From 9 a.m. to 11 a.m.
We ran without knowing where we were headed. It was not a jog or a sprint, but a run that was closer to a sprint.
Everyone was drenched in sweat. Some students complained of muscle pain.
I ran for five minutes and rested for one. I felt like I was going to die, but fortunately, I didn't.
Even though I was panting like a fish dragged out of the mud, I recovered quickly after a short rest.
"Stop."
At exactly 11:20 a.m., Chedric stopped. Finally, we had arrived at our damnabe distant destination.
"Line up in the order you arrived."
I was in the top 90%. Around 110th out of 127.
I quickly spotted the back of Soliette Arkne's head. As expected, she was at the front.
"Ugh… I don't want to live… just kill me…"
In contrast, Layla was right in front of me. She kept swaying, her face on the verge of exhaustion.
—Hey, what's that? Looks like a mine?
—Really. We're screwed.
At the seniors' uproar, I looked ahead.
There was a massive rock mountain. Something ominous, damp, and dangerous, a large entrance.
"Before we start the evaluation task, let me introduce a special guest we've invited."
Chedric pointed to the podium near the mine entrance. A wooden stage was connected to a red carpet.
Just then, a sedan arrived. The car paused where the red carpet began, as if waiting for something.
"Everyone, applause."
Chedric clapped his hands. The students followed suit.
Then the car door opened, and my face stiffened.
"…Ah."
Long arms and legs emerged from the car. A magnificent physique and a luxury fit suit to match. Blue hair slicked back and sharp, arrogant eyes.
A familiar figure. Not just to me, but to everyone here.
—Holy shit.
—He's so handsome. What's he like in person?
The man who elicited admiration from everyone was a direct descendant of Libra—Jade, the second son.
'Jade Leroy Libra Geden.'
—Wow… This is my first time seeing a direct descendant of Libra.
—This is insane.
His appearance was so perfect that almost all the students were in awe.
To me, he only felt like a piece of shit, but that's probably Libra's genetics. There's no flaw 'on the surface'.
—Ah. Ah.
Standing on the stage, he did a mic test and looked around.
—Nice to meet you. I'm Jade of Libra. This mine is owned by Libra… more accurately, it's my property.
It's not your property, but an inheritance you'll soon receive.
—There are non-renewable mines and renewable mines. This 'Limto Mine' is renewable. It has been closed for over a decade, but in one or two years, we will open the mine and produce nearly tens of thousands of tons of magical stones annually.
Jade shrugged his shoulders.
—But before that, I gladly agreed to cooperate after receiving a proposal close to a service from my alma mater, Endex, and the University Association.
The guy I haven't seen in so long, as always, every word he says is so damn arrogant.
—Therefore, I will provide this mine as the venue for your college board assignments.
Eyes looking down at the students. I am bestowing this upon you – that kind of eyes, filled with the same damn elitist consciousness as always.
Just as I despised.
—But before that. Does anyone know how modern miners mine magical stones?
"They use machinery."
Kain answer.
For reference, Kain is a magic stone tycoon. However, Jade doesn't even glance at him and continues.
—"But what about before that artifact was invented?"
At this point, a bad feeling began to creep in.
—"Simple. It's intuitive."
He stretches out his gloved hand, and a pickaxe flies towards him, settling in his grasp.
—"This is it. This simple object."
After all, why would we have come all the way from Endex to a magic stone mine?
Think about it, it's simple.
—"The purpose of this task is to mine Mana Stones. In the 'mine', you will be able to test your own mental strength and endurance. I'll leave the detailed explanation to the person in charge. That's all for now."
Having finished his speech, Jade tosses the pickaxe away. As if they had been waiting, applause broke out. It spread in no time, and I quietly look up at him.
Jade, the second son of Libra.
The eldest son, Derek, is a damn bastard.
More than anything, he values his own dignity and pride, and he's a madman who doesn't care about anything when it comes to 'what he wants'.
Living for his own vanity, looking down on others…
Surely that's the case.
"Hah."
Something feels off.
I don't know what's happened to my head. Or perhaps, you start to feel a strange familiarity with their face and demeanor.
I'm glad to see him.
I'm glad to meet you again, and to see you alive and breathing.
"Hahaha…."
I raise my hand, laughing.
Clap, clap, clap, clap——!
I applaud enthusiastically.
Until my hands turn red, and the guys around me start to make noise.
It was probably the most sincere applause from anyone.
Thanks to that, I even made eye contact with Jade.
—Hmph.
He turns around with a slight twist of his lips.
"Let's thank Mr. Jade for providing the venue… and talk about the purpose of the task."
As Jade leaves in his sedan, Chedric speaks again in a more casual tone.
"It's simply to mine Mana Stones. Grades are evaluated based on the quantity and quality of the Mana Stones."
Mining Mana Stones.
It looks hard at first glance, but it's not a task where strength is the key.
Seniors can use the magic formulas they've learned, and they can also use their spectrum.
The 'device' that modern miners use is not a suit that amplifies physical strength.
It's a simple rod.
A rod the size of a pickaxe, implanted with a magic formula invented by some genius.
"We will now begin. Proceed."
At Chedric's words, everyone starts moving.
* * *
At the entrance to the Limto mine.
Dressed in the miner's uniform provided by the manager, Kain is glaring at someone.
"…Hey, Elise. I'm going to kill that bastard today. I can't stand it anymore."
Of course, it's Shion Ascal. The guy who's just standing there yawning.
Elise asks calmly.
