Chapter 3
Chapter 3
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Translator: uly
Chapter: 3
Chapter Title: All Together, Mine the Ore!
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There was a quarry and a logging camp in the upper part of Genesis Village. A large number of Purification Stones, the material for healing potions, could be found here.
Upon arriving at the quarry, Dun collapsed flat on the ground, trying to catch his ragged breath.
"Got a pickaxe? Those silver ones glowing over there—they're the Purification Stones. Mine a hundred of them real quick."
"You okay? Are you hurt anywhere, Dun?"
"My stamina's trash, so I'm just outta breath. I'm fine."
Dun had used up all his stamina climbing up to the upper part of the village. He deeply regretted greedily setting his level to 999. No matter what he wanted to do, his damn stamina wouldn't let his body keep up.
"Don't just stare at me—hurry up."
Feeling burdened by Lee Yoo-hyun's worried gaze, Dun waved him off.
Prompted by Dun, Lee Yoo-hyun picked up a pickaxe and swung it hard at the spot where the silver stones were visible.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
Dun sat on the ground, regulating his breathing while Lee Yoo-hyun mined the stones.
Five minutes, ten minutes, twenty minutes...
Time passed relentlessly.
The number of stones mined so far: zero.
Dun couldn't believe it and gaped blankly.
Before long, it hit the thirty-minute mark.
[Obtained Purification Stone!]
[Acquired Mining skill!]
[Strength increased by 1!]
"Oh, I got a stone! It's harder than it looks."
Dun pressed his forehead and grimaced.
Just 1 strength after thirty minutes? And the number of stones obtained was pathetically low.
"You can stop now."
"But we've only got a hundred left? We gotta keep at it!"
"Nah. Training strength like this is way too inefficient. We took the quest together, so let me handle the rest. Get outta here."
Dun rolled up his sleeves and snatched the pickaxe.
Standing before the pile of silver stones, he suddenly felt tense. He couldn't gauge how much force to use to mine them cleanly.
As usual, with all strength drained from his muscles and just a slight stimulation, Dun lightly tapped the rocks embedded with silver stones with the pickaxe.
Oh, hold on. That was a mistake.
KABOOM!
It was ridiculous. He'd failed to control his strength and output too much power, draining his stamina again in the process.
With not even enough left to withstand the shockwave, Dun flew through the air and crashed into a distant tree.
"You okay?!"
"I'm fine, I'm fine."
A massive crashing sound rang out, and his vision went black, making it hard to judge what had happened.
Lee Yoo-hyun just hurriedly ran toward Dun, who had been flung far away. Fortunately, he looked unharmed.
Dun wore a deeply sullen expression, like something had really irked him. With his lips pursed out, he brushed the dirt from his hair.
"What was that huge noise? Be careful. Was there an explosion spell or item set up?"
"......"
Dun clutched the shattered stone fragments and muttered a curse under his breath.
"Fuck it."
"What... do you mean?"
Don't dump your work on others—Mom's words, right?
Clicking his tongue, Dun opened the system window.
Issuing a quest was simple. If he roughly thought of the reward, method, and content, the system interpreted it and displayed the window.
[? Rank Genesis Limited Quest] All Together, Mine the Ore!
Content: Head to the quarry and listen to Dun's quest explanation! (Required item: Pickaxe)
Time Limit: 10 minutes
Reward: ???
Penalty for Failure: None
"???"
Lee Yoo-hyun's eyes widened at the quest window that suddenly popped up in front of him.
Not just Lee Yoo-hyun—the moment Dun displayed the quest window, a notification went out to all players in Genesis.
Quests usually only triggered via NPC dialogue, so the players who received the alert were stunned.
"Whoa, what is this?!"
"A question mark rank quest? First time seeing one. Looks super high-level."
"Looks fun, so let's check it out!"
Many players were hooked by Dun's impromptu quest. They grabbed pickaxes or axes from their inventories and swarmed toward the quarry.
At the quarry were Dun, lounging with arms crossed, and one other player.
"Village kid's over there!"
"Is this the quest spot?"
