CH 166

Published by HidamarisouView all posts by Hidamarisou7-8 minutes

I end up just hitting it directly with a hammer. I tried using a chisel too, but I couldn’t really get enough momentum to mine well.

I thought I was more skilled than this, but oh well.

As I keep mining with my hammer, rock birds appear again. It’s like they’re here to complain about the noise. Like I’m bothering the neighbors.

I guess these weird thoughts are popping into my head because I’m excited about the rare ore I keep finding.

Conversely, Sera and the others look serious as they fight rock birds.

Sera, Chris, and Mia are guarding me, although Sera is also defending the two sorcerers, so she’s the main defender. The monsters are pretty close inside their effective range too, so Chris mostly fires wind magic, and Mia supports her with holy arrows.

And while the monsters’ attention is drawn to the magic, Hikari and Rurika sneakily take down the ones that evade the magic attacks.

They also use throwing knives to expertly predict the monsters’ movements and strike them down. Could I do that too? With a skill correcting my aim, probably.

There’s too much ore I want, so it would take me way too much time to get it all. I’m just going to keep doing it until the hammers I’m using break.

I’m surprised when I manage to find mithril, even if it’s just a little bit, and not even enough to make a dagger.

Magic ore and magic crystals are probably among the rarest things I can mine in decent quantities. And I’m assuming magic ore is used for weapons, while magic crystals for things like accessories.

“Sora, don’t use Appraisal while we walk.”

I’m warned as we leave.

I guess it’s true that I wouldn’t be able to control myself if I saw rare ore like mithril. I broke these hammers, but I can turn the broken pieces back to ore and remake them.

Still, I kind of want to stay and mine more, but our number one priority right now is to find the staircase. We have plenty of resources, but walking around and staring at this rocky mountain scenery that never changes is starting to take a toll on our minds.

We’ve actually been here for six days.

Our saving grace is that we’ve been able to find places where people can rest, like blind spots and places too tight for rock birds to reach.

The dirt I bought in the merchant guild and stocked in my Item Box is helping too. The hard rock surface wouldn’t be comfortable when we sleep, so instead I lay out bags stuffed with dirt. It’s not really what these are for, but what matters is that it helps.

“Master, are we going to hunt more rock birds?”

“You really are fired up, Hikari. Is that just your youth speaking?”

I said that without thinking, and the smiles pointed at me are scary.

Everyone looks tired except for Hikari. Actually, Sera looks more fed up than tired.

“Master, words can bring disaster.”

Yep, you’re right Hikari.

I sincerely apologize.

But do girls in this world care that much about their age before they even turn twenty? Apparently people are considered somewhat independent when they turn twelve, so I guess it really doesn’t work the same way it did in my world.

“Ahh… It’s probably not going to be easy tomorrow either, so let’s rest up.”

I don’t think we’ll be attacked by rock birds, but we have to watch out for more than just monsters.

That means we’ll be taking turns keeping watch as always.

This time, Mia and I are the last ones to stand watch.

I look at Map and see the other adventurers on this floor are also resting. Maybe they tried not to get too close to us because of all the noise. They’d probably think we were up to something if they did come across us.

They might even think I was banging on rocks with a hammer to purposefully attract rock birds.

It got colder when the sun went down, so Hikari and the others are sleeping under thick blankets. We don’t have enough materials to keep the fire going all the time.

This is the one problem I have with floors that have a day night cycle. And we don’t even get to stock up on firewood like on the fifth floor.

Maybe I should bring it in the Item box too, like I did with dirt.

“What are you making?”

Asks Mia when she sees me preparing an item.

I just got magic crystals, so I’m making something I’ve been meaning to make for a while.

I need magic stones too… I’ll use the ones from the goblin kings.

“I want to make an item for you and Chris.”

I combine a magic crystal and magic stone with Alchemy.

The magic stone was about the size of my fist, but it shrunk to about two centimeters in diameter. Is it more concentrated now? I don’t know why that happened, but there’s really no use thinking about it, so I move on to the next step.

I follow the recipe on the Creation skill, and the bright red magic stone turns blue. Its luster kind of makes it look like a jewel.

“Pretty…”

Mia looks at it intently, and I talk to her about the design. I’ll talk to Chris when it’s time to make hers.

I can’t make something original because I don’t have the artistic talent for that, so I’ll copy what I remember from my original world. But I should still get her opinion as we go along.

Not that I know a lot about this sort of thing anyway. I wish I could search it on a smartphone.

In the end, Mia says she wants a magic stone covered in feathers, and Chris wants hers decorated with plant vines.

Chris says it’s just because she likes plants. Is it because she’s an elf? Maybe that’s just my preconceived notion.

Mia doesn’t tell me why she went with that design. Well, there’s no point in grilling her about it. What matters is that she likes it.

“So… Why are you giving that to them?”

“You both know your circumstances. Those magic items should block people from using Appraisal on you.”

“Hum, but won’t that actually attract suspicion?”

Chris is worried that people will be wary of someone they can’t cast Appraisal on.

“It’s all right, it actually shows a false result. For example, it displays Mia’s job as priest, and it says Chris is a human even if the magic you use to disguise yourself is undone. Not that it matters if people can see your ears.”

I was surprised when a settings menu appeared while I was making those magic items. It was written in the description, but it was still surprising to actually see it pop up.

“Isn’t this actually pretty great?”

“Maybe, but it was free. And I don’t actually know how many people can use Appraisal anyway.”

I don’t know a single person that can, but there are also magic items like that one in the castle. Maybe this isn’t even necessary, but it won’t do any harm either.

I tell them that, and everyone except Hikari looks exasperated, but I’m pretty used to that by now.

“I think it’s probably too late to be surprised by your lack of common sense.”

Whispers Sera, and everyone nods. That’s nice, you all get along so well, don’t you?