Chapter 119
Chapter 119
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: penny
Chapter: 119
Chapter Title: Colossal Mana Stone Mine
-----------------------------------------------------------------
[Isn't 13,000 units fucking insane?][Posted by: Aleiyo]
But fuck, they're selling it to civilians too?
No more Molrangtori for us from now on.
Good thing I stocked up 10 of them lololol.
-How'd you snag 10?
└(OP): Baekya's lottery is pure gold. Sucked up some sweet honey.
└Fucking cheater bitch.
-But how'd they ramp up production? US factory only sells in the US, right?
└They must've built a new factory. They were hiring recently.
└Yeah, checks out.
-Honestly, regular consumers won't buy it... 450,000 won for 720 hours? It's not even luxury design.
└You idiot, "civilians" includes regular companies too.
└What does that have to do with anything?
└This guy's gotta try loading/unloading once to wake up.
└For real lol.
**
Three days after the live stream. Or rather, the day after I visited the Mining Guild.
Crunch.
I arrived at a gate located in Busan.
“Whew... it's hot.”
A sweltering warmth—not just mild—brushed over my skin. And the sun, how was it this blazing? Sweat was already threatening to bead up.
‘Good call wearing light clothes under the long padding.’
The cold snap had ended, so it wasn't that chilly.
Still, I'd flown here on dragon-back.
Nothing beats a long padding. Molrangtex wasn't exactly ride-friendly attire.
Crunch.
I savored the heat rising from the sand as I walked forward.
Dowan Gate.
A D-rank gate blending one part sandy beach with nine parts azure sea.
Nothing else besides those two.
Ah, the scorching sun, I suppose. Though it's just the gate's fake version.
Baekya owned it and mentioned using it occasionally for summer vacations.
Splash!
Listen to that crisp, clear sound of the waves. And the sparkling sand?
Just standing here heals body and soul.
I'd never been to Guam or Hawaii, but this must be the vibe.
I'd visited this Dowan Gate exactly once before.
Pat pat.
[Dawn's special pictorial dropped???][Posted by: No.1 Fan of Han Saebyeok]
(Attached: Han Saebyeok's handwritten signed letter and photo set)
Kya~
This is it, this is it.
Molrangmol, you guys are finally working.
Fuck, instead of ramping up Molrangtori production, make Dawn shoot pictorials non-stop?
Check that firepower.
Limited to 100 copies, nearly missed out fuck.
-Kya~
-No but she is stupid cute.
-Huh? Didn't they sell 30k?
└(OP): This one's limited edition with handwritten signature.
└Sell to me, I'll pay double.
└(OP): Deal.
“Puhuhu... nice.”
For a pictorial shoot.
And yeah, even to me, she looked cute in it.
Of course, I wouldn't shoot them often, as they'd hoped.
‘...Oof, burning up.’
Weird thing is.
I thought I'd gotten used to it, but seeing it pop up on community sites still embarrasses me.
Anyway.
I'd bought this Dowan Gate from Baekya.
To meet the contract terms with the Mining Guild.
[Revolutionize mana stone production.]
Two ways to do that.
Bulk-buy mana stone mine gates.
Or develop a new mining method.
“Let's go. Kami, you're up.”
Nyaaang!
With a sharp cry, the shadow at my feet began shaping itself voluntarily.
The shadow morphed into a thick rectangular form.
It stretched out long, forming a path straight to the sea.
Splash!
I walked slowly along it. Each step, water rose slightly around my ankles.
Like laying a carpet on water and strolling across.
Way more stable than an actual carpet, though.
Splash!
After about five minutes, I reached the sea's center.
The gate itself wasn't huge, so no long trek needed.
“This should do it today, right?”
I placed my hand on the intricately woven mass of mana.
Hmm... about Coliseum-sized. Never been, but.
Just ridiculously massive.
Vmmm!
Red mana shot from me, filling the empty space.
No room for error. I'd even brought blueprints for precision.
Why this sudden summoning?—goes back exactly two weeks.
Back then, I was curious.
‘What's the limit of my monster summoning?’
It tied into my bucket list for the near future.
So I jumped straight into limit-testing.
Unlike before, not summoning once a day with a snap.
