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<<Your mining skill has been raised to 10. And so the amount you can mine has increased.>>

 

I wasn’t really sure, but I guess my skill had gone up?

However, being able to dig more meant that my feet were…

 

<<Will you gather rocks x 168?>>

 

Gather?

 

<<The Cave King crest allows you to store mined materials regardless of weight.>>

 

Huh. Where does it store them?

 

<<Impossible to answer.>>

 

I see… Uh, it wouldn’t result in any physical side-effects right? Or be stuck in there permanently?

 

<<There will be no side-effects to your body. And you will be able to take them out whenever you want.>>

 

Then by all means…

I thought. And the rocks flashed brightly before disappearing somewhere.

 

<<Rocks x 168 have been gathered. An inventory will be created.>>

 

Just then, the following information appeared in front of me.

 

◇ Inventory

Rocks x 168

 

“…Th-that’s amazing.”

 

While it was limited to mined materials, it had collected all of those rocks so quickly…

And while I didn’t know what the standards were, they were displayed as numbers.

 

<<There is also an automatic-gathering feature for mined materials. Will you activate this feature?>>

 

Please do…!

 

Use everything that you have.

Now I could focus on mining.

 

And so I hummed to myself as I continued to swing the pickaxe.

However, as the island was very small, I knew that I would reach the other side very soon.

And so I decided that it was time to start digging downward.

 

The mined materials that fell to my feet were immediately enveloped in light and disappeared.

Automatic gathering…how easy it made things.

 

Before I knew it, the light coming from outside was far away.

According to the advisor, I was now 10 meters below my starting point.

I had actually never heard of the unit ‘meter,’ but it wasn’t had to grasp.

 

Eventually, I had all kinds of things in my inventory.

 

Iron and copper ore… Apparently, even gold ore.

Of course, as there was no one to sell it to, gold had no value to me.

 

Aside from ore that was familiar to me, there were also some I wasn’t sure about.

 

“…Is this crystal?”

 

<<Activating Mining Support Feature: Ore Encyclopedia. Crystal…grants the user the gift of enhanced magic storage. Degree of enhancement is dependant on the size of the crystal.>>

 

Enhance magic!?

Did that mean something could be done about my complete lack of magical energy?

Why had I suffered all of this time…

 

My shoulders drooped as I continued to look through the materials.

 

What’s a Turtle Stone?

 

<<Turtle Stone… Using this item will increase your lifespan by 1 day.>>

 

…Li-lifespan!?

 

This was all so hard to take in.

It was shocking that mining itself was so easy, but I had no idea I would be able to find such strange stones as well.

This Sheorl Reef… Perhaps it was much more than anyone had ever imagined?

 

After all, nothing so interesting had ever happened to me in all my life.

Who knew what other secrets lay ahead…

 

“….ALLLRRRRIIIIGHHT!! Let’s get diggggginnnngg!!”

 

My curiosity led me to swing the pickaxe madly.

All alone, I shouted in the dark cave. And every time I found something, I thrust my hands into the air and celebrated.

 

“A ruby? …A-and this is a sapphire!?”

 

Before I knew it, I had forgotten any notion of trying to find a passing ship. The only thing on my mind was digging.

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