Shaneth looked perplexed, asking, “What’s a mantle?”

Kang Yoon-Soo did not bother to explain, as it was not a term used on the continent.

The mineshaft gradually grew wider the deeper they went. The party managed to reach the forty-eighth floor in just a single day, and they decided to camp on that floor. Meanwhile, as the undead required no rest, they ventured across the maze-like mine to explore and scout for any potential threats.

Henrick gathered some of the coal they had mined from the first floor and lit a campfire. He grumbled, “We walked all day, but there’s no end in sight. I wonder how much longer this mine goes…”

“I am starting to miss the sunlight,” Iris added while munching on stale, dry bread.

Then, Kang Yoon-Soo quietly stood up from his spot and extended his right hand, muttering, “Summon Light.”

With a blinding flash in midair, the spirit Light appeared. The small, beautiful girl spread her arms and exclaimed, “Hurray! I’ve been summoned!”

“Huu… Why do I have to be summoned as well…” Sharp, the sword spirit, said while grudgingly looking at his hand that was linked to Light.

The two spirits could not let go of each other’s hands, which was why they had been summoned together.

Light smiled brightly and cried, “Now! Hurry up and tell me! My body is itching to do something in this dark place! What do I have to do? Do you want me to give you a nice tan?”

“I need sunlight,” Kang Yoon-Soo replied, ignoring the light spirit’s ramblings.

“Sunlight? Well, that’s pretty easy!” Light exclaimed. She summoned small balls of light from her hand, and they spread throughout the mineshaft before exploding and illuminating the whole area.

Shaneth could not hide her surprise, extending her hand and exclaiming, “It really is sunlight…!”

“Hoo… I never imagined I would get to see sunlight in this deep basement,” Henrick said, impressed by the light spirit.

“The sunlight is warm,” Iris said with a smile.

Light blushed for a moment, then burst out into laughter. “Kyahahaha! This is nothing to me!”

“I don’t know how to do things like this… It must be good to be praised… I’m envious of you, Light…” Sharp said, curling up on the ground and sniffling.

It was then that Kang Yoon-Soo said, “Sharp, there’s something you have to do.”

“Is… Is there also something that someone like me can do…?” Sharp asked, his eyes wide in surprise.

Kang Yoon-Soo nodded and rummaged through his backpack, then took out a round fruit and said, “Peel the apples for us.”

“Huu… Huu… Huu…! As expected… I’m a useless spirit…!” Sharp cried, bursting into tears.

The party members gathered around the campfire while munching on the apples Sharp peeled with his finger.

“So, how many floors do we have to go through?” Henrick asked.

“More than a hundred,” Kang Yoon-Soo replied.

“This is going to kill me…” Henrick grumbled.

Shaneth let out a sigh and said, “The mineshaft is getting wider, but there’s a lot of dust and it’s getting much more difficult to breathe the deeper we go.”

“I miss fresh air…” Iris added, tears welling up in her eyes.

The interior of a mine was usually a very bad environment for people. The air would get thinner the deeper one went, and what little air remained would be mixed with coal dust and make it harder for a person to breathe.

‘The undead are the perfect laborers in this kind of environment,’ Kang Yoon-Soo thought.

If Kang Yoon-Soo hired some mercenaries to tag along, the ones with weak lungs would certainly have already passed out by now. In contrast, the undead did not require food and air, nor did they get tired—they were the perfect laborers to exploit in a mine.

‘It’s still alright to light fires now, but after a certain depth any fires will just use up all our oxygen,’ Kang Yoon-Soo thought.

Meanwhile, the two spirits, who were forced to hold hands, talked to each other while sitting by the campfire.

“You know, Sharp. I plan to make all the creatures on the continent my friends in the future,” Light said seriously.

“That’s impossible… There are a lot of bad people in the world…” Sharp replied.

“I think it’s possible, though. That’s why I plan to start with you. You have to be my friend from today onward! Got it?” Light replied.

“I don’t have friends… Besides, it won’t be fun being friends with someone like me…” Sharp replied gloomily.

Then, Light suddenly hugged Sharp. The polite and bubbly little girl patted the gloomy boy’s back and said, “Sharp, look on the bright side! I know you’re a good kid!”

“Really…? Sniff… Is there something good about someone like me as well…?” Sharp asked.

“Yes! You’re really good at peeling apples!” Light excitedly exclaimed.

“Huu huuuu huuuuu…! You made me even more depressed…!” Sharp wailed.

***

The next day, the party continued their descent through the mine.

