Pillars of Ita

The surface of the irregular-shaped stone was covered with crystallized silver spots, and it exuded a brilliant metallic luster in the hands of the ship officer. Fang Pulmon himself had studied the mineralogy of Aitaria, so he naturally recognized it at a glance. Mithril sulfide mineral.

He suddenly became excited. Mithril ore is a mineral that only exists in fantasy on earth. According to legend, it has extremely rare value and good magical properties. Therefore, when people discover this mineral in this world, So it was named after this.

In Aitalia, mithril mines are equally precious.

Its usual value is more than ten times that of gold of equal weight. As long as the ore yield reaches more than 0.00001%, it is often worth mining. As a combat craftsman, Fang Plover has only dabbled in mineralogy, but at least he can see this. The taste of lump ore:

Even if this piece of equipment Sylvide has is not the best, it is not far behind.

Fang Yu thought he had discovered an open-air mithril mine, and his heart beat wildly uncontrollably.This valley is far away from the border of the empire. Although it is within the territory of a certain principality, Aitalia is not the real world after all. The boundaries between big countries and small countries are not clear. In this uninhabited mountainous wilderness, as long as no one reports If they are equipped, they have the right to mine these wild mines.

In fact, as mentioned before, the Empire also supports the Chosen to open up the wilderness. Gray Field and the SOLID Alliance have their own guild states. Of course, now that the Seven Seas Brigade is on the Empire's wanted list, they don't have to worry about what the Empire thinks.

Where did this mine come from?Fang Plover immediately looked up, wanting to know if they had arrived at the mining area, or if the mining area was actually farther away, and the ore here was washed down by the stream from upstream?Or maybe this piece of ore is just a flash in the pan, similar to an alien visitor like nugget.

But Sylvide obviously had the same idea as him. She had walked around the valley and said when she came back: "There are no similar ores on the other side of the stream. They are not washed down from the upper reaches." She then came back from the valley. Two or three smaller, almost identical ores appeared in his hand. "I picked these from the surrounding area. The mining area should be around here."

Alyssa and Daryl just turned their attention away from the swift construct, especially when the latter heard the conversation between the two, he couldn't help but turn around and ask:
"Is this a mithril mine?"

Fang Plover nodded.

The latter's eyes showed a light of disbelief. He couldn't help but look at his feet, kicked the dusty stones, and let them roll among the rocks, as if watching many gold nuggets rolling down from the dragon's treasure. Come the same.

Miss Nightingale was also surprised when she heard this. She looked at the valley and asked, "There is really a mithril vein down here, so what should we do?"

Of course she understands that it symbolizes unimaginable wealth, but turning stones into wealth does not mean digging them out and taking them away. The price of mithril ore in Yunhai ranges from a few thousand to tens of thousands of lisels per ton. , but even if the ore here is of the highest quality, how many tons can they take away?
The Seven Seas Traveler is only fully loaded with about one hundred tons, but after excluding its own weight, supplies, and armaments, the actual cargo volume is less than thirty tons. According to the highest value, it is only 30 million lisels. That is obviously far from unimaginable wealth. There is a big gap.

The best way is to take away the finished product directly. The value of smelted mithril is more than tens of thousands of times different from that of ore of the same weight. One kilogram of mithril can be worth several million lisels in the air and sea.

Fang Plover had closed his eyes and placed the irregular piece of ore in his palm. The next moment, a shallow layer of light seemed to seep out of the silver crystal, and then fine cracks appeared on the stone surface. , collapsed like a ball of dry flour.

When the breeze blew, the stone powder disappeared in his palm, leaving only the shining metal dust underneath, so fine that it was almost undetectable.

He opened his eyes again.

If it were in reality, to carry out industrial smelting, at least a complete set of processes would have to be established, refining by roasting or leaching, and finally smelting and purifying. However, with the magical alchemy in Aitalia, he just used My magic gloves refined the mithril element in this ore.

