A few hours later, Duke and the Message Mage arrived at the hilly belt where the mining area lay.
Baroque had long since brought several mining team leaders to wait at the entrance of the ore veins. Seeing Duke's figure descend from the sky, the stocky old Great Mage strode forward, his rough face twitching with excitement he could barely suppress.
After a few brief courtesies, he couldn't wait any longer and dragged Duke straight down into the main tunnel at the deepest part of the veins.
The rock wall of the tunnel was riddled with densely packed sampling holes, and in every hole a wooden tag marked with a serial number was inserted. The Magic Metal granules embedded in the bore walls gleamed with a faint blue luster under the headlamps.
At the tunnel's end, the ore layer had been cut open into a massive cross-section, and on that section the distribution of the Magic Metal ore could be clearly seen.
