“So… why are we back at the cave?”
Evelyn looked around the massive cavern.
It was an extremely dark abyss filled with unknown monsters.
Fortunately this time, they brought fully lit torches.
The light illuminated the area around them. Using one hand, Michael slowly replies to Evelyn.
+This cave is full of resources. It’s not just a salt deposit. It also contains other materials and minerals.+
“But aren’t there a lot of monsters here? You haven’t fully recovered, I don’t want to haul your dying ass out of here again. Aren’t we endangering ourselves by bringing the lit torches?”
Michael rolls his eyes at Evelyn’s comment about his body.
+It was dangerous earlier but now that the hordes are thinned out, we can afford to be a bit more brazen.+
Evelyn shrugs.
“Whatever you say, boss.”
Bob was a bit braver since there was some light.
He makes a light noise as he points and observes the many things he can see in the cave.
Evelyn chuckles and she offers the little fur creature a small piece of fruit.
Bob eagerly takes the fruit while the three of them continue onward.
“So… what are we looking for specifically?”
+Iron deposits.+
“Iron deposits? You’re going to mine them?”
Michael nods.
“I thought we were going to set up traps?”
Michael shakes his head.
+Not yet.+
“Okay? You should really brief me more.”
Michael smiles.
+We are going to set traps but I decided to include another step in between. We are going to need stronger weapons.+
“Oooh… we’re gonna be forging then? We can finally level up and gain a new class.”
Evelyn chuckles.
+Yes, if this was a game, we are specializing in another skill tree.+
Evelyn lightly laughs.
+That reminds me. I should start teaching you the processes I know.+
“I already know how to make the salt. I can go back on my own next time.”
Michael purses his lips.
+If we survive the Draco, I’ll consider letting you go next time.”
“Please, if I recall correctly, you’re the one I had to haul out of here.”
Evelyn laughs a bit as Michael smiles at her nonchalance.
“Heh, you have anything else you can teach me, old man?”
Michael raises an eyebrow.
+I have other processes that you don’t know of yet.+
“No reply to the ‘old man’ comment, it seems. Anyway, like what?”
Michael smirks.
+How to carve stone using the waterfall.+
“Wut?”
Michael smugly smiles.
“Wait, you can do that??”
+How do you think I made the cauldron we use to boil water?+
Evelyn shrugs.
“I don’t know?! I thought you just picked it up or something.”
Michael shakes his head.
+Water has always been used to carve stones. Humanity just found more convenient ways later on.+
“Oooh okay. That sounds cool. What else can you teach me?”
+I also preserve food. I can teach you that.+
“I’ve seen you do it before, it’s not that hard right?”
+Well, compared to my other tasks, you could say it’s easy but don’t underestimate it. It’s just as important as my other work.+
“Okay… old man. Hehe. Anyway, that’s a lot. How do you remember them all?”
+The log helps me. I can list down other information in it too. It’s actually pretty great, it corrects my wrong grammar too.+
“Yeah, it’s pretty handy.”
+Yeah. It is.+
“So… when are you going to let me read the log?”
+I told you, I can’t really make you read it. Maybe, when my gift evolves, I can let you read it. So far, it’s my eyes only.+
Evelyn rolled her eyes but she was amused.
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“All right then, keep your secrets.”
The two continue to communicate while delving deeper into the cave.
+Did you know that caves and mines are different?+
“Well, they’re different words so I guess they are different.”
+Yep. Caves are naturally-forming voids in large landmasses while mines are man-made structures meant to gather naturally forming ores such as iron and salt.+
“Ah…”
Evelyn internally chuckles. She knows that Michael is a treasure trove of knowledge. She also knew that Michael enjoyed thinking.
Ah, this might make him think.
“So, this cave will be a mine when we start digging it out?”
Michael thinks.
+I…+
He thinks again before he could start his rant.
+I don’t think that will be the case but it’s actually weird, I haven’t seen a topic about it but it’s not like I’ve been actively looking for it. In my opinion, a cave is a cave and a mine is a mine. To be specific, caves are…+
Evelyn chuckles out loud when Michael continues on his rant.
The three of them eventually reach a cavern.
+...But mines are far more. Oh, we’re here.+
“Huh, what? Oh, we’re here!”
Evelyn felt excited.
