Chapter 812 Finally Harvested Something (1/2)

Chapter 812: Finally Harvested Something

Translator: Nyoi-Bo StudioEditor: Nyoi-Bo Studio

Li Du and his group worked for another two days. When it was close to the middle of May, the tunnel in Li Du's mine was finally close to the location of the gemstones in the number 114 mine.

When they were close to the location of the first piece of gemstone, Li Du went down, took over from Brother Wolf, who was digging the tunnel, and operated the machine himself.

For the past few days, the three of them, Li Du, Brother Wolf, and Godzilla, had been taking turns digging the tunnel while Lu Guan settled the shattered rocks that were dug up. Consequently, no one was suspicious when Li Du went into the tunnel.

After Sophie gave Li Du her usual reminder to be careful, he put on a hardhat and entered the tunnel. Seeing this, Ali jumped into his arms and wanted to enter the tunnel with him.

As Ali could very easily get hurt by the occasional shattered rocks falling in the tunnel, Li Du did not want to bring it along.

However, this time around, Ali was extremely persistent in wanting to go into the tunnel as Ah Ow, Ah Meow, and Crispy Noodles had become bored again and were searching for something to play with.

Needless to say, Ali was the best plaything in their eyes.

The conditions in the tunnel were horrid, and the tunnel's ventilation was very poor. Even though Li Du utilized tools such as tunnel fans and ventilators, it still felt rather suffocating in the tunnel.

The tunnel had an electric wire hanging from above and four metal frames placed all around for support. As there were light bulbs hanging on the metal frames, and those light bulbs produced heat, the tunnel's temperature became even higher.

Since this was the first time Ali had been in such an environment, it was taken aback and clung tightly to Li Du's calves.

A piece of rock fell from above with a crumbling sound. Taken aback by the sound, Ali jumped three feet up while searching its surroundings for danger with wide, horrified eyes.

Li Du smiled and patted Ali on its head. ”It's ok, it's safe down here.”

After releasing the little bug and finding the location of the nearest piece of gemstone, Li Du carefully lifted the rock hand drill machine and started drilling the area where the piece of gemstone was.

With the fragile nature of black opals, the strong vibrations of the rock hand drill machine, and the rock layers being excellent at transmitting vibrations, the gemstones might be shattered if one was not careful when drilling the rock layers.

After first drilling a hole with the rock hand drill machine, Li Du changed to using a small hammer and chisel. This was because through the little bug's vision, Li Du saw that the gemstone would be affected by the rock hand drill machine, and it would be shattered before long if he continued using the machine.

This was a common conundrum that one would face when digging for black opal. As other people did not have a little bug that could move around in the rock layers, they would not know where they would find a black opal.

Consequently, during the digging process, they had to be extra careful. Once traces of a gemstone were found, they would need to quickly put down the rock hand drill machine and change to using tools such as pickaxes, hammers, and chisels.

There were many gemstones that had been unintentionally shattered. In Lightning Ridge, the miners who were frequently seen running to a bar and getting drunk were doing so for this reason.

They could have worked for several or even dozens of days without harvesting a single thing before finally finding a gemstone. However, if they failed to change to using small tools, the gemstone would be destroyed.

It was very easy for black opals to shatter into smaller pieces. After shattering into smaller pieces, the black opal would no longer have any value. Black opals that were made up of smaller pieces adhered together had no value in the market.

Li Du hammered the chisel as if he were carving a piece of art while he slowly approached the gemstone's location.

After chiseling once around the location of the gemstone, Li Du finally chiseled out a piece of rock the size of a papaya.

The black opal was inside the piece of rock. A change in tools to something sharper and more accurate, such as a waterjet and a levigator, was required before continuing the harvesting process.

Wanting to place the rock inside the black hole, Li Du called the little bug.