The Paladin in the Abyss

After collecting these blue crystals, the Dwarves immediately began mining Cold Iron Ore. They worked with incredible efficiency, and due to their innate talent, their Cross Pickaxes always hit the weakest spots in the rock layers, never showing signs of fatigue, growing more spirited the harder they worked.

Kalalin cast a 0th-level Light Spell to brightly illuminate the surroundings, then studied the corpse of the shark-lizard beast until she could no longer stay awake and fell asleep in a corner, wrapped in her cloak, unaffected by the intermittent tapping of the Dwarves' mining.

Lancelot, meanwhile, sat cross-legged, meditating, cultivating, and expanding his Divine Sense, to stay alert to any threats that might approach.

He was pleasantly surprised to discover a noticeable increase in his True Qi, small though it was, it was much faster than his usual rate of progress. He conjectured that it was likely related to the fierce battle that day, similar to how intense physical exercise can enhance the body's strength.

Bruto and Barrend attacked the ore vein with their Cross Pickaxes throughout the night. The high-quality Cold Iron Ore stimulated their enthusiasm for work like a stimulant, and in one night, they excavated nearly a ton of ore, filling up all the space in the Dimensional Bag, enough for Barrend to forge dozens of weapons of various styles.

In addition, they found over thirty pieces of Cold Water Crystals of various sizes, six of which met the Upper Grade Spirit Stone standard. The larger Cold Water Crystals that contained more Spiritual Energy tended to be big and had various inclusions, not really meeting the criteria for ornamental gemstones.

Since most of the battle was Lancelot's effort, after he expressed how these stones could help improve his strength, everyone agreed to let him pick the larger ones first.

They set out early the next morning, taking nearly four hours to climb from seven thousand feet underground back to the surface. They retrieved their tools from the rest area (the supplies had been completely scavenged by the Gray Dwarves), then summoned the Nightmare Chariot and smoothly returned to Twin Bridges Town by midday.

It must be said, without that Dimensional Bag, the journey would definitely not have been so easy.

Upon entering the town, their first stop was to report the results of their exploration to the Craftsmen Committee. Five white-bearded elderly Dwarves were thrilled by the news of the discovery of the massive Cold Iron Vein, and the ton of high-grade ore in the Dimensional Bag made everything more attractive.

They also expressed gratitude for Lancelot and his group's efforts to rescue the Gray Dwarf mining team—having returned to Twin Bridges Town the day before. But upon hearing Lancelot's account of the shark-lizard beast and the Spirit Demons, the committee members all wore looks of relief.

Lancelot also described the superior performance of Cold Iron Weapons in battle against Demons, which was another topic of great interest to the Committee. As the production supervisor of the Tigana Abyss armament business, these weapons held broad market prospects.

If you consider which race has killed the most Demons in the entire Multiverse, Demons could only be ranked second, with Demons themselves at the top.

As for the celestial beings, they learned a simple lesson after the great war with Demons tens of thousands of years ago—as long as the Bottomless Abyss exists, killing any number of Demons is pointless. Rather than holding the naive idea of exterminating Demons to purify the Abyss, it's better to let these lower plane Fiends slaughter each other.

They only intervene when Demons spread chaos to the Prime Material Plane, but they also secretly deploy Spies and undercover agents, closely monitoring the shifts in power within the Abyss, vigilant against the emergence of a Demon Lord capable of uniting all Demons.

The Dwarven Artisans unanimously agreed that Barrend should focus on mass production of the first batch of prototypes to assess the "new product's" profits and market prospects. Lancelot, along with Bruto and Kalalin, went to the Mercenary Hall to turn in their quest.

Entering the Mercenary Hall once again, what caught their eye first was the terrifying sight of the six-armed Serpent Demon.

"You're back again," Sonam said with interest as she watched Lancelot and his companions walk in. "Finally mustered the courage to take on your first mission? I've already come up with several ways you might die."

"Haha! Disappointing you! We've already completed our first mission!" Bruto shouted boisterously.

Sonam scrutinized him with suspicion, her eyes narrowing into a dangerous slit, and Lancelot hurriedly produced the document the Craftsmen Committee had given them.

He really felt like knocking some sense into this nutcase's head the way Barrend did. Most Demons' characters can be simply summarized as psychopaths with serious violent tendencies, and the one before him was even capable of ripping apart a shark-lizard beast, skewering, and roasting it for a meal.

Lancelot was certain that Bruto's unrestrained big mouth would sooner or later bring serious trouble to everyone.

The six-armed Serpent Demon verified the authenticity of the document and nonchalantly took a small pouch from the box behind her and tossed it to Lancelot, containing 500 Gold Coins, which was their reward for completing this black iron mission.

Clearly, the actual difficulty of a mission often did not match its appearance, but whether to accept it was up to the mercenaries themselves. Moreover, unless it was a designated mission item, all the spoils of war belonged to the mercenaries.

This time, they had obtained a Dimensional Bag, cold crystals, the carapace and leather of the shark-lizard beast (as well as its backstrap meat, which Lancelot was very curious about), and enough ore to offset Barrend's work for a month.

Apart from nearly losing their lives, the return could be said to be extremely generous, and no wonder so many desperadoes dared to venture into the Abyss to become mercenaries.

"Not bad, not bad, you've already outlasted more than one-third of the mercenaries by returning alive," Sonam hissed with a sinister laugh, her gaze falling on Lancelot's shoulder, "It seems you've exchanged for a rather fine weapon."

"Ha! Remember what I told you last time? This is the craftsmanship of our Frostforge clan!" Seeing Sonam interested in his old man's work, Bruto couldn't suppress his excitement, "Lancelot, take it down and let her have a good look! We just got our hands on some raw materials, are you interested in becoming our first client?"

Sonam's human pupils slowly condensed into a vertical slit, giving Lancelot a tingling sensation on his scalp, as if being watched by a giant python. He helplessly drew out Frostslash and handed it over to the six-armed Serpent Demon.

Sonam took the sword with her lowermost right hand and examined it closely. As a skilled swordsman herself, she could easily discern the weapon's fine quality, and its slightly longer size than a regular longsword suited her well. She flicked the sword blade lightly with her finger, then reached out to touch the blade to test its sharpness.

"This is a masterwork from my old man; he's the best blacksmith in Rivet Fort," Bruto boasted, "It's a weapon made from cold iron..."

The six-armed Serpent Demon cut off one of her fingers.

"... very effective against Demons and Devils..."

Bruto's voice gradually trailed off.