It was Raphtalia who found the ore, and quite quickly too—right here in the grotto. Though… it was in a rather tricky place.
On the far side of the ravine, where an underground river flowed below and a waterfall cascaded down, there was a small recess. It was about two meters lower than the ledge we were standing on. And in that tiny cave, if you looked closely, you could see faint bluish glimmers of light. Without our skills Blink, Rope Shield, and Erst Shield, reaching it would've been quite problematic.
But since we had them…
First, Akira, securing herself with Rope Shield, climbed closer to the spot we needed, then summoned Erst Shield, positioning it horizontally about five meters out—closer to the recess where the ore vein glittered. Jumping onto the shield, I used Blink to teleport directly to the spot.
If I had failed, I would've ended up taking a dive into the river below. But everything went smoothly. I just needed a bit of practice using Blink. I probably could've jumped there normally if I really tried, but we wanted to get used to relying on our abilities. Besides, I wasn't entirely confident in making that jump.
The space was tight—the recess went about a meter and a half deep and the same across—but a thick, 30-centimeter-wide vein of faintly bluish metal ran through it.
Securing myself with a regular rope tied to a protrusion, I began mining.
Pulling out my pickaxe and transforming the grimoire into Pickaxe Grimoire, I immediately saw spots marked on the vein where I should strike, thanks to the Mining: Novice skill. These weak points were marked with tiny crosses.
As far as space allowed, I swung the pickaxe hard and struck the indicated spot. Cracks artistically ran along the wall. Then, they deepened on their own, and the wall collapsed at my feet.
I hadn't expected so much to break off with a single blow.
Picking out a couple of large rocks, I broke them into smaller chunks. After confirming they were just regular rock, I tossed them down into the churning river below. Sifting through the rubble, I found two nuggets, which Appraisal identified as "Light Metal" of high purity. I tossed the remaining debris off the ledge to clear some room and struck another cross mark with the pickaxe.
In thirty minutes, I had dug four meters deep and completely depleted the vein. Most of that time was spent searching for nuggets among the pile of rocks.
Skill power rules! I thought this was going to be much harder.
The vein wasn't as big as we expected, but I managed to extract thirty-seven fist-sized nuggets and tossed them into my Inventory.
Meanwhile, Akira and Raphtalia were searching for other deposits in the mine and checking the ones marked on the map I had found.
Not necessarily more Light Metal—Black Iron would do just fine, especially after seeing how effective the Mining skill was in action.
Since I finished much earlier, and the girls weren't due back for another hour, I spread out my sleeping bag, lay down on it, and began to wait, listening to the sound of the waterfall. The Pickaxe Grimoire was nearly mastered, but I didn't feel like transforming it into something else to learn spells. I already had more than enough unmastered grimoires, and they just kept piling up. Besides, this one had a very useful profession as its bonus.
The girls came back even earlier than agreed—I didn't even have time to get bored.
"You're looking comfy there," Akira said with a smirk when she saw me lying on the sleeping bag in the little cave about five meters deep. "Maybe we should just leave you here?"
"Go ahead," I replied, yawning, and contrary to my words, began packing up my things into the Inventory. "You'd be lost without me."
"Let's really leave Pluton-sama," added a cheerful Raphtalia. "In a couple days, he'll turn all humble and generous—and pay a lot for his rescue."
"Brat…" I replied without malice. "I'd give you girls anything anyway."
I had an irrational feeling that nothing had happened three and a half hours ago—no cerberus, no two-headed dogs, no hysteria or mortal danger. Raphtalia was acting exactly like before: the same cheerful little mischief-maker.
It would make sense if she were pretending… but she wasn't. I didn't know the reason, but I was glad she was back to her old self.
Maybe she was just mentally strong… If it had been me, I'd probably be out of it for a while.
Repeating the process in reverse, I made it back to the other side of the ravine. Blink was getting easier each time.
The first time I used it, I was dizzy and disoriented, but after half an hour of practice before we tried reaching the other side—it almost didn't have any side effects anymore.
"Did you get a lot of ore?" Akira asked as soon as my foot hit solid ground.
"Thirty-seven pieces."
"Is that a lot?" Raphtalia asked.
"No idea. You're the ones who checked market prices," I shrugged, dusting off stone dust from my clothes.
"We haven't seen any ore at the market," said the tanuki girl thoughtfully. "And why would there be? There's no smelter in the village, or a blacksmith."
"We found some too," the Shield Heroine boasted and handed me two stones with a smile.
Seeing the glimmer on the grimoire, I immediately understood what Akira meant and fed both stones to the Holy Weapon. They turned out to be Black Iron Ore and Copper Ore.
