Everything is ready, so we are going to the Avid dungeon.
I have a sword hanging from my waist, and mining tools in hand.
“Aren’t you getting too worked up, Sora?”
Says an exasperated Mia, and the others smile awkwardly.
Is it that strange? No, it’s normal for adventurers to go out looking like me.
“Well, let’s just go. If we take too long, we won’t find a good open spot.”
The Avid dungeon changes periodically, so it’s full of monsters, but once they’re defeated, it’s calm.
A mithril golem appeared in the last change, so there was quite a frenzy until a few days ago.
Mithril golems are tough and quick, so they are hard to hunt, but it was taken down by Ale and Ironhammer.
“So where are we going, Sora?”
“Hold on, I’ll check now.”
I open Map and check for reactions. By using Magic Energy Detection, I can see big and small dots on it.
If these are people… Is this ore?
Ore has a minute amount of magic energy inside.
Okay, there isn’t anyone over here, so we should go there first.
We tried to come here early, but apparently we’re actually pretty late, and we have to walk quite a bit.
“I’ll take point, so follow me.”
I keep using Appraisal while walking. It’s useful, because I can instantly see where there’s ore.
If the reaction is faint, does that mean it’s buried deep?
We pass by a few adventurers mining along the way, and the sounds echo through the tunnel.
I see a lot of adventurers have hammers, not swords. Apparently swords don’t work too well on golems, so they modify these hammers so they can be used for fighting and mining.
Should I get one too?
But… As we pass by adventurers, I notice they’re all muscular. Some are really buff.
Is this because you need physical strength to mine?
But some of them aren’t mining. Are they guards watching out for monsters? No, it looks like the ones mining work in turns.
Unlike other dungeons, the mood around here is pretty harmonious, not brutal.
Maybe they know each other, because they exchange information about what they mined.
Come to think of it, there were papers pasted in the guild about trading ore, so if they can’t gather it, they could do that as a last resort.
“Master, here?”
“Yes, and…”
“I know. Trust your intuition and mine!”
It’s not the most effective way, but it’s best to do it freely.
Even if the others don’t mine anything, I can make up for it.
Anyway, first, I’ll be mining with Hikari and Mia, while Rurika, Sera, and Chris act as guards.
It’s said there aren’t many monsters in the dungeon after a change, but that doesn’t mean the number is zero.
I start hitting the wall right away, and it breaks. It’s normally impossible to destroy dungeon walls, so this feels weird.
Mining reminds me of the mining town Alessa. I mined there too. It wasn’t a dungeon, and there were few monsters, but it feels nostalgic now.
“Won’t there be a cave-in if we mine in a place like this?”
“Sora, don’t scare me.”
“Uu, sorry.”
It’s a good question though.
“Apparently there aren’t any cave-ins on the first two floors.”
“Which means there are on the third, right?”
Chris already looked this up.
“Of course big sister Chris knows.”
Hikari praises Chris while hitting the wall as hard as she can.
Unfortunately, she hasn’t found any ore, but she should find something if she keeps digging in that direction.
After ten minutes, Hikari finds ore. There’s a different sound, and something that clearly looks different peeks from the wall.
“Master, I found it!”
She sounds really happy. After all, she kept digging despite not knowing if there was anything there.
It’s something I can’t experience, because Appraisal tells me what’s buried where.
Well, I could just not use it.
Hikari finds more after that, and looks pleased.
Mia on the other hand, found nothing.
“Do you want me to tell you?”
“We can take it easy. And I’m liking seeing Hikari so happy.”
“Yes. It feels nice to find it on your own.”
After about an hour, it’s the others’ turn.
We stand watch, but while there are reactions of people nearby, there are no monsters.
Also, when I look at Map, I see the shape of the dungeon is different. It’s because of all the mining.
“Master, I’m getting hungry.”
Says Hikari while rubbing her stomach, about an hour after we switched.
“Yes, it’s lunchtime.”
I lay a soft sheet on the rugged floor, start a fire, and put an iron plate on the fire.
“I think it will be all right, but…”
I think this dungeon is like the others in that it won’t fill with smoke, but still…
Once the iron plate is hot, I line up wolf meat to make simple steaks.
I also take soup, bread, and salad from the Item Box. It’s important to keep a good balance.
The sound of the meat roasting echoes, and the smoke rises. Yes, it’s being sucked into the ceiling.
And just as we’re about to eat…
“Hn? Sora? What are you doing?”
Asks a somewhat amazed Herc.
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Thanks for the treat.