—–
We quickly decided to descend downstairs, as we found ourselves in an extensive cave with many routes. The stone was completely black, and there were blue and red crystals growing around, illuminating everything. Alongside that, we found a few ores melded together resting over the walls or ceiling. There was probably iron ore, bronze ore, and even gold.
But I don’t think if such normal metals are so valuable. However, we also found some strange and colorful ones imbued with different elements and abilities, it was very impressive to find all of these treasures down here.
—– 𝚘𝚟𝚕．ｔ
[Red Crystal (F Grade)]
A red crystal that grows due to overaccumulation of Mana. It glows red and seems to be used as a natural illumination. Once it is cut from the ground, it stops glowing after a couple of days. It is rather easy to break and can be used as a cheap material for magic accessories, as it is capable of channeling mana, but not too much or it’ll break.
—–
The Blue Crystals had almost the same description, it seems they’re very cheap beginner-friendly materials anybody can easily extract. But we didn’t came here to mine for stuff, so I decided to calm myself and only inspect things as Rosetta guided us through the right path.
—–
[Flare Iron Ore (D Grade)]
A special Iron Ore that has been imbued with the power of the element of fire over many hundreds of years, growing red-colored. It can be used as a material for the creation of fire attribute weapons, magic items or accessories, and even bombs with alchemy. A very useful item for all beginner alchemists. Its usage as fire powder and fuel is still popular even amongst high ranked blacksmiths or alchemists.
—–
Woah, this one looked mighty useful! I had to contain my urge to mine it. Maybe I could turn my weapon into a pickaxe… Or try out opening that legendary weapon box and see if I can get a pickaxe of legendary grade? No, that would be a bit too exaggerated, right?
—–
[Aqua Bronze Ore (D Grade)]
A special Bronze Ore that has been imbued with the power of the element of water over many hundreds of years, growing blue-colored. It can be used as a material for the creation of water attribute weapons, magic items or accessories, and even special types of items with alchemy. A very useful item for all beginner alchemists. It can also be used in special magic items for the creation of clean water.
—–
Oooh! A bronze ore that can produce water?! I never thought such a thing could exists… Ah, if I keep looking at the ores I’ll get dragged into mining. For now I should really get my things together and do what I must do…
“How strange, there are no monsters around, I really thought they would come here…” Rosetta said.
“Were there monsters in here before that your people saw some time ago?” Wondered Titan.
“Why yes, sir Treant…” Rosetta said, rubbing her chin, she was so small she only reached my hips, so she was very cute indeed. Looking at her was like looking at a little girl pretending to be an adult. Ah, that sounded a bit offensive, I cannot say that to short people directly, never!
“We saw some time ago a large quantity of Gray Wolves living here, they made a big nest. We didn’t bothered them and they didn’t bothered us, so we let them be. They’re part of nature at the end, and seeing their cubs playing around hit our hearts too hard, we wouldn’t had been able to forgive ourselves if we killed them…” Sighed Rosetta.
“I see, Brownies are very soft…” Said Achlys.
“Hey! Would you really kill a little puppy?!” Rosetta angrily said.
“W-Well, if it’s a monster… this also a game…” Achlys said.
“You’re only making things worse, stop please.” I told her, petting her head.
“Anyways, I wonder where all those guys go, I was sure there was no wolves when Lady Planta destroyed those roots, she would had gotten EXP, right?” Rosetta wondered.
“Yeah, I didn’t got any hint of EXP or any dropped items, so they were not there.” I said. “I can assure you of it. I wouldn’t had done that if I knew they were there too. I might had tried to chase them away.”
“Hm, then they escaped?” Asked Achlys.
“No, they’re brave too.” Rosetta said. “Also this place is a nice spot for them to hunt other monsters to eat. Monsters don’t get dropped items; you see. When they hunt another monster, they can easily eat it and it usually doesn’t turn into items.”
“Interesting…” I said.
“So it is a good hunting spot because there’s a river nearby, they also got water from there, and they were happily multiplying their numbers, if you mentioned the cubs.” Said Titan. “Yeah, it doesn’t make sense they ran away without a reason.”
“A reason…” Said Acorn. “Rosetta, has there been any Miasmic Monsters attacks here? They had decreased in most of the forest so I am quite surprised they appeared in the mines out of the blue.
“Not particularly, we haven’t seen any.” Said Rosetta. “But now that you mention them, only Miasmic Beasts hunt anything alive relentlessly, even other monsters. They also only cooperate with other Miasmic Beasts or monsters infected with Miasma.” Rosetta said while analyzing he situation.
“Right? It really doesn’t make much sense once you think about it coherently, there’s something fishy here.” Said Acorn.
“Yeah, I can tell. I can feel Miasma nearby.” Said Nieve. “Could the Miasmic Beats from here chased down the wolves? Or… Ah, blood.”
Suddenly, we found blood all over the cave’s floor, and as we walked forward, we found even more blood, bones with meat, guts, and even gray fur. And the worst of all, small little wolf pups, all dead. And they died rather gruesomely, bitten all over, with their guts out.
Of course, there was also the horrid scent of both blood and miasma all over the place…
—–