Mystery Detective of the Steam World

Chapter 537 River of Mithril
Seeing the monster charging at them, both Li Wei and the Saintess reacted swiftly. The Saintess leaped backward, quickly creating distance between herself and the monster. Li Wei also quickly sheathed his weapon and took a coin from his pocket, flicking it towards the monster.

"Thump!"

A jet-black mech appeared out of thin air, blocking the monster's path and ramming into it. At the same time, it raised its right hand and slammed it forward, the spikes of steel slamming into the monster's chest with a burst of steam, sending the monster flying!
"Awooo—!"

The latter flew out with a wail, crashing heavily to the ground before getting up again. This time, however, Li Wei saw that the spot on the man's chest where the Night Raven's pile driver had struck him only had a large dent!

But it wasn't penetrated!

What the hell is this thing? It's harder than steel! Even a steam pile driver can't penetrate it? It's that powerful?

Li Wei was taken aback by what he saw.

"Miss Saint, is this their golem?"

"I don't think so. This should clearly be some kind of creature."

Although Li Wei agreed with the saintess's words, he didn't think this thing should be called a living being at all. Although it looked more like an ape or something similar, its body surface clearly reflected a metallic silver luster.

Moreover, it's an inorganic substance.

At the same time, a system notification appeared in front of Li Wei's eyes.

Activate the quest "River of Mithril"

[Mission Objective: Uncover the truth behind the fall of Mithril Valley]

So this is a mysterious event? Okay.

Li Wei sighed inwardly, then gripped the control panel tightly, staring intently at the monster before him. The latter glared at him fiercely with its eyes glowing red, while pounding its chest with both hands and letting out an angry roar.

Hey, I don't believe I can't kill you!
Li Wei loosened his hands holding the joystick, then pushed it forward forcefully.

"Waaaaahh ...

The engines roared, and the Night Raven soared into the air, charging straight towards the monster before it. The monster roared back, raising its fists high and charging towards the Night Raven instead of retreating. Then, it leaped high into the air and slammed its clenched fists down forcefully onto the Night Raven!
However, just as the silver-white monster's fist slammed down, the Night Raven suddenly moved to the side, dodging the attack. The silver-white monster's fist missed its target and crashed heavily to the ground.

The Night Raven's movement, which clearly defied the principles of biological motion, caught the silver-white monster off guard, leaving it no time to react. Using its teleportation to the side of the silver-white monster, the Night Raven unleashed another punch, striking the monster heavily in the face.

The latter didn't even have time to let out a howl before it spun and flew out, crashing into the wall beside it. The blow left the silver-white monster dizzy and disoriented. It struggled to stand up, but by then the muzzle of the Night Raven's cannon was already shoved into its mouth.

"boom---!"

With a muffled cannon shot, the silvery-white monster's body swelled up and exploded. When it landed again, it had turned into a pile of bloody, mangled fragments.

"Good, we finally killed this thing."

Li Wei flicked the muzzle of his gun, tossing the remnants of the silvery-white monster aside. At that moment, the saintess also approached, curiously crouching down to examine the monster's corpse.

"So? Can you figure out what this thing is?"

Li Wei opened the cockpit and looked at the saintess with curiosity, asking her a question.

"I've never seen this kind of creature before. At least I'm sure it's not a normal species. It's probably some kind of mutation."

The saintess fiddled with the monster's corpse for a moment, then took out a piece of minced meat and showed it to Li Wei.

"Look here, mithril covers its body surface, acting like skin, but its muscles and internal organs haven't changed much; only the skin and bones have developed mithril-like characteristics... um..."

The saintess looked at the corpse and pondered for a moment.

"If I'm not mistaken, this is likely due to the ingestion of large amounts of mithril."

"Can you eat that stuff?"

"Of course not, people can't eat gold and silver, right? By the same token, mithril is completely indigestible."

As she spoke, the saintess smiled.

