AN: Hello, your lazy author present you chapter 30. Enjoy!!
PR by Zenla, the royal proofreader
******************************
The miniature lake was about 20 meters deep. There was a long and thin crack that run from one side of the cave to the other, from the top of the cave to the bottom of the body of water, where the light was coming from. I got closer to the origin of the light, and when I peered through the small opening of the crack I was so surprised I released a big amount of air in the water and had to rush to the surface with enhanced speed. I got out of the water like a devil of a spring box, breathing heavily.
Muriem «Aenthar!!!» she rushed at him as her scream echoed in the dimly lit cave.
Kerrina «Are you alright? What happened? Do you need anything?»
Muriem was almost panicking while looking all over me and Kerrina was trying to stay calm while clearly very worried. I gently pushed them away so I could catch my breath, and after a minute or so I looked at them.
Aenthar «Jackpot!!!» he said with a blank expression.
Muriem «... What?»
Kerrina «What is a jackpot? Is it dangerous?»
Aenthar «... Ha, hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!!»
Muriem «... You're making me uneasy...»
Kerrina «... Hey, are you really alright?»
Aenthar «Hahaha, sorry about that my sweeties, everything is alright. Everything is so damn all right!» ''I forgot they don't know anything about my former world. I should tell them a part of the truth some time in the future''.
Kerrina «I see, so you found something good?»
Aenthar «I didn't find something good, I found something excellent!!!»
Muriem «...He? Really? Really really? What is it? Come on, tell us, quick!!!»
After hearing my answer, they were stunned for a few seconds before jumping at me in joy. We hugged each other for a bit before calming down. By the way, hugging without clothes while the others had armor was not that nice. What I found was a treasure, especially for a blacksmith. It was malchyte. Malchyte is a rare crystalin material with high affinity with magic, higher than mythril, though it's not as durable.
A unit of malchyte ore of good quality has a clear light blue color, almost white, and cost around 7 gold coins. The malchyte vein in the crack was of low quality, revealed by its purple color, but it was still worth more than 1 gold coins per unit. It was indeed jackpot! Because of its magic affinity, the malchyte absorbed the mana in the surroundings, resulting in it glowing. Without that I would have missed it completly.
After that, I went back in the water, but with my pick axe and a rope tied at my arm. Since we made some noise and I was still wary of creature being down there, I had the girls stay really cautious and pull the rope if anything showed up. I used earth magic to slowly and carefully get rid of the rocks surrounding the malchyte vein, and used my pickaxe to dig the rest. I had to make several trips to the surface and enhance my strengh and speed, but after a few hours I had collected an amount worth around 10 gold coins. And I only got around a third of what was available.
I left the rest for another time. I told the girl I was going to hide the rest of the vein so that some people lucky enough to find the cave wouldn't find the malchyte. So after putting my equipment back on I made one last trip to cover the treasure, and light slowly faded from the cave. When I reached the surface, instead of only hearing the breath of the 2 girls in the darkness, we could also hear strange noises coming from the numerous holes in the walls around us. I quickly cast a small fireball, and motionned the girls to hurry toward the tunnel we came from.
-------
It was not good. I didn't know why, but our presence was noticed by something that used to crawl in the tunnels of the cave, and on our way we had to go through several longs and narrow passages, greatly reducing our mobility, and considering the countless small tunnels present there was the possibility of getting surrounded. I didn't want us to spend more time underground. As we were reaching a larger part of the tunnel, a loud screeching sound was heard not too far behind us, and numerous others similar sounds resounded all around us across the network of tunnels.
Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.
I was starting to get really scared, and so were the girls. This wasn't our field, we were in enemy territory, and they probably had the advantage. I was holding Kerrina's hand, who was holding Muriem's. I didn't bother using light anymore except to search for the marks we left on our path to find the way back, I relied solely on my mana sense, moving forward as fast as the terrain and magic enhancement allowed us to. I hoped nothing would be waiting for us at the place from which we entered here.
-------
I jinxed myself, jackpot my ass. After crawling like cockroaches in the narrower part of the tunnel and getting close to the exit, I picked up the presence of monster ahead and abruptly stopped, causing Kerrina to crash on my back, and being crushed between me and Muriem who crashed on her back. They were slowly moving toward us, I could sense them, we could hear them.
And we also picked up the sounds of the ones behind us as well. We were surrounded in a place where there was only room for 2 people to advance side by side. I prepared my khukuri and my hatchet, told the girls to be ready to fight, and cast the enhancing spells on the 3 of us with maximum power.
I took out a few small pieces of ore and scattered them around us, so as to not use my mana for lighting the place. There were 18 of them, 7 between us and the exit, and 11 behind us. They got close enough to be seen, about 150cm tall and long, with skin the color of rock, I couldn't tell if it was leather, scales or even stone.
They looked like a hybrid between an insect and a rat, with 4 black eyes, a head and body like a rat, 6 legs similar to that of a insect, but with clawed feet, retractable claws from what I could see, and lastly, and additional pair of limbs starting from their back and extending forward like the scythes of a praying mantis. Their eight pair of limbs had 3 segments excluding the feet and scythes.
In front, there were 3 of them with one slightly ahead, and 4 in row of 2 behind. On our back their formation was similar, but inversed, there were 2 slightly ahead. I doubted earth magic would be very effective on those underground dwellers as I could sense a high amount of earth mana in them, fire magic would be dangerous for the oxygen levels in a cramped place, and wind magic would probably lack impact, judging by the severe lack of air mana around. Seeing as those things are half animals half insect, I was wondering if the confusion spell I know would be effective.
They emited a few low sounds between themselves, probably getting ready to start their attacks.
Aenthar «Girls, we have to try to break through the ones in front, but we don't know anything about their abilities and the ones behind won't let us go that easily.»
Kerrina «Do you have a plan?»
Aenthar «A simple one. I leave the ones behind us to you. I'll have to try create an opening in front while trying and see what kind of magic is effective against them. When I give you the order, run straight for the exit.»
Muriem «... Will we be alright?»
Aenthar «I don't know, we will have to make it work. These guys must be D rank monsters, and they look like party hunters. We are at disadvantage. Focus on defending and repelling them.» I added in a light tone «If you need healing, just say ''medic'' and the type of injury, broken bones or cuts.»
Muriem «That's not reassuring at all!!!» she said with a tearing face, Kerrina glared at me.
Aenthar «...Sorry, but don't worry»
The monsters made their move...
******************************
AN: Happy to see another chapter today? Your happy right? RIGHT? :D