Chapter 108: Emergency mining
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"Uh... Maybe I should have given myself some time to prepare before giving an answer."

When Xania told me that the representatives of a neighboring country had requested permission for an official visit, I said yes without giving it a second thought. After all, this could be a chance to clear out a few misconceptions that they might have.

But now that I think about it, clearing out misconceptions is not something I seem to be very good at. I should have said that I needed some time to get ready.

I suppose we should get as ready as we can in what little time we have. And there's one problem that I've been ignoring until now, a problem that I need to fix if I want to give a good impression to our visitors.

"This castle is full of holes."

Normally, it would be impossible for me to live in such a place. I remember how seeing any small crack on the wall made me unable to sleep until I fixed it. But there's something about this place that makes it feel like it's supposed to be like this.

So I've been able to overlook it until now, but not anymore, we need to do some emergency repairs. And since this castle was built using rocks from the depths of the infernal caverns, I'll open one of the black gates I left when I last went there.

Mmm, yes, I think around here should be fine. Deep enough but not near the bottom, so the monsters should still be manageable for my helpers.

'Black gate'

Transportation is one of the most obvious uses for these gates. I cannot imagine how difficult it must have been to get enough stones to build the castle in the first place, and I can only bring people strong enough to deal with the monsters there.

"Alright, we're going down there."

"Nyes!"

First is Karin. Seeing how she keeps breaking the walls, it should be easy for her to get those rocks.

"Are you ready to do some quarrying?"

"I don't knyow what that word means."

"It means punching the rocks to turn them into smaller rocks that we can bring with us."

"Ah, I can do that!"

Eh... I'm sure she'll be fine. Next, I have someone who should know more about geology.

"Irvan, you know how to tell the rocks we need apart from the others, right?"

Dragons eat rocks after all, so this should be instinctual for him.

"Of course mistress! I'll make sure to find gems that are worthy of your glory!"

"That's not what we're doing at all! Did you even listen to me?!"

"Umf, the dragon is being ridiculous."

And that's the last person, Ronuck, the boss of the rock demons. He's an expert geologist, and he's not a crazy fanatic of me like Irvan is.

"There's no such thing as a gem that is worthy of our queen's glory! And to suggest that some worthless servants like us could find them is an unforgivable insult to her!"

Oh, he's worse.

"A-anyway, now that we're here let's begin- Uh?"

I killed all the monsters I saw around here just a moment ago, but a bunch of creatures that seem to be made of mud are coming crawling from a tunnel. It sure doesn't take long for the monsters to come back in this place.

{Mudlord, Element: Earth, Level: 202}

I guess they are called that because they are a stronger version of some other monster, but it's weird that all of them are apparently 'lords'.

"I'll take care of them, mistress!"

"Nya! I'll beat them up before you can!"

"Wait, what are you-"

Irvan transformed into his dragon form and is trying to melt them with his breath. The monsters are trying to crawl over his body, but Karin is using some strange fast punches that seem to work well on non-solid opponents.

Uh, did they forget what we're here for? I could get rid of them much faster, but they seem to be having fun so I guess I'll let them play for a bit.

At least Ronuck is still with me.

"So, you said you knew what we're looking for?"

"Yes, of course. The castle was built with meldstone from these caverns, we need to get more of it if we want to fix it."

"Meldstone?"

"There're some over there. See? You can tell them apart by the black and red pattern."

"I see, they really are easy to recognize."

"Meldstone merge with each other when exposed to intense heat. All we need to do is put some into the holes, bring some strong fires, and the castle will be as good as new. Also, constant heat will force the meldstone into maintaining its current form, that's why the ones in these caverns are so tough to break."

Mmm, if that's the case I wonder if it would be possible to achieve a similar effect by having a magic circuit in the castle that keeps circulating fire mana into the stone? If it works it could help prevent future holes, but it might cause things to get too hot during summer...

Also, I think I have an idea that could make the collection easier.

Ouch, are there mosquitoes down there? something bit me in the back. Are the monsters not enough?

"NYAH!!! HOT!!!"

