During the trip to the copper mine and astral stone mine, Elijah and the members of Kento’s clan didn’t encounter any danger. Although it was further away, the first mine they headed to was the astral stone mine With Elijah setting a quick pace to avoid any discussion they arrived at the mine within nine minutes.
Item: Pickaxe
Tier: 0
Durability: 45/45
Description: An ordinary pickaxe made from wood.
Requirements: None
Once they arrived, Elijah let everyone take a short break and catch their breath. Then he took out the three pickaxes that the villagers created the previous night. They weren’t great but Elijah hoped that they would increase the quality of astral stones that were mined.
“Not bad.” Kento commented as he observed the pickaxes. “They’re not the best, but we can definitely put them to good use.”
“Do you need torches as well?” Elijah asked although he already knew the answer,
“No need. Most of us have learned a skill that allow us to see in the dark. At the very least, the five of us that will be working in the astral stone mine are able to see in the dark without assistance.”
“Do you mind if I join you all for a few minutes.” Although it sounded like a question, Elijah wasn’t asking. “I’ve never worked in a mine before and I’m interested to see how the process works.”
“Sure,”
Elijah followed Kento, three other men and one woman into the mine. The remaining forty clan members were left to rest outside of the mine. After three minutes of walking Kento stopped and looked toward the other clan members. They all silently nodded in agreement before they took action.
“Wait. Aren’t you going to go deeper?” Elijah spoke up when he saw them move toward the walls. Elijah thought they stopped too early. After all, they hadn’t reached the spot where Elijah and the village warriors encountered their first slimes.
“No, this is the right spot,” Kento said.
“How can you tell?”
“It’s an ability of the miner job. Even if we don’t learn a specific skill, we are able to sense different stones, ores, and minerals.”
Elijah nodded and decided to say nothing else. At times like this it was best to keep quiet and let the professionals do their jobs. Besides, Elijah only decided to stay out of curiosity. He wasn’t trying to obtain the miner job.
Kento took one of the pickaxes and the remaining four miner shared the other two pickaxes. The miners with pickaxes launched a furious assault on the mine walls, The result was a few medium sized rocks falling from the wall after two minutes of mining.
Clearly getting the astral stones wasn’t going to be an easy task. The miners without pickaxes weren’t doing nothing. Elijah saw them attacking the walls with nothing but their fist and some astral energy.
Five minutes into the mining process, a faint glow appeared by the area Kento was in. Kento paused when he saw the light and continued mining with more precision and less strength. After a few minutes, a glowing gray stone fell from the wall and Elijah immediately looked at its information.
Item: Astral Stone
Description: An ordinary stone that has absorbed a tiny amount of astral energy over a long period of time.
Quality: Poor
Astral Energy: 4,582
Everyone paused and smiled at the freshly mined astral stone. It wasn’t the best quality, but it was a good start. Everyone went back to work but this time, Kento was more talkative.
Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.
Kento began to explain the mining process to Elijah. He talked about how he determined where to hit, what force to use and several other pieces of knowledge he obtained from his years of mining experience. Elijah listened for a few minutes before he decided it was time to move on.
“Okay, that’s enough mining for me. I’ll be taking the others to the copper mine and leaving my storage bag here.” Without his storage bag, Kento and the others would have to openly carry the astral stones they mined. This would definitely lead to them attracting a lot of unwanted attention. “Of course, if you have a storage bag of your own then I won’t need to do that.”
“As I said before, we don’t have a storage bag.” Kento lied again without turning away from the mine wall or stopping his swings.
“Sure, sure. Remember to go to the copper mine and help gather the copper ores when you’re done.”
“We don’t know where the copper mine is.”
Elijah looked at Kento with a dumbfounded expression for a few seconds before he quickly looked away in embarrassment. His eagerness for getting the mining process for astral stones started lead to him making a poor decision. In conclusion, Elijah gave himself more work to do.
