Chapter 67

The End of the Mines

I feel the sensation of something shaking me, and my eyelids slowly open. A warm firelight appears in my vision. The ground feels rough under me. A decapitated monster lies close by. …A monster?

“!!”

I quickly get up. Why was I sleeping!? We are in the depths of a cavern!

“Are you awake then?”

“…! Ah, Daniela… Sorry, how long was I asleep?”

I shuddered and looked behind me. Daniela was staring at me, blood stained her cheeks.

Yes, I had asked Daniela to dismember it and my consciousness had left me as I watched… Damn it, I needed to be more careful.

“Only half an hour or so. I just woke you up, now that I am finished. Do you want to sleep some more?”

“No, I’m fine. Sorry about that… I’ll put everything in the bag, you take a break. Also…”

I wipe her cheeks with my sleeve. Now she was the same beauty that she always was. There may have been something violent, sadistic and exotic about a beautiful woman splattered in blood, but I loved Daniela as she always was.

I took out a blanket from the bag so she could lie down and rest. The cloth had become quite worn over the past few days. It would not last much longer. I wrap the assault kobold parts up and put them inside of the hollow bag.

The long, sharp claws were wrapped separately. The thin, prickly fangs were put in a leather pouch. We also took his armor after taking it apart. The black fur was rolled up and stuffed in a bag. The untanned skin was stiff but fit in the bag nonetheless. The meat…? I had no idea if it was edible. Daniela was lying on her side with her eyes closed. I didn’t want to bother her… I would just take it with us for now. The bones should at least be useful. It was amazing that the hollow bag could take all of this stuff. I could not be more grateful to Russell.

Now, we had everything we needed. Daniela is still sleeping. My side still hurts, so I think I’ll lie down a bit… It only took a few minutes for me to fall asleep once again after I lay down next to her.

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“Mm…ah, I must have fallen asleep…Asagi? Hmm?”

When I woke up, Asagi was gone. A quick scan of my surroundings did not bring him back. I frantically got up and took one step forward. And I immediately found him.

“Ggg…”

“Ah.”

He was under my foot. I had not noticed that he was right next to me. I realized just how tired he must have been.

“Sorry, Asagi…”

“I beg that you be gentler when waking me next time…”

I apologized as he rubbed at his chest and got up. Gentler next time, huh. It was good that there would be a next time. Good that we would sleep together again. Though, I wasn’t sure if it would be a peaceful sleep.

We both picked up our bags and decided to enter the hole that the assault kobold had come from. It was something that I had insisted on.

‘There should be no more danger now, and this is an opportunity to see what is at the end, is it not?’

Such had been my advice. Asagi gave me a surprised look then, but I had quite the adventurous spirit. It was a rare thing to come to a place so deep underground, and after all, this was near the dragon vein. I just knew that there would be something of interest down here, and it excited me. Leaving without seeing the end was not an option for me. There was, of course, a risk of danger, but that was part of the adventure.

The path that led away from the great hall was a single one. The kind of path that may have been dug to reach a specific place alone.

We continued on for a while after that, and then I saw that my predictions had been correct. Because Asagi and I both detected the strong presence of magic. This was clearly from the dragon vein. We look at each other and cannot help but smile. Then we run as if racing to a finish line. I ignored the shaking light of the lantern as we moved.

And then we were greeted to a most strange sight. It was a dead end. However, there were pale, purple specks of lights floating up from the ground. Once they reached the ceiling, they would vanish as if being absorbed. In the walls, there were purple chunks of what looked like some kind of ore. There was strong magic emanating from these as well. These had to be somehow related to the dragon vein. Asagi agreed, and we continued to search the area.

“Hey, Daniela. Do you know what kind of ore this is?”

“Hmm…the magic in it is tremendous. It must be a magic stone. But I have never seen one of this size before.”

“Is size the only thing that is different?”

That was a good question. Yes, they were larger than usual, but that wasn’t the root of the problem.

“This color. This dark purple is the color of dimension magic.”

“…”

More accurately, it was a bluish purple. It was a very rare color to occur in nature. After all, the natural world rarely if ever meddled in the affairs of other dimensions.

“Would anything happen if I touched it?”

“I do not know…To meddle with dimensions means to meddle with space. But as nothing has happened since we stepped foot in here, I do not think that anything will happen…”

I have lived long myself, but I have never seen ore with such a strong color. It is said that teleportation technology that used such ore had once existed. But it is now considered little more than a fairy tale.

However, Asagi seemed to think differently.

“Space…then, if we used it…we could get out of…?”

That was all he needed to mumble to let me know that he was thinking of teleporting through space. To be frank, it was dangerous. There was no guarantee that he could do it safely.

“Asagi, I would advise against it. It is too dangerous. It will be too late when you have already lost all of your limbs.”

“You’re right…it’s crazy isn’t it…”

But there was something that was not quite defeat written on his face. I wanted him to stay safe. I myself wanted to be safe. I needed these limbs to hold and to entangle. Could I live after being robbed of this? No, I think not!

“Alright, let’s go then. Just being able to see this was enough for me.”

“Aye, not many people could have come down here.”

We say, and I realize that I had also just considered the possibility of someone else coming here and taking it. We really were Adventurers. And it would take immense self-control to see such a treasure as this and leave it alone. But perhaps there really was nothing that Asagi could not beat.

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“Ggg-aaaaAAAAH!!”

“Damn it…! This, this…!!”

We covered our eyes against its monstrous power and fell to our knees. We could not win. Not against this…it was too bright…

“Ahhhhhh. My eeeeeeyyyeeees!”

“No, it is no use. It is so bright that my head hurts.”

I screeched and Daniela diagnosed herself.

We had come back to the surface after two whole weeks.

We got lost many times on our way back. Something completely unexpected had happened.

We could not have predicted that the hole moles would have created so many new paths.

We could not have predicted that they would create paths where paths already branched.

And then branch out again. In fact, there were even scratches along the walls that looked like the markings that we left but were not.

Damn. Who could have predicted that this would happen, forcing Daniela to create stairs that led all the way to the surface? All of this was the workings of the hole moles. And I never wanted to come down here again.

After going back down through the entrance a little, we came upon one of our old campsites, and so we blocked up the tunnels there. While it was just near the entrance, no one would think that it was strange, considering this was an abandoned mine. And even if they passed it and went down, they would only find boring paths that branched out.

I wonder what time it is? My eyes couldn’t handle the sky, and so I only knew that it was very bright. But I wanted to return to Spiris as soon as possible. I wanted to return and enjoy a bath at the Silver Sky Inn. I paid my extension fee not too long ago, so I should still have the room…

To be honest, my perception of time was a little foggy. I would just have to hope that Joshua would be nice about it.

“Well, let’s get going, Daniela.”

“Aye… Ahhh…my head hurts…”