The Kobold's Secret
I emerged from the Wolf Cave with a satisfied grin, having completely stripped the hidden vein of every last speck of kardinite. This much should be more than enough to outfit the entire lizardman squad and both orc warriors with custom weapons, with plenty left over. Of course, they’d still need to provide the magic stones they’d hunted themselves.
“Kek-hek… hek…”
‘Is he actually exhausted, or is he just pretending?’
I gave Ttungi—still sprawled on the ground and panting heavily—a firm slap on the back.
(Thanks, you bastard.)
(…Keheuk…)
His ears turned bright red at my praise. It seemed he wasn’t used to compliments. Meanwhile, Yeonhee and the rest of the party were turning the kardinite over in their hands, letting out soft gasps of admiration.
“It even has corrosion resistance… Just reading the description makes it sound insanely good. How much do you think we could sell this for?”
“Who knows. Still, anything Ilwol finds and brings back tends to be ridiculously valuable…”
“Whoa— It’s about time I got a new weapon too— Whoa—”
‘You’re already carrying a pretty decent sword. What more do you want?’
It wasn’t an empty complaint. The blade Baek A-rin carried was genuinely valuable. Yet the greedy rabbit kept repeating the same words like a parrot.
“It’s about time I got a new weapon— Whoa— Woooow—”
A-rin’s eyes sparkled as she made no effort to hide her greed for the rare mineral. In truth, we had mined so much that even if I gave a little to each party member, it wouldn’t make a dent. So I handed out enough for each of them to craft a small dagger.
‘But I’ll be taking proper payment for it.’
In the end, we agreed to deduct the value of the minerals from today’s settlement.
“Kyaa! I love this so much! Today feels like a total festival!!”
A-rin danced around with bouncy steps while Eun-yeong and Jua showed great interest in the unfamiliar ore. Even though they had technically bought it with their own daily wages, they didn’t forget to thank me.
Anyway, the four of them never seemed to tire of it. They kept inspecting every corner of the ore, giggling nonstop. Maybe because the kids were so kind-hearted, even the usually reserved Ham Eun-yeong joined in and stayed close to the group. Being around the same age probably helped them bond faster.
‘Achievements really pop up fast these days. System, it feels like there’s been a delay in the messages lately?’
······
Since I had already earned the Novice Miner achievement once before, it didn’t excite me much. Still, I felt far better about it this time. Having mined the ore myself, I now truly understood its value.
I circled the area once to check if anything inside had changed significantly. Other than the tunnels within the walls having grown noticeably larger than before, nothing seemed different. The small tunnels branched out in countless directions like an ant hill.
‘Somehow… this feels a little unsettling…’
I deliberately ignored the faint anxiety creeping up and moved back to Yeonhee’s side. It was time to leave this place.
When I approached, she gave me a smile as warm as spring sunlight, leaned close to my ear, and whispered in a sweet voice.
(Thank you, Ilwol. I’m sorry I only ever receive from you.)
A small lightning bolt shot through the depths of my being. ‘Ugh… If I still had a heart, I might have died right there.’
While I savored the feeling of my body melting and locked eyes with her, I suddenly sensed a large group approaching us.
‘What the… Kobolds? They’re surrounding us all of a sudden? Why so fast?’
Even if I had let my guard down for a moment, their speed was something we couldn’t have avoided anyway. And there were so many of them…
‘I could break through the way we came, but there’s one dangerous factor… What should I do?’
“Clack!!”
At my urgent signal, everyone immediately gathered near the mine entrance.
“What are these guys? That distinctive sound… Sounds like kobolds.”
As expected, Baek A-rin had also noticed their presence. But something felt off. As far as I remembered, there had never been any mention of kobolds appearing in this dungeon, let alone inside this mine. Could this be another change caused by the anomalies?
A moment later, kobolds began emerging one by one from the small tunnels dotting the mine walls. There had to be at least four hundred of them. Where on earth had so many kobolds been hiding? Until we entered this place, none had been within range of my senses.
One thing was certain—they had ridden something with wheels to get here so quickly. It meant there was some form of transportation that could reach this location outside my sensory range.
“Were we here too long? Looks like the owners of the mine have shown up.”
“It’s only been thirty minutes… They appeared so suddenly!”
“Still… it’s a relief they’re just regular kobolds like Ttungi.”
“……”
The kobolds that revealed themselves were not variants or big kobolds—nothing of a higher rank. No matter how many there were, hundreds of ordinary kobolds weren’t particularly frightening. However, there was one way they could put us in serious trouble, so I couldn’t let my guard down.
‘These guys practically live in the mines. If things go south, they definitely know how to collapse this place.’
Having already witnessed Ttungi’s expertise as a mine specialist, I stayed sharply focused on their movements.
Yet after crawling out of the walls and lining up along the shallow paths carved into them, the kobolds simply stared at us for a long time without taking any further action.
