"Missing persons?"
Yeon-woo was stopped by a guild member just as he was about to leave the Hunter's Guild with his accepted request. He was told that several people who had gone to the Seokseongsan mine had gone missing. Did something like this happen in his past life? At least, Yeon-woo couldn't recall it.
"Yes. We estimate four people have gone missing over the past week. We are instructed to explain the situation and ask for cooperation from anyone accepting mining requests."
He hadn't bothered taking on requests last week, but this time, he was considering it. The chances of finding a giant magic stone seemed slim anyway. Thinking about it that way, a week seemed like a decent amount of time to clear his head.
"Uh... have you found anything?"
"No, unfortunately not. The Guild Master has ordered us to provide a thorough explanation and have people sign a waiver until the truth of the incident is revealed."
The beautiful receptionist with brown hair tied back shook her head and cautiously handed Yeon-woo a piece of paper. He quickly scanned it.
It was a standard waiver, stating that he had received a sufficient explanation and swore to cooperate with the investigation of his own free will, without any external pressure. Nothing suspicious there.
He quickly signed it with the pen provided. The receptionist seemed a little surprised, but that was because she didn't know how many times Yeon-woo had filled out these forms in his past life. After signing it nearly a hundred times, even this paper felt like a friend.
"Anything else?"
"No, that's all. If you're from the academy, there's no reason to doubt you."
Smiling, the receptionist provided additional explanation. Normally, he should have received the explanation while looking at the waiver, but because Yeon-woo had signed it so quickly, it ended up being an after-the-fact explanation. Considering how people could find fault even with something like this, he felt a little sorry.
Even so, there wasn't much useful information. Missing person cases were always like that. Especially if it was caused by monsters, there was really nothing to be found.
According to the last person who saw the missing individuals, there were three people left in the mine, including himself and the missing person.
One of the two was an identified missing person, someone who had accepted a request but never returned. The other, he hadn't seen, but he had heard the sound of someone mining magic stones.
Yeon-woo relayed this information to Baek In-hwa and asked if she was okay with it. Fortunately, she replied that she was fine.
He wasn't around Harmony City at this time in his past life, so he was a bit confused, but it probably wasn't a big deal. If it had been, the mine would have been shut down, but that wasn't the case. So, Yeon-woo and Baek In-hwa left the Hunter's Guild and headed north, leaving the city behind.
Seokseongsan. They said it used to be just a small hill behind a village, but it was hard to believe that, looking at the massive mountain range that stretched out before them.
Even though he roughly knew how much was hidden in this mountain range and what kind of things would happen, he didn't feel like setting foot there right away.
This was because the mountain range was teeming with monsters that would make the four high-ranking monsters residing in the western forest of Harmony City look like a joke.
If Yeon-woo were asked which one was harder to deal with, he would choose the western forest, but either way, it would be suicide.
"So, where are we going?"
"Just up ahead."
Expressing his endless gratitude to Baek In-hwa, who had followed him without a word again today, Yeon-woo walked ahead.
Today's goal: the magic stone mine. The reserves themselves weren't bad, but the reason companies didn't directly mine it and instead entrusted the work to adventurers was, of course, because this was the Seokseongsan mountain range.
Who wouldn't have thought about it? In fact, several companies had tried to establish themselves here and turn it into a proper mine. However, the cost of keeping high-ranking hunters on standby to deal with the high-ranking monsters that occasionally came down from the mountains didn't make financial sense.
And if they were to simply throw away the lives of miners, the miners wouldn't work there in the first place, so it always fell through.
In the end, it was a matter of profitability. It was understandable that they would rather just buy the stones at a reasonable price and call it a day.
Well, as a result, a bus service had emerged to transport hunters who didn't want to work and porters who wanted to earn money to the mine... It was a story that was hard to laugh at.
Anyway.
Yeon-woo moved forward, checking the location of the request on his smartphone. He missed the augmented reality he used in his past life. It was an item that only high-ranking hunters could use, so it was a distant dream for him now.
As he skillfully climbed the mountain, a pitch-black cave soon came into view. The silence with Baek In-hwa was agonizing. Did she actually not want to come?
"This is it."
"It's just a... normal mine."
"This is the best way to earn tuition."
Magic stones were that valuable of a resource. They were the core of magical engineering, after all.
In a situation where they couldn't connect the country with power lines like in the old days, magical engineering had emerged like a comet. It was a new technology created through the collaboration of mages and scientists on the Alkeion continent.
'Honestly, it's more like magic than science, with a ratio of 7:3...'
He never thought that a substance that could convert roughly to electricity with an efficiency of over 80% would actually exist in the world. Of course, it required magical treatment, so it didn't violate the second law of thermodynamics.
Thinking about it that way, it was only natural that giant magic stones were expensive. The basic principle was to gather a bunch of fingernail-sized magic stones and use them, but as he recalled, a magic stone the size of a human had appeared.
Inside the cave, the clanging sound of pickaxes striking rocks echoed endlessly. It was consistent. The owner of that sound was undoubtedly a pro miner.
"Baek In-hwa, do you want to try mining too?"
"...I'll just give it a try."
Yeon-woo offered Baek In-hwa the spare small pickaxe he had brought just in case. Honestly, she didn't seem like the type to do something like this, but maybe she was curious...
But where could that giant magic stone be buried? After thinking about it for a while, Yeon-woo came to a conclusion.
'I have absolutely no idea...!!'
Let's go with intuition...!!
In case monsters invaded, he decided to create a domain on the floor near the entrance. His recent research had shown that it was quite effective to spread it locally, as it consumed less magic power and lasted quite a while.
Yeon-woo and Baek In-hwa walked into the dark cave. Only the sharp clanging sound echoed endlessly within the cave...
