Having set up their configuration the team of five-set forth. Thanks to picking up the skill forestwalk, Uora had no trouble moving along the harsh forest path. Baikm, on the other hand, had some trouble carrying objects. So with embarrassment, he had to give some of the things he carried over to Uroa.
The added weight didn't affect the dwarf girl much so they kept moving. But Urist made a note that it would be good to get a beast of burden on their next trip. With it, they could carry more things and free up the dwarf's hands for other things.
With such thoughts, Urist and Rat cleared the brush with ease using their strength skill and machetes they were making good time. They only stopped for a few things such as taking breaks when Uroa found some medical or poison plants to collect or when she spotted a large area of poison brush. Those they decided was best to detour around to avoid being poisoned.
Usually, that happened every thirty minutes allowing the group to take a five-minute break for Baikm’s to regain his stamina and allow Urist and Rat to eat. Regretfully, Urist had found out that he couldn't order food while out of the camp since he hadn’t claimed the area.
How do I claim the area anyhow? Whatever I brought enough food for a round trip so it doesn’t matter.
He was quite thankful for Uria’s advice to carry all their rations or he’d have to embarrassingly return to get more. Thankfully the eating reduced the weight allowing the group to move faster as they progressed. Despite the small breaks in between they managed to reach the site at the estimated time.
It seems I remembered my minerals correctly last time I came here. Now we just got to see how much copper, tin and iron is here.
“Baikm we’re here you're up. Use your mineral skill to see how much metal is in the area.”
Wiping his sweaty brow with the sleeve Baikm replied. “Sigh. I thought my legs would fall off before we made it boss. May I have five minutes before searching.”
“That’s fine Everyone. Take a load off and get some rest.”
Five minutes quickly passed and Baikm had regained his energy and could finally put his skills into action. Using his mineral identification skill he told Urist which areas they should pick from. They decided to go to the closest copper area before heading over to the area where he felt tin was in abundance. Gathering bucket full of copper they headed over to the tin area and got much less as to form bronze the ratio only needed to be 87.5% copper and 12.5% tin.
As Urist scooped in the sand, a fond memory surfaced out of the static.
Now, nephew although we live in an age of iron and steel that dominate the era. It’s always good to look back on the roots that came before it. The art of forging is a deep and profound art that has traveled together with humanity.
At this memory, Urist warmly smiled. I never thought such information would be useful to me now. Thank you, uncle, for showing me the art of forging even if I had useless hands.
After they finished gathering the sand of the two metals. They went to a deep red spot where Baikm had found by luck. Seeing the rusty ground before them Urist laughed.
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“The map didn’t say it, but who would have known there was an iron deposit here? Let’s gather some and then head back home guys.”
Urist didn't pick up much iron sand just enough to fill up a bucket before calling it. There were a few reasons why he didn’t gather more iron. First, he and Brikm were more or less experts on the subject of bronze.
Second, it took much less heat to bring the two up to temperature. And finally, working with bronze was just plain easier than working with the pain in the ass Iron. At most the iron gathered would be made into a batch of small tools and arrowheads.
With harvest in hand, Urist and Rat carried most of the material back home. They got home much faster thanks to the path they made and thanks to no animals attacking them it only took a round trip of five hours to get back home.
Dropping off the exhausted dwarfs and material at base Urist dragged his tired body with a few other to check on the traps. He knew it wouldn’t take that long to check them so he wasn’t that worried of passing out from exhaustion.
By some pretty good luck, they got a few live hares and some dead squirrels. Along with a live boar trying to get its foot unstuck from a rope trap. Elrish went up and cut its neck open to quickly end it’s suffering.
Thank you Boar you will be good eating for us for the days to come.
Giving a silent thank you Urist turned to Elrish. “Can you carry this back? I’ll take care of the hares.”
“I’ll be my pleasure boss.”
As they went through the game trail traps Urist thought to himself. I wonder if we’ll catch anything else? Thanks to the crystals storage function we can keep food indefinitely without it going bad. I’ll be good if we could stock up on more meat although I can be too greedy after all we already caught a boar.
And luck was on Urist side as he became surprised to see a goat caught in one of the traps. Elrish was already setting the boar down on the ground and making his way to kill it.
Urist quickly stopped him from killing the goat. If it was a male goat it would be alright since they didn't give off goat milk. But if it was a female goat the could get fresh milk and even make goat cheese it would be a waste to kill them.
With delightful surprise, he noticed that the goat wasn’t alone. The goat had kids around it playing and frocking around there mother with curiosity. Urist also looked at the goat's horns to confirm that it was indeed a female.
Giving a silent thank you to his mother for teaching him about goats on there travels Urist tried to dig up more detail.
Judging by their size the kids should be around the age of 5 to 6 weeks old. Meaning that in a few weeks they could be taken off their mothers milk.
Thinking about having dairy in the dwarf's diet made him quite happy. Since they were quite close to home it wouldn't be that much of a hassle to come back for the goats.
Making up his mind Urist told everyone they would head back home first and then come back for the goats. No one voiced complaints and they made their way to home in haste unloading their items in the cave.
Urist asked for a few extra hands in capturing the goats before heading out. While they headed back to the goats Urist wondered where the other larger goats were.
Usually, goats didn't travel alone, instead of in a pack. Although this was a different world such things should be close to what he remembered. The deer, squirrels, boars, and hares looked the same so why not goats?
With such thoughts, Urist and his party of dwarfs closed on the mother goat and her four kids. He gave the command to surround and capture the goat kids.
He and Rat would handle the goat mother who might struggle with all the excitement. The dwarfs slowly spread out in a circle and when they were in position, Urist gave out a signal.
Urist watched over the area and nodded his head and then let out a quick whistle. With the sound, the dwarfs all rushed forth surprising the goats making the kids bhaaa at their mom.
Licking his lips at thought of actually drinking something else than water. Urist charged forth with the intent on subduing the mother with his bare hands.