We tilted our heads in confusion until our gazes naturally shifted to Ttungi standing beside us. Unlike his usual dopey expression, he was facing them with a surprisingly serious face.
“……”
“……”
After a brief standoff, an aged kobold with a bushy, gray-streaked beard stepped forward from the group. He shouted something at Ttungi, who responded as if protesting.
‘What the hell is going on here…’
It wasn’t the language summons usually used with each other, so I couldn’t understand the content. Still, the fact that they were communicating at all was a positive sign.
We all stood there, utterly bewildered, hands resting on our weapons as we simply watched this rare scene unfold.
After exchanging a few more loud shouts, the two kobolds eventually turned away. The old kobold glanced back at me for a moment, and I didn’t avoid his gaze. His eyes were filled with unmistakable fear and greed.
His fear made sense—he was incomparably weaker than us. But the greed…
‘Kardinite? Is it because of this?’
When I slightly lifted the ore in my hand, I felt him flinch. ‘Hmm… So that’s what it was.’
Soon the kobold who appeared to be their leader gave a hand signal, and the swarm that had gathered quickly disappeared back into the tunnels.
—Rumble…
The sound of kobolds laboriously dragging something upward echoed through the mine.
‘So they rode a mining cart down here? Heh… You really do see everything in this world.’
Considering the height of the stairs we had descended, it was hard to imagine how they had ridden anything down from above. Yet the kobolds began grunting and groaning as they retraced their steps.
……
(Hey, Ttungi. What the hell was that?)
It was an utterly baffling situation for us. They had swarmed in only to retreat just as quickly. The moment they disappeared, I immediately asked Ttungi what had happened, and he responded with a blank—
—Clunk?
(Huh? That’s ridiculous.)
His clumsy acting instantly filled me with unbearable futility and a touch of irritation.
(Agh! Don’t play dumb, you son of a bitch! You’re dead meat today!)
I wrapped my leg around his arm, twisting it the other way while demanding he speak. Even as he writhed in agony, he kept his mouth tightly shut.
“S-stop it, Ilwol. You’ll break his arm.”
“……”
Only after Yeonhee called for a stop did I release him. Suddenly, I remembered how Ttungi had thrown a sudden fit during the blue-eyed believers’ ritual.
‘Hmm… This guy seems to have some kind of story too… Damn it! Why should I care!’
With no more reason to linger in the mine, we headed back. On the way, Yeonhee asked Ttungi whether it was really okay for us to claim the mine.
‘Why even bother asking… Just make him tell us what they were talking about, Yeonhee.’
Ttungi nodded vigorously at her question, as if to say, “Why are you even asking something so obvious?” His expression made it seem like the mine already belonged to him.
“This kobold is suspicious…”
“Hmm…”
“I’ll ask him about it later… Probably with domination power…”
Yeonhee swallowed the rest of her words, but I heard them clearly.
‘Domination power… So you need to raise that stat to force answers out of them? What a headache.’
Each of us harboring our own questions, we returned to the dungeon and fired a flare to notify the management office staff.
‘Did they fight earlier over ownership… Maybe they were trying their best in their own way.’
Had we taken a mine that originally belonged to them, or had our discovery simply overlapped with theirs at a terrible time? No, that last one didn’t make sense. Either way, my gut told me their target had been the kardinite.
Small questions lingered, but since there were no answers no matter how much I thought about it, I decided to stop dwelling on them.
The management office employee only appeared an hour later, and the mine registration process ended without much complication. Even though we had been in a festive mood when he arrived, his extremely calm demeanor left us feeling somewhat awkward.
“Discovering a mine isn’t exactly an everyday occurrence, right? That guy is incredibly composed.”
“Yeah. I hope he handles everything properly.”
“Miss Yeonhee, I will report the processing status to you every single day. Please don’t worry!”
“Y-you really don’t have to go that far…”
“No, I must! You’ve given me so much that I feel like I need to do something in return~”
Having become the one in power in their relationship after just a single day, Yeonhee kept fidgeting with her fingers in embarrassment. The civil servant’s work had gone faster than expected, but because of the delay, it had become awkward to head straight into the boss stage.
Rather than fearing the return trip would be at night, the bigger worry was that we might not be able to join the raid if we went now.
“Let’s just run! We’ll finish it today!”
Baek A-rin seemed to have no intention of entering this dungeon again. We agreed with her and ran hard toward the wolf den where the boss battle would take place.
Well, the summons were the ones running. All four women rode comfortably on their backs. At first they had been reluctant to be carried by the ferocious-looking lizardmen and orc warriors, but within just a few minutes they realized there was no greater luxury. Ham Eun-yeong especially loved it, repeatedly muttering, “So comfortable… It’s too comfortable…”
Thanks to the summons taking turns carrying the party, I—who was carrying Yeonhee—could also increase my running speed. We managed to reach the wolf den just in time.
“I-Ilwol… You can put me down now…”
I nodded.