Chapter 115: The Mine

Inhabited by tree monsters like Ents, carnivorous monster plants, living vines, and small mushroom warriors, this green inferno also used bats and insect monsters as scouts, making it surprisingly difficult to traverse.

While not especially powerful, their attacks frequently inflict poison, paranoia, or dehydration, not to mention delirium, which often leads to abnormal feelings and strong hallucinations... Thus making the eighth floor one of those where we needed to be careful when exploring as strength was not the only factor at play,

Thankfully, there's quite a large independent community dedicated to researching these types of monsters.

Everything from the effects they inflict on the body, how to combat them, and even super specific things like the amount of fluids you can extract from certain body parts and how much of that is safe for the human body have been thoroughly studied by brave volunteers...

Floors with these types of creatures are also quite popular with retirees... Once they realize that it would be hard for them to climb the ranks further, they start looking for floors that are close to their levels and offer some benefit, this way, they can earn money while also... taking it easy...

Thanks to that, this floor ends up being one of the odd ones where its population happens to be bigger than its previous floor.

With an actual population and people not wanting to fight hard battles, this floor had a more developed settlement compared to how abandoned some of the others have felt.

There are even some stalls and stands that specialize in dealing and selling products to "help" with the effects of the monsters. There's quite a variety of products, but it's necessary to be careful when dealing with them here as there are quite a few that instead of lessening the effects just end up strengthening them, giving even stronger hallucinations.

All monsters on this floor share the same weakness to fire attacks, and so, our party had quite an easy time dealing with them.

There was only one small and cute problem happening...

Mia: "Wah! What was that?"

Ellie: "S-sorry..."

Our trusted brave archer, one to rarely miss, was completely off her game today. It wasn't just a matter of her missing her targets, there were also stray arrows flying dangerously close to the frontliners.

Everyone ended up a bit worried about this abnormal condition, and some were even speculating that she might've inhaled some sort of toxic gas.

Anna: "I don't know what you guys did yesterday, but I think you broke her..."

Miwen: "...Nah, she'll be fine... I think..."

Probably... it's just that her head is somewhere else. Even during the morning, she was completely distracted, which made Licia and I have to take care of almost everything.

I thought she would have snapped out of it by now, but I guess it takes more time for some people.

It was cute in a way, but I couldn't risk the safety of everyone else, so I decided to make this raid a quick one.

Using Claire's magic and her battery, we cleaned up quite far through the dungeon, managing to reach the level cap of 52.

The only thing left to do on this floor was to face the boss, which was no big deal for us.

The boss this time was known to be hard even for large parties at the level cap. Inside the room there are 6 mushroom knights, they are all of different colors, and liberate different kinds of toxins when attacked. All of them, except for the boss who was a [Duke], had the title of [Lord], meaning they were quite challenging individually to someone at the level cap.

When considering the gimmick of the fight, their ranks made things even harder. Only one of them can receive damage at a time and all the others are invincible until you hit the right one.

After he receives damage, he'll stop receiving damage and you'll have to hit the next one in the order...

This was the reason parties that relied on numbers struggled on this floor, without someone to do a great deal of damage at a time, you can quickly lose due to the constant flux of toxins.

Being in sync is also really important, one mistake might fuck the entire strategy you're going for.

All of that cooperation and strength might look easy to pull off, but it's important to remember that these guys are not stationary targets. They charge any enemies in front of them to attack with their swords coated in poison.

The previous record for this floor was an incredible 18 total attacks from a party of only 4 people. They brought two guys with strong Gifts that enabled very durable barriers and had a single mage dealing damage from afar to each enemy. The last person at the party was buffing everyone.

3 attacks into each enemy was all that they needed...

For us... 3 attacks were all that we needed, period.

Claire and Elizabeth make for an absurd duo, that's all I can say.

While we could progress to the next floor without problems, we had achieved the goal I set out for today, and it was only fair to give Ellie the extra time to relax and rest.

Once we were home, I claimed the kingdom points and the daily tickets available. I had used 100 of yesterday's tickets in exchange for the uncommon one, but that still left a few available to me, which I ended up using to summon spellbooks for Bea.

It was definitely a large quantity but... she lost everything that was in the kingdom during the battle between the Merchant and the Demon Queen, so I replenished it for her. It would also facilitate her studies with Elizabeth.

As for the tickets I got today... I decided to keep them for a while. It's good to have some in stock since they can be multiplied as an even reward, and I was also thinking about trying the uncommon one again... 100 tickets for a single one might look disproportional, but the skill I got was quite different from everything I had received previously, so I became interested in trying it again.

Thus, today's main goal is actually related to the kingdom points, more specifically, the special building that became available after Elizabeth became one of our citizens.

At 1000 kingdom points, the [Mine] is one of the cheapest buildings among those that were unlocked after reaching a certain prerequisite. It's also one I'm not too sure about.

I certainly know what to expect, it's pretty much in the name, but also... what would be the difference between using this building and simply... making a hole in the ground?

The last time I did something like this was the battle against the Traveling Merchant and I didn't find any metals or valuable resources, so I thought perhaps I needed the mine to add those.

And I ended up being correct. As soon as I placed it, a notification appeared asking for me to invest in a [Layer]. This [Layer] spread through the entire kingdom's underground and was a randomly generated cave system, to which the main building's entrance led to.

