves was a moving staircase that ran in a spiral, making it easy to access any shelf they pleased.

Very quickly, Cain went through each box until he was at the halfway point.

There, he touched the next box and smiled.

'Bingo.'

The material he has been searching for.

The Mana catalyst, also known by its actual name, a {Mana Stone}.

{Mana Stones} were rather strange materials.

Although they had stone in their name, they were and weren't stones at the same time.

They were found in regions with extreme high density of mana such as the Sandsea in Valestorm, or the forest on Redscale Island.

The could come in all sorts shapes, but they possessed no elemental affinity.

Rather, they were the manifestation of mana in its purest form. Subjecting them to various techniques or different strains of mana could lead to varying effects.

For example, in alchemy, heating it together with magic herbs like {Hernia}, {Blood Bismuth Lily} as well as other materials under high temperatures would lead to the creation of a HP regen potion.

However, the same {Mana Stone} could be heated on its own and condensed to create a catalyst that can allow the storage and transformation of mana in a weapon or other magic equipment.

Put strictly, its uses were endless.

However, finding it was rather difficult as they usually only formed in regions with higher mana density compared to the surrounding area.

In other words, they only occurred at delicate spots where the average mana density was a tad higher within regions with high mana density.

Very unreasonable, but that was the reality of it.

Cain's grin slowly melted away as he realized the amount of {Mana Stones} within the box was rather pitiful.

In fact, it was worst than pitiful.

"What the hell?!"

There were only three average sized {Mana Stones} within the box.

He snapped his neck around to stare at Steve who had a wry smile on his face,

"That's the best we could do."

Cain grimaced,

"But isn't this too..."

Steve shrugged,

"If you want to blame anyone, blame that damned ant queen!"

Cain's expression turned ugly,

"What? What do you mean?"

Steve sighed and his expression turned serious,

"There are a lot of {Mana Stone} deposits on the island. However, most of them are located within or around the Redscale Colony. Meaning, the Redscale Ants have a near complete monopoly of {Mana Stones} on the island. And they don't seem intent on sharing ."