8 – Sudden Visit (8)
“Are you busy these days? When do you finish work?”
“I’ve already finished work. We’re a bit early.”
“Then, while we have time, shall we play some games?”
“Uh… I have an appointment today, so I can’t do it.”
A friend’s call, made amidst our busy lives, to turn down his suggestion to play together. It was inevitable to refuse, as I couldn’t play with anyone else due to the nature of the game. I declined the call and returned to my computer, where the residents of our virtual world were still living their lives as usual.
It seemed that nothing special had happened while I was away. Feeling concerned, I thought it would be best to quickly equip them with sturdy defenses.
[Game Activation]
As soon as the time came, I launched the game and brought the four I had called last time into the game.
They seemed unfazed, as if they were already familiar with the routine, despite the saying that familiarity comes with time. Their expressions were subtly different from the previous day. Unlike the faint sense of wariness and distance I had felt the day before, it was as if they now desired more, as if they expected me to give them more after I had given a steel sword to Riena. Their eyes sparkled differently, as if to convey that message.
“I can give it to you.”
I chuckled. After all, I intended to meet their expectations. Today, I planned to enter the mine from noon to search for iron ore.
However, I had no intention of leaving them as they were. There was a nearby rocky mountain. I took them there.
“It’s for everyone, anyway.”
After that, I distributed four pickaxes I had made according to the combination to them. Then, I pointed to the rocky mountain with my hand, and they understood my intention and began to pickaxe.
Their pickaxing technique involved not shaping the blocks like I did, but rather, chopping the stones into small pieces like real stones. But that was enough.
When they touched the blocks, my character moved to eat the stones they had placed like this.
“As expected.”
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A piece of stone debris had turned into a stone block in my inventory. I had discovered this phenomenon yesterday when I accidentally ate the meat they had left on the ground. Today, I planned to use these to build a wide barrier around the air defense base.
Of course, I could mine stones much faster than them, but since there was also an achievement for collecting a certain amount of resources, it was essential for all of us.
“—.”
“–, —!”
As I was about to leave, they shouted something at me while looking at me. It seemed like a greeting. Particularly, Barun, the tribal chief, was a bit more enthusiastic.
***
“Will he bring us more iron items again?”
“I don’t know. But didn’t we confirm yesterday that it’s quite possible? There’s no reason he wouldn’t.”
Swiftly moving away with his characteristic bounding steps, he disappeared in an instant. Barun, watching his retreating figure, smiled at Rienna’s words and once again took hold of the pickaxe.
“If we manage to extract pieces of rock like this, at worst, he’ll reward us with iron items or meat. Everyone knows how much we struggled to obtain iron weapons before coming here.”
“That’s right. Didn’t he demand only a single horse when it was expensive?”
Kun agreed with Barun, and for them, who lacked smelting technology, iron weapons were extremely valuable. Obtaining them through pickaxe work a few times was just as good as striking it rich.
“Well, it’s still tough. Let’s take a short break.”
“Can’t be helped.”
Of course, they were not game characters, so chiseling into solid rock with a pickaxe was by no means an easy task.
Resting as much as they worked was necessary to endure, and thanks to that, their efficiency was at its worst.
Even Rienna, who possessed a robust body reinforced with mana, struggled enough to the point that ordinary people found it difficult to even raise their arms, unlike those whose pure physical abilities were everything.
[Talent Transformation]
[Talent: Miner]
“Hmm?”
It was then that Kun, one of them, felt something strange in his body.
His body felt incredibly light as he chiseled, and his pickaxe began to carve through the rocks much more easily, as if cutting through tofu.
“W-What’s this?”
“What’s going on?!”
Startled, they rushed towards him, who had carved a stone the size of their own body. Kun, on the other hand, was staring at the pickaxe in his hand with a bewildered expression.
The wooden handle was now tightly wrapped, unlike before.
“Wow, it seems like mana is embedded in Kun’s body.”
“Is that for real? Kun has become a warrior?”
“But it’s a little, no, very different…”
Even Riena, after examining Kun’s body, couldn’t come to a definite conclusion. Since they couldn’t see their own status window, they could only assume that Kun had gained some kind of special power.
“It’s a good thing, isn’t it? If he can do better with this power, he will be able to give more.”
Kun was more composed than the people around him. He positively accepted the fact that his power was specialized in digging for resources with the pickaxe and resumed his work.
