War Funds: Treasures from the Gray Mine
In the depths of Seongun Academy's rear mountain, inside the abandoned training building devoid of even a hint of human presence, the lingering echoes of purple spatial transfer faded into the air. The moment they vanished, I set down the massive dwarf slung over my shoulder onto the floor.
Thud!
"Gah, ptoo! Spatial transfer, huh... Damn, feels like my guts got twisted inside out!"
Grom shook out his wrists, now free from the mana-suppressing restraints, and hauled himself to his feet. He grabbed a fistful of his shaggy brown beard, wringing it downward like he was squeezing out water, then burst into a hearty laugh that bared his yellowed teeth wide. The booming sound reverberated off the high ceiling of the dust-caked training hall.
"Hey, benefactor! Or should I call you my lord now? That skill you just pulled off was something else! First time I've seen anyone slip through dimensional cracks like it's their own backyard. Haha!"
"I told you. I'd get your hammer back in your hands. That's answer enough, right?"
At my flat response, Grom slapped my shoulder with a crack that echoed. The dwarf's brutally heavy hand made my shoulder blade scream, but the genuine loyalty and trust in his eyes tugged my lips into a smile despite myself.
Grom locked eyes with me and continued. "Alright! Grom here keeps his word, even if it kills him. You pulled me out of that hellish restraint, so I'll pour my soul into forging treasures the world has never seen! But..."
His face suddenly turned serious as he scratched the back of his head with thick fingers. The boisterous vibe vanished, replaced by the picky deliberation unique to a master craftsman.
"A blacksmith's tools are his lifeblood. I need a mana stone furnace that can handle 3,000 degrees Celsius and a black star iron anvil tough enough for my hammer swings."
Grom fiddled with his mustache, sneaking a glance at me. "Uh... in human money, that's gotta be about 3 billion to even get started... Benefactor, got any cash on you? Sorry, hitting you up for money right after you saved my life!"
I gave a wry smile at his embarrassed chuckle and turned out my empty pockets. Kang Geom, watching with arms crossed nearby, tsked in pity.
"You blew up their building without even checking their pockets first, so what else is left but dust? Maybe hit up that old geezer Lee Si-an?"
Data absorption complete. Unrecorded pages of truth updated.
Special function: Record of Space - World Map activated.
[No, Master. No need for that.]
At that moment, Iris emerged gracefully from my shadow. Her materialized purple eyes turned toward the logbox in Kang Geom's hand. A seductive yet chilling smile curved her lips.
"I wondered why the Ancient Tome was reacting so strongly... The dimensional coordinates hidden behind the log's text are resonating with the tome's magic. If we decode it with the tome, we might uncover secrets even Seongjin Group doesn't know."
I took the bundle of worn papers from Kang Geom and pressed them against the surface of the Ancient Tome. Instantly, the tome opened its mouth like a starving beast and began devouring the log. A grotesque crunching sound like paper being chewed filled the air, accompanied by a blinding purple flash that flooded the abandoned training building.
The old papers dissolved into particles of light and were sucked into the tome's pages.
Blue mana particles swirled over the tome's blank pages, projecting a intricate holographic map into the air. These were coordinates my parents had hidden from Seongjin Group's eyes.
Iris tapped one spot with her slender white finger—a point pulsing with red mana waves.
"Master, look here. Coordinates for the Gray Mine Dungeon near the academy. The mana threads are unusually tangled here. I don't know what it is, but your parents hid something vitally important."
"Gray Mine? That's the infamous shit dungeon that's already been stripped bare."
"Hehe, treasures are always hidden in piles of trash, right? Let's go check it out, Master."
* The next afternoon, I stood before the C-rank Gray Mine Dungeon, derisively called the "no-jackpot shit dungeon" among academy students.
"Kid, by yourself? Nothing but mana stone dust in there—not even worth the entry fee. Try somewhere else."
Ignoring the gatekeeper's mocking dissuasion, I plunged into the gate.
The interior was as barren as the rumors said. Worthless rubble littered the ground, and the air was thick with acrid stone dust. Only the ugly scars of pickaxes left by exhausted miners marred the walls.
I delved deep, but nothing valuable appeared.
Is there really something here?