He naturally uses multiple parallel techniques when meditating, and now this advanced technique is so familiar to him that it is almost instinctive. It may take an ordinary alchemist a few minutes to complete this task, but for him it takes an instant. .

However, the results are still not optimistic.

Fang Plover frowned. The quality of the ore here was extremely high, and it was considered to be the highest type in his knowledge. The piece of ore just now weighed about one or two kilograms, and the mithril extracted in the end was about a few tenths of a milligram.

Although this mining rate is quite amazing compared to Mithril Mine, it is still frighteningly low compared to its own efficiency.

If he hadn't used magic gloves to absorb the mithril dust, it wouldn't be just the stone powder that would be blown away by the wind.

If Mithril was refined in this way, he would be able to extract no more than one tael of Mithril after working around the clock here for a week. It would take at least half a year to refine one kilogram of Mithril.

But he is not a construct, so he cannot stay awake. In fact, even if the Seven Seas Traveler stays here for a year, he may not be able to refine so much mithril.After all, this is just refining, and the workload of mineral processing is even greater.

Based on 0.5 grams per ton of ore, one kilogram of mithril requires [-] tons of smelted ore, which is approximately equal to the daily output of a medium-sized mineral processing plant. Even in Aitaria, large-scale production still relies on the industrial production model.

However, it is obvious that they naturally cannot conjure up a mineral processing and smelting plant here——

Putting aside the lack of such conditions, even temporarily building one would require a lot of manpower and materials. Going to a nearby port to hire workers would be very easy to expose, and a mobile population is often the most difficult to keep secrets.

Even if Fang Plover borrows the Fairy Heart from the Seven Seas Traveler and replaces workers with swift structures, that would still require the purchase of heavy equipment, and large mining equipment has always been controlled items. Once these items are added to the port's throughput items, they will immediately It will attract the attention of interested people.

Not to mention that even if all these conditions are excluded, the Seven Seas Brigade is currently on the Empire's wanted list and in fact cannot approach any ports near the Empire.

Fang Yu looked up. With their ability, it was very difficult to mine this mithril mine, but it was uneconomical to take away as much as they wanted. Even with his mentality, it was unacceptable. How could they enter the treasure mountain and come back empty-handed?
Alyssa obviously noticed this, and suddenly asked: "Can the Seven Seas Traveler help?"

Fang Plover was startled, but he immediately realized that this place was less than ten miles away from the Seven Seas Traveler. Miss Tata's perception could obviously extend to this place.

He immediately thought of a way. They couldn't build a smelting furnace, but he could find a way to expand his abilities. He just needed to dismantle some of the equipment from the Seven Seas Traveler and make a magic furnace——

In fact, the essence is to build a signal amplifier to extend his perception of the magic gloves to cover a larger area.

That is actually the principle of a planetary furnace. This is how most smelters in Aitaria work. They put the ore into the planetary furnace and then use the alchemist to operate the furnace to smelt it. The larger the furnace, the higher the efficiency.

It's just that his magic furnace is open and will waste a lot of computing power. But the fairy heart has a lot of computing power, and he doesn't care about this.

The magic furnace on the ship is ready, just let it run in reverse. There is also a crane on the Seven Seas Traveler, which can be hoisted. Although it is a bit troublesome, no one will find it too strenuous to bend down to pick up money.

Because what they saw now was not a valley, but a land buried with endless wealth.

The opportunity to make a fortune is now.

Fang Yu immediately took out the communication crystal and informed other people on the Seven Seas Traveler, and asked Baggins and Miss Scholar to bring the equipment.

In addition, there are dozens of Lancers on board. These heavy-duty structures are themselves modified from port cranes. It does not take much effort to convert them back to mines. Although they are not as good as professional models, they are more than enough to assist in mining and mineral processing. .

Since entering the valley, the crystal communication has returned to normal, but in fact Miss Goblin received the message earlier. Tata's perception can cover this direction, and she has been paying attention to the movements of her Mr. Knight.

