Chapter 124: The Silver Ore

"Benben, you don’t need to follow me. Go play wherever you want."

Watching the figure of the boss leaving, Benben remained lying on the ground, continuing to snore loudly.

Ever since following the boss, it had grown fond of the days of eating and sleeping, and then eating again.

The goblins provided its food, offering both meat and delicious fruits.

After leaving the Throne Tribe, Li Meng headed north.

Half an hour later, he arrived at the Iron Cavern.

By the underground riverbank, an extinguished blast furnace reignited.

"Boss! Boss!"

As soon as Li Meng entered the Iron Cavern, Gobuge came running excitedly.

"Boss! Boss! Look at this!"

Gobuge, with a flattering smile, held out a silver stone.

"What is this?"

Taking the stone from Gobuge's hand, Li Meng examined it closely.

It resembled iron ore but was covered with a silver-colored substance.

"I don’t know. We found it deep inside the cavern, boss. This cave is really deep, with many bottomless abysses. We discovered these stones by a small stream. They glow in the water."

Stones that emit light when in water?

Li Meng turned and walked toward the underground river.

Upon reaching the riverbank, he threw the stone into the water.

Just as Gobuge described, the stone emitted a faint silver glow upon contact with water.

This made the stone appear exceptionally beautiful.

"Could it be mithril?"

Looking at the glowing ore in the water, Li Meng muttered to himself.

In Western fantasy films, there were often references to precious metals like "mithril."

This reminded Li Meng of the giant sword used by the human strongman Carlos.

Stolen story; please report.

Carlos’s sword also emitted a similar glow in water.

Perhaps this material was the primary component for forging that sword.

The giant sword in Carlos’s hands was incredibly tough.

Even Li Meng's iron rod couldn’t inflict any damage on it.

Not even a dent appeared on the blade.

"Gobuge, go mine some of these stones. I want them right now!"

If it were a metal, it should be possible to smelt it.

Gobuge immediately ran toward the depths of the cavern.

By the riverbank, Li Meng crouched down and retrieved the stone from the water.

Once removed from the water, the stone returned to its original appearance.

"This cavern truly is a treasure trove. It’s worth exploring thoroughly when there’s time."

Although he couldn’t yet confirm what the ore in his hand was, Li Meng had a strong premonition.

He might have stumbled upon something truly valuable.

He waited for five hours.

By afternoon, five hours later, at the Iron Cavern's underground riverbank, two goblins carried over a basket filled with the silver ore.

"Throw these stones into the bonfire!"

If the silver ore was indeed a metal, the smelting process wouldn’t differ significantly from iron.

Li Meng directed the goblin underlings to burn the silver ore.

Soon, the bonfire roared to life.

Standing beside the fire, Li Meng eagerly watched the silver ore amidst the flames.

Three hours passed.

By the bonfire, Li Meng looked speechlessly at the unchanged ore in his hand.

It wasn’t entirely unchanged.

The non-silver parts of the stone had become brittle due to the heat.

But the silver substance remained unaffected.

It was very hard, impossible to crush.

"Gobuge, fire up the furnace!"

Li Meng poured the entire batch of ore into the blast furnace to begin smelting.

Time ticked by, and night fell.

Sitting beside the furnace, Li Meng stared intently at it.

Over ten goblins huffed and puffed as they operated the bellows.

Waves of intense heat surged forward continuously.

The next morning, at the Iron Cavern’s underground riverbank:

"Boss, there’s still no change!"

Gobuge pulled out a piece of ore from the bottom gate of the furnace.

Despite an entire night of smelting, the ore remained the same.

"Could it be that the smelting method is wrong?"

Looking at the ore on the ground, Li Meng thought to himself.

After all, some precious metals required specific smelting methods.

"It seems I’ll need to capture a human adventurer!"

He regretted not keeping some human captives.

Otherwise, he might’ve already figured out what this mysterious material was.

"Boss, should we keep smelting?"

"Smelt, but not this material. Smelt steel!"

Later that day, Li Meng began smelting steel.

He selected some steel armor from his war spoils for secondary smelting.

Seven days later, Li Meng finally left the Iron Cavern.

"Ah, it’s so nice to bask in the sun!"

Outside the Iron Cavern, Li Meng basked in the blazing sunlight.

The warm, tingling sensation all over his body was comforting.

After a long while, Li Meng headed into the forest.

In the dim forest, Li Meng walked slowly with his massive iron rod on his shoulder, lost in thought.

"How can I change the Black Mountain Tribe’s future of summoning the Savage God Akuya?"

This event in the future timeline originated from the Papal Kingdom’s Temple Knights.

However, in previous future timelines, the causes of the events varied.

The first time, the Black Mountain Tribe summoned the Savage God Akuya out of fear after their expedition army was annihilated.

The second time, they summoned Akuya to counter an invincible pair of human warriors.

The third time was this current scenario.

Three different reasons, yet the Savage God Akuya was summoned each time.

This revealed something strange.

In the first and second instances, altering the future prevented the Black Mountain Tribe from summoning Akuya.

But the tribe’s future of summoning Akuya remained unchanged.

Thus, there was only one conclusion:

The time gap in the Papal Kingdom’s Temple Knights’ appearance was the key.

This threat had always existed.

It was just that the Black Mountain Tribe was unaware of it.

If, in the previous future timelines, the tribe had summoned Akuya, the Temple Knights would still have appeared.

Only, their opponent wouldn’t have been the tribe but the Savage God Akuya they summoned.

Moreover, the strength of that pair of human warriors remained a mystery.

Their power might even surpass Carlos.

Even Carlos couldn’t survive an onslaught of tens of thousands of goblins.

Although Carlos was incredibly powerful, his magic and stamina were finite.

The stronger the magic or combat technique, the greater the consumption of magic power.

When magic power was depleted, stamina would drain faster, leaving the body in a weakened state.

In this state, even a strong warrior would become extremely vulnerable.

Thus, on large battlefields, even a powerful individual found it hard to change the tide.

Yet, this pair of human warriors had forced the Black Mountain Tribe, with its tens of thousands of members, to summon Akuya.

Of course, another possibility existed:

The Black Mountain Tribe might not have understood the dangers of summoning Akuya.

Thus, they chose to summon their god to deal with the human warriors.

Perhaps they believed that the god they worshipped would not harm them.

"Steal the sacrificial plate?"

This thought was immediately dismissed by Li Meng.

With his massive size, sneaking into the Black Mountain Tribe to steal the sacrificial plate was almost impossible.

The tribe was unlikely to be a small place.

Finding the sacrificial plate alone would be a significant challenge.