Using a game trail to enter the mountain range, it took the group hours of hard walking before they saw any change in their environment. Their progress was slow thanks to the dense underbrush. Urist made a note to himself that next time they come they’d cut a path. Two hours in, the trees and bamboo that covered the area thinned out to the point to reveal a rocky landscape.

With the lack of plants surrounding them and with such a vast area to explore. Urist had decided that they would split up to cover more ground once they had reached their destination. Looking around a bit, they decided to meet up at a large rock in the distance. Rolling up his sleeves, Urist moved to the east while the girls went into the jungle to search for plants to gather.

Finding a good hammerstone nearby, Urist smashed it into other rocks to study the mineral structure of the broken fragments. After doing this for about close to thirty minutes he was quite pleased to have found magnetite, a rock that had a high iron content.

Finding magnetite also meant there might be some lodestones around which were rocks that were magnetized. If he could get his hands on a magnet this early they could make a basic compass and also use the lodestone to pick out iron sand instead of crushing stones to powder.

Going through his samples he figured there should be a large amount of Iron in the dirt here. If they had lodestones they could easily pull out the iron in the ground.

If only lodestones worked on copper or tin it would make our lives much easier.

He wondered if the other mountain next to his home would have any copper or would it be an iron area. That's not saying more iron wasn’t bad, but having a copper supply had very nice properties that he wished to make use of.

At the very least, having both metals would be a great boon when we got started on forging. For now guess I’ll try to find a lodestone, if I remember right, one of the best ways to find a lodestone was to grab some iron-rich soil and throw it on the rocks. With some luck, the iron sand will stick revealing the stone.

After trying a few hundred times in a dozen different areas, he gave up and head over to the black stone meeting place. In a bad mood he threw the sand he picked up and threw it at the stone and watched in a daze as the sand moved towards.

What a huge lodestone! I can’t believe this big black rock is completely magnetized, it must at least stand over twenty feet wide and thirty feet long.

Urist stood in awe. He had never seen such a huge black lodestone of such size. It made his blood boil in excitement thinking about the possibilities. With just this rock, iron collecting will become a breeze and with a quick check around the area. He discovered smaller magnetic rocks that had broken off the main rock.

He looked around, etching the location of this stone in his brain. Urist then used his hammerstone to break some magnetic rocks nearby for samples.

Checking the timer and the sun he calculated that they still had some time before they had to head home.

I can quickly check the mountain next to this one to see if it has another metal. Then I’ll check out the middle and the opposite mountainside to see what it has.

Not wasting time, Urist made a quick search as he was running out of time. Even though he rushed his search he was happy with what he found.

Traces of Stannite ore meaning of a mix of Iron, Tin, Copper, and Zinc. Although it’s good it should mean that native copper is a pipe. Still, at least I found Chalcocite and Cassiter ores which is a treat.

Chalcocite, a great rock that contained high traces of copper inside the rock and Cassiterite contains a large amount of tin and was the chief tin rock in the ancient world. He also found some rocks that mixed copper and tin which he paid attention to.

Hmmm, how strange. If I remember right, tin and copper shouldn’t exist together. With what I could pull from referencing earth history, such pockets of copper and tin should be separated by hundreds if not thousands of miles. Such an occurrence where only straight down the mountains was unnatural.

Was it created artificially? Then does also mean the clay deposit is artificial? I’ll need more research to reach a conclusion, but it just feels so weird that this spot just seemed to perfect for life to prosper. I’ll think about it later, I bet the medical team is waiting for me at the rendezvous.

Storing his samples in his shirt bag he met up with the medical team at the lodestone who had their shirt bags filled to the brim with medicinal plants. The three felt quite accomplished and smiled on their way back as they talked about what they discovered. Urists eyes lit up in their discussion when the girls said they had found wild green onions.

He didn’t know what was a better find, the metal or the onions that would save his taste buds.

Today has been a great day. Only I worry about what is in store for us when the marketplace opens.

As he marked the area by notching an X on a tree such thoughts flashed through his mind making his mood became somber.

Whatever it is, sun or rain, we’ll face it together as a group.

Renewing his resolve, his group reached the camp at around five p.m. where the dwarfs were hard at work. After saying hello and depositing his samples and lodestones he decided how the others were progressing.

He saw that the dwarfs had finished sixty-three bricks and were still at it. Looking over at dinner he noticed that it was close to being done with today's dish consisting of fish and squirrel meat stew. Doing a quick wash of the onions, Urist shamelessly chopped up some onions and threw them in for flavor.

Quickly, the rich aroma entered the nearby dwarf's noses and made them drool. Uria frowned at Urist when he didn’t ask her for permission to put in the onions but let it go. She instead turned to the group of dwarfs coming close and yelled at them that it wasn’t finished and to get back to work.

They all moped with displeasure and got back to work. Some of them even cursing under their breath.

Uria turned to Urist, “So those are Onions. No wonder you wanted them so badly, they make the smell of the soup rich. But I ask you next time to tell me when you wanna add something to the dish. I’m the cook afterall. Besides that, how was the exploration? Did you find what you were looking for?”

Drinking from his water bottle Urist was sat relaxed.“Sorry about that Uria. I just couldn’t resist to throw them in, but next time when I wanna add something I’ll run it by you. As for how the trip went, I feel if I’m not mistaken that we have Iron, Tin, and Copper nearby. I know for a fact we have Iron, but the copper and tin I feel as if I need a second opinion. Other then that the most important find was a large lodestone.”

Tilting her head in confusion Uria asked, “What’s a lodestone? Is it a spice?”

Shaking his head Urist took out a bamboo bottle filled with sand and a lodestone.

“Watch carefully as I bet this will shock you.”

“Ok let’s see what crazy thing you came up with.”

“Heh. I can’t wait to see your expression.”

Popping the cap off the bamboo, he poured it on a large leaf and then made a circle motion with the lodestone. Uria watched mystified as black material began to stick to the rock.

“This here is a natural magnet that can gather iron from the sand. With this rock, we can collect high-quality iron particles to use them to make Iron and maybe one-day steelworks!”