Chapter 743 (1/2)

Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio  Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio

Through the magnifying glass, Hopes glanced at the silver ore in his hand carefully and continuously rotated it under the sunlight to observe it from various angles.

After a while, he used a bizarre shaft of reflection to confirm the quality of the ore.

“Mithril, more than 50% pure,” he muttered to himself. He placed the ore in a wooden trunk to his left. He then picked up another ore from the pile in front of him and began the observations again.

After a few minutes, he shook his head, muttering “silver ore” before throwing it far, far away into a rattan basket.

This difference in treatment was due to the vast disparity in value between the two types of ores. The silver ore had little value, and even if it were to be refined into sterling silver, it would also only be used for silver coins. For the stone that he had just gotten rid of, after extraction, it would only be able to form about ten silver coins. After paying for the extraction process, it would only be worth two silver coins. Two silver coins, to Hopes, was a meager amount. When he treated his friends to meals, the total bill would exceed that significantly.

However, Mithril was different. Although the one that he had just picked up was a lower-value Mithril, after extraction, its value could be counted in terms of gold coins. On average, it was worth about one gold coin per gram. The piece that he had just examined could extract about 40 grams of Mithril, and that would be about forty to fifty gold coins!

If this had been the naturally-occurring Mithril mine, one piece would be worth about two hundred gold coins or more. If it were made into an actual product, it could even be worth more than five hundred gold coins, and that was higher than his pay for a month!

Coming from different backgrounds, one’s status was naturally different as well. Even though there were many men on this expedition related to mining, the people on the exploration team were mainly appraisers for the two masters, helping them to select materials and extracting secret silver ore. However, the masters were in charge of choosing the innate secret silver mines from the secret silver ore. With this difference in workload, there was also a difference in authority and thus, status.

Hopes’ salary, along with about seven or eight of the workers, added up to that of one master’s salary. This included the bonus allowance that they received from the Republic of Northwest. Otherwise, if it were strictly in accordance with the standard of the Commonwealth, it would be only a minor fraction of the master’s pay.

However, Hopes was satisfied with his current pay as it was suitable for his job scope. He knew that he had limited abilities, and thus, this was the best pay that he could get. For example, if a piece of naturally-occurring secret silver ore and acquired Mithril were given to him, he really would not be able to tell them apart. To do so, the easiest way would be to use magic. One had to use the advanced identification spell. However, this spell was an unconventional magic technique that could generally only be achieved by a high-level wizard, and that would be a waste of his time and energy. A normal, high-ranking mage would also only be able to do this spell five to six times a day, and each spell could only identify two to three of the ores. That would be an incredible waste of magic overall! If not for any special deals, at the market rate, such an inspection would cost thousands of gold coins… When compared like this, the masters of identification’s pay did not seem that ludicrous after all.

This was why Hope’s friend, Cambrona, constantly urged him to train hard while he was young to become a high-level druid and earn himself both wealth and status in the future.