After leaving the camp, Gordon and his party braved the high temperature and walked along the marks on the map for more than an hour before finally arriving at the location of the ruins marked with a red circle.
"So, where are the ruins?" Looking at the huge lava lake in front of him and the lakeside covered with layers of solidified magma, Anhil asked in despair: "Your ruin distribution map, really Is it reliable?”
Gordon turned over and over, comparing the map with the surrounding terrain, and muttered: "This should be right here? Alva wouldn't have made a fake book just to fool me, would he?"
Feeling that the effect of the potion he had taken previously had been exhausted, Anxier drank another bottle of cold drink, and his brain, which was blinded by the heat, regained its composure.
"If it is a book collected by Wang Li's Paleontology Scribes Team, the content should still be reliable, but as you can see, the lava flows here, and the terrain may change dramatically in just a few years."
As he spoke, Anhil stamped his feet and pointed to the wavy ground beneath his feet: "Maybe, that ruin is right under our feet."
After staring at the ground formed by the solidification of lava for a few moments, Gordon suddenly took out a pickaxe and struck it hard on the ground.
"clang!"
The pickaxe was bounced away, and the rebound force almost made Gordon fall over. After quickly adjusting his center of gravity, he looked at the location where the pickaxe had just hit.
Only a shallow crater the size of an orange was made.
He looked at Ancier.
Even if they knew that the ruins were buried underground by magma, if they wanted to lift up all the lava rocks on the surface with the power of the two of them and one cat, it would be a big project that would take years.
Numb.
"Could it be that Meow!" Pig Chop, who wanted to help, ran around and came back, pointing at two inconspicuous small rock mountains, or piles of rocks, in the distance.
"Let me see."
Gordon hurried over, looked at it for a few times, and said excitedly to Ancier and the others who were also walking over: "The terrain here is quite flat. There are just these two piles of rocks standing here. It's better to dig from here than to no purpose." Digging the ground will make you stronger."
Anhil also agreed with this judgment, consciously set up the crystal rifle and began to guard the surroundings, while Gordon took out the pickaxe again and shouted a slogan to smash the pile of rocks.
I also tried the pork chop with my paws.
"Click, meow!!"
The cat, which can easily dig holes in the dirt, scratched the volcanic rocks, but it could not do anything except leave white marks. The cat scratched a little too hard and almost broke its claws, making it jump in pain.
Gordon, who had already knocked down some gravel, was dumbfounded. "Pig Chop, just help me check and sift through these knocked down stones. Maybe there is something mixed in them."
"Okay meow"
More than half an hour passed with two people and one cat working together.
Except for this small pile of rubble at his feet, Gordon found nothing. On the contrary, Ancier solved a lava beast that was attracted by the sound of knocking.
This small monster that looks like a seahorse and a lizard can swim in lava like a fish in the water, and its tolerance to high temperatures has reached an unreasonable level.
Fortunately, their skin was not hard, so Ancil only used the most common lv1 normal bullets to shoot it to death in the lava lake.
"Gordon, look at this, meow!"
Just when Gordon was gradually losing his patience, Pork Chop suddenly screamed.
Gordon immediately stopped what he was doing and leaned over, "What, did you dig up the protective stone?"
"No, meow." Pig Chop wiped the stone flakes in his paws vigorously and said, "I don't think this stone looks like a naturally occurring mineral rock, meow!"
Gordon took it and looked at it carefully, and rubbed the pig's head excitedly.
Although this thing is not a protective stone or any other valuable mineral, there are obvious artificial traces on it - it seems to be a severely weathered pottery fragment.
In other words, there may indeed be ruins under the two piles of rocks in front of us, which are not much taller than a person. Perhaps these are two roofs that have been almost buried by magma?
Gordon immediately started digging even more energetically.
Ancier also came over. He temporarily handed over the guarding task to Pig Chop while he studied the pottery fragment.
While waving the pickaxe, Gordon asked, "How are you? Do you see any doorway? I think it looks like tiles. There must be ruins underneath!"
"It should indeed be something artificially fired. I can't tell the age. I may have to ask the scholars to get the answer." Ancier also became interested. He put away the crystal cannon, rolled up his sleeves and said, "I'll come too. dig!"
With the addition of Ancier, the efficiency of mining immediately improved a lot.
But Gordon guessed something wrong. The two stone piles were not roofs or the like. After digging out the outer layer of lava rocks, there were no architectural remains underneath as he expected.
This is a nearly solid stone lump. More than 99% of it is magma after cooling and solidification. The remaining small part is made of metal minerals and some messy-looking things.
Ancil guessed that the ruins should be buried deeper underground, but sometimes the things in the ruins would be brought to the surface by the flowing lava, and after condensation, this kind of stone pile would be formed.
Although it is not the actual ruins, it is still a good excavation site.
"Aha! Good luck!" Anhil happily picked up a piece of rotten metal half the size of a fist and shook it in front of Gordon.
"Is this the protective stone?"
"Well, take this thing back to the village and give it to the craftsmen for appraisal. After polishing it, it will become a usable protective stone."
Gordon looked at the metal block in Ancier's hand with envy, "What properties does this protective stone have?"
Anhil shook his head, "I don't know. We'll have to find out after the craftsmen have identified it. Let's dig some more, go back and identify whoever can use them, and give them to whoever can use them. The rest will be sold or exchanged with other hunters." As long as you have patience, you can always get what you like.”
"Okay!" Gordon shook his slightly sore arms, and his whole person seemed to become energetic.
The excavation work continued until the cold drinks were exhausted. After most of the day, less than half of the huge pile of rocks had been excavated. Gordon and Ancil gained a lot.
In addition to the four rough stone protection stones, they also purchased a large number of earth crystals, minerals such as chanchite and burning stone carbon, as well as more advanced pyrosaur stones and spirit crane stones.
During this period, several small monsters, such as lava beasts, ground beetles, and red velociraptors, were attracted by the commotion of the excavation. They were neatly dispatched by Pig Chop without even needing Gordon and the others to take action.
On the way back to the camp, Gordon, who was carrying a huge and heavy package, couldn't help but sigh, "Ah, this feeling of returning home with a full load makes even the fatigue disappear!"
Anhil, who has never done any heavy physical work, moved his sore shoulders and retorted: "That's an illusion! You will know the feeling of muscle soreness tomorrow!"
"Impossible! Absolutely impossible!" Gordon was full of confidence in his muscular endurance. "We will continue digging tomorrow! We will not return to the village until we dig out those two piles of rocks!"
Anhil looked helplessly at the huge package behind Gordon, "I don't object to this. After all, it's not easy to find a good mine. The question is, can you bring back so much ore?"
Ps. Here is a reminder for readers who may have forgotten.
(mh3) The stone protection before identification is divided into several levels: "mysterious amulet, light amulet, ancient amulet, weathered amulet". I don't want to make it too complicated.
Lower-level hunters can only dig out lower-level protection stones. It is natural for upper-level hunters to dig out upper-level protection stones in the game. In the real world, it is too unreasonable. Therefore, whether good or bad protection stones are dug out depends entirely on luck. They are collectively called raw stone protection stones. .
(End of chapter)
