100\% DROP RATE : Why is My Inventory Always so Full? Chapter 848 - 858 - Metal

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Previously on 100\% DROP RATE : Why is My Inventory Always so Full?...

Seran and Aurelia have integrated into the village, helping with various tasks. Lucien has navigated financial issues and improved the village's defenses. Training with Seran and the villagers has become routine, but a decrease in local game suggests a wider environmental impact. Lucien realizes that his plans require significant resources, which sparks a memory of a mineral-rich region he encountered previously. He plans to survey this unclaimed land to solve their resource problem.

They left the following morning.

Lucien had originally intended to take only Auren.

That plan lasted less than an hour.

Tavian overheard the destination and immediately announced that any expedition involving unknown ore required someone who actually understood metal.

Mirelle learned they were looking for potentially valuable resources and informed Lucien that allowing Tavian to judge their worth alone would be irresponsible.

Seran heard enough of the conversation to invite himself.

Aurelia joined him.

Then Luke and Cienna discovered the entire group intended to travel into an unfamiliar region based largely on Lucien’s memory of having once seen interesting rocks.

That ended the discussion.

Luke came.

Cienna came too.

Lucien looked at the crowded wagon before departure.

"This was supposed to be a survey."

Luke climbed aboard.

"It still is."

Auren laughed and snapped the reins gently.

The wagon rolled away.

Lucien sat near the front and watched the countryside.

The route presented a problem almost immediately.

Lucien remembered the landscape around the destination and its general direction.

He did not remember how an ordinary wagon was supposed to reach it.

Fortunately, Auren existed.

Lucien pointed.

Auren interpreted.

At first they followed established roads, then smaller paths, then paths that barely deserved the name.

Eventually, even those disappeared.

Auren slowed the horse near a patch of uneven ground and climbed down.

He inspected the slope, walked ahead, returned, then guided the wagon around through a narrow section between two rocky ridges.

Lucien watched him work.

Auren never treated the route as a straight line.

He judged ground firmness, slope, vegetation, water, the horse’s strength, and the wagon’s width.

Whenever Lucien pointed toward the destination, Auren translated that direction into terrain they could actually cross.

By midday, they had left every recognized road behind.

They passed through a forest where the trees grew farther apart than those near the village.

Beyond it lay a shallow ravine.

Auren found a crossing where erosion had formed a gradual descent.

Later came a narrow canyon carved through pale stone.

The wagon barely fit.

Tavian climbed down twice to move loose rocks.

Seran helped.

Lucien occasionally recognized landmarks.

A split hill.

A dark rock formation shaped almost like a broken tooth.

A distant ridge with a flat upper surface.

Each one confirmed that they were going the right way.

Auren glanced back.

"You are certain this place exists?"

Lucien smiled.

"Yes."

"How did you get there?"

Lucien considered the question.

"Unusually."

Seran laughed from the back.

"That sounds trustworthy."

Lucien ignored him.

More than half the day passed before the terrain began changing.

Trees became sparse.

The soil thinned.

Rock pushed through the ground in broad exposed shelves.

Lucien leaned forward.

They were close.

The others still had no idea what they were approaching.

Even Tavian had begun looking doubtful.

Then the wagon crested a low ridge.

Everything opened.

Auren stopped the horse.

Nobody spoke.

The land beyond looked almost unreal.

A broad basin stretched between broken hills, its surface carved into terraces by ancient erosion.

Stone walls rose in uneven bands.

Some were dark gray.

Others carried deep red streaks.

Greenish veins crossed pale rock near one slope.

Farther away, sunlight struck exposed metallic layers and reflected in dull silver flashes.

Blue-gray deposits clustered along another ridge.

Several sections glittered where crystals had formed inside fractured stone.

It was beautiful.

Not in the way forests or rivers were beautiful.

This place looked raw, as if the earth had been split open and its contents exposed.

Lucien climbed down first.

Tavian followed.

The young blacksmith stood motionless.

Lucien looked at him.

Tavian did not blink.

"Are you breathing?"

Tavian finally moved.

He walked toward the nearest outcrop.

Then faster.

He crouched beside a dark vein running through the rock and scraped at it with the small tool he always carried.

His expression changed.

He moved to another deposit, then another.

Lucien smiled.

Mirelle climbed down next.

She looked around more slowly.

Her reaction was quieter.

Her eyes moved from ridge to ridge, estimating distance, accessibility, quantity, and probably value.

Lucien knew that expression.

She was already counting money that did not exist yet.

Seran whistled.

Aurelia stared toward a cluster of translucent stones embedded in a cliff.

Even Auren forgot about the horse for several seconds.

Luke and Cienna stepped down last.

They did not rush toward the minerals.

They looked over the whole region first.

That was why Lucien wanted them here.

Luke walked to the edge of the basin and studied the slopes.

Cienna examined the vegetation.

Neither was trained in mining.

Both had spent their lives judging land for practical survival.

"Water runs through there when it rains," Luke said after a while.

Lucien followed his gaze.

A narrow channel cut across the lower basin.

"Flash flooding?"

"Possibly."

Cienna pointed toward several loose sections of cliff.

"And those slopes are unstable."

Lucien nodded.

Tavian returned carrying several stones.

His earlier composure had disappeared.

"This one might contain iron."

He held up another.

"And this looks like copper ore. I think."

"You think?"

"I have never seen this much exposed at once."

That was fair.

Tavian turned toward the basin again.

"There are other things here I do not recognize."

