Shade continued to look through the account books, and finally saw those very sudden and large incomes in the "income" item. The amount of each income exceeded 5,000 kronor, even according to the exchange rate that year, it was more than 50,000.
pounds, and the description of the input is "Silver Ore Trading".
"Silver ore trade?"
Suspicious, Shade frowned and thought for a moment, and then remembered that a witcher from a hundred years ago had said that he found the demon here while tracing a mithril vein.
"So this is how the Hoy family made their fortune. This is quite reasonable, at least more reasonable than making money by exploiting lumberjacks. However, the Hoy family is just an ordinary family. Where did they find the sales channel? Probably
That devil’s handiwork.”
The account book also records the location of the mithril vein, because it states the monthly expenditures for the "Slavin Mine".
Of course, Shade didn't know where this mine was, but it was marked on the map sold by the hermits. Shade checked it and found that there was a mark of "Abandoned Mine - Slavin Mine" in the dense forest.
The location was very, very far away from the cave where the treasure was hidden, because it was in the west of the city, so Shade first turned all the gold into toys, and then went back home directly.
It was almost lunch time when we got home. Shade went to see Vanessa first. The Witch of the Earth gave Shade an alchemy tool that could be used to detect mithril ore to facilitate his actions in the afternoon:
"But didn't you ask me to help you find the mineral vein when I get to the Vista Grove? If there is really enough mithril, everyone will be happy."
The beautiful golden eyes looked at Shade with a questioning look:
"Shade, you had a party at home last night, why didn't you call me?"
"What party?"
Shade asked the beautiful blonde opera singer in confusion, and then he suddenly understood the daily routine at home last night:
"Who told you this?"
"Humph, of course it's Carina, who else can it be? Don't leave in a hurry. Do you want to have lunch with us? Sirius is already making arrangements for lunch. You can't leave now that you're here."
Of course, Vanessa didn't just want to keep Shade for lunch. After lunch, she said that she had recently conceived a new script with Dorothy, and invited Shade to watch it in her room. With this look, she saw the two afternoon scenes.
At half past o'clock, when Shade was getting dressed and ready to leave, the blond lady who was lazily lying on the bed and refused to move commented with a smile:
"Look, even if Carina doesn't call me, I can call you here myself. Shade, you're so awesome. I thought they had fucked you last night."
The second half of the sentence was obviously flirting with Sha De. Sha De said while buttoning his shirt:
"Vanessa, if I didn't have something to do in the afternoon, just based on your words, you wouldn't want to do anything this afternoon."
"Is it so fierce?"
The witch with a blush on her face smiled ambiguously, then bit her lip and asked:
"Then is it okay if I go to your house again tonight?"
After Shade returned to the woodland, he went to the city to say hello to the ladies, and then heard from Miss Bell that the Slavin Mine was abandoned a hundred years ago. The silver veins there were exhausted, but they are now drying up.
In fact, it was not a big rich mine before.
It is not complicated to find the Slavin Mine. In the era of Ximu Town, it was deep in the dense forest, but in the current era of Vista City, the location is not far from the western edge of the city.
After the mine was abandoned, the city hall filled in the entrance to the mine for safety reasons and blocked it with large rocks. Because they were worried that the ground in the mining area would collapse, warning signs were placed nearby by the city hall to let people know
Don't get close.
Of course Shade didn't pay attention to the warning, but in the process of looking for the entrance to the mine, the first thing he saw was the abandoned miners' camp. After the mining area was abandoned, the woods gradually merged with the buildings that had not been demolished and the things left by the miners.
As one body, before Shade had time to appreciate the scenery here in the bleak late autumn, he saw a familiar figure in the camp walking out from behind the house.
"Professor Uke Wood?"
The old folklore professor who met Shade at a charity auction and recommended him to buy "Ximu Town and World Tree" was holding a notebook as if recording something. He was already very old.
, so he still held a crutch in his hand to prevent him from falling in the overgrown camp.
Hearing Shade's voice, he raised his head and looked at him. He was startled for a moment, and then he greeted him with a smile. The two of them stood in the grass in the center of the camp and talked. The autumn leaves had covered the ground, and they had fallen a few times.
After a heavy rain, the leaves rot and are absorbed by the soil, but the grass is still luxuriant before winter comes, but they will disappear after a heavy snow:
"Mr. Watson, what a coincidence. Are you also here to inspect the Slavin Mine?"
He took the initiative to introduce without waiting for Xia De to ask:
"Ximu Town is a lumberjack town, and the second most popular occupation is hunters. Miners are rare here. Most of the workers used to develop the Slavin Mine were outsiders. So there was a formation among these miners.
