Chapter 233: The Truth About Dornheim Ore

Three days had passed since the completion of the main construction work.

​The weather remained dry, and the forest silence around the camp was constantly broken by unfamiliar footsteps. Noah was walking slowly along a familiar trail, doing his usual patrol of the territory, when strangers loomed ahead once again. It was another group of adventurers.

​Spotting them, Noah stopped, crossed his arms over his chest, and asked wearily:

"Are you here about the green crystal too?"

The adventurers visibly flinched at his sudden appearance. Exchanging glances, one of them stepped forward and replied uncertainly:

"Uh... well yeah, we're here about that. You haven't seen it by any chance, have you?"

​Noah measured the group with a heavy glare from head to toe and let out a heavy sigh:

"No. It's not here. And you're the tenth group today to ask me this stupid question. Could you all just stop coming here?"

"What do you mean, stop?" the adventurer bristled, trying to inject some confidence into his voice. "The guild sent us here! They said there is definitely a rare green crystal in this vicinity, and we intend to find it and take it!"

"I already told you: there's nothing here. So get out of here."

The adventurers instantly broke into a cold sweat, their legs turned to jelly, and their faces twisted in terror. Stumbling and nearly knocking each other over, the adventurers fled in a panic.

​At that exact moment, a shadowfang lurking in the bushes to Noah's right silently darted out.

Noah immediately snatched the sword from his belt and hurled it to the side. The blade pierced straight through the monster in mid-air, pinning the beast to a thick tree trunk.

​Noah unhurriedly walked over to the dead beast, easily yanked the sword out of the wood, wiped the blade, and returned it to its scabbard. After that, he picked up the previously chopped branches and deadwood and headed toward the camp.

​A few minutes later, Noah emerged into the settlement and dumped the gathered wood in the central plaza—right into the communal pile of logs.

​Brushing the splinters off his hands, he looked up at the Main Building and froze for a moment. All the side passages, window openings, and sections of the dome were now completely fitted with glass. The transparent surfaces perfectly reflected the sun's rays and the greenery of the forest.

​Noah headed toward the massive doors of the central sector just to take a look inside.

​Noah pushed the door open and stepped into the Central sector. Looking around the bright hall, he walked past the two symmetrical staircases and headed straight for the central door.

​Opening it, Noah crossed the threshold—and froze.

​In the middle of the spacious room, Iron sat behind a massive semicircular desk. He was leaning back in his swivel chair, his arms hanging loosely at his sides and his head tilted back, staring at the ceiling with an unblinking gaze. He looked utterly exhausted and drained.

​"You look awful," Noah said, taking a couple of steps forward.

​After a pause, Iron asked quietly, without taking his eyes off the ceiling:

​"Do you remember our tower in Dornheim...? The twenty-eight-meter one?"

​"Of course I remember," Noah grunted.

​"And did you notice how the color of the alloy changed?" Iron continued. "At first, the ore had a rich, deep midnight-blue tint, but when we finished the work, it turned purple."

​"Are you just noticing this now?"

​"I always looked at the ore through the eyes of an engineer," Iron exhaled and finally straightened up in his chair, staring right at him. "I cared about the crystal lattice, density, and structure of the material, not its color. But when I recently teleported to Dornheim... I saw with my own eyes that it's mostly purple now. And also, that tower is the only structure that hasn't collapsed."

​"So what?" Noah shrugged.

​Iron leaned forward, resting his elbows on the desk. His voice sounded stern and restrained:

"This ore possesses a unique ability to undergo spontaneous structural adaptation. In simple terms, the metal evolves over time, drastically improving its properties. If my calculations are correct—and they are—then we are looking at the most valuable resource I have ever encountered."

​"So it gets stronger over time?" Noah caught the gist.

​"It's not just about becoming stronger," Iron shook his head. "The metal fundamentally changes its properties. That is exactly why I'm telling you this right now."

​"And here I was wondering why those kings wanted that mine so badly," Iron said with a slight chuckle. "We need to take the entire mine under our control immediately. Otherwise, in the future, we will face a problem that won't be easily solved by force."

