Monster Level: 30

Health: 395,000/550,000

Attack: 430

Defense: 270

Skills: Shed Skin, Reinforced Scales, Viscious Bite, Constrict, Berserk Transformation, Return to the Void

Kirou looked at the stats of the giant black snake with an appraising eye. It was the strongest boss monster that he's seen to date. Scratch that, it was the strongest wild boss that he's met. Kirou remembered that he wasn't even able to see anything on Archmage Anderson's stats. He wasn't sure if this was due to the level difference between them at the time or not. With that in mind, Kirou corrected his statement.

After getting an eyeful for the boss's stats, Kirou looked away from it. The life and death of this boss had nothing to do with him, after all. He was only present to skin the beast after it died. Kirou then turned towards the ladies before him as he spoke, "It seems that we'll be here for a while, with how strong that black snake is. Are we just supposed to wait here until the fight is done or can we do some other stuff in the meantime?"

Navi put a hand on her chin before tilting her head to the side as she thought for a minute before speaking up, "That would depend on what you want to do, Kirou. Although this is a mining area, most of the harvesting spots have disappeared and won't be back until this creature dies. Besides that, I don't think there's much anyone can do here besides that."

Kirou raised an eyebrow at Navi's words before speaking, "You said 'most,' meaning that there are a few of them that can still be used. Where are they? I don't mind harvesting a few ores, even if they are lower grade stuff."

Both Navi and Reya adopted an expression showing 'as expected of this crafting junky' before Reya spoke up, "It isn't a case of them being low grade. It's more of an issue of distance."

"Distance? How so?" asked Kirou with a somewhat interested tone.

Navi spoke up next, "Most of the harvesting points are located along the path we used to get to this underground cave, along with this cave itself being the motherload for various high-grade metals. That being said, if we search a few of the well-hidden caverns and pathways, we would be able to find more, but those tend to be quite a distance away and their refresh timers are a bit on the long side as well. Not only that, but a few of the more valuable ones are also guarded by elite monsters, not making them worth the effort."

Kirou went silent for a bit as he went over the words that Navi had just spoken. After doing so for a minute, a peculiar expression appeared on Kirou's face as he spoke up, "So the main problem with those harvesting points is that we lack a way to find them and will possibly have to face opposition even if we get lucky, right?"

To that question, all three women nodded in unison. Small Pebble even went further as she spoke up, "That's correct, Mr. Kirou. The Crafting Branch for the sect has been occupying these mountains for a while now and we've still not managed to map out the entire underground cave system. At most, we've only managed to securely find this area only recently and with the recent update, that large black snake made this area it's home every week."

Kirou had a peculiar smile as he listened to Small Pebble's words to the end. While Small Pebble was confused at seeing it, both Navi and Reya were given a jolt when they saw it. Reya hesitated for a moment before whispering, "Don't... don't tell me? You actually have a way to find them?"

Instead of answering directly, Kirou started scratching his chin as he spoke, "How long do you think it would take the team over there to take down the boss? It wouldn't make any sense for us to even try if we'll have to turn back halfway."

To those words, the three women felt a flash of lightning pa.s.s through their minds. It was a few seconds later before Navi left the group and went to find Guardian Knight while Reya and Small Pebble were currently looking at Kirou with stars in their eyes, especially Small Pebble who's never seen Kirou's uniqueness for herself.

Roughly five minutes later, Navi returned to the group while restraining her excitement as she spoke, "Based on their current speed, the boss says that we'll have about two and a half hours to ourselves, so he has no problem with us exploring the cave system for more resource harvest spots. That being said, he'd like us to start making our way back at the two-hour mark, just in case."

At those words, Kirou turned around and coincidentally saw Guardian Knight staring in his direction before giving Kirou a nod, to which Kirou returned. Following that brief interaction, Kirou turned to face the three women before him as he spoke, "Let's go. We're on a short timetable and I wanna raise my mining skill a bit. You tagging along, Small Pebble?"

To this, Small Pebble nodded profusely before squeaking out, "I'd very much like to join if you'll have me." Following those words, her eyes were locked on Kirou, waiting for his words.

Kirou saw her expression and released a shrug before starting to walk down the path they entered with. As he walked, he words trailed into Small Pebble's ears, "Let's go then. We've got plenty of mining to do."

Seeing him walk away, it took a moment for Small Pebble to react as Navi and Reya had already started following him. She quickly ran and caught up to the trio that quickly disappeared from the sight of the group of players still fighting the giant black snake.

After the four disappeared from the area, Guardian Knight took a look at the path they took before speaking underneath his breath, "I wonder what surprises I'll be in for this time."

*******

After walking for roughly five minutes, the quartet was now at an intersection. Besides the route they just traveled that leads to the area with the boss and the one that led to the exit of the cave system, there were two other routes for them to choose from, on their left and right respectively. At this point, the three women turned their eyes towards Kirou.

