Flickering lamps subrged the rough mine walls in their unsteady line. The surviving mining personnel were huddling together, trying to share so warmth. Although the mines had proven their relative safety, they were cold and desolate.
Mike was staring at the communication orb as he supplied it with magic power. It stayed unresponsive, just like the little bar on the phone he got in Delta. There was no way to report back what he had just heard.
Cyber Worms, what a terrifying thought despite the stupid-sounding na. chanical parasites that invade the bodies of people and monsters, slowly taking control of their hosts. That was how Kruger, the man who finally decided to let him in, described them.
They would attach to the spine of their host and take control. At first, it would try to copy the host's behavior, but only to get closer to others and help other worms to affect them. When there were no more victims around, they would start consuming minerals.
The mortifying part was, that the host body would start to slowly turn into a mix of at and tal. These hosts could only be detected by a special tal-detecting device. Kruger said it was originally used for mining purposes, to differentiate tallic ore from stone.
“We would have already called for help or warned others if communications worked out here. There is no phone signal so far out here, not that it would get through the constant storms.
If you are really a lord from Minas Mar, you should be strong enough to help us get out of here. I don’t know why you ca here, but you should drop it here and return with us,” Kruger talked to him insistently.
Mike looked at him for a mont, giving it a serious thought.
“No. I’m on a divine quest. I can’t return before I find . It’s too dangerous to take you along.” Mike revealed his goal, hoping the man would be more understanding. Mike couldn’t just drop his objective and walk back all the way he ca from, just to escort a bunch of strangers to safety.
“I can let you co along when I’m on my way back,” he added and fell silent again, staring at the com-orb in frustration. Not just because he couldn’t contact Minas Mar, but also because of the guilt he felt, denying Kruger’s request. He could only soothe himself with the fact that, that he wouldn’t take too long, since he acquired a car.
Kruger’s face froze for a mont when he heard Mike’s goal, but then it suddenly turned into a smile. An expression that absolutely didn’t fit his face and made the beastman feel uncomfortable.
“Then all our problems are solved!” Kruger exclaid in joy. “I took the last batch of storm ore when I fled from that wretched mine,” he said and brought out a clean tal box as if to prove that he had it.
“You have here? How?” Mike asked confused by the man’s sudden action and claims.
“Ah, oh…well…” he stopped his cheering hesitantly. “You see, I wasn’t originally stationed in this place. I was the guard overseer at the mine directly beside the perpetual storm.” Mike looked at him, his gaze clearly asking why he was here then.
“You see, things went to shit there first when these things started appearing, kidnapping people. So, I grabbed the last batch of high-quality ore and got out of there. Not my proudest achievent. Even less so considering the car ran out of energy halfway down the road. In the end, I was stranded here, while things only kept getting worse…”
“Then the car outside?” “Was mine, but you can have it, and the ore! Just take - I an us along,” he begged Mike and opened the box, showing him a bunch of glistening rocks. It was clear that this man valued his life, making his story about cowardly running away with a sack full of booty more believable.
Reluctantly, Mike took the box the man was offering, to make sure it really was the ore he was looking for. Although the chosen of Maahes had no appraisal skill for materials, the system rang the mont he held the box.
“Do you have more ore?” Mike asked after seeing the quest log. It seed that the conversion between high-grade and dium-grade ore was 1:2. As long as he got four more boxes like this, he would be able to fulfill all quest requirents.
The fact the ore he got counted to his quest showed, that the quest did not require for him to reach the storm, or the mine at its foot himself. However, Kruger’s expression fell when Mike asked for more. He seed a little nervous.
“I-I do have so more! Here, here, is that enough?” he asked nervously as he brought out three more boxes, looking at Mike almost desperately. When Mike took them one by one, the completion rate of the quest rose, reaching 41/50. It was just barely not enough.
“Tsk, almost,” Mike muttered under his breath. “Almost? What do you an “almost”? I already gave you everything I had. Do you know how much that is worth? Aren’t you getting a little greedy? Just how much more do you need?” Kruger asked agitatedly. Mike didn’t bla him and tried to explain.
