Chapter 630 Silium

A mine no one had entered in ages.

One human and one strikingly handsome demon were hard at work swinging pickaxes.

CLANG!

CLAAANG!

CLAAAANG—!

The human was naturally Hyunsoo, while the other was Demon Grout.

As the two of them struck the wall with all their might, the Extraction Progress shot upward.

It might work this time!

Hope rose within Hyunsoo. They might finally extract even a single piece of orichalcum.

Unfortunately, Grout did not possess Hyunsoo’s extraordinary Dexterity, nor did he have any particular talent for mining.

The two took turns hammering away with everything they had, but as their strength drained away, the Extraction Progress began to fall.

[Extraction Progress has fallen to 76%.]

[Extraction Progress has fallen to 74%.]

Hyunsoo stared blankly as their hard-earned progress reversed yet again.

Then he said, “How are you not good at a single thing?”

“......”

“Good grief. You’re all looks and no substance.”

Grout had merely taken the pickaxe Hyunsoo had casually handed him from his inventory and swung it as instructed. His shoulders slumped.

Did I become a demon for this? What am I doing with my life...?

He had been born a demon, only to be berated for being bad at mining!

Setting that thought aside, Grout heard Hyunsoo sigh.

“Sixty-three hours have passed.”

In those sixty-three hours, the two of them had achieved nothing of note.

They had failed to extract so much as a single piece of orichalcum.

Grout smiled bitterly.

Is he finally giving up?

In Grout’s opinion, they should have given up once they had spent twenty-four hours swinging their pickaxes together.

There are things in this world that cannot be done, no matter how badly one desires them.

Known as the Demon of Knowledge, Grout understood the laws of the world all too well.

They would have been better off resting for those wasted sixty hours.

Hyunsoo was already standing there in despair with his pickaxe lowered. Giving up quickly was clearly the correct—

Or perhaps not?

Grout revised his assessment.

Hyunsoo struck the rapidly recovering wall once more.

CLAAANG—!

CLAAANG—!

CLAAANG—!

“What are you doing? Hurry up and start swinging.”

“......”

Grout silently gazed at his master’s eyes, which still burned without the slightest hint of surrender.

Hyunsoo was nothing more than a mere human.

Once, Grout had found it unbearably humiliating to live as such a man’s servant.

He had not understood it, either.

All he was ever good at was making things.

How had such a man become a king and accumulated so many extraordinary achievements?

Then Grout had fallen asleep within Hyunsoo’s sword and watched him from close by.

Hyunsoo possessed something that others lacked—something even Demon Grout could never imitate.

For the first time in his life—

CLANG!

CLAAANG!

Grout felt respect for a human being.

Meanwhile.

[Your bond with Demon Grout has deepened.]

[Demon Grout will obey and respect your commands far more than before!]

[You have gained 100 Overwhelm.]

Where did that come from?

Hyunsoo tilted his head at the sudden notifications.

Of course, Grout had not reached the same state as Hyunsoo’s other vassals, with descriptions like, “He will protect you with his life!”

But what had Grout’s previous status been?

[Grout may leave you at any time.]

“Leave” was merely the polite way of putting it. The message proved that Grout had possessed neither respect nor concern for Hyunsoo as his master.

Put less generously, it also meant that Grout could stab him in the back at any moment.

Now that Grout would listen more obediently and treat him with respect, Hyunsoo had less reason to fear betrayal.

But his happiness lasted only a moment.

CLANG!

CLAAANG!

Hyunsoo resumed mining.

He refused to give up because giving up would not change anything.

Before he knew it—

[You have 5 hours remaining inside the Orichalcum Mine.]

Only six hours remained, and he had yet to extract a single piece.

He thought of the gift notifications that had remained stubbornly silent.

CLANG!

“To tell you the truth, I knew. I issued an order to the entire nation of Hyun, but finding an exceptional artifact—one with an effect specifically useful for mining—was never going to be easy.”

CLANG!

CLANG!

“Countless people live in the kingdom. But even if someone owned an artifact like that, there couldn’t be many willing to hand it over without hesitation.”

It was only natural.

Wherever one went, people firmly believed that anything offered to a king would never be returned.

People might sacrifice themselves for their country, but that did not mean they would not wonder, Do I really have to give this to the king?

