Return and Aside

William looked with a wry smile at these fellows, who had been blinded by the temptation of adamantine and were now pulling out all the stops with both "coercion and inducement." Truly, wealth moves the heart; even the "loyal and honest" dwarves could not resist it—or perhaps they had no resistance to begin with. Was the allure of adamantine really that great?

William remained noncommittal toward Sunderland's flattery and overtures. In truth, he did not want to hand over this piece of adamantine; his Yanling Saber depended entirely on it. Furthermore, Phinia's Frost Giant Axe had been damaged by him, and after accounting for the material needed for his blade, the remaining adamantine should be enough to forge a new battle axe for the half-giantess.

William shouted several times to stop the four from arguing, then said with a fake smile, "Have you all forgotten how this piece of adamantine came to be here?" He gestured toward the cave. "The kobolds couldn't possibly have carried it in from somewhere else themselves, could they?"

The four were stunned for a moment, their gazes shifting dully toward the kobold cave following William's finger. "By the gods! By Aerefen (the goddess of elven grace and thieves)! Could this be an adamantine vein?!" "Oh! Damn it! Those hell-bound vermin! We might be rich! Hahaha!" The four "greedy" souls cheered and ran into the cave, launching an "assault" on the stone walls.

Singers' pickaxe, Torg's warhammer, Aelf's elven rapier—Sunderland could no longer bother to hide her identity as a mage. She pulled out an ancient spellbook and converted her fifth-level spell slot into [Transmute Rock to Mud], unleashing it at the stone wall. The fifth-level arcane spell, which could normally affect two 12-foot cubic areas, had its effectiveness reduced by three-quarters due to the iron ore within the wall. Two mixed flows of sand and stone poured down instantly, leaving two pits over three feet deep in the wall.

Having buffed herself with [Bull's Strength], [Cat's Grace], [Owl's Wisdom], and [Darkvision], Sunderland looked exactly like a scavenger rummaging through a trash heap, sifting through the sand and stone for adamantine. The dwarves' torches nearby caused significant visual interference, forcing the archmage to cancel her [Darkvision] and instead cast two [Light] spells on either side of her for illumination. A flash of violet-blue light crossed her pupils as she pushed aside the surrounding ore and sand; an egg-sized piece of adamantine appeared before her. She held the "treasure" high and laughed loudly, and soon after, the archmage found two smaller pieces of adamantine.

Sunderland's harvest completely stimulated the other three diggers, and they "attacked" the stone wall even more frantically. Unfortunately, things did not go as planned; the two dwarves found nothing else even until they were exhausted. Aelf fared even worse, "stealing a chicken only to lose the rice"—her slender elven rapier not only failed to affect the wall but snapped in two from the force. The little one ran back to William with a mournful face, hugging her beloved weapon and grieving alongside Phinia, who was herself "saddened and heartbroken" over her own broken axe.

Singers and Torg helplessly gave up their futile, blind efforts, and Sunderland, having exhausted her [Transmute Rock to Mud] spell, also stopped rummaging through the sand piles she had already searched several times with satisfaction. Although the adamantine harvested was not much (excluding William's share), being able to prove that this was an adamantine-associated vein was a monumental piece of good news. The group began a heated debate over the ownership of the vein.

As an outsider, William wisely announced that his family of three would waive their claim to the vein's distribution; he did not want to be tied down to a small place like Mirabar. Aelf also reluctantly withdrew from the contention. As compensation, the elf received the dwarf's fist-sized piece and Sunderland's egg-sized piece as hush money, while the two smaller pieces of adamantine remaining with Sunderland went to William's trio. The work of forging the adamantine weapons would be handled by Singers and Torg, while the flux would be provided by Sunderland.

In principle, Sunderland, Singers, and Torg would each occupy a thirty percent share of the vein, with the remaining ten percent to be handed over to the Glimmerstone Council as taxes. Of course, if the Council did not notice, this ten percent would serve as a source for public expenditures.

As for the lord's decrees, "If capital has fifty percent profit, it will take risks; if it has one hundred percent profit, it will dare to trample on all human laws; if it has three hundred percent profit, it will dare to commit any crime, even at the risk of being hanged." This saying by the Great God Ma held true even in this other world, especially for a business that was almost entirely profit with no cost.

Filled with the excitement of their newfound treasure, the group sealed the entrance to the cave and then thoroughly cleared out the monsters in the vicinity. The two Carrion Worms that had luckily survived the previous days did not escape the "poisonous hands" of the group either, and were wiped out along with their nest by William and the others. Before leaving, Sunderland, having recovered her spell slots, cast [Transmute Mud to Rock] on the rubble at the entrance, completely sealing off the kobold lair and concealing it with magic.

