"A gold mine."
"...There's a gold mine here?"
At first, he could hardly believe it.
Gold had a great many uses in a world of magic, especially raw gold ore that had never been processed.
Gold coins were actually an alloy made by combining magic power with other metals, not completely pure gold.
Whenever unprocessed native gold was discovered, major powers such as the churches, the Mage Association, and the royal court would rush over to mine it and claim it for themselves.
The fundamental reason was that gold was the finest mundane metal available, whether for crafting the cores of puppets and magic arrays or serving as a material for other alchemical spells.
As for higher-grade materials like adamantine, mithril, orichalcum, and star iron...
Those were already considered magical metals, special substances found only in deposits brimming with magic power, far beyond the reach of ordinary people.
If Kroya had enough raw gold ore now, he could smelt it and start making golems and puppets of his own.
He still had bark from the Artificial Magic Tree, after all. Nothing could rival it as a material for puppet shells.
That was why the sight of gold had made him lose his composure.
"How much is there?"
Kroya drew a deep breath and placed his fingers directly on the ground. First, he moved all the ants aside, then began using Earth and Stone Shaping to push away the seabed silt.
As he poured in magic power at a furious rate, a pit was soon "dug" into the ground, revealing a strange, pitch-black strip of material inside.
"Hmm?" He frowned.
It looked like igneous rock formed from cooled volcanic lava. Its surface was riddled with irregularly scattered pores, with tiny flecks of gold faintly visible within.
Seeing this, he mused, "Could