Lucien crouched beside one sample.

Neither did he, at least not confidently enough in this body and era to name everything by sight.

That was exactly why this was a survey.

And he had the System to provide the answers later.

Mirelle joined them.

"Can we sell it?"

Tavian looked offended.

"I just told you we might be able to forge it."

"I heard you."

"Then why would we sell it?"

"Because food cannot be forged."

Seran laughed.

Tavian frowned at him.

Aurelia approached carrying a small pale crystal she had found loose near the ground.

"This one could be polished."

Mirelle’s attention shifted instantly.

Aurelia turned it under the sunlight.

"Maybe jewelry. Or ornaments."

Seran looked around.

"We have been here five minutes and everyone has already claimed part of the mountain."

Auren walked over.

"I only need enough metal for stronger wagon fittings."

He paused.

"And better horseshoes."

The horse snorted behind him.

Auren pointed toward it.

"See? He agrees."

Lucien laughed.

This was exactly why bringing everyone had been useful.

They saw different things.

Tavian saw weapons and tools.

Mirelle saw trade.

Aurelia saw finished goods.

Auren saw transport.

Luke and Cienna saw what the village needed.

Lucien saw all of it together.

Resources.

The first real foundation for what came next.

Luke eventually walked back toward them.

His expression had become more serious.

"This land is not part of any nearby estate."

Lucien looked at him.

"Father, you recognize the boundary?"

Luke nodded.

"The closest lord’s lands end well before this region. Hunters sometimes pass through the outer forests, but I have never heard of anyone claiming this basin."

Cienna looked toward the cliffs.

"That does not mean nobody will care once wagons begin leaving full of metal."

Mirelle nodded immediately.

"Especially if we start selling it."

Lucien agreed.

The problem was not taking a few exposed pieces.

Nobody would notice.

The problem began when they created roads, dug into cliffs, hired workers, and moved enough material to become visible.

At that point, someone would ask questions.

The kingdom might require permission.

A lord might claim rights.

Merchants might attempt to buy control.

Others might simply try stealing it.

Lucien had no intention of announcing the discovery before they understood what they possessed.

"We keep this quiet for now," he said.

Nobody objected.

"We take samples. We test them. We learn which deposits are useful and which are valuable."

Tavian nodded vigorously.

Lucien continued.

"We also determine where it is safe to dig."

Luke glanced toward the unstable slope.

"Good."

Mirelle folded her arms.

"And how much do we sell?"

"Very little at first."

She looked satisfied with that answer.

Lucien pointed toward the broad basin.

"If we suddenly flood the city with ore from an unknown source, people will investigate."

Seran smiled.

"And if we sell small amounts through different channels?"

Mirelle looked at him.

Seran raised his hands.

"I am only suggesting possibilities."

"You are already planning something illegal."

"Creative."

Lucien sighed.

"We will start legally enough that nobody has a reason to chase us."

Seran seemed disappointed.

They spent the next several hours exploring.

Tavian marked promising outcrops with charcoal.

Luke identified stable paths where people could move safely.

Cienna warned them away from sections where the stone had fractured badly.

Mirelle collected small representative samples rather than whatever looked prettiest.

Aurelia found several stones that could potentially be polished into decorative pieces.

Seran somehow located an old animal trail that cut along the basin edge and offered easier access to one of the richer-looking ridges.

Auren paid attention to only one thing.

Getting there again.

He walked portions of the route on foot, studying slopes and openings.

By late afternoon, they gathered near the wagon.

Auren crouched and drew a rough route into the dirt with a stick.

"We wasted time coming in."

Lucien raised an eyebrow.

Auren pointed toward several bends.

"We crossed terrain I would avoid next time. This route is shorter."

"How much shorter?"

Auren considered.

"If the weather is good and we are not hauling heavy loads, several hours."

Tavian looked pleased.

"And if we are hauling ore?"

"Longer."

"Can the wagon handle it?"

Auren glanced toward the current wheels.

"Not much."

Tavian immediately looked toward the mineral basin.

Auren followed his gaze.

"Do not even think about replacing every piece with metal. The horse still has to pull it."

Tavian sighed.

Lucien smiled.

That was another problem they could solve later.

Better axles. Stronger fittings. Improved weight distribution. Perhaps eventually larger wagons or multiple carts.

First they had to mine anything worth transporting.

Lucien looked toward the basin.

The sunlight was already lowering behind the cliffs.

The exposed minerals caught the light differently now.

Copper-colored bands glowed faintly.

Pale crystals reflected gold.

Dark metallic seams disappeared into shadow.

The scale of the place became even more apparent.

They had barely examined the surface.

Everything beneath remained unknown.

Lucien felt something he had not expected.

Relief.

For weeks, every preparation had been constrained by scarcity.

Every improvement required deciding what they could afford to sacrifice elsewhere.

Now they had something different.

Potential.

They still needed labor, tools, knowledge, transport, and legal security eventually.

None of that diminished what lay before them.

This place could provide the metal for stronger tools, the fittings for better wagons, the heads for heavier weapons, and the components for machines Lucien had not even begun designing.

Some deposits could be sold.

Others could be refined.

A few might prove valuable enough to finance everything else.

Perhaps even his future journey.

Lucien crouched and picked up a dark stone streaked with metal.

Seran stood beside him.

"So this is what you brought us all the way out here for."

Lucien turned the stone in his hand.

"Part of it."

Seran looked amused.

"There is more?"

Lucien’s gaze moved across the mineral basin.