The Hidden Valley [3]

He carefully dismantled the magic traps on the cliff, yes they were more than one of these magic traps. It wasn't that hard for him, he just cut the trap Magic Power source and the trap was inactive. It was like cutting the cable on a time bomb, but he didn't need to worry about cutting the wrong cable or anything like that.

Finished with the troublesome magic traps, he ventured into the depth of the rocky opening.

Marth observed the yellow stripe on the rocky wall that looked like a vein. It sprouted from beneath the earth's surface and branched into something that looked like a painting of a tree on the rock wall. To be honest, he wasn't that well-learned regarding earth science. His knowledge was just superficial after reading some books about this subject.

But his conjecture was right on the spot. And he reaffirms this conjecture after he looked on the [Appraisal] result.

┌—◊—┐

Chalcopyrite Vein

└—◊—┘

Chalcopyrite was a raw mineral containing Copper, Ferrum, and Sulfur. It wasn't just this yellowish Chalcopyrite vein, there was also an enormous range of mineral veins on this rocky valley. Tin (SnO2), Corundum (Al2O3), Hematite (Fe2O3), Bauksit (Al2O3) ..., this valley was a mountain of gold! In the figure of speaking.

'To think that I'd find something interesting in this place.'

The territory that Zwarteschwan household governs located on the southernmost of the kingdom. It was not the best location, much likely, it is one of the worst domain on the kingdom. 

The first minus point on this region was the geographical situation, it was in the outermost location with low traffic. Making it impossible to be a prosperous region for trading. The territory occupied a vast amount of land but it was barren and desolate. That was because sometimes famine and bad harvest struck the farmers in this region. Forcing them to bought food from merchants whenever it did happen.

Actually the land was arable, and the soil quality is not that bad that it kills the plants, and the water was plenty enough. The main problem was the monsters that infested this region.

They came from the Alvian Mountain Range that divides the Osterreich Kingdom with Uthgard Empire. Occasionally, they would storm down in a monster tide to satiate their hunger. They would eat the farmland and the farmer itself. The farmer was the most high-risk profession in this region because it is indeed risky.

Albeit it was not the frontier city that always in strife with other kingdoms, the terror of Alvian Mountain Range and it's monster wave was imminent.

With that situation, this territory was poor. Just take at the Zwarteschwan financial situation, their treasury never accumulated one million Geld for the last five years. 

From the taxes and toll tariffs, his father, Martinus amassed around 10.000 Geld per month, time twelve it would be 120.000 Geld per year. But the yearly expenditure was also enormous, securing supplies and ration, paying his retainers, soldiers, and also maintenance of roads and public facility, it cost around 90.000 Geld if it was in a normal situation. Not mentioning if there was some unexpected accident or disaster.

The financial situation of the Zwarteschwan family was strained like this since Martinus took the helm of being Head of the Household. It becomes a bit better when he married Petra and she helped him taking care of the domestic affair of the territory. But again, this problem was something that could be solved by doing paperwork.

The noble is poor because the subjects are poorer. This was the case on the Zwarteschwan Viscountcy. The Noble was poor, and the Commoners were more destitute. Well, it would be very wrong if the [Commoner] having more wealth than the [Noble] class that ruled them. 

This territory was lacking in a way to make money, it didn't have any special product or anything like that.

Since the start, Marth has already envisioned his reformation on this territory.

The first was to accumulate wealth by making some products that could sell well with the populace. The soap and other household product was his initial plan to gain a starting fund. Continuing with that, he could start to industrialize some other things such as paper, woodcraft, and plywood. And of course, while at it he would also secretly craft the medicine for the plague that would come years to come.

Why paper, woodcraft, and plywood? Because that's the only available material in this territory.

But that would change with this discovery. Marth could see another potential of his (future) territory in this hidden valley. If he could send some people to mine this place, wouldn't that solve this territory's financial problem?

Somehow his mind began racing. If he could gain a stable source of metal he could build the manufacturing machine and the factory that he always thought inside his mind. 

A fully-automated manufacturing machine means one thing, mass production. With that in his hand, wouldn't he become the first bourgeoisie of the [Golden Ark] world?

'Fuha .... fuhahahahaha!!!' with his mind drifted into thinking something outrageous, he laughed in his heart.

"Wahahahahahahahaha"

That laugh that comes from the deep of his heart then turned into reality. Laughing incessantly in this silent valley, his laughter echoed startling birds and bats.

It was as if he never laughing this free before, well ..., actually he has done it before. It was five(or maybe six) days ago, when he discovered that his [Elemental] magic could be used to change the molecular bond(it then formed into [Alteration]), he laughed his ass hard. And now, he laughed just like at that time.

"Huh ...," he noticed something amiss with the Magic Power fluctuation in the surrounding air.

Spending his time practicing his magic, mainly [Dark] magic, he becomes more familiar with the Magic Power on the world.

It was as if he gained sixth sense or something, he could trace this 'something' in the air. Sometimes it was flowing like wind or flickering like a kindle fire. That 'something' was always moving, never stopped in one peculiar spot. Later on, from Teacher Nagi he learned that this 'something' that caught on his sense was actually Magic Power.

Right, getting back to the topic. He sensed something amiss with the Magic Power in the surrounding air. 

It was ..., constantly rotating.

As if there were some force that affected these Magic Power, they were flowing in vortex motion. Marth was dumbstruck with this phenomenon for another reason. He could somewhat guess what was actually happening in this place.

There were mainly two ways to regain consumed Magic Power. The Way of the Mage and the Way of the Warrior.

Mage relied on one body to regenerate the lost MP, it was time-consuming but that was the most common and cheapest way. Drinking [Magic Potion] could enhance the magic power regeneration speed of one body, and not directly restoring the MP itself.

