Using my water cocoon and a mana light, I am at the bottom of the lake moving about. The freshwater mana-infused wildlife is lovely. There are numerous glowing plants here. I wonder what would happen if I send some water into my [Living Inventory]?

Well, I’ll start small on that. You know, so I don’t die from over. . . sucking? Whatever. Grabbing a quick air refill, I make my way to the river inlet and I can feel the current pushing the water in the lake. Going down to the bottom I do see a lot of shiny things, but they are all loose. Sweeping all that aside I try to get to some sort of bedrock or compact mounds. I need to go up a number of times for air, and once to let mana refill, but eventually I do see some compact rock at the bottom. I continue to sweep it away until I have an area 6 by 6 meters.

[Inspect]

Name:

Medium Underwater Gold Ore Vein

Description:

This is a moderate underwater vein of the precious metal, gold. With the proper mining this can produce anywhere from 10 to 1000 tons of gold ore. There is also substantial loose gold here for capture. Underwater veins are mined differently and require special expertise.

Condition:

Excellent

Risk Assessment:

N/A

Value:

Once claimed, selling or leasing the rights of this ore vein will result in substantial profit.

Claimed. . .

I do the same on the outlet from the lake and find an almost identical vein, except it is small instead of moderate. Thinking about the lodes, I use [Mana Sight] and I’m totally overwhelmed by the amount of dark blue mana everywhere.

[Do you see how beautiful it is down here with mana? Stunning.]

Quite. Do you think you can differentiate between ambient and compact water mana?. . .

[Either way, this is good practice for [Mana Sight]. But yes, I’ll keep looking until my head explodes and we need to surface to avoid the mess.]

Lovely. But we both know there is nothing in there that will cause a mess. . .

[Ouch. Your cruel words. If I wasn’t already in love. . .]

My loss I suppose. Look to your right. . .

I did. There is so much dark blue everywhere that it is hard to see, but swimming to my right I do find a small area of brighter dark blue. Maybe more compact? I’m not sure how to describe it. There is just . . . more.

I swim until I am right above it and disable [Mana Sight].

It looks like a normal lake bottom in the white mana light. This could take a while so I go up to get some air and refill mana. While there I hear Aria calling, “While you are practicing being a fish, get us dinner. And you have a curfew of 2 more hours.”

“Yes dear.”

[Shit, better get my digging on.]

Yes. . .

Returning to the lakebed when mana is full, I use [Mana Sight] to get myself back into position. My outrageously expensive infused shovel gets its first shot at showing its worth. Despite having to stop for air and mana, I get to the bedrock again with 30 minutes to spare on my “Aria will kill me” timer. Thanks for that Jo. Swapping out my shovel for my pick, I start banging away. The key here is finding areas of lower density. Which, with [Mana Sight], is less difficult.

I eventually find and widen a crevice with glowing blue inside. I cancel [Mana Sight] and I drop the mana light into the crevice. A cavern inside is humungous and has glowing blue crystals interspersed with an occasional silver, brown and gold.

[Inspect]

Name:

Unknown Size Water/Metal/Earth/Life Mana Stone Lode

Description:

This is an unknown sized lode of mana stones. This is a quad affinity lode with the overwhelming majority being water mana stones. Less than 10% of the total lode also contains metal, earth and life affinity stones.

Further excavation is required to determine stone density and value.

Underwater lodes require special expertise to successfully mine.

Condition:

Unknown

Risk Assessment:

N/A

Value:

Once claimed, selling or leasing the rights of this lode will result in overwhelming profit.

Claimed. . .

[Life stones Jo! Aria can use those. And of course you know we need metal. Fucking amazing.]

I agree, Vic. You have received a message from Aria. She says, “Get here now or you are sleeping in the lake.”

[Shit. I forgot about dinner too.]

[Mana Sight] leads me to some fish and I eventually return hoping I won’t be relegated to sleeping wet and by myself.

Aria is not happy with me because I left her hungry and alone, but I come with food and news. I excitedly tell her all about the lode that includes life stones. After promising to get her most of them, she relents and lets me survive the night dry and not alone. Fair trade if you ask me, especially since they were going to her in the first place.

I insist on staying one more day. I claim trauma from the orcs ruining my vacation and needing another day of joy and pleasure with Aria to make it through. After laughing her ass off at me, she relents and says one more day. She also reminds me that, while I no longer have to eat and err. . . pee and stuff, she does.

So we go back to the gorge. I only find two more ore veins but one blows my mind. The first is another silver vein which is great. The other is. . . well. . . it isn’t like anything else. I find it while searching the gorge walls and following a goat into a cave a meter and a half tall and a meter wide. Again, this would have been impossible to see from the ground due to a substantial outcropping. When searching the cave, I come upon a small cavern like my good old friend all those months ago. It is filled with stalagwhatevers everywhere but is dry as a desert. The entire place glitters in the mana light.

Not sure what to do, I use a real pick and bang away at a stagthingy. It cracks open and silver stuff is inside. When I examine the larger cave, silver is flowing everywhere.

Name:

Large Platinum Deposit

Description:

This is a substantially sized cavern deposit of the exceptionally rare precious metal, platinum.

