Steve mined out all the exposed Mana Crystals he could find—enough to fill more than five stacks.
It was a massive crystal vein, and it ran right along his own tunnel system. If he ever needed more, he could just come back and restock anytime.
Once he figured he had enough to last a while, he stopped digging and headed home to unload his haul.
Since Mana Crystals could substitute for Iron Ingots, he started using a Mana Pickaxe for all his mining afterward, saving his precious iron for later.
The pickaxe itself looked a lot like those Amethyst ones from certain mods—translucent, gleaming faintly, but with a deep bluish-purple hue. Faint violet particles drifted off its surface, and inside, something fluid shimmered like liquid light.
Its durability wasn't great, but damn if it didn't look amazing.
He also crafted a few sheets of Mana Leather—three per crystal. They looked like regular leather but were covered in strange glowing runes.
Borrowing the sewing table from Rose's place, he stitched the Mana Leather into a full set of armor.
When he put it on, a new purple bar appeared under his status icons, filled to about one-fifth.
That represented the total of twenty points of magic resistance granted by the armor.
He wasn't sure yet whether it worked as percentage reduction or flat damage resistance—he'd need a test subject to find out—but either way, more defense was always good. The armor's durability was lower than iron, though.
Next, he used a Mana Crystal to craft a bottle, filled it with water, and watched as the lid sealed itself automatically. The inside began to bubble, starting a brewing process of sorts.
In time, it would produce [Mana Water], a key ingredient for Mana Potions and Holy Water.
Since the recipe was simple, he just left it brewing in the corner and moved on to exploring the rest of the cavern.
Meanwhile, Halls had returned to the village, planning to settle down.
But there was a problem—there weren't enough houses.
He saw the ones Edmund mentioned, the ones Steve had "renovated" by removing their support beams. They were still standing—miraculously—but even Halls wasn't bold enough to move into those.
The villagers were already packed tight as it was. There was no way they'd make room for an outsider.
Even Elina was still staying in Tom's clinic—her own bed was still in Steve's house.
As for Jack and Rose, neither dared move much without knowing what Steve intended. They just grabbed some bedding and slept in the rough stone hut they'd built.
At one point, Jack got a weird idea. He wondered if Steve had made that "room" for the two of them on purpose—to set them up together.
Rose burst out laughing.
"Are you kidding me? If he really wanted to play matchmaker, why would he pick me? I could be your grandma!"
Jack turned beet red, which only made Rose laugh harder. She figured it was just youthful hormones talking. A little wandering outside the village would probably fix that.
It was kind of a village tradition, really—young men were expected to go out and see the world before settling down. The only ones left now were Jack and Elina.
Listening to them chatter, Halls clicked his tongue but ignored Edmund's suggestion to "just sleep over there, there's plenty of room."
He made up his mind, pushed open Steve's door, and sat down against the wall by the entrance. Within minutes, he was snoring.
He didn't wake until he heard something strange—movement, maybe. Thinking Steve had returned, he lifted his head… only to see the face of a tall armored man staring back through the doorway.
"Excuse me, are you the blacksmith, Mr. Halls?" the man asked.
Halls blinked, rubbing his neck as he stumbled outside. Dawn had only just broken; even the early risers in the village were still asleep. The whole place was dead quiet.
The man's white armor gleamed with the sacred runes of the Holy Cross Church.
"You're with the Church?" Halls asked blankly. "What're you doing here?"
The man straightened up sharply, voice firm. "I am an Oathsworn Knight—Anrika Pekas. As for why I'm here… that's classified!"
"Classified, huh? Then why shout it like that?"
Oathsworn Knights were elite members of the Church. By taking sacred Oaths in ritual, they gained holy power that lasted their whole lives—so long as they kept their word.
And since knights' vows tended to revolve around justice and duty, they were generally the good kind of people to be around.
"Fine, fine," Halls muttered. "So what does an Oathsworn Knight want with me?"
"The Saintess wishes to speak with you."
"Huh?" Halls froze. "The Saintess? She's here? And she wants to talk to me? Why?"
"Classified!" Anrika barked again, expression stiff.
Following his lead, Halls approached the carriage parked outside the village.
Inside sat a young girl with a youthful face and long golden hair. She looked barely past adulthood, with bright blue eyes full of that sheltered, noble innocence Halls recognized from the pampered rich.
She wasn't tall, her figure slim—and, well, her chest was… modest enough to make Halls feel oddly sympathetic.
Being a dwarf, he couldn't help but sigh internally at how fragile she looked.
"So you're the blacksmith from town?" the girl asked, staring at him openly, curious about his short stature.
"That's right. What can I do for you?"
Strange as it seemed, Anrika had confirmed her identity—so she really was the Saintess of the Holy Cross Church.
Still… since when did the Church have such a young Saintess? Did someone pull some strings for this one?
Halls grumbled inwardly but bowed respectfully. He had a feeling this had something to do with Steve, so he kept his attitude polite.
"I need you to repair something for me," she said, disappearing briefly into the carriage. There was a clinking sound, then she handed him two pieces of metal.
They fit together like a broken key—though far larger than any normal key should be.
Who in the world needed a key this size? A cyclops?
His craftsman's instinct kicked in immediately. "I can fix it, but I'll need a large amount of Mana Steel—or Mana Crystals. I can forge it myself.
"I'll also need a mage. These runes on the surface are complicated, and my magical knowledge isn't enough to fully restore them.
"And of course, I'll need proper tools. I haven't rebuilt my Blacksmith here yet…"
"Wait, wait, wait!" the girl interrupted, grabbing a leather-bound notebook from beside her. She began jotting things down seriously. "Mana Steel… Crystals… mage…"
Halls gave her rough estimates for what he'd need. She wrote every number down like a diligent student taking notes.
"How long will it take?" she asked.
"If I have everything ready? A day."
"A day?!" she blurted, then mumbled under her breath, "That means it'll take so many more nights…"
After thinking for a moment, she sighed in defeat. "Fine, fine. I can wait."
Halls gave her a puzzled look, then turned to Anrika for some kind of explanation—only for the knight to snap back to full posture, face stone serious.
"Classified!"
But his eyes said something else entirely: Don't ask me, I've got no idea either.
Halls twitched a corner of his mouth.
These people are nuts.