However, like other buildings, such as walls and houses, I could change the layout, not only of the entrance, but I had control of the cave design as well. By spending an absurd 10000 kingdom points, I could also add a second layer.

The price for adding another cave also changed, to 2000 kingdom points.

Miwen: "Well... let's take a look, shall we?"

Mia: "...Are you sure it's fine just the two of us?"

Mia: "Stop staring... you're prohibited from looking at me..."

Miwen: "...It covers pretty much the same as that time at the beach, there isn't much difference."

Mia: "Wrong, idiot. And I told you to stop looking."

Miwen: "...You do know I'm the one who does your laundry, right?"

Mia: "You're lying... wasn't it Licia?"

Kind of... it's true that Licia and Ellie help out, especially with collecting since it would be awkward for me to do it. But there's no one really in charge of doing the laundry, one of us just does it before it piles up and then we help with folding when needed.

Realizing that it was obvious that the people who were always in charge of housework were also in charge of that, Mia's eyes became teary.

Mia: "I'll start cleaning mine at the river from tomorrow on..."

Miwen: "...I'm getting rid of the river."

Mia: "I hate you..."

There's no escaping now.

Well, as much as she might complain, I kind of became desensitized to it in a way. Sure, I can tell which clothes belong to whom with just a glance, but when they're not wearing it, it becomes just a piece of cloth, I don't see as much eroticism in it as I did before.

Mia ended up choosing a cold bath, the coldest possible actually, and seemed to enjoy seeing me suffer through it. It was her little revenge, but I think it's also genuinely the temperature she likes as she might be more used to it.

Since the kingdom has an amicable temperature most of the time, she can only experience cold baths if she waits until nighttime in the kingdom, or if she comes to Earth for one.

Mia: "...So you're going to be more serious about the whole kingdom thing?"

Miwen: "...Not quite, but also not entirely wrong. I'll be looking to turn it into an actual force, but I need to make sure that it's under my control, or else, things might backfire tremendously."

Mia: "...Then what will you do?"

Miwen: "...Currently, the kingdom offers two benefits... security and freedom. Even if a citizen chooses to just live inside without doing anything, I'd give them a house, clothing, and food, and in a way, I wouldn't even be the one losing out in the situation since they would gain levels and award me kingdom points..."

Even the laziest citizen provides me with a beneficial relationship just by existing.

However, I would obviously prefer citizens who actually do some work. Any would be fine, it doesn't necessarily need to be about fighting since we don't lack power anyway.

Miwen: "...What I think the kingdom lacks to a certain extent is opportunity and luxury... I want to use you guys to set up a few of the opportunities, such as Bea and Elizabeth for teaching magic and you and Ellie for military training...

Aside from that, I'm thinking of using the quests and the favorable difficulty of monsters to entice people into staying at least a little bit in the kingdom to gain some levels. As for luxury... without an economy, there's not much we can offer, but I can still set up a few things, mostly food related..."

I can set up a few fruit trees, and I can go buy some chickens and cows, the important thing is making access to food seem relatively simple, and the kingdom stable.

This way, anyone who had a hard time will see the kingdom as an improvement in their lifestyle.

It would be great to set up a proper farm, with fields and whatnot, but I would need someone to look after it, which doesn't really work in the current state as everyone has a job fighting for me.

Mia: "I see... it's basic, but it might just be enough... There are certainly a number of people who would be interested in learning magic with Elizabeth. I don't know about training with me though, I'm not that strong..."

If we are comparing her with Elizabeth, then yes, they are in different leagues, but she's definitely strong enough to inspire others. She isn't so far from a high ranker from Earth, and even in her world, while she might've not been able to defeat an enemy general, she was pretty close to their level.

Considering her age, and all that we've experienced together, I can say for certain that Mia has a lot of potential, and so, while training with her might not look like too much for now, it will certainly be a life-changing opportunity to learn with her when she becomes stronger, be it level-wise or as a result of her developing more her fighting style through her techniques.

Mia: "Don't... play with the tail... it's sensitive..."

Miwen: "...is your whole body sensitive?"

Mia: "Less than yours, shall I prove it to you?"

While I had somewhat planned the development of the kingdom going forward, there was still one factor that I had to take care of before anything else.

And that was Elizabeth herself.

Mia: "I'll keep watching her... but I don't think you need to worry too much."

Miwen: "...Just keep reporting your conversations to me, I'll be the judge of that."

This place is too small for two monarchs as it stands. If she wants to rule below me, she's going to have to wait until the need arises.

Until then, I'll make sure she doesn't get ahead of herself and ends up giving us unnecessary trouble.

Miwen: "...And as for you..."

Mia: "...!!"

She gets caught by surprise by my sudden change in demeanor as I put some strength into my arms and forcefully plant my hand on the wall next to her.

As I approached her ears slowly, I whispered softly...

Miwen: "...You can stare at it for as long as you want, but don't forget our promise. I'll have you after I finish dealing with Hamperlon, until then, you better put up a better resistance, since I'd be troubled if a playboy snatched you away before then."

Mia: "...Who is staring, you idiot!? If you are finished, then get out already!"

While I ended up getting only hate stares from her after that, seeing her so embarrassed under the shower was well worth it.