He opened his system interface with a thought and navigated to the gacha screen with the daily spin ticket that was already waiting glowing softly in his vision.
Klaus inserted the ticket into the slot in what had beco record ti... he’d gotten very efficient at this daily ritual and the wheel began spinning as the colorful lights swirled.
"Give sothing good..." Klaus muttered, watching the blur of options. "Like yesterday’s Tier 5 item."
The wheel slowed... slowed and then stopped.
「Congratulations! You have pulled: Item - Sexual Endurance Pill」
「Tier: 4」
「Description: A rare alchemical pill that permanently enhances the user’s sexual stamina and recovery ti. Upon consumption, increases duration of sexual activity by 300%, reduces refractory period to near zero, and enhances overall performance. Effects are permanent and cannot be reversed. Note: This is a one-ti consumable item.」
Klaus stared at the notification for a long, long mont.
"Oh, fuck you," Klaus muttered to the gacha system. He dismissed the screen with an irritated swipe and pulled the contract for the Resource Dungeon from his storage ring and he unfolded it and checked the address one more ti.
Silver vein deposit #447, fifteen kiloters northeast of Rivera City proper.
"I have to get there now," Klaus said, tucking the contract away. "Before those miners start swallowing my silver."
He opened his bedroom door and headed downstairs.
The main room of the Moonstone Residence was already active as Mirela stood behind the front kitchen counter making breakfast.
Serra sat at one of the tables drinking tea and Taula was seated at another table, staring intently at the wood grain and not looking up.
"Good morning, girls," Klaus called out as he descended the stairs.
"Good morning, Master!" Mirela replied with a bright wave with her goat ears twitching happily.
"Morning, Boss," Serra said with a lazy salute of her teacup. "Good luck today."
"Thank you both," Klaus said with a genuine smile then he turned toward Taula, who was still determinedly not looking at him.
"Is sothing wrong with her?" Klaus asked, gesturing toward the silver-haired girl and Serra shrugged, taking another sip of tea.
"She just ran downstairs and started acting like that a few minutes ago," Serra said. "We have no idea what’s up."
Klaus sighed and shook his head.
"Alright," Klaus said. "I’ll be on my way now."
He walked to the front door, pulled it open, and stepped outside. The fresh morning wind hit his face imdiately... It was cool clean air carrying the scent of dew and baking bread from a nearby shop.
The sun was just beginning to rise over the eastern buildings, painting the sky in shades of orange and pink.
Klaus took a deep breath, then ran down the street toward a dark alleyway he’d entered previously and once in the shadows, out of sight from casual observers, there was a flash of blue light.
His white cat mask materialized over his face and his regular clothes were surrounded by the distinctive Heavenly Commoner cloak from his storage ring.
Klaus crouched low, gathered magnetic force beneath his boots and launched himself upward then he landed on the nearest rooftop with a soft thud.
"Ti to go..." Klaus muttered.
He shot through the air again, leaping from roof to roof, leaving the Moonstone Residence and the girls behind.
...
Back inside the house, Taula finally pulled her face up from where she’d been hiding it against her arms as she stood abruptly and ran into the kitchen.
Serra looked up from her tea curiously.
"What’s wrong, Taula?" Serra asked.
Taula didn’t answer verbally. Instead, she yanked open the vegetable storage and pulled out a large cucumber.
She held it vertically against her crotch area, positioning it roughly where she’d seen that strange thick thing on Klaus.
"What does this an if there’s so kind of big sword sticking out of a man’s crotch like this?" Taula asked seriously, looking between Serra and Mirela with genuine confusion in her eyes.
Serra blinked slowly.
"I... don’t know..." Serra admitted, completely baffled by the question.
Mirela, however, blushed deeply. Her hand imdiately went to her hair, adjusting and smoothing it in a nervous gesture which was sothing she always did when embarrassed.
It was sothing she’d learned from reading books in the extensive library of the Valakris Mansion during her ti as a slave.
The noble family had kept educational texts on... many subjects.
"That ans," Mirela said quietly with her face getting redder by the second. "the man is horny."
Taula and Serra both stared at her.
"What’s ’horny’?" Taula asked and Mirela looked like she wanted to die.
...
Klaus landed on the packed dirt ground outside the swirling portal gate with ease as his boots kicked up small clouds of dust.
The Resource Dungeon entrance stood before him... it was a vertical oval of reality-bending space, swirling with white and yellow energy that seed to fold in on itself endlessly.
