Chapter 5

“This is ridiculous!” Reese, the second oldest guy in my crew, swears, kicking a maintenance crate. “You want us to do

what?!

”

“Reese,” Orvick says, sitting on a stool that I hauled around for him.

“

What

?”

“You’re not going to win anyway. Not with me on the crew. And your joints are not working well either, are they? What would it cost you to listen to Jacob?”

I look at Orvick in silence. I have my plans to win this competition, but I actually require their cooperation and for them to work with me. It would have been impossible to convince them, however, if Orvick hadn’t been here advocating for me.

I wonder why he trusts me so much

, I think to myself.

But, at the moment, it doesn’t matter.

I’ll take any help I can.

I

need

the Mana Pool Skill Crystal and they are craving the extra gold. That’s more than a month’s wages for them, which is

not

a sum to scoff at, especially at their age.

The problem is, I just asked them to…

“I’ve been doing this for

fifty years

!” Reese says between gritted teeth. “My Pickaxe Mastery is level 40!”

That would have been mighty impressive for the old me. Without a Tutor, it’s extremely hard to level Skills past level 30.

But my current Skills put me at the level of a minor noble at the moment—at least in levels. Sadly, as far as rarity goes, I’m still a peasant in everything other than The Grimoire Extraordinaire.

But I’m going to change it very soon

, I smirk to myself. I have a good plan to win the Mana Pool Skill Crystal.

I briefly check my Skills to reassure myself, then I share the level of Pickaxe Mastery and Minor Mineral Sense with my crew.

Name: Jacob Cloud

Skills:

Iron Grip Lv. 89 (Iron)

Minor Endurance Lv. 74 (Iron)

Minor Night Vision Lv. 32 (Iron)

Minor Vibration Sense Lv. 21 (Iron)

Minor Cookery Lv. 34 (Iron)

Minor Strength Lv. 82 (Bronze)

Light Lv. 67 (Bronze)

Pickaxe Mastery Lv. 81 (Bronze)

Minor Mineral Sense Lv. 72 (Bronze)

The Grimoire Extraordinaire (Rainbow)

Everyone can see this text now:

Pickaxe Mastery Lv. 81 (Bronze)

Minor Mineral Sense Lv. 72 (Bronze)

“See, old fart,” Orvick slaps his knee. “Jacob can clearly teach you a thing or two.”

Reese and the other two miners are now silent and look at me quizzically.

I know they want an explanation.

“I had a lucky encounter with a Tutor when I went missing, I say. He taught me many things.”

I see them nodding along—this is the only explanation that would have made sense for them and I have no intention of revealing that I have absorbed a Rainbow Crystal. That would paint a massive target on my back.

“So, show me how you swing, I’ll help you guys fix it and then we’ll move on.”

We surveiled the tunnel assigned to us and,

of course

, Luthor gave me the most precarious, devoid-of-ore tunnel he could have found.

Reese is the first that takes a swing against the wall where I pointed that my Minor Mineral Sense spotted some ore and a new page appears in The Grimoire Extraordinaire.

Grimoire Extraordinaire:

Orvick’s Pickaxe Mastery Lv. 40 contains 15 distinct flaws.

I spend the next two hours pointing out flaws in all of these guys’ swing and, lo and behold, Orvick’s own Pickaxe Mastery already reached level 70, probably putting him between the two three miners in here. The other two have theirs reach level 60.

These guys have bene at it for so long that it’s basically second nature to them. They managed to fix all the flaws with the kind of speed I could only dream of

.

Now, however, they look at me with

reverence

.

I can’t stress enough how much money they would have had to pay a Tutor in order to receive the guidance I just gave them for free.

A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

Therefore, I have their full trust now.

“So, gentlemen, are you ready?”

* * *

Luthor’s already savoring the sweet fruit of Jacob’s death.

Once the brat died, Luthor reasons, he would finally put Clayton’s anxieties at rest.

Again, it is too bad that Jacob has to behave like this, the foreman thought. But there’s no other option at the moment.

Toward the end of the first day, Luthor’s in the office, waiting for news.

Soon, one of his trusted men comes around and gives him an update.

“Luthor and the others are still mining. They’re going at an incredible pace. I think they might even get a few levels in their Pickaxe Mastery by the end of this. You should see them, they look possessed. They’ll have more than one hundred kilograms of ore by the end. The director will be very happy with you. Luthor’s team alone will have mined enough extra ore to cover the Skill Crystal’s cost.”

“The director knows there’s more than money at stake when we do these things,” Luthor sighs. “Anyway, what about Cloud?”

“The boy…” the man hesitates.

“What? What’s the matter with you? Cat’s got your tongue?”

“Foreman, the boy… I don’t think they started mining. I heard a lot of shuffling around, I saw him and the three crewmates who can stand on their feet carry a lot of timber, but… I heard no mining. There were a few sounds at the very beginning—at least so they told me—but now there’s nothing. I think they’re just reinforcing the tunnel.”

“Yeah, good luck with that,” Luthor laughs. “He probably knows the tunnel is faulty, but he has no idea

how

bad it is. Clayton and the others are also going to work overtime. He’s going to get anxious soon and, as soon as he feels comfortable, he’s going to start

mining

. At that point,

crack

.”

