"Benben, you don't need to follow . Go play wherever you want."
Watching his leader's departing figure, Benben didn't get up. He lay back down on the ground and continued to snore away.
Ever since he started following the boss, he had grown fond of a life of eating and sleeping, sleeping and eating. The goblins provided him with food, at to eat, and tasty fruits.
After leaving the Throne Tribe, Li ng headed north.
***
Half an hour later, at the Iron Cave.
On the bank of the underground river, the extinguished blast furnace roared back to life.
"Boss, boss!"
As soon as Li ng entered the Iron Cave, Gobu Ge ca running over excitedly.
"Boss, boss, look at this!"
Gobu Ge held up a silver stone with a fawning expression.
"What is this?"
Li ng took the stone from Gobu Ge's hands and examined it. It looked sowhat like iron ore, but the material on it was silver.
"I don't know. We found it hiding deep in the cave, boss. This cave is really deep, with many bottomless abysses. We discovered these stones in a small stream, and they glow in the water."
Stones that glow in water?
Li ng turned and walked towards the underground river.
At the riverbank, Li ng threw the stone into the water, and just as Gobu Ge had said, it emitted a faint silver glow. It made the stone look very beautiful.
"Could it be mithril?"
Looking at the glowing ore in the water, Li ng mused to himself. In Western fantasy movies, there was often a precious tal called "mithril."
This reminded Li ng of the greatsword used by the human warrior "Carlos." Carlos's greatsword also emitted the sa glow in water. Perhaps this was the main material used to forge that sword.
The greatsword in Carlos's hand was extrely resilient. His Big Iron Rod couldn't inflict any damage on it, not even a nick on the blade.
"Gobu Ge, go mine so of these stones. I need them now!"
If it's tal, it must be sltable.
Gobu Ge turned and sprinted towards the depths of the cave.
By the water, Li ng crouched down and picked up the stone from the water. Once out of the water, the stone returned to its original state.
"This cave is truly a treasure trove. I must explore it thoroughly when I have the ti!"
Although he couldn't yet determine what the ore in his hand was, Li ng had a strong premonition that he had stumbled upon sothing valuable.
And so he waited for five hours.
***
Five hours later, in the afternoon.
At the Iron Cave, on the underground riverbank.
Two goblins carried over a basket full of silver ore.
"Throw these ores into the bonfire!"
If the silver ore was indeed tal, the slting process shouldn't differ much from iron.
Li ng directed the goblin underlings to start burning the silver ore. Soon, the bonfire blazed fiercely.
Standing by the bonfire, Li ng watched the silver ore in the flas with anticipation.
***
Three hours later, by the bonfire.
Li ng looked at the unchanged ore in his hand with a speechless expression.
It wasn't entirely unchanged. The non-silver parts of the stone had beco brittle from the heat, but the silver material remained unaffected. It was very hard, impossible to crush.
"Gobu Ge, fire up the furnace!"
Li ng dumped the ore into the blast furnace to begin slting.
Ti slowly passed, and night gradually deepened. Li ng sat by the blast furnace, staring intently at it, while over a dozen goblins panted as they worked the bellows. Waves of scorching heat hit him in the face.
***
The next morning, at the Iron Cave, on the underground riverbank.
"Boss, still no change!"
Gobu Ge extracted a piece of ore from the bottom gate. After a night of slting, the ore remained unchanged.
"Could it be that the slting thod is wrong?"
Looking at the ore at his feet, Li ng pondered. After all, so precious tals required special slting thods.
"Looks like I'll need to find a human adventurer!"
He regretted not keeping so human captives. Otherwise, he could have figured out what this mysterious thing was.
"Boss, should we keep slting?"
"Yes, but not this stuff. Slt steel!"
Later that day, Li ng began slting steel again. He selected so human steel armor from the spoils of war for secondary slting.
It wasn't until the seventh day that Li ng left the Iron Cave.
"Ah, the sun feels so good!"
Outside the Iron Cave, Li ng basked in the scorching sunlight. The warm and slightly stinging sensation on his skin made him feel comfortable.
After enjoying the sun for a while, Li ng entered the forest. In the dim forest, he walked slowly, carrying the Big Iron Rod on his shoulder, deep in thought.
"How can I change the future where the Black Mountain tribe summons the Barbarian God 'Aqua'?"
The source of this future event was the Temple Knights of the Papal State. But in previous future lines, the causes of the event were different each ti.
The first ti, it was because the expeditionary army was completely annihilated, and out of fear, they summoned the Barbarian God 'Aqua.'
The second ti, it was because they couldn't defeat the pair of strong human warriors, so they summoned the Barbarian God 'Aqua.'
The third ti was this current one. Each ti, there were different reasons for summoning the Barbarian God 'Aqua.'
There was sothing strange about this matter. The first and second tis, the future was altered to prevent the Black Mountain tribe from summoning the Barbarian God 'Aqua.' But the future where the Black Mountain tribe summons the Barbarian God 'Aqua' hadn't changed.
So, there was only one answer: the timing difference of the Temple Knights of the Papal State.
The threat of the Temple Knights of the Papal State was always present. The Black Mountain tribe just didn't know about it.
If in the previous future lines, the Black Mountain tribe had summoned the Barbarian God 'Aqua,' the Temple Knights of the Papal State would have appeared as well. But they would have faced not the Black Mountain tribe, but the Barbarian God 'Aqua' summoned by the Black Mountain tribe.
The strength of those two human warriors was also a mystery. Their power might be even greater than Carlos's. Even Carlos couldn't withstand an attack from tens of thousands of goblins.
Carlos was indeed powerful, but his magic and stamina were limited. The stronger the magic and combat skills, the more magic power they consud. When magic power was exhausted, it accelerated the depletion of stamina, putting the body in a weakened state.
In this state, even a strong warrior would beco extrely vulnerable. Therefore, on a large battlefield, even a strong warrior could hardly change the course of battle.
Yet, those two human warriors forced the Black Mountain tribe, with its tens of thousands of mbers, to summon the Barbarian God 'Aqua.'
Of course, there was another possibility.
The Black Mountain tribe might not have known the dangers of summoning the Barbarian God, so they chose to summon it to deal with the human warriors. Perhaps the Black Mountain tribe believed that the god they worshipped wouldn't harm them.
"Steal the sacrificial disk?"
This thought had barely erged before Li ng dismissed it. With his large build, sneaking into the Black Mountain tribe to steal the sacrificial disk was nearly impossible.
The Black Mountain tribe was surely not a small place. Finding the sacrificial disk would be a major challenge.
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