Chapter 91

Minhyuk and the other miners went inside the mining cave and finally saw the dead monsters. Since the bodies of the dead monsters would just disappear over time the miners slowly went and took their places to start their mining.

"Ruan. You and the new recruit are both foreigners so let him know about the other things."

"Yes. I understand."

Then, Ruan stood beside Minhyuk and loudly spat on both of his hands.

"Well then… You should lift your pickaxe like this!"

He pulled the pickaxe high and stabbed it towards the rocks with all his might.

Baang!

A pile of stones suddenly splattered as Ruan grinned proudly at him.

'I haven't changed my job class yet but I'm sure that I will get an 'Indomitable Mining' skill once I change to the Indomitable Blacksmith class. Hoho!'

As he thought of this, he diligently started to mine for iron ores. After 5 minutes of digging around, he was finally able to get one piece of iron ore. Sounds of admiration rang out from his surroundings.

"Oh. Ruan, you bastard, you already got one?"

"Keuha! You're finally using your strength correctly!"

"Ruan's our mining team's ace!"

Ruan shrugged his shoulders as he listened to the praises that they heaped on him.

"Well, if you're able to mine one withing 5 minutes then that will be great. They will all react like this too. It will be okay if Minhyuk-nim can mine two in an hour."

Minhyuk nodded his head when he heard his words. After all, it was the truth that Ruan was the person who dug up an iron ore the fastest. This just showed that his indomitable mining skill was quite effective even though it wasn't completed yet!

Ruan even thought that no one could surpass him in terms of mining. In addition, the iron ore came out so fast because he was lucky but in truth he could only mine one ore for every 15 minutes.

Minhyuk transformed Ellie's Kitchen Knife into a pickaxe. Once he looked at the area where he was supposed to mine, he saw a bright red spot on the wall. Then, he clasped his pickaxe with both his hands and hit the spot that was shining brightly with great strength.

Fwooooom━

Clink!

The moment his pickaxe embedded itself on the wall, a pile of stones fell down from the wall. The pile of stones were significantly larger in amount compared to what Ruan did. Then, along with the pile of stones a notification rang in his mind.

[Please fill the proficiency bar to 100% in order to add the Mining Skill to your Blacksmithing Skill.]

Unlike other abilities, the mining skill could be easily added to his blacksmithing skill just by filling the proficiency bar to its fullest.

Then, he hit the wall once more…

Fwooooom━

Clink!

Rumble, rumble, rumble━

[You have acquired an iron ore.]

"Oh, an iron ore...!"

Minhyuk was so shocked. An iron ore appeared just after he hit the wall twice. Ruan, who was watching beside him, was completely shocked. Leton also discovered what happened after hearing the commotion.

"Keok?!"

"I, it's a coincidence, right~!"

"Our rookies are quite lucky today!"

Then, Minhyuk hit the wall again.

Fwooooom━

Clink!

Rumble, rumble, rumble━

[You have acquired an iron ore.]

"Oh. Another one!"

For a moment, the people surrounding him were left speechless. Ruan, who was right beside him, murmured under his breath.

"You... How in the world..."

He could mine faster than anybody else due to the mining skill of the hidden class Indomitable Blacksmith. Although his skill was not yet fully mastered, his proficiency bar was almost filled!

So how can someone who just started to mine become so good!

"W, what's your secret?"

"I eat well and work diligently!"

"...uhm."

Ruan had doubts whether he heard him correctly.

Minhyuk then stood in front of the direction where the "Ingredient Tracking" was pointing to and grabbed his pickaxe.

'I'm going to eat... brownies!'

Fwooooom!

Clink!

Rumble, rumble, rumble!

[You have acquired a chocolate ore.]

'I'm going to eat... chocolate!'

Fwooooom!

Clink!

Rumble, rumble, rumble!

'I'm going to eat. Mocha coffee!'

Clink!

Rumble, rumble, rumble!

He continued to mine.

For delicious chocolate!

There was even a famous movie line about chocolates…

'Life is like a box of chocolates.'

The box might be filled with chocolate but the flavor would be different. The box could be filled with sweet or bitter chocolate. And when you pick one out of the box without knowing anything, you wouldn't know whether the chocolate was bitter or sweet. It was just like life. No one would know whether the path that they chose was the sweet path that they always wanted or the bitter path that everyone hated.

