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Through the magnifying glass, Hopps carefully examined the silver ore in his hand, constantly rotating it in the sun and studying it from all angles.

After a while, he determined the texture of the ore through a strange reflection.

"Mithril, purity is more than half." He muttered to himself, put the ore into a wooden box on his left hand, and picked up a piece from the pile of ore in front of him and observed it carefully.

A few minutes later, he shook his head, muttered "silver ore", and threw the ore into a rattan basket in the distance.

This obvious difference in treatment comes from the huge difference in value between the two ores. Silver ore is worthless. Even if it is refined into pure silver, it can only be used to cast silver coins. The silver ore that he threw away can be refined into pure silver equivalent to less than ten silver coins. Considering the cost of refining and casting, this thing is worth no more than two silver coins.

Two silver coins are really not a big number for Hopps. Usually, when he treated his friends to a simple meal, the amount was often more than this.

But it was different for mithril ore. Even if the ore was a lower-valued acquired mithril ore, the price would be calculated in gold coins after it was refined. Generally speaking, it was roughly one gold coin per gram. The piece he just put into the wooden box could extract about 40 to 50 grams of mithril, which was equivalent to 40 to 50 gold coins!

If this was an innate mithril ore, it would be even more incredible. It would be worth at least 200 gold coins. If it was made into a finished product, it might be worth 500 gold coins or even more, which was higher than his monthly salary.

Different worth, naturally different status.

Just like doing the same ore dressing work, the people in their exploration team could only help the two appraisal masters, helping the masters to pre-select materials and select mithril ore from silver ore. The masters were responsible for selecting the innate mithril ore from the mithril ore.

Different jobs led to different worth, which also led to different status.

The combined salary of seven or eight ore-selecting workers like Hops is about the same as that of a master, and that's because they receive a special field allowance from the Northwest Republic. Otherwise, according to the standards of the Gold Coin Federation, it might be equivalent to a fraction of what others get.

But Hops is not dissatisfied. You get what you pay for. They only have such great skills, so naturally they can only have such a high income and such a high status.

For example, now, if a piece of innate mithril ore and a piece of acquired mithril ore are placed in front of him, he really can't tell them apart no matter how hard he tries.

The most reliable way to distinguish these two kinds of ores is to use magic. As long as the primary spell "Identification" is advanced, you can accurately distinguish between innate mithril and acquired mithril.

However, the advanced identification is an extraordinary magic technique, which generally requires high-level wizards to do. Let a high-level wizard consume a lot of magic power every day to identify a few pieces of ores? The advanced identification spell consumes a lot of magic power. An ordinary high-level wizard can only cast it five or six times a day, and can identify two or three pieces of mithril ore each time... Do you know how much it costs to hire such a wizard to cast a spell?

If there is no special relationship, the market price is about a thousand gold coins for one advanced identification spell...

Compared with this, the salary of the identification master is nothing.

So Hopes's friend Cambronne has advised him more than once to practice hard while he is young and strive to practice to a high-level druid. By then, he will have money and status, how great!

Among the void gods believed in by the Northwest Republic, the God of Agriculture particularly favors druids. At present, more than 20 high-level druids have joined his command, and there are not many priests in his church, so the casters are mainly druids.

The God of Agriculture promotes the advancement of agricultural technology, allowing people to get more resources from limited arable land, which greatly reduces people's damage to nature and has won the praise and support of most druids. Especially the druids who advocated "harmonious coexistence between man and nature" regarded him as an idol. Almost the entire faction came to him, making his church grow stronger all of a sudden.

At present, in the world, when it comes to learning the knowledge and skills of druids, the most reliable way is to come to the Northwest Republic and join the church of the god of agriculture.

Hopps has a good talent for natural magic, which means that he can indeed develop in the direction of druids. But he himself has no intention in this regard. If possible, he would rather be a ranger.

There are many things that druids pay attention to, for example, they cannot kill living beings in pursuit of delicious food; for example, they should use as few seasonings as possible when eating, and strive for simplicity; for example, they cannot wear woven clothes, and cannot use metal weapons or protective gear; for example, they cannot live in a prosperous city for a long time, and cannot participate in luxurious banquets or celebrations... and so on.

It's not that Hopps can't do these, but he doesn't want to do so.

Only those who truly yearn for nature, hate red tape, are not interested in prosperity and enjoyment, and focus on inner peace can become druids. He is not that kind of person.

"... Silver ore again!" Hopps threw another piece of ore into the wicker basket in the distance, feeling a little tired, stood up and stretched his body, went to the pool to wash his hands, and took a casual walk in the camp.

Mineral processing is a delicate job that requires concentration. If the state is not good, it will affect work efficiency and work quality. So after working for a period of time, you have to take a break, move around, and take a walk.

Seeing his carefree appearance, the workers from the Gold Coin Federation showed envious eyes.

There are many different practices between the Northwest Republic and the Gold Coin Federation. For example, in terms of worker treatment, the workers of the Gold Coin Federation are treated far worse than those of the Northwest Republic. The difference is not only in money, but also in each other's status.

For example, in this joint exploration team, there are also mineral processing workers sent by merchants from the Gold Coin Federation, but when they are tired, they can't take a walk and rest like this. They can only lie in the tent and sleep for a while, and then continue to work.

Although each other's income is linked to the workload, Hopps and others are not required to select a certain amount of ore every day. If they don't care about the reduction in income, it's okay to rest for a few days, anyway, the basic allowance can always be obtained. But the workers of the Gold Coin Federation are different. If they fail to complete the basic workload that must be completed every day, they will not get the full salary of the day, but will have a large part of it deducted.

Their wages are already far less than those of their counterparts in the Northwest Republic. If they are deducted again, it will be difficult to even support their families.

What's worse is that their daily basic workload is calculated based on the most skilled workers. Ordinary workers can only work overtime to complete this level of workload.

So no matter how much they envy Hopes, they can't follow suit.

Rest? They don't have the capital to rest.

"I always feel that the Gold Coin Federation's approach is a bit familiar to me..." Sui Xiong floated in the air invisibly, staring at the camp below, scratching his chin with his hand, thinking silently, "Where have I seen this kind of thing? In life? Or on the Internet?"

"Anyway... It feels terrible!"

Today's basic update is completed, and the extra chapter will be updated in the evening.