Chapter 14: Dig, Dig, and Dig Some More in the <Stone Bridge Abandoned Mine Dungeon>
"Ehh~~ya-come~~here♪"
Zash! Zash!
"C’mon, get out here already~♪"
Zash! Zash!
The rhythmic sound of my pickaxe striking the wall echoed around me.
Right now, I’m mining at the last excavation point before the exit of the 9th floor in the <Stone Bridge Abandoned Mine Dungeon>.
Singing randomly just matched my mood.
When you’re swinging a pickaxe in a place like this, you start craving some music.
Somebody, please give me some BGM. The academy-issued smartphones don’t have a music function.
"We’ve gathered quite a lot."
"Yeah. Is this really an abandoned mine? Stuff’s coming out like crazy."
Hanna’s eyes went wide as she stared at the mountain of materials we’d piled up.
"Well, it’s a dungeon, after all. Even if it gets ‘mined out,’ it just respawns on its own after a while, so you can dig as much as you want."
"Doesn’t sound like an abandoned mine to me…"
Hanna was fussing over small details, but the name was something the devs decided, so I wouldn’t know.
Anyway, if you can dig up resources here, who cares what it’s called?
Still, the reason we were able to collect so much this time isn’t just because it’s a Beginner Low-tier dungeon that no one bothers mining anymore—it’s also because the excavation points here are great.
If you’re here just for gathering, you start digging from the first floor, work your way down, and leave once you’re satisfied or your bag’s full. Not many people bother fighting a bunch of monsters just to reach the deeper excavation points.
That’s why the deeper points are often left untouched.
In <DanKatsu>, the deeper you went, the higher the gathering yield—apparently, the same rule applies in this real-world version.
By the way, "gathering" means getting resources from designated gathering points—separate from monster drops—by using the relevant skill at the spot.
For the <Stone Bridge Abandoned Mine Dungeon>, using the 『Excavation』 skill at these points nets you materials.
We’ve already met the quota for random monster drops, and excavation’s done, so the last thing left is the boss drop.
Actually, we’ve already been farming the boss.
When we first reached the deepest point (here), I went straight for the boss.
Right now, my max MP is 200.
Thanks to the 『MP Auto-Recovery Lv1』 on my <True Soul Necklace>, MP recovers 15 points in just 20 minutes—which is huge. In an hour and a half, I’d already beaten the boss 14 times.
Since I’ve leveled up to 【Hero Lv. 17】, I can finish a boss fight in about 6 minutes, which helps too.
When I run out of MP, I just hang around the excavation point near the 9th floor exit, dig with 『Excavation』, and let my MP naturally recover.
That way, I can farm boss drops efficiently again.
The time’s just past 4 PM. Probably a good time to go for the final round of boss farming.
"All right, once we finish packing this up, let’s go hunt the boss."
"O-okay. Wow, this is… heavier work than I thought."
Well, we did dig up as much as possible.
We’ve gone way over the quota—should be a nice payday.
The two of us stuffed everything into Hanna’s <Item Bag (Capacity: Large)>.
Item bags don’t change in weight no matter what you put inside, so even heavy stuff like excavation loot can be carried in bulk with no problem.
Pretty handy.
Once we finally packed everything, we headed for the 10th floor.
The <Stone Bridge Abandoned Mine Dungeon> is a cave-type dungeon.
As the name suggests, it’s full of pathways like stone bridges.
Since it’s inhabited by things like golems, the paths are pretty wide—probably about four lanes of a regular road.
The boss's room was just an extension of that same path.
Honestly, it felt more like part of the road than a "room."
If not for the gate marking the boundary, you wouldn’t even know it was a boss room.
And there, sitting in the middle, was the dungeon’s boss: the <Armored Golem>.
Its upper body was completely covered in iron plates, and it stood about two meters tall — a golem.
Unlike yesterday’s silly-looking <Bear Anteater>, this one was a pretty normal-looking boss.
"Alright, I’m back. Let’s resume the boss farming!"
"Okay. Good luck, Zephyrus-kun."
For the record, Hanna was watching from the safety zone.
She’d recently reached 【Alchemist Lv 20】, and Beginner low-tier dungeons no longer gave her any experience.
Well, that just meant I could save the MP for my 【Appeal Lv 5】, so I wasn’t complaining.
This <Armored Golem> might look tough and intimidating, but it has a huge weakness that makes it ridiculously easy to solo.
It came clanking toward me with heavy steps, and when I slipped past and slashed its leg, it lost balance and went down in a sort of diving fall.
That’s the <Armored Golem>’s weakness — its upper body is too heavy. If it gets tripped while running, it’ll just crash to the ground. In <DanKatsu>, they called this “slip down.”
Back in the game, you could attack anywhere when it started running, and it’d topple. In real life, you actually have to hit its legs, which is a bit of a hassle.
At first, it took me some effort, but once I learned to slash while slipping past, it became an easy target.
I kept the loop going: slash it when it’s down, keep my distance when it stands, trip it again when it runs. Since it takes so long to get back up due to its heavy upper body, I could keep attacking freely during that time. Around five loops in, it finally turned into a treasure chest.
Slashing the fallen <Armored Golem> — slash, slash! — honestly made me feel like I was mining in the mine again.
After farming the boss six more times, I decided to call it a day for this dungeon.
The total haul this time: 18 <Wooden Chests> and 2 <Silver Chests>. Silver drop rate still sucked, and the rare drops were underwhelming.
Guess last time was just too good. Still, doing twenty boss runs with no jackpot is rough.
