When a vein was mined to exhaustion, they would resume prospecting elsewhere.
"Take a look at this ore. It's my first time seeing it—does anyone know what it is?" Sandman exerted only a little force. The bulging veins and muscles in his arm generated tremendous strength, crushing the palm-sized black ore in his hand into several pieces, which he handed to the others.
"Judging by the color, it looks like tungsten ore, but tungsten ore is much harder than this."
"It isn't Black Manganese Ore either..."
The black ore passed through the hands of more than a dozen people, but no one could determine what kind of ore it was.
For the people of Lycaeus, who made their living mining, this was utterly absurd.
"This appears to be Black Orichalcum Ore. Black Orichalcum is an exceedingly rare mineral. Its properties vary depending on the elements within it, so it is easily mistaken for Pyrolusite." Korax studied it for quite some time before giving his answer.
"Judging from this Black Orichalcum Ore's properties, it should be an excellent shielding material. It can effectively counter all kinds of energy-pulse bombs and Psychic Power surveillance, while its energy conductivity is also outstanding. Other than being scarce, it has no flaws. A single planet might not even yield ten tons—and note that I mean raw ore," Korax said.
"This stuff is scarce?" Sandman's expression immediately became incredibly strange upon hearing Korax's description.
He had used the detector to scan all the way into Tunnel 13, walking at least several hundred meters. The readings had been the same throughout. During excavation, they had visibly dug through no less than five meters before reaching the Adamantite Ore, and that did not even include the unexplored sections farther within the tunnels.
"The tunnel I entered has at least five meters of Black Orichalcum Ore wrapped around an Adamantite Vein," Sandman revealed.
"Ah, is that true?" Korax was stunned as well. By his estimate, that area possessed reserves of no less than a hundred tons. And that was merely a rough calculation based on the lowest estimate of five meters deep in the area Sandman had traversed.
"Boss, this ore is even rarer than adamantium." The companions immediately began discussing it all at once.
"Arendi, personally oversee the development of Tunnel 13 from now on. We can't hand this Black Orichalcum over to slave masters who don't know its value. Find a large area in the abandoned tunnels and store it there. This stuff will have great use in the future," Sandman ordered.
Even professional miners could not identify it. If they brought it to those slave masters to exchange for supplies, it would only be treated as Pyrolusite.
Sandman swiftly realized the true value of this material. It was far rarer than Korax had described. For instance, mixing the ashes of the Soulless with this metal, along with other materials, could create laboratories or cells capable of isolating the Warp.
It could also be combined with Soulless ashes in specific proportions to produce Anti-Psionic Shells or Psionic Annihilation Shells.
Not to mention that metal extracted from this ore could be used in Raven Guard Power Armor to further enhance their already absurd stealth capabilities.
The Raven Guard could already wear Terminator armor and Centurion Warsuits while sneaking around. With this, wouldn't they be able to stealthily operate Dreadnoughts or Knights?
After all, there was a world of difference between a squad of Raven Guard in ordinary Power Armor emerging from the shadow beneath a tree and a squad of Raven Guard in Terminator armor or Dreadnoughts emerging from it.
This was ridiculous.
Sandman thought in disbelief.
Although the Raven Guard had little renown among the twenty Legions and their battle record was not particularly impressive, that was because, for strategic reasons, much of the Raven Guard's battle information had never been made public and had remained classified.
In Sandman's view, the Raven Guard's capabilities were exceptional among the Legions. If the Raven King had not returned to the Imperium so recently, and if Horus's betrayal had not come so violently, the Raven Guard would definitely have ranked among the very best.
The fact that three thousand of them escaped the encirclement of eight Legions during the Istvaan V Landing Massacre already said everything. The Iron Hands and Salamanders had not gotten many people out at all.
If it had been any other Legion, probably no Primarch would dare claim that his Legion could achieve that much, let alone do better than the Raven Guard.
For all those reasons, Sandman absolutely would not allow these precious minerals to be taken away as ordinary Pyrolusite.
"Wait, Korax is the Raven Guard's Primarch. Why am I worrying about this?" Sandman suddenly came to his senses.
The actual Primarch was right here.
"Could it be that Korax is the Legion's champion, while I'm the—" Sandman looked at Korax and recalled the venom-spitting mouth Khan had displayed when facing his brother Mortarion.
"Let the true master of the Legion come out and face me!"
Saying that to a Primarch was the greatest humiliation imaginable for a master of a Legion bound together by genes.
"Korax, how do you think we should handle this Black Orichalcum Ore?" Sandman unexpectedly asked the young Primarch.
"Ah... Boss, didn't you say we should just find a place to store it separately?" Korax had not expected Sandman to suddenly ask him.
The problem was that he had not considered it at all. After all, he had only just arrived.
"Mm, then how do you want to make use of these precious minerals?" Clearly, Sandman did not intend to let Korax off that easily.
You were a Primarch who would one day shoulder the task of reviving all humanity. How could you be so slacking?!
"Um... Boss, Korax hasn't even been here for a full day since his arrival. It seems you're being a little hasty..." Arendi reminded his boss helplessly from the side.
"Ah, right. Korax hasn't even been here a full day..." Sandman came to his senses as well. Primarchs might be freaks among freaks, but they could not create something from nothing.
"With our current conditions, these minerals cannot be put to much use. I need a detailed understanding of the resources and equipment already available in the camp." Korax had many possible uses for this ore in mind, but his answer was highly practical.
"Fine, we'll call it here for today. Let's head back first. Tomorrow, we'll begin arranging people to excavate these two tunnels." Seeing the time, Sandman, who had spent the entire day running around, could only wait until tomorrow.
As the companions taking over the shift began to arrive, Arendi completed the handover with the Agapito Brothers. The miners from this shift then rode the cramped ore transport carts back to the surface.
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