When Ryan returned to Egypt, it was dark again. Despite that, he found Mohammed waiting for him at the entrance of the city. When one works for a dungeon master, they must be prepared to be called at any given moment…

"Sorry about this," Ryan said.

"It is fine," Mohammed said. "I am more than willing to help someone who helped us this much. Thanks to you, we won't have to worry about slowing down on our progress. Crossing the desert for even longer distances in search of dungeons is quite tiresome, after all."

"I can imagine," Ryan said.

 Mohammed guided Ryan to one of the special warehouses of the city. Fortunately, since most of the survivors were sleeping, they quickly arrived at their destination. In the end, Ryan couldn't help but frown when he saw the materials that he would carry back home with him.

Oridecon Bar

A magic metal that is perfect in the creation of magic weapons. It can be used to upgrade all kinds of weapons, even without monsters' spirits.

Elunium Sphere

A magic petal that can make fearsome defensive equipment. It can also be used to upgrade all types of defensive gear without the use of monsters' spirits.

"This is…" Ryan said.

"A metal that is common in games and certain books," Mohammed said. "I was as surprised as you the first time I saw them."

 Ryan didn't know that such metals had been mentioned in some stories, but that wasn't surprising. Regardless, Elunium had been refined into spheres that were as big as Ryan's head. He tried to pick one of them and noticed that it was really heavy.

 As for the Oridecon, they had been refined into bars, and even though they apparently had the same mass, Oridecon was visibly lighter, and yet, Ryan could tell just by touching that the material would make any weapon look amazing.

"How many do you have here?" Ryan asked.

"This is what we managed to produce in the last two weeks," Mohammed replied. "It is more than enough to forge two hundred weapons that need to be wielded with two hands and one hundred sets of armor. You can make one hundred breastplates, helmets, gloves and boots."

"While that is the case, I would advise you to select a weapon and pieces or armor and upgrade them with those materials," Isis suddenly joined the conversation. "I can see that you already have a vast collection of weapons, so it would be more efficient to do that. As for defensive gear, you are seriously out-leveled if compared with the attack power of the enemies you have faced until now."

 Ryan was fully aware of that, but since he focused on dodging and stealth attacks, that couldn't be helped. Besides, he didn't want to use another armor aside from his Black Steel Armor. He couldn't forget his failure with Lucia and her friends, after all.

"How can I upgrade weapons and armor with those? What is the limit?" Ryan asked.

"It is the same as you enchant a weapon with a monster's spirit," Isis replied. "You just need to have one bar or sphere in hand and it will work. However, you will need to sacrifice a lot of mana. After all, spirits have mana and only their essence is used to enchant a weapon."

"How much mana per upgrade?" Ryan asked.

"You multiply the level of the upgrade by five hundred," Mohammed replied. "While that is quite a lot of mana, you only need one piece of Oridecon or Elunium per upgrade."

 While that was convenient, the cost of mana was just too high. In the end, even with those metals, Ryan will only upgrade his items up to a certain point… unless he begins to focus on increasing his mana once again or finds a way to cheat his way out of that dilemma.

 Although Ryan only spent three days in Egypt, he was in a hurry to return. There were many things to do and too little time, after all. So, he quickly stored the metals inside his spatial storage.

"I will come now and then to obtain more of those metals, if I take my time, or something happens, please separate mine from the others," Ryan said.

"All right," Mohammed said. "It was a pleasure to meet you, Ryan."

"If you need help with something again, you know where you can talk to me," ISIS said.

"I will make sure not to bother neither of you too often," Ryan said.

 After saying that, Ryan used Teleport and left Cairo in the middle of the night. While Ryan was returning to his domain, he wondered what he should do now that he had the metals that he wanted. Isis said that upgrading an equipment to its limits would be the best option, but Ryan didn't have a bow or crossbow that would be partially good against Poseidon.

"Maybe I am getting ahead of myself," Ryan said. "First, we need to deal with the Hydras and only after that can we worry about Poseidon."

"You say that you want a proper weapon to face Poseidon, but I don't think you will find one," Femradiel said. "He might be the Greek god of the oceans, but I highly doubt he will have only one way to attack. Instead of aiming for a single weapon to miraculously do all the work, you should prepare a plan."

 That seemed reasonable, but Ryan couldn't help but wonder if he actually couldn't forge such a weapon. He certainly wouldn't find a McGuffin hidden somewhere that will increase his chances exponentially against his foe.

 After thinking for a while, Ryan decided to select his main weapons that would come in handy against the Hydras and focus on upgrading only them. While he did have a lot of Oridecon and Elunium, something unexpected might happen, or Ryan might find or have a new idea for a weapon to upgrade. Having a supply of useful things certainly wasn't a bad idea.