Without waiting for Fang Plover to remind her, she opened the lower hatch and let seven Lancers fly out of the deck and fly in this direction.

The boatswain, with the help of Miss Dragon Soul, dismantled a marine magic furnace, used a crane to lift it onto the deck, and then used several Lancers to carefully transport it down.

At about three o'clock in the afternoon, he came to this valley to meet up with Fang Plover.

Before that, Fang Plover had already transformed the first batch of Lancers——

He also asked Alyssa and Dariel to continue searching along the valley. After all, everyone has not forgotten the original purpose of coming here. Although the mithril mine has attracted everyone's attention, the elven ruins that can be seen everywhere in the valley are equally attractive. Attention.

The two of them have not returned yet, and now only Miya is standing by to take charge of his safety.

Sylvide was in the other direction, leading several modified Lancers to roughly determine the location of the mining area.

The mining area is much smaller than expected, just from one end of the valley to the other.

Compared to those large mines, this mining area is really not worth mentioning. If Mithril was not a high-value mineral, it would not be worth mining. However, we still don’t know the direction of the ore body and how deep the downward part is buried underground. .

He first asked Sylvide to command the lancers to collect the open-air parts. Those large structures selected large and small ores and piled them together, and soon formed a small mountain-sized structure, but more than ten tons of ore compared to The smelting requirements are actually not worth mentioning.

Baggins was ordering the second group of lancers to carefully put down the magic furnace and then reassemble it. During this period, the Sea Witch also helped. Fang Yu was a little surprised when she saw this - she was very interested in alchemy during the July War. But he knows nothing about magic.

"Later on, I learned a lot of relevant knowledge on the way back to the second world," the wolf girl looked at him and replied quietly, "Because Ed is an alchemist, I want to know about your profession, but those are actually just a few It’s superficial, but I’ve been on the aeroplane for a long time, so I know a little bit about it.”

Fang Yu didn't know how he felt after hearing this. The other person was once a goddess-like existence in his heart. He still remembered the elegant and mysterious look of the wolf girl in the night, but at that time he didn't know what she was thinking.

Later, the two of them parted ways, and the illusory shadow that he yearned for also disappeared. He could only clearly remember the sword that stabbed his vest, and the biting coldness didn't know whether it was pain or sadness.

Although it was not intentional, she later made up for his loss with starlight, but the fire in her heart was extinguished. After that, he experienced a lot, and the two of them could be said to have missed each other again and again.

But he never thought that the wolf girl would come back here one day and talk to him in such a tone, which made him feel confused for a while.

"She's beautiful."

Miya looked into the distance, and the ship officer lady was facing away from the two of them. However, Fang Yu could still feel her gaze from time to time, and occasionally he would look back in this direction.

The noble daughter obviously doesn't care as much as she said -

Fang Yu inserted the crystal into the magic furnace and answered bravely. Fortunately, the wolf girl did not continue on this topic, as if it was just a mention.Then the crystal lit up, and every circuit on the magic furnace began to glow.

The light extends along the lines he has laid in advance, connecting to the signal amplifiers preset at the four corners. Between the amplifiers is the hill-like pile of ore, and the surrounding structures are using crushers to crush them. The ore is broken up and then piled up.

Fang Yu closed his eyes, and then pressed his magic gloves on the magic furnace. A patch of starlight appeared in his field of vision. This work was very familiar to him, and the light points were connected one after another.

Light emerged from the ore mountain, and then the stones cracked and turned into dust. Dots of light seeped out from the dust and adsorbed on a crystal suspended above. The whole process lasted for about a quarter of an hour.

A quarter of an hour later, the crystal slowly fell down. Fang Pliong raised his head to look at this scene, raised his hand and took it back into his palm.Then a flash of light fell from the crystal. He closed his palms and looked at the metal that shone with silver brilliance, although it was only about the size of a needle tip.

