Farming

Ayeon left.

We'd only crossed paths by chance to begin with, so it wasn't exactly a surprise. I packed her five salt-grilled skewers so she wouldn't go hungry on the road. Koreans run on rice, they say — just try starving on my watch.

"Guess I should get moving too."

If fate wanted us to meet again, we would. I decided to focus on my own work. Three of the four commissions were as good as finished. The last one left was the coal-delivery request, and I'd already found the mine while hunting Horn Rabbits. Heading there now shouldn't be a problem.

I broke into a run toward the mine.

The Coal Mine.

It was the place the Town of Legasha had been pulling coal from for a long time. They'd followed the vein so far down that people claimed you'd hit coal no matter where you swung a pick.

Yeah, I wasn't about to take that at face value.

Even so, I stepped inside without much worry — I had the Appraisal skill. If I Appraised anywhere that looked promising, I'd find coal or whatever else was waiting. ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠I descended by the beam of the flashlight I'd brought from outside.

How far down I went, I couldn't say. Then I felt the presence of living things deeper in.

"Yeah. It would've been weirder if there was nothing."

I'd already thought it was odd they'd posted a commission for this in the first place. A forest stood between the cave and town, and as I'd pushed through those woods a thought had occurred to me.

This is doable enough, isn't it?

Dangerous as the forest was, even an ordinary person could get through it without too much trouble — at least as far as I could tell. Which meant this wasn't the kind of job that needed a posted reward. So there was only one explanation.

The mine had picked up some uninvited guests.

I drew ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠my dagger at once. In a cramped space like a cave, a blade beat a bow every time. The moment I had it in hand, the number of presences deeper in began to swell. Five of them… no, more like twenty? They ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠closed in fast.

"…Maybe I should've picked up dagger technique if this was how it was going to go."

A massive swarm of bats came screaming toward me.

Time slowed. The bats' wings beat as if through water. Before the droplets clinging to the ceiling could even reach the floor, I moved.

What's the most effective way to deal with something small, fast, and airborne? You take away its mobility. In other words — separate the wings from the body.

The dagger's edge flowed. Wherever the blade passed, a spray of blood bloomed.

"Hah…"

Holding Focus is hard. Holding it for any length of time is harder still. I was the kind of person who couldn't even sit at a desk and study for five minutes. Maybe it would have been different if I were doing something I enjoyed…

"Ugh…"

Cutting through living things was not a pleasant experience. I'd been trying not to think about it… but I couldn't ignore this sensation. The feel of slicing, of stabbing, through a life. If I'd been using a bow, I never would have felt it. This time I felt it with perfect clarity.

Those people too…

Had they fought while feeling this? Even now, if I closed my eyes, I could see it clearly. Monsters pouring endlessly from the Tower. And the Players charging out to kill them.

No more bats came flying. No — every last one of them was flopping wetly across the cave floor.

"……"

One.

Skree—!

Two.

Skree, skree—!

Three, four, five… The bats' screams went on and on. When the screaming stopped, not a single bat was left alive.

The skill Focus ended. The world snapped back to its proper speed, and the familiar headache that came with dropping it settled in.

"……"

But the headache barely registered. What lingered, greasy and wrong, was the sensation at my fingertips. It would dull with time, I supposed.

"Hah……"

Dwelling on it wouldn't change anything. I knew that, and yet… it still bothered me.

I really am a pain in the ass, even to myself…

With that thought, I started walking deeper into the mine.

A mine is usually dug by following a vein. Reach the end of the vein, and there should be coal — assuming this wasn't an abandoned shaft. The odds of that were low. I'd heard they'd still been pulling coal here until barely a month ago. The bats moving in was probably what had made extraction impossible.

Well. Worked out nicely for me, didn't it?

While I was turning that over, I reached the end of the mine. I pulled a pickaxe from my inventory.

Clang—!

The tip of the pick struck the wall. Acrid dust billowed up as rock pattered to the floor.

"Keh— kehack……"

Why is there so much powder in the air…? Not the time. I used Appraisal on a chunk that had fallen at my feet.

A chime rang out.

So the powder I'd kicked up was coal dust.

"Nice."

I swept the coal into my inventory and swung the pick again. Every stroke sent a ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠clang—! rolling down the shaft, and the sound settled into a kind of rhythm. By the time I came back to myself, I had dug in deep.

"When did I get this far…?"

I was still blinking at the hole when another chime sounded.

"Again…?"

Were skills really this easy to pick up? Even as the thought crossed my mind, I opened the skill window.

"Figures."

It was the same as when I'd gotten Tracking. That skill had appeared after I chased down and hunted Horn Rabbits. This time, Mining had shown up the moment I started digging coal.

So they appear when you do something related to the skill?

That didn't quite hold. I'd been using a dagger and still hadn't gotten any dagger technique. …So what were the conditions, then?

And as far as I remembered, neither Mining nor Tracking had been among the starting skills. With Tracking I could shrug it off — maybe I'd just missed it. But two skills I'd never seen before was a different story.

"There's definitely some kind of condition…"

What was it?

"I feel like I'm right on the edge of it…"

Close enough to touch, and still out of reach. An extremely unpleasant feeling. I'd have to run more experiments if I wanted an answer.

For now, this side of things was done. I checked the coal in my inventory. Thirty-two pieces in all — enough to turn in the commission and still have seven left over.

And.

"There's other ore in here too?"

Iron and copper. Not a trickle, either — a decent haul. I could sell it, or I could use it myself. The debate didn't last long.

"I'll think about it later!"

It wasn't a problem I needed to solve right now. Right now I just wanted out of this dank, lightless mine as soon as humanly possible.

"I miss taking a bath……"

In my whole life I had wanted a bath, sure — but I had never actually longed for one. My body felt grimy. The air was stale. I had no mirror to check, but my face was probably black as a charcoal briquette. I wanted out. I missed my little apartment.

Before that, though, I couldn't walk out looking like this. Maybe I ought to at least rinse off with some water.

I walked and walked the uneven floor of the mine, until at last I saw the light.

"It's night…"

The relief of finally being outside lasted about a second. The world beyond the mouth of the mine was already dark. Stars were set into the black sky like grains of light.

"Still. This feels good…"

The wind was clean. Not the acrid air of the mine, but fresh night air from outside. Water first, maybe. I wanted to savor that breeze for another minute — but more than that, my skin felt filthy.

If I head that way, there was a lake, right?

I'd gotten a rough sense of the geography wandering the forest during the day. Night or not, I wasn't going to lose the path.

I walked the dark trail. The song of insects was pleasant in my ears. Fireflies lifting out of the brush were pleasant to the eye.

"This is nature…"

The real thing — the kind that had gotten hard to see anymore. A clean night wind rose and scattered my hair. I don't know how long I walked before the lake I'd been aiming for opened up in front of me.

On any other day I would have thrown my clothes off and gone straight in… but I didn't have a spare set today. I hadn't even bought underwear since becoming a woman.

I should pick some up once I head outside…

I could always ask Ayeon, right? I'd gotten her number before we parted ways.

"She did say to ask if there was anything I was curious about."

I hadn't understood what she meant at the time, and it had left me blinking. Only now did I realize she'd been looking out for me. I ought to buy her something when I went outside…

Which was all the more reason I didn't want to strip.

I'll just go in like this today.

I stepped forward and dipped my feet into the water.