In all honesty, she felt bored. She was supportive of Michael and wanted to listen but after an hour of talking about the intricacies of caves and mines, Evelyn’s mind eventually shut down.
So, when they reached the cavern, Evelyn felt excited.
Finally! Something that isn’t about caves! Or mines!
Evelyn looks around and finds the torchlight shining on the dull color of the iron ores embedded in the cavern walls.
“Iron?!”
Her voice bounces off the cavern walls and it echoes past their area.
“Oops. Sorry.”
Bob throws the core of an eaten fruit at Evelyn.
“Ow, hey.”
Bob signs to her.
+Quiet. Noise attracts monsters.+
“I said I was sorry.”
Evelyn looks at Michael who was already near the area with a large number of iron deposits.
“So… how do we get these out? Don’t you need an iron pickaxe?”
Michael nods.
+In modern times, high-quality iron pickaxes, or better, were used to chip off large amounts of metal from mountainsides. Unfortunately, we don’t have those types of tools so we’re going to have to go old school.+
“Hmmm?”
Michael pulls out a sharpened rock that’s attached to the top of a tough wooden handle. The sharpened rock was too thin to be called a dagger but its end wasn’t a sharp point but rather had a flat shape.
“What’s that?”
+A chisel. It took me an inordinately long amount of time to create this. Longer than most of my daggers combined.+
“Oh… yeah, it looks like it took a long time to make. It isn’t like a dagger or knife that you just make the end parts sharper.”
Michael nods.
He then takes out a wooden hammer. He studies the nearby ores to see which one of them would be the easiest to remove.
After picking out an ore, Michael goes to work. He puts the chisel’s tip on a part where he can put some leverage, then he starts to hammer down.
~Whack!~
~Thud!~
Evelyn frowns as the sound bounces off the walls which creates an echo.
She goes to Michael and speaks with a hushed but slightly agitated voice.
“Michael! What are you doing? Are you trying to get us killed?”
Michael stops for a bit. He then signs to her.
+About that, I lied.+
“Lied? Huh? Lied about what?”
+The hordes that were massacred are just a small portion of the night beasts here. There are still more.+
“WHAT?!?”
Evelyn accidentally raises her voice.
+If I told you there were more monsters, you would have never let me go back here.+
Evelyn glared at Michael.
“EXACTLY! WE NEED TO GO NOW!”
Michael quickly signs.
+You told me that you would protect me. You wanted to fight the alpha and told me to rely on you. I’m relying on you right now to protect me while I’m trying to do something you can’t do. I’ll rely on you so you can rely on me.+
Evelyn grits her teeth.
“Goddammit Michael! You could have hyped me up or something! Like, you could have given me an incentive!”
She goes towards Michael and pulls a spear out of his pack and two stone knives.
“You better fucking make me a sharp sword or else I’m gutting you after this.”
Michael points to an area.
+There’s a chokepoint that you can block. Take care.+
“GRRRRR!”
Evelyn storms off and goes toward the choke point they saw earlier.
Michael smiles to himself as he continues his mining.
----------------------------------------
FUCK!
Evelyn internally cursed as she ran towards the chokepoint with a torch in her left hand and a spear in her right.
She stored the stone knives she got from Michael’s pack inside her cloak.
The sound of snarling and groaning starts getting louder.
Tsk… stupid man.
If the horde was the same size as before, she was going to need everything she could bring.
Once Evelyn reaches the chokepoint, she sets down the extra spear she took from Michael.
She takes an unlit torch from her pack and puts some oil on the dried tinder wrapped around it. She lights it up with her already burning torch. Quickly, Evelyn sets up the torches in front of the chokepoint so she could properly see her enemies.
The light illuminates the front of the chokepoint and Evelyn starts to see the silhouette of the night beast horde.
They were rushing towards her, drawn by Michael’s rhythmic hammering.
“COME AND GET ME YOU BEASTS!”
Evelyn lets loose a powerful roar that attracts all the night beasts toward her.
There! Now, those bastards are going to me. You better appreciate this Michael!
Evelyn pulls out her back of sharpened sticks. They weren’t tipped with sharpened stones or bone daggers like their spear but they were almost as sharp when thrown with extreme force, something Evelyn and Michael could do.
She lifts one of her sharpened sticks.
~SNARL~
The ugly visage of a night beast rears its head and it releases a hungering roar.
