Chapter 12

First, I'll go and check the location of the smelter that Sally told me about. The smelter is located a couple of houses down from the left turn in front of the city gate on the prairie side of town.

I've confirmed the location. It's a one-story brick building, larger than the Adventurer's Guild, but with a more practical, unadorned design. A stone sign simply reads "Smelter." The gate is open, but I'll go in after bringing the iron ore.

I check that I have my guild card and head out the gate. This is the first time I've come to this side of town, but it's a nice view. It's something you wouldn't see in Japan. The prairie is dotted with green hills, and paths wind from the top of one hill to the next. The endless green carpet is quite a sight.

But it seems like it would be easy to cultivate and make good farmland, so why don't they? Maybe there's something to do with monsters. In Japan, when roads were built through hilly areas, they tended to go through the lower parts, but maybe that's due to the influence of monsters here. I don't see any monsters at a glance, and I don't sense any (I try to avoid using the touch panel because it distracts me and feels like an invasion of privacy). But if it comes to a fight, attacking from a higher position would be advantageous. Being higher up also means it's easier for monsters to see me, but it reduces the risk of being caught off guard.

Anyway, there's no point in just looking at the scenery and thinking, so I equip my shield and start moving. I took out my sword once, unsheathed it, and then put it back in the item box. If a battle breaks out, I can take it out of the item box, like a "sword draw from the void" technique. Though, it doesn't feel like a proper draw without a sheath.

I've learned that I can run without getting tired at a pace similar to picking herbs. I think it's about 20 km/h. I could probably beat a marathon runner.

While running, I think about the fireball I'm using now. If it only travels at about 40 km/h, that's only twice the speed of running, which is pretty slow. Maybe I should consider using a staff. I handle the sword with my right hand, and I have a shield on my left, so I could probably hold a staff. A very long one would be cumbersome, but since it's just to assist my magic speed, I don't need a typical staff length. I'd like something about 30 cm long, but it might have to be custom-made. Maybe I'll ask for a recommended store when I pick up my leather armor tomorrow.

I had an idea for a spell that could increase my speed without using a staff. It doesn't seem to require much preparation, so I pick up a small stone about 3 cm from the ground and try an experiment.

The idea is a gun, or rather, something closer to a slingshot. I'm not planning to use air pressure or explosions. The idea is to use magic to apply pressure to the stone, making it fly at high speed. I'll give it a try.

If my hand gets caught, it will definitely hurt, so I lightly toss the stone and try to activate the magic by focusing pressure on it. I hear a "pfft" sound, but the stone doesn't fly. It had already fallen to the ground by the time the magic activated.

This time, I solidify the image of the magic activation and then throw the stone in that direction, activating the magic. I hear a "pfft" sound, and the stone flies. It seems to be going faster than 40 km/h but not as fast as 80 km/h. It's a bit underwhelming considering the effort, and the stone is small. Still, it might be useful for something, so I put about 20 small stones into the item box and set off again.

Checking my status while moving, I see "Pressure Magic 1" listed. Where did the wind magic go?

I don't plan to use it regularly, so I'll hide it. When I checked my status on the road, no one else had it, so there's no need to draw unnecessary attention. I'm already drawing enough attention with the herbs and such, but there's a difference between being necessary and being unnecessarily conspicuous.

As I'm thinking about this, I see what looks like a mine shaft. I've moved about 5 km, so it must be the one.

The mine is different from what I imagined. There's a hole in a raised area of the prairie, and a large pile of stones nearby. A man is coming out of the cave and adding more stones to the pile. They must be iron ores.

I approach and speak to him.

"Excuse me, I'm an adventurer who received a request from the guild to transport iron ore."

I wonder how "excuse me" is translated, but that's irrelevant now. The man I spoke to looks like a dwarf but feels different from the dwarves I've met before. He's wearing sturdy jeans-like pants, similar to what coal miners wear in Australia. This is just a stereotype, though.

"Ah, show me your guild card."

I show him my guild card.

"Alright, no problem, but you look pretty weak. Are you sure you can do it?"

"Yes, I have an item box, so I plan to load as much as it can hold and transport it."

The miner looks surprised, but it might be my imagination.

"I don't know why you're transporting ore with an item box, but if you can do it, that's fine. The iron ore is over there, so take as much as you can."

