I cleaned up the Kadinite nicely and was satisfied to come out.
With this amount, I could easily outfit the weapons for both the Lizard Squad and the Orc Warrior, and still have plenty left. Of course, we’d need our own mined Mana Stones.
“Ke-heh— Hek—”
‘… Is it really that hard? Or are you just pretending to be tired…’
I said, giving Ddung-i’s back a good slap while he lay flat on the ground, gasping for air.
(Thanks, dude.)
(…Cough…)
Seeing his ears turn red from my praise, it seemed he wasn’t used to compliments.
Yeon-hee and the party were turning the Kadinite they brought around and gasping in awe.
“This is good even for my resistance… Just reading the description makes it seem fantastic! How much could we sell this for?”
“Who knows? But Il-wol usually brings back expensive stuff…”
“Wow— It’s time for me to outfit a weapon too— Wow—”
‘You’ve got a pretty decent weapon already, what do you need more for?’
It’s not just empty words. The sword Baek Ah-rin was holding had quite a bit of value. Still, that greedy rabbit was repeating the same line like a parrot.
“It’s time for me to outfit a weapon— Wow— Waaaah—”
Ah-rin’s eyes sparkled, not hiding her greed for the rare minerals.
In fact, the amount we mined now could be shared among the party without anyone noticing, and I could afford a small dagger’s worth to distribute a bit.
‘But of course, I need to collect my dues.’
In the end, we agreed to deduct the value of the minerals from today’s settlement.
“Woooo! This is amazing! It’s a total festival today!!”
Ah-rin danced joyously, and Eun-young and Joo-ah showed great interest in the minerals they had just seen.
Despite having purchased them with their own party funds, they didn’t forget to thank me.
Either way, the four of them seemed endlessly fascinated as they explored every nook and cranny of the ores, laughing continuously. Maybe it’s because they were nice, but even the shy Eun-young joined the fun.
Being of a similar age group, it was quicker for them to get close.
– You have discovered and mined the rare mineral ‘Kadinite’!
– Achievement [Beginner Miner] has been acquired!
Beginner Miner
– Mining speed within the mine increases by 20%.
‘Achievements pop up so quickly. Is it just me, or has there been a message delay with the system lately?’
I don’t really understand what this means.
The Beginner Miner achievement didn’t give me much of a thrill since I had obtained it before, but my mood was definitely better than the first time, as now I knew the value of this achievement from personal experience.
Looking around to see if anything had changed, I noted that aside from the noticeably larger tunnels within the walls, everything remained unchanged.
Small tunnels spreading out like an ant’s nest.
‘… It feels a bit uneasy…’
I tried to ignore the rising anxiety and moved beside Yeon-hee. It was time to leave this place.
As I approached, she greeted me with a sunny smile, leaned in close, and whispered sweetly in my ear.
(Thank you, Il-wol. I’m always sorry for receiving so much.)
Zing—
Her brief whisper shot a little jolt through my heart.
‘Ugh… If I had a heart, I might’ve died.’
I melted at the feeling and lingered in her gaze for a moment when suddenly, I noticed a group approaching us.
‘What’s this…? Kobolds? Why are they surrounding us all of a sudden? Why are they so fast?’
I had gotten careless for just a moment, but this was a speed we could hardly avoid.
‘There’s a lot of them… I could break through back the way we came, but there’s one risk factor… What should we do?’
“Clap!!”
At my urgent signal, everyone rushed to the entrance of the mine.
“What’s going on? What are these guys? That unique sound… I think they’re Kobolds.”
As expected, Baek Ah-rin also noticed their presence. But it was strange. As I remembered, I’d never heard of Kobolds appearing in this dungeon, or in this mine specifically. Is this some change due to a singularity?
Moments later, from the small tunnels drilled into the mine walls, Kobolds started to show themselves one by one.
It looked like there were over 400 of them. Where the heck did so many Kobolds come from? I was sure there had been none in my sensory range before we entered.
Anyway, when they approached us, they were undoubtedly riding something with wheels. That meant there must have been some means of transportation outside my sensory range that could reach this place.
“Have we been here too long? The mine’s owner showed up.”
“It’s only been 30 minutes… They just appeared all of a sudden!”
“I’m glad they’re just regular Kobolds like Ddung-i.”
“……”
The Kobolds that showed up were not mutants or big Kobolds, nothing more dangerous than ordinary Kobolds.
No matter how many there are, I wouldn’t be scared if hundreds of regular Kobolds attacked. But there was one thing… they could put us in a predicament, so we couldn’t let our guard down.
‘These guys live in the mine, so they must know how to collapse this place if things go wrong.’
Having seen Ddung-i’s abilities as a mine specialist, I sharpened my focus on their actions.
However, the Kobolds crawled out from the walls and stood in a line on the shallow cut path, just staring at us for a long time without taking any further action.
-??
We narrowed our heads in confusion and suddenly shifted our gaze to Ddung-i, who was standing next to us.