It has some very unique cultural phenomena, which are different from miners in other areas."
He works at "Vista City University". The folklore major of this school and his own are mediocre, so Professor Wood mainly does local folklore research, which makes it easier to apply for funds from the city hall.
"Is that so? Professor, I heard some local legends about this mine. It is said that someone once dug a road to the so-called 'underground world' deep in this mine. I want to investigate this.
.”
Xia De also explained his purpose. The excuse was of course made up. The old professor immediately shook his head:
"I have heard too many legends about the underground world. I really don't know where similar urban legends came from. I can guarantee that it is definitely not true. But don't you know? The entrance to the mine is completely closed now.
It’s impossible to get into that place.”
After speaking, he added:
"But speaking of which, I have seen some information. Before the mine was abandoned, there were indeed some strange accidents. But the official said that it was when the miners were digging underground that they encountered unknown things seeping out of underground cracks.
Named hallucinogenic gas.
At first, I don’t know who discovered the method. As long as you put green leaves in front of your eyes, you will soon be unaffected by the hallucinogenic gases. But soon this method was useless, so the mine was closed except for the mine itself.
In addition to depletion, it is also related to the constant occurrence of production safety accidents."
Farshad has never heard of this:
"We found hallucinogenic gas in the mining. Have you ever been in the mine?"
The professor immediately shook his head:
"Of course not. Although I am very old, I am not as exaggerated as a hundred years old. Slavin Mine was already like this when I was born. It is said that when it was prosperous, it could almost be regarded as a small village, but
After all, mineral resources are not like fruits on a big tree. The latter will always reappear as time goes by, while the former is really gone once it is dug out."
But even though he said this, he still told Sha De the specific location of the mine entrance so that Sha De could go and have a look, but don't expect to gain anything.
The mining area back then was not very far from the miners' camp, but now the appearance of the mining area is no longer visible. Without human intervention, the forest and nature can easily return to their original appearance.
After Shade found the big stone blocking the entrance in this bleak dead forest, he first used "Powerful Space Perception" to determine the size of the space behind the stone, and then directly used "Raglai's Jump" to enter.
Arriving at the mine.
There is no oxygen in the completely closed mine, but this is not a big trouble for Shade. The mine tunnels extending in all directions are as complex as a maze, so Shade chose to move along the main mine tunnel toward the deepest point.
A hundred years have passed, and many of the mine tunnels inside the mine have collapsed. Therefore, during the journey, Raglai's jump or fossils must be used again from time to time.
The alchemy tool Vanessa gave Shad was not specifically used to detect mithril ore. The palm-sized compass can theoretically be used to detect any metal vein. All you need to do is polish some purified metal into a diamond shape and place it on the compass.
In the center, the compass can detect the corresponding ore.
After the Green Lake incident, in order to thank the "Godcaller" for his help, the church not only gave Shade the "Star Trace" longbow, but also gave him a lot of rare metals. There was still a part of the mithril in Shade's hand, so he could use it.
This compass.
As he walked in the darkness, he watched the compass needles rotating irregularly. As he went deeper and deeper into the mining area, in addition to encountering the resentful spirits of several miners on the way, the compass needles actually turned out to be real.
Gradually narrowing the scope of the shaking, until finally the direction was clearly pointed out:
"Really?"
Mithril is an important strategic material. No matter how many Shades there are, there will never be too many. Top-level alchemy props and weapons often require the participation of Mithril. Even an ordinary piece of metal can be directly used as long as it is mixed with Mithril.
A spirit body that is completely immune to physical damage.
Therefore, if a mithril vein can be discovered that has not yet been exhausted, its value will be much greater than Shade's gold mine shares in the Randall Valley.
With anticipation, Shade walked faster towards the depths of the mine. During this period, more and more areas collapsed, but this could not stop him. Until finally he came to the deepest part of the mining area, and the pointer still remained
Pointed forward:
"Sure enough, it is an ore that has not yet been discovered. If people had known that there were ores deeper down, this place would not have been abandoned."
The efficiency of the spell "Fossils to Mud" was too slow, and Shade was naturally unwilling to mine the mines himself. So he switched to the "Feliana's Witch's Light" which consumes more money but is also faster. According to
The compass guides us to dig deeper into the ground.
However, after digging for about a hundred meters diagonally downward, there was a crashing sound of gravel falling to the ground, and then Shade discovered that he had actually dug a large underground cavity.