system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5 How did mankind discover metal?

This has always bothered me. Like how did ooga booga caveman discover that if you heat up yellow rock you get better ooga booga axe. Pls explain I'm going insane.

Edit: Thank you everyone for answering now I can sleep well.
gpt
We would find out naturally that clay left out in the sun would harden.

Putting said clay into a fire would do the same thing, but quicker and produce a more hardened clay that did not revert back when wet (as opposed to just sundried clay).

Clay might have impurities in it, such as trace amounts of ore that, in a hot enough fire, would melt the metal and leak out, which would turn very hard when cooled.

Find concentrated or larger deposits of these impurities and do the same, and you get more of this harder substance.