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Hearing Ganyu exclaim about iron ore,
Jiang Xuan and Keqing immediately stopped chatting and quickly walked over.
Jiang Xuan also understood what Ganyu meant by "a lot."
To be honest, after mining for so many years in the MC world,
Jiang Xuan had never been to such a rich place.
A whole wall of iron ore was not an exaggeration.
But...
Half a wall was iron ore...
If mined and put into a furnace, a full stack of iron ingots might not be quite enough, but more than half a stack was definitely achievable.
Jiang Xuan felt a bit disoriented.
Although iron ore wasn't particularly rare, when had it become so worthless?
This dense patch, illuminated by the torches, seemed to emit a unique silvery-white glow from the wall.
It looked like a steel fortress.
Extremely enticing.
Jiang Xuan gave Ganyu a strange look. Ganyu wore a bewildered expression, seemingly completely unaware of the astonishing mineral deposit she had discovered.
But since it was Ganyu...
It must be her luck attribute at work.
After all, Ganyu always had good luck.
In his year of acquaintance with Ganyu, Jiang Xuan often saw her picking up piles of Mora while walking.
Opening a chest in the wilderness could yield a bunch of rare Ley Line materials.
Hmm...
Luck was indeed a good helper for mining. Otherwise, why would there be Fortune enchantments?
Speaking of enchantments, Jiang Xuan thought that with Ganyu around, he would definitely have to pull her along when enchanting in the future. He was sure they could enchant top-tier stats.
"Jiang Xuan, is this iron ore considered a lot or a little?"
This time, Keqing didn't dare to assert that the ore vein was small. The coal mine earlier had truly opened her eyes.
Jiang Xuan reined in his thoughts, unable to suppress his excitement.
He didn't keep them in suspense but simply gave Keqing and Ganyu a math problem.
"This one wall, roughly estimated to be over ninety blocks. Half of it is iron, meaning at least forty-some blocks of iron. One block of iron ore can smelt one unit of iron ingot."
"Do you remember what I told you about the weight of iron ingots?"
Keqing's eyes lit up. After a moment of thought, she murmured,
"One cubic meter of iron weighs over eight tons. Nine iron ingots make one iron block. So, one unit of iron ingot is... over nine hundred kilograms!"
"Then there are at least... around forty tons of iron ore here?!"
Calculating this result, Keqing and Ganyu felt their hands go numb.
Looking at the iron ore before them, they were even more shocked than if they had seen Rex Lapis's Immortal Ancestor's Ascension.
"Correct."
Jiang Xuan happily rubbed Keqing's head, then reminded them:
"This is only what we see. It's still unknown if there's more iron ore behind this iron ore."
"However, at a minimum, we already have more than half a stack of iron ingots!"
No sooner had he finished speaking than Keqing excitedly swung her pickaxe and rushed to the iron ore.
"Hurry, Jiang Xuan! Ganyu, let's move quickly!"
Seeing Keqing's excitement, Jiang Xuan chuckled. But since they were digging into a wall, Jiang Xuan still had to give a few reminders.
"When mining ore on walls, always be careful. Some monsters are hidden behind walls, and there might even be monster spawners behind them."
"When you're mining, be sure to listen carefully. If you hear any movement, don't start. Shout my name first."
"Understood?"
Seeing both Ganyu and Keqing nod in agreement, Jiang Xuan finally felt at ease letting them mine.
It had been just over an hour since they entered the mine.
Not only did they have enough coal, but now they had so much iron.
A sudden windfall, this was exactly what it was.
However, Jiang Xuan felt that the richness of this mine was, to some extent, influenced by Ganyu's luck.
In MC terms, Ganyu's Fortune was too high.
But to say this iron ore was a lot might be an overstatement.
Just how much iron did Jiang Xuan need?
Tools needed to be stocked up, especially iron pickaxes, as he still needed to mine for diamonds and obsidian.
Iron armor had to be prepared. Even now, he had to make a set for Keqing and Ganyu.
Jiang Xuan also needed to make iron buckets for water and lava.
Iron doors were also a necessity, otherwise, his home wouldn't be safe from villagers.
