Chapter 3
The mine entrance opened onto a huge cavern, where several wooden dwellings had been built. The buildings on the flat ground were lodging facilities for adventurers and facilities for visitors. The miners' living quarters had been pushed farther toward the edge—or rather, they extended vertically, clinging to the walls.
The narrow wooden stairs had no handrails and were driven into the cliff face. Seeing them, I realized, "Ah, this must be outside the dungeon's boundaries." The dungeon walls glowed, but these did not; damaged dungeon walls slowly repaired themselves, whereas these would remain as they were. The wooden stakes driven into them had stayed there for years. Or decades? Thinking about crossing them made me afraid they might break, so I tried not to think about it.
The great cavern had a hole in the center of its ceiling, so it was bright during the day and dark at night. Naturally, rain fell through it, too. Still, since the cavern narrowed as it rose toward the sky, the "wall dwellings" hardly got wet, which was something of a blessing.
Rumble, rumble, rumble...
There it was again. I felt like I'd been hearing earth tremors more often lately, but none of the miners paid them any attention. "It's the usual thing. Work won't wait just because the ground's shaking." They weren't wrong, but still.
"The shaking's stopped..."
"Hey, little brother. What are you doing? Let's go already."
After wiping the day's grime off with a damp rag, Lark and I were on our way to the dining hall.
Perhaps because it used fire, or perhaps because it needed to be spacious, the dining hall had been built on the ground rather than against the wall. Tables and stools made from nothing more than cut logs were crammed into the narrow space, and the thick steam rising from the pots couldn't escape properly, filling the entire dining hall.
The meal was just potatoes, carrots, onions, and a little meat, all stewed together with spicy seasonings. There was bread, too, but the somewhat rickety oven sometimes produced loaves that were completely burnt. Today, it was fine.
There were so many root vegetables because they kept for a long time. Leafy vegetables appeared very rarely, but the miners didn't like them, so I was happy to eat them. Leafy greens were nutritious, after all.
"That's incredible, Lark! Congratulations!"
"Well done! How about I give you some extra meat to celebrate today?"
"You're finally leaving this place, aren't you? Congratulations!"
The news that Lark had brought back a six-star Skill Orb, 【Shadow King Swordsmanship★★★★★★】, echoed through the mine.
As congratulations poured in from the miners, Lark answered tersely, looking a little conflicted. "Thanks."
"You're awful small, kid. Eat more and grow bigger."
A hand reached out from behind me, and a grim-faced older man casually ruffled my hair. I answered his broad grin in a small voice: "I am growing, you know." But he probably didn't hear me; the dining hall was so loud you had to cover your ears.
"Oh, little brother. You need to eat more, too. I'll give you a little extra meat."
As usual, the dining hall auntie gave me a little extra meat. By the way, a single tattoo ran along her arm, too. Everyone here was a slave.
I carried a wooden bowl with an iron spoon stuck in it as Lark and I made our way toward the back of the dining hall.
The table we always used was low, making it difficult for adults to use. It was just the right height for us, though.
"The whole dining hall is buzzing about Lark. Of course—it’s a six-star Skill Orb. Now her term as a slave is finally over."
Though we were slaves, we were paid according to our work. The more stars an orb had, the greater the reward, and once the amount reached a certain level, our "term would end," allowing us to become commoners. That meant we could leave this dangerous, dark, damp mine.
Sure, I would be lonely when Lark left... But all the miners here shared the same status as "slaves," so we helped each other. Some, like me, had been "sold" here, while others had come to "atone for their crimes." Yet everyone was so gentle that I found myself wondering whether they had really committed a crime. A blue tattoo wrapped around the left arm like a bangle was proof of slavery. Two indicated a criminal slave. Lark and I each had one. About half of them were criminal slaves.
I'd be all right even after Lark left.
Looking around the noisy dining hall, I saw men wearing clothes made of thin cloth—and, on rare occasions, women too—all of them with sturdy physiques.
Obviously, only Lark and I were small enough to fit into the Badger Hole. Once Lark left, I'd have to go in alone... That was a little frightening, but the thought of eventually leaving the mine would keep me going. And someday, a child younger than me would probably arrive. It would be sad if they had no companion close in age.
"I think I'll manage somehow even without Lark. Look. I've even started building up some muscles."
I bent my arm and flexed. There was a bicep there... Well, if you called it one, I suppose? If I looked at it as though it were there, it was there. It was definitely there. Where there's faith, there's a way.
"..."
I had been showing my scrawny arm, but Lark said nothing.
"Lark? What's wrong?"
"Hm? Ah... I was just thinking that everyone's an idiot."
"What!?"
What was she suddenly talking about?
Lark spoke in a hushed voice.
"Just think about it... How much do you think a six-star Skill Orb would fetch? It would be worth enough to bring an entire country to its knees."
"Huh? R-really?"
"You and I found it, yet all I get is my freedom. Isn't that strange? At the very least, you should be allowed to go free with me."
"I mean... Lark was the one who found it."
"You and I are treated as a set, and our quota is ten Skill Orbs a day. So you deserve a reward, too, don't you? But that bastard..."
Lark had asked the Skill Orb inspector to include my share in the reward.
But the request was dismissed out of hand.
——If this one leaves, too, who's going to go into the Badger Hole?
Until now, everyone had assumed the best you could find in a Badger Hole was a one- or two-star Skill Orb. But after Lark found a six-star one, the whole situation changed.
Even knowing that, the mine had no intention of letting me go until they found another miner as small as I was.
Even knowing this, Lark snarled, baring her teeth like a wild beast. "Grrrrr..." ...That was strange. Lark should have been under the same contract magic as me, but clearly much more of her desire was coming through than my own.
Maybe contract magic wasn't all-powerful. I'd heard that it "couldn't completely suppress excessively strong desires."
"I'm fine... I don't even want to go outside..."
"Don't be such a wimp."
"Ow."
She flicked me on the forehead, and I recoiled.
"Oh, man. If only I'd hidden the six-star orb... Then I could've secretly used it when I left the mine..."
Lark said this while staring into empty space.
"What a mistake... It's a six-star orb... What kind of power could it have...?"
But the only thing in her line of sight was a dusty ceiling beam draped in spiderwebs.