Chapter 323: Red Ores
"Are we really going to follow this zealot deeper?"
Leo did not want to go further into that pitch-black mine shaft at all.
"You can stay here if you want."
Neil followed behind Lin Ye. Although Lin Ye had acted ruthlessly, his reasons for doing so did make some sense.
Old Arthur picked up the pickaxe on the ground and followed as well. Decisive action scored points in his book, and it would have been even better if the other party weren't a zealot.
Hearing footsteps not far ahead and remembering Lin Ye's explanation, Leo hurriedly jogged to catch up with the others. Compared to these miners who had always been underground, he preferred to trust companions who had come down with him.
Lin Ye checked the corpse once more, and after confirming there was nothing useful, he tossed the body into the shadow of a branching tunnel.
Then Lin Ye took a different route and led them deeper into the mine. However, after walking less than twenty meters, they ran into a fleshy monster embedded with ores.
The fleshy monster stood in the middle of the passage. After spotting them, it charged straight at Lin Ye, who was at the front.
With one swing of his pickaxe, Lin Ye dug out the ore embedded in the creature. Once the ore detached, the fleshy monster collapsed to the ground like it had lost its power source. Before the corpse could hit him, Lin Ye had already sidestepped using boxing footwork.
"What the hell is that thing!"
Neil cried out.
Old Arthur raised his pickaxe to step forward and help, but the creature was already dead.
Leo reacted the same way, except he had been preparing to run.
"Maybe the weak point of these creatures is the ore inside them, but they don't necessarily have only one ore."
Lin Ye inspected the corpse carefully. Because ores could affect body and mind, he did not want to dissect these ore-related monsters if he could avoid it.
"Is that a white ore?"
Neil shone his lamp on the ore Lin Ye had dug out.
"No, it's a gray-white ore. White ores need to be mined deeper."
Lin Ye glanced at the ore on the ground. There might still be fleshy monsters with white ores embedded in them here. If mining proved too dangerous, perhaps they could gather enough white ores by killing monsters instead.
"What use is this ore?"
Leo stepped forward, intending to pick up the ore.
"If you touch it, you can transform into a monster, just like it."
Lin Ye kicked the creature's corpse as he said it.
"Damn! Why didn't you say that earlier!"
Leo quickly backed away from the ore on the ground.
"You didn't ask."
Lin Ye kept walking deeper into the mine.
Two minutes later, they encountered a second fleshy monster.
'Why are there so many monsters in this shaft this time... Didn't the miners deal with them last time?'
Lin Ye casually dug out the ore from this creature and took care of it.
After they walked a little further, they came upon a tunnel filled with fleshy monsters.
"Seriously, do you even know the way?"
Those fleshy monsters charged together. The three backed up while using pickaxes to fend them off. Lin Ye's mining technique was skilled—no ore-creature could get past him in a single move. The others didn't know mining techniques, but each had their own method.
Old Arthur used brute force to smash the ores out of the creatures. Neil used nimble footwork to find an angle and wedged his pickaxe between ore and flesh, then pried the ore out.
Leo slipped away.
Soon enough, they had dealt with all the charging fleshy monsters.
"That little bastard, next time I see him I'll smash his head open."
Old Arthur panted, leaning on his pickaxe. He hated cowards who ran at the last moment.
"Oh, then you can hit him."
Lin Ye glanced at Leo, who was gingerly approaching. He didn't mind whether the people behind him fled;
he hadn't planned to rely on others anyway. Having two reliable teammates was already pretty good.
"Sorry, a monster chased me earlier. I was too scared."
Leo wouldn't come closer;
he spoke from a distance.
"Let me punch you once, and we can call it even."
Old Arthur grinned viciously and moved toward Leo.
"...I don't want to be beaten to death."
Leo took two steps back.
"Then you can leave. If you won't escape with us, go by yourself."
Neil said it bluntly.
"...I won't run away again."
Seeing Neil's serious expression, Leo had no choice but to promise. He did not think he could survive alone in a place like this.
"This is the last time. If you run off again, I'll skull-fracture you with this pickaxe."
Neil decided to give Leo one chance.
"Fine, I swear I won't run."
Leo vowed.
Neil frowned and tightened his grip on the pickaxe, but to finish the mission sooner he ultimately didn't strike.
"Rest up, then let's go on."
Lin Ye wasn't sure if they could still find safe water this time, so he planned to speed up their pace.
The four pressed deeper into the mine. Every now and then they ran into fleshy monsters, and before long they all began to feel hunger, just like last time.
"I'm getting a bit hungry. Is there anything to eat here?"
Leo was the first to speak.
"Don't say it aloud, I could have held out a little longer."
Neil rubbed his stomach. Because of his regulated eating, he rarely felt hunger, but this was different.
"This doesn't feel right. I could go a whole day without food and not feel this hungry."
Old Arthur also noticed something off.
"It's the effect of those ores. If you eat the ores, you'll turn into those monsters, so try to hold out."
Lin Ye didn't want to be attacked by large mining rats, and there weren't any mining rats here.
"Try to hold out?"
Neil sharpened on the odd phrasing in Lin Ye's words.
"The deity told me small mining rats are edible, but after eating them you might be attacked by larger mining rats."
Lin Ye didn't hide that piece of information.
"That's great, where are these mining rats?"
Old Arthur only wanted to find something to fill his stomach now.
"They might show up along the way."
Just after Lin Ye said that, he spotted a pitch-black hole beneath a section of the mine wall that looked like a rat burrow.
"Is that a mining rat hole?"
Neil noticed the hole too.
"Hard to say. It could also be a den of some other creature."
Lin Ye didn't stick his hand in. He used the pickaxe to widen the hole, soon breaking through the mine wall.
There were no mining rats in the hole. Instead, about a dozen pale-red ores were neatly arranged inside.
"Red ores? What use are these? They told us not to bring ores of other colors back."
Leo said disappointedly.
"...You guys better not touch those ores."
There were no eyeballs growing on the red ores, but that didn't mean they were harmless. Otherwise the organization wouldn't have forbidden them from bringing other colored ores back.
"We're not idiots, why would we touch something that dangerous?"
Leo picked up a red ore and bit it.