The originally dull return journey became lighthearted due to the unexpected harvest, even though the gloomy and dark underground world always filled one's mood with oppression and darkness. When they returned to the surface and looked at the vast sky, everyone felt a sense of relief. William felt his whole being brighten up, the little girl shouted and cheered with excitement, and Phinia's disappointment over her damaged weapon eased slightly. The silly girl remained hung up on the destruction of her Frost Giant Axe, and even William's promise to recast a new adamantine battle axe for her could not diminish the half-giantess's sorrow, which caused the man who was the culprit great distress.

With the adamantine available for forging, William began to learn dwarven smithing techniques from old Singers. In reality, most of the smelting technology across Faerun was still in the ancient "bloomery" stage. Because dwarves were naturally strong and obsessed with forging, they could almost all, whether consciously or unconsciously, forge relatively high-quality hundred-refined steel. Of course, there were occasionally master-level figures who mastered "puddling" or "ingot-casting" smelting techniques, but these masters rarely passed on the secret skills they had explored over hundreds of years to others, including their own kin and disciples.

This was not because the dwarves were stingy; they hoped that their young children would discover these secrets for themselves later in life. Being able to discover new metal smelting techniques was the greatest affirmation and motivation for a dwarven craftsman. The older generation of dwarves did not want to deprive young dwarven smiths of that joy; they were happy to watch from the sidelines as their children shouted with excitement upon "inventing a new smelting method." Although the dwarves' intentions were good, this behavior indeed hindered the development of smelting levels across all of Faerun.

Of course, in certain mysterious wizard towers, metal smelting technology had reached the level of atomic manipulation, but this could not fundamentally solve the overall backward state of smelting technology in the world.

Moreover, compared to improving smelting technology, most blacksmiths preferred to find superior metal materials, such as adamantine, mithral, or Cold Star Iron, which allowed them to create unimaginable divine weapons with very little effort—provided one could handle these special "treasures."

This situation was also evident in other fields. Take martial arts, for example: the improvement of martial skill levels was mutual. Between two hostile individuals, if one gained an advantage by studying combat techniques, the other would be at a disadvantage. To recover, the latter would work harder to improve their martial arts or even surpass their opponent, and the first person, in order to regain their original advantage, would certainly find ways to improve their skills again. This cycle was the most direct reason for the improvement of martial arts levels.

The main enemies of warriors in Faerun were the monsters found everywhere. Among all monsters, humanoid creatures like Goblins, kobolds, and Gnolls, which were similar in size to humans or smaller, were generally in a primitive and barbaric state. Human warriors did not need to study any combat techniques when facing them; as long as they wore decent armor and had some combat experience, they could defeat or even crush them without needing any technique at all.

As for large monsters like Ogres and Trolls, which relied on "one force overcoming ten techniques," no amount of exquisite martial arts study would be useful in the short term. Utilizing clever tactical coordination or simpler, more direct tactics—such as using magical power, whether through direct damage spells or auxiliary spells to boost stats—was far more effective and much less troublesome than spending years or even decades studying martial arts.

In fact, as long as they received careful cultivation, most ordinary people in Faerun had the aptitude and talent to become spellcasters, provided they were not too dim-witted. The Weave treated everyone fairly; aside from the obstacles and restrictions intentionally set by the Goddess of Magic, the real factor constraining one from becoming a spellcaster was the issue of resources. The resource consumption during the growth process of every spellcaster was extremely staggering.

To use a more sociological term, "productive forces determine the relations of production." Due to the low level of social production, the social resources available to support the growth of spellcasters were limited. Therefore, to make the best use of these limited resources, elite education was absolutely essential. Only those with outstanding talent or extreme luck were qualified to grow into powerful spellcasters.

Under normal circumstances, a successful mage would spend most of their time in their own wizard tower or laboratory, researching arcane arts or the principles and knowledge of other mysterious fields, occasionally traveling to some location or other planes due to some need or interest. However, most spellcasters were in a state of poverty during the early stages of their growth. Even if their family were wealthy nobles, it was difficult to bear the consumption during the period of magical study. Therefore, young spellcasters had to go out and adventure to obtain the resources they needed, while others would attach themselves to some major power to gain resource support.

Sunderland was a young mage semi-attached to the city of Mirabar. She secretly provided some spell services to Lord Larim, such as using [Suggestion] to influence the resolutions of certain councilors. As for whether she had used spells to influence the foolish Lord himself, that was hard to say.