<Gold Chests> are still nowhere in sight, but considering their drop rate is really low, I’ll just hope for next time.
On the bright side, I reached 【Hero Lv 18】, so I’ll take that win.
With the boss fights done, I used the teleport circle to return.
"Thanks for everything…"
"Same to you. Sorry for the unreasonable request this time. I’ll save up some Miru and come shopping next time."
『Subquest: <Deliver the Requested Materials> completed.』
I handed over the requested materials exactly as ordered to my taciturn senior and even sold off the extra materials for a good price.
The total came to 382,000 miru. I split it evenly with Hanna, giving her 191,000 miru, and we left the shop.
Next, we went to Marie-senpai’s store. I handed over all the materials we’d gathered — except the ones Hanna wanted to keep — and also collected the leftover Tropical Forest Dungeon materials that hadn’t sold last time.
As expected, boss monster materials fetched a pretty high price. The total buyout came to 2.12 million miru.
In this world, the only way to farm a boss is to teleport back to the entrance and start over, so boss drops are worth way more than regular monster loot.
This was my first time breaking the 1 million miru mark — the equivalent of earning one million yen in a day.
It might feel a bit plain just having it deposited into my student handbook, but seeing that number still makes me grin.
"1.25 million miru…"
Hanna, meanwhile, just stared blankly at her smartphone in shock.
I thought she’d be jumping for joy, but apparently not. Coming from a poor family where even materials were scarce, I wonder what went through her mind seeing a daily income of over a million miru.
"Amazing… money… so amazing… fweee…"
Uh-oh. She’d overloaded. I hurriedly caught her as she looked ready to collapse.
— Fuyon!
A sudden 『Intuition』 in my upper arm area!
Muhh! Wait… hold on. This girl actually has a big chest?!
The squishy sensation pressing into my arm was shocking — there was enough to squish?!
"Haah!?"
In that instant, another 『Intuition』 hit me — this time a dangerous one. I quickly turned, only to meet the blank, expressionless gaze of Marie-senpai.
"…………"
"…………"
Silence.
Those eyes, staring at me like they were trying to say something, were terrible for my heart.
Crap, my gaze kept wanting to drift downward. Very bad.
If I looked down right now, I’d be erased from existence!
For now—just smile! Fake it with a grin! …Ugh, I’m pretty sure it’s not coming out right, and that makes it even worse.
"U…nhh. Zephyrus-kun?"
"Oh! Hanna, you okay? You’re fine, right?! You can stand on your own, yeah? Good, stand up."
"Fue? W-wait, what’s going on!?"
Just when I thought I’d be crushed under the silent pressure, Hanna finally came back to life.
I grabbed her shoulders firmly and forced her to her feet.
"Don’t go passing out just from looking at your balance! I almost got wiped out thanks to you!"
"Fueeeh, what are you even talking about!?"
I shook her roughly as I lectured her, and although she got dizzy from it, the momentum was enough to break the awkward tension.
Still… It’s frustrating that I barely remember the feeling from earlier because I was too focused on panicking…
"Oh, Marie-senpai, after we finish the next <Stillwater Underground Dungeon>, we’re heading to Beginner Mid-tier. This’ll be the last time we bring Beginner Low-tier materials."
"Eh! You’re already going to Beginner Mid-tier? That’s fast!"
"Well, once we clear it, there’s no reason to stay in Beginner Low-tier. More importantly, I want to make a guild as soon as possible."
"Ahh, I see…"
When I told her my goal, Marie-senpai looked openly disappointed.
Normally, first-years spend a while leveling up in Beginner Low-tier, but since we’ve been farming bosses for XP, I’ll probably hit Lv 20 with the next clear.
Beginner Low-tier caps out at Lv 20 anyway.
Once you hit the cap, it’s useless. Moving to the next stage is the natural choice.
Besides, materials from Beginner Low-tier aren’t worth much.
Another reason for moving up is to start my own guild.
I’ve mentioned guilds before, but until now, there was a certain reason why I couldn’t make one.
The requirements for founding a guild are:
1. The leader must have cleared Beginner Mid-tier.
2. A minimum of five members.
3. At least three members must be combat or production jobs.
That’s it.
But yeah—right now we don’t meet any of them.
Since you can’t even meet the first requirement without clearing Beginner Mid-tier, I’ve been putting off recruiting members.
…Well, more like I figured we could clear it quickly, so I just didn’t bother yet.
Now that we’re almost at Beginner Mid-tier, it’s finally time to seriously start building the guild.
"You already have members in mind?"
"Nope, not at all. I’ll probably start by asking some other first-years I know. I want the initial lineup to be all first-years."
"Ahh, makes sense. If upperclassmen join in, they might take over your guild."
When someone like me—with an attractive job—starts a guild, upperclassmen sometimes want in.
Of course, they’re stronger and more skilled, so you run into the problem of who should lead. In the worst case, the guild gets taken over.
It’s actually a tactic used by higher-ranked guilds to absorb smaller ones.
They’ll intentionally send their own members into a lower-ranked guild, take over leadership, and fold the whole guild and its members into their control.
The academy usually doesn’t interfere unless it’s an extreme case of ignoring someone’s rights. If it’s mild enough, they’ll tacitly allow it.
Even in the game, the academy never acted until the player—the protagonist—did something. If they solved everything on their own, it would ruin the events.
Well, there are exceptions. If they judge it as "too much," the academy steps in—and sometimes it even makes the academy news.
After telling Marie-senpai I’d be moving forward with forming a guild, we called it a day and went our separate ways.
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