Chapter 11

Royal Roader on My Own – Chapter 11: You are My First Turning Point (3)

Of course I will become a miner. In fact, I will leap past the expert miners and become the best miner.

However, now was not the right time.

I am a little disappointed I won’t get the reduced tax rate, but I can’t be penny wise and pound foolish. If I wait a little longer, I will earn something much greater.

My strength needed to be at least 70. Only then can I start the occupation quest and charge forward to earn a reward that others could not get.

“I will think about it. Anyways, senior, here is your share.”

I took out half of the 520,000 won, so 260,000 won, out of my virtual accounting, put it in a coin, and handed it over to Jonnan.

Trading in Royal Roader is quite simple. There are a bunch of empty coins in your inventory, and all you have to do is put the desired amount in one of those coins. Whether it is 1 won, 10,000 won or even 100,000,000 won, you can immediately put it into a single coin.

Jonnan shook his head in surprise.

“How could my share be so much when you did all the hard work? 150,000 won is enough for me.”

He was the same in the game. He always accepted only 150,000 won.

Of course, I knew the reason. It was because of the fear he had based on the fact that he was thrown away by Bae Doochi. He lowered his worth to not be thrown away by me as well.

However, that was the same for me. I needed to work together with Jonnan for a really long time.

In order to do that, I needed to gain his heart and not worry about material gain.

The money just helps. The more important thing is the discussion as the money changes hands.

“Senior, without your experience, I would not have been able to make such a profit. Plus, you have a lot of family members to take care of.”

“You worked close to fourteen hours in one day. On the other hand, I barely worked 6 or 7 hours. It only makes sense that your share is greater. Instead, I have a different request that I would like you to consider. How about that?”

“Please speak.”

“I want to go the long haul with you. Will you make a contract with me?”

Of course you should come in this fashion. If Jonnan did not ask first, I would have created the right environment to ask myself.

The important thing is the conditions of the contract.

It won’t be immediately, but in the not so distant future, there will be a big change. To me, to Jonnan, even to Titan Valley.

Especially Jonnan, he’ll become someone who won’t have anything to be envious about in the world. If he becomes my partner, it will naturally be that way.

I needed to set the conditions of the contract with that in mind.

First, let’s hear Jonnan’s proposal.

“Since the help I received from you was great, I will do as you ask. Please state your conditions.”

“From here on, we are on the same boat. So all earnings will be split 7:3. You will get 7 and I will get 3. In return, the duration of the contract will be 20 years. What do you think?”

The conditions were satisfactory. Except for two things.

“Is there really a reason to put a duration? Let’s just say for our whole lifetime.”

“Young man. I am 60 years old. In 20 years, I will be 80. With my body being so weak, I don’t even know if I will be alive that long.”

Don’t worry mister. I’m sure you won’t believe me, but you’ll be coming and going from the mine until you are over 90 years old.

“They say that the weak tend to live a long time. It’s not like it’ll be your loss to extend the contract duration.”

“That is true.”

“Also, you are saying that we will split the earnings 7:3 for just the things we mine in the mine right?”

“Of course. We can’t split the profit you make from doing other things.”

No matter how you looked at it, the conditions were definitely in my favor. Especially since I will stop mining in the near future.

In other words, thanks to Jonnan, I will be able to earn a lot of money for free.

Of course, Jonnan will also become the richest man in Titan Valley thanks to our contract. Of course, he would not be as wealthy as me.

It was the perfect conditions for both parties to benefit from, without needing to add or remove anything.

I reached out my hand first.

“Let’s do it as you said.”

Jonnan also smiled brightly and shook my hand.

“Hahaha. Thank you. Thank you.”

“I am the one who is thankful.”

“And take it easy. If you work that hard, your body will get damaged quickly. Money is good but you need to be healthy to work a long time.”

Honestly, I also felt like I was dying. The physical pain was severe, but the mental pain was even worse. If I continued to work like this for two to three years, my mind and body would be a complete mess like Jonnan mentioned.

However, I needed to do it like this.

In fact, I wanted to push harder. If it was possible, I would not work 14 hours, I would work even 20 hours a day.

Money wasn’t the issue. There were some benefits I could only gain by working that way. A special benefit that neither Jonnan nor Batoom even knew about.

Of course, it was a benefit I could only earn if this world was the same as the game system.

Regardless, it was a benefit I could definitely not give up on.

“I will keep that in mind.”

I answered quickly.

However, my working pattern did not change at all. I would wake up really early to go to the mine, and only returned to my temporary residence late at night.

I was an overachiever, working an average of over 14 hours a day.

It was so hard I felt like I might die, but I did everything I could to endure it.

‘I just need to get past this hardship. Let’s focus.’

Clang. Clang.

‘The end is near. At most it will be one to two months. Oosha!’

Clang. Clang.

My stats continued to increase frequently. It was at a frustratingly slow speed compared to the beginning, but it still steadily headed towards my goal.

‘Just a little more.’

Welcome messages continued to appear.

However, none of them were the news I was really waiting for. I just silently continued to swing my pickaxe.

Just like that, another month or so went by. In real time it was around 2 months, in Royal Roader time it was exactly 2 years later.

How do I know it was exactly 2 years?

It was because of a message that popped up in my head. It was the message I had been waiting for since the beginning.

“Success! It has finally been created!”

I inadvertently let out a loud howl.

It didn’t matter since I was alone in the tunnel. It was already late at night so Jonnan had already retired for the day.

Because of that, I could let out my joy without worrying about anybody else.

“My endurance is even at 5 points! Muhahahahah!”

This was the reason I worked myself to death for 14 hours a day.

The blessing of the God Hades.

This was a benefit you got for working in the mines for over 10 hours a day for 2 years. Of course, the higher your average hours worked was to 10, the higher your increase in stat.

This was something I learned after researching the dwarf race. I was trying to figure out why the battle strength of dwarfs were so amazing, and found the ‘endurance’ stat to be one of the reasons.

‘Endurance’ was a very useful and important stat.

First, the damage you receive in battle or while hunting does down based on your endurance level. If I received 100 damage, the actual damage I receive would go down 5% to 95.

In addition, it works together with your pain tolerance to increase your defense, prevents you from getting stunned, and also increase the rate at which your HP recovers.

Right now you can say it isn’t much since it is only at 5%, but the story completely changes if you raise your endurance to about 30.

Basically, I created the foundation to develop battle strength comparable to the dwarfs.

My effort for the last two years was not only to create the endurance stat. The other stats increased in large amounts as well.

[Kang Hwi Ram, Level 1]

Dexterity : Intermediate Level 8, 13%

Strength: 71

Agility: 15

Stamina: 49

Intuition: 25

Magic: 2

Vitality: 2

Mana: 8

HP: 181

Endurance: 5

Confirming my stats automatically created a smile on my face.

‘My strength is also over 70.’

Even my agility, which was at 15, could be pulled up to a decent level by leveling up and using stat boosts from equipments.

Now I’m in the safe zone. It’s time to create that turning point again.

Next morning.

I came out of my room a little later than normal. I wanted to match the time mine owner Batoom came to work.

Thanks to sleeping in, I was able to reduce a decent amount of fatigue I had gained over the days as well.

“You’re a little later than usual. Did you sleep in?”

Batoom welcomed me with a bright smile.

“Batoom-nim, I had something to tell you so I purposely matched the time you came to work.”

“Is that so? What is it you want to tell me?”

“I wish to become a miner.”

Translator : Miraclerifle

Proofreader : Miraclerifle