Chapter 176

“Huh?”

After flying around for several hours, we finally arrived deep inside the magic stone mine.

The magic stones were pointing straight to the heart of a dense forest, and blindly forcing our way through seemed like a surefire way to trigger a penalty.

So we scoured the map for a path and ended up right back here.

“Tower Master?”

“Count?”

The mages eyed us curiously as we walked in side by side, but Hunter So Yeri handled it smoothly.

“She wanted to take a look inside the mine for a bit.”

“Ah.”

I owned this mine anyway, so there was no reason I couldn’t see it.

With the soundproof barrier up after separating from the others, we didn’t have to watch our words.

Thanks to that, I could ask freely.

“Have you ever come this far in?”

“Once or twice? But that was just to check on the mining operations. Never gone all the way.”

Hunter So Yeri held up her hand, showing two fingers.

“The end’s blocked off anyway.”

Of course every mine dead-ended like that.

—Whumm!

But the magic stones in Hunter So Yeri’s hand kept pointing relentlessly deeper into the mine.

In this mine, not just the Edelweiss ones—all of them.

“What exactly is this mana pointing to from the start?”

After trudging in for dozens of minutes, I couldn’t help but ask the fundamental question.

“The prevailing theory is there’s some powerful mana-emitting thing deep inside magic stone mines. We’re just mining it slowly since there’s no need to dig it all up at once.”

Hunter So Yeri tilted her head.

“Up till now, we thought each region’s mine had its own source. That’s why the direction the stones point varies by region.”

I was starting to lose track! I nodded as if I understood.

“Never had a chance to amplify mana flows from other regions to check…”

A long string of theories followed.

The conclusion: We thought each magic stone mine had its own mana source, but maybe not.

“…All the magic stone mines might be connected?”

Only mages would know how they reached that conclusion from mana flows.

Hunter So Yeri lit up at my words.

“Exactly! Hunter Yuri, your comprehension is top-notch~”

My skill at pretending to understand is leveling up, yep.

Anyway, we pressed on deeper.

The mine was deeper than expected, but thankfully we moved fast.

At what seemed like the end, Hunter So Yeri shone light on the magic stones again.

—Whummm!

“Oh…”

Even to my eyes, the mana flow was clearer than when we’d first seen it outside, leading straight into the mine wall.

“Looks like we have to go in.”

Hunter So Yeri pointed at the blocked wall.

I froze.

“Inside the wall?”

“Yeah. Come here!”

Before I could refuse, Hunter So Yeri grabbed my hand.

Before I could scream about multi-legged underground bugs!!! Hunter So Yeri cheerily unleashed her skill.

The inner mine wall cleanly caved in.

Not a speck of dust got in my nose, of course.

“Wait, just punching through like that—what about the penalty?”

Didn’t you have to be careful digging in mines?

But Hunter So Yeri shrugged.

“I handle all the mine digging anyway. You didn’t think we’d use dynamite, did you?”

“…Ah.”

I’d underestimated the mage world.

“Here we go~”

—Bang!

With that simple convincing, Hunter So Yeri started tunneling deeper.

We went deeper than I’d thought.

“Feels like we’ve dug as far in as we walked.”

Hunter So Yeri nodded at my words.

“I get why they say Edelweiss hit the jackpot.”

Magic stone veins stretched consistently along our path in.

Sell them all and we’d be rolling in money—Edelweiss wouldn’t worry about funds while I was here, or for decades after.

—Pop pop bang!

After punching a few more holes deeper.

“Huh?”

Hunter So Yeri made a different sound than before. I glanced ahead and froze.

“Eh?”

The reason we both made dumb noises was simple.

A clearing had suddenly appeared in front of us.

And not just any.

“Who built a room here?”

The space before us was meticulously tiled and decorated—clearly man-made, not natural.

—Click.

Hunter So Yeri’s eyes sparkled, barrier still up.

A B-rank skill from an S-rank hunter should catch most anomalies.

But she shook her head.

“Nothing suspicious. No signs of human entry.”

No human traces was a big clue.

I frowned.