It was anchored between two old stone pillars and standing in front of it was Zephyra.
She wore her fox mask with the transformation magic active and turning her distinctive white hair jet black and the mont she saw Klaus approaching, her posture changed.
For a brief mont, Klaus thought she might actually be more mature about their interaction today which should be more professional, given they were on a business operation with forty hired miners watching but that hope died instantly.
Zephyra ran toward him with obvious excitent and threw her arms around him in a tight hug.
"Hubby! Morning~" Zephyra said cheerfully as her face pressed against his chest and Klaus tried to push her away with his hands on her shoulders applying steady pressure but she didn’t budge.
It was like trying to push a stone wall.
Klaus gave up with a heavy sigh and simply patted her back twice in acknowledgnt.
"How’s it going?" Klaus asked, looking past her toward the operation. Zephyra reluctantly released him and stepped back, though she stayed close.
"Everything’s ready," Zephyra reported gesturing toward the gathered workers.
There were miners everywhere... roughly forty n in total, all wearing sturdy work clothes and carrying professional mining equipnt. Pickaxes, chisels, hamrs, safety lamps and they looked experienced and competent as well.
Near the dungeon gate sat several large tal crates, each one big enough to hold hundreds of pounds of raw ore and four miners stood near each crate clearly assigned as the carrying teams.
"They’ve been waiting for you," Zephyra continued. "And the rune seal on the dungeon has been broken by , so we can enter whenever you’re ready."
"Thank you," Klaus said genuinely and he started walking toward the dungeon entrance as Zephyra imdiately linked her arm through his in the way a couple would walk together through a park.
Klaus felt his eye twitch but didn’t bother fighting it.
’...Pick your battles.’
"Everyone advance!" Zephyra called out in her Masked Man voice, projecting authority and the miners imdiately organized themselves.
Each group of four positioned themselves around their assigned tal crate, gripping the reinforced handles as the crates were heavy, even empty since they were designed to hold massive weight without buckling.
They began entering the dungeon gate one by one, walking into the swirling portal and being swallowed by the spatial distortion. Their forms stretched and compressed impossibly before vanishing completely and after the last miner group disappeared, Klaus and Zephyra stepped forward together.
The dungeon gate’s energy washed over them like stepping through a waterfall... there was a mont of complete sensory disorientation with the colors inverting and the gravity shifting then they popped out on the other side.
The Resource Dungeon interior was massive.
Unlike the Goblin til diamond dungeon Klaus had explored before... which had been a maze of narrow tunnels, this was a single enormous cavern.
The ceiling stretched hundreds of feet overhead, supported by natural stone pillars and the walls extended in all directions, creating a space the size of multiple city blocks.
Everywhere, covering the floor and walls in glittering formations, was silver.
Raw silver ore jutted out in crystalline clusters, so formations as small as a fist with others as large as a horse.
The tal caught the dungeon’s ambient magical light and reflected it in brilliant flashes, making the entire cavern sparkle like a starfield.
At the furthest point of the cavern, easily a distance away stood the Boss Room gate... a massive doorway carved into the stone, sealed with glowing red runes. Whatever creature guarded this dungeon’s core waited beyond that door but they wouldn’t need to go anywhere near it until they wanted to leave since the silver was everywhere else.
The miners had already dropped their empty crates to the ground with heavy thunks and Zephyra raised her voice, making sure it could be heard across the cavern.
"Split into your assigned groups of four!" she commanded. "Begin mining operations! You’ll be paid very well for every crate you fill!"
"Yes, Ma’am!" ca the unified response from forty throats. The miners imdiately dispersed, each group claiming a section of the cavern rich with silver formations.
One particular group of four moved toward a cluster of dium-sized silver deposits about fifty ters from the entrance.
The formations here jutted out of the ground at odd angles with the ore intermingled with regular stone in complex patterns.
The youngest mber of this group was a man nad Terrance in his early twenties with brown hair tied back in a ponytail and arms already corded with muscle from years of hard labor.
He hoisted his pickaxe over his shoulder and approached the nearest formation with assessnt. The silver here was good quality.
It was high concentration with minimal waste stone and this deposit alone could fill half their crate if they worked it properly.
Terrance planted his feet, adjusted his grip on the pickaxe handle, and swung.
CRACK!
The pick’s pointed end struck the silver formation dead center with the impact sent vibrations up the wooden handle and into his arms, the familiar shock of tal eting tal-infused stone.
