Minhyuk and the other miners went inside the mining cave and finally saw the dead monsters. Since the bodies of the dead monsters would just disappear over time, the miners did not pay them any heed as they slowly took their places to start mining.

“Ruwan. You and the new recruit are both foreigners, so let him know how we work.”

“Yes. I understand,” Ruwan agreed, standing beside Minhyuk and spitting loudly on both of his hands. Then, he said to Minhyuk, “Well then… You should lift your pickaxe like this!”

Ruwan pulled the pickaxe high and swung it down, towards the rocks with all his might.

Bang!

Ruwan grinned proudly after seeing a pile of stones splatter on the ground. He thought, ‘I haven’t changed my job class yet, but I must've gotten the ‘Steel Mining’ skill in the process of getting the Steel Blacksmith class. Hoho!’

Then, Ruwan started to work diligently to mine for iron ores. He was able to get a piece of iron ore only after five minutes of digging around. Seeing that he got an iron ore, the miners spoke out in admiration.

“Oh. Ruwan, you lucky bastard, you already got one?”

“Keuhaha! You’re finally using your strength correctly!”

“Ruwan’s our mining team’s ace!”

Ruwan shrugged as he listened to the praises that they heaped on him. Then, he turned to Minhyuk and said, “Well, if you’re able to mine one within five minutes, that will be great. They will all react like this too. It will be okay even if you can only mine two in an hour, Minhyuk.”

Minhyuk nodded. Ruwan believed that he was truly the fastest among them. After all, his Steel Mining skill had considerable power even though it was not perfect yet! Ruwan even thought that no one could surpass him in terms of mining. In fact, Ruwan was just lucky that the iron ore came out so fast. Originally, he could only mine one ore every fifteen minutes.

Then, Minhyuk transformed Ellie’s Kitchen Knife into a pickaxe. He walked towards the spot in the wall where a bright red spot was glowing. He gripped his pickaxe tightly with both arms and struck on that spot with great strength.

Fwooooom━

Clink!

A pile of stones tumbled down from the walls the moment Minhyuk’s pickaxe landed. The entire pile was even larger than Ruwan’s pile. Then, a notification rang in his head.

[Please fill the Proficiency Bar to 100% in order to add the Mining Skill to your Blacksmithing.]

Unlike other additional abilities, one needed to mine themselves in order to obtain the mining skill. Thus, Minhyuk struck the wall once again.

Fwooooom━

Clink!

Rumble, rumble, rumble━

[You have acquired an Iron Ore.]

“Oh, an iron ore...!” Minhyuk shouted in shock. Iron ore appeared after he struck the wall twice. Even Ruwan’s eyes widened when he saw this happen. Leton also discovered what happened after hearing the commotion.

“Gasp?!”

“I, it’s a coincidence, right~!”

“Our new recruits are quite lucky today!”

Then, Minhyuk struck the wall again.

Fwooooom━

Clink!

Rumble, rumble, rumble━

[You have acquired an Iron Ore.]

“Oh. Another one!”

“...”

“...”

The people that surrounded Minhyuk were now speechless. Meanwhile, Ruwan stood still next to him and murmured, “You... How in the world...”

Ruwan had the hidden class Steel Blacksmith and although he still had not mastered it, his Proficiency Bar was already almost filled! 

‘How could someone that had just started to mine do so well?!’

“W, what’s your secret?”

“I eat well and work diligently!”

 “...Hmm,” Ruwan hummed in doubt. He wondered if he heard him correctly.

Minhyuk then stood facing the direction where the “Ingredient Tracking” was pointing, and grabbed his pickaxe with determination. He thought, ‘I’m going to eat... brownies!’

Fwooooom!

Clink!

Rumble, rumble, rumble!

[You have acquired a Chocolate Ore.]

‘I’m going to eat... chocolate!’

Fwooooom!

Clink!

Rumble, rumble, rumble!

‘I’m going to drink… Mocha coffee!’

Clink!

Rumble, rumble, rumble!

Minhyuk continued to mine for delicious chocolate! He recalled a famous line in the movies that said, ‘Life is like a box of chocolates.’. The box might be filled with chocolate, but the flavors would be different. The box could be filled with sweet or bitter chocolate. When you picked one out of the box without knowing anything, you would not know whether the chocolate was bitter or sweet. It was just like life. No one would know whether the path that they chose was the sweet path that they always wanted or the bitter path that everyone hated.

Minhyuk could never relate to those words before. For him, to compare his life to a box of chocolate… then his box of chocolate would just be an empty box. However, it was different now. Ever since he had accessed Athenae, he was able to fill his chocolate box with sweet chocolates one step at a time. The Chocolate Tree would be one of them. That was why Minhyuk was giving it his all.

