Pioneering the Apocalyptic World - Chapter 30.3

Side chapter: Dungeon Trial : Second

“…That was dangerous! That was really dangerous!!!”

“Ah, what…? Nothing happened?”

While being pushed down by the dumbfounded Uru, I let out a loud cry as if my heart was about to jump out of my chest at any moment.
Nothing happened… There is no way that’s what really happened.
Unable to comprehend the situation, Uru slowly got up and looked around, and what she saw was.

“… A stone wall?”

Yes, by immediately piling up stone blocks, I made it an improvised shelter so that we wouldn’t be buried in the earth and sand that was falling down.

……For my experience from the game time—when I inadvertently digging a stone that was under the sand and being buried in the sand, multiple times—being useful here…. By the way, if you are buried for a long time, you will be given a death message due to suffocation.
Good children should never do digging straight up or digging straight down?
By the way, the reason why you should not dig straight down is that if there is a hollow cave underneath, you may fall and take damage. In volcanic areas, you can fall into magma chambers and burn to death. The equipment will be also burnt with you, so in the better cases the durability just takes a heavy hit and drops, but in worse cases you can lost the equipment and it can’t even be repaired, If you was equipping a valuable item you and died by lava you could end crying a lot…

I honestly let out a sigh of relief that my life was saved, and Uru……It seems that what had happened has penetrated into her head.

“… Rion, I’m sorry… I’m sorry…”

I hesitated for a while in how to react to Uru, who was bursting into tears.
I was able to deal with it because I had the experience of “dying like that in the past” In others words, Because I made mistakes in the past.
Even though it’s was just a history inside a game that can be redone how many times I wanted, I who also has failed before, became hesitant to just scold Uru who had failed for the first time just now.
However, if it wasn’t for me, it would have been an irreversible situation, so I felt like it was a bad thing to not to scold her.
…… After thinking about various things, the action I chose was.

“… Uru.”

I sat quietly while facing Uru… And I raised my hand.
Do Uru understood what I was going to do to her? Sshe closed her eyes tightly.

Pat!

“……Eh?

She was expected to be hit with full strength, but the impact that she felt was so weak that it was just strong enough to knock down a mosquito.
At it, Uru let out a small, dumb voice.
I hit her a second time at the opposite cheek and while of sandwiching her cheeks, I made her look straight at me.

“… This really, don’t do it, a second time. Okay.?”

“Ah, aren’t you angry…?”

“… I’m not a proper person to the extent that I can get angry at a child who understands what they have done and regrets it…”

I replied while wiping the tears from Uru’s eyes.
…I am not a perfect human being. In an environment where the failures(death) can be laughed at and forgiven, I learned it by repetition and moved on, what could me be arrogant about and say?
Rather, it could even be considered my fault that this happened, because even though I had such huge amount of experience (failures) I couldn’t give any advice and didn’t put any restrictions on activities inside a cave today.
I wonder if I could have comforted or preached her in a better way if I had accumulated experience as a member of society. It’s difficult matter in many ways…

“However, the second time I will get angry.……If it was a situation that I could feel anger at”

Although I acted in time this time, there’s a good chance that I couldn’t respond in time in middle of a battle, or that I can’t do anything in the first place because I’m fainted.
In that case…it will be not the time to get angry.
I wonder if Uru could imagine the worst situation I can think of, her face turned pale.

“D-Don’t say such scary things…! I’ll be careful…”

Then that’s fine, I smiled wryly and patted her head.
However, in the future, it’s quite possible that there will be strong enemies that Uru will have to fight with all her might in cave-type dungeons… I’ll have to think about some countermeasures.

“But… What are we going to do about this situation?”

After a while, Uru calmed down and looked around again, and asked such question.
Uru-san, have you forgotten what I am?

“What do we will do? Let’s just dig the way out.”

“Uh?”

I stood up, prepared the God’s shovel, pickaxe and the axe in the QA box, then retrieved one stone block from diagonally above.
The earth mixed with sand flowed down with a loud thud.
Uru shaked her shoulders at it, but there’s no need to panic.

“Hoy!”

