"Benben, you don't o follow me. Go py wherever you want."

  Watg his leader's departing figure, Benben didn't get up. He y back down on the ground and tio snore away.

  Ever since he started following the boss, he had grown fond of a life of eating and sleeping, sleeping aing. The goblins provided him with food, meat to eat, and tasty fruits.

  After leaving the Throribe, Li Meng headed north.

  ***

  Half an hour ter, at the Iron Cave.

  On the bank of the underground river, the extinguished bst furnace roared back to life.

  "Boss, boss!"

  As soon as Li Meered the Iron Cave, Gobu Ge came running over excitedly.

  "Boss, boss, look at this!"

  Gobu Ge held up a silver stoh a fawning expression.

  "What is this?"

  Li Meng took the stone from Gobu Ge's hands and exami. It looked somewhat like iron ore, but the material on it was silver.

  "I don't know. We found it hiding deep in the cave, boss. This cave is really deep, with many bottomless abysses. We discovered these stones in a small stream, and they glow ier."

  Stohat glow in water?

  Li Meng turned and walked towards the underground river.

  At the riverbank, Li Meng threw the stoo the water, and just as Gobu Ge had said, it emitted a faint silver glow. It made the stone look very beautiful.

  "Could it be mithril?"

  Looking at the glowing ore ier, Li Meng mused to himself. Iern fantasy movies, there was often a preetal called "mithril."

  This reminded Li Meng of the greatsword used by the human warrior "Carlos." Carlos's greatsword also emitted the same glow in water. Perhaps this was the main material used te that sword.

  The greatsword in Carlos's hand was extremely resilient. His Big Iron Rod couldn't infliy damage on it, not even a ni the bde.

  "Gobu Ge, go mine some of these stones. I hem now!"

  If it's metal, it must be smeltable.

  Gobu Ge turned and spriowards the depths of the cave.

  By the water, Li Meng crouched doicked up the stone from the water. O of the water, the stouro its inal state.

  "This cave is truly a treasure trove. I must explore it thhly when I have the time!"

  Although he couldn't yet determine what the ore in his hand was, Li Meng had a strong premonition that he had stumbled upon something valuable.

  And so he waited for five hours.

  ***

  Five hours ter, iernoon.

  At the Iron Cave, on the underground riverbank.

  Two goblins carried over a basket full of silver ore.

  "Throw these ores into the bonfire!"

  If the silver ore was indeed metal, the smelting process shouldn't differ much from iron.

  Li Meng directed the goblin underlings to start burning the silver ore. Soon, the bonfire bzed fiercely.

  Standing by the bonfire, Li Meng watched the silver ore in the fmes with anticipation.

  ***

  Three hours ter, by the bonfire.

  Li Meng looked at the unged ore in his hand with a speechless expression.

  It wasirely unged. The non-silver parts of the stone had bee brittle from the heat, but the silver material remained ued. It was very hard, impossible to crush.

  "Gobu Ge, fire up the furnace!"

  Li Meng dumped the ore into the bst furo begiing.

  Time slowly passed, and night gradually deepened. Li Meng sat by the bst furaring ily at it, while over a dozen goblins panted as they worked the bellows. Waves of scorg heat hit him in the face.

  ***

  The m, at the Iron Cave, on the underground riverbank.

  "Boss, still no ge!"

  Gobu Ge extracted a piece of ore from the bottom gate. After a night of smelting, the ore remained unged.

  "Could it be that the smeltihod is wrong?"

  Looking at the ore at his feet, Li Meng pondered. After all, some preetals required special smeltihods.

  "Looks like I'll o find a human adventurer!"

  He regretted not keeping some human captives. Otherwise, he could have figured out what this mysterious thing was.

  "Boss, should we keep smelting?"

  "Yes, but not this stuff. Smelt steel!"

  Later that day, Li Meng begaing steel again. He selected some human steel armor from the spoils of war for sedary smelting.

  It wasn't until the seventh day that Li Mehe Iron Cave.

  "Ah, the sun feels so good!"

  Outside the Iron Cave, Li Meng basked in the scorg sunlight. The warm and slightly stingiion on his skin made him feel fortable.

  After enjoying the sun for a while, Li Meered the forest. In the dim forest, he walked slowly, carrying the Big Iron Rod on his shoulder, deep in thought.

  "How I ge the future where the Bck Mountain tribe summons the Barbarian God 'Aqua'?"

  The source of this future event was the Temple Knights of the Papal State. But in previous future lihe causes of the event were different each time.

  The first time, it was because the expeditionary army was pletely annihited, and out of fear, they summohe Barbarian God 'Aqua.'

  The sed time, it was because they couldn't defeat the pair of strong human warriors, so they summohe Barbarian God 'Aqua.'

  The third time was this current one. Each time, there were different reasons for summoning the Barbarian God 'Aqua.'

  There was something strange about this matter. The first and sed times, the future was altered to prevent the Bck Mountain tribe from summoning the Barbarian God 'Aqua.' But the future where the Bck Mountain tribe summons the Barbarian God 'Aqua' hadn't ged.

  So, there was only one ahe timing difference of the Temple Knights of the Papal State.

  The threat of the Temple Knights of the Papal State was alresent. The Bck Mountain tribe just didn't know about it.

  If in the previous future lihe Bck Mountain tribe had summohe Barbarian God 'Aqua,' the Temple Knights of the Papal State would have appeared as well. But they would have faot the Bck Mountain tribe, but the Barbarian God 'Aqua' summoned by the Bck Mountain tribe.

  The strength of those two human warriors was also a mystery. Their pht be eveer than Carlos's. Even Carlos couldn't withstand an attack from tens of thousands of goblins.

  Carlos was indeed powerful, but his magid stamina were limited. The strohe magid bat skills, the more magic power they ed. When magic power was exhausted, it accelerated the depletion of stamina, putting the body in a weakeate.

  In this state, even a strong warrior would bee extremely vulnerable. Therefore, on a rge battlefield, even a strong warrior could hardly ge the course of battle.

  Yet, those two human warriors forced the Bck Mountain tribe, with its tens of thousands of members, to summon the Barbarian God 'Aqua.'

  Of course, there was another possibility.

  The Bck Mountain tribe might not have known the dangers of summoning the Barbarian God, so they chose to summon it to deal with the human warriors. Perhaps the Bck Mountain tribe believed that the god they worshipped wouldn't harm them.

  "Steal the sacrificial disk?"

  This thought had barely emerged before Li Meng dismissed it. With his rge build, sneaking into the Bck Mountain tribe to steal the sacrificial disk was nearly impossible.

  The Bck Mountain tribe was surely not a small pce. Finding the sacrificial disk would be a major challenge.

  xx34810