Hen na Ryu to Moto Yuusha Party Zatsuyougakari, Shintairiku de Nonbiri Slow Life.

Chapter 65 – Gathering Iron

After rushing up the side of the cliff, Hippolius wagged its tail.

“Kyuo!”

Hippolius turned its head to look at me with a smug expression as I rode on its back.

“That was amazing, Hippolius.”
“Pii!”

Hippolius had moved so fast, that I would have been shaken off if I wasn’t holding on tight.
Even Pii was shocked.

‘Amazing? Hippolius is amazing?’
“Aye, you are. However, we might fall off if you move too quickly.”
“Kyuo…”
“But it was still impressive. You did well.”
‘Kyuo! I’ll be careful!’
“Aye. Especially when you are carrying Fio.”
‘Okay!’

I petted Hippolius on the back for some time, and then said,

“Alright, Hippolius. Head over in that direction.”
‘Okay!’

Hippolius was light on its feet. Even though the ground was rough and rocky.
After advancing for some time, we hit a steep rock wall.

“Hippolius, it’s in this area. Thank you.”
“Kyuo!”

I got off of Hippolius’s back and looked at our surroundings while scanning it with Appraisal.
Now that we were closer, the accuracy was much higher.

“I think the ore vein is deep in this wall.”

I could sense great quantities of resources there.
I was also detecting some below my feet, but it was mainly behind the wall.

And so I put my hand on it directly and used Appraisal.

“Hmm… I see.”
‘Is there iron?’
“Yes, there is iron as well.”
‘Amazing!’

There was iron, titanium, copper, zinc, aluminum, chrome, and nickel etcetera.
Not only that, but there was also mithril and orichalcum.

“An incredibly rich vein…”

There was more than enough to use at the base.

‘But how will you dig it up?’
“Indeed. Hippolius. Could you break the rocks around here?”

If the rocks leading to the ore vein were crushed, then I could extract it directly.
But if Hippolius could not do it, then I would have to think of a different way.

The quickest method to carve it away would be to activate the crafting skill while using the rock as materials.
However, it would deplete a lot of magic energy.
And so I would not be able to mine the metal at a fast pace.

That was why I asked Hippolius, but…
‘I can do it! Crush?’
Hippolius answered while wagging its tail.

“Just do as much as you can.”
‘Okay!’

After that, I told Hippolius the precise areas that I wanted crushed.

And then Hippolius started to cry, ‘Kyuo!!’
At the same time, its horns began to glow. Brighter and brighter…

And then when it was blindingly bright…
“Kyuo!”
A magic bullet shot out from Hippolius’s horns.

—Dodododododo!!

One after another, the powerful bullets were shot into the rock.
The rocks exploded so that the pieces flew in every direction.

‘Should I crush a little more?’
“That’s fine for now. It reached the ore vein. Thank you.”

I said as I petted Hippolius.

“Kyuo!”

Hippolius wagged its tail happily.
Even for Hippolius, it was not something easy to unleash.

And to show my appreciation, I took out some water and meat from my magic bag and put it on a plate.
And then I placed it in front of Hippolius.

“Hippolius. You should eat this and rest for a while.”
‘Okay! Thank you.’
“Sorry that it’s not much.”
‘It’s fine! It tastes delicious!’

Hippolius ate the meat slowly as if savoring the taste, and then drank the water.
And then I gave some meat to Pii as well.

After that, I put Pii on my shoulder and got to work.

“Still, this really is an impressive ore vein.”

Within the rock, there were layers that contained a lot of iron and layers that contained a lot of silicon.
And by using the layers with iron as materials, and activating the crafting skill, I could extract the iron.
I could then turn them into ingots.

“In order to do that…”

First, I carefully used Appraisal on the layers that were rich with iron.
This meant thoroughly memorizing their composition.
And then I visualized an iron ingot.
As the structure was simple, this part was easy.
In such cases, appraising the materials was much more important.

Once preparations were finished, I activated the crafting skill all at once.

“Kyuo!”
“Pii!”

The iron ingots were crafted rapidly, and piled up.
Upon seeing this, Hippolius and Pii raised their voices in surprise.

I continued to craft the iron ingots until I had gathered enough iron.

“While that is enough iron… I would like to gather some of the other metals as well.”
‘Should Hippolius crush the rocks?’
“That would help, but… Do you have enough magic energy left?”
‘Yes!’
“Are you sure?”
‘Yes!’
“Since we have iron, we can just come back another day.”
‘Hippolius is fine!’

Hippolius said with an energetic wag of its tail.
Apparently, it was rather excited.

“Alright, I’ll ask you to do it then!”
“Kyuo!”

And so we continued to gather more metal.