บท 43: Gold!!!

Cao Tai POV

As we leave this peculiar town, we immediately enter the forest, thick with what looks like a spruce and oak hybrid (What I mean is that its trunk looks like its a Spruce tree and the leaves look like an oak trees) , and it wasn't the only plant in these woods, there was an abundance of Bamboo, or something looking like it at least, as well as some foreign plants and herbs I've never seen before, hopefully they're not too lethal, or this would suck a lot.

Hearing faint and distant howls, I assume that the Entian has sensed our presence or that there are wolf packs, I'm not sure which I would enjoy more, since I highly doubt that they are all as nice as the previous Entian or they wouldn't have posted a bounty for his body.

I check the hint on where the vein is, "We should be almost there..." I mutter softly, I'm not sure if I'm anxious on what we're going to have to fight or excited for how rich I'm going to be after I dig up all the gold.

We soon find where it was supposed to be, but as much as I see, well, theres only a stream, 'Hey System, Buy a penny for thought on the Gold Quest'

<Spending... DO YOU KNOW HOW TO EXTRACT GOLD!? DID YOU EXPECT IT ON THE SURFACE YOU FOOL!? GO GET A SHOVEL AND START DIGGING TWERP>

Rude... how am I supposed to know?! Maybe it came from the stream or something!? "Hey guys, got anything to dig with? We just arrived," They all shook their heads, what? They didn't know either?! "Come ON! You don't know that GOLD is from the EARTH!?" I practically yell. Trying to bring out my anger on them, Violet shrugs and snaps a branch and soon mutates it into a digging

apparatus, that kind of looked like an entrenching tool, interesting... Lantla snapped her fingers and a bunch of bright pink human-sized earthworms popped out of the ground and starting eating the ground, and then Sasha... well she just sat criss-cross applesauce [As they call it down at the 'hood] grumbling about not knowing that she had to.

However before Violet could even think about planting her shovel, the worms made a sound that was like nails on a chalkboard, Lantla quickly puts her hands together and claps once, and the noise stops, "Either we hit silver, and stone... or we hit gold!" She says, the excitement radiating from her.

"You know your not getting any more than you already are, you understand me?!" I say, ending with a small glare as I walk over to the pit and peer in, "Yeah yeah, next time just say thanks, she saved us a lot of work," Sasha says, and they all peer over the edge alongside me. Just peering down the hole you could see the brass-like reflection on the dirt and clay.

I then forget about my greed for a second and ponder on how I'll use this money. After thinking about it for a quick few seconds I decide that I'll probably spend it on gems as well as buying some training resources, I wager there are materials that help absorb magic, and they are probably really expensive, and if there aren't any materials with properties like that, I guess I could do some Dollar conversion, maybe I'll check the store soon as well...

"Master, maybe you should stop salivating from greed and work for the gold!" Violet says, sitting down, like a statue of a Mining god supervising a Mining operation. [idk why I capitalized the M]

"OK Violet, you sit there, its not like your payed to help me anyways... just give me a pick axe" I say, bringing out my hand like I wanted to shake it. Violet tosses me a pick ax, after all, we knew that the gold would be needed to be mined, I mean I really hoped there was so little that I could just get a shovel and dig around and just pick up the ore.

I slide into the hole, and look up, "Hey Sasha, doesn't this remind you of a foxhole?" I say, trying to look sentimental. The Foxen soon slides in and nods, "Yep, almost reminds me of the one, Adam the Driller made..." She starting to look sentimental, "Cao Tai! What are Foxholes!? And who is Adam the Driller!?" Lantla squeaks.

"Foxholes are small holes in the ground where soldiers can easily find cover, in other words, its used as a small defensive fortress against projectiles, however if someone assaults and manages to get inside the foxhole, well your done for. And why should you know Adam!?" Sasha says, huh, I guess she likes to pretend to be smart when she can, funny. That doesn't mean she isn't its just that shes a foreigner, there are a lot of things that she doesn't know, so when she does know something she jumps on it. Oh, maybe she just wants to be helpful... well thats even better!

"Hey Sasha! Can you help me out? That no-good dragon isn't helping, I guess she isn't working for forgiveness," I say, trying to guilt trip Violet while getting Sasha to help, maybe Lantla wants to help as well, "You can join as well Lantla, if you want of course," Sasha already pulled out her pick axe and slid in with me, I toss my bow out and begin to mine.

Narrator POV

The sound of pickaxes on the gold emitted a sound that was like a someone was hitting a cymbal at full force (Without the after sound)

Scaring away most birds and small animals away from the area, while attracting a group of less savory... guests.

A group of 12 heavily armed, 2 with bows, the rest carrying either a heavy pole arm or a sword.

The group being led by a grizzly old man, maybe not old but surely looked like he had a few years of experience. His face had two scars, one on his left eye brow which roughly 5 centimeters long, and then one across from his right temple to his right cheek. Most people called him the, 'Bear Dancer'

That didn't mean the rest of his companions were less 'decorated' however, they all had an experience that made them remember who they were, bandits, thieves, murderers explained the lot... mostly.

Cao Tai POV

I estimate we extracted roughly 3000 Gold coins worth so far, Violet still didn't join in, instead sat in her position above us, watching.

"Hey Lantla, -HUFF- why aren't you using some kind of worm to help us mine? -HUFF-" I stop mining and wipe of my forehead, already glistening from the exertion, 'Why can't the gold just melt!?' I've already muttered quite a bit.

Lantla looks up before responding with, "Well I don't want to cheat all the time, it wouldn't be fair if I just constantly used my tricks while you all slaved away," she then begins working again.

I slowly crawl back up the hole, which was now roughly 8 feet deep (And ~8 feet wide), I think, its at least able to hide Lantla, who was 7 and a half feet tall. As I crawled up, I peer at the bushes, before emptying the gold on Violets left side, before having a quick chat with her.

"Get down, Master!" Violet suddenly yells, kicking me back into the hole. -TING- The ping of metal on metal, I quickly grab my bow and peer above the foxhole, there was an arrow on the ground, and there was a patch of scales around Violet's calf, so I guess that where it hit, I think the enemy was aiming for my head, but I'm not sure. The arrow still weakly flickering, "Arrow enhancement?" I ask to no one in particular, I need to practice this later.

I quickly pick up the arrow and duck back into the trench, enhance it with a red shot, explosive and pull up at a 80° angle and release. After 30 seconds of silence a man says, "Surrend-" I immediately say, "Run if you want to live," And arrow suddenly hits the ground, pulverizing a three men instantly, at least thats according to their yells, the bushes rustle a little and then 7 men rush out, charging at us, Violet quickly gets in their way, with her mutated swords.

I soon get out to help her when suddenly another arrow comes flying out of the bush at me, "Dang... it was a tra-" I say before hearing THUNK the target hitting home, me, as my senses flee me, I sense I hit the ground, I hope inside the hole... i... hope...