Elijah told Kento not to worry before he quickly left the mine. Before he left, he tossed Kento his storage bag after he removed his spear from it. Other than his spear there was nothing else in the storage bag.
After Elijah left the astral stone mine, he gathered the remaining miners from Kento’s clan and headed to the copper mine. This time they were traveling at a light jog, and it took them about six minutes to arrive at the mine. Elijah spent a few minutes making sure everything was okay before he traveled back to the astral stone mine with one of the miners.
The trip back and forth was a great physical reminder about the consequences of making bad decisions and failing to plan ahead. Once he made sure everything related to the mines were taken care of, Elijah ran back to the village using his newly built road. However, Elijah found that while the road did improve his speed, the time difference between running directly to the village from the mine and using the road was negligible.
“How are the badges coming?” Elijah asked.
“I’m doing okay, but it will be a few more days before I meet your deadline.” Caleb replied.
“That’s fine.” Elijah said. “You can leave the finished badges here for now, and I’ll come by later to pick them up.”
After Elijah returned to the village the first thing he did, was visit Caleb. Caleb shared a home with his mother Catharine, and he was working in a room on the ground floor. Currently, with the help of Elijah’s Ruler’s Labor skill, Caleb managed to create six more badges and there was still plenty of time left in the day.
Sitting at a desk, Caleb didn’t stop working on the badge in his hand as he spoke to Elijah. He had to create hundreds of badges for the current and new people in the village. Caleb wasn’t creating badges to give villagers the effect of the Goblin Killer badge. He was creating badges to help Elijah finish a quest.
Quest: Everyone Gets a Badge
Description: Make sure your entire population is equipped with a badge. As a reward you will be granted the opportunity to choose the effect your territory badge grants the holder.
Reward: Territory badge
Penalty: None
“How do you feel about moving your workspace? Not today, but by tomorrow we should have created a building for crafting.”
Caleb paused for a second before he continued working. The next time he spoke there was a bit of agitation in his voice. “What do you mean by a crafting building? I’ve heard of forges and workshops, but I’ve never heard of a crafting building.”
“It’s not a specific type of building, it's just a name that I came up with. I wanted to create an area where you, Mellissa and other crafters can work.”
“What’s wrong with the room I’m in right now? I've always done my work here and I don’t think I would be able to work as well in another location. If you have a problem with the badges, then I could always-”
Crunch
The agitation in Caleb’s voice became more obvious as he continued speaking. As he continued to speak, he worked faster and applied more force to the badge in his hand. Eventually, he made a mistake and the tool in his hand took out a huge portion of the material for the badge. The damage made the badge useless, and Caleb would have to start over.
With a frustrated sigh, Caleb put down the damaged badge and the tool before he turned to give Elijah his full attention. “Hmph, you can build the crafting building if you want to, but I’m fine where I am and I won’t be moving.”
Looking at the stubborn expression on Caleb’s face, Elijah couldn’t help but feel a little annoyed. While his villagers did have unique characteristics, those characteristics usually didn’t get in the way of them following his commands. Where did his happy compliant villager go? Taking a calming breath, Elijah activated his Supreme Speech skill and tried again.
“Look, I’m sure this place is comfortable, but I can’t afford to use my skill to boost your work speed and the speed of other people in the village.”
“That’s fine, I’ll just work without it.”
“No, it’s not fine. We need to work as efficiently as possible. Disaster can strike at any moment and there are a lot of things we need to get done.”
Caleb wasn’t completely won over, but Elijah could see that he was less resistant to the idea of moving. “Look, let’s try it for a few days and if you don’t like it, I’ll let you move back. Okay?”
“Alright,” Caleb reluctantly agreed.
“Great! Then we’ll talk more tomorrow. Keep up the good work.”
Elijah happily left Caleb to his work and not once did he considered the ethical or moral problems that could be brought up about the use of his Supreme Speech skill. He was happy that he got his way and Caleb was once again singing according to his tune. Now, he only hoped that Mellissa wouldn’t give him any problems.