Previous post.
This post marks the beginning of my mission using these storyboard elements:
- Obtain Ore for your God Slaying Tool (3)
Musashi arrived at Tenjin's Cathedral, having sailed across the ocean from Tobusekai and back, now once again in the Land of Iron. Admonished by Marzan, she sought out the Land of Iron as a place she knew could produce high quality ore, with the near entirety of the swords used by the Samurai being forged in its own land.
Tenjin's Cathedral was a tremendous repository of knowledge, its halls seeped in Wisdom.
Musashi doubted that she would be allowed access to its interior without a good reason, as they were selective with who they extended access to. However, it wasn't so much the books that Musashi was interested in; rather, it was the tunnel system that ran underneath, crossing the whole of the Iron Peninsula.
The ground here was rich with ore, and Musashi's intuition was leading her to this area. Finding an entrance to the tunnel network was simple enough; they were frequently used for travel and were not as selective about their entrance as the Cathedral was.
Musashi traversed the tunnel system, it illuminated by electric lights, strewn across the ceiling. She ventured forward, towards the area that would be underneath the Cathedral itself, but was not looking for an entrance. Her soul-sensing detected a tremendous amount of people in the area, traveling through the criss-crossing tunnel network, or within the Cathedral itself - and Musashi was focusing on the empty space between them.
It did not take long for Musashi to find an old, abandoned access tunnel - a tunnel never meant for transportation, but likely a relic of when they were excavating the area, and perhaps a branch where they made a detour due to a particularly plentiful vein of ore. Lighting her lantern, she proceeded down.
The space between souls above her was dense, but down here, it was quiet and calm; perhaps only the fleeting glimpses of the lights within small creatures that struggled for food and survival in this meager area. The quiet was intense, but not unnerving. The land itself seemed to be absorbing the knowledge of the Cathedral and its residents, and grounds seemed...sagely, as if offering advice.
It was when she eventually a stream of water, having carved its way through the rock, either from the surface or a hidden aquifer, that Musashi knew her intuition was correct. She followed the crystal clear waters, a lantern at her hip illuminating the dark caverns; the steep change in grade indicating that Musashi was coming to the surface.
The light was blinding, coming from the dark cavern to the blinding light of daybreak amplified by the pure white snow that blanketed the landscapes. Musashi appeared to have broken through an area of the tunnel into what she could now see was a natural cave formation, judging by the rough and irregular hew to the stones and mountain sides.
Before her stood a sprawling basin, ringed by mountains - a large body of water, formed by rain and the runoff of pure melted snow filled the area, strangely warm, being shielded from the howling winds as it were.
She ventured forward, as there was a large amount of stone scattered around the area, exposed rock that was at parts covered with vegitation as it quietly and peacefully grew in this sanctuary. Moving towards a large stone, jetissoning out of the water in the midst of the lake, waist-high (though Musashi water-walked across its surface), Musashi beheld a tremendous vein of surface iron, seeped in the clear blue waters, such that this iron itself seemed to have taken on a strange blue hue - not that Musashi knew enough about ores to even begin to be able to explain how something might be possible.
She knelt down like she did to the iron kissed by the sun, and said a prayer of thanks, both for this great find and the protection and good grace bestowed upon her to get to this point. She took a moment to meditate, and clear her mind - to ease doubts and discard them, to reaffirm the things she knew, and to plot her path in her mind. Musashi was well educated, and though a bit dense a times, had a good intuition. It was a matter of combining those two things, to do like the land here had done, and drink of that Wisdom.
Keeping in mind the warning from Marzan, Musashi removed some tools from her traveling kit and began harvesting the strange blue iron from the stone, enough, she thought, to forge three swords. It was much more than she took from the Mountain with Wisteria, hoping that this time it would be sufficient. However, rather than immediately begin her trek back through the mountains and then sail across the sea, her intuition felt that she still other places to go in the Land of Iron.
Not one to discount such a feeling, she packed her tools back into her bag, now quite a bit heavier than it was before with all the ore, and began her pilgrimage.
There was a strong wind that blew through the area, kicking up the fine white dust that blanket the area - Musashi sensed something for but a brief moment, but couldn't quite pin down what it was. It wasn't hostile, just...familiar.
Enjoying the quiet, Musashi continued on her journey.
Leaving Landmark for Takemikazuchi's Anvil (127).