Murmurs rose. The crowd thickened.
Players gathered noisily. Lee Yoo-hyun, who had been there from the start, looked baffled amid the sudden influx.
More people showed up than expected, so Dun climbed up a tree.
"Hey! What do we do?!"
"Spit out the quest!!"
"Hand over the rewards!!!"
Dun took a breath and stroked his chin. If more kept coming, things wouldn't progress, so he retracted the quest window he'd sent to all players.
To quiet the rowdy atmosphere, Dun said one thing.
"Shh, I'm gonna explain the quest."
Everyone reacted at once.
"Everyone shut up! Question mark quest incoming!"
"You shut up! I can't hear!"
"Maybe we shouldn't say that? It's getting louder!"
"Hey, you shut up too!"
Dun waited until it quieted down, then spoke.
"I'm gonna divide you all into mining teams and sorting teams."
From atop the tree, Dun roughly split the gathered crowd into two groups.
He reached out, snapped off a sturdy branch, hopped down, and stood before the players.
"Okay, left of this line is mining team, right is sorting team."
Dun planted the branch in the ground and drew a line through the players.
[? Rank Genesis Limited Quest] All Together, Mine the Ore! - Mining Team Quest
Content: Everyone grab pickaxes and mine 100 Purification Stones.
Reward: ???
Penalty for Failure: Dun's Dislike
[? Rank Genesis Limited Quest] All Together, Mine the Ore! - Sorting Team Quest
Content: Receive 100 Purification Stones from the mining team, grade them, sort them, and pack them in bundles.
Reward: ???
Penalty for Failure: Dun's Dislike
After adding the two quest windows, Dun waved his hand dismissively, satisfied.
"Alright, get to work."
The moment Dun spoke, the players sprang into action.
Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang!
With the cheerful pickaxe sounds as background, Dun sat comfortably, stuffing a peach sandwich Lihowel had made into his mouth and chewing slowly.
Turning his head, he saw the sorting team starting to divide the stones by grades indicated by the system.
Lee Yoo-hyun was on sorting. He just stared at the whole scene with a dumbstruck expression.
Dun lounging arrogantly, pickaxe clangs from all sides, people mining diligently, people sorting stones diligently.
The situation felt funny yet bizarre.
Like watching Pharaoh and Egyptian slaves.
Dun and Lee Yoo-hyun's eyes met briefly.
Under Dun's gaze—like, got a problem?—Lee Yoo-hyun hurriedly resumed sorting stones.
* * *
Time flew, and the sun was setting.
It was too much for one day, but with many people combining efforts, they filled 100 quickly.
Bored of waiting, Dun had taken off his jacket, covered his face, and napped.
"Hey, hey, NPC, wake up."
"Look at this guy—makes us work and naps peacefully by himself."
Dun woke groggily to the half-hearted pokes beside him. Blinking slowly, he saw piles of Purification Stones and the players in his view.
"Quest's done."
"Ah, okay."
Yawning, Dun dawdled up to a high spot. To distribute rewards per person count.
"One, two, three... Uh, what? Why are there so many people?"
He knew there were many, but counting made it seem even more. Roughly fifty in total.
Hold on—did he have fifty of the same item in inventory?
Dun opened his inventory to check his item list.
Since players couldn't see Dun's system window, he looked like he was spacing out while checking.
The players, waiting for rewards after manual labor, raised their voices.
"What're you doing? Hurry up and give 'em! Gotta do other quests."
Oh no, nothing suitable to give. Dun clicked his tongue while scanning the item window.
Giving different items would be unfair.
Dun closed the item window and scratched his head.
"The reward is..."
"The reward?"
Dun made a heart with his hands.
"...my favor, hehe."
[The quest rank has been updated.]
[E-Rank Genesis Limited Quest] All Together, Mine the Ore! - Sorting Team Quest
Content: Receive 100 Purification Stones from the mining team, grade them, sort them, and pack them in bundles.
Reward: Dun's Favor
Penalty for Failure: Dun's Dislike
"Arrrgh, what is this! We got baited on the quest!!"
