Allen had felt something was wrong from the moment he heard the word "shape."
He led the Communion's believers to the Warehouse where the ore was piled, following the directions, and immediately announced that he was temporarily taking control of the place.
Contrary to what he had imagined, they met little resistance. The Mine's managers were very cooperative, and the believers took over the Warehouse without a hitch.
Allen stationed most of the believers outside as guards and assigned a few specifically to check the ledgers. Then he took the remaining believers, opened the Warehouse's main doors, and went straight inside to count and inspect its contents.
The Mine here was not far from the Dock, but barges capable of transporting ore were not always available. That was why these warehouses had been built at the Mine to store ore temporarily.
It was said that Dream Creatures never attacked the Mine, and would not even attack its workers unprovoked, so the Mine had few armed personnel, and few people remained to watch the warehouses.
The moment Allen entered, he was stunned by the densely packed ore.
Supposedly, this ore served much the same purpose as the supernatural materials excavated from dreams. It could all be used for the Formless Art or various rituals, or even simply offered as a sacrifice to obtain power.
The Communion also had its own storeroom for supernatural materials collected from dreams.
But all the supernatural materials stockpiled by the entire Communion put together amounted to less than what sat on a single shelf before him.
And rows upon rows of such shelves stretched out before him. Only large chunks of higher-quality ore were stacked on the shelves; the slightly inferior pieces were simply scattered on the floor.
This one Warehouse... no, half of it at