Warrior unable to generate Magic Power from their body, however, they were able to absorb it through the world by doing meditation. To differentiate the warrior's MP and mage's, Warriors tend to call it Vital Energy. Tough they couldn't regenerate their MP, surprisingly enough [Magic Potion] work just fine on them. It sped up their absorption rate when meditating.

So ..., this vortex-like movement of the Magic Power on the surrounding air was most likely some warrior meditating.

But that wasn't it, Marth was not surprised with some random warrior meditating. He had seen his Master, Lin Yue meditating, and saw the MP vortex before this, after all.

The thing that amiss about this Magic Power vortex was its enormous amount. It was as if this person wanted to swallow all of the magic power scattered on the world. Stream of Magic Power as thick as a mug or even a barrel flowed into this person.

'What a terrifying amount ..., is there some kind of expert recuperating on this place?'

He thought while walking to the heart of the vortex, trying to identify the person behind all of this. Perhaps, that person was also the one who put the traps.

Marth entered into the deep of naturally-formed cave, and then he could see it.

"This ..."

It was far off from his initial guess. It was not a strong warrior meditating or something, it was a *stone*.

No, not a stone. It was a crystalline mineral. 

In a solid cubical shape of around 2,5 cm, it was attached on top of a marble-colored stalagmite. The color of the crystal was pitch black with a glossy, glass-like surface.

The cube crystal constantly absorbing the Magic Power. The vortex becomes spherical in a radius of three meters. Standing in this Magic Power stream sphere that constantly moving makes him breathing heavily.

'This is ...'

┌—◊—┐

Hacheless Managmite

└—◊—┘

It was something he didn't recognize nor have heard about before.

'It's indeed curios material, what kind of mineral is this? What elements form this, I wonder ...'

He decided to bring back this crystal with him. Cutting down the stalagmite with [High-pressure Waterjet Blade], and somehow the cube stopped absorbing the Magic Power.

"Ohhh ..." he exclaimed.

'I should continue my Kimetsu no Running ...' storing the cube-shaped mineral, he continued the run.

But when he walked out of the cave, some disturbing noise that startled one's heart sounded.

Grrrwllll ...

It was a low and deep growl of a beast. His body had a goosebump and he shivered slightly. He looked around to see what the heck was the thing that made that noise.

"Oh crap ...,"

On top of the cliff, there was a pack of armadillo-like monsters. With rock-like back and claw, triangular jaw filled with sharp teeth, and black dot rabbit-like eyes. The appearance looked like a certain Pok☆mon. Some stood up straight like a marsupial, some were curling its body into a ball(wheel).

They numbered more than ten, baring their teeth while looking down warily at him.

'Rock-a-dillo huh, I got a hard time whenever I fight those.'

It was a monster that he knows because of his experience from the game, in the [Golden Ark] this monster was called Rock-a-dillo. He never knew about its Japanese name, but that was the name for the English version.

A level 12-15 monster and one of the troublesome monsters. Its rock-hard skin boasted a high defensive number. And there was this cheat-like ability to call for backup. Killing one would be a hassle, what more if it was two or three?

This monster was hard to kill a monster back when he was still a player. There was a case when he accidentally killed one of the heroines when fighting this monster. Though, he restarted the game and re-challenge this Rock-a-dillo.

"Eii! It's not the time to think about that! Why is that this monster in this kind of place?" he shouted as if scolding himself for thinking such ridiculous thought.

Grrrahhh!!!

The ferocious one that looked like its pact leader roared after it was startled by his shout. 

This roar become some kind of signal, the other Rock-a-dillos leaped, curled into a rock ball, and jumped.

Marth didn't 

"Blessing of the Wind! /a/--egal--/s/ --▪ve▫te▫re▫e▪-- ..."

He started chanting a magic spell. The first was an [Elemental] magic that make his body light. And then he combined it with [Dark] magic to make his version of [Dark Hand]. 

But it's not a hand, it was a fricking jetpack! 

Sprouted from his back was a black wing-like apparatus with some kind of dark flame ignited from it. Well, it's not an actual jetpack, it was jet-propelled wing.

His mean to escape was never of importance, he could leap like ten meter or so with this magic. 

He fled away from those Rock-a-dillos, it's an impossible task for him to overpower those monsters with him being low-leveled right now. 

Even if he have superior magic attack, this monster was the ultimate troublesome mobs that call for backup whenever they are about to die. It was the epitome of hassles. He didn't want to tiring himself with them.

Marth walked right back to the valley opening. Involuntarily, he glanced at the traps he has dismantled. 

"So that's why ...," he muttered in realization.

He realized something when he passed the magic trap. 

He thought there was something precious hidden inside this valley thus the trap was placed in this kind of place. And this solidified when he sees the abundant mineral resource inside the rocky cliff. The traps was likely to prevent of other people from entering it. 

But it was wrong, totally wrong conclusion! This trap wasn't placed for blocking people from coming in, it was to keep the monster from coming out.

It was too late, he cut down the one and only Magic Power source of the magic traps. If not by placing a new trap, he couldn't do anything to fix this.

However, there was one thing he could do in this kind of situation.

And that was, to run as far away as possible! Get away from the crime scene, right here and now.

"Lie! ... How come ... who is it? ... who the hell is it that broke my trap!"

He heard some faint distress mumbling from the valley opening. From the content of the mumbling, it seems that it was the trap master.

"Ackkk!!! Help! The dillos are ...., the dillos!!" that person screamed for help. 

"Tsk ..." he clicked his tongue in annoyance.

It seems that he had something to do before continuing his run.