The Gate
Tap, tap, thump.
A man set a chisel against the wall and struck it with a hammer, sending a fist-sized chunk of rock tumbling down. He picked up the stone and held it out for another person to see.
“See here? This is mithril.”
A very thin silver line ran through the middle of the rock. Even if you took that back and refined it, it looked like you wouldn’t even get a single gram out of it.
Was that really worth money?
“How much is something like this worth?”
“Somewhere between five hundred thousand and a million won?”
“That much?”
I’d only ever heard that mithril was expensive. Actually seeing the price for myself left me stunned.
“By weight, it’s about ten times the price of gold.”
“Keeper Kim Sangki must have been raking it in.”
“I heard he put up a building dozens of stories tall in Gangnam.”
“Wow…”
How much was that? At least a hundred billion, right? Was a private individual even allowed to own something like that?
“Anyway, this is how you do it. Want to give it a try?”
“Ah, yes.”
I took the chisel and hammer and stood in front of the wall. Following what I’d just been shown, I set the chisel against a spot where the silver lines appeared here and there and tapped with the hammer.
Tap, tap, thump.
Without even putting much force into it, the wall cracked and a chunk fell free.
“Well done. Just keep doing it like that.”
“I pile these rocks over there, right?”
A wheelbarrow sat off to one side of the tunnel.
“Yes. Fill that cart about twice. Take it easy and you’ll be done in three or four hours.”
“Seems pretty relaxed, honestly.”
The cart was fairly large, but filling it twice still looked like it wouldn’t take long. The man only smiled.
“Just try it once.”
“That’s kind of scary.”
“It won’t be that easy. Anyway, I’ve got work to check on elsewhere. See you this evening.”
“Yes.”
The man disappeared down the far end of the tunnel. He was supposed to be widening other shafts and setting up supports. A veteran with over five years in this Mithril Mine Gate, he was the most senior among the people who’d come in with us this time.
By contrast, the one person left behind with me was entering this Gate for the first time—and both of us had only just become Keepers.
“You’re Soyeon, right?”
“Yes. Park Soyeon.”
The short hair suited her well. Working inside a tunnel that barely let any light in, I was glad not to be alone. Having a partner of the opposite sex was the cherry on top.
“I’m Lee Jungmin. Looking forward to working with you.”
“Same here. Let’s give it our best!”
A worn-out veteran would have shaken his head at that. The pay was the same no matter how hard you worked, so why bother? Just do enough and go home.
But Soyeon had every right to say it. She was a complete newcomer; everything was new to her. And the same went for me.
The work ahead was nothing more and nothing less than simple, repetitive labor—yet something about it still made my heart race.
“Yeah!”
I answered with a little excitement of my own and headed for the end of the tunnel. Thin silver lines glittered on the wall under my headlamp. Just like before, I set the chisel near the lines and struck with the hammer.
Tap, tap, thump.
I picked up the fallen mithril ore and carried it to the cart. Then the same work all over again.
Tap, tap, thump.
Tap, tap, thump.
Tap, tap, thump.
…
That initial thrill lasted quite a while. Even after twenty trips back and forth, it was still fun. But after about an hour, the fun vanished as if it had never been there. More precisely, it got hard.
My shoulders ached from the endless hammering, and my lower back screamed from the constant bending and straightening. Manual labor, just as expected.
Even at three million won a day, this was work I never wanted to do again… A thought I never would have had just a few days ago. Now that I was a Keeper, three million a day no longer looked like much. A few days earlier I would have cursed Keepers who thought like that, but now? People came factory-equipped with double standards, after all.
“Whew… Jungmin, I think we need to take this one out now.”
Soyeon pointed at the cart piled high with ore. The veteran senior had said filling it once took about two hours; we’d finished in one. We hadn’t stopped once.
Sweat dripped steadily from Soyeon’s face, and I was sure the rest of her was the same. My own clothes were soaked through, thoroughly unpleasant.
“Let’s go.”
I grabbed the handles and pushed while Soyeon pulled from the front. If the floor had been smooth, one person could have managed, but the uneven ground forced us to work together.
Rumble.
Only the sound of the cart’s wheel filled the tunnel. We had about twenty minutes of this ahead of us. A man and a woman alone in the dark—it sounded like the setup for something, but in reality we were both too exhausted to do anything but pant.
After a while Soyeon’s breathing settled. I pulled myself together enough to try conversation. Walking in silence was boring.
“Rails would have been nice. This is seriously inconvenient.”
“Oh, should we switch if it’s hard?”
“No, it’s not that it’s hard… just complaining.”
“I looked it up before coming. Rails are apparently tough to build. Wood can’t take the weight, and processing iron inside a Gate is difficult.”
That made sense. Even this wheelbarrow had been brought in from outside. With only the manpower available inside the Gate, you couldn’t build something this sturdy—not unless a Keeper had some kind of blacksmith skill.
“You know a lot about mine Gates. You prepared hard, huh?”
“A little. Nothing special. It’s my first time, so of course I had to do some research.”
Soyeon answered in a slightly embarrassed voice. Maybe she wasn’t used to praise.
“What did you do before becoming a Keeper?”
“I was a student. University.”
“Your friends must have been insanely jealous.”
“I haven’t told them yet, so they don’t know. Honestly I only just enrolled, so I didn’t really have friends anyway.”
“So you’re a freshman? Twenty?”
“Yes.”