The foreman mimicks a tunnel collapsing and laughs out loud, “anyway, just report tomorrow.

Day 2

“So, any progress in Cloud’s tunnel? Has it collapsed yet?” Luthor laughs out loud when he sees his man entering his office.

The man takes his hat off his head and wrings it in his hands.

“Boss, I’ve stationed a guy outside their tunnel. Today, again, only timber. They were just moving supports in.”

“Still?” Luthor shakes his head. He’s bored by Jacob’s behavior. “Whatever, I’m sure tomorrow’s going to be the day he dies.”

Day 3

Luthor sees in the very posture of of his men that Jacob has, indeed,

not

died just yet.

“What happened?” The foreman asks.

“The same… they keep reinforcing the tunnel. They also asked if they could borrow this old drill.”

“A drill?!” Luthor roars in laughter. He can’t believe his luck. “A drill in that tunnel?!”

No one uses drills

inside

tunnels unless they’ve got an open ceiling or a large structure to reinforce them. It’s too dangerous. Drills are usually made to break into walls where the tunnels are particularly sturdy or to dig into a mountain at first. No branching tunnel sees any drill usage.

“Why don’t we give them a good one, instead?” Luthor laughs. “You know what, it doesn’t matter. It’s going to take barely a few shakes of the drill to let the old bastards and Cloud die. Do me a favor, just give Cloud whatever he asks for the drill.”

The attendant nods but he doesn’t look nearly as sure as Luthor about this business.

* * *

“Come eat with me, kid,” Orvick tells me as we come back from the mines.

I’m pretty tired after hauling so much timber around and tinkering with the drill, but I don’t have the heart to refuse the old man. Despite the fact that he’s too old to do anything, he still keeps coming every day. Plus, he’s not only

not

doubting me, but when Reese and the others express skepticism at my plan, he tells them to just shut up and follow my lead.

As we enter his stone house—which is much cleaner than I would have otherwise expected—he tosses a little Fire spell onto the wood under a large stove. There, a pot full of soup starts heating up and then he takes a large hunk of meat, butters up an iron-cast pan, and starts sizzling it there.

“Isn’t that expensive?” I say, looking at the giant steak. “Are we going to eat all of that in one sitting?”

“We? I’m going to break my jaw if I try munching on this,” Orvick snickers. “It’s for you, kid. You need it. You’re strong but

scrawny

. They keep gifting me all this food, and I don’t know what to do with it. I haven’t gotten any family to share it with anyway. Sometimes I invite the others, but not many take up the invitation. They get bored with an old man like me.”

I start salivating at the smell of meat and I have to purposefully focus on what Orvick just said.

“You’re pretty active for an old man. You’re young at heart.”

“True, but I wish my body would agree with my heart,” Orvick shakes his head.

Then, I get a question for him.

“Orvick, why do you trust me so much? Why do you tell the others to follow my lead? Pretty much everyone in the mines thinks I’m a jackass who gets lucky. I don’t think even Reese and the other two would trust me with anything if I hadn’t show them how to level up their Pickaxe Mastery. Why do

you

trust me so much and invite me in your own home?”

“When you get at my age, you have seen a lot of people,” Orvick says, looking down at the steak and pressing it down with a steel spatula. “Unless you’re a fool, you see all the common shades of good and evil. And if you’re as close to death as I am, you start wanting to associate with good. I don’t know if the Gods exist and if they reward good actions, Jacob, but I like to be in the presence of those who are good. And you, kid, you’ve got a good heart.”

“Me?” I say, surprised by the answer. Weirdly, I feel very touched by his words and I feel almost like tearing up. “Why do I have a good heart?”

“You didn’t complain when Luthor tried to mess with you before and didn’t complain now that you got all of us old farts with you. Sure, you might be capable and still win, perhaps, but you would have had a much better chance with younger guys. Reese didn’t like you and you still taught him and the others. If that’s not good, I don’t know what is. Just, it doesn’t matter how many ugly,

evil

people you meet out there, kid, don’t lose your heart. Can you make this promise to a foolish old man?”

I nod, speechless.

“Say it,” Orvick says not looking at me, focused on the food.

“I promise I won’t lose my heart, Orvick,” I reply.

“Good.”

Soon, he has both soup and a giant steak in front of me and I scarf everything down in record time.

“Listen, I got a little something for you. It’s been raking up dust in my house anyway. You might as well have it. I wanted my son to have it, but… he died in a tunnel collapse.”

He reaches in the ash compartment of the stove and, after ruffling around for a few seconds, takes out a Skill Crystal that shines…

gold

.

“Orvick,” I say, breathless. “I can’t. That’s…”

“It’s a base Skill that starts at Gold. It was supposed to turn my son into a Knight. You’ll need Mana Pool to use this effectively, though. From my understanding it’s a mana sink. It’s also part of a Skill Crystal Set, but… I only have the main Skill Crystal. You’ll have to find the others on your own.”

I take the Skill Crystal and read its description.

Hell’s Sword (Gold - Offensive Skill 1/5)