Copper Mine

Parisben, mounted on his horse, introduced the area to Victor: "This is it, Your Excellency. This is the only large forest area near Blue Lake. It's quite vast, and we explored it extensively beforehand."

It must be at least a thousand square kilometers, but because the forest was too dense and it was already winter, we didn't go any further.

I heard from the captured slaves of the Blazing Fire Tribe that there are large wild beasts like bears and wolves here, and that there are also deer and sheep.

However, our exploration team had never seen any of them; they only caught a few Glowing-Eyed Rabbit and roe deer.

Victor looked at the forest in front of him. According to the data from Parisben, it was normal to have some wolves and bears in a forest of thousands of square kilometers, since such animals also exist on the grasslands.

However, there probably aren't any larger or more ferocious ones, since this forest is too small to meet the survival needs of large predators.

He had also heard Marcus say that in the Black Forest, which is connected to the Frost Tear Mountains, there is a kind of super-sized brown bear, each of which is enormous and weighs two or three tons.

They are the absolute overlords of the entire Frost Tear Mountains, but their numbers are relatively small.

The Black Pine family had encountered two before, but all their attempts to capture them failed. One of the Viscount Black Pine led his private army to capture one, but the beast pierced through the group of over a hundred men, resulting in the deaths and injuries of most of them.

Later, the Black Pine family simply established the Night Owl Unit, mainly to drive away and lure these beasts. Initially, the Night Owl Unit was not used for combat, but its tactics gradually changed with the invasion of Barbarians.

Victor was eager to see this beast for himself, after all, Marcus's claims were hard to believe.

It seemed we were getting a bit off-topic, so Victor quickly shook his head and focused his attention on the forest in front of him.

This place isn't very close to the Blue Lake Bay Outpost; it's about ten kilometers away. This forest looks quite nice.

Large trees are everywhere, and it is estimated that the wood in the old camp of the Blazing Fire Tribe was taken from here. Moreover, the Blazing Fire Tribe is very restrained in its development here.

Most of the small trees were about the thickness of two fists, and the tallest and largest trees, as Victor could see with the naked eye, were so large that it would take two or three people to encircle them.

Victor stroked his chin thoughtfully, thinking that if they planned ahead, they could replant trees while cutting down the forest.

Under normal circumstances, it can fully supply the needs of a settlement of tens of thousands of people without affecting the size of the forest itself.

This forest can play a significant role in the future development of the entire Blue Lake Region.

Next, Parisben led Victor around the edge of the forest a few times and spotted a few roe deer. However, the roe deer were very wary and ran away as soon as they saw people approaching.

"What a pity. We should have brought some ropes to set up some traps and caught a few roe deer. That way, Viscount, you could have tasted the roe deer here. They're quite delicious."

Victor replied with a smile, "It's alright. After the Civil War ends, I'll probably come here often, and I'll have plenty of opportunities to enjoy the wild game here."

It seems that the forest here has been extensively developed by the Blazing Fire Tribe. Just by looking at the wary roe deer in front of them, you can tell that they often encounter humans.

After wandering around the forest for a while without finding anything noteworthy, Victor stopped exploring.

"Parisben, you can explore again after spring, focusing on finding some strange and unusual plants and animals. We'll stop here for now."

"Yes, Your Excellency, where shall we go next?"

"Hmm, is there still enough time? Is it enough for us to return to the outpost?"

Parisben looked up at the direction of the Sun and estimated the time of Sun.

"We'll make it, Your Excellency. It's the same direction we're heading back anyway. Aside from having to take a detour, it's all on the way."

"Okay, then just lead the way!"

Following Victor's orders, Parisben stepped to the front of the group and began to lead the way.

The place they were going to was a peculiar place that the outpost soldiers had accidentally discovered while herding livestock. They had asked the slaves of the Blazing Fire Tribe, and they learned that this place used to be a forbidden area for the Blazing Fire Tribe, where ordinary tribesmen were not allowed to approach.

After Parisben finished explaining things to Victor became curious and wanted to see for himself.

When the group arrived at their destination, what met Victor's eyes was a hilly area with jagged rocks.

Huge, oddly shaped rocks emerged from the snow, light red in color, somewhat resembling the rocks found at the iron mine.

Victor initially thought it might be another hematite vein similar to the one at the Iron Mountain.

However, after observing carefully for a while, he showed a delighted expression and immediately dismounted.

They walked up to a rock, brushed away the snow covering it, and saw their lord doing just that.

The guards behind Victor quickly dismounted and, using their hands or tools, began clearing the snow off the rocks around Victor.

Once the entire rock was cleared away, Victor saw every detail of the boulder before him. The stone was still reddish-brown, but there seemed to be some reddish metal in the cracks.

"It is indeed light-colored sandstone, and there is a large amount of natural copper. This is a natural copper mine."

Victor looked excited. Copper mines were very important. The territory alone had already built generators, and the role of copper was becoming increasingly important.

Previously, the copper in Two Rivers Territory could only be purchased from other places, and the purchase volume was very large. If it weren't for Alex's help, the copper available on the market would not have been enough to meet the needs of Two Rivers Territory.

The discovery of this copper mine has truly solved a major problem.

"I've heard that there are many copper mines on the grasslands, and today I finally see them for myself."

Victor looked at the hills in front of him and judged by sight that this copper mine was a rich mine.

He knew that many tribes on the grasslands had the technology to smelt bronze, and there must be a lot of copper mines. He had considered it before, but never had the opportunity. He never expected to find it by chance.