On the seventh day of his mineral expedition, Jonn was immersed in excavating while two fellow villagers watched with mounting curiosity.

  Eliot, a fresh-faced 18-year-old, and Alise, a composed 21-year-old, observed their friend and village leader on this peculiar quest he had undertaken nearly a week ago.

  Perched on a weathered boulder, Alise kept a crystalline water flask within arm’s reach, while Eliot stood vigilant, ready to hand Jonn whatever tools he might need.

  Deep in a rough-hewn pit two meters below ground level, barely wider than a man’s wingspan, Jonn had been toiling for the past two hours when his friends arrived with sustenance.

  Despite Alise’s thoughtful offering of home-cooked eggs and vegetables, Jonn had barely touched his meal. Consumed by the potential of finally striking ore after days of searching, he merely took a few hurried sips of water before returning to his methodical excavation.

  He refrained from using his mana, still struggling to channel it effectively without activating his two {Skills} or the Celestial Magnifying Glass. While this meant he didn’t need frequent magical recovery breaks, the physical toll of continuous digging was becoming clear in his labored movements.

  “Shouldn’t you call it a day, Jonn?” Alise finally broke the silence, concern evident in her voice as she rose to meet his dust-laden gaze.

  By now, Jonn was completely caked in grime, his clothes and skin bearing a distinctive reddish tinge from the soil. Even his characteristic white hair hadn’t escaped the earth’s staining embrace. Beneath the surface layer of black soil lay deposits of intensely crimson earth.

  Though his companions remained in the dark about his specific target, the white-haired youth showed no signs of yielding until he achieved his objective.

  The Celestial Magnifying Glass revealed signs of dense mineral deposits here. I must press on until I find it. There must be something substantial here!

  Driven by excitement, he continued his work, oblivious to both the spectacular sunset painting the sky of this dark region and Alise’s lingering presence, even as Eliot contemplated heading home. Just as his friend prepared to leave, an exuberant cry pierced the evening air.

  “Haha! I found you!”

  Eliot leaned forward, squinting into the darkness that had swallowed the bottom of the pit, unable to discern what had prompted Jonn’s excitement.

  If Eliot had perfect vision, he would have noticed that Jonn’s shovel had a slight dent at the tip where it rested against a scratched rock.

  Upon closer examination, distinctive striations marked the rock’s face, which was enough for Jonn to identify it as raw ore!

  “What did you find?” Eliot asked, trusting his friend’s excitement.

  Though not particularly clever, Eliot was a hard-working young man. He didn’t fully grasp the complexities of the world, but he understood that his friend’s behavior signaled something positive.

  “Ore, Eliot! I found ore! Do you understand what this means?”

  Eliot didn’t share Jonn’s exuberance, slightly disappointing the white-haired boy. “What does it mean?” he asked plainly.

  Jonn shook his head with an indulgent smile and explained, “It means coins, Eliot! And coins means food!”

  Understanding dawned in Eliot’s eyes, which suddenly grew wide with excitement. “Food? We need to alert the village Councilors right away!”

  “First, help me out of this pit,” Jonn said, feeling the pangs of hunger now that he had found what he was searching for.

  Minutes later, having clambered out, he settled into Alise’s former perch and eagerly devoured the cold meal she’d thoughtfully left in the basket. As he drained the last drops from the crystal-clear vase, he spotted Eliot returning with one of the village’s most distinguished members.

  Tim, a man of average height with disheveled gray hair streaked with white, came hurrying toward them with surprising agility. Despite his lean frame, the elder covered the distance to the resting white-haired youth in remarkable time.

  “Village Elder, Eliot’s brought me extraordinary news… Have you truly discovered minerals?” asked the old man, whose responsibilities included surveying and maintaining the grounds of the Eternal Village.

  Having caught his breath and satisfied his immediate hunger, Jonn felt reinvigorated after his grueling labor. He responded with a confident nod and rose, motioning for Tim to pass him the torch he’d brought.

  Night had descended upon the region, and in this humble settlement, simple torches remained the Eternal Village inhabitants’ primary source of illumination.

  Tim watched intently as Jonn descended back into the pit, revealing a rock formation over three meters beneath the surface. The elder’s eyes lit up with recognition at the distinctive coloring.

  “Limonite!” he exclaimed, his voice thick with astonishment.

  Throughout his years of searching, Tim had rarely encountered good mineral deposits accessible in this region. The occasional small finds have given him extensive knowledge of identifying minerals and understanding their potential value to the village.

  “How did you find it?” Tim asked, while Eliot realized his friend had been right all along.