The stones were much easier to break compared to others. He began to unearth the rocks as if he had become a crane.
And the work only stopped when the quickly passing time turned into night.
“Is he in shock?”
As he was preparing to head to the air-raid shelter, he froze in place as he saw Kun, who had come running from a distance, creating a scene with his newly developed miner abilities.
The residents assumed he was in shock. In reality, he had stopped controlling his character and was surprised as he hovered the mouse over the status window to check Kun’s state.
“Are you satisfied?”
Barun stepped forward to speak to him. Though words didn’t come through, their hearts connected. Kun, who had collected all the scattered rocks into his inventory, nodded repeatedly.
“Be careful because your strength is great. Your head isn’t so good, so just block the charge coming at you!”
“Raise your spears!”
It was late at night. The only reason they were out was that the environment had turned to night, and they had to face the monsters, werewolves, that appeared around them outside the air-raid shelter.
This time, not only Riena but others were also present. Each of them held a steel spear or sword in their hands.
Under the command of Leana, who wielded her iron sword with ease, the three formed a formation and calmly dealt with the enemies one by one.
[Achievement Unlocked: Defeat 50 Werewolves]
Unaware that they were clearing achievements in this manner, they simply saw their actions as aiding the “Master of this world” to earn his favor and obtain more resources.
“Building walls, huh.”
Leana took down a Werewolf attacking her, casually brushing him aside. This time, instead of heading to the mines, the one who hadn’t left was in the process of surrounding themselves with a massive wall, much larger than the base, centered around a defensive trench formed by combining rocks and ore.
From the residents’ perspective, the size of this massive field was equivalent to complete isolation from the outside world.
After completing the barrier, he, armed with a sword, entered again to fight alongside them. Just before the residents were about to give in, the Werewolves trapped inside the barrier were all cleaned up.
“It’s my first time fighting so many monsters.”
“We were lucky.”
However, when they all sat down on the ground, trying to catch their breath, he didn’t stop. Working tirelessly, it seemed as if he never tired, to the point that Leana admired his dedication.
“Is he making a field? Without water?”
Having finished the barrier, he was now plowing the land. Holding a tool similar to a hoe, he dug the ground, creating furrows and planting seeds.
“Look at that. It’s water.”
Farming using the game system was incredibly advanced. After planting seeds, he dug next to the soil, holding a water block in his hand. In an instant, a small stream appeared.
“Amazing.”
Barun, gaining courage, approached first, dipping his hand into the water pooled there. Once his hand touched it, it wasn’t just graphical fragments anymore. Real water rose up to waist height, shimmering.
***
“Quite impressive, isn’t it?”
The game casually ignored some laws of physics since, after all, it was just a game. However, for the residents for whom this was now a reality, it seemed like an unbelievable fact that couldn’t be easily accepted.
‘Eating only meat seems a bit excessive.’
It’s not clear whether they, who have almost migrated with just their bodies, have any farming skills.
But in the desktop world, instead of plowing the land and planting seeds year after year, it seemed much more efficient to supply food quickly with crops that grow rapidly in the game. That’s why they created fields like this.
Going to the land, harvesting, and planting seeds again—all of this takes only a moment in this world. Even by sprinkling fertilizer made from monster drop items like this, everything grows in an instant.
During this time, they made fertilizer from the items dropped by the monsters they caught. When I gave them the harvested rice as a primary food source, they had wide-eyed expressions.
With a field of this size, it seemed sufficient to feed just over thirty people.
More than that, I was more concerned about the fact that I had evolved the miner’s characteristic. Since it was confirmed through the game that they could obtain more than just simple resources.
‘Well, shall we go all the way to the mine today?’
Since I had to achieve achievements to continue using this game, once the preparations were somewhat complete, I planned to take the residents and go to a farther place. Conditions had improved further now that one of them had evolved the miner’s characteristic.
[External Intruders Detected]
“Huh?”
However, at that moment, there was something outside the game window that I had displayed in windowed mode.
Just like when the wolf pack attacked last time, a considerable-sized group was coming from the west of the terrain, the left side of the desktop.
‘People.’
The identity of that group was not beasts or monsters. It was a group of people dressed similar to the residents, rushing here in a panic.
And another group of people was chasing after them.
My eyes, magnified in that direction, widened. A warrior who was chasing people on horseback swung his sword and beheaded one of them. It was definitely not a situation to overlook.
Moreover, they were coming from the direction where the village was.
Yup, bonemeal