Ddung-i was facing them with a surprisingly serious expression, quite unlike his usual dopey demeanor.
“……”
“……”
In a sudden standoff, an old Kobold with a scruffy white beard stepped forward from the cluster. He spoke something to Ddung-i, who responded in defense to the elderly Kobold.
‘What’s going on here…’
Since it was not the language usually used by summoned creatures, I had no idea what they were talking about. However, the fact that they were communicating was a positive signal.
We all stood puzzled, resting our hands on our weapons’ grips, simply watching this rare sight.
After a moment of shouting back and forth, the two Kobolds eventually turned their backs. The elder Kobold briefly glanced back at me, and I didn’t shy away from his gaze.
In his eyes, I could see unrestrained fear intertwined with greed. I understood the fear, being clearly weaker than us, but the greed…
‘… Kadinite? Is it because of this?’
When I raised the mineral in my hand slightly, I felt the old Kobold flinch.
‘Hmm… So that’s it…’
Soon, the Kobold that appeared to be the leader signaled, and the ensuing swarm of Kobolds disappeared back into the tunnels.
-Drreee
I could hear the sound of Kobolds struggling to drag something up.
‘Did they come down riding a cart for the minerals? Oh, what a sight to see.’
Considering the height of the stairs we came down, it was hard to imagine what they could have ridden down on, but they started making their way back the way they came, groaning and grunting.
……
“Hey, Ddung-i. What’s going on right now?”
This was genuinely unexpected for us— they came charging in and then retreated just like that.
The moment they disappeared, I quickly asked Ddung-i what was happening, and he replied with a groan.
Dduung-?
(Huh? This is ridiculous.)
I felt a sense of helplessness and a bit of annoyance from his clumsy act.
(Ah! Don’t play dumb, you idiot! You’re dead today!)
I wrapped my arms around Ddung-i’s legs, twisting them to force him to speak, but he held his mouth shut firmly even while grimacing in pain.
Keh-ek—
“Stop it, Il-wol. You’re gonna break my arms.”
“……”
It was only when Yeon-hee called for a halt that I finally loosened my hold, only to suddenly recall Ddung-i’s unexpected outburst when the blue-eyed deity conducted the ritual.
‘Hmm… Looks like this guy has a story too… Damn! Why do I care!’
With no reason to linger in the mine any longer, we returned and on the way back, Yeon-hee asked Ddung-i if we could take over the mine.
‘Why even bother… just tell her what you were talking about earlier, Ddung-i.’
Ddung-i vigorously nodded at Yeon-hee’s question, wearing an expression as if asking why she’d even ask. Looking at his face, it seemed as if he thought of the mine as his.
“This Kobold is suspicious…”
“Hmm…”
“I’ll ask about it later… probably has something to do with Dominance…”
Yeon-hee swallowed the last part, but I heard her clearly.
‘Dominance… Do I need to increase my dominance to compel them to answer? That’s a ridiculous stat.’
We climbed back up to the dungeon, each pondering our questions, and fired off a flare to notify the management office.
‘Maybe the fight earlier was about ownership… They might think they’re doing their best in their own way.’
Was it because we took the mine from them, or did they find it around the same time as us… No, that doesn’t seem right.
Anyway, I had an instinct that the target they coveted was Kadinite.
Small questions kept leading to more, but since there was no answer, I decided to stop thinking about it.
After an hour, the management office staff showed up, and registering the mine didn’t turn out to be that complex a process.
We were still in a festive mood when they arrived, but the employee’s unusually calm demeanor made things somewhat awkward.
“Finding a mine isn’t a common occurrence, right? That person is so composed.”
“Yeah. They’ll probably handle it properly, right?”
“Yeon-hee, I will report on the progress daily… So don’t worry! ”
“I-I don’t think that’s necessary…”
“Absolutely! Since I’ve received so much, I feel like I have to do something!”
In just one day, Yeon-hee had become the one in charge, and she fidgeted with her fingers in embarrassment.
The bureaucratic process was quicker than expected, but the delay made it a little tricky to tackle the boss stage afterward. It felt more anxiety-inducing to think we might not be able to participate in the raid than to fear being out at night.
“Let’s hurry up. We need to finish this today!”
Baek Ah-rin seemed uninterested in going into this dungeon again.
Agreeing with her, we ran diligently toward the wolf den where the boss battle was to take place. Or rather, the summoned creatures did the running, while the four of us comfortably hitched a ride.
Initially, they hesitated to ride on the backs of the fearsome-looking Lizardmen and Orc Warriors, but within just a few minutes, they realized there was no better luxury than this.
Eun-young especially enjoyed it, repeating, “So comfortable… too comfortable…”
Thanks to the summoned creatures taking turns carrying our party, I was able to pick up the speed while carrying Yeon-hee, and when we finally arrived at the wolf den, we were not late at all.
“Il-wol… you can let me down now…”
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