Sam moved on his wheelchair and moved to the spot that he was supposed to scout. The first thing he did is try to check the ground for any minerals.
He might not have any access to the myriad of skills he painfully gathered over the years. But there is one thing the gods cannot take away from him no matter how much they tried.
It is his knowledge.
Sam might not be able to use energy vision, observation and such, but he sure as can observe with his own two eyes. He can use the knowledge from all the things he studied and figure out what he want the old fashioned way.
He checked the samples of earth and used his spiritual sense to the maximum as he observed the nature of the soil.
There are no mineral traces around. But the soil is filled with a lot of wood elemental energy. Sam went ahead and checked the surrounding vegetation to see if he will come across something interesting.