This was a long-term project, pouring in days on end.
Luckily, the built-up mana masses held steady.
Vmmm!
Corrected the deficiencies.
Added features that seemed good.
Maxed out size for peak efficiency.
And finally...
“Complete!”
Nice. Perfectly crafted.
Swept the bead of sweat from my forehead with the back of my hand, then inspected the whole thing.
Flawless.
Worthy of a genius monster summoner like me.
If graded... S-rank? Nah, SSS at least.
Sucks that grade doesn't exist.
“Kami. Link it up, please.”
Nyaaang!
Kami's tail stretched long, split into two strands.
One tentacle-like appendage shot—pssh!—straight into the sea.
The other connected to the well-assembled mana mass—still lifeless.
“Okay. Proceed.”
Nyaaang!
Kami nodded, and bright yellow mana began flowing through the pitch-black tentacle.
From the gate core deep underwater, to the mana mass.
Using Kami as the conduit.
Nyaaang...
Obviously, Kami alone wasn't enough.
Even for a D-rank gate, no mere monster could handle that mana.
“Seolbaek, help out quick.”
But two? Plenty. Especially two S-ranks.
Kreeeng!
Seolbaek, disguised as a straw hat, reverted to original form.
Then sprinkled pure white crystals over the tentacles.
“Good. Let's push it through!”
The mana flow stabilized, and soon life breathed into the mana mass.
Groooar...!
The colossal thing opened its eyes. The squishy mass hardened.
“Wha—whoa!”
The floor—no, the ground itself—stirred. Nearly plunged into the sea.
Groooaaaaarrr!
Finally, the massive turtle bellowed thunderously.
Why a turtle?
Romance, duh. A turtle bearing a continent on its shell...
This one carried a massive continent too.
One claiming 80% of the sea.
And atop that vast continent, its shell...
Clink clink!
“Hm. There we go.”
Mana stones sprouting.
Converting sucked-in mana from the gate core into stones.
Pluck!
Mining's a breeze.
Just apply force, and plop! They come off. Like picking fruit.
Total revolution.
Normal mine stones are finicky. Dangerous without pro skills—don't touch.
Here? Pluck! Done.
How easy is collection? True innovation.
“Let's see... how much does it yield?”
[Weight: 1kg]
“Oho!”
One stone at 50g means refining this chunk yields 20 B-rank stones.
And these chunks? Everywhere, tons.
Conservatively, 200kg a day. 4,000 stones.
Matches daily haul from A0 to A3 gates.
Harvest time? Obvious.
‘They said 16 hours straight per day?’
Average 16 hours. 15 people per gate.
That's how they mine everything produced daily.
But look here.
No need for many. One person, three-four hours, harvests it all.
Hand this hyper-efficient gate's mining rights to Mining.
In exchange—like a usage fee—they let Molrangmol monopolize all A-Line Gate output.
Plus, tasked Seo-ha with new research.
Ways to apply this turtle's power to regular mine gates.
If that succeeds?
‘No more need for finesse mining tech.’
Better to buy mine gates and sic mini golems on them than use Mining Guild.
‘Then what?’
Cross that bridge when it comes.
If they behave, keep going together.
Otherwise, part ways.
Till then, suck Mining's production dry.
Best would be mass-producing these turtles, but...
‘Not realistic.’
Summoning takes over two weeks each, and new gate per turtle.
Guilds rarely sell gates. No choice.
But this alone is win-win enough.
Most profits from this turtle go to them—good for them.
I get massive mana stone supply, plus cut off stones to Hwayeon—double win.
This might actually be better?
Putting pressure on Hwayeon, after all.
‘If you're gonna ferment kimchi, do it right...’
As mentioned before, steadily stacking Hwayeon's dirty tricks.
Plan to blow it all up at once.
But Hwayeon? Heavyweights.
Won't die unless you stab the throat clean—zombie back otherwise.
To kill, cut off air proper.
Gotta whittle their weight class slow.
Hunter defections, poaching researchers, snatching mana mines.
All part of it.
Groooaaaaarrr!
Anyway, two weeks of colossal monster summoning: massive success.
Means my bucket list is doable.
Time to prep slowly.