But for Minhyuk, he could never associate with those words. For him to compare his life to a box of chocolate… then his box of chocolate would just be an empty box. But right now, it was different for him. Ever since he had accessed Athenae, he was able to fill his chocolate box with sweet chocolates one step at a time. And the chocolate tree would be one of them. And because of that, Minhyuk has been giving it his all.

Fwooooom!

Clink!

Rumble, rumble, rumble!

Everytime he hit stones with his pickaxe, acrid dust would rise and irritate his eyes and nose. His eyes would water, he would continuously sniff and his sweat was pouring down in heaps and bounds. As time went by, even his arms started to get numb from all of the work that it was going through but he was still happy even though the work that he had to do was quite arduous.

He was still smiling.

Fwooooom!

Clink!

Rumble, rumble, rumble!

He did not know how much time has passed ever since he started mining. All he did was to continue to swing his pickaxe and work his way through the mine. He seemed to have heard the voices of Leton and the rest of the miners behind him.

"It's been over an hour!"

"Boy, aren't you pushing yourself too hard?!"

But they soon realized something…

'He can't hear our voices...!'

'My goodness! Such concentration!'

Minhyuk did not seem like he felt anything at all but two hours had already passed ever since he started his mining work. Because of the high intensity work, they always had to work for 40 minutes and rest for 20 minutes. However, Minhyuk has been working non-stop for 2 hours.

Minhyuk was concentrating really hard that he did not hear the voices of concern from the other miners but he did hear the notifications that rang in his head.

[You have acquired an iron ore.]

[You have triggered the skill: Will.]

[All of your skills and abilities related to dexterity will have a 28% increase.]

Because of the increase in his skills, his body and movements started to pick up speed.

Fwooooom!

Clink!

Rumble, rumble, rumble!

And it did not end there.

[You have gained 1 DEX.]

He continuously heard the notifications in his head but his mind was entirely focused on chocolate. He kept on digging until his hands were riddled with wounds. He even had to use his 'Bandaging Skills' on himself.

[Mining Skill has been added to your Beginner's Blacksmithing Skill.]

He was able to fill his proficiency bar in just a matter of time. In addition, there was also a huge pile of iron ore sitting quietly beside him. The huge pile of iron ore was tantamount to the total number of ores that the whole 5th mining team has mined so far.

And five hours later…

Clink!

Rumble, rumble, rumble!

Minhyuk finally stopped digging as he wiped the sweat off of his face and body. He was completely soaked in sweat.

The moment he stopped mining, the rest of the miners of the 5th mining team also stopped. Minhyuk was able to cheer them up and encourage them to move much diligently and work harder than usual.

'Our new recruit is working so hard! We can't sit down and continue to rest like this!'

'Let's dig too! We'll get fired if we go on like this!'

The 5th mining team had the lowest mineral turnover among all the mining teams so they were already on the verge of getting fired any day from now! However, it was especially thanks to Minhyuk for repairing their mining tools and equipment that they were able to mine better. They felt that they were mining easier and there were plenty of iron ores too!

Ruan separated the ores that Minhyuk had dug up and counted them down.

"152 pieces..."

Everyone was speechless.

This is almost equivalent to what the whole 5th mining team can dig up for half a day!

The number of ores that the mining team had dug up was 194, the amount that Minhyuk had dug up was enough to fill up their whole day's work and even have some remaining excess!

"You're really amazing..."

Ruan was totally in awe.

Can a single person really mine that hard that he will be able to dig up this much ore?

He finally realized that he could also work diligently and he would also be able to achieve what he had achieved.

'No wonder. This person is extremely skillful because he always tries his hardest on everything!'

In a way, Minhyuk was only working hard because he wanted to eat chocolate. However, this was not what the others could see. His feat was something that the miners, who depend on this work for their livelihood, would hate to do. What more for the foreigners who just came in to have some fun?

Minhyuk picked up one of the chocolate ores that he dug up. Looking at it, he could not see anything special about it, it even looked like it was just an iron ore. However once you peeled off the foil, a black chocolate would be revealed. The chocolate from the chocolate ore was a bit bigger compared to an adult male's fist. But Minhyuk was still able to devour the fist-sized chocolate ore with ease. He ate one, two, three, four, five pieces in one go. It was as if he was recharging himself with sugar as he sat down eating chocolates.

Ruan and the rest of the miners gaped at him in shock.

"One piece of chocolate ore... is about 1kg each, right?"

"Yeah..."

"But he already ate fourteen pieces... that's about 14kg. No. Wasn't he also eating chocolate when he was repairing our tools in front of the mining cave earlier? I think he ate about ten pieces earlier so he already ate almost 30kg of chocolate today..."