"How are you going to do it?"
"It's a mine, right? There's no cameras or anything inside."
"Won't it be a hassle?"
"So, just let it go? Didn't you see that bastard disrespecting me?"
Kain frowns. Elise raises an eyebrow and says.
"It's a mine, right? Won't he just get lost or something?"
"But still-"
Kain tries to argue back but stops. He smiles as if he's thought of something.
"…Okay. I see what you mean."
Just then, the mine manager shouts out loud.
"Alright! We're about to enter soon! Please put the Mana Stones in the duffle bags we've distributed! If you're worried about damaging your smartphones, just leave them behind! We'll keep them safe for you…"
* * *
It's dark and humid. Heat clings to my skin. Sticky substances smear on me, and the sweat pooling within the miner's clothes feels like mud. It's uncomfortable and shitty, but I'm used to this extent.
To be honest, I have an abundance of mining experience.
"It brings back old memories…"
I walked down the mine tunnel.
It's one of the many branching paths in the tunnel designated by the manager, like some kind of ant nest. So many narrow, winding paths.
"Oh."
Walking further, I noticed a stone wall in front. It looks like a regular dead-end, but the rails at my feet suggest that it was once a passageway. The rails seem swallowed by the wall.
Evidence of a 'reclaimed' mine. This is where I begin my work.
"Let's see…"
Finding Mana Stones in the mines is simple.
Trust your eyes or intuition.
You just need to sense the mana within the wall, but I have a much more efficient method.
SZX-9500
A high-end artifact worth 300,000 Ren, stored in the 「Notepad」.
With my eyes open, I activated it. The world shifted. Every part of my vision was magically inverted. The flow of mana within the wall—the mana veins, like tree branches, imprinted on my retina.
But Mana Stones are not branches, they are chunks.
So, if I look a little more closely at the wall, I can see clumps coalescing between the spiderweb-like mana veins.
That's the 'core' of the Mana Stones.
Thud!
I drove my pickaxe into it.
Crunch——!
Part of the wall crumbled like a cookie. The Mana Stones was mixed in with the debris.
It's similar to hunting golems.
If you can find and destroy the core, mining Mana Stones becomes this easy.
"At this rate-"
Boom———!
Suddenly, a loud noise echoed. A gale rushed from behind me. My ears rang.
I quickly turned to look.
——Rumble.
"..."
The ceiling of the tunnel I had walked through had collapsed.
I looked forward again. Of course, it was a dead end.
I looked back again. The tunnel was completely blocked.
I let out a hollow laugh. I muttered, the pickaxe slung over my shoulder.
"Which son of a bitch is it?"
* * *
——Rumble.
Looking at the blocked tunnel, Asher stretched comfortably.
"Ah~ That's refreshing. Hey, when are you going to let him out?"
"Why should I? He should find his own way out. If he's really a bitch, he can call the rescue team."
Kain removed his hand from the wall. Asher chuckled.
"Wow. Kain, you're amazing. You could skip college and go straight to the draft."
"You're just realizing that now?"
Kain's 「Spectrum」 is related to earth.
Usually, a human's magic power disintegrates into mana once it's more than 2~3 meters away from the caster's body, unless it forms a very strong magic formula.
But not Kain.
He could extend his magical vein nearly kilometers in length through the earth's natural mana.
Using this, Cain trailed Sion from a distance, and at the opportune moment, activated the mana spell "Earth: Collapse" to bury him.
"Are we done having fun? Can we split up now?"
Elise pulled out her pickaxe and spoke.
"Ah. Okay."
"I guess I need to mine about 500 pieces."
Kain and Asher dispersed in different directions.
And so, Elise was left alone. She was the only one left in the claustrophobic mine.
"Sigh...."
She took a deep breath first.
Pointlessly, her heart pounded like crazy.
Her breathing quickened, and her chest ached as if it was being crushed.
Her hands and feet trembled. A panic that felt like the ground beneath her would give way at any moment washed over her.
Elise hated confined spaces.
She hated being alone.
To an unbearable extent.
In fact, this was her illness.
The diagnosis was Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).
What trauma caused it, she didn't know. Whether she had forgotten, or it had been forgotten, or someone had erased it.
But the fact that she had been 'trapped alone-' was engraved as a definite trauma in Elise, and it was still tormenting her.
"Sigh...."
Of course, she had already prepared for such a situation.
Elise unzipped her messenger bag. She pulled out a rabbit doll and infused it with magic.
Then the rabbit perked up its ears. It even opened its mouth and spoke.
—Hello!
It was a 30,000 Ren magic formula, 「Doll Magic: Cookie」, purchased from an auction.
A work of doll magic artisan Kanna, implementing this formula implants an artificial intelligence named 'Cookie' into the doll.
"Mining Magic Stones is simple."
Elise spoke to Cookie while activating her magic body.
"First, strike with the pickaxe."
Thud—!
The pickaxe was embedded in the wall.
"Then radiate man."
Her mana flowed into the wall. Not long after, rustle—! The entire surface disintegrated into a pile of dirt. Elise created a gust over it.
Whooosh——.
The light dust particles all dispersed, leaving only the heavy chunks of Magic Stones.
"Easy, right?"
—Hello!
The rabbit responded. Elise smiled faintly. The suffocating feeling that had choked her had disappeared before she knew it.
That's when it happened.
——————!
A roaring sound echoed. At the same time, the ground beneath her disappeared. Her body's balance twisted.
She didn't even have time to react.
It was a fall.
"...Huh?"