The Amber Sword volume 3 - Chapter 49

Chapter 49 – Silver mines (10)
=========== Jocah’s group POV ============
The entire mine experienced repeated light tremors when Brendel and the girls fought Kodan.
Jocah felt sand falling onto his shoulders. He touched it with his hands and looked up.
“What’s going on? Did somewhere in the mine collapse?” He said worriedly and looked at his group members, “Do you all feel that?”
Maher and the other men were busy with their mining picks. They were almost done in revealing the weapon. Because it was too sharp, they had no choice but to work around it, and the shiny metal gradually showed itself.
However, they were shocked to find that it that the blade lost its shape when the rocks were broken off and had turned into some kind of silver sphere when more than half of it was finally exposed to the air.
“How’s this possible?” One of them tapped the strange object with his mining pick, and it was immediately chipped. “It retains its sharpness when it’s agitated, but if you gently trace it, it’s not affected.”
The girl suddenly shivered.
“I feel a little cold,” she said, looking at her surroundings restlessly as though there was something hiding there, “I feel like the temperature has gone down.”
Cohen’s attention was on the silver ball. He inspected it and discovered that was a sheen of light golden color on the surface. He had seen it before in one of the books from his former teacher— Mithril.
His pupils dilated. The price of the Cold Iron was like a piece of rock compared to the sphere in his hands, but he quickly regained his composure. Mithril could be infused with magic, and it was probably the reason why the mining pick was cut, although it remained to be seen if the ball was made entirely out of it.
“This isn’t the first time we felt tremors in the mine. Compared to the past, we’re experiencing some light ones. There’s no need to make a big deal of it and frighten yourself. But we’re definitely rich now. Even if we don’t travel the world, we can still experience the lives that we want to—” Cohen said.
“Hey, look at this!” Maher suddenly interrupted him and caused everyone to look back at the wall.
Maher’s pick struck off a large piece of rock and revealed a smooth sheet of black metal.
“This isn’t naturally formed, take a look. There are words on it!” Someone shouted.
Everyone concentrated and indeed saw rows of finely written words on it. But the words had become illegible over time. Cohen felt it with his hand and heat drew away from his palm. He turned his hand over and discovered it had turned dark.
“Black Iron rust. This metal is iron.” (TL: Black iron rust forms under low oxygen.)
“What do the words mean?”
Cohen was unable to answer him. He had learned quite a bit from his teacher, but he failed to guess what the strange things they found were. Still, the discovery made him excited and tense.
Even the other members were able to guess they had dug up something priceless.
“Alright, let us get this piece of metal out,” Maher immediately said. He was one who prized action over talking.
“Hold on, do you know what this is in the first place? Perhaps it’s worthless? Furthermore, this sheet of metal is so big that it’s impossible for us to bring it out.”
That statement swayed Maher’s decision. He stopped and cast his glance at Cohen.
“Let’s get that silver ball out first,” Cohen said.
The black iron wall did not offer anything else of worth, so he lost his interest, and decided to get the items that were priceless first.
But when the ball was free from its rock prison, the mine suddenly shook. It was different from the light tremors earlier, and it was as though the whole place shook.
Everyone lost their footing and collapsed onto the ground.
“Something’s wrong, that silver ball is shining!” One of them shouted amidst the frightened screams.