CH 8

Chapter 8: FINALLY HIT THE JACKPOT!

Around three months later. It was right in the middle of winter, and though there was no snow around the area Yuuma was living in, the cold weather was still biting into his skin.

It happened in the early morning on such a day…

Yuuma was complaining like usual as he headed toward the hole.

The sky was still dark. The action of freezing followed by burning the metal slime while illuminating the dark cave had already become part of his daily life.

When he was about to leave the hole after confirming that the slime had already been destroyed, he noticed something unusual.

When he turned around in hurry to illuminate the hole, he found something dropped on the floor of the cave.

Though it looked like a pebble at glance, the pearl black stone was clearly different from the other people around.

Yuuma stretched his trembled arm toward the stone and picked it up. Its surface was smooth and cold.

――No doubt about it.

「Came, IT CAMEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!」

Since he suddenly shouted loudly while raising half of his upper body from the hole, Mamezo flinched away from him due to surprise. Yuuma cheerfully raised his right hand that clenched on the gem.

「Finale… After 121 days, IT FINALLY CAME!!」

Yuuma patted Mamezo who barked lightly while saying 「I’ll treat you to nice, expensive dog food once I get the money」 before he ran back to the house.

He was observing the stone that was 『Produced』 in the hole under the light in his room. And finally, he noticed something strange about it.

「Eh?」

No matter how smooth the surface of the stone, it didn’t look like ‶Gem″ to him. It looked like black iron.

「What is this? Is this really a magic gem?」

Yuuma tried to get more information by entering the keyword into the search engine.

「Drop… Iron… Not gem」

Thereupon, after opening several articles. He read one particular page…

「Black dungeon… Magic ore?」

It was a special article about a black dungeon. Different from 『White Dungeon』, the 『Black Dungeon』 was rarely researched, and quite unpopular on top of that.

One thing confirmed about it was the fact that when the monster was defeated in the black dungeon and left a drop item, it wouldn’t be a ‟Magic Gem”, it was something commonly known as ore and since it dropped in the dungeon, it then referred as  ‟Magic Ore”.

Though the research indicated that this ‟Magic Ore” raised one’s physical abilities, since the raise was quite insignificant, many people said that doing muscle training was much faster.

For that reason, Yuuma could only heave a deep sigh upon seeing that the price of ‟Magic Ore” was really insignificant.

「The hole in the garden was… Black Dungeon, eh…」

Yuuma tried to confirm that matter in the article about metal slime that he found months ago. Upon reading carefully, he confirmed that the metal slime was found in the black dungeon.

He felt as if power was sapped from his body, and collapsed in the bed.

「After spending my pocket money for months… it turned out to be not worth the effort.」

He suddenly lost all his motivation and didn’t feel like doing anything at all.

Reality is… Really cruel. That was what Yuuma thought as he discovered the bitter reality of the black dungeon.

Since today was Saturday, Yuuma wanted to sleep all day but then, he pumped himself up as he had to finish another job.

He took out a working scoop from the storage room and went toward the garden.

「WOOFWOOF!」

Yuuma ignored Mamezo who was running happily toward him, dug the soil from the garden and used it to fill the hole.

「THIS HOLE IS SUCH A HUGE DISAPPOINTMENT, MAMEZO!! IT CAN’t PRODUCE MONEY!」

He furiously shoved the soil to fill the hole. And twenty minutes later, the hole had completely filled up.

「I! AM! DONE WITH THIS HOLE!!」

Yuuma struck on the filled-up hole to harden the soil, venting his rage.

「Okay… I’ve been wasting my time and money for months. You can sleep peacefully from tomorrow onward, Mamezo!」

「WOOF!」

Yuuma, who felt slightly relieved upon seeing Mamezo happily wagging their tail, then returned to his house with a scoop in his hand. He placed the black magic ore on top of his desk.

Yuuma grabbed the magic ore and threw it into the drawer.

「I guess it’s useless since it isn’t worth a penny!」

And just like that, he sprawled in his bed while gazing at the roof of his room.

――I guess I can wake up much later starting tomorrow. Today is the final day of my chasing after a futile dream. I even forgot to think about what I wanted to do in the future.

Suddenly, he recalled his childhood friend, Rui.

Rui had already known what he wanted to do in the future and rushed straight forward toward his goal. Even Kaede ended up attracted by it.

―― I’m really envious of Rui I guess…

Was what he thought but, he shook off such idle thoughts that had nothing to do with him.

That day passed in a flash as he spent the rest of the day doing nothing.