Fwooooom!

Clink!

Rumble, rumble, rumble!

Acrid dust and clouds of smoke would rise that irritated Minhyuk’s eyes and nose making them water every time he struck his pickaxe on the walls. His body began to gradually get drenched with sweat while his arms started to tingle from too much work. However, he was still happy even though the job was hard. In fact, he was even laughing.

Fwooooom!

Clink!

Rumble, rumble, rumble!

Minhyuk did not know how much time had passed. All he knew was that he had to swing his pickaxe. He seemed to have heard Leton and the other miners’ voices from behind.

“It’s been over an hour!”

“Boy, aren’t you pushing yourself too hard?!”

They soon realized something…

‘He can’t hear our voices...!’

‘My goodness! Such concentration!’

Minhyuk did not seem like he felt anything at all, but two hours had already passed since he started mining. Due to the high intensity, the miners always worked for forty minutes, and rested for twenty minutes. However, Minhyuk had been working non-stop for two hours. He was concentrating really hard that he did not hear the voices of concern from the other miners, but he did hear the notifications that rang in his head.

[You have acquired an Iron Ore.]

[You have triggered the skill: Will.]

[All of your skills and abilities related to DEX will temporarily increase by 28%.]

Then, his movements started to pick up speed.

Fwooooom!

Clink!

Rumble, rumble, rumble!

It did not end there.

[You have gained 1 DEX.]

Minhyuk heard the notifications ringing in his head but his mind was only focused on chocolate. All he did was to keep on digging and striking the walls, until his hands were riddled with wounds. He even had to use ‘Bandage’ on himself to stop them from bleeding.

[Mining has been added to your Novice Blacksmithing Skill.]

Minhyuk was able to fill his proficiency bar quickly. He also had a huge pile of iron ore sitting quietly beside him. To be honest, the pile of iron ore obtained by Minhyuk was already comparable to the total iron ore that the entire Fifth Mining Team had mined themselves. 

Five hours later…

Clink!

Rumble, rumble, rumble!

…Minhyuk finally stopped mining. He wiped his sweat off of his face and body that was completely drenched with sweat. Everyone else stopped when Minhyuk stopped. The miners had worked harder than usual because they saw Minhyuk moving diligently.

‘Our new recruit is working so hard! We can’t sit down and continue to rest like this!’

‘Let’s mine too! We’ll get fired if we go on like this!’

The Fifth Mining Team had the lowest mineral turnover among all the mining teams so they were already in danger of getting fired any day now! However, thanks to Minhyuk repairing their mining tools and equipment, they were able to mine better. The miners felt that they were mining easier and there were plenty of iron ores too!

Ruwan separated the ores that Minhyuk had dug up and counted them down. He said, “152 pieces...”

“...”

“...”

Everyone was speechless. This was almost equivalent to what the entire Fifth Mining Team could mine for half a day! When Ruwan counted, the mining team was able to mine around 194 pieces. This meant that they had already mined enough to fulfill their quota for the day. In fact, they even had an excess!

“You’re really amazing...” Ruwan said in awe. How could a single person mine for iron ores so hard and diligently? After seeing Minhyuk work hard, Ruwan was once again reminded about a saying about working hard and more diligently to achieve what he wanted to achieve. He thought, ‘No wonder. This person is extremely skillful because he always tries his hardest on everything!’

In a way, Minhyuk was only working hard because he wanted to eat chocolate. However, the others did not know this. What he did was even difficult for the miners that depended on this work for their living. What more for the foreigners that came here only to have some fun?

Minhyuk picked up one of the chocolate ores that he mined. Looking at it, he could not see anything special about it, it even looked like it was just an iron ore. However, a black chocolate appeared the moment he peeled off the foil. The chocolate from the chocolate ore was a bit bigger compared to an adult male’s fist. 

Nonetheless, he was still able to devour the fist-sized chocolate ore with ease. He ate one, two, three, four, five pieces in one go. It was as if he was recharging himself with sugar as he sat down eating chocolates. Ruwan and the rest of the miners gaped at him in shock.

“One piece of chocolate ore... is about one kilogram each, right?”

“Yeah...”

“But, he already ate 14 pieces... that’s about 14 kilograms. No, wait. Wasn’t he also eating chocolate when he was repairing our tools in front of the mining cave earlier? I think he ate about ten pieces earlier, so… he already ate almost thirty kilograms of chocolate today...”

“....!”

“....!”