Oh, looks like those two are done with the mudlords and are now fighting some burning skeletons. That does not look like something one would want to punch but Karin seems to disagree.

{Bonefire, Element: Fire, Level: 211}

Who names these things?

Anyway, as I was saying, I think I know how to break these rocks more easily.

'Heat void'

If meldstone is held together by heat, then a spell that removes the heat from an object should make it very brittle, and this is the spell that allowed me to bathe in lava.

*Poke*

*Crash*

Indeed, just a small push is all it took to break a large rock.

"As expected of our queen, to be able to destroy the infernal caverns with just a finger."

"No, no. Didn't you see me use a spell just before I- Ouch!"

The mosquito again! This time I quickly try to catch it with my hand before it flies away, but I find myself grabbing something stuck on my back.

"Uh? Is this a knife? Where did this come from?"

Ronuck points to the ceiling.

"It was her, she's been stabbing you for a while, but since you were not saying anything, I thought that you wouldn't want me to bring it up..."

"Oh, it's Zerana."

So she was hiding by holding onto the ceiling, did she follow us through the black gate? Maybe she thought that this would be a good place for today's assassination attempt.

"I thought that draining your blood with the Moito knife would at least do something..." She says as she jumps down.

"Ah, so it wasn't a mosquito, it was a mosquito knife."

"I said MOITO knife! It's a powerful weapon of the blood demons that can drain the blood of its victims!"

"Yes, of course. Well, I wanted to talk to you anyway. We're going to be receiving an official visit from another country and I want you to promise that you won't cause any trouble."

"And why do you want to tell me that? What makes you think that I'm more likely to cause trouble than anyone else."

"..."

Instead of answering, I give her back her mosquito knife.

"Fine, I'll try, but I won't make any promises."

"Good. So now that you are here, will you help us carry these rocks back to the surface?"

"You want the leader of the blood demons to work as a porter?!"

"Yes. Please?"

"Shouldn't you ask me to help those two idiots over there instead? They seem to be in trouble."

Irvan and Karin are now fighting a swarm of large blue bats.

{Batzu, Element: Dark, Level: 159}

They are weaker than the previous monsters, but there are a lot of them. They let out some high-pitched screeches that make my ears ring even from here, but seem directed at the two combatants.

"Nyaaa... My head hurts."

"Ah... Where am I? Who am I?"

That attack seems to have affected their minds in some way, their attacks don't seem to even be aimed at the bats anymore. Or rather, they are just hurting themselves, Irvan is smashing his head into the walls and Karin just went too far with a high kick and ended up kicking her own face.

"Eh?! Where did this wall come from?"

"I didn't knyow that a kick from a bat could be so strong..."

Ugh, I'm not sure why, but there is something about seeing them hitting themselves that feels extremely frustrating.

Alright, that's it, I'll take care of the monsters myself.

I step in front of Karin and Irvan, they are so confused that they don't seem to notice me walking past them.

'Ravaging wave'

From the palm of my hand, a black wave of mana completely fills the tunnel, shattering rocks and eliminating all the bats in an instant. It then continues to advance getting rid of the monsters that would have been next to attack.

Mmm, I decided to put some power into it because I wanted to make sure that the monsters would leave us alone for a while, but I might have gone too far, the tunnel is over twice as wide now as it was before.

"..."

It seems like Zerana wants to say something but she's unable to talk for some reason.

"Are you alright?"

"Ah... W-wha... what... that's... what was that... wa..."

Mmm, she already got 5 letters back. Looks like she should recover soon.

"What the hell was that?!" Zarana is staring at me with her mouth wide open.

"An offensive spell, to get rid of the monsters."

Why is she asking me that? I don't think this is difficult to understand.

"But... If you can use such powerful magic, why didn't you use it on me? Or on anyone else?"

"Eh? Because I don't want to kill you. I already told you that I hope that we can get along."

She looks back at the recently expanded tunnel, then back at me.

"I'll be a porter..."

"Uh?"

"You said that you wanted me to help you carry those rocks, no? Fine, I'll help."

"Really? Thank you!"

I knew that she would end up saying yes after I said please. Being polite really goes a long way.

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