Potion cauldron materials also had to be prepared in advance. Potions would definitely come in handy sooner or later.
Not to mention, Jiang Xuan needed iron golems as bodyguards for his MC world stronghold.
This was a major expense.
Although these things could be spawned by breeding villagers, Jiang Xuan clearly didn't have time to mess with villagers right now.
Therefore...
Iron, perhaps, wasn't that valuable.
But it was definitely the most scarce in the early stages.
The more he could mine, the better. Moreover, Keqing and Ganyu had accompanied him to mine.
Although they were good friends, he couldn't let them work for free.
Mutual benefit was essential. This time, when they left the MC world, he would have to let them take some with them.
It would also be good for negotiating with Ningguang and the others when they returned.
This was also for Jiang Xuan's larger-scale development of the MC world.
What Jiang Xuan told Keqing and the others was not deceptive in any way.
The MC world was too vast, boundless.
He alone, even if he lived for thousands of years, could not fully cultivate this world.
Of course, Jiang Xuan didn't need to cultivate the entire world. It was just the system's achievement tasks that often multiplied by a hundred.
Jiang Xuan felt there was no need to work himself to death.
While thinking, Jiang Xuan mechanically mined.
Until a crisp cracking sound came from his ear, and the stone pickaxe in his hand broke.
Only then did Jiang Xuan react.
He looked at the only remaining stone pickaxe in his inventory and pouted.
With iron now, who would want to live so ingloriously?!
"Keqing, Ganyu, you two be careful. I'm going to smelt the iron first and renovate this place a bit. It'll be more convenient for mining next time."
Keqing was completely immersed in mining, merely waving her hand.
Ganyu, however, found time to reply with an "Okay."
This time, Jiang Xuan didn't build the furnace perfunctorily as before.
Observing the surrounding environment, Ganyu and Keqing were still mining on the left side, so that area was fine.
The right side was a solid stone wall, quite neat.
Behind them was the path they had come from, with torches on both sides, making it a reasonably neat passage.
Straight ahead, there were originally two mine shafts.
Jiang Xuan had blocked one.
After some thought, Jiang Xuan first set up a crafting table against the right wall.
Then, he dug out all the scattered stones around, transforming this area into a perfect rectangle.
The excavated stones were promptly put into the crafting table, making ten furnaces.
They were neatly stacked on the other side.
Jiang Xuan casually placed his bed near the crafting table.
He also made a large chest to serve as a bedside table for the mine, putting some food in it to avoid having to search for it when mining later.
And then...
All ten furnaces started simultaneously!
The grand iron smelting project officially began!
It was only because he didn't have redstone, and couldn't make minecarts or pistons.
Otherwise, Jiang Xuan would definitely build a fully automatic iron smelting machine.
During this time, Jiang Xuan also simply decorated this mine space.
Mainly planning the space and placing torches.
However, what was initially a simple task became a major project because Jiang Xuan found it unappealing, and began extensive renovations.
After all this was done, Keqing and Ganyu had also roughly finished mining the iron ore on their side.
Somewhat regretfully, the iron ore on the surface was truly all there was.
Inside, it was all stone, and digging deeper revealed granite.
Hmm...
Granite in such a shallow mine shaft, Keqing expressed her incomprehension.
But compared to that, the heavy harvest was what satisfied Keqing more.
She opened her inventory grid and saw seventeen iron ores quietly lying in one slot.
Keqing smiled happily.
"Ganyu, I mined seventeen. How about your side?"
Ganyu also put down her broken pickaxe, wiped her sweat, and frowned as she looked.
"I only have thirteen iron ores..."
"It's fine."
Keqing shook her head, smiling.
"The harvest is already good! Thirteen iron ores, that's over ten tons! And we only spent about ten minutes!"
"Two people, mining twenty-seven to twenty-eight tons of iron in about ten minutes, such efficiency, no one would believe it if we told them!"
Keqing put her hands on her hips, thought for a moment, then added:
"So next, will Jiang Xuan process these iron ores? I remember that ore processing in The Chasm requires very complex procedures."
"Jiang Xuan here... Eh!!!"
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