She looked a bit young, but I hadn’t expected twenty. Twenty years old and already a Keeper—I was envious of that youth. I wasn’t old myself, but youth was still the best, right?
“I’m jealous. A real freshman. So what about school?”
“I took a leave of absence. It’s not a major that helps with being a Keeper anyway.”
“There are majors that help with being a Keeper?”
“Wouldn’t materials engineering or something like that help?”
“That’s true.”
Thanks to the Gates, it was an age overflowing with new resources. If someone who researched those things became a Keeper, they might even be able to identify what resources were inside their own Gate.
“What department are you in?”
“Korean literature.”
“Really not helpful at all. Are you still planning to graduate someday?”
“I’m thinking about it. The school isn’t that great either, so I’m not sure I need to bother.”
“Mind if I ask which school?”
Normally I would have let curiosity slide, but a diploma didn’t matter much to a Keeper. So I asked freely.
“Hanseo University.”
“What?!”
The unexpected answer made me jump. Hanseo University was the school I had graduated from.
“It’s that bad, right? Barely scrapes into Seoul, and that’s about all it has going for it…”
“No, it’s not that… I graduated from Hanseo too.”
“What?”
“Last year. Hanseo really is kind of mediocre, yeah.”
“Ah, I—I didn’t mean…”
Soyeon stammered. She looked thoroughly flustered.
“It’s fine. You’re allowed to trash your own school.”
“…I’m sorry. I didn’t realize you were my senior.”
Senior. Hearing that title again after so long put me in a good mood. Especially when a cute junior with short hair said it. I suddenly felt ready to play the sucker and treat her to a meal. Now that I had money, being a sucker or not didn’t even matter—I felt like I could fly.
“‘Senior’ sounds nice. Mind if I call you that? ‘Miss’ feels a little distant…”
“Ah, yes. Senior Jungmin. Please speak comfortably too, Senior.”
“Alright, Soyeon.”
“I never expected to meet like this. My first Gate, and I run into a senior from school. It’s amazing.”
“Fate?”
“…What?”
“Just kidding. I’m surprised too. Let’s do well these next three days.”
“Yes, Senior.”
Running into a junior from school as a coworker—at least the next three days wouldn’t be awkward. That was a relief.
Three days later.
Awkwardness never even had a chance to become an issue. The endless labor left my whole body feeling like it was about to fall apart. Especially my lower back—bending and straightening over and over, it felt like the thing was gradually disappearing. Abusing my waist like this… A man’s back was his life.
“You’re lucky.”
“About what?”
“Your telekinesis.”
“Ugh, that again?”
“It’s not ‘again.’ Every time my back hurts, I can’t help thinking it.”
Soyeon’s awakened ability was telekinesis. She never had to bend over to pick up rocks the way I did. She could just move them with her power, like she was doing now.
“Want me to move yours too, Senior?”
“Now?”
Only about two hours left and we’d be heading outside. Our first Gate mining job would end without incident.
“That’s exactly why I’m offering now. If I moved yours from the start, I’d be wiped out already.”
“Yeah, that’s fair.”
Soyeon had only just become a Keeper. Her ability was still weak, and her stamina was lacking too.
“Then help me.”
“…What?”
“What? You said you’d help.”
“Well, still…”
Apparently it had been empty talk. I would have preferred to just say it was fine and move on. But my back hurt too much for that. Soyeon collapsing from exhaustion? Still better than my spine getting wrecked. She probably didn’t see it that way, though.
“Please, junior. I’m not joking—my back really feels like it’s going to snap. Let’s rest even just these two hours.”
“…Fine. You have to pay me back later, though.”
“Of course. I’ll show you exactly what a senior who looks after his juniors is like.”
“Then let’s get back to it.”
“Great!”
With Soyeon ferrying the rocks by telekinesis, life became blissful. The intensity of the labor felt cut in half. My spirits lifted on their own. I had room to spare with the chisel and hammer, and the speed at which I pried ore free climbed.
After about ten minutes, Soyeon and I naturally settled into a division of labor. I mined the ore from the wall; she moved it into the cart with telekinesis. I actually lamented not thinking of this sooner—our work rate shot up that much.
So this was “efficiency”? Long live the division of labor!
A cart that normally took two hours of work to fill was packed solid in a little over one. Once that was full, today’s quota would be done and we could leave the Gate.
“I think that should be the last of it.”
“Same here. Thanks to you, I had it easy, Soyeon.”
“Same for me. Doing it this way is way better. I can use my telekinesis more, too.”
The only way to grow an awakened ability was to use it over and over. In that sense, this method benefited Soyeon as well.
“Even when your Keeper rank goes up, don’t forget me, okay? Remember—this started because I asked.”
“Of course, of course. I’ll remember everything.”
Knowing it was over lightened my heart. Both our voices rose a few notes higher. But trouble always struck right when you thought you were done.
Thud.
I brought the hammer down, and a rock fell from the wall just like always. The difference this time was that behind the rock, instead of more stone, a black hole appeared.
“Huh? Senior, there’s a space behind the wall—”
And from that black hole, I saw a red light.
“Soyeon, get back!”
Thankfully Soyeon moved fast and retreated, and I scrambled back just as quickly.
KRA-KOOM.
With a deafening roar, the wall collapsed. Something shaped like a dog charged at us through the rubble. The fact that it was twice the size of a normal dog made a hell of an impression.
“Run!”
I shouted and sprinted for the exit.