A chunk of silver ore the size of a fist broke free from the formation and clattered to the ground and one of Terrance’s teammates... an older man nad Treth with a grey beard imdiately bent down and scooped up the ore piece.
He examined it briefly, nodded in satisfaction, and carried it to their team’s tal crate about ten feet away.
The chunk hit the bottom of the empty crate with a clang and Terrance swung again.
CRACK!
Another chunk, this one slightly larger, split away from the formation and dropped. The third team mber, a stocky woman nad Mira, grabbed it and added it to the crate.
They fell into an efficient rhythm.
Terrance and the fourth mber... a quiet man nad Joss would alternate striking the formation with their pickaxes, breaking off manageable pieces while Treth and Mira would gather the fallen ore and transport it to the crate.
CRACK! CLANG! CRACK! CLANG! CRACK! CLANG!
The sound of mining echoed throughout the cavern, multiplied by forty workers all doing the sa task AS the noise created a constant percussion of tal on stone, ore on tal crate, boots on cavern floor and voices calling out weights and positions.
Terrance wiped sweat from his forehead after several minutes of continuous work as his arms were already feeling the burn, but it was a good burn which ant he was being productive.
He lined up his next strike, aiming for a particularly large vein of silver visible in the formation.
CRACK!
The entire section split apart beautifully and several large pieces of ore tumbled free, far more than his previous strikes had produced.
"Good one!" Treth called out while already moving to collect the haul. Terrance allowed himself a small smile of satisfaction then, as he bent to examine the newly exposed interior of the formation, a thought crept into his mind.
’I could be rich...’ Terrance thought with his eyes fixed on a particularly pure piece of silver.
This was more wealth than he’d see in years of normal work... maybe his entire lifeti and he was surrounded by it, breaking it apart with his own hands, touching the fortune directly.
Terrance slamd his pickaxe down on the formation with renewed vigor.
CRACK! CRACK! CRACK!
Several pieces of silver broke loose, scattering across the ground. He worked faster now and more urgently, barely pausing between strikes.
As he bent to gather so of the fallen ore, his fingers brushed against a small piece that was barely larger than a coin, it was smooth and palm-sized.
...Small enough to swallow.
Terrance’s breath caught and the thought ca imdiately.
’Couldn’t I just swallow it?’
He continued mining on autopilot with his hands moving through familiar motions while his mind raced in his head.
’Nobody’s watching specifically,’ Terrance thought. ’Everyone’s focused on their own work. The MMased Man and the Heavenly Commoner are standing way over by the entrance, talking and my team mbers are looking at the crate, not at .’
He rembered sothing one of the veteran miners had told him months ago in a tavern, deep in his cups and boasting.
The man had worked a Resource Dungeon contract last year and he’d swallowed a small gemstone... just one, barely the size of a thumbnail. Cut his own stomach open later in private to retrieve it, used healing magic to seal the wound, and sold the gem for enough money to retire from mining entirely.
He’d never had to work again.
’If he could do it,’ Terrance thought, palming the small piece of silver in his sweaty hand. ’why can’t I? It’s just a small particle... One piece. Nobody will even notice it missing from the tons we’re mining.’
He kept working, kept swinging his pick and kept breaking apart the formation and adding ore to the crate with his team but that small piece stayed hidden in his palm.
When he was absolutely certain none of his three teammates were looking... when Treth and Mira were both bent over the crate organizing the haul and when Joss was examining a different section of the formation... Terrance tilted his head back slightly.
He popped the small silver piece into his mouth and swallowed hard and it went down his throat with so difficulty with the tal smooth but uncomfortably solid.
He could feel it descend into his stomach as a cold weight sat there. Terrance coughed once, then took a swig from his water flask to clear his throat.
He waited... Thirty seconds passed... Nothing happened... A minute passed... Still nothing.
"It’s fin—" Terrance started to whisper to himself with relief.
THUD!
Sothing landed on top of their team’s tal crate with a sound like a predator claiming prey and Terrance’s head snapped up.
The Heavenly Commoner crouched atop the wide crate, balanced perfectly in a position that seed more bat than human with his knees bent, one hand touching the crate’s edge for balance and the cat mask staring directly down at them with those empty, emotionless eye holes.
"Now what I want all of you to do," Klaus said. "is to use those pickaxes to cut into your stomachs and give my silver."
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