Variables

The target valley lay in deathly silence.

Not a blade of grass grew on the steep cliff faces. Only vast stretches of dark gray mineral veins, as if condensed from ash, lay exposed, gleaming with a cold metallic luster beneath the dim daylight.

This was the typical terrain of Ash Crystal Ore.

Following the coordinates in the Recording Crystal, Benjamin precisely located the specific area where they had gathered materials during the previous cycle.

It was midway up an almost vertical cliff face.

"Here." Benjamin raised a hand, and a faint alchemical glow lit his fingertips.

With his precise control, he guided the earth and stone elements to "fade" from the cliff face like flowing water.

The hard rock seemed to turn into soft sand before him, stripped away layer by layer by an invisible hand.

As the excavation deepened, an extremely abrupt sight appeared before the three of them.

The dark gray mineral vein, which should have extended continuously and uniformly, contained a massive hollow here, its edges abnormally neat and smooth.

The hollow was roughly an irregular rectangular prism, about ten meters long, five meters wide, and more than eight meters deep.

Its inner walls were smooth as mirrors, as though they had been sliced through in an instant by some absolutely sharp instrument, forming a stark contrast with the rough, natural cross-sections of the surrounding vein.

The hollow's volume matched exactly the volume of the raw ore Benjamin had recorded storing away.

Benjamin took out the entire batch of Ash Crystal Ore from his Internal Grotto-Heaven and suspended it in midair.

The dull gray pile of ore and the smooth gap in the cliff face formed an eerie visual echo.

There was no need for precise measurements. A sweep of spiritual power was enough to confirm that