​"Let's start right now then," Noah said.

​"We could," Iron slowly rose from his chair and glanced at his prosthetic. "But first, I'd like to get my biological arm back. And for that very reason, I'm going to need your powers and Elyria's."

​Noah instantly tensed up and took a step back:

​"What are you talking about? I'm not becoming a guinea pig!"

​"Don't worry so much, that's not what I mean at all," Iron reassured him with a light smirk. He walked past Noah toward the exit, patting him on the shoulder: "Don't overexert yourself on your patrols, I'll need your energy soon. Meanwhile, I'll head to my room—I need to finish drawing up an important blueprint."

​Iron walked out of the office, leaving Noah completely baffled. Standing in the silence for a couple of seconds, Noah just shook his head and silently left the building.

​Meanwhile, Eliza stood by the hearth, skillfully wielding a ladle and seasoning the boiling stew. Elyria cheerfully flew around her in circles, leaving a faint trail of green sparks in her wake. She peeked curiously into the cauldron, but soon decided to change the subject and straightened up proudly right in mid-air.

​"Did you know, by the way, that I used to be truly powerful?" Elyria began haughtily, resting her little hands on her hips.

​Eliza looked up from her cooking and glanced at Elyria:

"Wow, really? Well, if you ask me, you're incredibly powerful even now."

"Well... that is true!" The spirit's smug little face lit up for a moment, but then took on an even more self-important look. "But still, I used to be much better! I was the absolute strongest!"

​"She really loves showing off her strength..." Eliza thought to herself with mild, affectionate irony, but out loud she asked:

​"If you were that strong... then how did you lose it?"

​In that very second, the cheerful atmosphere around Elyria vanished.

​The little spirit's gaze instantly changed—it became heavy, stern, and gloomy. Elyria sharply averted her eyes, staring down at the ground, and said in a dry tone:

​"You'd better not ask questions like that."

​Eliza froze, immediately feeling how sharply the air between them had shifted. Realizing she had touched a sore spot, she apologetically dropped her shoulders:

​"...Please forgive me. I didn't mean to."

​"Whatever, it doesn't matter," Elyria muttered quietly, and taking a deep breath, forced her usual carefree expression back onto her face.

Trying to change the subject as quickly as possible, the spirit flew right up to Eliza's face and pleadingly clasped her tiny hands:

​"You should teach me how to cook so well instead! You cook super-duper amazingly!"

​"Well... I don't even know how to explain it to you," Eliza smiled sheepishly, turning back to the cauldron. "It all just sort of works automatically, by intuition."

"Oh please, tell me, show me!" Elyria wouldn't let up, hovering right over the steam. "I've never tasted anything this delicious in my entire life!"

"Alright, alright, you convinced me," Eliza laughed. "Watch closely, I'll show you a couple of simple secrets."

​Meanwhile, Iron was already back in his office. On the semicircular desk before him lay a massive blueprint of his future biological arm, riddled with fine details and incredibly complex schematics.

Holding his breath in concentration, Iron brought a fine drafting tool to the wooden board and carefully traced the final, finishing line.

Marking the final dot, he exhaled with relief, set the tool aside, and leaned back in his swivel chair.

"Essentially, the blueprint is ready," he said, examining the result of hours of painstaking work. "All that's left is to gather the materials."

​However, in the next moment, his gaze grew gloomier. Evaluating the list of components needed to recreate fully functional living tissues and properly integrate them with his body, Iron added quietly:

​"But that's going to be very tough..."

​After a few seconds of silence, he focused his gaze straight ahead and spoke aloud to Lumon:

​"Tell me where I can get these materials."

​Instantly, translucent maps, a complex coordinate system, and highlighted waypoints in the most remote and hard-to-reach corners were projected right onto Iron's retinas.

After carefully studying the displayed routes and hidden resource locations, Iron got up from his chair.

"Alright," he summarized briefly.

​Iron stepped out of the Main Building into the fresh forest air. Pausing on the path for a moment, he smoothly lifted off the ground and rocketed up into the sky at tremendous speed.