Out of the hundreds of different types of artifacts in existence, the chances became even slimmer when he limited the search to those useful for mining.

And then there was the additional requirement.

It had to be good enough for a king to need it.

Good enough to overcome his current predicament.

With all those conditions attached, the possibility was bound to be minuscule.

Two days.

That was likely why no response had come even though Hyunsoo had left such a message in the chat two days earlier.

Just then, Grout spoke.

“Do you remember?”

“Remember what?”

“The time when you were nothing but pathetic trash and I beat you like a dog.”

Why did that somehow sound wrong?

“You said something then, Master. You said, ‘This is the road I have walked.’”

“......”

Hyunsoo remembered.

“My friend, I need your help.”

The power he had used back then had not been anything special.

It was a power that any one of Ares’s more than one billion users might have possessed.

Once activated, it asked the friends he knew for help and summoned them to his side.

But one thing had been different.

Hyunsoo’s friends were exceptional.

Sword King Barad.

Azure Heaven Ben.

Bella, descendant of the Sword King.

The members of Hyun’s Forge guild.

They were good memories.

Yet Hyunsoo still did not understand why Grout had brought them up.

Grout folded his arms, let out a disbelieving chuckle, and jerked his chin toward the rear.

“It seems you’re still walking that road quite well.”

“What?”

Puzzled, Hyunsoo followed Grout’s gaze and turned his head.

Hyunsoo’s senses might have been extraordinary, but they could not compare to those of Grout, a demon born as a species inherently superior to humans.

A demon’s eyesight surpassed a human’s many times over.

FLAP-FLAP—

A single pigeon from the Gift function was flying into the mine in the unfamiliar land of Elvenheim.

Another followed behind it.

FLAP-FLAP—

Then, piercing through the darkness—

FLAP-FLAP-FLAP-FLAP—!!!

An endless swarm of pigeons began filling the Orichalcum Mine.

Hundreds landed around Hyunsoo.

Once there was no room left, still more descended throughout the surrounding area, beating their wings.

The Gift function allowed only one artifact to be sent per pigeon.

As Hyunsoo watched the pigeons continue emerging endlessly from the darkness, Grout spoke again.

“You said this as well.”

Grout shook his head in exasperation, as though Hyunsoo had not changed at all.

“I am not alone.”

The pigeons fluttering all around him made Hyunsoo realize the truth of those words once more.

“Your nation must be overflowing with people who do not consider it a waste to offer their possessions to their king.”

Grout spoke with faint embarrassment and extended one hand.

A pigeon landed on it.

Grout was already an extraordinarily handsome man, making the sight look like a scene from a painting.

“Though I suppose I understand why.”

Only then did Hyunsoo finally look away from the pigeons and toward the notification.

[2,824 gifts have arrived.]

The moment he selected it—

SWISH—

Nearly three thousand artifacts appeared as holograms, filling the gift list.

Grout, however, understood something.

Their affection for Master and the quality of the artifacts they sent are two different matters.

The story had likely spread throughout the nation of Hyun, prompting countless people to send what they possessed.

But what mattered now was not quantity.

It was quality.

Furthermore, they had to identify the right artifacts among several thousand candidates.

Ordinary people might not have been able to see the Gift function’s holographic interface floating before Hyunsoo.

But Grout was both a “slave” and a demon, so he could see the list of thousands of artifacts as well.

It was overwhelming.

He could not tell what they should choose or which items were truly valuable.

And—

“Only five hours remain.”

Setting aside the gratitude they owed those who had sent the gifts, Grout forced Hyunsoo to confront reality.

It was a small act of consideration meant to keep Hyunsoo from wasting more strength on futile effort and suffering even greater disappointment.

How many of those artifacts could possibly make something that had once been “impossible” achievable within the mere five hours they had left?

But Hyunsoo said—

“It doesn’t matter.”

SWISH—!!

With a broad sweep of one hand, he expanded the holographic display.

In that instant, thousands of holographic artifacts filled the entire space.

And Hyunsoo saw what Grout could not.

Like a master craftsman who understood an object with a single glance.

“This pickaxe has incredible balance. Even I’m not sure I could make one this good. It should minimize the strength consumed with every swing, keeping the user from tiring while maximizing Mining Ability.”