There were no monsters, but they had to walk a long way due to the complex and maze-like layout of the mine. The air became thinner the deeper they went, and the party’s breathing began to sound ragged due to the lack of oxygen. Kang Yoon-Soo made sure to not push the others too far, stopping quite often to let them rest.

Kalriven looked quite serious for a moment, then suddenly asked, “My lord… Might I dare to ask whether I may give you a piggyback ride…?”

“No,” Kang Yoon-Soo replied, shooting down the Death General’s offer.

When they reached the fiftieth floor of the mine…

“Huh?” Shaneth muttered with a shocked expression. She took a deep breath, then exhaled and said, “There’s fresh air! There’s no coal dust in it, either!”

“Indeed. It smells fresh, as if it came from a forest,” Iris added.

Kang Yoon-Soo nodded and replied, “It is a forest.”

“What do you mean?” Henrick asked, looking expressed.

The party soon realized what Kang Yoon-Soo meant, and that what he was saying was true, when they reached the center of the floor. There, they saw lush trees that grew quite densely despite the darkness of the mine. The leaves on the intertwined branches swayed gently, as if they were being blown around by the wind.

Henrick observed the trees with a sharp gaze and remarked, “These trees… They’re quite similar to the trees on that island that dropped the air-filled fruits. They’re absorbing all the dust and blowing fresh air back out. Hold on a second.”

Henrick walked toward the trees, then crouched down in front of a young tree and dug it out with his carving knife. It continued emitting fresh air, and its leaves swayed gently. Henrick said, “It’s still letting out fresh air despite being dug out by the roots. I don’t think we have to worry about air if we bring a few of these with us.”

“That is a relief,” Iris said with a smile.

Suddenly, a plume of hot air blew somewhere.

Henrick shouted urgently, “Everyone, get back!”

Kwachik!

A portion of the ground cracked open, and lava began to flow from the cracks. The party narrowly managed to avoid the lava, but the trees began to burn.

Henrick rolled and jumped away from where the trees were before the lava swallowed him up as well. He cursed, “Damn it! All of those precious trees are going to get burnt to a crisp!”

“I’ll go!” Shaneth shouted, preparing to jump in.

Kang Yoon-Soo suddenly grabbed her wrist and said, “It’s fine.”

“What do you mean by that…?” Shaneth asked, looking confused.

Kang Yoon-Soo pointed at the burning trees. Their leaves and branches were quickly devoured by the flames ignited by the lava, but the trees were not burnt to ashes despite being engulfed as well. In fact, they started to shine brightly while maintaining their shape.

Soon, the strange trees were emitting light as well as air, and they even absorbed the smoke that came from their own burning branches. They had become the perfect counter to the dark and suffocating atmosphere in the mineshaft.

Henrick could not help but exclaim in amazement, “This is quite the sight. I never imagined I would get to see a tree that didn’t burn in my lifetime.”

“The trees underground are all resistant to fire,” Kang Yoon-Soo said.

More trees started to appear the deeper they went into the mine.

“Pyrokinesis!” Shaneth shouted.

She had been setting the trees they passed on the way ablaze, making them emit fresh air. Due to that, the party no longer had any issues breathing, and they were able to walk much more quickly without feeling lethargic at all.

However, Kalriven suddenly asked, “I am suspicious about the fact that lava flowed out from the cracks in the ground a while ago. My lord, is there a chance that lava is flowing beneath our feet right now?”

“That’s right,” Kang Yoon-Soo replied.

“Clack! Clack! Clack!” The skeletons noisily clacked their jaws to express their fear.

Undead were usually weak against fire; that was because their rotten flesh and bones were particularly susceptible to being burnt to ashes.

‘Still, we’ll have to deal with more fire the deeper we go… I need a solution to this,’ Kang Yoon-Soo thought.

When they reached the eightieth floor. Kang Yoon-Soo suddenly stopped and said, “Everyone, stop. Be quiet.”

“What’s the matter?” Henrick asked.

Kang Yoon-Soo pointed across the mineshaft, indicating fourteen ogres wearing ash-colored armor slugging it out against each other.

Bam! Bam! Bam! Bam!

The ogres fought against each other by swinging their large hammers. Their armor looked to be high-quality, and the entire mineshaft shook whenever their hammers clashed against each other.

Henrick laughed in disbelief, remarking, “It’s already possible for an average ogre to wreak havoc across an entire village alone with only a club, butt-naked…”

“To think that those ogres are wearing armor and carrying proper weapons… This place gets stranger and stranger the deeper we go. There were those trees that didn't burn and all, too…” Shaneth said.