Ruwan’s murmurs made Leton and the rest of the miners shocked beyond belief. The chocolate ore only has a one out of ten probability of coming out when digging for iron ores. They were also much more expensive compared to regular chocolates with their prices twice that of the regular ones. Right now, they felt like they were watching a chocolate mukbang hosted by an elephant with how much chocolate Minhyuk had eaten. 

The moment Minhyuk finished eating his chocolates, he stood up from his seat and started to mine for iron ores again.

“Boy, would you come with me for a moment?”

“Yes?” Minhyuk asked, tilting his head in confusion when he heard Leton call for him.

Leton led Minhyuk further inside the mines where the rest could not hear them and said, “Do you remember what I told you earlier? About your question about the Chocolate Tree?”

“Ah. Yes!”

“Actually, I lied to you about not knowing anything. The Chocolate Tree actually exists.”

Minhyuk just nodded. He knew that it existed thanks to his Ingredient Tracking skill. Then, Leton continued to say, “I’ve always believed that I shouldn’t tell anyone about the existence of the Chocolate Tree... but now, I can see that you’re not just anyone.”

Notifications rang in Minhyuk’s head the moment Leton finished speaking.

[You have completed the Secret Quest: ‘A True Chocolate Lover.’]

[Every time you dig up a special ore, you will be able to dig up a much more special Chocolate Ore compared to the regular Chocolate Ore.]

“Oh...?!” Minhyuk exclaimed in shock. A secret quest? Then, Minhyuk thought, ‘Leton said that he can’t just tell the legend to just anyone. That means that I was already doing the secret quest the moment I met with Leton!’ 

Secret quests were always like this. No one knew when and where it would pop out. In fact, Minhyuk was really excited about the reward that he received from this secret quest. After all, he would be able to get a more special Chocolate Ore whenever he mined a special ore.

Then, he heard Leton sigh heavily. He said, “Boy, I wish you could just easily approach the Chocolate Tree. Unfortunately, the legends said…”

Leton paused for a moment, as if to collect his thoughts before speaking again, “...Only those who have the key would be able to open the path towards the Chocolate Tree.”

“...So does that mean that I will not be able to go no matter what I do?”

“Well, I don’t know about that. But right now, I know for sure that you won’t be able to get there because you still don’t have the key.”

Minhyuk felt a bit sad when he heard the information about the key. However, he was not someone so easily discouraged. What if he mined the key someday? Nothing was impossible in this world! Just then…

Ruuuumble━

“Huh?”

…a pile of stone suddenly collapsed from somewhere near the two of them. They both looked at the space where the pile of stones once was in curiosity.

***

Brony arrived at the vicinity of the Bretley Mines. He thought, ‘I definitely need to check out the mines before I take over it.’

They needed to kill all of the NPCs before they could take over the mines. So, before they attacked, Brony needed to look at the overall situation. He even drank an extremely expensive potion that would allow him to turn invisible for half an hour. As a result, he would not be able to attack during that duration, otherwise, his invisibility would be canceled. 

‘There are a total of 30 soldiers deployed in the troops that supervise the mines. This will be a piece of cake.’

Brony nodded as he went inside another place. This time, it had the sign saying ‘Fifth Mine’. Brony could see all of the miners working diligently the moment he entered.

‘Ho. Aren’t those the foil of those iron-like chocolates? Isn’t that a bit strange?’ Brony thought to himself. This was the Chocolate Ore that he only heard of! However, he could only see the foils. It seemed like the miners ate them to replenish their energy.

Then, Brony went further inside the mine only to hear faint voices. He thought, ‘I can hear people talking over here. Are they still working there?’

Brony had to check carefully if there were more people inside. This was so they could prepare and make an exception if there was a royal knight or someone stronger before taking over the mines. 

Just then, he caught sight of the people talking, and his body trembled wildly. He even unknowingly stepped back, his father’s warnings echoing in his ears. ‘You bastard. The tiger cub has grown, the tiger cub is now old enough to be considered a tiger on his own.’. He had also grown up… the protagonist of his nightmare and his darkest history.

‘Ka, Kang Minhyuk...!’

Brony clasped his mouth with both of his hands to make sure that he would not let out any unsightly scream, while quickly trying to back away. However, in his haste, he stepped on the pile of stones that the miners had piled up and made it collapse.

“Huh?”

“...?”

The two people who were talking seriously suddenly turned towards his direction. The eyes of Kang Minhyuk, the person he had identified, glinted as he stared straight at Brony.

Badump, badump, badump, badump, badump!

Brony’s heart beat wildly, as if it wanted to escape from his chest.