Mystery Detective of the Steam World

Chapter 538 Making a living this way
Mithril Valley truly lives up to its name. Stepping inside, one sees mithril everywhere – tables, chairs, benches, even doors and windows. According to the saintess, mithril is the least valuable commodity in Mithril Valley.

The most valuable items were the timber and seafood obtained from outside.

“A small piece of mithril can fetch an astronomical price on the black market, but here, a box of fish can be exchanged for a whole mithril ingot.”

The Holy Maiden couldn't help but sigh when talking about the deal with Mithril Valley back then.

"Wouldn't everyone who comes here just take some mithril fragments with them and get rich?"

"There's no such thing as a free lunch."

The saint shook her head.

"As you can see, the underground city of Mithril Valley is located in a place that is easy to defend and difficult to attack. No one can enter Mithril Valley without their permission. And even if they have permission, they will be carefully checked when leaving the city to prevent them from smuggling mithril out. Of course, most importantly, mithril itself is extremely solid and is very difficult to destroy once it is formed."

As she spoke, the saint pointed to the benches along the street.

"Like these chairs, even if you take a hammer and smash them, you might not be able to make a small dent, let alone take them away."

Li Wei glanced at the chair, which was covered in dust and looked filthy, but judging from its exquisite appearance, Mithril Valley's craftsmanship in this area was indeed quite good.

"Moreover, although it's called fish, not just any fish will do. The gentlemen here want the freshest fish and furniture made of the finest wood, so that their unique status and position can be reflected."

"That's right. If everyone were the same, there would be no difference."

Li Wei wholeheartedly agreed, saying that modern luxury goods are no different; everyone uses cloth bags and there's not much difference, but your bag is made of cloth while mine is made of rare animal skin, and that difference in quality isn't immediately apparent.

Ultimately, whether it's above or below ground, the rarer the better, while the common ones are naturally worthless.

"However, it seems that the people here aren't doing too well."

The Night Raven mech continued forward, and Li Wei couldn't help but speak with a sarcastic tone. The reason was simple: in and around this seemingly incredibly luxurious city, there were skeletons everywhere.

Moreover, judging from the weapons nearby, a fierce battle must have taken place here.

Ironically, just as the saint said, things made of mithril are almost indestructible. This meant that even though the streets were littered with corpses, the surrounding houses were still quite intact. Apart from some overturned bowls and plates, everything here was almost perfectly preserved, without the slightest sign of damage.

"I'm not surprised by this."

The saintess, however, remained remarkably calm.

"Didn't I tell you? The masters here are very picky, and in Mithril Valley, things from outside are symbols of status."

"Things are valued because they are rare, right?"

Li Wei immediately understood. In other words, only the higher-ups of Mithril Valley were qualified to enjoy the good stuff that came in from outside; ordinary people probably couldn't even touch it.

However, it's clear that this is unfair to the ordinary people of Mithril Valley. Judging from the furniture here, the commoners of Mithril Valley possess enough wealth to live a life of luxury outside. If they were willing to leave with their belongings, they could certainly live a good life.

However… well, according to the Holy Maiden, it's clear that those high-ranking officials won't allow others to leave at will.

But it's really deserted here.

As Li Wei maneuvered the mecha forward, he looked around, but in his Soul Vision, he could no longer see the radiance of the soul.

Could it be that the monster they encountered earlier was the only survivor here? What exactly was that monster?
Do you know where we should go now?

"The Great Melting Pot".

The saintess quickly gave her answer. "That is the central core of the entire Mithril Valley, and also the location of the higher-ups."

According to the saint, the Great Forge was not quite the kind of forge that Levi had imagined; rather, it was more like a reservoir. The people of Mithril Valley built a system of pipes, similar to aqueducts, to channel the mithril flowing from the Mithril River here, then poured it in and allowed it to cool and solidify.

Flames are rarely used, because the temperature of flames is not even as high as that of mithril itself.

Following the road forward, it didn't take long for Li Wei to arrive at a half-open gate. On the ground in front of the gate lay two tall and imposing mithril statues. Upon seeing this, the saintess's expression subtly changed.

Be careful.

"what happened?"

Li Wei looked around as he asked. The saintess then pointed to the fallen statue.

“Those are not ordinary statues, but golems used by Mithril Valley to guard the Great Forge. In theory, they cannot be destroyed. At least, ordinary people certainly have no way to destroy these golems.”

"But they're lying here, um..."

Li Wei immediately understood the saintess's meaning. The monster they had fought before was only coated with a layer of mithril, so it wasn't invincible. But these statues were made entirely of mithril, and now they were destroyed?
But I didn't find anything.

Li Wei looked to the left and then to the right, but saw no sign of any spiritual radiance.

"careful!"

The saintess's voice rang in Li Wei's ears, and when he came to his senses, a silver-white arrow was already in front of him!

At this moment, the passage of time begins to slow down.

Li Wei gritted his teeth and maneuvered the Night Raven to the side, barely dodging the arrow that was about to pierce them. The arrow grazed the Night Raven and embedded itself in the ground, its tail feathers disappearing completely.

"Damn it, what the hell is that?"

Li Wei quickly averted his gaze and looked around. Then, he stared in surprise.

On the gate of the Great Forge stood a silver-white creature that looked like a guard, holding a longbow and aiming it at the Night Raven.

The problem is that Li Wei's [Soul Vision] can't see any soul radiance on it at all!

There were none of them—neither white, red, green, nor blue!
Logically speaking, this thing should be an inanimate object!

But it can actually move and even attack itself?

Are you kidding me?
"Do you know what that is, Miss Saint?"

"I've never seen it before either..."

Just as the two were talking, the guard shot another arrow, but this time Li Wei, who was prepared, quickly dodged it.

"Whatever it is, let's take it down first!"

Looking at that strange thing, Li Wei quickly made a decision.

Immediately afterward, the engine roared to life, and the Night Raven took off, hurtling towards the mithril guard!

(End of this chapter)