Chapter 148.2 Companion Ores
Editor: Jodi
The off-road vehicle they were in came equipped with mining capabilities, hence the moment they determined that this was the location, Sheng Heng switched the vehicle to mining mode, and a long mechanical arm with a digging device extended from underneath the vehicle.
The ore was buried deep underground, and with only one mining vehicle, it took them eight hours of continuous digging before a patch of black ore was revealed.
Then hugging Yan Hao, Sheng Heng jumped down into the pit, and the moment they landed, Yan Hao took out a testing tool from his backpack and began collecting data from the black ore. Then he uploaded the data he had collected into his light brain for analysis and calculation to determine the final values after the ore was purified. Next, he compared the values with the ore Old Pang had given him to determine the final match rate.
He calculated it three times in a row before he achieved a match rate of 90%.
“90%, it looks like this is the right one, it’s this ore.” Sheng Heng said with relief, glad his perception had been correct.
“But the purification rate is too low.” Yan Hao, however, was somewhat disappointed.
“One-thousandth?” Sheng Heng saw the value in the upper left corner of the screen.
A one-thousandth purification rate meant that it would take a thousand pieces of ore of this same size to be able to purify a piece of ore that was on the same level as the kind of ore that Old Pang had given to Yan Hao.
Sheng Heng roughly estimated all the ores he had detected in this area. If he calculated according to the one-thousandth purification rate, then it meant the ores here could probably only make one arm of a mech.
“Let’s look again. If this kind of ore is here, then other planets will definitely have it too.” Sheng Heng said.
“Even if they do, how will we find them? And if they exist, why hasn’t anyone discovered them in all these years?” Yan Hao wasn’t as confident as Sheng Heng was.
“It’s actually by chance that I found these ores; if I hadn’t used my mental energy to explore the veins, I wouldn’t have discovered them here, so people haven’t found them before because they all used instruments to explore. There are over a hundred Resource Star Planets in the Federation, I’ll explore them one by one. I’m sure I’ll find more.” Sheng Heng told him.
Only high level mental energy could detect ore veins from underground, and since this was still a secret, they couldn’t ask for help, which meant Sheng Heng would have to do it himself.
“How long will that take?” Sheng Heng’s last exploration of less than a quarter of the Resource Star Planet took a week, plus adding in the travel time between planets as well as the recovery time for his mental energy. For a hundred planets, it would take at least ten years to finish.
“If it means making an advanced mimetic mech, then it doesn’t matter if we spend some time.” Sheng Heng wasn’t too concerned.
“But even if we are able to gather all the materials, I’m not sure I can make it.” Yan Hao told him.
“I believe you can.” Sheng Heng had a blind trust in Yan Hao, however he also didn’t want to put too much pressure on him. “Even if you can’t, it’s okay. Isn’t scientific research about progress made generation by generation? Just like how you were inspired by Old Zhong to modify Black Soul, your research on mimetic mech is a step forward for the future. I believe that one day, you’ll be able to make a level ten mimetic mech.”
“En.” Yan Hao nodded heavily.
“Let’s notify the base to come and mine first.” Then Sheng Heng called the base and asked them to come over to extract the ore.
After the base’s mining vehicles arrived, he left Yan Hao alone to supervise the miners while he piloted Black Soul to fly around the Resource Star Planet again, taking half a month to thoroughly explore other areas of the Resource Star Planet. Unfortunately, no other similar ore veins were found.
The special ore vein wasn’t large, hence the base’s large mining machines only took three days to complete the extraction, and by the time Sheng Heng returned from his exploration, part of the ore had already been purified. However the two of them didn’t wait on the Resource Star Planet for all the ore to be purified before leaving and instead took a portion back to Capital Star Planet, with the rest to be handed over to the Federation after purification, and then handed over to Old Pang.
Old Pang was somewhat disappointed when he learned that the ore’s purification rate was only one-thousandth and that the ore from the entire Resource Star Planet could only be used to make one mech arm. However he quickly adjusted his mindset and tried to analyze the composition of the ore in order to create an instrument specifically for detecting this type of ore.
However unfortunately, even after a month of research with Yan Hao, he was still unable to find the ore’s unique properties.
“Could it be that it can really only be found using mental energy?” They had tried various methods over the month and found that if the ore wasn’t detected with mental energy, it would be shown as waste ore no matter what kind of instrument was used.
Moreover, even with the use of mental energy, it had to be at the A+ level or above in order to be detected.
“This ore is also too picky. Why is it like a phantom beast?” Old Pang couldn’t help but complain.
“This ore is located within the activity area of the phantom beast, making it so that at that time, Senior and I even suspected that these ores might be companion stones to the phantom beast.” Yan Hao told him.
“Wait.” Old Pang caught the key word, “Did you just say companion stones?”
“This is just our guess because the entire Resource Star Planet only has this kind of ore in the area where the phantom beast appeared.” Yan Hao explained.
“This guess of yours is most likely true.” Old Pang said. “After our recent tests, the properties of these ores are extremely similar to those of a phantom beast’s.”
“But wouldn’t this mean there are even fewer ores?” Yan Hao asked.
“Why?”
“Because phantom beasts are almost extinct, and the ones that are left are in the Federal National Park, and the national park has been breeding phantom beasts for less than two hundred years, so it’s impossible for ores to form in such a short time.” Yan Hao reasoned.
“Phantom beasts are almost extinct, but the places where they lived aren’t.” Old Pang pointed out.
Yan Hao froze, then exclaimed, “Right! As long as we find the places where phantom beasts were active hundreds of years ago, we might be able to find this kind of ore, if it’s really a companion stone. But how can we know where phantom beasts used to roam? The Federation has erased all such information.”
Because of the near extinction of phantom beasts, the Federation, in an effort to protect them, had erased all information related to them, including their former habitats, and now, after more than two hundred years, there were already no records of where phantom beasts used to live.
“The Federation just kept that part secret, they didn’t erase it.” Old Pang told him. “Call Old Zhong and tell him to ask the Federation for it.”
Compared to him, Old Zhong, as the head of the Federal Research Institute, had a closer relationship with the Federation.
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Thanks for the update
Thanks for the chapter! Maybe if they keep the ores near the phantom beasts in captivity, the quality of both can improve over time