As doubt crept in, I reached the deepest dead-end wall. That's when Iris emerged from my shadow and pointed to a spot on the wall.
"Master, right here. Want to read the 'grain' once?"
I closed my eyes and shared senses with Iris. The lifeless cave scenery flipped entirely. Beyond the plain rock wall, purple lines intricately woven into a spatial overlap point stood out vividly. It wasn't mere stone—it was a dimensional vault artificially compressed via space magic.
"...So that's it."
I concentrated mana in my right hand. Purple threads extended from my fingertips, probing the spatial crevice.
"Space Cut."
Shrrk—!
Not the sound of rock being sliced. Space unzipped open, unleashing a torrent of blinding blue light like a waterfall.
It was a vein of ultra-high-purity mana stones, condensed over tens of thousands of years under immense spatial pressure. True treasures embedded in dimensional fissures unreachable even after decades of normal mining poured out.
"How much is all this...?"
The volume of cascading mana stones defied imagination—at least tens of billions worth.
I opened Iris's sub-space and swept them in. What a full mining team with heavy equipment would need a month of nonstop work to extract, I harvested in seconds.
Occasional Stone Golems popped from rock crevices, but to me, they were mere annoyances slowing my mining. I sliced their necks like paper with Space Cut and pressed deeper.
Rumble—!
Suddenly, the entire dungeon shuddered like it was screaming.
Forced spatial opening has altered the dungeon's causality rate.
The dormant guardian, 'Obsidian Golem', awakens!
A massive rock pile collapsed, and from within rose a monster radiating overwhelming mana—the hidden boss, Obsidian Golem. It was the guardian of all the dungeon's condensed energy.
Its body was forged from black crystals dozens of times harder than standard mana stones. An impregnable foe to physical attacks.
But I smirked crookedly instead.
"Grom said he needed materials, right? That whole body's a legendary-grade haul."
As the golem smashed down a house-sized fist, I spatial-transferred atop its head.
The intricate 'grain' of space twisted over its tough hide came into view.
"No matter how tough, slicing the space of existence itself renders it meaningless."
I poured purple mana into both hands. The mana drain dwarfed anything before—my vision flashed, veins bulging like they might burst. But I endured the pain and slashed through the air.
"Space Cut: Frenzy!"
Purple lines splintered into dozens, piercing the golem's colossal frame. It shattered silently into hundreds of puzzle-like chunks that rained to the floor.
Amid the bluish fragments gleamed a massive core pulsing with deep abyssal light.
◈ Legendary core from the dimensional depths; absorbs infinite mana.
I stowed the hidden boss reward and the golem's scattered remains in sub-space, then leisurely exited the dungeon.
* Back in the training building, I dumped thousands of ultra-high-purity mana stones, the Heart of the Abyss, and the golem wreckage from sub-space onto the floor. Grom's jaw dropped and stayed there.
He snatched a rolling mana stone, bit into it with his teeth, and bellowed.
"Wh-what the hell is all this?! Ultra-high-purity mana stones... no, is this the Heart of the Abyss? That legendary core that self-generates only at the bottom of dimensions, sucking in infinite mana?! And obsidian too? You got all this alone in one day?!"
Overcome with emotion, Grom caressed the Heart with his rough hands tenderly, then gripped mine tightly. His eyes burned with a craftsman's madness and boundless trust in me.
"Hahaha! My benefactor's no ordinary guy! With these treasures, I'll grind my soul to forge gear that could slay gods! Grom here's done sleeping from today on! Let's set up the workshop right now!"
Grom clutched at empty air in the middle of the vacant hall, itching to swing his hammer. But he soon eyed the rusted old training furnace bitterly, twisting his beard.
"But my lord, this junk furnace can't even touch the Heart of the Abyss. Get me that furnace and anvil I mentioned, and I can melt it down. Ugh, my hands are itching like crazy!"
He sat in a dark corner, adjusting an imaginary hammer. No flames burned yet, but the passion in his eyes blazed hotter than any forge.
"A dwarf without loyalty might as well be dead. My lord, just equip me with tools, and you'll see. I'll personally forge a vessel worthy of your terrifying space magic!"
His hearty laughter echoed off the dust-laden ceiling of the training hall.