Kays Translations

Chapter 20: Still Only the First Swing

Several days had passed since the uproar over Nei’s supposed marriage meeting.

The adult adventurers’ attempt to make Tauro spy on her came to light when Marco innocently remarked, “It sounds as though everyone used Tauro to follow Nei. I wonder how it turned out?”

Leo and Nei learned the truth, and the adventurers received a severe scolding.

They were now kneeling in a row before the guild’s reception desk.

“They all have quests to complete, so perhaps that’s enough…” Tauro ventured.

“You’re the victim they exploited. You’re allowed to be angry too.”

Leo glared at the kneeling adventurers, who cowered beneath the piercing gaze of his single eye.

“Using a child to spy on a guild employee’s private life is a disgrace to every adventurer.”

The branch manager had a point.

“Branch Manager, I don’t mind. Please forgive them,” Nei said.

“So kind… She’s an angel.”

Tauro heard the kneeling men whispering their praise.

“If Nei says so, I’ll let the matter rest. But the timing is perfect. All of you’re sentenced to one month of errand quests.”

The adventurers froze in dismay.

Such quests were dull, exhausting, dirty, and poorly paid—literal punishment for established adventurers.

Tauro had spent a long time at G rank and was accustomed to most of them. This season, however, brought one exceptionally brutal assignment.

It was a castle-wall repair quest, one Tauro had been too weak to accept while at G rank.

Quarrying, transporting, and stacking stone meant one backbreaking task after another, and the usual reward was low. Unsurprisingly, the quest was unpopular.

“They’re short of workers this time, so the budget has been increased. The pay isn’t bad. Aren’t you lucky?”

Leo smiled ominously.

*

For some reason, Tauro was now standing in the quarry where the stone was cut.

The foreman was explaining the work.

“That’s the process. Understand? If you cut the stones too small, they’ll be useless, so be careful. You may also uncover minerals. If you find anything that looks unusual, tell one of us. If it’s valuable, you’ll receive an additional payment. Not that we often find anything near the surface.”

Tauro had accepted the difficult job as an ordinary quest.

Nei had worried about him.

“You don’t need to accept it out of responsibility, Tauro.”

But Tauro was merely curious.

He had no interest in hauling or stacking stone. Quarrying involved a degree of mining, however, and he suspected [True Eye] would be useful.

His smithing practice with Angus had also sparked an interest in minerals.

“All right, everyone! Time to work!”

At the foreman’s command, the workers spread out.

Tauro immediately surveyed the quarry with [True Eye].

There was almost no response.

As expected, the upper geological layers contained little of value.

Then he noticed one strong reaction in a mound of stone.

It came from inside a relatively large rock in a heap of quarry waste.

Tauro ran over and swung his pickaxe.

“That pile is nothing but scrap! Don’t bother with it!” the foreman called.

Tauro’s pickaxe split the rock, revealing a gleaming ore within.

[True Eye] identified it as mithril ore.

At that moment, the voice of the world echoed in his mind.

“One activation condition for special skill [Garbled Text]—<One Who Strikes Treasure on the First Swing>—confirmed. [Precision] acquired.”

“Boy, that’s waste left over from the quarry. There won’t be anything in there.”

The foreman approached.

Then Tauro showed him the mithril ore.

“What!? That’s mithril! I never imagined we would find mithril in this quarry! This is serious. Everyone, stop working!”

The quarry primarily supplied building stone and had yielded only small amounts of iron.

Mithril was a rare and valuable ore. Its discovery would force them to reconsider the quarry’s entire operation.

“But…I only swung the pickaxe once!”

Too stunned to remember his newly acquired ability, Tauro could only protest.

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