After Surviving the Apocalypse, I Built a City in Another World

The Elders in attendance were Mathilda, as well as Althea, Ansel, and Garan. The other Elders didn’t need to see this, and they were also quite busy with their respective departments.

Linlin gulped as she was stared at by such big shots. She was a bit of an extrovert, but she definitely did not enjoy the attention of the bosses. Fortunately, she was passionate about what she was doing, so she fortunately did not get blank.

After heaving a deep breath, she took out a piece of metal from her space. It was heavy, so she put it on the table immediately, making a loud clanking sound.

The four elders looked at the stone, it seemed like a special kind of metal with a special shimmer to it. In terms of appearance, it was silvery-white and was highly lustrous with a polished sheen.

Ansel curiously held it and realized that it was heavier than he thought.

It made sense that they didn’t dare make the messenger birds bring it to them. Those poor guys would’ve broken their wings.

”Can you tell us how and where you found it?”

”It is in the deeper parts of the Iron Mountains, Elders,” Lin began. ”Teacher and I were digging with the goblins when we discovered this.”

Althea and the others stared at her, unsure whether she meant it literally.

”I awakened a [Perception] ability and am also a good digger like my goblin friends.”

Literally, it is then.

”We found unusual traces of an unknown mineral in some ores, and we traced it to certain places and certain depths. It’s not a big deposit, but there should still be a bit more.”

Althea used her assessment skills as her husband held it steadily in front of her.

[New Material Registered! Criel. A special type of metal with unknown use except for opening Buko Fruit.]

Typically, the assessment skill would be of some use as long as it was used by someone using the system in some shape or form. Since it was only used to open a Buko Fruit—which was a popular fruit in orc territory similar to coconuts—then it was safe to say it hadn’t been used in a lot of things quite yet.

She took Tori out to see its composition, and she blinked at what she found.

Seeing her gaping, the others’ backs straightened, and they looked at her curiously. ”What is it?”

”Hmn, all I can tell you is that it’s a type of metal,” she said. ”It doesn’t have an equivalent in Terran, but it has a composition similar to nickel and chromium.”

While this would need a lot of study on their part, this could be the metal they needed to make handguns! If her theory were right, it could also be used to make batteries and connectors, which would help improve their technology further.

Speaking of handguns, after many months of experimentation, they found that there were too many differences in Terran materials and the local aether-infused materials.

Even after so long, they couldn’t make a proper handgun that did not have a chance of exploding in people’s faces.

It was a small percentage, but not small enough.

Although they called the Black Metal here iron, there were actually a lot of differences with the Terran iron. After so long, they had determined it to be aether itself, causing the most change.

It was difficult to perfect anything because Aether was a dynamic thing. Even stainless steel, which was now used in other applications, couldn’t handle being used in handguns for some reason. It was like the material itself was too explosive.

It was fine for massive and stable constructs like their buildings and cannons, but things were not the same when applied in concentrated forms like explosives in small bullets, and on something that should be thin and light, that one could carry.

This metal could—theoretically—help stabilize it by adding it to iron to create an alloy. If they perfected it, they’d be able to make even more specialty weapons.

It would also be the metal needed to create more handheld Toris! In time, many of her scientists might have one, and she could send them out to explore the world.

Of course, this was all theory. Time would tell how useful it actually was.

Althea looked at Lin. ”We can appreciate every sample you send to us,” she said. ”But I do recommend waiting for us to study it before you continue mining for safety reasons.”

”I will surrender most of the samples now,” Lin said, nodding. She placed her hand over an area at the side, revealing a small mountain of the material.

Lin had, in fact, filled half of her space with the metal. It was not easy to mine the material. She and her master naturally did not mine this carelessly.

What if the ores were poisonous? However, her master had a certain type of assessment skill (though it was limited to metal) called [Metallic Eye] so they knew it was safe, at least until major operations began.

For one, everyone who went deeper had to cover their faces with masks, just in case, and it was also why they did not dare to go too deep and just dealt with the unusual ores that they could already access. They were also physically harder to mine than black metal.

However, despite this, the goblins worked hard and overtime so she could take as many as she could, even when she did not ask.

She was really very touched by their kindness, while they just wanted to make her happy. She treated them to a nice meal outside as a reward, of course, on top of buying them a few sets of clothing each.

”Good job, Linlin,” she said. ”We will study how much we can use this, and your contribution points will depend on how much it could be used for.”

Lin sparkled at the fact that she was acknowledged and the metal really did have use. ”Thank you. Anything that could help Alterra.”

Out of all the territories, only Alterra could and would be at the center point of integrating different races. Her goblins, especially, would live here best. It was also the only territory that would support her explorative nature, too, and would be willing to invest in it!

That said, with this new metal, the goblins’ value would increase even more, and that was such a happy thing.