Chapter 50
Chapter 50
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Translator: Ace
Chapter: 50
Chapter Title: Reward Acquisition (2)
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Whiiiiiing—
The Northern Region's biting winds carved the snowy mountains' cliffs even sharper.
Crunch—crunch—crunch—crunch—
Federback and Sancho trudged through snow that sank up to their knees.
On the road back to Meursault territory.
But for some reason, Federback wasn't taking the shortcut. He was detouring the long way around.
To scout a new mining site to develop, now that the Beauvoir Mine had collapsed.
'The landslide buried the original mine, but it exposed a new one on the opposite peak.'
That side was another vein of the Beauvoir Mine, so it was bound to hold plenty of buried ore.
Federback calmly stepped into the cave entrance.
A new cave formed by this landslide.
Looking closely, it ran straight through beneath several peaks, like a tunnel.
If used right, it could cut their return trip to the territory short by a lot.
"While we're at it, we'll scout for new veins too."
"Is it really just 'while we're at it'? At this point, it feels less like heading back to the manor and more like inventing a new mission..."
"If you hate it, go on alone. Not too late even now."
"Ugh, no sir! I'll search every inch carefully! Can't I even voice an opinion? It's just my undying loyalty to you, Young Master...! Ahem! Ahem!"
Sancho, glancing at Federback's expression, snorted heavily and plunged into the cave.
Fwoosh—
Lighting a torch revealed the freshly carved tunnel.
A deep, twisting abyss like the throat of some massive beast.
Sancho swallowed dryly.
"This... the terrain's completely flipped."
Of course it had.
A colossal shock equivalent to a volcanic eruption had surged up from deep underground, upheaving the surface entirely.
Sancho cautiously shone the light around.
That instant.
"Eek!?"
Sancho clapped a hand over his mouth.
Reddish strata streaked the walls.
Embedded within were chunks of ore glittering gold.
"Th-those are all gold veins, aren't they?"
"Looks that way."
Federback ran a hand over the sparkling golden wall.
An immense deposit of gold, preserved untouched since ancient times.
No one had ever mined it—a vein of the pure stuff snaking endlessly down the cave wall and into the floor.
"R-right... No one's ever dug this vein before, so there's so much... No one could've predicted this much gold buried here..."
Sancho wiped cold sweat as he scanned the cave.
Just the visible gold veins could buy up land across the entire empire.
If they tapped the strands stretching into the floor below, it might upend humanity's entire gold standard.
But.
"Don't get excited over mere gold."
Federback pointed beyond the gold vein.
Sancho, bewildered, turned to look.
"What, if not gold, what gets a man excited...? Eek!?"
He'd thought nothing could top finding the gold.
Big mistake.
Beyond the golden strata gleamed soil of a new hue.
Purple minerals scattered through the vein cast a mystical glow.
Sancho, who'd once worked a forge, recognized it instantly.
"M-M-M-M-Mithril!?"
The metal of legends, passed down among smiths.
The mana superconductor adored by mages since the mythic age.
One of the great metals forged by the gods.
Federback traced the mithril vein with a finger.
"Decent deposit. Not bad."
Not bad? It was beyond that.
Discovering this vein alone could stall the Demon King's Northern invasion by five years or more.
Mithril ore shimmered like starlight.
Clustered together, it formed a purple galaxy.
Federback recalled his pre-regression days.
'The Saintess taught me. After regressing, push humanity's borders all the way to this mithril mine.'
True to that lesson, he now stood here.
Following the advice of comrades who no longer existed.
'Enough to arm every knight and soldier in the territory with mithril alloy. Even the new vassals we'll gain.'
He pictured an army clad in mithril.
Back when the Demon King's forces overran them effortlessly, only the mithril-alloy troops had held their own against the monsters.
They'd been outnumbered and pushed back... but with this much?
Different story.
"Let's head deeper. Might be more."
"Y-yes sir!"
Even as Federback shifted course from Meursault territory toward the vein's depths, Sancho followed without a peep of complaint.
