Career Experience at Aukin Mine

Facing the swirling yellow sand, it wasn't long before Bell and his two companions flew over the mine.

The mine was also surrounded by a large Defense Barrier, but it was just a very ordinary Defense Barrier, its only purpose being to block sand and dust.

At the entrance to the Defense Barrier, two specially enhanced Philosopher's Stone stood guard. Upon seeing Bell and his companions land, the statues emitted a beam of blue light from their eyes, sweeping over the three before returning to standby mode.

Strictly speaking, Mars should be very safe. It will not face invasion from external enemies, and so far no signs of other life have been found.

But as the saying goes, it's better to be safe than sorry. Anyway, these specially made battle statues are not for sale, and they'd just gather dust in the castle anyway, so it's better to bring them here to make a good impression.

Upon entering the mine, the sounds of clanging and hammering echoed constantly. Looking around, one could see many Philosopher's Stone being struck on the ground or mountain walls.

Every now and then, stones would be knocked down. At this time, the wizard or House-elf controlling the statue would step forward and sift through the stones to find the Aukin Ore.

Although the Philosopher's Stone can strike rocks autonomously, their intelligence is limited to distinguishing between sand and stones; they are completely incapable of accurately selecting Aukin Ore from a pile of rocks. Otherwise, there would be no need to worry about manpower.

Furthermore, because the concentration of magic in the Mars atmosphere is much lower than on Earth, the statues must return to the base to recharge every so often. This significantly reduces the speed of ore mining.

The wizards and House-elf working in the mine had already learned that Bell and his companions had arrived on Mars the day before, so no one was surprised to see them enter the mine, and no one left their posts.

However, the House-elf were far more excited than the wizards. The little creatures shouted and urged the statues to speed up the mining process, afraid of losing to the others in front of Bell.

Unfortunately, the Philosopher's Stone couldn't understand what they were shouting. Each one tilted its stone head, looking at its controller with confusion.

Seeing that the Philosopher's Stone could be played with in this way, Shanna felt like she had learned something new.

The little girl shouted and yelled as she snatched control of the statue from the House-elf closest to the three of them, happily experiencing the life of a miner.

Seeing the pitiful look in the eyes of the House-elf whose statue had been stolen, Bell smiled and waved his hand, indicating that the other party could rest for a while and not to worry about it.

Although Hermione saw the Philosopher's Stone every day, she had never controlled one before. Seeing Shanna having so much fun made her very envious. However, she was too shy to directly try and take control of the statues.

Of course, the main reason is also because she couldn't take it.

Fortunately, Bell noticed his girlfriend's gaze. Before Hermione could speak, he waved his hand, obtained a stone statue from another wizard, and gave it to Hermione to play with.

"Bell, how do we tell which one is the Arcanite?"

Hermione looked at the scattered pebbles at her feet and was in a dilemma.

She only learned about Arcanite, a newly discovered metal on Mars, after arriving here yesterday. Aside from some information about Arcanite's properties from Bell, she knew nothing about the Aukin Ore.

Seeing that a small pile of Aukin Ore had already accumulated around Shanna in just a short while, Hermione was getting anxious. She hadn't found a single piece yet.

After scanning the rubble at Hermione's feet, Bell reached out and gently beckoned, and a piece of ore flew into his hand.

"If you are familiar enough with Aukin Ore, you can distinguish it by its color. Compared to ordinary stones, Aukin Ore is more reddish in color."

However, for beginners, it's very difficult to distinguish them simply by color. That's when they need to use magic to sense them.

Infuse the stone with magic and feel the magic flow within it. The higher the content of arcane in the Arcanite, the smoother the flow of magic.

However, if it's just ordinary rock, then the flow of magic will feel sluggish.

As he spoke, Bell infused a tiny amount of magic into the ore in his hand and demonstrated it to Hermione.

"But Bell, how am I supposed to know what kind of feeling constitutes stagnation?"

Hermione looked at Bell in bewilderment, still feeling at a loss.

"We've also Transfiguration stones during our Transfiguration Class, so you should know what it feels like to infuse magic into rocks that contain absolutely no magical components, right?"

"Bell asked."

However, when Bell saw Hermione's bewildered look, Bell knew he was overthinking things.

On Earth, apart from Mithril, which is made by Goblin, there are no other magical metals.

Bell usually uses ordinary metals to make magical items. Only when making high-quality items will he add a small amount of Mithril.

As for magical items like the Thousand Changes, which are made primarily of Mithril, nothing but the word "wasteful" can adequately describe Bell's behavior.

Therefore, although Hermione often came into contact with magical metals (magical items given to her by Bell) without her even knowing it, she never used Transfiguration on magical metals.

Therefore, it's perfectly normal for Hermione to feel confused.

After thinking for a moment, Bell decided it was best to keep things simple and direct. After all, she could tell from the glances Hermione kept giving Shanna that time was of the essence.

By pressing his Wand against his temple, Bell copied a memory from his mind.

"Stay put and don't move."

With that, Bell sent his memories into Hermione's mind.

After receiving Bell's memories, Hermione closed her eyes and sensed them for a while, then understood the difference in feeling Bell had mentioned earlier. She immediately bent down and pointed her Wand at the pebbles on the ground one by one.

(To distinguish Aukin Ore by color requires more experience. Even if Bell copied his relevant memories to Hermione, Hermione would still need a long time to digest and absorb them.)

Incidentally, Bell and Shanna's ability to distinguish between Aukin Ore and ordinary rock at a glance was also due to their absorption of other people's memories.

One can identify Aukin Ore at a glance, while the other needs to use magic to sense each one individually. Naturally, the latter's efficiency is incomparable to the former. Not to mention, Shanna controls five statues, while Hermione only has one.

Even knowing that she was doomed to lose, Hermione did not give up and instead carefully sifted through the rocks on the ground.