Copper Ore Grimoire 0/10 E
Equipment Bonus: Magic Attack +2 (unmastered)
Equipment Bonus: Smelting 1
Proficiency: 0
Iron Ore Grimoire 0/10 D
Equipment Bonus: Magic Attack +2 (unmastered)
Equipment Bonus: Smelting 2
Proficiency: 0
I took out a Light Metal nugget from my Inventory and tried feeding it to the grimoire, but there was no reaction. Akira's shield, on the other hand, did react.
After feeding it to her weapon, she unlocked the Light Metal Shield, which increased magical defense. It wasn't great for physical attacks, since it was too small—square-shaped, made of gleaming metal, about thirty centimeters in diameter. Almost the same size as the Small Shield, just a different shape.
"Holding out on me, huh?" I joked, grinning at Akira. We had nearly identical development trees, and usually shared materials with each other. "How many shields have you unlocked without me now?"
"Oh, don't be like that. Maybe some monsters dropped you one too. I only had one lead nugget," Akira waved it off. "It unlocks blacksmithing, by the way."
Sure enough, I found five of them in my inventory. Feeding one in, and then a Light Metal nugget, I unlocked two more grimoires:
Lead Ore Grimoire 0/10 D
Equipment Bonus: Magic Attack +2 (unmastered)
Equipment Bonus: Blacksmithing: Novice
Proficiency: 0
Light Metal Grimoire 0/10 D
Equipment Bonus: Magic Attack +2 (unmastered)
Equipment Bonus: Defense +5
Proficiency: 0
I let out a low whistle. A +5 defense increase for me was almost double—I only had seven total, two of which were from level-ups. Unlike armor, stat defense affects the entire body. Armor has its own defense, which doesn't stack with base stats.
"Did you girls find anything else?" I asked after sorting through the grimoires.
"Yes. One more small vein of Light Metal, and three fairly large ones of Black Iron," Raphtalia answered while Akira was checking something in her Status.
We both do that sometimes—start calculating and evaluating things in our Status. It's best not to interrupt during those moments.
"Done for today?" Akira asked us after finishing.
"Yeah, we're good. We still need to sell all this ore," I replied, and we headed for the exit.
***
After we returned to the village, Akira and Raphtalia went to the tavern to buy wine and snacks.
As for me, I had to visit the administrator, despite the late hour.
I reported to him that we had exterminated the monsters in the mine and showed him the scraps of cloth and the bent iron shoulder guard we found near the Cerberus. When he saw these items, his face went pale.
After listening to my brief account, he came to the same conclusion as Akira and I had: the group that included Valit had perished in the mine.
That group of adventurers had included his close friend, who had helped him more than once — the shoulder guard belonged to him. And the others... Valit wasn't even the youngest among them. And he was only sixteen.
We'd have to tell Raphtalia too, but that could wait. The girl had already had a rough day. Besides, we didn't have the strength to deliver this news and put her psyche through yet another trial.
They might have even come from the same village. Akira and I never asked — we figured the tanuki girl would tell us if she wanted to.
We had dinner in our room because the tavern's atmosphere just didn't feel right. So we decided to spend the evening together, like a family. We had some wine and chatted, discussing little things.
***
The next day, we didn't go to the mine and stayed in the room instead.
A thunderstorm raged outside, with heavy rain and strong winds.
Still, we found ways to keep busy. Akira dove back into studying Alchemy, Raphtalia cleaned and repaired her armor and sword. I did what I always did in my spare moments — I worked on deepening my understanding of my most powerful spell.
Coincidence that Lightning Arrow reached the intermediate level during that storm a few hours later? I doubt it. Maybe it was the Concentration skill that helped — it really did speed up comprehension and reading speed when using the grimoire.
There was no answer in the Help section. I'd have to figure it all out through experience.
When it happened, I didn't feel excitement or joy, like one might after hard work. All I felt was a faint sense of relief. Faint, because I understood — this was just one spell, and only at the intermediate level.
"Akira, Raphtalia?"
"Hm?"
"What?"
"I raised Lightning Arrow to intermediate level/"
"What?! Finally…" Akira smiled.
"… Hooray! I thought it would never happen. You've spent so much time on this." Congratulations, Pluto-sama! "Raphtalia said sincerely, clearly happy."
"So, what changed?" the Shield Heroine asked eagerly.
"Thanks, Raphtalia! I don't know yet. I'll have to test it. Nothing's changed in the Status…"
"Then what are we waiting for?" Akira set aside the potion she was working on and started pulling on her boots.
