Chapter 114 Mine Dungeon Exploration (1)



Ka-clank!

The loud voice continued to echo.

I was now inside the mine dungeon.

My hand held the pick very firmly. Then the muscles in my body began to contract. After lifting the pick high enough, I dropped the pick onto the magic stones in front of me.

Ka-clank!

A loud sound echoed out again.

Sweat drenched my entire body as I continued to mine.

Drip! Drip! Drip!

One-two-three, drop after drop of sweat poured out of the pores of my skin. My sweat dripped onto the dungeon floor.

I continued to hit the chunks of magic stone stuck to the dungeon wall using my pick.

Along with my efforts in hitting the magic stones with the pick, the sweat on my body also flowed more and more.

It wasn't just me, the other slaves were also doing the same thing. There were already many slaves around me who were mining with picks in their hands.

You could hear the effort they were putting in from the number of hard-hitting sounds they were making.

With every loud crashing sound, the light from the magic stones also comes out.

In addition to the light moss that helps illuminate the dungeon, there was also light from a magic stone that gushed out and illuminated the entire dungeon. So, even without a flashlight, the lighting here was very adequate.

Clang!

The sharp tip of the pick in my hand struck the magic stones and made them shake slightly. 

If it's just one hit, the magic stones won't be cut right away. I have to do it several times if I want to cut the magic stones.

Magic stones are the same as magic crystals.

However, magic stones are used to refer to magic crystals that are obtained by mining from mine dungeons, while magic crystals are used for those obtained from killing monsters.

However, the level of hardness between magic stones and magic crystals is the same.

The hardness of magic stones was very hard. It was already a common story. The hardest mineral on earth, as far as I know, was diamond. And the hardness level of magic stones was also like that.

Even though the level of strength possessed by the slaves mining here is different from the strength of ordinary humans out there, but, we still have to try very hard just to mine a few magic stones.

If diamonds can only be cut using other diamonds, then magic stones was same.

Therefore, at the end of the pick that I and the other slaves were held, there was a shard of magic stone applied.

Of course, there are some cases where magic stones can be destroyed using external forces that exceed the durability limit of magic stones. But it is not easy to do so.

For example, one would have to use a magic spell that consumes a lot of Mana, and then split the magic stones.

Instead of using the hard way, Marquess Stronghold used slaves as free mining tools.

Therefore, it was inevitable that there would be some slaves who would complain. Especially if it was a new slave.

One of the slaves near me stopped mining. He looked right and left to see if there were any poor soldiers watching.

When he saw that there were no poor soldiers, he let go of the pick in his hand so that the pick fell to the floor. He also dropped his butt to the floor and sat down just like that.

"Hey, do you know why there are no monsters here? Isn't this inside a dungeon?"

He suddenly asked me.

Unlike him, I was still mining.

When I heard his question, I looked up as if I was thinking hard to find an answer.

"Maybe because we're still at the mouth of the dungeon?"

Like I said, we weren't currently mining too far into the mine dungeon.

Even so, we were split into groups to mine in several places at the mouth of the dungeon.

That was the underlying reason why there were no poor soldiers here. Because they were watching elsewhere. Only occasionally did they walk over to see if we were working properly or not.

"Is that all?"

"Another reason? Probably because the monsters in this place are always cleared by the raid team."

At least that's what I heard from Bubble before.

He said that every day there would always be a raid team consisting of magicians and warriors from outside who would attack the monsters inside here.

Unexpectedly, the people I had been talking about showed up.

The slaves who had been busy mining magic stones stood still.

They stared at the figures of the people who had just come from the entrance of the dungeon.

This dungeon, from the mouth of the dungeon entrance to this place, was very similar to an ordinary cave.

Most mine dungeon concepts are like this.

Just an ordinary cave.

Most mine dungeons had no entrance. It was as if the mine dungeon was just a closed cave. 

This mine dungeon was the same. The entrance to this mine dungeon was also made manually. But, the inside of this dungeon had no trace of human intervention. Except for some magic stones that were mined.

"Tsk! This place still stinks as usual."

"Just endure it for a while. How long are you going to keep complaining?"

"I hope we finish our task soon!"

I saw that there were a few people from them who came here. There were approximately ten people. There were men and women. 

Interestingly, they were all wearing very complete equipment. On the bodies of some of them were full body armors that hugged almost all of their bodies. 

The light from their full body armor almost seemed to rival the light from the magic stones and light moss in this dungeon.

In their hands were various weapons. Some held swords, shields, and magic staffs, and some held daggers. Their composition as a team was complete.

Unmistakably, they were a party of adventurers who used to explore dungeons. There were those in charge of taking the position of Tank, Magician, and Swordsman, and there were those who held the position of Assassin.

They were clearly an adventurer party under the Marquess Stronghold, not an adventurer party that was purely affiliated and working for the Adventurer's Association.

The one who was always complaining was the one holding the sword at his waist. He was someone who filled the Attacker position as a Swordsman. 

"What are you looking at!? Get to work!"

He shouted and scolded the slaves.

I also went back to pretending to mine while still occasionally watching him.

Swoosh!

Suddenly he kicked a small pebble on the dungeon floor.

The target he aimed at was the slave beside me who was still sitting. He didn't have time to stand up when the party adventurer arrived.

As a result, he was rewarded with a hard pebble kick to the temple. A red color burst out on his temple. Not because he was frowning at his temple, but because blood was dripping from it.

"Kuh!"

He only endured the pain. He then managed to stand up with difficulty and continued mining magic stones without daring to complain. 

At least he didn't fight back like a fool.

After finishing taking care of the slave beside me, that person strangely walked up to me.

At first, I thought he was coming to the slave beside me and was going to chew him up, but I was wrong.

He was clearly looking at me. His mouth opened slightly as if he had just found the item he had been looking for.

"Hmm. Are you the slave named Mesties?"

"..."

"Oh, seeing that you're silent, it looks like I was right."

I stopped mining. 

Putting the pick to the floor, I looked at him with a small smile. I tried to come up with the same expression when I was dealing with my boss at work.

"Is there anything I can help you with?"

"As per the information given to us, you look very conspicuous compared to the other slaves. It was not difficult to identify you. As expected of a noble child."

He smiled and looked at me, but then he added, "Oops! I meant former noble child since you have become a slave now. Isn't that so?!"

He covered his mouth as if he had blurted out inappropriate words. But, from the look in his eyes, I could already tell that he was insulting me.

"Hohoho. Are you curious who gave us that information?"

Actually, I wasn't curious. 

I could already guess that he received the information about me from the two soldiers who came to the Nest of Slavery with me from Marquess Stronghold's castle.

"Then, let's welcome the person who gave us the information about you!"

Coming from behind the crowd of the adventurer party, there were two soldiers in sight.

They appeared from the entrance of the dungeon. 

My guess was correct. 

They were the two soldiers who had escorted me to the Nest of Slavery.

When I activated Judgement Skill on both of them, I was able to find out their names. The two of them were Obud and Hory.

However, what made me a little confused was that there was one more person who seemed to appear. I was familiar with his face. After a little effort, my brain managed to remember him.

His name was Fidel, a rank B adventurer who I had fought in the Adventurer's Association.