CH 186

We have even more people with us starting from the eleventh floor. A group from the chivalric order will be accompanying us until the fifteenth floor.

They haven’t been beyond the tenth floor because of the traps, but depending on the results of the survey, they might be assigned guard duty. They say this was an order by the feudal lord.

Some of them are good with their hands, and we’ve been teaching them about traps as we go, but I don’t know how good they’ll be.

Thankfully, there aren’t any traps on the fifteenth floor, so it’ll be fine if they stay there.

And so, we have ten knights with us as an experiment.

I’m guessing they’ve chosen to use knights because if they end up mining here long-term, hiring adventurers to guard the miners would end up costing a lot of money.

Also, I see someone there that uses a bow.

The knights really shine when it’s time to take out slime on the twelfth floor. They block them out completely with their shields, and the slime don’t get to cause any damage. Some people even clap. Were they victims of slime before? What sticks out to me the most is how jealous Fred looks.

We keep advancing without any issues, and reach the fifteenth floor.

I actually wish we kept going to the sixteenth floor so I could get their opinions on kobold chiefs. When I whisper that to myself, Fred quietly agrees.

Their party is pretty new, and they’ve only been as far as the twelfth floor before. I guess it’ll be a while longer until Siphon and the others see their first chief.

“I see, so the fifteenth floor is like this…”

Groans Murok as he sees the rocky mountains in front of him.

The rock birds watching us from a distance must look pretty ominous.

“What should we do? Go back? Investigate a little? You decide.”

“Well, I want to explore a bit longer. Is that all right?”

“Sure. We’ll be careful, but…”

For some reason he stops and looks at me. It’s fine.

“Rock birds descend quickly and attack the minute they see an opening. Be careful if you get close to them.”

I say to the knights. I figure they’re probably wondering if they should listen to the cook, but apparently they know I have experience with this floor, and they check their shields before positioning themselves around the miners.

“Well then, please take the lead.”

We start walking towards the biggest mountain we see, with the miners in the middle, the knights around them, and the adventurers outside.

Hikari, Sera, and Rurika are taking the lead, five people including Fred are on the right side, five including Siphon on the left, and the remaining three on the back.

Rock birds keep flying around and sometimes look like they’re going to move in, but we attack them with magic every time they do.

It doesn’t take much to get them to back off, but they always insist on coming back right away.

The miners seem worried, but there’s nothing we can do about that. If they’re going to be spending time on this floor, they have to accept that this sort of harassment is part of the package.

“All right, let’s investigate this area. Knights and adventurers, please cover us.”

We reach the rocky mountain that looks the tallest, and they start hitting it with hammers without even taking a break.

The investigation itself is simple. They’re just mining and checking if they can really find ore.

They can’t use Appraisal like me, so they can’t know what’s there until they dig it out. It’d be different if there was any on the surface, but there isn’t.

“Master, is there some over there?”

Asks Sera quietly, and I nod.

It’s a little deep, but there’s magic ore there. The question is if they’re going to mine that far.

“Sora, Mister Will told me you discovered the ore, but how did you find it?”

Murok asks quietly. Is he being considerate?

“I just hit it with a hammer. It was a little deep, so it’s better to keep at it for a while.”

“All right, I’ll tell the others.”

We listen to the sound of rock being struck for a while, which attracts more rock birds, but we have a solid defensive line.

In fact, a few of the more nimble adventurers erase their presences and approach them. Obviously, Hikari and Rurika are among them.

Eventually, we hear cheers from two different spots.

One comes from a miner, who raises his hand holding magic ore. He’s really excited. Apparently it’s a relatively rare ore too.

The other comes from the adventurers who snuck up on the rock birds. They managed to take one down, and some of the adventurers carry it back.

It looks like rock bird meat is famous among adventurers for how tasty it is. I see them talking to Murok about something, and they start draining its blood right away. The smell might draw more rock birds, but they don’t seem to care. It could also be said that it doesn’t matter, because they’re already here.

The miners spread out and keep mining. Wasn’t this just supposed to be a test?

“Apparently they want to eat that too, so they’re going to keep working until it’s done.

Fred… Are you indirectly telling me to cook?

Don’t look at me with those expectant eyes.

“Master, I’m hoping for a nice meal.”

Getting Hikari to back you up isn’t fair.

I can’t say no, so I leave the preparations to them and start working on the soup.

The miners look happier when they taste the soup than when they found the ore.

Afterwards, they manage to find a small lump of mithril, and Murok seems pretty satisfied with that.

That ends the survey team’s job, and the quest is successfully completed.