Pillar of Yita

Fang Hong threw the torn pages into the campfire, watching the writing curl and turn yellow on the paper before finally carbonizing and scattering into star-like embers. The wind in the valley whistled, and the firelight glowed gold-red on the snow in front of the tent.

By the flickering light, he held the remaining pages in his hand and continued reading the text.

This is a journal that Tianlan found in the camp, likely left behind by an Invoker who hadn’t had a chance to retrieve it before meeting their end at the hands of those Construct Beasts outside.

It sounds unfortunate, but it worked out for them.

The first half of the journal recorded their journey from the forward camp, some dull content. But starting from this page, things of interest to Fang Hong appeared.

On that day, May 13th, they recorded some discoveries in the valley:

’Fourteenth, sunny

The wind outside diminished a bit; we are preparing to check the situation within that crevice. The Alchemist in the team already confirmed that the glowing stones they picked up from the valley yesterday contained Elemental Crystal, and the purity is not low.

The valley lies to the north of the wind opening; walking down the slope for two or three kilometers will reach it. Since we didn’t explore deeply last time, we have reason to suspect there might be more valuable things inside the cave.’

’Fifteenth, unclear weather outside

Let me introduce our small team; there are three of us, me, Qiaosen, and a young man nicknamed Big Head.

Qiaosen is the Magic Guided Conductor of the team, a Native, and aside from being a bit eccentric, we get along quite well.’

’Seventeenth, still unclear about the outside situation

We’ve delved into the crevice for two days; the space below is larger than we imagined.

Today, we encountered a large fault, and everyone decided unanimously to stop here and rest a bit.’

’Twentieth,

We’ve progressed several kilometers along the fault, it’s deep below.

The bad news today is we lost a small team, a four-person team; their ropes broke, and they all fell into the crack.

They might withdraw from this adventure; however, even resurrection at the nearest Resurrection Point would take at least a week to return to the forward camp. Best of luck to them.’

’Twenty-first,

We progressed several kilometers further.’

’Twenty-third,

The previous method encountered a challenge; a cliff with no foothold blocked our way.

We had to retrace our steps and find another path. This time is somewhat better; we managed to advance further.’

The remaining text is left from three days later; they encountered another dead end, and with their food supplies nearly exhausted, had to return unsuccessfully.

Below are some complaints, roughly about the weather and other people.

They returned to the camp, and those Crystal Stones they previously harvested sold for a good price, which greatly encouraged them. Not long after, the team set out again.

Altogether, they ventured underground three times, and during the last time, they found the correct way to descend beneath the crevice.

It was also this time that they discovered the treasure beneath the crevice:

’The crystal embedded in the rock walls, flickering with a dim orange glow, spreads in a banded pattern along the dark rocks across the entire cave. Even if Qiaosen didn’t say it, we understood we might have struck it rich.’

By this point in the journal, the excitement was palpable, and Fang Hong could fully imagine their exhilaration.

However, the rules of Colin Ishurian dictate that all minerals within the kingdom belong to the King. Among those found on Noble territory, apart from taxes, the King also enjoys a thirty percent profit.

Since Nogness lacks a nobility territory, the minerals found here belong to the Royal Household, and the discoverer is entitled to a substantial reward.

If a discoverer wishes to purchase a ten-year ownership of the discovered minerals, the King still claims thirty percent post-tax profits, with the remainder belonging to the mineral owner.

But before coming here, he checked the community information over the past six months regarding changes in ownership of all mines in the kingdom; none revealed any new mine discoveries.

So where did the Art of Conflict Guild and the Lizardmen obtain these Earth Origin Crystals? This was very intriguing.

He found the answer in the entry for July 11th:

”Eleventh, strong snow and wind

The Captain suppressed the news of the mineral vein discovery; we are just an Adventure Group and can’t afford such mineral ownership. The reward is but a fraction of its value.

But self-mining is clearly unrealistic, yet the Captain came up with a way: he had already contacted several nearby Guilds, who have the personnel and means to transport the materials out.

For safety, we even brought in the Lizardmen, so this way, we all can profit from the vein’s output.”

Subsequent information once more became tedious, largely just mineral daily output information, and some bookkeeping.

Perhaps if this journal leaked out, it would cause an uproar, but Invokers, who fear nothing, likely consider it insignificant.

At worst, the mine gets reclaimed, but by then, they’d have already made a fortune.

The Colin Royal Family would find it hard to hold these lawless individuals accountable; they could simply reinvent themselves as Pirates on the Sky Sea or hide in places like Saint Hugon.