Chapter 118: Chapter 117 Strange Light (First Chapter on Shelves, Requesting First Subscription!)
Richard looked at the Mine Owner Oreke and noticed the muscles on his face were slightly tense. He spoke up, “Don’t be nervous, the thing I am requesting is actually quite simple. That is to help me find a few pieces of ore.”
“A few pieces of ore?” Oreke was taken aback, and his eyes couldn’t help but widen.
This request wasn’t difficult; on the contrary, it was far too simple.
Oreke couldn’t suppress the urge to say, if it was just a matter of finding a few pieces of ore, was there really a need for such a big scene, even bringing the Prince?
Nevertheless, this put Oreke’s mind at ease.
There was a shortage of everything in this mine, but certainly not of ore.
Large, fine pieces of iron ore were piled up like mountains. There was as much as one could want; just take whatever you could carry. Richard alone, how many pounds of ore could he carry? Even if it wasn’t just Richard, but Gro and all the Guards combined, with horses included in the transport of the iron ore, Oreke doubted that they could move the daily output of his mine.
With this thought, Oreke looked towards Richard and spoke out, “This… um, Lord Richard, are you sure you’re just looking for a few pieces of ore?”
“Yes,” Richard nodded and responded.
“That’s easy, right this way, please.” As Oreke said this, he led Richard towards a pile of freshly mined iron ore, “These are newly extracted ores. As long as you fancy them, feel free to take any.”
“But I do not want this kind of ore, uh, I do not want iron ore,” Richard said indifferently.
“Ah!” Upon hearing this, Oreke blinked, growing somewhat wary. His mine was an iron mine; if someone came here not seeking iron ore, what else could they be after? Gold Ore? Silver Ore? He pondered, had he assumed their intentions were too simple? Could it be that they had come with ulterior motives to swallow up his mine?
Hmm, that was highly possible, extremely possible.
Oreke thought to himself, yet his expression remained unchanged as he leaned closer to Richard, “The respectable Lord, all I have here is iron ore. If what you seek isn’t iron ore, I’m afraid you’ve come to the wrong place. Perhaps… you should take a look somewhere else?”
“No need.” Richard shook his head and said quietly, “I am aware that this is an iron mine, but beyond extracting iron ore, there definitely are other associated ores. Of course, most of the time, they are considered waste ore.
What I want is one type of that waste ore. It’s called Cobalt Ore, it should have a bluish-gray appearance, looks quite similar to ordinary rocks but is very hard. Its fracture spots present a silvery-white color, with a metallic luster. Find it for me, the more the better.”
“Oh, I see…” Oreke’s heart relaxed once more. He had been unnecessarily worried. All this fuss, and the sought-after material turned out to be less valuable than iron ore; it was waste ore that wasn’t even worth a Copper Coin.
There was more waste ore than iron ore. If nobody wanted it, he would have to spend extra effort disposing of it. Since that was the case…
Oreke turned and shouted at a few Overseers standing not far away, “Did you all hear Lord Richard’s instructions? Immediately go to the pile of waste ore, and find me the ore that meets the criteria, no, the Cobalt Ore! Hurry! Whoever finds it last will get only half their salary this month!”
Upon hearing this, the Overseers, as if shot in the buttocks by an arrow, hurried to the pile of waste ore, frantically searching, fearful of falling behind the others.
But ten minutes, twenty minutes, thirty minutes…
Soon half an hour had passed, and the atmosphere grew somewhat tense; the mining area was somewhat quiet, the huffing and puffing of the Overseers was distinctly audible.
“Huff, huff,” the Overseers almost turned the pile of waste ore upside down. They caught their breaths and looked at each other, realizing that their prior worries about salary deductions were needless because… they didn’t find any of the specified ore at all.
The men looked at each other in dismay, and Oreke suddenly felt rather uncomfortable.
They couldn’t find it? They actually couldn’t find it?
That was troublesome.
Looking for a specific type of waste ore was supposed to be a very simple request.
And if a request was very simple, even so simple that it seemed ridiculous, yet still couldn’t be completed, then the outcome would certainly not be pleasant.
Oreke thought of this and shouted at the supervisors, “You useless bunch, get back to searching! If you can’t find it, all of you can get lost today! And don’t even think about getting paid, not a single copper coin!”
The supervisors stiffened and had no choice but to get busy again, really prepared to turn over the mining waste.
Ross, with effort, tossed a piece of pitch-black waste rock to one side and was about to continue searching when he suddenly heard footsteps nearby.
Turning his head, he saw Old Marlon, the miner, walking over.
“What do you want, Old Marlon? Get lost and don’t cause any trouble!” Ross was already pretty heated and snapped irritably.
Who knew Old Marlon would just smirk at him, a look of disdain on his face as he walked past him towards Oreke.
Oreke frowned, staring at Old Marlon, ready to see what he was going to do. Unexpectedly, Old Marlon walked past him as well and came to a stop in front of Richard.
“That… Lord Richard,” Old Marlon bowed and spoke with utmost respect, “I know where to find the ore you’re looking for.”
“You know!” Richard hadn’t even spoken when Supervisor Ross shouted out, “You knew and you didn’t say it sooner, making me busy here for half a day? Are you looking to die…”
Ross’s words were cut midway and there was no more, because he noticed that Mine Owner Oreke was staring intently at him.
And the reason Oreke was doing so was because Gro was casting an unfriendly glance his way.
And Gro acted this way because Richard was slightly frowning.
“Gulp,” Ross swallowed hard, his body went limp, and he dared not speak another word.
Oreke slowly exhaled.
Gro’s expression returned to normal.
Richard’s eyebrows relaxed as he looked towards Old Marlon, saying, “Tell me, where is it?”
“Yes, yes, yes, Lord Richard, I’ll take you there.” Old Marlon was very understanding and not verbose at all, rapidly leading the way while explaining, “Lord Richard, the ore you’re looking for is indeed produced here in the mine, but it’s rather rare. We usually call it Devil Stone, because prolonged contact with it makes you feel unwell; when it’s mined, we throw it far away, so it’s not found here.”
Richard nodded, having heard what Old Marlon said, he was seventy percent certain it was correct. Some Cobalt Ore indeed had toxicity, because Arsenic – the main component of Arsenic – was occasionally mixed in the cobalt ore.
In fact, in the history of modern Earth, a mineralogist had named a cobalt ore, which translated means demon, quite similar to devil.
Thinking this, Old Marlon had already led Richard to a remote corner of the mine. Pointing at a few pieces of ore on the ground, he said, “Look, Lord Richard, those are the ones.”
“Ah-ha.” Richard nodded in response and stepped forward to take a closer look.
Old Marlon, however, was more than eager, getting ahead of him, and quickly said, “Lord Richard, let me do it.”
And with that, Old Marlon picked up the ore, wiped the surface dirt with his clothes, and held it out in front of Richard.
At that moment, behind Richard, Ross, Oreke, Gro, and a group of others were standing, all watching Richard’s reaction, all rather tense.
The next moment, they heard Richard say, “Yes, that’s it.”
“Phew,” a collective sigh of relief was heard.
Ross felt his job might still be secure, Oreke thought his mine might not face disaster after all, and Gro felt the miraculous “Dihydrogen Monoxide” potion he had hardly obtained might not have to be returned to Richard.
Everything seemed to be all smiles, but Old Marlon, standing to one side, had a somewhat strange glint in his eyes.