"I do remember that a thief once sneaked into the Mithril River, trying to take some Mithril with him. He thought that since the substance was watery, he could swallow it and carry it out."

"and then?"

"Of course it's dead. Mithril is very hot. The Mithril River is essentially flowing mithril. Its melting point is higher than that of iron. What's even more terrifying is that mithril is very deceptive. If it were molten iron, you would feel a wave of heat coming from it when you stand next to it. But by the Mithril River, you can't feel any heat at all. The Mithril River completely isolates the heat from below. Even if you put your hand in the Mithril River, it will only feel like you've put your hand in a warm hot spring."

As she spoke, the saintess chuckled softly.

"But only when you try to pull mithril out of the river, once it's completely out of the water and in contact with the air, does it emit a heat so intense that it can turn a person into a charred skeleton. That's why the people of Mithril Valley need special tools to retrieve mithril; otherwise, they would only face certain death."

"Wow, there's such a thing? That's unbelievable."

Li Wei had to admit that he had never seen such a strange mineral before.

"So what exactly is this thing?"

“I must admit, I can only speculate about this… well, I suspect it might have been human, or at least it used to be.”

"You mean, this monster is from Mithril Valley?"

"I can only say it's possible... I don't know what they went through to end up like this."

Li Wei looked into the dark tunnel again. It was completely dark inside, and there was not a trace of soul light. It seemed that this monster was the only living thing in it.

But who knows?

"Anyway, we'll find out once we go in and take a look."

The tunnel was pitch black.

The Night Raven led the way with its searchlights on, while the Saintess sat on the overhead turret. She was clearly interested in the Empire-made mechs, looking them over here and there, and even fiddling with the joysticks to test the feel of the turrets.

The final evaluation was……………

"Hmm, it's quite fun." Clearly, to the saintess, it was like a giant toy.

Out of curiosity, Li Wei also inquired about the fighting style of Emperor Arthur's era, and was somewhat disappointed to find that Emperor Arthur's era was mainly about battles between various strong individuals. While ordinary soldiers were not exactly just bystanders, they were mostly responsible for cleanup and cleanup.

According to the saint, most saints of that era were regarded as representatives of the gods by the people of their respective countries. Therefore, once they were defeated, those people felt that their countries had been abandoned by the gods and surrendered faster than anyone else. For Arthur, this was naturally a good thing, after all, he came to conquer, not to slaughter. The fact that the enemy was willing to surrender was naturally the best outcome.

Therefore, Arthur's army was also composed of elites. The troops under the Twelve Knights were primarily responsible for suppressing rebellions and maintaining order in their territories. Regarding monsters like the mutated bird flocks, the Saintess admitted that she had encountered them during Arthur's expeditions, but back then, a single attack from any of the Twelve Knights could easily wipe them out with a large-scale area-of-effect attack. Even ordinary mages could handle these flocks.

Hmm... this is obviously not a useful reference.

After all, you can't find any mages or magic in this era.

A ray of light interrupted their conversation. Li Wei cautiously slowed his pace and maneuvered his mecha to look ahead.

There is light ahead.

Seeing the light coming from the entrance of the passage ahead, Li Wei lowered his voice, and the Holy Maiden nodded solemnly.

"Be careful, we don't know what else is here."

Li Wei agreed with the saintess's words. He carefully maneuvered the mecha forward and arrived at the entrance of the passage. After a moment's pause, Li Wei suddenly flashed out, raised the cannon muzzle, and started the pile driver, preparing to meet the enemy that might appear at any time.

However, to Li Wei's surprise, he did not see any enemies here, but only a long silver bridge spanning the canyon.

The light, however, came from under the bridge.

"Ah, I remember now."

Seeing this, the saintess seemed to remember something and chuckled softly.

"Don't worry, Mr. Li Wei, go to the bridge and look down. It's a beautiful sight."