Reya was the one who spoke first, "Ok, Mr. Wolf. Do your magic." As she said this, Reya was looking at Kirou in curiosity. This look was shared by the other two women who now had their eyes locked on Kirou's form.

Kirou saw and felt their stares but only shrugged in response while a smile formed on his face. With a wave of his hand and an inaudible phrase, a large shadow formed next to his body. All three women saw this shadow and reached for their weapons, but seeing Kirou still relaxed caused them to pause in their actions. A few seconds later, the shadow turned into a two-meter tall badger mole. When the girls saw this, they were stunned. They never expected Kirou to have a pet, considering his cla.s.s.

While the girls were too busy being stunned into silence, Kirou ran his hand through Asura's fur before speaking to the badger mole cub, "Ok, Asura. I'm gonna need you to help me track down something similar to this. You think you are up to the challenge?" As Kirou said this, he took out a raw, unprocessed ore from his inventory and placed it before Asura. Asura then took up the ore and started to, from the girls' perspective, play with it.

When the girls saw this, they couldn't help but glance towards each other. They hesitated for a moment but Small Pebble was the one who voiced her doubts first, "Um... Mr. Kirou. I don't think it's possible for a pet to use a piece of raw ore to sniff out the location for mineral resource points. It just seems illogical." While the other two remained quiet, the expressions on their faces showed that they were in agreement.

Kirou saw this and released a chuckle as he spoke, "That's actually quite an interesting idea. I might just test that one out later."

When the girls heard this, they each adopted a look of confusion on their faces. This time, Reya was the one who spoke up, "If you aren't planning on having your pet sniff out the location of a mineral resource point, what is it that you plan on using it for then?"

A knowing smile formed on Kirou's face as he spoke, "I could tell you what I plan to do now, or I can allow you to see the results firsthand before I explain." Following those words, Asura put the raw ore in its mouth before heading down the left pathway in a hurry. Kirou saw this and spoke to the girls as he followed, "Just come along for now. I'll explain when we get there." Following that, Kirou disappeared down the left path as well.

All three girls gave each other a bewildered look before rus.h.i.+ng down the left path as well. They were now curious about what they would find from this trip. Even if they found nothing, it should still prove to be an interesting trip, right?

*******

Twenty minutes later.

After various twists and turns along the path, Asura, Kirou and the girls came to a stop outside the entrance to a cavern. The cavern barely had any light so they weren't able to see what was inside. While the girls were clueless as to what was inside, Kirou was able to tell that they had found a rich mineral resource point due to the skill he had obtained from Hammerton in Stone Mount Village, . Although he wasn't able to identify the rarity or the amount earlier due to distance and the skill's pa.s.sive effect, now that he was closer to the source, he didn't need to use the active skill or even light to tell the amount as the metallic taste in the air was enough for him.

Kirou then turned towards Small Pebble as he spoke, "You happen to have a lantern or torch within your inventory, Small Pebble? I need to allow you, girls, to see our find."

Small Pebble was admitted confused at the request as she had no idea what was in the room. As for both Navi and Reya, they had a look of doubt which quickly turned to incredulity as they thought of a possibility. Small Pebble took out a few torches from her inventory and handing one to Navi and Reya each before speaking, "These are all I have with me at the moment. Will they be enough?"

Kirou maintained the smile on his face as he and Asura took a step back, clearing a pa.s.sage for the women. As he did this, he made a gesture towards the dark pa.s.sage before speaking, "After you."

The women walked by Kirou and entered the dark pa.s.sage with their torches burning bright. As they entered the pa.s.sage and allowed the torches to s.h.i.+ne their light on the interior of the underground cavern, all three had their mouths agape. Illuminated by the light of the torches, various mineral resource points, along with a few metal and crystal veins appeared before their eyes. While they were once again stunned into silence by the sight before them, Kirou entered the cavern through the pa.s.sage with Asura and went over to one of the crystal veins to inspect it.

It wasn't until a few minutes later that the women awoke from their stupor and now stared at Asura as if it was the most beautiful jewel in the world. Feeling their stares, the badger mole cub went and hid behind Kirou, prompting him to turn around in time to meet the girls' peculiar stares. Kirou gentle pat Asura's head as he spoke, "Calm down, girls. You're scaring the poor thing."

It was only now that the girls turned their stares away from the pet and unto its master. Seeing these sharp stares, Kirou could only chuckle while running his hand through Asura's fur. Navi was the one to speak up here, "Now that we've found the mineral resource point, would you mind explaining how your pet did it."

The other two women had their eyes poking holes through Kirou's skull, waiting for him to speak. He could only look at their eager expressions and release another chuckle as he spoke, "Sure, I'll tell you now."