He points to a pile of reddish stones. Up close, I can see it's a 5-meter-high hill of iron ore with a gentle slope.

I touch the hill and start loading the iron ore into my item box. After loading about 200 kg, the miner speaks to me.

"Can your item box really carry that much? I heard it can only carry about 200 kg."

Is that true? I'll just attribute it to being from another world.

"Yes, for some reason, my item box has a larger capacity. I've never seen its limit, so I wanted to test it."

"Alright. Take as much as you want. Recently, the people who were transporting iron ore all quit. We've been digging, but we can't transport it. The smelter's stock is running low, so I was thinking of hiring people with high rewards or buying slaves, but slaves are expensive, and it's hard to hire people quickly. I posted the request at the guild as a last resort, but if you can transport this much, it's a big help. Can you keep doing this regularly?"

"Yes, I'm not sure how long I'll stay in this town, but this request is profitable for me, so I'll continue... and it seems the capacity is full."

After loading about 2 tons of iron ore, the number 2011 is written in the right bottom corner of the item box. I can't put any more in that slot.

"Wow, it's full. That's a lot. What are you doing? There's still room."

"Huh? Yes, one slot is full, but there are more slots."

I try to put it in another slot, and it goes in normally. I continue to chip away at the hill.

"Are you really human? Are you the embodiment of an item box?"

"I'm trying to be human..."

I keep chipping away at the hill without breaking my pace. After filling four slots, I'm almost done with the fifth when the miner speaks to me again.

"That's enough. I don't know how much it can hold, but if you bring more, there won't be room at the smelter. If you transport this, we probably won't need to request it from the guild for a while. We can get more people before the stock runs out. Go to the smelter and ask someone to show you where to put it. The pace has slowed down because we can't transport the raw materials."

I've lost a profitable request, but I've earned enough. I head back to town, running at full speed. Despite carrying over 10 tons of iron ore in my item box, I reach the town in about 15 minutes without slowing down.

I show my guild card and enter the town, then turn right and head to the smelter. There are some unfamiliar tools, and people are working around them, mostly dwarves. It seems similar to traditional iron smelting, but it's smaller. The workers look a bit idle.

The smelter's door is open, so I go in and speak to the nearest human. The closest one is a dwarf, but it's easier to talk to a human.

"I'm an adventurer who has brought iron ore. Where should I put it?"

"Huh? An adventurer? You say you brought ore, but you don't have any. Did you put it somewhere?"

A thin, science-type person answers. He's wearing work clothes, and if he had glasses and a checkered shirt, he'd look exactly like that.

I guess using an item box to transport ore is rare.

"I can use an item box, so I'm transporting it with that. Here."

I take out a piece of iron ore from the item box to show him. It hurts to hold it because of its weight, so I put it back quickly.

"Hmm, we didn't offer that much reward, but it's fine if you use it. Follow me."

He leads me to a sloping hole near the unfamiliar tools, probably to make it easier to move the ore to the smelting equipment.

The science-type person says, "Put it here," and goes back to his work.

I release the iron ore into the hole. After releasing one slot, I realize I forgot something important. How will they count this ore?

I quickly check my guild card. The request history says, "Iron ore transport 2011 kg Unsettled." How does this system work...?

Since it seems to be counted, I release the remaining four slots. The ore storage is almost full. Do craftsmen know this much?

The guild card now says, "Iron ore transport 9972 kg Unsettled." That's about 20,000 tel. To buy a wyvern armor, I'd need to transport 500 times this amount, but it's more than enough to live on.

"You're late. What were you doing...!? Where did you get so much ore from!?"

A dwarf comes to check and asks a strange question. Are there other mines?

"From a mine about 5 km from the city."

"I'm not asking where! Where did you get it from?"

That's unreasonable. I was asked where. Maybe he means where I took it out from?

"I transported it with an item box."

"Is your item box that big...? No, that's not the point now."

He mutters something and then shouts loudly.

"Hey, the iron ore is here! Get ready to work full-time! Don't dawdle!"

"Boss! But you said no more iron ore would be brought... Ow!"

A young dwarf answers but is silenced by a slap from the boss.

"Shut up! If we have it, we have to use it! We have about 10 tons, so get moving!"

The people, who were idle a moment ago, start moving busily.

"Adventurer, you'll get your reward