“Shh! They might hear you,” Iris said, hushing the two.

“Kruooo…!” 

One of the ogres had its head smashed in and collapsed on the floor, bleeding.

“Kruuhahahat! Aronal krudoldol!” 

“Shacrim, romu krang kadol!” 

It was only then that the ogres seemed to be satisfied, walking off into the distance.

The party members carefully walked toward the dead ogre.

Henrick looked absolutely dumbfounded as he asked, “What kind of a battle ends when one of them dies…?”

Kang Yoon-Soo inspected the corpse of the dead ogre. The equipment it was using was certainly of extraordinary quality.

[Large Mithril Hammer]

Attack Power: 357

A hammer crafted by the Blacksmith of Fire. It is a rare and powerful hammer crafted out of pure mithril. It is so large and heavy that it is impossible to use unless one has the strength of a giant.

+You may not place this in your backpack.

+A terrible curse will be inflicted on anyone who melts this hammer, except for the Blacksmith of Fire.

[Thousand-Ton Armor]

Defense: 227

Magic Resistance: 182

An ash-colored suit of armor that is extremely heavy, crafted from precious obsidian by a skilled craftsman. It can nullify half the power of any arrow that strikes the wearer, and it can summon a magic shield to protect the wearer in emergencies.

+You may not place this in your backpack.

+A terrible curse will be inflicted on anyone who melts this armor, except for the Blacksmith of Fire.

The ogre’s items boasted insane stats, but they were so heavy and large that they would definitely be a challenge to carry around. Additionally, they were impossible to store in a backpack, and would inflict terrible curses on anyone who attempted to melt them.

“Kalriven,” Kang Yoon-Soo called out.

Kalriven stepped forward with a touched expression, but quickly said, “My lord… I thank you for your graciousness, but these items are too heavy for me to use…!”

“What are you talking about?” Kang Yoon-Soo replied, then pointed at a spot along the mineshaft and said, “Break that spot.”

“I shall fulfill my lord’s wish…” Kalriven muttered with a hint of disappointment in its voice, then smashed the spot its master pointed at with its sword. Red-hot lava started to slowly seep out from the spot.

“Throw the hammer in,” Kang Yoon-Soo commanded Kalriven. The Death General slowly lifted the heavy hammer and threw it into the lava. Kang Yoon-Soo pointed at the undead legion and said, “You guys, throw that armor in.”

Several of the undead picked up the heavy armor and threw it into the lava. As the hammer and the armor slowly started to melt in the lava, a dark, sinister aura suddenly enveloped the undead’s bodies.

[The Blacksmith of Fire is enraged by the fact that someone dared to melt the hammer and armor he made.]

[‘How dare you lay your hands on my creations? All of you will be trapped within a chill that lasts for eternity!’]

[All of the undead in the vicinity have been placed under a terrible curse!]

[The undead will never be able to feel the warmth of any fire for the rest of their existence.]

[The undead’s racial stat penalty caused by the heat has disappeared.]

Kalriven cried out in worship, “My lord! To think that you would place such a terrible curse on the likes of us!”

“I can’t feel the heat at all…!”

“I love the cold…! I hope I can stay like this forever…! Hurray for our amazing lord! Praise his name, all you undead!”

The undead were actually delighted by the fact that a terrible curse was placed on them. They rejoiced, worshiping Kang Yoon-Soo for his actions.

Henrick stared at Kang Yoon-Soo with a dumbfounded expression, remarking, “I’m now certain that you probably sold your country out in a past life.”

“I did,” Kang Yoon-Soo replied.

“What did you just say…?” Henrick asked, doubting his ears for a second.

The curse did not mean that the undead were resistant to fire, and they would still be damaged by it, but the stat penalty they would normally receive due to their racial weakness as undead had disappeared.

Kang Yoon-Soo stared at the melted hammer and armor, thinking, ‘It’s a shame that I can’t collect those.’

The items had been forged from precious materials, but he had no containers that could collect them from the lava. It was not that he could not make a container, but he could not afford to waste time and delay their progress just for that. It was a shame, but all he had to do was find better materials than the ones floating in the lava before him.

Kang Yoon-Soo looked at tuhe others and said, “You guys stay here.”

“Huh? Why?” Shaneth asked.

“I have something to do alone,” Kang Yoon-Soo replied.

Iris tilted her head in confusion and asked, “What is it that Kang Yoon-Soo has to do alone?”

“I have to get kidnapped by the ogres,” Kang Yoon-Soo replied.

“Tell us honestly… You have a thing for being kidnapped, don’t you…?” Henrick asked.