Turning to Day Labor as a Miner
I turned my attention to day labor as a miner and worked without rest for about a month. Part of it was to exhaust my body so I wouldn't think about everything that had happened before. It was also a practical decision, considering next month's rent and living expenses. The result? I actually earned a decent amount of money.
It was almost funny. In a single month of day labor, I made more than I ever did as the vice guild master of a guild. "I really was treated like a dog back then," I muttered.
When I first looked at my bank account after being forced out, it felt so bleak and bitter that I thought it perfectly mirrored my life. But in just one month, everything had completely flipped. With this much money, I'd still have plenty left over after paying rent, utilities, and living expenses.
"Maybe I should buy some more work clothes?"
I grew up as an orphan in an orphanage. Some might wonder why I'm bringing that up now, but it meant I never developed much in the way of material desires. As long as I had a place to sleep and a few sets of clothes to wear, that was enough. Because of that, I didn't have many comfortable outfits suitable for mining work. And back when I was vice guild master, I only ever wore business casual suits. There was no way I could go mining in those.
So this time, I decided I should finally fill up my closet a bit.
"And..."
And I was also thinking about moving on from day labor. Mining was harder than it looked, and not many people lasted long in the job. Even though they were hunters, most F- and E-rankers were only slightly stronger and more physically fit than regular people, so I could understand why. Still, a month of steady work experience was apparently enough to hand out a decent resume.
"I should try to find a regular team."
Of course, I'd have to keep doing day labor until I found one. I couldn't stay as a day worker forever. The worst part about day labor was that on days with no work, you earned nothing and just sat around twiddling your thumbs. But if you joined a regular team, you could get paid even on days without raids. Weekends and holidays were guaranteed too.
"Alright. Let's work hard today too."
Just making up my mind made me feel energized. I headed to the site in a good mood, only to find it full of faces I'd never seen before. I'd been working every day and completely forgotten, but today was the weekend. Most people who usually worked hard as miners tended to spend weekends with family or just resting. The ones who showed up on a weekend like this were either people like me, hustling to make money instead of wasting time on useless thoughts, or complete beginners who couldn't get work on the brutal weekdays and figured they'd try weekend gigs instead.
A quick look around told me there were more newcomers than people in my category. Newbies, huh... It felt strangely amusing. Until recently, I'd been the newbie myself. Now here I was, thinking like this. A month really was short if you called it short, but long if you called it long. I felt that truth more clearly than ever.
"Hello, I'm Han Junho. I applied for the miner position."
First, I approached the raid party members who looked like they would actually be entering the gate and greeted them.
"Ah! Hello, Mr. Junho!"
Among them, the youngest-looking one—a petite woman—stepped forward and offered a handshake on behalf of the group. Was she the raid leader?
"I'm Shin Jiyu, the leader of this raid party. Please take good care of us today!"
Hmm, as expected. That was just how the hunter world worked. Age and size didn't matter. The person with the highest rank was in charge. Given that today's dungeon was C-rank, she was probably either the strongest among C-rankers or possibly even a B-rank hunter.
"Yes, I'll do my best as well."
Really... it seemed I just couldn't break this habit of analyzing everything. Even when there was no need to analyze, I kept doing it anyway.
"Hey, Miss Shin Jiyu! If you're done with the greetings, come back and finish what we were talking about!"
"Ah, yes! Then I'll see you later, Mr. Junho!"
As a miner—especially a day laborer—I'd been looked down on and ignored plenty of times. But seeing how she stayed polite until the very end, and how the other party members spoke to their leader so casually, it seemed like she was a genuinely good person...
...Ahem. I should go introduce myself to the others.
"Hello. I'm Han Junho, here for the miner position today. Nice to meet you all."
"Yeees, I'm Lee Jiwon."
"Kim Jungsoo."
The only ones who even glanced my way and returned the greeting were one rugged-looking man and one baby-faced woman. Well, this kind of atmosphere was new to me. I'd been joining teams with nosy middle-aged guys lately, so things had always been loud and chaotic.
"Ugh, this is boring. They should've told us to come later. It doesn't even look like the raid's started yet. Why call people so early?"
Complaints like that popped up here and there. That made sense too. The raid hadn't even begun, so the actual waiting time before mining would be at least a few hours. There were things to do—checking equipment durability, packing supplies—but it wouldn't take the full few hours.
"Everyone, we've prepared some food and drinks for you while you wait, so please make yourselves comfortable!"
The raid leader approached with a smile, as if she knew exactly how the miners felt. This was the first time I'd seen a party prepare food and drinks. Usually people just paid out of pocket to wait at a cafe or ate before coming.
"And once you're done organizing your gear and checking your equipment, feel free to rest in the tent over there or do whatever you like!"
She really seemed to have prepared a lot. But the grumbling miners didn't stop. Since they'd never done this work before, they had no idea how good this treatment actually was.
"Also, we'll pay you your full daily wage even for the waiting time, so don't worry about that!"