Before this space was buried in earth and sand, I stuck my shovel into it, and instantly coverted it into blocks and shoved it into the QA box.
If a stone falls, I switch to the pickaxe, and if a root falls, I switch to an axe. I simply turn everything that falls down into an item and plunge it into the QA box.
When it stops falling, I just collect one more upper block… By repeating these actions I will make a hole to the surface and climb up, that’s the basic plan.
By the way, this is the method I often used to do when I got lost in a complicated dungeon and couldn’t find the way out. Hahaha.
As a variant, when I got lost in the outdoors such as in a forest, I often piled up blocks at my feet to make a tower and looked around from above. That must be a hard method for people with a fear of heights to do.

While thinking about my nostalgic game times, I continued digging diligently, not noticing Uru’s wide-eyed eyes behind me.
And in the middle of digging.

Clang!

“Huh? The God’s pickaxe was repelled?”

Even if there’s a little accident, I don’t became upset or rush the things, I just took out the Claw Pickaxe, which was slightly more powerful than the God’s Pickaxe. That’s because there are times when the rank of the tool is too low, and the materials cannot be collected. Since the materials are not infinite, I have a habit of saving the durability of the equipment, and I tend to use the God series preferentially.
When I thrusted the point of the Pickaxe into the stone(?) again, this time I was able to successfully make it into an item.
And then… The name of the item made me open my eyes.

“I… Iron ore…!!!”

Forgetting the situation, I was overjoyed at the high rank—compared to what I had now—material that I had longed and searched for so long time.
How happy I was?… The sufficient to change the goal of just going to surface to digging up all the earth in this area.
Just when my SP was about to run out and I returned to my senses and finished collecting, a quite long time has passed and the time was getting close to sunset. I perhaps took more time digging than exploring the dungeon…
However, I was able to get some additional iron ores from the earth, and I was happy to get some good quality materials from the buried Guardians.
Uru’s face was twitching halfway through, but because her previous mistake, it was still awkward to her and she couldn’t muster up courage to stop me.
She later said to me “I could only stand and watch until you ended.” I’m sorry~.

After returning to the base using the return stone, I was tired of exploring(mining) the dungeon, but I put it aside and immediately started making items… Well I tried, but it was already a late time, so I had no choice but to postpone it to the next day. I can’t make anything with iron in the form of ore, so I went to bed after plunging it into a simple furnace to extract the iron from it.
The next morning, although I have a routine every morning, I couldn’t wait and I just finished it with my everyday prayers and the breakfast, then got straight to the work.

“Good, good, good~…”

When I checked the simple furnace, the iron had been properly made. I can’t get enough of this solidity and dull glow Guheheheh…… No, this is just I being carried away, I don’t really think that much about it. It’s the truth okay?
After all, the quality of the iron produced was at the lowest level… As the blacksmithing skill level increases, the quality of the iron will improve, but I still haven’t been able to make anything with it yet, so it’s still at level 1.

I want to take the iron and move it to the recently built workshop, and declare that now it’s the time to became a blacksmith, but it’s not that simple. The hammers, anvils and the blast furnaces needed for smithing must first be made from this low quality iron.
This can be done simply by using the create(making) skill ……Even if I wanted do it manually I don’t know how to do……
Even then.

“… I knew it, I knew it, but…!”

I had noticed it from the beginning, but when I actually faced it, I got depressed and put my hands on the floor with and made a orz pose.
Yes, the number of iron is not enough at all. It was almost all consumed when the preparations for blacksmithing were complete.
……Even though there were so many things I wanted to make……! Sigh, the equipment update will have to be postponed again… I wonder when it will be done.

However, it’s a little wasteful to leave the iron to rot in the storage.
I glanced behind—At Uru who had been quietly observing the work the whole time, and as a result of a little bit thought, as a quick measure to improve our QOL* I decided to create cooking utensils such as frying pans, pots and knives.
The range of dishes that I can made has been expanded, and Uru, who had became depressed all the time, finally returned to show her happy face.

After all, It’s definitely better when she is smiling.

*Translator note: QOL, Quality of life, a defined measure by the World Health Organization as “an individual’s perception of their position in life in the context of the culture and value systems in which they live and in relation to their goals, expectations, standards and concerns.”(by google)