"I'm coming too!" Raphtalia added cheerfully, getting dressed as well.
"Let me go alone. You just got over an illness, Raphtalia. You shouldn't be out in this weather. Even though we can make our own medicine now, better to play it safe until your immune system gets stronger."
"He's right," Akira frowned and gave the tanuki a stern look. "You really should stay in the room."
"Hmph… Fiiine," Raphtalia muttered without arguing.
Ten minutes later, we were outside the village, wrapped in thick cloaks.
The wind was strong… at least for me. It tried to tear the cloak from my shoulders. The Shield Heroine once again proved her title as the best defender — a faint golden barrier shimmered around her, deflecting the wind.
Strangely, it didn't work on the rain — water passed through as if the barrier wasn't even there. Probably because the shield didn't consider water droplets a threat… though I might be wrong.
We stopped about two hundred meters from the village entrance. No need to go farther — thunder was already rumbling and lightning flashing all around us.
I cast the first spell into the sky.
Raising my hand, I focused my will.
"Erst Lightning Bolt!" a lightning bolt, overcharged with mana, burst from my hand and shot upward.
"What?!"
"Huh? A shortened chant?" Akira was surprised too. "That's good, right?"
"Erst Lightning Bolt!" I cast again, this time toward a hill. The spell exploded with thunderous power, and I felt it had grown stronger" by about a quarter. "Of course it's good! I didn't even hope for something like this!"
"Anything else change?"
"The spell's a bit stronger. Mana cost is the same. But now it uses a shortened chant, which makes it far more efficient in battle…"
"That's great!"
"Yeah…"
"Then why are you just standing there?"
"I'm trying to decide which spell to improve next…"
For a moment, it felt like even the wind went quiet and the thunder paused.
"Can I hit you?"
"… No."
"Just once?"
"… No."
"I won't even hit hard! I just really want to!"
"… No."
***
Concentration really did speed up spell learning dramatically. Before the night was over, I'd learned two more spells:
Erst Hide — a Darkness spell that makes you harder to detect,
and Erst Fire Bolt — a Fire spell that shoots a fire arrow. It's much weaker than lightning but costs only half the mana — twenty points for the regular version.
It felt strange to realize that before, when I learned a single spell, I'd also nearly mastered the associated grimoire in parallel. Now? Both grimoires had only progressed halfway. Meaning I could learn two spells in the time it used to take for one.
Concentration more than doubled my learning speed, but it had a "small" drawback:
I'd completely zone out — couldn't hear or see anything around me. The world shrank to just the pages before me.
And since the skill was passive, I couldn't simply choose to read like I used to. Once I got absorbed, someone had to pull me out of it.
The first time this happened, Raphtalia panicked when I didn't respond to her at all. She called Akira, and together they shook me for over a minute to try to wake me. Didn't work…
Apparently, Akira finally did what she'd wanted to do for a while — slapped me across the face!
That did the trick and snapped me out of it.
Instead of just learning the spell like I'd planned, I'd already begun deepening my understanding of it without meaning to.
And that skill worked on more than just reading…
For now, I had to ask the girls to occasionally help pull me out of Concentration.
So yeah, the skill was a mixed bag — it made you incredibly efficient, but dangerous if there was no one nearby to snap you out of it.
Hopefully, I'll be able to turn it off myself one day…
***
A merchant at the market valued thirty-five nuggets at ten silver coins each.
After discussing it, we decided to sell just five. Fifty silver coins should be enough for a comfortable life — especially since there wasn't much to spend it on here anyway!
The rest we could smelt into ingots with Elhart's help and sell for more… maybe even to him.
In any case, nuggets would fetch a much better price in the capital.
Since money wasn't an urgent concern, we went hunting. The mine wasn't going anywhere, and we wanted to try out our new powers. Akira and Raphtalia headed to the forest, while I went to the mountains near the village.
And another day later, the locals finally found out who we were.
I hadn't expected it to take this long for our identities to get out.
But the most important part — nothing really changed.
One time, as I was heading out for a hunt, I overheard a conversation:
"… So he really is the Grimoire Hero?"
"Yeah… Keep your voice down or he'll hear you. But it's definitely him, I'm telling you…"
"And he tried to rape his companion?"
"Well, that's what they say in the capital."
"Sigh… I wish he'd try that with me…"
"Yeah, same…"
Hearing that, I quickly picked up the pace to leave the village.
The reason?
The conversation was between two women well over forty… very well over forty.
Telling the girls about it later that evening gave us a good laugh.
Other than that — nothing changed.
The inn didn't kick us out, no one pointed fingers.
And what people said behind our backs? We didn't care much.