Cave King – 7
Chapter 7 – I found something while digging!
“Ahh. Water is always amazing after you’ve worked hard!!”
I said after drinking down the water.
This was the third day since the arrival of the goblins.
We were now sitting by the cave’s entrance and preparing to have dinner.
Erevan, the large goblin, nodded in agreement.
“Yes! The water tastes as fine as wine! I never thought I would be having so much fun in a cave like this!”
“Yes, yes. Right? Right?”
I couldn’t help but be happy that Erevan had also come to know the joys of mining.
Not only that but the goblin Shaman, Baris, was with us as we sat around a pile of Shining Stones. And he was also in a good mood.
“I did not think an old goblin like me would be able to dig so much. But the Princess’s life is extending gradually, and so I am quite motivated.”
“Yeah. The sense of accomplishment is different when the goal is to extend Rienna’s life… By the way, today’s Turtle Stones are…”
I opened the Inventory.
◇ Inventory
Rock x 14988
Iron Ore x 256
Copper Ore x 180
Gold Ore x 18
Silver Ore x 43
Coal x 1190
Limestone x 1911
Marble x 68
…
Ruby x 21
Sapphire x 19
Crystal x 8987
Turtle Stone x 328
Purification Stone x 3
Shining Stone x 0
The reason that I only had 0 Shining Stones was because we were using them as torches.
I would have had 49 of them otherwise.
As for the Turtle Stones, everything we got yesterday and the day before were used immediately on Rienna.
And so if we added the stones we got today, then her life would be extended for over two years.
“Sorry to keep you waiting! I made some apple pie today!”
Rienna said as she returned from a little cooking space that had been set up outside.
During these last few days, I had built a number of facilities.
One of them was the cooking space.
A simple kitchen made of piled-up rocks.
There was a small furnace that you could make a fire inside.
The second place was the bathroom.
I dug in one corner of the cave, making a separate small room with a pit in the ground.
And I regularly used fire magic to burn everything up…
Goblin bodies were not made to store magical energy.
And so they could not use magic. That meant that I had to do the burning.
And the final thing I made, was a reservoir.
If it was just me, I could have used water magic for drinking and washing my body.
However, goblins couldn’t use magic.
And so I decided to have a reservoir so it would be easy for them to use it.
Well, while I may have said facilities, they weren’t really anything special.
Here, there was an overwhelming lack of resources derived from plants.
The only way to get firewood or wood for building materials was to use driftwood or the few supplies we already had.
And that wasn’t the only thing we lacked.
“Ah, Princess’s apple pie! I can’t wait!”
Erevan raised his hands as if this was something he had been looking forward to.
I muttered in agreement.
“Oh, it looks great today as well!”
“I hope that you like it, Lord Heal…”
Rienna said as she handed me a plate of apple pie.
She was very good at cooking.
The day before yesterday, she had made fish and vegetable soup. And yesterday, she made a shrimp and clam gratin. Both of them were amazing. As for me, I could only grill or boil food, so I was especially grateful.
“Of course, I’ll like it. The food from the last few days was amazing.”
I said as I immediately stuffed the apple pie into my mouth.
Yes, it was delicious.
In fact, it was far superior to anything I had ever eaten in the royal palace.
How did she manage to make the apples so sweet?
Was she some kind of cooking genius?
However, these were all made with ingredients that I had brought.
The butter, sugar, flour… My father had made sure I had certain provisions.
Of course, these would have been wasted on me, seeing as I wasn’t a cook.
But thanks to Rienna’s arrival, these ingredients did not have to go to waste.
“Rienna. There isn’t much flour left, is there?”
“Yes… If I were to make the same kind of pie again… I could perhaps make two.”
“I see…”
Just when I thought that such delicious food could become the norm, we were running out of ingredients…
Yes, food was another thing that we greatly lacked.
Well, it was more about variety, to be precise.
After all, there was no shortage of fish.
However, it was impossible to not get tired of fish when you had it every day.
And there were nutritional concerns as well.
But we were on a small island that was mostly just exposed rock.
We couldn’t get any wood or flour, and there was no soil that would allow anything to grow.
Perhaps the only way to acquire what we didn’t have, was to trade.
But ships rarely came near here…
The Cave King will live a Paradise Life -Becoming the strongest with the mining skill?-
Uhh, fire in a cave? That will cause carbon monoxide poisoning if they are using it in a long time. Oh well, they can just say that magic did the work and prevent that.
Thanks.
My headcanon is that the first section of the cave (the natural part) is a cave with one wall basically being made of fused stalactites and stalagmites with gaps to an outside area. Perhaps due to playing Dark Cloud 2, where that is one of the dungeon areas (think that sort of area, with an actual sand/rock ground area instead of a half-boot-deep pool of water like the DC2 area). So its basically still a cave, but one side has many gaps leading to a beach/sea/something like that, in a manner like the closed teeth of a crocodile (from various ‘tites and ‘mites being fused). Plenty of ventiliation, at least for the natural area.
So I am always imagining the natural part of the cave as being this. Dim, but open to the air. And it being where they store supplies, where all the skeletons are, etc. Its not a proper dark cave until you go to the part he dug out.
The dug parts of the cave are of course properly dangerous to use fires in too much. I imagine they just return to the surface when they cook.
Since people keep mentioning minecraft, imagine that you are just carting stuff back up to your entrance-base to cook and deal with stuff.
…ah. I just looked back at the chapter. They outright say they are just outside the cave at the time they are cooking. So its moot either way.
I will continue to imagine the natural part of the cave in the manner I described.
I really really like your comment! Nice ideas.
I wonder if they can level off some of the land with the mining skills. If they can, that’s a start to making a spot to farm. Next would be either a skill to turn some of the rocks he has collected into soil or trying to collect some from just off the coast since the island is all rock.
Thanks for the chapter! Can’t wait for him to wife the cute waifu goblin princess.
Very good
Is this like Minecraft the Novel or something?
Sure! Why not? With isekai elements, but not an isekai protagonist. And of course, the Minecraft part having a LOT of mods installed.
As long as they are saltwater fish, eating the WHOLE fish (guts, eyes, brain, edible bones) is nutritionally complete. Its just not preferred for taste reasons.