A large dimensional tear appeared and then exploded in this cavern causing a massive mana flood. As a result, the density of earth and metal in the entire region has become highly compressed over the last century and a half. Along with a small amount of underground volcanic activity, this area is rich with precious metals and mana stones.

With proper mining, this deposit can produce anywhere from 50 to 5000 tons of platinum ore. There is a chance for earth and metal mana stones to be found while mining this deposit.

Condition:

Rich

Risk Assessment:

N/A

Value:

Once claimed, selling or leasing the rights of this ore vein will result in immeasurable profit.

[Umm. Jo?]

Yes, Vic. . .

[Do we want to announce to the world that we found this?]

Good question. Eventually this location will be found. Bribes or illicit access will inevitably result in the location’s release eventually. I recommend claiming it. It’s not like everyone isn’t already trying to get the info. . .

[Ok. Claim it.]

Claimed. . .

[Send a note to Master Steeltamer. Tell him we found the fucking motherload and if he wants it before it gets stolen or whatever, he better act right the fuck now. Give him the number and kind of ores we found. Ask him if his clan can do underwater mining.]

Message Sent. . .

[Well, we need to go home now.]

On my way out I find the goat standing in the cavern entrance.

I didn’t notice before because of the lack of light, but I can tell now that goat is special too.

[Inspect]

Name:

Earth/Metal Mana-Mutated Mountain Goat

Description:

These herbivores spend most of their lives climbing up and down steep mountains and ravines.

This particular goat was exposed to a massive influx of mana and mutated. It has rubbed against the stone of the mountain as well as the many metal deposits at that location, especially platinum.

Condition:

Excellent

Risk Assessment:

N/A

Value:

This goat’s hide and horns will be worth a substantial amount on any market as platinum infusion is very rare.

I need this goat. I touch the ground and ask the earth to build a wall. I make one about half a meter high. The goat just stands there chewing while looking at me like I'm an idiot. Now I feel guilty killing such a smart goat. Ah well.

I build a ball of air with a very high inverse rotation, meaning the inside and outside are moving really fast in opposing directions. I compress the ball like I did with the fire but it is much harder both because I’m better at fire and because air doesn’t like being compressed. I get it as tight as I can, launch it at the goat and hide behind my wall.

There is loud “thoomp” sound followed by a displacement of air and a cry from the goat that quickly gets softer and fades away. A huge backwash of wind, dirt and particula slam into and over my wall.

Then it’s over and Jo speaks to me.

Aria would like to know why you decided you had to launch a goat hard enough to slam into the other side of the gorge. She also wants you to know she got splattered when it fell down and you are responsible for washing her. . .

[That’s fair.]

I run back into the platinum cavern and whack away until I have 100 pounds of ore in my newly freed up inventory. Aria volunteered to take some stuff and I finally started using Grace’s storage. Anyway, Eggy will hopefully appreciate this ore. Eggy is a falcon egg that Aria and I are hoping will hatch with the help of metal and air Magica and infused material.

I return to climbing and spend the rest of the day grabbing ore from all the caverns except iron - it is a large area so the travel and mining takes a while. Most are too cheap for Eggy in my view, but they could have other uses. You never know. And hey, I did say I was going to actually mine something.

Master Steeltamer says that his clan will lease what they can but not the underwater. His clan is allied with another that can do it and will arrange a meet. He states this will change the future of his clan and hopes to arrange a mutually beneficial leasing agreement. . .

[In other words he doesn’t have the capital on hand to straight buy it out and wants me to not be an asshole about it. I’m fine with that. Send this response: It is my hope and belief that the Steeltamer clan will be a long term strategic ally of me and my business. As such I am happy to lease half of the metal veins directly to Steeltamer and its trusted allies for an even profit split. The condition is that 75% of the mass of all metal mana stones come directly to me. This would be non-negotiable with any leasie. I am starting at half the vein value because I want to offer other potential allies, such as the gnomes, a chance as well. Remember we are building a strategic partnership to kill our enemies, not only to make loads and loads of coin.]

Sent. . .

[Send an urgent note to Mr. Whyatt and ask if his company has an ore or lode-mining division. Also ask him if any of the slaves we rescued are healthy enough and in need of well-paid work.]

Sent. . .

After my return to the ground, I dress the splattered goat and have some nice meat for Aria for dinner.

***

Dinner is a nice affair and then I clean Aria thoroughly followed by a very detailed spot check in the lake.

Lying in our sleeping bag, Aria has a smile on her face as she is sleeping on my chest. I guess she thought I did a good job cleaning. I mean I even tasted to make sure she was perfect. She was.

Mr. Whyatt says they do and has found out about your claims. He is happy t-. . .

[Stop. He’s in?]

Yes. . .

[Send him the same terms I sent to Steeltamer except add that 75% of the mass of all metal stones and 100% of life stones come to me. Not up for debate. Tell him I will have an auditor on site. Beyond that, terms are negotiable. Include the stone loads for him.]

Sent. The Steeltamer clan agrees to your terms. He says, this is going to throw a mana stone into the forge at the clan meet. This is followed by mad bellowing laughter. . .

[Sounds like a Steeltamer to me.]

Agreed. Whyatt agrees preliminarily. . .

[Excellent. I have a lot more alerts still?]

Quite a few. I can consolidate if you like. . .

[Please do. Skip all the details of the various combat. I know what happened, I was there.]