The green light source came from clusters of fungi spread across the rock walls.
[Ork Mushroom]
Combined with a Wooden Bowl, it could be crafted into Mushroom Stew on the Crafting Table! Although, it was the Ork version.
Its appearance was worrying, glowing with an unhealthy grey-green hue.
With an adventurous spirit, Zeke tried eating some. The texture was like a mouthful of old phlegm—he couldn't exactly call it good.
Similar to Suspicious Stew, consuming it granted a random status effect.
After the first bowl, his vision was plunged into darkness—[Blindness].
After the second bowl, his limbs felt like they were filled with lead—[Slowness].
Seeing the negative effects appearing one after another in his status bar, Zeke abandoned the idea of trying further.
Along the path, the minerals in the rock walls increased significantly. He could see some abandoned mining tools scattered about.
The design of these tools was wild, looking like scraps of metal and rough wooden sticks tied together haphazardly, embodying the style of "if it works, it works."
This fit perfectly with the Greenskin Orks' galaxy-renowned talent: The Power of WAAAGH!
Simply put, this ability allowed Orks to ignore certain laws of physics in reality. If they believed something would work, then it would work.
Suddenly a question arose in Zeke's mind: Why are these Greenskins, whose brains contain nothing but "Fighting is Fun," mining so much iron ore?
Soon, his question was drowned out by the massive shock of the scene before him.
The tunnel ended in a gigantic underground cavern. And in the center of the cavern stood a mountain.
A mountain composed entirely of various ores piled high!
Iron ore, coal ore, and some unknown minerals he couldn't name.
Zeke's eyes went straight. Forget this life—even in his past life, he had never seen so much ore.
Jackpot. As long as he could get his hands on this mountain of ore, building a house out of Iron Blocks would no longer be a dream.
Zeke suppressed his excitement and scanned the entire cavern.
Besides the conspicuous mountain of ore, giant umbrella-shaped mushrooms grew in the cave. The caps of the largest ones cast shadows covering hundreds of square meters.
Under these mushroom caps, countless Ork Boyz were "playing."
Of course, "playing" here meant punching each other until heads bled and bodies hit the floor, then collecting the loser's teeth.
Among Greenskin Orks, teeth were currency.
Zeke also spotted a Mekboy—the inventors among the Orks. Most of their vehicles and weapons were born from their hands.
It was scrawnier than the average Mekboy, draped in various scraps, with one hand replaced by a mechanical claw.
At this moment, it was taking a gun broken in two from a gleeful Ork Boy, along with a large bag of clinking teeth.
The Mekboy cocked its head, looked at the broken gun, then casually pried a piece of roughly similarly-shaped iron ore from the mountain. It swung a massive hammer nearby—CLANG CLANG CLANG—and smashed it onto the gun.
After a shower of sparks and some unintelligible roaring, the gun was actually fixed. Or rather, forcibly mashed back into one piece.
The Ork Boy took the "brand new" gun, dancing with excitement and howling wildly.
Zeke didn't see a Warboss. The strongest Ork he observed so far was a Runtherd.
It held a giant warhammer, with a Gretchin standing on its shoulder.
Honestly, facing such a quantity of Greenskins, even a squad of Astartes would likely find themselves in a tough battle.
But the bigger the storm, the more expensive the fish. Let's do it!
Zeke measured the distance from the ore mountain to his hiding spot and marked it on the minimap.
His plan was simple: dig a secret tunnel from underground leading directly to the underside of the ore mountain.
This tunnel had to be deep enough to absolutely avoid alerting the Ork Boyz above.
No sooner said than done. He retreated a sufficient distance, took out his Iron Pickaxe, and began digging vertically downward.
He dug twenty blocks down. Feeling that wasn't safe enough, he continued digging another twenty blocks before stopping.
After setting up ladders, he began to dig horizontally, straight toward the ore mountain.
The underground world was silent. A depth of forty blocks effectively insulated sound.
This should be about right. Zeke stopped, judging that he had arrived directly beneath the ore mountain.
He placed a pool of water on the bottom floor, then began digging upward while placing ladders.
Zeke intentionally widened the upward shaft by one block. Thirty-five blocks, thirty-six blocks...
He stopped just a few blocks away from the surface and dug out a small platform to stand on.
Then, he gently poked the final layer of rock and dirt above his head.
Whoosh—
Like poking a hole in a sack full of rice, ore poured down.
Zeke scrambled to plug the hole with Cobblestone, terrified that the noise would alert the Greenskins above.
In less than three seconds, his inventory had gained over forty pieces of [Raw Iron] and a stack of [Coal].
This was way faster than stupidly mining block by block.
Zeke set up a row of Furnaces, filled them with coal, lit the fires, and began smelting iron ingots.
These ores had already been mined, so they could be sucked directly into his Inventory.
Zeke thought for a moment and came up with an idea: [Hoppers]. This might solve the issue of making too much noise.
Zeke crafted Hoppers and Chests. He connected a hopper beneath the temporarily plugged hole and placed a chest at the hopper's output.
He dug a small opening again. The raw iron flowed into the chest through the hopper, the entire process silent and smooth.
Before long, the output speed of the hopper couldn't keep up with the input speed. Zeke simply built another identical setup right next to it.
So satisfying! Watching the endless stream of iron ore flow through the hoppers into the chests, then into the furnaces to become iron ingots...
Zeke felt an unprecedented satisfaction.
As iron ingots accumulated at a visible rate, Zeke waved his hand extravagantly.
He crafted a full set of Iron Tools, including an Iron Hoe that he might never use.
And a full set of Iron Armor. He also upgraded the Sophisticated Backpack on his back into an Iron Sophisticated Backpack.
On the surface, west side of the ore mountain.
The Mekboy was burying its head in work, tinkering with a metal wheelchair strapped with several things that looked like rockets.
An Ork Shoota Boy tilted his head, looked confusedly at the ore mountain behind him, and scratched his bald green head with a claw.
"Oi, why's I feelin' like da mountain got a lil' bit shorter?"
His mumbling caught the Mekboy's attention.
The Mekboy stopped his work, sized up the ore mountain, and frowned.
"Err... maybe a lil' bit? Who cares!" He waved his hand rudely, his attention immediately pulled back to his great creation.
"Da important fing right now is perfectin' me new masterpiece: 'Da Flyin' Wheelchair'!"
"'Flyin' Wheelchair'? Wot's dat good fer?"
Another Ork watching the excitement nearby leaned in curiously.
"Good question!" The Mekboy perked up, pointing at the bomb-like things strapped to the side of the wheelchair.
"Ya just sits on it, den take yer boomstick, aim at dese 'Shoosh-Shoosh Cans,' and BAM! It blasts ya straight into da sky!"
"An'... an' den wot?" the questioning Ork Boy pressed.
"Den? Wot 'den'?" The Mekboy's face dropped instantly.
"It blasts ya straight into da sky! Don't ya fink dat's dead WAAAGH? Dead cool?"
The surrounding Ork Boyz froze for a few seconds, then erupted.
"Dead cool!"
"WAAAGH!"
"Make one fer me too!"
--
100 Powerstones = 1 Bonus Chapter.