She said it with such a bright smile... Normally, waiting time either wasn't paid at all or was only paid at half rate. Honestly, most people just sat around playing on their phones anyway, so it was boring but not exactly hard labor.
"Isn't that just common sense?"
"No, I heard that for miner jobs, they only pay half for waiting time."
"You've all come here and are working hard, so we can't do that. Oh, but if you leave the waiting area, we will only pay half."
So basically, if you were okay with only getting half pay, you could leave the waiting area? What if the schedule got delayed? Wasn't this too nice? Even if she was a good person, wasn't this going too far? In the end, wouldn't she be the one taking the loss?
She was clearly paying more and offering better conditions, so I should've felt good about it. But for some reason, my mood sank.
"Then we'll head into the raid now! It should take at least two hours, so if any of you plan to leave the waiting area, please let the on-site staff know, and make sure to return before the two hours are up."
That kind smile on her face until the very end... I really didn't like it.
"What happens if someone leaves without permission or doesn't come back after two hours?"
The baby-faced woman asked with an expression that practically screamed she was trying to take advantage. There were people like this everywhere, ready to suck the blood of kind souls. And this pushover girl probably wouldn't be able to give a proper answer...
📍 If you leave without permission or fail to return within the time limit...
🎁 We will make sure you can never work in this field again.
"Ah, that would be a problem...! I heard that last time, a miner who left without permission and didn't return on time got posted about in the community and ended up completely unable to get work in this field anymore... It's so sad...!"
"Huh?"
What?
"Our party members have a hard time tolerating people who disappear without permission... I'm sorry."
What the hell? So if you left without permission or didn't come back in time, she'd make sure the same thing happened to you? Who was this person? She was actually scary. The others seemed to be thinking the same thing, judging by their expressions. It was quite a sight.
"Ah, um... Y-yes... Haha, of course... I wasn't saying I was going to leave or anything..."
The baby-faced woman quickly backed down and tried to laugh it off. It left me with a strange feeling. I'd definitely felt bad earlier, but...
"That's a relief then! We'll see you later!"
It was a strange feeling. I'd thought she was the same type as me. But... maybe not? Anyway, I'd overlapped my own situation with hers and felt uncomfortable, but that feeling completely vanished. She seemed like the terrifying type who spoke kindly but would destroy you without hesitation. Still, since I'd just met her today, I couldn't be sure. And there was no reason to pay her any more attention than that.
The raid party emerged from the gate about two and a half hours after the raid began. No one had left the waiting area. After the leader finished checking headcount, the mining work finally started.
And less than ten minutes after entering, I encountered the greatest challenge since I'd started this job.
"Ugh, this damn stuff won't come out!"
"Fuck, after waiting over two hours my body's so stiff nothing's working right!"
It was thanks to the world's most pathetic miner team. The raid leader had definitely taught them how to handle and extract mana stones when they first arrived, but they were mining however they wanted and damaging the stones, lowering their value. That was just the beginning.
"Eek, it's gross! Bleeegh!"
Some people kept vomiting at the sight of monster corpses.
"Ugh, I'm tired. I'm gonna rest..."
Others sat on the ground and lazed around while everyone else worked. It was a complete disaster. The only ones working hard ended up looking like fools, but since there was a set time limit, we couldn't just stop working either. It was an incredibly bizarre situation.
"....."
Usually, when a raid party hired day laborers for mining, they sent one of their own members in as a supervisor. I briefly wondered why there wasn't one, but then figured the leader must have taken some kind of measure. After all, she was the type to ruthlessly manipulate people. There was no way she'd come unprepared.
At first, that's what I thought. But the more I considered it, the more uneasy I felt. What if my assumptions were wrong and the leader really hadn't done anything?
"If that's really the case..."
We probably wouldn't even get proper daily wages, let alone any bonuses. That anxious thought began to take root. Even if I worked hard by myself, in a dungeon with no CCTV or supervisor, if they all claimed they worked just as hard but this was the best they could do, no one would believe me no matter how much I insisted I'd done it alone.
"...Would they really go that far?"
I wasn't the type to suspect people first. I tended to trust others. But considering the attitudes and behavior they'd shown so far... it wouldn't be strange at all if they did exactly that. I wondered if they'd always worked like this, but it seemed more likely that these were all beginners who were lazy and unmotivated. They'd probably failed every weekday interview where there were lots of applicants and ended up here. Since there weren't many miners willing to work on weekends, parties had no choice but to accept even this kind of trash.
"But this is pretty bad."
For the past month, I'd worked even on weekends except for the days when I felt like I was going to die. But this was the first time I'd seen such a hopeless group. That raid leader, whether her outside and inside matched or not, clearly had terrible judgment when it came to reading people.
"Excuse me. Could everyone please get up and gather around?"
I hadn't planned on stepping up and making things annoying for myself. But when I thought about my daily wage and potential bonus, it seemed I had no choice.