“Master Hammerhead, what’s the story with these armored beasts?” Jared, seeing Hammerhead in tears, voiced his confusion. Hammerhead wiped away his tears and said, “These armored beasts were raised by Divine. Smithing Sect for the purpose of mining spirit ores. But after Divine Smithing Sect was destroyed, no one remained to feed them. I didn’t expect them to still be alive.”
“Master Hammerhead, why don’t these armored beasts run away and find something to eat outside instead?” Flaxseed asked.
“You don’t understand. Once these armored beasts are tamed and kept captive, they will never leave. They would rather die than leave this mine,” Hammerhead explained with a shake of his head. “Besides, even if they were to leave the mine, they wouldn’t find anything to eat. They feed on spirit ore essence.”
“But this mine is full of spirit ores. Why don’t these armored beasts eat them? Are they just waiting to starve to death?” Jared asked.
“These spirit ores are unrefined. The armored beasts cannot consume them. The ores need to be refined first before they can be fed to the beasts. Just now, they must have sensed my aura, so they exerted all their strength to attract my attention.”
When he finished speaking, Hammerhead’s aura suddenly erupted as Smithing Force surged from his body. Soon, a large hammer formed in his hand. He swung the hammer at a spirit ore about one meter in size within the mine.
The spirit ore shattered upon impact, revealing a small, translucent core the size of a fingernail at its center. Hammerhead tossed the tiny core to one of the armored beasts, and the creature promptly swallowed it. However, such a small amount of spirit ore essence was like a drop in the bucket for the armored beasts dying from starvation.
“Master Hammerhead, how can such a large piece of spirit ore yield so little ore essence?” Jared wondered, puzzled. “These spirit ores here are considered trash, which is why they were discarded at the entrance of the mine. The truly powerful spirit ores, containing abundant Smithing Force, can only be found deeper within the mine. If we want to feed these armored beasts and restore their strength, we must venture further into the mine and find higher-purity spirit ores,” Hammerhead said.
“Master Hammerhead, even if we find the spirit ore mine, we don’t have the ability to refine it. We lack your skill in extracting the ore essence from the spirit ore,” Flaxseed said. After all, neither Jared nor Flaxseed knew smithing techniques, let alone the art of refining spirit ore to obtain their ore essence.
“That won’t be a problem. The process of refining spirit ore is not complicated. I will teach the two of you. But for now, our priority is to reach the deeper parts of the mine as quickly as possible and find higher-purity spirit ores.”
With that, he headed straight for the deeper parts of the mine. Jared and Flaxseed followed closely behind, while the sword spirit, Zelda, sensing the dark mine, felt a trickle of fear. She transformed into Dragonslayer Sword and entered Jared’s body.
Guided by Hammerhead, Jared and Flaxseed continued their journey deeper into the mine. They didn’t know how far they had gone until Hammerhead stopped in his tracks.
Right then, faint blue and pink spirit ores were scattered on the walls and surrounding areas of the mine. “Master Hammerhead, why aren’t we moving forward?” Jared questioned in confusion.
“We need not go further. My smithing skills can. only refine these types of spirit ores. I won’t be able to refine the purple spirit ores up ahead,” Hammerhead explained.
“Master Hammerhead, why don’t you teach us the technique to refine these spirit ores?” Jared asked. Hammerhead nodded. Then, he retrieved a yellowed parchment from his pocket.