Approximately a few grams.

Fang Plover let out a sigh of relief.

The entire process of beneficiation and transportation takes about half an hour, but the refining does not take much time. Although the computing power consumed is a bit staggering, the pressure on him to borrow the computing power of the Fairy Heart is not too great.

However, the mineral processing and transportation can be carried out in batches. Only seven Lancers were used in the first batch, and there are at least 40 more Lancers on the ship. They can be divided into many groups and commanded by Miss Tata.

When you become more proficient, you may be able to compress the time to less than 10 minutes, and repeating it dozens of times a day will not be a problem.

He made a rough calculation. As long as they stayed here for a month, they could mine several kilograms of mithril. A few kilograms of mithril would cost tens of millions of lisels on the market. He couldn't help but buzz in his head. , in fact, the Seven Seas Traveler has never seen such a large amount of money so far.

Fang Yu couldn't help but think dizzy, it was almost enough for them to upgrade the Seven Seas Traveler again.

But the current problem is how to cover this valley for a month.

Although this place is inaccessible, this mine is hidden deep in the mountains and no one knows about it. If it weren't for the Hailin Crystal, they wouldn't have come to this place, let alone discovered this mithril mining area at this point in time.

But today is different from the past. There are now a large number of adventurers wandering outside the valley, and they are searching for the legendary obelisk. Even if they have not searched this area today, sooner or later they will find it. A valley.

When those people enter the valley, what should the Seven Seas Brigade do?

Hiding the entire valley with a Mysterious Barrier?He could barely do it with the help of the equipment on the ship, but there were many spellcasters among the adventurers. Once they discovered the abnormal flow of ether outside the valley, they would immediately become suspicious.

What would people think if they found a barrier hidden in the valley?There is an artificially hidden area here. Where in the forest would such an area exist?
That is obviously the ruins area where the obelisk is located.

That would be self-defeating.

More importantly, maybe someone already knows where this valley is. He couldn't help but look at the swift structure that was damaged by Dalil.

Although Dalil and Alyssa have not returned since they went to search the valley, the construct has remained. The presence of a swift construct means there is a combat craftsman behind it. The combat craftsman who controls the construct may have already Just found them.

It's just that the other party hasn't appeared yet. Is he hiding, or is he trying to contact his companions first?

Although Fang Yu doubted whether the other party could detect the anomalies in the valley through his own structure in the sudden glance just now, even he only discovered the mithril in the valley after Sylvide's reminder. Ore, using the vision of the construct to distinguish the ore while moving at high speed is obviously something that even he can't do.

But when the construct is attacked, it is obviously a matter of uncertainty whether the other party will come to trouble them.

Judging from the opponent's method of controlling the construct.

The level of that combat craftsman will not be too low.

By evening, this temporary mining area had begun to take shape. Fang Plover ordered the modified Lancers to be divided into several areas for work. He also established several mineral processing areas, which further improved the work efficiency of the structure.

In order to have more manpower, Tianlan and Jita also disembarked from the Seven Seas Traveler. Miss Poet was very interested in the mining work at first, but soon became miserable and began to complain endlessly.

In fact, she doesn't need to do any heavy work, it's just too boring.

Miss Scholar is hard-working and never complains. She has always been like this, making people feel extremely reliable. She even took over Tianlan's job.

Miss Poet was a little embarrassed and comforted her: "Jita, I will treat you to a big meal when you leave this place."

"No need, Tianlan." Jita thought it was nothing, "The leader hopes that you take the time to pay more attention to your level and don't always think about being lazy. He..."

Tian Lan said, "Okay, okay, I know he cares about this, I will do it next time."

Fang Plover looked back at this guy angrily.

The progress of the project was faster than he imagined, and the mithril stored in this vein was far richer than he imagined. In just one afternoon, they extracted nearly 250 grams of mithril. Calculate the value even after deducting losses. The income is also nearly 100 million Lisels.