  “So it’s true. Are we going to get more food?” Eliot asked Jonn.

  Jonn nodded reassuringly to Eliot while once again requesting help to exit the pit. As he climbed, he explained, “I’ve spent the past few days to searching. Fortunately, I found something that led me to dig here. Call it providence if you will, old Tim. I knew persistence would yield results eventually, and thankfully it did before I lost heart.”

  Tim accepted this explanation without pressing further. The “how” had become secondary to the more pressing matter at hand: assessing the extent of the Limonite deposit and initiating its extraction. This resource could provide the Eternal Village with iron for crafting artifacts and even trading ingots.

  In their declining world, while minted coins still circulated, raw metal ingots had become acceptable currency equivalents, even without official stamps to validate their worth.

  “Village Elder, your fortune might be our salvation, perhaps steering us toward a brighter future,” Tim said, his weathered face brightening with genuine optimism. “For now, we must assemble a mining team. I request your permission to gather three strong men to assist with the excavation.”

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  “Rest easy, old Tim. I’ll work alongside you, Eliot, and one other. Let’s call it a day for now, though. Come morning, we’ll expand beyond today’s dig site. With any luck, we’ll find more ore than we can handle,” Jonn said, gathering his tools with a smile on his face.

  Night work being impractical, Tim agreed to return to the village bearing the promising news.

  He harbored no regrets about his past unsuccessful searches. His own excavations throughout the Barren Hills of Deepshadow had yielded little more than dirt and negligible mineral deposits.

  Some finds had produced stunning crystals, but in a world on the brink of collapse, ornamental items—even jewelry crafted from precious stones—had lost nearly all value.

  In modern Valorian, a sack of wheat commanded more worth than diamonds!

  Though Tim had long since ceased counting the village’s stockpile of beautiful but practically worthless crystals, tonight he could retire with genuine hope for tomorrow. His leader had succeeded where others had failed, making a discovery that seemed almost impossible without extraordinary fortune.

  The Barren Hills of Deepshadow stretched so vast that pinpointing valuable minerals amid their expanse truly resembled finding the tiny needle in an endless haystack!

  “Listen, everyone! The Village Elder has discovered ore! Tomorrow we begin mining Limonite in the pit nineteen minutes east!” proclaimed the man, eager to dust off his old forging skills.

  The announcement sent ripples of excitement through the torch-lit settlement, each villager gradually assimilating the significance of Jonn’s discovery.

  “Is this real?” Alise asked, having never imagined Jonn’s mysterious quest would yield such a valuable find.

  Iron meant weapons, tools, and tradeable ingots—currency for vital grain and cereals!

  By the village’s communal water trough, Petyr paused in tending his horse, eyes narrowing as he processed this development.

  His conviction in his own plans as the village’s sole salvation wavered. Jonn’s success challenged his premises, compelling him to investigate Tim’s claims personally.

  Within minutes, he headed toward the site, joined by a growing procession of curious villagers, both men and women.

  Jonn returned home to clean up, grateful for his earlier foresight in preparing a water bucket for washing. Otherwise, a trip to the village cistern would have been necessary.

  At that precise moment, the system stirred to life.

  His eyes brightened instantly. This additional progress point brought him within reach of the quest’s first partial reward: nine attribute points. Beyond that, another advancement for his people would unlock one {Skill}!

  These possibilities swirled through Jonn’s mind as he welcomed the cold bath’s embrace. Though he could easily warm the water, after such strenuous labor, the cooling sensation proved refreshing.

  How can we speed up our progress? Metals and food form the basic principle of any healthy community. Our vulnerability demands immediate attention, and securing these resources will strengthen our foundation. What other factors are needed for the village’s survival?

  As he contemplated this, an obvious conclusion crystallized in his mind, shaped by his position, knowledge, and their precarious circumstances.

  Military training. The Eternal Village desperately needed a militia!

  The village currently lacked any dedicated warriors. Petyr, their hunter, came closest, yet he could hardly match the combat prowess of warriors trained by Valorian’s dominant forces. Still, he represented the best resource available to Jonn at present.

  First, I’ll mine iron and forge weapons. Then, Petyr must begin training a defensive force!

  This plan reassured him, and soon he was in bed, where he would sleep deeply for the next few hours.

  After the first significant physical effort he had made since Hewet’s death, Jonn would enjoy a restful sleep, something he had seldom experienced recently.

  When he woke up the next day, already smiling at the prospect of achieving quick results with the Limonite rock and expecting the outcomes of his greenhouse experiments, he encountered something unexpected.

  The system displayed his current status, which had changed slightly from what he had seen before!