After leaving the old village chief's house, Jake immediately went to the back mountain and returned to the cave. Jake was in urgent need of money now. He needed to earn money quickly to pay off his debt to the old village chief. Only then could the entire back mountain truly and completely belong to him.
Moreover, Jake didn't plan to lease it for just one year. He wanted to lease it for ten years at once! He was afraid of exposing the metal wall, so he couldn't sell large quantities of metal ore in a short period of time, as it would raise suspicion. Additionally, being alone and limited in labor force, mining was tiring. Therefore, Jake estimated that his mining speed wouldn't be too fast. He needed a long-term lease of the entire back mountain to mine in an orderly manner.
"Obtained a piece of high-quality iron ore."
"Obtained a piece of high-quality silver ore."
"Obtained a piece of high-quality obsidian ore"...
Mechanical-like sounds constantly rang in his ears as Jake sorted through the ores. With only ten slots in his backpack and two occupied by the medicine shovel and mining shovel, Jake could only carry eight pieces of ore at a time.
"I thought ten slots would be enough, but now it's clear that it's far from sufficient. It would be great if I could expand my backpack," Jake thought to himself. However, in this time and space, there was only him as a "player," and others had no concept of a "backpack," so there was no way for them to help him expand it.
Jake temporarily had no clue about this matter. Carrying eight pieces of ore, he returned to the village and went directly to find his master blacksmith. Glen, at this moment, was shirtless and hammering iron. Although he was getting older, his body was still filled with explosive strength, which made Jake envious.
Seeing Glen busy, Jake quickly went to help with the bellows, while carefully observing Glen's every movement and earnestly learning. Glen glanced at Jake and continued his work, hammering the long sword in his hand one after another. The entire blacksmith shop was filled with the rhythmic sound of clanging, like music, bursting with a sense of rhythm.
"Swish!" After more than half an hour, Glen placed the completed and polished long sword into a container of cold water to cool it down. Today's forging work was almost finished.
"It's still not good enough." Glen looked at the long sword in his hand with some dissatisfaction, shook his head, and casually threw it into a corner of the blacksmith shop.
It was at this moment that Jake noticed that there were already several long swords piled up in the corner of the blacksmith shop. Apparently, they were all Glen's unsatisfactory works.
Jake casually used an appraisal skill. "Obsidian Longsword: Silver Grade: Attack +30, Agility +10, Strength +10, Additional Skill: Vampirism." "Vampirism: After hitting a target, it can cause the target to continuously lose blood for 30 seconds." Jake was instantly astonished and hurriedly appraised the other long swords. He discovered that these so-called failures in Glen's eyes were actually all silver-grade equipment, with significant attribute increases. For Jake, who was still fighting with a medicine shovel, these were already considered extremely top-tier equipment.
What a waste! Jake lamented in his heart. The equipment he regarded as top-tier was discarded by Glen as if it were trash. It was truly a waste. However, considering Glen's Grandmaster-level status, it was normal for him to not care about silver-grade equipment.
"What brings you here?" While Jake was thinking about how to get a long sword from Glen, Glen spoke first.
"Oh, Master, I found some ores in the mine earlier and wanted to ask if you're interested," Jake said, shifting his gaze from the long swords to Glen.
"What kind of ores?" Glen didn't pay much attention to Jake's words and casually asked. Glen knew the situation of the mine in front of the village very well. In the past, occasionally, one or two high-quality ores could be obtained from it, and if lucky, even rare ores. Those ores were necessary materials for forging divine weapons.
However, over the years, as the mine was nearly depleted, there were no good ores left inside, only some low-quality ones. Therefore, Jake couldn't obtain any good ores from there. Jake took out a piece of ore from his backpack and handed it to Glen.
At first, Glen was indifferent, but when he saw the ore, his eyes widened. Then, at a speed incongruent with his age, he snatched the ore from Jake's hand.
"It's actually a piece of high-quality iron ore! It's been years since I've seen such high-quality ore," Glen exclaimed, playing with the ore in his hand. His face was filled with excitement, as if he was looking at his beloved rather than an ore.
"Master, what do you think of this ore? Will you buy it?" Jake asked.
"I will!" Glen said without hesitation. "I'll give you ten gold coins for this piece of ore."
Although ten gold coins weren't much, Jake knew that there were many ores in that cave, and this was only the least valuable iron ore. So, Jake was satisfied with this price.
"Alright," Jake nodded. "With this ore, I can forge a gold-grade weapon without any problem. If I'm lucky, I might even be able to create a legendary-grade one!" Glen said excitedly.
Selling one piece of ore made Jake happy too, so he asked, "Master, if I have more of this kind of ore, or even better ones, would you still buy them?"
"You have more?" Glen looked at Jake skeptically. "Where did you get so many high-quality ores? The mine in front of the village is already exhausted, and there are hardly any high-quality ores left. Moreover, it has even collapsed. Where did you get other high-quality ores?"
It seemed that Glen was suspicious of the source of Jake's ores. Jake became cautious as well. He was well aware of the profit potential of the ores. The metal wall inside that cave was absolutely priceless. Although the villagers here seemed decent, in the face of such immense benefits, there was no guarantee that they wouldn't do something he couldn't accept. After all, these people weren't just data, but living individuals with their own thoughts and values.
So, Jake smiled and said, "I was just asking casually. I plan to travel across the entire continent in the future. Who knows, I might come across some high-quality veins."
Glen nodded, not suspecting Jake's words and said, "If you have such ores, I can buy a small quantity, but I don't have much savings, so I can't buy too many of them."