This was only a few hours.

Fang Plover seemed to see a river flowing with gold and silver pouring money into his pocket. For a moment, even fatigue disappeared. This was just small-scale mining, and robbing a bank was nothing more than that.

He has no intention of sleeping tonight. He must find this place before others discover it. Once the adventurers outside discover the secrets in the valley, it will be impossible to have such a carefree mining in the future.

No one qualms about having too much money, and this is especially true for the Seven Seas Brigade who are planning to go to the second world at this moment.

Although Tian Lan found the work of mining and beneficiation boring, she couldn't help but get excited after calculating her income. Miss Poet was originally responsible for logistics work, so she was more sensitive to financial logistics.She calculated carefully and immediately came to an incredible conclusion:
"As long as we quietly mine here for a week, won't the team earn 1000 million risels? If we can stay here for a month, our income will reach one, two, three... more than 6000 million risels?"

She looked incredulous: "Am I right? Brother Ed's poor team will also get rich one day?"

Fang Yuan's eyes twitched. Although the Seven Seas Brigade has always had less funds on its books, having its own floating ship cannot be considered a team of poor people. It means that this poet lady has always been a poor team. Do you think so?

He suddenly felt that it was necessary to strengthen Tianlan's level building, so as to save her from having to think about all these things all day long.

But he released his hand from the magic furnace and was about to give Miss Poet some advice when the communication crystal on his collar suddenly lit up, and then Miss Nightingale's hoarse voice came from it:
"Master, we have found a place."

Fang Yu was startled for a moment before he remembered the mission he had assigned to Alyssa and that cat-person lady. There was no news from the two of them all afternoon, and they only sent signals every once in a while to indicate that they were fine, which made him almost forget about it. Something happened.

They came to investigate the cause of the mysterious etheric silver mist in the valley. If they didn't understand its principle, no matter how much mithril they mined, they wouldn't be able to lift off the Seven Seas Traveler to take it out.

But probably because he was so happy mining, he forgot about it for a moment, and then he realized what he was doing and asked quickly: "What did you find?"

"A holy icon."

But Alyssa's answer surprised him: "To be precise, it's a statue of a Roman lady."

Ms. Roman's icon?
Fang Yu was slightly startled. He didn't have much dealings with that business lady. Among the Saints of Orin, the one he was most familiar with was actually Anjana, the God of Knowledge. After all, he was an alchemist himself, and alchemists and magicians were It can be said that they are all believers under the protection of this god of magic and knowledge.

In addition, there is the fair lady Marland. This war lady has publicly sheltered him and also asked her followers to search for his whereabouts. Although he has not had direct communication with the other party, in a certain sense To put it bluntly, he can be said to be the person favored by this fair lady.

The other is the forest goddess Amaya, who even descended upon him once in Istaria and focused her attention on him. Although he is still confused about that contact, he can be regarded as helping this natural person. The lady has done the work.

The goddess of commerce has a very wide belief in Aitaria, not only the ships that travel in the air and sea, but sailors and merchants worship her. Transactions, contracts and the development of the city are all her domain, and even travel on the road People also worshiped her.

This is a powerful deity. Her temples are not uncommon in the wilderness, but they are usually located on the side of roads. Few people have heard of commercial temples being established in deep mountains and forests.

What's more, if nothing unexpected happens, it should be the temple built by the Numerin elves.

In the era of the Numerin elves, had the faith of the Saints of Orin already begun to spread?
He couldn't help but shook his head in confusion and asked, "What's there?"

"One thing," Alyssa replied, "Dalier and I are looking at this place. Mr. Captain, you'd better come and see for yourself."

"By the way," she said, "take Miss Kitta with you. She might recognize this thing."

Fang Yu turned back to look at Miss Scholar.

Tianlan immediately raised her hand, "I'm going too, I'll protect Jita." She was almost bored staying here.

... (end of this chapter)