"Today I witness the moment Meursault territory's fate changes! Can't wait to see what else lies below!"
"Quiet. Echo's ringing in my ears."
"...Yes sir."
Deeper in, geothermal heat billowed up.
Bubble bubble bubble...
Descending revealed boiling underground water.
Sancho eyed the roiling subterranean spring.
"Come to think of it, boiling hot spring water burst from the collapsed Beauvoir Mine too. This aquifer probably originates in the dragon's lair."
"Hmm."
Federback stroked his chin.
Then abruptly stripped off the leather garb Sancho had lent him.
He dropped the shed clothes on the floor.
"Guard these here."
"Pardon? Where are you headed, my lord?"
"Diving down there."
"Whaaat!?"
Sancho's jaw dropped.
Diving into that furiously boiling hot tub? What was he on about?
"N-no, my lord. What are you after that you'd dive in there..."
But Sancho had no time to finish.
Splash!
Federback hurled himself into the pool filling the cave bottom.
Gurgle...
Federback swam down through the boiling bath.
Thanks to swallowing the Ice Dragon's dragon core, he felt no heat at all.
He pressed deeper into the cave.
Billowing steam from the boil and thickening darkness greeted him.
This cave, born of landslide and quake, felt like a trap maliciously drilled by some transcendent evil.
The moment he entered the underwater tunnel, a chill severed his link to the surface—like being cut off entirely.
'Dragon's lair, alright. The aura here's on another level.'
Something definite lay beyond the rising bubbles.
Federback had sensed it and dived this far.
'Let's see what lurks.'
He swam along dragon claw marks scarring the walls.
The tunnel gaped like an abyss plunging to the depths.
Dark fissures and crevices pocked the walls, ominous as gateways to world's end.
At last, a vast cavern opened.
Its ceiling and floor bristled with countless stalactites, submerged in the scalding water.
They resembled the warped remains of lifeforms tortured across eons.
Rock surfaces twisted grotesquely, like limbs frozen in agony; half-melted wrinkles from the heat amplified the horror.
'...'
Federback clung to the wall and descended further.
Lungs burning—he should head up soon.
'!'
Then he hit bottom, where he'd thought none existed.
The undeniable lair of the Ice Dragon Adara.
Now filled with boiling water and darkness.
And at its far end, Federback spotted something.
...Sparkle!
Forgetting how little breath he had left, Federback reached out.
'This is...'
Meanwhile.
Sancho paced anxiously outside the water.
"R-right. My lord survived a dragon's breath. This water's probably just a mildly warm bath for him."
Sancho couldn't tear his eyes from the bubbling geyser surface.
Yet one hour passed, then two, then three—and no Federback.
"Ughhh..."
Sweat poured off him as he held position.
Steam hot enough to cook flesh stabbed at him like he was stew meat.
Even as his vision blurred, Sancho didn't budge.
Right then.
Splash!
The steaming surface split—Federback burst out.
"My lord!"
Sancho looked up, face alight with emotion.
But.
"Huh? M-my lord. What's that wedged in your side?"
A hefty orb clung to Federback's flank.
A smooth, solid crimson oval.
Federback set it down casually.
"Dragon egg."
"Y-yes, an egg... Dragon!? A dragon egg!?"
Sancho nodded—then exploded.
Federback frowned.
"Quiet. Speak softer."
"Y-yes... What did you say? An egg? From that Ice Dragon you slaughtered?"
"Likely. It was deep in its nest."
Seemed Adara hadn't nested here just to bulk up.
Federback had dived to the heart of the old lair and found this egg there.
'An unexpected trophy.'
Even he hadn't anticipated this spoil.
Pre-regression, he hadn't even known Adara had laid an egg.
Federback nodded at Sancho.
"Wrap it in the leather. We'll need it to shoulder the load."
"I-I carry it? Wait, then what about your clothes, Young Master...?"
"Yours."
"......"
Sancho's face crumpled.
It was winter.