It is immediately silenced as Evelyn’s javelin impales its chest and lungs with a powerful throw.
“Take this!”
Evelyn throws her second and third javelins which impale and slay the night beast they hit.
When she reaches for her fourth javelin, one of the night beasts manages to reach her.
“Tsk!”
The night beast lunges forward and tries to bite her but Evelyn stabs the fourth javelin straight through its open mouth. Evelyn uses her strength to lift the night beast then she throws it to the incoming horde.
The front of the horde momentarily falters but they are immediately replaced.
Once out of throwing weapons, Evelyn takes her spear and knife. She wields the spear on her right and the knife on her left.
She releases a roar of her own and she charges toward the horde.
----------------------------------------
There!
Michael manages to skillfully chisel the sides of a sizable piece of iron ore. Once the sides were cleared, he uses a stone knife and inserts it into the edge. Slowly and surely, Michael wrenches out the iron ore from its dirt and stone cage.
The ore falls to the ground.
~Happy monkey noises~
Michael nods.
+Yes, Bob, this is indeed a cause for celebration.+
Bob signs back toward Michael.
+Rock shiny.+
Michael nods.
+Well, iron is shinier than just rocks.+
Bob pokes the iron ore with a stick.
The iron ore wasn’t too big but it was enough for Michael’s first trial-and-error experiments.
+This is good enough. We should fetch Evelyn before anything happens bad to her.+
Bob nods. Bob helps Michael pack up.
Michael puts the large iron ore in an empty fur pack. He makes sure that the pack is tightly sealed.
+Let’s go.+
Bob and Michael rush towards Evelyn’s area.
As they run, they start to hear the sound of shouting and snarling.
Evelyn.
Michael pulls out his stone knife and his backup spear.
“IS THAT ALL YOU’VE GOT!!!”
Michael sees Evelyn devoid of any weapons and clothes as she uses her evolved divine gift to bash the skulls of the night beasts surrounding her.
As predicted, Evelyn’s divine gift was indeed tough enough to survive the claws and jaws of the night beast horde.
But she’s getting tired.
Despite her powerful defense, Evelyn was slowly losing steam.
While in the middle of a brawl, Evelyn sees Michael and Bob.
“MICHAEL, YOU’RE DONE?!”
Michael gestures for her to get to them so they could escape. Crushing the skull of a night beast, Evelyn screams.
“Roger!”
Evelyn proceeds to fight through the hoard. Her hardened fists were slick with blood and gore but she continued onwards.
Michael takes out a small rough-hewn cloth bag.
As Evelyn gets closer, Michael takes one of the torches.
Evelyn sees the bag and her eyes widen.
Bob signs for her to move faster.
Evelyn looks around the hoard and she sees a few dead bodies.
She runs to them while pushing the monsters away. Using her momentum, she uses the pile of bodies as a ramp and jumps above the horde, and does a flip to extend her flight period. She lands a few feet away from Michael.
Michael opens the cloth bag and then proceeds to wave its contents in the front of him.
A white powdery substance covers his front. He then backs away but not before throwing the torch.
The hot flames of the torch touch the flour still in the air.
Then fire spreads.
Sudden roars of pain fill the cave as the front of the hoard all catch fire from the suddenly ignited flour.
Michael and Evelyn immediately run as the fire spreads around the night beasts. While running, Evelyn asks Michael a question.
“Is that why you refused to make bread?!”
Michael nods.
“Hell yeah! I like explosions more than bread. Now, where’s the iron?!”
Michael gestures behind him.
“Hah, that’s great! Let’s get out of here!”
With a head start and no bloodthirsty hoard chasing them, the duo manages to escape and reach the exit of the cave.
The two of them were both panting.
Evelyn was exhausted while Michael felt weak due to his wounds.
Once they have managed to rest for a bit, Evelyn then talks to Michael with a semblance of grimness in her voice.
“Now… Michael… what do you have to say?”
Michael inhales and then exhales.
+Thank you.+
“Not that! I mean, why did you lie to me?!”
+It was part of the plan.+
“The plan you didn’t tell me?!”
+Not telling you was part of the plan.+
“Listen here you little bitch!”
Before Evelyn could hit Michael, he immediately runs away.
“Hey! Come back here! I’m not done with you yet! YOU OWE ME A NEW FUR CLOAK!”