Ruan's murmurs made Leton and the rest of the miners shocked beyond belief. The chocolate ore only has a one out of ten probability of coming out when digging for iron ores. They were also much more expensive compared to regular chocolates with their prices twice that of the regular ones.

They felt like they were watching a chocolate mukbang that was hosted by an elephant with how much chocolate he has eaten. Once Minhyuk finished eating his chocolates, he stood up from his seat and started to dig up iron ores again.

"Boy, would you come with me for a moment?"

"Yes?"

Minhyuk tilted his head when he heard Leton talk to him. He led Minhyuk further inside the mines where the rest couldn't hear them.

"Do you remember what I told you earlier? About your question about the chocolate tree?"

"Ah. Yes!"

"Actually, I lied to you about not knowing anything. The chocolate tree actually exists."

Minhyuk shook his head at him, after all he already knew that it existed due to his ingredient tracking skill.

"However, I believed that I shouldn't tell anyone about the existence of the chocolate tree... but now I can see that you're not just anyone."

Along with his words, a set of notifications rang in Minhyuk's head.

[You have achieved the Secret Quest: 'A True Chocolate Lover.']

[Every time you dig up a special mineral, you will be able to dig up a much more special chocolate ore compared to the regular chocolate ore.]

"Oh...?!"

Minhyuk was shocked.

A secret quest?

He pondered deeply about why he achieved such a secret quest.

'He said that he couldn't just tell the legend to just somebody. So it means that the moment I meant Leton-nim, I was already doing the secret quest!'

Secret Quests were always like this. No one knew when and where it would pop out.

Minhyuk was really excited about this secret quest reward that he received. After all, he would be able to get a more special chocolate whenever he dug up a special mineral.

Then, he heard Leton sigh heavily.

"Boy, I wish you could just easily approach the chocolate tree but there was something about it in the legends…"

He paused for a moment, as if to collect his thoughts before speaking again.

"Only those who have the key would be able to open the path towards the chocolate tree."

"...So does that mean that I will not be able to go no matter what I do?"

"Well, I don't know about that. But right now, I know for sure that you won't be able to get there because you still don't have the key."

He felt a bit sad when he heard the fact about the key but Minhyuk was not someone to be discouraged.

What if I'm able to dig it up one day? Nothing is impossible in this world.

And right at that moment…

Ruuuumble━

"Huh?"

The two of them looked behind them and saw that the pile of stones suddenly collapsed. They looked curiously at the space where the pile of stones once were.

Brony arrived at the vicinity of the Brethni Mines.

'I definitely need to check out the mines before I take over it.'

It was definitely necessary since they needed to kill off all of the NPCs before they could take over the mines. So before they would attack, he needed to look at the overall situation. He even drank an extremely expensive potion that would allow him to turn invisible for half an hour. However, while he was still invisible, he wouldn't be able to attack or his invisibility would be cancelled.

'There are a total of 30 soldiers deployed in the troops that supervise the mines. This will be a piece of cake.'

He covered his mouth with his hands to hide his breath further and went inside another mine with the sign '5th Mine'.

As soon as he entered the mine, he could see all of the miners working diligently.

"Hoo. Aren't those the foil of those iron-like chocolates? Quite amazing."

It was the chocolate ore that he had only heard of! However, only the foils could be seen. The chocolate was nowhere to be found. It seemed like the miners ate the chocolate to replenish their strength. Brony ignored the foils and went further inside the mine.

'I can hear people talking over here. Are they still working there?'

If there were people then he had to check carefully. This was so they could prepare and make an exception if there was a royal knight or someone stronger before taking over the mines.

As he stepped further inside and saw the two people talking, Brony's body trembled uncontrollably. He even stepped back as he recalled the voice of his father and the warnings that were still lingering in his ears.

'You bastard. You have grown up already. You're old enough to be imprisoned too.'

He had also grown up… the protagonist of his nightmare and his darkest history.

'Ka, Kang Minhyuk...!'

He clasped his mouth with both of his hands to make sure that he wouldn't let out any unsightly scream and quickly tried to back away. However, in his haste, he stepped on the pile of stones that the miners had piled up and made it collapse.

"Huh?"

The two people who were talking seriously suddenly turned towards his direction. And the eyes of Kang Minhyuk, the person he had identified, looked at him.

Badump, badump, badump, badump, badump!

His heart beat wildly as if it wanted to escape from his chest.