The machines worked like real monsters in front of Arthur's eyes. They kept digging the dirt and exposing the depth of Earth non-stop.
With time, the ore layer started to come clear to their eyes. The Gruben ore run deeply in thick veins from the mountain to the depth of the ground.
"So it's like what Sara said," Arthur muttered while watching Agnus directing workers to expose more of the ore without scratching its surface.
He didn't want to lose anything if possible. So he tried to find the edges of these veins to extract ores from them with the least losses.
"It's starting!" After around an hour, they finally found the edge of the veins. It wasn't them who discovered it, but the distant workers digging the Earth to lay down the foundations of the city.
"The veins are so thick to even reach there! That's awesome!" Arthur flew there and examined the veins exposed. He felt great happiness while assessing the grand scale of this hidden mine.
It was enormous! Just the mountain surface alone was enough to make tons of coins for his empire.
And now adding these veins, things seemed secured for his empire's future.
"Let's take it out," As Agnus finally found what he was looking for, he didn't hesitate to issue the order to everyone around.
Arthur mistook this for starting to dig the ores out, but they all turned into the portals again to bring the great ovens that Agnus built.
"I don't want to risk losing anymore due to our unreadiness," he said to Arthur when he noticed his weird look.
"Cool," Arthur waited for such a long time so waiting for more minutes wouldn't harm. But the wait stretched out to reach another hour.
Agnus and his workers didn't leave the ovens alone. Once taken out, they started to lay down at their workplace. They ignited fire and worked on the ovens to be ready.
"I'll leave them to work over the ore," Agnus came to Arthur before adding, "but I'll work on the molds of the coins. What drawing do you want there on its surface?"
Arthur was surprised before he understood what Agnus meant. Without hesitation Arthur answered: "A dragon!"
"Works for me," Agnus said before he started to work on the mold. On the other side his workers started to work in two teams. The blacksmiths were responsible for the ovens, while the workers sent by Deem and Gor were responsible for operating the machines.
It looked very organized. But Arthur was more interested in the mold that Agnus was making. It was a very broad one, extending beyond ten meters in length and width.
It was made up of rubber like material, one that could sustain the intense heat of the melted liquid.
Agnus used rounded metal to make indentations inside the mold before he grabbed a fine steel needle and started to inscript drawings and writings over it.
"What's the name of our empire, lord?" all of sudden and as Agnus was totally absorbed in working and Arthur was lost in watchhing, Agnus asked.
"Well... call it the Hope Empire," Arthur thought about the suitable name for a long moment. He never thought about giving his empire a good name before.
As he learnt about many secrets of this universe, he decided to call it Hope. As a symbol to what his empire stood for.,
He wanted to give hope for all the people living under the skies of this universe. Hope to break free from all shackles and make sure to soar to the heavens.
He didn't like how things are in this universe. After learning all these secrets, he was quite sure that the people living here, including those on the dark side, were all fooled by the actions of the world's wills.
These world's wills held great secrets. What happened to his original after eating the flower made him realize things were much deeper than they looked.
He could already sniff dirty hands playing and messing with the universe. So his empire would stand tall and act mighty against all these foul deeds.
He would revive hope again and clear all the dirt over the eyes of those living in this universe.
"Nice name, lord," Agnus also liked the name despite not knowing what Arthur knew.
In the next hour, Agnus worked not only on this mold but on many others. He worked diligently until ten big molds were formed.
The molds didn't all have the same design. In fact half had one design of a dragon and another had another design with the word 'Hope Empire' written clearly there.
"Why do you have two different kinds of molds?" Arthur couldn't help but ask once Agnus finished.
"As I got the idea from the lady, I'll have to put two molds against each others to make the coin ready," he said before adding, "the coin will have two sides, each will have two different engravings to add more prestige to it."
"I like it!" Arthur said in honesty, "start working now."
"Thanks for lord's generosity," Agnus bowed before leaving to watch the work of his two groups.
The ovens were already ready. Their hearts turned white from the intense temperature of the fire. As for the workers extracting ores, they already got out three large pieces of ore covered with dust.
The dust layer was so thick that it prevented Arthur from seeing the shiny and beautiful surface of the Gruben ore. But that was the point, as the dirt would act as an insulator to protect the precious ore inside.
As Agnus expected, the ore was kept safe inside this thick layer of dirt. However, that also meant more work for his men.
"Let's go boys," he finally gave the order for his men to start working on melting the ore, "don't let a speck of dust remain there. Remove all impurities and work as hard as you can."
Per Agnus orders, the workers started to move one giant piece of ore towards the place of ovens.
"How is he going to cut them down?" Arthur waited on the side and watched in anticipation.
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