Looking around, aside from the path we’d blasted, it was a perfect sealed chamber.

If someone made it, there should be an exit—but there wasn’t.

In the old days, it’d be one of the world’s great mysteries, but post-Gate catastrophe, there’s only one conclusion for stuff like this.

“The system made it.”

Hunter So Yeri nodded.

“Probably.”

That meant this space was deeply tied to ‘Possessed the Fragile Terminally Ill Young Lady (L)‘.

We tensely scanned the room.

But there was only one thing inside.

A small box on a pedestal.

Of course, we weren’t dumb enough to touch it right away.

Touch a box sitting out like that in an L-rank dungeon, in a system-made space?

Not even F-ranks would make that mistake.

“Only thing to check, but it radiates insanely strong mana.”

Hunter So Yeri cautiously examined the box.

I could feel the ominous aura too. And.

Entering hyper focus briefly, she used appraisal for more info. Her eyes widened.

“…It’s an L-rank item. Name only shows on touch.”

“Whoa.”

An L-rank item from the system in the heart of an L-rank dungeon?

Anyone would see…

“D-d-don’t touch it.”

I stealthily backed away a few steps.

“I like pretty things too, but that one’s no good.”

The box was ornately decorated enough to please Hunter So Yeri, but she raised her hands and retreated.

She scanned around.

“Appraisal shows it’s linked to other regions’ mines too. Dig through those and you connect here.”

I narrowed my eyes at her words.

“So this thing has enough mana to produce all the magic stones in the world?”

“Yep.”

There had to be a reason such a condensed mana mass was slumbering here.

“And considering gates produce mana too…”

Our eyes met.

Our faces paled in unison, as if scripted.

Didn’t the apocalypse prophecy say they finally found the clue to the final gate after ‘years of ongoing research’?

“This is where the final dungeon spawns???”

We shouted together.

We first locked down access to the problem area.

Then sealed the path we’d dug with the Tower Master’s magic.

Of course, reopening it would be easy since we’d already tunneled once, but mine digging was her job, so Hunter So Yeri would manage it.

To keep people from going that far in.

No need to poke the thing that might prevent gates forever, right???

The hunter chat conference proceeded smoothly.

We prepared on multiple fronts.

First, Hunter So Yeri’s regression magic, usefulness unknown.

Following her advice, we scurried like hamsters bringing her dungeon items.

Each time, Hunter So Yeri charged her power of time and shouted.

‘This one’s… 0.7 points!’

‘This is 0.5 points!’

After prior experiments on what gave the most power of time, we mainly brought dungeon clear rewards.

It accumulated steadily, if slowly.

But hitting 100 wasn’t easy.

Meanwhile, the gate situation escalated rapidly.

We were smoothly managing gate control rates.

Right now, we’d dumped another massive batch on the Eastern Empire and were waiting for gates to cycle back.

“No wonder their numbers stayed high even after we sent that swarm.”

I frowned over the documents.

Gate numbers surging. Bad omen.

Usually, a powerful gate followed a surge.

Before this damned L-rank RP dungeon spawned, similar rumors flew.

The big guilds boasted they’d raid any strong gate then…

[L-rank]

True to the experts, they tucked tail the moment the big gate appeared. Didn’t want to crawl into an L-rank dungeon.

A gentle smile crossed my face for a moment.

Once out of here, those Hunter Association bastards are done for!

I had to post the ominous possibility everyone wanted to avoid.

The chat went quiet after Hunter So Yeri’s response.

This was inside an L-rank dungeon. A hidden route where all monster difficulties were bumped up a notch.

No wonder words dried up at the thought of facing an L-rank gate here.

“If it’s really an L-rank dungeon.”

No matter what was inside, I wasn’t backing down from this one.

[Skills]

[Skill Macro]

“…”

I narrowed my eyes at the new skill macro and skills.

I’d trained hard to master skill and macro use, but with only one partner, practice had limits.

No matter how diligently Hunter So Yeri helped.

As a melee DPS, monsters would clash hard with close attacks.

“Hmm.”

Only one solution, one person coming to mind.

After agonizing, I shot up from my seat.