The bat monster『Sonic Bat』 infests some of the paths. These Sonic Bats are more of a small fry than the Iron Mole, so they mainly become Kaede’s partners for killing time.
They can’t escape from Kaede’s threads in these narrow tunnels.
The pitiful Sonic Bats fall in two parts. Since they have neither trash magic stone nor essential materials, I just dispose of them by burying them with Earth magic.
「Yes, understood.」
Doganbo-san and I dug up the area he had indicated with pickaxes.
Sophia and Maria kept watch of the surroundings. Kaede spread out her threads to detect for monsters coming from underground.
「Ooh, this might be a hit. Takumi, look at this rock. This is Mithril ore. You have magic skills so check it out with Magic Perception. ……… How is it, you can see it contains magic power, right? You can distinguish mithril ore with this magic power and its whitish color.」
I looked for magic power in the stone that Doganbo-san prospected, and I really could slightly sense magic power that I couldn’t sense in an ordinary rock or iron ore.
「…………yes, I kind of get it.」
I tried using 「Decomposition」「Extraction」 and 「Synthesis」 on the mithril ore I was holding. It definitely expends more magic power than when I transmute magic iron but not that much. When the transmutation finished, what was left on my palm was a shiny silver lump of mithril.
From there, Doganbo-san and I dug up the wall.
Midway through, Doganbo-san left the digging to me and sorted out the excavated stones.
「Takumi! Let’s move to the next spot!」
「Yes!」
I stored every last ore that Doganbo-san had sorted into my Item Box.
After that, we continued mining a number of tunnels and were able to mine quite a bit of mithril ore.
「Takumi, we’ll soon be at an area where we can mine Adamantite ores.」
「Then we’ll prospect here, right?」
There, Doganbo-san showed me an Adamantite ore. I could feel magic power within it just like with the mithril ore, but its characteristics which were different are that it is blacker in color than an iron ore and it is much heavier.
「Adamantite is harder and more durable than mithril and magic iron but it is heavier.」
I see, but if one were to ignore its weight, it is a superior metal with higher hardness and durability. It might be difficult as armor, but wouldn’t that be the most suitable for weapons?
When I said that to Doganbo-san, astounded, he said
「The only thing superior to adamantite is orichalcum, so of course it is.」
This was while we were in the middle of mining for adamantite.
「Master! Something is coming!」
Kaede pointed to the ground.
「Sophia! Maria! It’s an Iron Mole!」
While being vigilant at the spot Kaede pointed at, I stored my pickaxe and replaced it with a sword.
There I was thinking, “it’s a mole”, and decided to try an idea that I thought of since I had nothing to lose.
Gobaaa!!
The moment something came out of the ground, 『Light!』 I chanted the light attribute magic, Light.
「Kyaaaaaaaaーーーーー!!」
「……………………」
「……………………」
The Iron Mole fainted.
「Maria, please finish it off.」
「…………yes.」
Zaku!
「Hey Takumi, what did you do?」
「Well, since it’s a mole, I thought it would be weak to light.」
「Master, how did you beat Mole-san?」
「Hmm, moles like dark places so it sort of hates bright lights.」
「Takumi-sama, is it really alright to defeat monsters this easily?」
「As expected of Takumi-sama. Your idea was genius.」
The questionable response from Maria and excessive praise from Sophia were somewhat unbearable.
「Well, it’s great that you can defeat the Iron Mole easily. Okay, let’s hurry up and dig for adamantite ores!」
Looking nonchalant, Doganbo-san restarted digging.
Mining a fixed amount of adamantite ores is quite the chore. To start with, you can’t mine the same amount as you would mithril and magic iron ore in one spot. Furthermore, adamantite ore is heavy, so there are transportation costs as well. I have an item box so I can ignore the weight and bring back as much adamantite ores as I like, but this would be difficult if someone had to carry it.
「Master, Mole-san again!」
「OK!」
I prepared to use Light at the spot Kaede indicated and waited for the Iron Mole to come out.
『Light!』
「Kyuuuuuuuーーーー!!」
Zaku!
It ended up like an assembly line.
「Takumi-sama, the third Iron Mole.」
「It seems my dismantling will improve」
Sophia is truly an elf, it seems they hunt frequently in their country and dismantling is their specialty.
「Hey! Takumi, I leave these ores to you!」
Now Dognabo-san ignores it when Iron Moles come out and continues to mine or sort ores.
「Yes!」
I stored the adamantite ores into the Item Box.
「Doganbo-san, haven’t we already mined quite a bit of mithril and adamantite ores?」
I think I’ve been able to reserve enough for my personal use. I feel like there’s enough even taking the amount that Doganbo-san’s shop will use into consideration.
「A bit more, so just a bit more.」
Thanks to Doganbo-san’s “a bit more” chant, by the time we came out of the third mine, the sun had gone down completely.
Mining and killing Iron Moles without eating lunch, we rushed back to the 『Badger’s Sett Pavilion』 and ate our fill of Nora-san’s food and slept like logs.
***