"No way!! If the reward's just favor, make it a ton!!"
"Wait, sorting team's one thing, but mining team should've gotten more, right? We did pure manual labor!"
Hearing the protests, Dun tilted his head.
[E-Rank Genesis Limited Quest] All Together, Mine the Ore! - Mining Team Quest
Content: Everyone grab pickaxes and mine 100 Purification Stones.
Reward: Dun's Favor x2
Penalty for Failure: Dun's Dislike
"Just one extra favor??"
"Ugh! A whole day of labor for a brat's booger-level favor!"
[Dun's favor decreases due to profanity.]
"Arrrgh! What the hell!"
"I didn't say anything, why'd it drop!!!!"
"Give back our favor!"
Dun tilted his head innocently and smiled cutely, like he had no idea.
"Anyway, thanks everyone. You're all awesome, awesome!"
Dun pulled out a top-grade attack power debuff potion from his pocket, chugged it, grabbed the bundles of Purification Stones, and bolted away like a shot.
Too fast to even think of chasing. The players just stood there dumbly, pickaxes in hand.
* * *
"Gathered all the Purification Stones?"
Lee Yoo-hyun chased after the fleeing Dun. He lost him midway and got a bit lost, but luckily Dun came back for him.
Receiving the bundles, Lee Yoo-hyun looked dazed. The stones varied in grade by damage, but it was 100 nonetheless.
Next were leech fangs and Elic's tears, but they were ridiculously strong opponents for Lee Yoo-hyun's current ability.
To hunt those monsters, he'd need to level up Lee Yoo-hyun first, but with his absurdly low base stats, it wouldn't be easy.
He'd tried raising the weakest stat, strength, via basic manual labor, but that was inefficient too.
'Guess I gotta take him to the training hall.'
Dun clicked his tongue and scowled. Honestly, he wanted to just hand off Lihowel's quest to other players.
But for some reason, this player Lee Yoo-hyun felt oddly familiar, nagging at him.
"Ugh, I got stuck with such an annoying player."
"?"
Dun ruffled his hair wildly, and Lee Yoo-hyun looked at him in confusion.
"Anyway, it's late, so let's split here and meet at the general store tomorrow."
Dun gave a casual hand wave and dawdled home.
* * *
Near the quarry was a massive national training hall. Citizens of the empire, mercenaries with badges, or those who passed the knight written exam could enter for free.
Many mercenaries and apprentice knights stopped by to train and grow stronger. Players with high NPC favor could use it too, though the strict manager made it rare.
"Hiya! Hah!"
"Uwaaaah!"
Enthusiastic voices echoed from trainees everywhere.
"Man, more visitors every day. Good, good."
Manager Jonathan chuckled at the passionate folks inside.
Even as stronger users damaged more wooden swords, Jonathan was just happy.
It meant more people who could help the nation.
Today, not even the annoying adventurers he hated were inside. He'd given hell to the ones who snuck in occasionally, and they stopped coming after.
"Word must've spread that this Jonathan's too fierce for the training hall, heh."
Jonathan picked up a log, whittling it into a wooden sword with a proud smile.
"Mister, making another new wooden sword?"
Jonathan, shaving the rough log's surface with his sword, looked up for the voice's owner.
A kid with light brown hair down to his shoulders and red eyes entered his view. Hands deep in pockets, slouching.
"Kid's here. On Lihowel's errand?"
"Nah, thinking of maybe becoming a mercenary in the future, so came to train."
Jonathan's eyebrows shot up at "mercenary." His eyes sparkled under deep wrinkles.
"Dun dreams of being a mercenary, huh. But with that pathetic stamina... Got it, got it. Sorry for doubting. Yeah, with your personality, better mercenary than the knight path your mom stomped on. Even if you're a weakling, with effort you'll... Wait, you're inheriting the general store—can't be a mercenary then?"
Sensing the talk veering, Dun quickly steered it back.
"It's fine. I'll do both. So, can I use a private training room? This adventurer here's gonna teach me a thing or two."
Jonathan paused mid-whittle, face hardening at "adventurer."