969 Chapter 969 Return to the Expedition Squad
A stream of intense flames erupted from Marcus' tier five fire magic spell and engulfed the wendigo.
Bound, beaten, and basically out of energy, the terrifying monster found it impossible to resist its natural weakness.
In contrast to its earlier resilience, the wendigo easily caught fire this time and burned better than any wood Marcus had ever used.
It took only a few seconds before all that remained were a pair of ghastly horns and a gleaming magic core.
'Those must be our spoils for the fight.' Marcus thought, looking at what remained of the wendigo.
With one look he could tell that its horns and magic core were high quality materials.
Nevertheless, he hesitated to collect them gleefully as he normally would have done after vanquishing a powerful foe.
Wendigos were malevolent entities, and he did not know what sort of effect using its materials might have in the creation of magic items.
"So, how are we going to split these?" Miguel asked, hesitating to take the items as well.
Though his hesitancy was due to lack of experience splitting loot when fighting in a party. The last time he had truly teamed up with anyone they had tried to kill him in order to steal his stuff.
"I think it might be best if we store the core and antlers away. Sometimes the personalities of strong monsters remain in their remains even after death. Until we can determine if this holds true for this wendigo, we should be careful." Marcus said, wearing a grave expression.
He knew firsthand how monster's wills could linger, especially in their magic cores. The Dread Devour's instincts still remained in his scythe, and if he had not bound part of his soul to it which gave him control over it, the weapon likely would go around killing everything in its path.
"That's fine. You can keep it all if you want. I don't want to end up with cursed items." Miguel replied.
"Thanks. I will make sure to make it up to you. If you want some materials of equal quality or want me to make you something, feel free to ask."
With their decision made on how to handle the wendigo's materials, Marcus stored the core and antlers into his item box and planned to analyze them more closely once they completed the expedition.
"Well, we have finished up our hunt. Let's return to the rest of the squad. I am sure they will be happy to hear that our stalker is gone." Mrazivy said, relief on her face.
She was grateful she would not have to deal with any more dreams where the wendigo tried to warp her mind.
Their mission complete, the three of them packed up their camp and headed back towards the rest of the expedition squad. So long as things had stayed the same, they would be waiting where the adamantine ore vein was and mining the valuable material.
"It should be this way." Mrazivy said, a small compass in her hand.
This was a magic device that always pointed towards a beacon it was locked onto and was how the expedition squad was marking areas where useful resources could be found. Thankfully this type of magic still worked even on this island, or the place would be far more difficult to navigate.
After just a couple days of leisurely travel, Marcus, Mrazivy, and Miguel returned to the adamantine ore deposit and found that everything was pretty much exactly as it had been when they left.
Just a couple moments into them walking within the perimeter of the camp, a large shadow descend down on them.
"You're all back. Did you manage to get rid of that wendigo? Also, did you encounter anything else interesting while you were gone? And Miguel, what is that adorable creature sitting on your shoulders?"
Having landed in front of them without warning, Fianna, the leader of Intrepid, the party from the Southern Quadrant, bombarded them with questions.
"Yeah, we took care of it. As for your other questions, we will answer them in front of the entire expedition squad. No need to have to repeat ourselves multiple times." Mrazivy responded.
"Okay, then what are we waiting for. Everyone has been antsy since you left and could use the good news." Fianna said, turning around and skittering towards the center of the camp. Her eight legs allowing her impressive agility.
Following behind, Marcus, Mrazivy and Miguel rushed into the camp where the members of the expedition squad were arriving due to the commotion.
Once everyone had gathered, Mrazivy and Marcus began retelling their encounters with the wendigo. Though they made sure to omit Marcus using his ghostly abilities for scouting and to get the drop on their target.
"From here on out, we will not have to worry about that monster attacking us in the night." Mrazivy said after finishing their report.
However, while most everyone looked relieved and congratulated them on a job well done, Cassius stepped forward with a concerned look.
"Yes, you defeated that damnable monster, but what is to say that another one will not appear tomorrow. If we are constantly hounded by them, we will never make any progress."
"Yes, that is true, but I do not think we have to worry about that. From what I know, wendigos do not like other members of their own kind and typically stay far away from each other. There may be more on the island, but not anywhere around here. If we do run into another one later, we now better understand its abilities and means of attack. We simply will need to deal with he next one should it appear." Marcus said, wearing a confident grin.
Cassius looked a bit skeptical at Marcus' confidence, he and Mrazivy were the only ones claiming to know anything about his monster from reading about it in Borealia's royal archive.
Of course, Marcus' knowledge about wendigos actually came from lore and fiction from Earth, but he was not about to tell everyone that.
"Well, all is well that ends well. It is as Marcus said, we just need to be ready for the next threat when it arrives. But let us not bee too absorbed in only one monster. There are plenty of other strong creatures on this island for us to worry about." Evette said, bring an end to the topic.
"Now let us have a meeting of leaders. We have been mostly stagnant for the last few days and only made progress on mining the adamantine ore that is here. It is time that we discuss our next move."
Evette then looked towards Mrazivy, Fianna, and Cassius for conformation. Each of them nodded and the leaders from each quadrant began to head off towards a large tnet for their discussion.
But before they got far, Marcus stopped them as he had a question.
"Before you all go, would it be fine for me to refine the adamantine ore that has been collected? I have the necessary equipment to smelt it into bars."
The four leaders quickly talked about it among themselves before Fianna responded to Marcus.
"Sure, go ahead and do that. Speak with Ashton, he has ben in charge of the mining and will be the best to assist you."
After that, the four leaders continued on their way, and the man with obsidian skin that was part of Fianna's party approached Marcus.
"You certainly seem to be equipped for everything. I am surprised that you have the specialized equipment needed for smelting adamantine. Still, refining the ore will help us a lot. Without anything else to do while we waited, we may have gotten a bit overzealous with the mining." Ashton said, a smile on his face.
He and Marcus made small talk along the way until they reached the area where the adamantine ore had been stored.
"You were not kidding. This must be several thousand kilograms of ore." Marcus said, impressed.
Still, he was cable of refining it all, and would be able to get quite a few bars of adamantine from all this ore. It almost made him feel that it was pointless to have purchased so many bars from the adventurers guild before coming to the island.
Opening his item box, Marcus took out several intricate pieces of equipment, that would make most ore refineries in the world jealous. Thanks to his connections and resources, he had procured only the best.
'And a little fire magic to get things heating up.'
With the flick of his wrist, Marcus lit up the furnace and rapidly increased the temperature within until it was hot enough to melt away everything but the adamantine within the ore.
"Here, let me help. My family actually runs a forge in my home country, so I am accustomed to working with ore and metals." Ashton said, lifting up a massive chuck of ore to show off his usefulness.
Shrugging his shoulders, Marcus accepted the help and the two of them went to work on processing the ore into bars.
By the time they were done, the nearly twelve thousand kilograms of ore had been turned into around four hundred kilograms of pure adamantine. This had only made eight bars of adamantine, but for such a rare metal this was an astounding amount to gather so quickly. Plus, the vein still had plenty more to give in the future.
"Good work. I hope you are ready for your next assignment.' Mrazivy said, approaching Marcus now that he was finished.
"There is already more for me to do. You sound like a slave driver." Marcus responded, a teasing smirk on his face.
"Unfortunately, you are the only one with the skillset required for a job of upmost importance. We have decided to celebrate our victory over the wendigo, and I promised we would break out our best food and drink."
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