The village Yukichi found himself in now was called Crysades.

It was a very small place but it was notable for being next to an abundant resource.

A field filled with growing gems all year round. Unlike Earth, for some bizarre reason metals and precious jewels sprouted from the surface of the ground as if they were trees.

This place was aptly named the Shimmering Fields and was known to overflow with this produce.

While it was a place of great wealth it had been removed from the border of conflict for several decades now, though the current situation did look somewhat questionable.

The fields were currently held by the Darhine Republic but were taken from the hands of the Rose Empire around sixty years ago. However more recently the conflicts between the two nations had been escalating after decades of peace. War had not yet sunken its teeth into this land of wealth in quite a while but it was only a matter of time…

You’d assume that Yukichi’s family, the Quinn family, would be wealthy because of their status as workers here. You’d be half right. The inn run by Yukichi’s mother, Aura, had plenty of visitors who stayed while purchasing and inspecting jewels in the village.

Yukichi’s father, Darius, was a miner. In this world and in this place that meant his job was to go to the shimmering fields and chip away at the gem trees or to uproot them entirely.

It was actually quite a difficult and involved job. The tools the miners used were expensive and had to be bought from a blacksmithing village, and purchases had to be done individually.

So a non-small part of the profits from mining would go to buying tools.

The raw gems were pretty profitable but they needed to be cut and shaped for their true value to be appreciated. This meant giving them to the village that specialised in crafting jewellery.

Meaning someone else was taking another cut. Still, the leftovers were quite sizeable.

Excavating the gems from the constantly growing field of wonders took a lot of physical strength.

Most miners would work all day and then have to haul their heavy loads back to the village with their carts and this would take a sizeable amount of time.

What made matters even more complicated was that farming the mineral trees was done on a first-come, first-serve basis. Meaning the early bird with the most perceptive eyes got the juiciest worm if a worm could feed a family for a month.

So there would always be constant competition among the miners.

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Particular precious metals and gem plants were actually quite tiny and hard to spot.

They were also an ordeal to actually harvest as if they were tied to gravity itself and you had to spend hours moving heaven and earth to force it into your palms.

In this world dictated by stats and innate skills, you’d need sizeable strength or something helpful with transportation or negotiation to make a good miner. It was all about how much you could carry, how well you can bargain with those taking a cut of your profits and your management of finances.

For most of the year, it was highly profitable but intensive work but had no major risks.

Except in summer.

The seasons weren’t much different from what Yukichi was used to.

Nothing was of note at all in his new life for anyone involved in it.

Except in summer. It was perfectly normal for a 5-year-old.

No risks and no wants beyond the impulses of a child.

Nothing to worry about.

Except in summer.

You see, in the long summer native to this region, from the 5th month to the 9th month of the year…deadly creatures roamed the Shimmering Fields.

They resembled perfectly round rocks. Spheres of grey that had six insectoid legs of stone

When Yukichi first saw them he was reminded of hermit crabs, except of course these things were constructed entirely of stone. His father had shown them to him recently.

As a warning to never go into the fields during summer no matter the reason.

The name for this species was Dynapod.

He picked up a nearby fist-sized stone and chucked it at one of the crabs from a very far distance.

Darius was a muscular man as you’d expect from someone in his profession, though he had let himself go since marriage so while his upper body remained in pristine condition his lower body began to show signs of flabbiness.

He had dark hair that reminded Yukichi of pencil graphite and had a full but short moustache and beard. His skin was an oily colour and he was as tall as a giant, easily being over six foot.

Yukichi wasn’t quite sure if he was human but it would seem rude and strange to ask such a thing, especially since they looked human.

The thrown rock met its target.

It smacked a Dynapod right on its shell.

The thing came to a complete stop. As if in response an eerie moment occurred and all the Dynapods followed suit. The Dynapod that was struck then exploded.

Fragments of its body flew through the skies in every direction like stone daggers and some cut right through nearby gem trees without resistance.

It was a terrifying sight.

Then it became horrific.

The shards of the once-living Dynapod began to turn bright orange.

These tiny blades of stone began to rumble and shake and then like their original host body…

Boom. The field was coated in pillars of surging flame in the blink of an eye before fading into ash and black scorch marks. Widespread destruction that was like a bombardment of grenades.

All from a crab the size of a basketball.

Yukichi did not know it yet, but these monsters were going to be very important to him.

They gave tremendous amounts of experience points when they exploded but had a clause that only allowed this to occur when someone would attack them at melee range.

This was useless of course to many people as they could not survive the explosions generated by these temperamental horrors.

However, he could.