Episode 8: It Finally Appeared!
Nearly three months had passed since then. The season was the dead of winter, and although it didn’t snow in Yuma’s area, the biting cold was very harsh.
To have to wake up early in such weather…
Yuma grumbled as he headed to the Hole as usual.
The sky was still dim. Shining his Flashlight into the Hole, he repeated his usual routine of freezing and burning Metal Slimes.
After confirming that the Slime had been pulverized, he was about to leave the Hole when he noticed something was off.
He hurriedly shone the Flashlight back into the Hole, and there was something lying there.
For a moment, he thought it was a pebble, but the dull, glowing black stone was clearly different from the surrounding stones.
Yuma cautiously reached out and picked up the stone. It had a cold, smooth surface.
–No doubt about it.
“It’s finally, finally hereeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!”
As soon as he got his upper body out of the Hole, he shouted, and Mamezou, startled, took two or three steps back. Yuma held the stone in his right hand high above his head, reveling in his joy.
“It finally… it finally appeared on the 121st day!”
Yuma stroked Mamezou’s head, who was barking, and said, “I’ll buy you some expensive food when I get money,” and hurried back home.
He turned on the light in his room and looked at the ‘Generated’ stone again. Then he noticed something was wrong.
“Huh?”
The surface of the stone was smooth, but it didn’t look like a “Magic Gem” at all. If anything, it looked like a lump of black iron.
“What is this? Is this not a Magic Gem?”
Yuma took out his smartphone to search, entering keywords.
“Drop… iron… not a gem…”
Then he came across several articles. He opened one of them and…
“Black Dungeon… Demon Ore?”
It was an article about the Black Dungeon. Unlike the popular White Dungeon, the Black Dungeon was unpopular, and investigation and exploration had hardly progressed.
All that was known was that when Monsters were defeated, what dropped was not a “Magic Gem” but a metallic mineral called “Demon Ore.”
There was also research data that this “Demon Ore” improved physical abilities, but it was unclear, and it was so minimal that it was said that it was faster to do strength training.
Therefore, Yuma sighed at the article’s content that the transaction price of “Demon Ore” was generally cheap.
“The Hole in the garden… that was a Black Dungeon…”
Yuma checked the article about the sighting of Metal Slimes he had seen before. Reading the details, it certainly said that it was discovered while exploring the Black Dungeon.
He suddenly lost his strength and collapsed onto the bed.
“After all that hard work… after pouring all my pocket money into it… it’s worth next to nothing?”
Exhaustion washed over him, and he didn’t feel like doing anything.
There’s no such thing as easy money in this world… Yuma was disappointed, but complaining wouldn’t change reality.
Today was Saturday, a day off, so Yuma thought about sleeping all day, but there was something he had to do before that.
He took a large shovel from the shed and headed to the garden.
“Woof woof!”
Ignoring Mamezou, who was approaching while barking, Yuma dug up the soil in the garden and threw it into the Hole.
“Mamezou! It was a letdown. This thing doesn’t make any money at all!!”
He threw the soil away with anger. After about twenty minutes, the Hole was completely filled.
“I don’t want to see this thing ever again!!”
Yuma banged the shovel on the spot where the Hole had been, hardening the ground.
“That’s it… I wasted so many months. Mamezou can sleep soundly from tomorrow!”
“Woof!”
Yuma breathed a sigh of relief as he watched Mamezou wag his tail in satisfaction, and he put away the shovel and returned to his room. The black Demon Ore was on the desk.
Yuma picked it up and threw it into the desk drawer.
“If it doesn’t make money, I don’t need it!”
He lay down on the bed in a sprawling position and stared at the ceiling.
–Now I can relax from tomorrow. The end of chasing useless dreams. I need to think about my future too.
Suddenly, he remembered his childhood friend, Rui.
Rui, who decided on the path he should take and worked hard towards it. Kaede seemed to be attracted to him too.
–I want to be like Rui too…
He thought about that, but brushed away the distractions, thinking it had nothing to do with him.
He didn’t feel like doing anything that day, and ended up spending the whole day lazing around.