Upon hearing the saintess's words, Li Wei carefully maneuvered his mecha closer to the cliff edge by the bridge and looked down.

Then, he stared wide-eyed in surprise.

Li Wei has been in this world for over two years, and he has seen many beautiful and incredible sights. But the scene before him still exceeded his expectations. Under the bridge, an underground river was spreading and swirling downwards. It was silvery-white and looked like flowing silver water.

Bright lights emanated from the gaps along the riverbanks, making it look as if someone had idly installed a continuous strip of lights on both sides. These lights illuminated the once dark underground city and the river itself.

This really feels like a fantasy world; it would be even more fitting if a few dwarves came along.

Li Wei looked up and shone his searchlight across the bridge. There stood a silver city. Just as the saint had described, the buildings were all silver-white. To Li Wei, they resembled the massive square brick facades of modern skyscrapers, only silver and metallic.

Even the bridge itself is made of metal.

"Is all of this mithril?"

"After all, this place is called Mithril Valley, which makes perfect sense, right?"

The saintess clearly appreciated Li Wei's surprise, but Li Wei didn't mind. He simply shone his searchlight downwards, following the river into the distance.

"Where does this mysterious Milky Way come from? Where does it lead?"

"I don't know that; it's Mithril Valley's biggest secret."

The saintess shook her head, her tone tinged with excitement.

"I've wanted to know the answer to this question before, but I never had the chance. Now I don't have to."

After all, it's clear that everyone here is completely dead.

"I'm quite curious about how they died."

Li Wei was clearly more interested in this question. He had seen similar descriptions in adventure movies and games, such as protagonists and their companions going through great hardships to reach a ruin with mysterious powers, only to find that the inhabitants were still alive. However, they had degenerated into savages, which Li Wei found very unscientific.

After all, even if a country or city suffers some kind of catastrophe, as long as these things still exist, people can still use them. And even the protagonist can use those magical powers, so the primitive inhabitants living in the ruins would naturally be even more skilled; how could they possibly degenerate into barbarians?
In Li Wei's view, this was clearly just a compromise in the plot. Otherwise, the protagonists would probably have no chance of winning and would have had to rely on luck—although the protagonists of adventure movies are usually the embodiment of incredible luck.

Otherwise, we wouldn't have this ridiculous situation where everything collapses wherever we go, yet we always manage to escape.

"It's unbelievable that it has been flowing for thousands of years and has not yet dried up."

Li Wei stared at the Secret Milky Way in disbelief. Even real rivers would dry up and change course over thousands of years. This river, strictly speaking, was a flowing mineral, yet it had flowed for thousands of years without drying up?

So the question is, how much mithril is there exactly?

Where did they come from?

Li Wei simply couldn't figure it out. He could only guess that this thing might be like oil, but that didn't explain why it could flow for thousands of years. After all, unlike oil, it wasn't sealed underground; it was constantly flowing. Li Wei remembered a kind of water toy in his world where water flowed down from a height and was then pumped back up in a cycle.

But water is consumed, while this stuff... doesn't seem to evaporate.

“I’ve always suspected there’s a volcano below; only a volcano could have enough heat to melt mithril.”

In response to Li Wei's question, the saintess gave her own answer.

"Many Mithril Valley people believe this too. They also have a legend that when the Mithril River dries up, an erupting volcano will destroy everything, and Mithril Valley will disappear as well."

"…Hopefully it won't dry up when we arrive; that would be hell."

Upon hearing the saintess's reply, Li Wei's lips twitched. Just think about it, this thing had been abandoned for thousands of years, and he had finally discovered it, only to have it drained away... That would truly be a hellish joke.

The kind that can kill you.

"Anyway, let's go in and take a look first."

Li Wei withdrew his gaze, then maneuvered the mecha toward the bridge in front of him.

　I've started studying for the first subject now. It's been so long since I've been subjected to the rigors of knowledge; memorizing things feels so painful...

　　
　
(End of this chapter)