“Is it around here?”

We arrived at the mining point for E-rank adventurers, as told by the guild staff. It was a fairly spacious area, with a few other adventurers diligently digging. The basic yield here is iron ore, but on rare occasions, mithril ore can be found as well. It’s a popular spot where even E-rank adventurers have a chance at striking it rich.

“By the way, Shu, what were you doing earlier?”

As Ivan swung his pickaxe down into a vacant spot, Rio asked curiously.

“Ah, I was practicing something after getting a hint from Phonia.”

“A hint?”

With that, I decided to demonstrate what I had been doing earlier right here.

“There are more ores over on this side.”

As expected of a so-called ‘spot,’ it seemed the metal deposits were richer here.

“And if I extract them directly like this, there’s no need to go through the trouble of digging.”

“Oooh, that might actually be really convenient…”

Rio also placed her hand on the ground, channeling magic and searching for the surrounding ores.

“...There’s a lot around us.”

“Mostly iron, though.”

“Yeah. Mithril and… what’s this?”

It looked like Rio had also found a reaction different from mithril or Taur steel. I couldn’t tell if it was the same thing I found earlier, but for now, I extracted it and brought it over.

“Maybe it’s this one?”

“...Ah.”

‘Adamantite, huh.’

The identification result of the metal I had extracted was transmitted through thought communication, likely to avoid drawing attention.

“We won’t know if it’s the same until you try extracting it too, Rio.”

While I was talking with Rio, Phonia seemed to have nothing in particular to do and was playing with Nir. Since she wasn’t running around, it should be fine. There were other adventurers nearby, and we weren’t likely to be attacked by monsters out of the blue. This was an E-rank adventurer collection point, so it should be relatively safe. Still, I wouldn’t let my guard down.

“Okay… like this? …Ah, maybe I did it.”

Before we realized, a metallic sheen appeared on the ground. Upon identifying it, it indeed came up as adamantite.

“Nice one.”

“I didn’t think it’d be this easy…”

“We could totally use this to search for new veins.”

“Right? Wouldn’t it be amazing if we could find untapped veins and get all the ores we want?”

Rio looked genuinely excited. She was good at magic, but surprisingly, she liked swords a lot too. She had several self-made swords stored in her subspace box. …It might be nice to visit some blacksmiths later too.

“Haha, yeah. For now, why don’t we try making one sword from this?”

“Totally! Then I’ve got to get serious about collecting more!”

She was extending her magic pretty far. I wonder if higher-quality ores are more likely to be found near ley lines.

“Don’t overdo it. …Actually, riverbeds might be hidden gems.”

They’re the closest to the valley bottom where the ley lines flow—definitely worth testing.

“Good idea. We should also try the mountaintop later, where the mana is supposed to gush out.”

As the two of us were immersed in gathering metals, Rio’s collection speed quickly surpassed mine. The metals rapidly piled up. Since she was storing them in her subspace box before drawing attention, we wouldn’t know how much we had until later.

“Tch… What the hell are you guys doing here…”

While we were focused, someone suddenly spoke to us.

Looking up, we saw an adventurer with a pickaxe slung over his shoulder, glaring down at us with an unpleasant expression.

“This isn’t a damn playground for kids, you know…!”

As he spat out the last word, he suddenly kicked toward me. In the instant of contact, I raised the earth with magic to create a bump that looked like a small wall between us.

“Gah!?”

To an outsider, it might’ve looked like he clumsily tripped. Even with magical lighting, the tunnel was still relatively dim.

“Are you okay? It’s dark, so please be careful.”

I spoke kindly to the adventurer who was now crouched down, clutching his foot. Seeing this, Phonia also came over with Nir in tow, curious about what had happened.

“Mister, are you okay?”

“...Huh?”

The adventurer glared at Phonia, who tilted her head adorably, but perhaps because he was still crouching and holding his foot, the intimidation fell flat. Not that an E-rank adventurer could scare Phonia anyway.

“Sorry for bringing a kid along.”

This time, Ivan appeared, carrying a pickaxe and a bag full of gathered ores. Compared to me, Ivan had a more muscular build and looked more intimidating than the adventurer on the ground.

“H-hmph… Don’t go bringing kids to a dangerous place like this…”

Perhaps intimidated, the adventurer limped away quickly.

“...What the heck was that?”

Ivan’s jaw dropped, apparently baffled by how easily the guy had retreated.

“Well, at least it didn’t turn into something troublesome.”

“That just shows you’ve got some presence now too, Ivan.”

“N-no way…”

Ivan bashfully denied it, but I really did think he had grown stronger—his stats certainly backed it up.

“Presence…? Ivan-bro, you look really cool too, you know?”

“R-really?”

Phonia praised him too, even if she didn’t quite understand what she meant. And yet he accepted that without hesitation. I don’t get it.