It took Hoppes a full ten days to lay the long nails for climbing to a spot about a person's height above the vein.
But at this point, he was stuck, unable to climb any further.
For some reason, the rock wall had become extremely sturdy, and even the nails made of fine steel couldn't penetrate it. He hammered for a long time with a small iron hammer, and sparks flew everywhere. In the end, even the tip of the long nail was blunt, and it only created a dent no deeper than half a finger joint.
"Could it be that we've already reached the mithril ore layer?" Sid said when he mentioned this during dinner. "It's rare to see such a hard rock, but it wouldn't be strange if it's mithril ore."
Hoppes shook his head. "I managed to chisel out a piece of rock, and I came back to take a closer look. It's either mithril ore or a rock, but it's surprisingly hard."
"How can an ordinary rock be so hard?" Dudu came over curiously. "Such a hard rock usually appears deep underground. It shouldn't appear here."
"Who knows …" Hoppes let out a sigh. "In any case, I can't think of any ideas now and can only slowly work on it. I don't know if the mineral vein on the cliff is worth spending so much time and effort on."
"Do you have the sample with you? Let me see, "Dudu said." When it comes to rocks, I'm an expert! "
He wasn't bragging. As the Dwarf Kingdom excavated underground all year round, their understanding of all kinds of rocks was unparalleled in the world. As a member of the royal family of the Dwarf Kingdom, Dudu Hill was indeed an expert in all kinds of rocks and ores. In fact, he was the only one in the exploration team who could distinguish between innate mithril and acquired mithril. But he had no interest in this job. Otherwise, he wouldn't have needed to find an appraisal master …
Hoppes, of course, had the rocks with him, so he immediately took out one.
Du Du took the stone and frowned as soon as he saw it, revealing a look of surprise.
"Hmm?" He exclaimed in a low voice, turning the small stone over and over, studying it carefully for a while. His frown deepened. "Bedrock? Did I see wrongly? This shouldn't appear here … "
"Bedrock? What's that? Is it very rare? "Hoppes asked curiously.
Du Du shook his head. "It's not that it's rare, but it shouldn't appear on the surface."
"What exactly is it?" Ruby came over and asked. "If you're interested, tell us more about it."
"Of course. Speaking of bedrock, we have to talk about the structure of the earth in the main plane … Generally speaking, the earth under our feet is divided into several layers. First, there was the soil layer. Below the soil layer was the rock layer. Below the rock layer, there was usually scarlet hot magma. Most of the time, the exploration ended there, because it was very difficult to go down to the bottom of the magma. However, if he was lucky, he would occasionally encounter a situation where there was no lava. If you go down from there, you will see the bedrock. It is very sturdy, and sparks will fly when you hit it with the pickaxe. You will need to use all your strength to dig out a little bit of it. " Du Du explained in detail, then took a sip of wine and said, "Although I have never been below the magma layer, I have seen bedrock in the museum that collects ores. It feels like this."
Hoppes nodded and asked curiously, "Then what's the use of this bedrock?"
Du Du thought for a moment and asked, "Do you think it has any use?"
"… It's very sturdy. It will definitely be very suitable to be used to build a fortress."
Du Du laughed loudly. "Haha! For a strong person who can dig out bedrock to build a fortress, if he doesn't go and beat up others, they would be thankful. Who would dare to provoke him? "
Hoppes thought about it and felt that this was indeed the case. The bedrock was ridiculously hard. He had spent a lot of effort to dig out just that little bit. If someone could dig out a large amount of bedrock and use it to build a fortress, then this person's abilities would be beyond imagination. Who would dare to provoke such a strong person?
With this interruption, he forgot to ask what other uses the bedrock had.
After dinner, everyone went to rest, but Sid came to Du Du's tent.
"What's the use of bedrock?" he asked directly.
Du Du was silent.
"It's not an ordinary thing, right?" Sid continued to ask.
Du Du did not say a word.
"This thing … should have a very special use. Not only special, but also important. That's why you lost your composure when you saw it, "Sid said. "To be able to make you show such an expression, it's definitely not an ordinary rock."
Du Du did not speak.
"Forget it if you don't want to say." Sid sighed. "But I advise you to think about it carefully. After all, such a large piece of bedrock is there. Who knows, someone might have designs on them. If they figure something out, it'll be even worse. "
Du Du's expression finally changed. He thought for a while and said, "Get Hoppes and Ruby here. They need to know about this as well."
After a while, Hoppes and Ruby, who had received Sid's summons, came over quietly. Because Sid had especially emphasized the need to keep it a secret, they all tiptoed and did not even make a slightly louder sound.
After the four of them gathered in Du Du's tent, Du Du took out a magic scroll and activated it. A circle of blue light shrouded the surrounding space, covering the four of them inside.
"Now we can talk without worry." He seemed to be a little more relaxed. "We don't need to worry about being eavesdropped or anything."
"That rock called bedrock, is it really that important?" Sid asked.
"If you want to know the truth, you need to swear an oath first." Du Du did not answer the question. "Swear to the gods you believe in to keep the secret. If you break the oath, you won't be able to go to the Kingdom of God after death and will fall into hell. "
Sid, Hoppes, and Ruby looked at each other. After a while, Ruby shook her head and said, "I won't make this kind of oath. I don't want to know any secrets either. You guys take your time to talk. I'm going back to sleep. I'll pretend tonight's incident never happened. No matter who asks, I'll tell you that I've been sleeping all night and didn't go anywhere. "
As he spoke, he turned and walked out of the tent, not coming back.
Sid and Hoppes looked at each other, hesitated for a while, and then each swore an oath.
After they swore, Du Du, who had seemed nervous all this while, finally relaxed and smiled.
"Since you've all swore, I can tell you this secret," he said. "I didn't lie about the origin of the bedrock. But the use of this thing … I didn't tell you during dinner. "
"Yes, that's why I came back to ask you," Sid said.
"Actually, I really don't want to tell you guys. And this kind of thing … Even if you guys know, there might not be any benefits …" Du Du explained. Looking at his expression, he probably wanted to try one last time.
Hoppes sighed. "Dudu, can you stop being so wishy-washy and dragging your feet? Hurry up and finish. We still have to go back to sleep. We still have work tomorrow! "
Du Du laughed bitterly and said, "The bedrock is a new type of weapon material that our Dwarf Kingdom is researching."
"What weapon?" Sid asked.
"Explosives."
Hearing Du Du's words, Sid and Hoppes were still confused. The jellyfish who had been eavesdropping in the air staggered and almost fell.
Explosives?!
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