The moment he selected one of the pickaxes in the holographic display—

[Transcendent grade. You have received the Fervent Old Man’s Pickaxe.]

Next came a pair of gloves.

SWISH—!

Among the unfurled holograms, he discovered a pair of old, worn brown gloves.

They had been treated to prevent a miner’s hands from slipping. When he selected them, they appeared over his hands.

[Legendary grade. You have received A Miner’s Soul.]

Then—

A protective helmet of the kind commonly worn by miners.

The brown helmet appeared light, yet looked more than capable of protecting the wearer’s head.

[Legendary grade. You have received the Miner King’s Helmet.]

Next came clothing.

He had no need for creaking suits of armor inside a mine.

He chose cloth garments that offered good ventilation yet would not tear when struck by flying shards of stone.

[Unique grade. You have received Benkard’s Cloth Garb.]

One item after another.

A pickaxe, gloves, head protection, cloth garments, boots, and more.

Watching Hyunsoo select them all within thirty seconds, Grout could only marvel.

How did he do that in only thirty seconds...?

The sight of Hyunsoo identifying the true treasures among thousands of artifacts sent another shudder through Grout.

Of course—

There was one fact Grout did not know.

Hyunsoo could see each artifact’s grade.

Though even without their names and grades displayed, Hyunsoo would have selected the same items within three minutes.

Hyunsoo equipped them one by one.

[The effect of the Transcendent-grade Fervent Old Man’s Pickaxe increases Mining Ability by 270%.]

[The effect of the Legendary-grade Miner’s Soul increases Mining Ability by 110%.]

[The effect of the Legendary-grade Miner King’s Helmet has a rare chance of doubling the quantity of minerals extracted.]

[The effect of the Unique-grade Benkard’s Cloth Garb increases Mining Speed by 80%.]

Fully equipped, Hyunsoo stood before the wall.

I’m not a Legendary Miner.

But the combined power of the artifacts allowed him to wield strength on the level of one.

He began striking with all his might.

CLAAAAANG—!!

*****

Elder Verua of the elves began preparing to meet the King of the Elves.

“Are you truly going to report it?”

“......It is the truth. His Majesty must be made to face reality.”

And what reality was that?

“We elves have completely lost the ability to mine orichalcum. Even more than a century ago, it was something only the dwarf known as the Miner King could accomplish.”

Verua’s blunt declaration saddened the elves gathered there.

They possessed it, yet could not extract it.

Moreover, the legendary dwarf and miner had died a hundred years ago.

“You should not have said such a thing.”

“......”

Elves lived for more than five hundred years, while dwarves lived for only two hundred.

That legendary dwarf miner had once said there was “true orichalcum” within the mine, worth as much as every other piece of orichalcum inside it combined.

Though it was merely a mineral born upon the earth, it represented the pinnacle of orichalcum and resembled adamantium, the mineral of the gods.

Yet even that dwarf had failed to extract it during his lifetime.

“Good grief......”

Now the elves could no longer extract even ordinary orichalcum.

Verua was about to leave and report that fact when the human who had entered the mine three days earlier appeared, drenched in sweat.

Is his time up?

Verua feigned ignorance.

“Did you manage to extract much?”

Hyunsoo replied, “When I entered the Orichalcum Mine, we agreed that I would keep eighty percent of the orichalcum I extracted and give you the remaining twenty percent as payment for using the mine.”

Verua stroked his chin.

It had been an empty agreement.

Why had they offered him as much as eighty percent?

Because they had believed he would extract nothing.

“Yes, that is correct. You may keep eighty percent of whatever you mined.”

Hyunsoo asked another question.

“But if I extracted something else from inside the mine, would I have to split that with you as well?”

“Hmm?”

Verua shook his head.

“Our agreement covers only orichalcum. Even a passing orc would understand that you have no obligation to divide anything else.”

It was only natural.

“If you found something else, then it belongs to you.”

At that moment, Hyunsoo took a mineral from inside his clothes.

“......?”

It was unusual.

It seemed to possess a texture similar to orichalcum, yet it was white.

“......!”

Only then did Verua realize what it was.

This mineral—

It was the pinnacle of orichalcum, a mineral born upon the earth yet closer to adamantium.