“I didn’t make the quest requirents. I still need 9 kilos of at least dium-grade ore to et the quest goal,” Mike answered calmly. Although he felt bad for the man, he couldn’t just turn around without finishing his quest requirents. Of course, he was ready to give the boxes back to the man.
Kruger’s face darkened as he mulled over the problem. He knew that the others at the side were listening to this conversation. Despite his cowardly nature, it seed like he was truly concerned about them and was trying his best to get them out. Suddenly, his face lightened up.
“The car! The car! There should still be so bags of ore in the car. They were already inside when I stol- when I took it. I don’t know what quality they are, but maybe that will be enough!” he quickly shared his idea.
Mike nodded slowly. If he was able to fill the rest of the requirents with the ore on the ATV, then all conflicts would be solved. It wasn’t like he wanted to leave these people behind, but that they couldn’t because of the quest. If he had finished the quest, there was nothing stopping him from helping these people return and then get ho himself.
“Let’s go look then. The quicker we get out of here, the better.” Kruger said and briskly walked to the blast door to the mine. Mike followed him at so distance. The man had seed quite careful before, but with salvation in sight, he seed almost hasty. By the ti he caught up to Kruger, the older man had already passed the inner gate, waiting for him at the outer one.
“Press that button and close the inner one, while I open the entrance,” he asked Mike. Despite being in a hurry, he still rembered the safety asures and treated the two gates like an airlock. The beastman followed his request and soon the inner door was closed, and they were able to step outside into the snowstorm.
Nothing had changed. The snowstorm was still raging, the barrier still flickering. The settlent lay silently before them. Still, Mike had beco infinitesimally more careful after hearing the story of the cyber worms. They walked over to the ATV. Kruger surrounded it and opened the hatch for the storage in the back.
Mike had only searched the cockpit when he looked to whether it was still usable, he had not checked the back, back then. Following Kruger, he found that the back of the ATV was half filled with simple jute sacks. Unlike the high-grade ore, the more normal ores were treated with less care it seed.
Unceremoniously, Mike started throwing them in his inventory.
42,
43,
44,
45.
The number on the quest log continued rising, while he got notifications that he obtained . However, over 90% of the contents here were low-grade ore which didn’t count so the number of the quests only rose slowly. It also explained why soone just left it in the ATV Kruger could simply steal. This was the stuff that was almost not worth refining, but too precious to throw away.
48,
49,
52.
Still, by the ti he had put more than three-quarters of the sacks into his inventory. At this point, he had ore equivalent to 52kg of dium-grade ore and 170kg of low-grade ore.
The notification rang in his head. He smiled wryly when the system told him to simply beco a blacksmith master. He had seen the struggle Seth went through to beco one, so it sounded almost like a joke. Now he just needed to return to Minas Mar.
“Mike, careful!” Kruger suddenly exclaid behind him, when Mike was distracted, checking his quest status. The man’s sword swiped through the air and the cat man was able to hear a thud in the snow. He whirled around, just in ti to see another thing wriggle on the ground.
Whitehilt flew from the sheath and Mike severed the creature as it shot itself at him with incredible speed. Only then, in the light of the flaming sword, was he able to see what he had cut. Still wriggling on the ground was sothing like a snake.
Its body was made from segnted tal parts that glinted in the fla's light. The head, if one could call it that, had three blade-like prongs or mandibles resembling the inside of a mixer. These prongs were seeping with a clear, slightly yellow fluid.
“We should hurry. Let’s get the people from inside and flee.”
Kruger nodded and the two n ran inside, closing the doors behind them.
“What was that? Those things weren’t there when I initially ca here.”
“My guess is that they lay dormant until there are signs of life. Like … literally everything you did after coming here,” he answered with a shrug, and he walked forward to open the inner gate.
When they returned to the mine, the survivors had already gathered. It was the first ti Mike saw all of them, they were pitifully few. He had seen the living facilities that were probably ant for hundreds of people. Before him stood a asly 10 and they weren’t looking well. At least they would easily it in the back of the ATV.
“Did you get all your food and stuff?” Mike asked again to make sure. They nodded silently.
“Then let’s get out of here.”
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