The green light sources came from fungi spread all over the rock walls.
[Ork Mushroom]
Combined with a wooden bowl, they can be crafted into Mushroom Stew at a crafting table! Though it's the Ork version.
The appearance was concerning, glowing with an unhealthy greyish-green.
With a mindset of giving it a try, David took a bite; the texture was like a mouthful of old phlegm, not exactly pleasant.
Similar to Suspicious Stew, it grants a random status effect upon consumption.
After the first bowl, his vision was shrouded in darkness—[Blindness].
With the second bowl, his limbs felt like they were filled with lead—[Slowness].
Looking at the succession of negative effects appearing in his status bar, David gave up on the idea of further testing.
Along the rock walls, minerals clearly increased, and some abandoned mining tools could be seen.
The designs of these tools were wild, looking like a few pieces of scrap iron and crude wooden sticks haphazardly tied together, full of the "as long as it works" style.
This was very much in line with the Orks' galaxy-renowned talent—the Power of "I Fink."
'And it's not 'I Fink therefor I am', it's I Fink therefor it is. Da rules of phy zics can ruin a good scrap' - Orkrates, ork philosopher.
Simply put, this ability allowed the Orks to ignore certain physical laws in reality; if they "thunk" it would work, then it worked.
Feels like... it's not as good as a crafting table.
A question rose in David's mind: what were these Orks, who only cared about the thrill of battle, doing mining so much iron ore?
Soon, his question was overwhelmed by the massive impact of the sight before him.
The end of the passage connected to a giant underground cave, and in the center of the cave was a mountain.
A mountain made entirely of various ores piled together!
Iron ore, coal, and some unknown minerals he couldn't name.
David's eyes went wide; not to mention this life, even in his past life, he had never seen so much ore.
I'm rich! As long as I can get my hands on this mineral mountain, building a house out of iron blocks will no longer be a dream.
David suppressed his excitement and scanned the entire cave.
Aside from the conspicuous mineral mountain, giant umbrella-shaped mushrooms grew in the cave; the largest ones had caps that could cast shadows over hundreds of square meters.
Under these mushroom umbrellas, countless Ork Boyz were frolicking and playing.
Of course, "playing" here meant punching the opponent until they were bloodied and unable to get up, then collecting the loser's teeth.
Among Orks, teeth were their currency.
David also saw a Mekboy, the inventor among the Orks. Most weapons and vehicles were born from their hands.
It was scrawnier than the average Boy, covered in various scraps, and one of its hands had been replaced with a mechanical claw.
At the moment, it was taking a "gun" broken into two pieces and a large bag of clinking teeth from a jubilant Ork Boy.
The Mekboy tilted its head to look at the broken gun, casually pried a piece of iron ore of a similar shape from the mineral mountain, picked up a giant hammer nearby, and smashed it down a few times with a "clang-clang."
After a shower of sparks and some unintelligible shouting, the gun was actually fixed—or rather, forcibly fused into one piece.
The Ork Boy took the brand-new gun and was so excited he started dancing and howling.
David didn't see a Warboss; the strongest one he observed for now was an Ork Nob.
He held a giant warhammer, and a gretchin stood on his shoulder.
To be honest, facing such a number of Orks, even if a squad of Astartes came, they would likely fall into a bitter struggle.
But, the bigger the waves, the more expensive the fish. Let's do this!
David measured the distance from the mineral mountain to his hiding spot and marked it on the minimap.
His plan was simple: dig a secret tunnel directly from underground to the base of the mineral mountain.
This secret tunnel had to be deep enough so as absolutely not to alert the Ork Boyz.
No sooner said than done; he retreated far enough, took out an iron pickaxe, and began digging vertically downward.
He dug twenty blocks deep, but feeling it wasn't safe enough, he continued digging down another twenty blocks before stopping.
After setting up ladders, he began to advance horizontally, heading straight for the mineral mountain.
The underground world was silent, and the depth of forty blocks effectively blocked out all sound.
This should be about it. David stopped, judging that he had arrived directly beneath the mineral mountain.
He first poured a pool of water at the bottom, then began digging upward while placing ladders.
David intentionally widened the upward passage by one block. Thirty-five blocks, thirty-six blocks... He stopped when only a few blocks remained and dug out a small platform for himself to stand on.
Then, he gave the final layer of rock and soil above his head a gentle poke.
Crash—!
As if poking a hole in a sack full of rice, ore poured down.
David scrambled to seal the gap with cobblestone, fearing the noise would alert the Orks above.
In less than three seconds, his inventory gained over forty pieces of [iron ore] and a stack of [coal].
This was much faster than mining like a fool.
David set up a row of furnaces, filled them with coal, lit the fires, and began smelting iron ingots.
These iron ores had already been "mined," so they could be absorbed directly into his inventory.
After a moment of thought, David thought of something: a [hopper]. This might solve the problem of making too much noise.
David crafted a [hopper] and a [chest], connected the hopper below the temporarily sealed gap, and placed the chest at the hopper's output.
He dug a small opening again, and the raw iron ore flowed through the hopper into the chest, the entire process silent.
Before long, the hopper's output speed couldn't keep up with the input, so David simply built another identical setup next to it.
So satisfying! Watching the endless stream of iron ore being diverted into chests via hoppers and then sent into furnaces to become iron ingots,
David felt an unprecedented sense of satisfaction.
Iron ingots accumulated at a visible rate, and with a grand wave of his hand, David acted.
He crafted a full set of iron tools, including an iron hoe that he might never use.
He also made a full set of iron armor and, along the way, upgraded his Sophisticated Backpack into an Iron Sophisticated Backpack.
On the surface, on the west side of the mineral mountain.
A Mekboy was buried in work, tinkering with a metal wheelchair that had several things looking like missiles tied to it with wires.
An Ork Shoota Boy tilted his head and looked suspiciously at the mineral mountain behind him, scratching his bald green noggin with his claws.
"I fink... did dat mountain get a wee bit shorta?"
His mumbling caught the Mekboy's attention.
The Mekboy stopped its work, looked at the mineral mountain, and frowned.
"Hmm, maybe a li'l? Who cares anyway!" It waved its hand dismissively, its attention immediately pulled back to its grand creation.
"Da most important fing now is finishin' me new big work, da 'Flyin' Wheelchair'."
"Flyin' Wheelchair? Wot's da point of dat?"
Another Boy watching the fun leaned in curiously.
"Good question!" The Mekboy perked up, pointing at the bomb-like things tied to the side of the wheelchair.
"Ya just sit on it, den use dat firestick in yer hand to give dese 'Whiz-bang Cans' a whack. Boom! Ya get blasted straight into da sky."
"An'... an' den wot?" the questioning Boy pressed.
"Den? Wot 'den'?" The Mekboy's expression suddenly soured.
"If it blasts ya into da sky, don't ya fink dat's real Waaagh!, real cool?"
The surrounding Boyz froze for a few seconds, then erupted in excitement.
"Cool as zog!"
"Waaagh!"
"I want one too!"