'If things keep developing like this, it won't be long before the two of us have to exercise in a different position—with our heads and feet reversed.'
After taking care of Hopp for some time, Carl could clearly feel that the little awkwardness remaining between them had quietly disappeared.
If Hopp had previously felt grateful toward Carl because she had saved her, then now she was gradually beginning to treat Carl as a true "companion."
At the very least, Hopp would never have taken the initiative to get so physically close to Carl in the past.
During their mechanical exercise, slippery sweat trickled down their bodies.
Their clothes were soaked with sweat and clung tightly to their skin.
In the midst of the intense exercise, Carl gritted her teeth, refusing to let the breath in her chest escape.
The moment she exhaled that breath, she would definitely collapse onto the floor.
Time passed second by second. Before they knew it, the two of them had completed most of their exercises.
Finally, as they began the last set, both sides summoned the little strength they had left and launched into their final sprint.
"97, whew~, 98, hah~, 99, mm-hmm~, 100! All done! We've finished ten sets, so we can rest for a little while."
The moment Hopp finished speaking, Carl collapsed facedown onto the floor.
Hopp also rolled off her back. The two of them lay side by side, greedily breathing in the air that had become "sweet" after exercising.
Sweat dampened the floor, and the only sound in the room was their heavy breathing.
"I wouldn't have guessed you could keep going for so long. I thought you'd give up halfway through."
"Hah! If you were only standing to the side and supervising me, then I really might have given up halfway through."
Carl's chest heaved like a bellows. She blinked, feeling that something about their conversation just now had been off.
Hopp had not completely understood what Carl meant, but she knew that boys tended to have a strange competitive streak in certain areas, so she assumed Carl was simply trying to prove herself against something.
"What a strange competitive streak."
After making that comment, Hopp stretched out flat, closed her eyes, and regulated her breathing.
'Hmph! If we switched positions and I were on top, I could keep going until your muscles tore!'
After muttering that defiantly to herself, Carl tried to turn over, but her arms were as limp as noodles and completely lacked the strength to move.
'Oh no, I overdid it.'
Carl glanced at Hopp, who had her eyes closed, and gritted her teeth without making a sound.
She felt that if she asked Hopp to help turn her over now, she would have lost.
Carl wriggled her body forward and braced her head against the floor. Using the momentum from twisting her body, she finally changed from lying facedown to lying on her back.
After quite some time, Hopp helped Carl perform weighted squats.
Outside, the howling wind and falling rain formed a monotonous melody.
Inside, the young man and woman worked up a sweat.
In the goblin tribe near the Bioluminescent Mushroom Forest, the ordinary goblins, who were generally only around 1.4 meters tall, were curled up inside the tribe's tents, ignoring everything happening outside.
These fellows, who were often bullied by Dire Goblins and Hobgoblins, could always find an opportunity to slack off, and weather like this gave all of them an excuse to shirk their work.
None of the goblins noticed that while they were slacking off, a strange rust-red bug had quietly slipped into their armory and was happily licking a rusty longsword while clutching it.
Rust Monsters were subterranean insects that mainly fed on the oxides of black metal ores.
The Adventurers' Guild rated their combat ability as half a level, meaning they were creatures that even ordinary people could barely handle.
These peculiar creatures could rapidly corrode nonmagical metal, making them the underground creatures dwarf miners least wanted to encounter.
As the Rust Monster continued licking the longsword, dark-red rust rapidly spread across the blade.
Before long, a reasonably well-crafted longsword had entered its belly.
But even after eating all that, the Rust Monster was still not satisfied.
It began searching the warehouse for something "more exciting."
Following the metallic "scent" drifting through the air, the Rust Monster crawled deeper into the warehouse.
In the increasingly dark cellar, a small mountain made of various metal components appeared before the Rust Monster.
The components looked extremely well-crafted, but as the Rust Monster crawled through them, faint traces of rust began spreading across their surfaces.
The Rust Monster naturally would not pass up the chance to feast, so it lay atop the gradually rusting components and gulped them down.
As the components were gradually devoured, a metal door hidden beneath them slowly emerged.
Magic runes had been etched into the door, and magic protected the metal from being easily affected by the Rust Monster's abilities.
But the Rust Monster was not a mindless, unintelligent beast. It slightly raised its forelegs and actually lifted open the Trapdoor.
"Vmmm—"
After it lifted open the Trapdoor, some peculiar magic swept outward in all directions. Yet neither the goblins nor the Rust Monster itself noticed anything at all.
Pushing the Trapdoor aside, the Rust Monster crawled along the passage below and entered the deeper reaches of the cellar.
In the passage, strange crystals radiating deep-blue or dark-purple light were embedded in the walls. Special patterns shimmered across their surfaces, giving off an eerie feeling, as though they might suck one's soul inside at any moment.
These were Khyber Dragonshards, crystallized fragments of the River Dragon's power.
Unlike the highly versatile Eberron Dragon Crystal, Khyber Dragonshards possessed the ability to bind magic.
Eberron's airships and Lightning Rail were powered by elemental creatures stored in Elemental Binders made using these crystals.
Aside from that, they were also commonly used as raw materials for Lich Phylacteries.
The passage contained so many Khyber Dragonshards that it could already be considered a genuine rich deposit.
Crawling through the passage, the Rust Monster continuously sniffed the metallic scent in the air and advanced onward.
Soon, it reached the end of the passage.
This was a place resembling a Ritual Site, but it was far rougher than the Mind Flayer's Ritual Site.
Long-rotted skeletons still wore armor. They were arranged radially around a greatsword embedded in the rock.
The greatsword's blade resembled some kind of black stone, yet an evil energy rose from it.
What had drawn the Rust Monster here was the armor worn by the skeletons.
These finely crafted pieces of equipment had long since had their etched magic runes destroyed, losing their ability to withstand the passage of time.
But they were the Rust Monster's finest food.
The Rust Monster cheerfully ran to a skeleton and shook the insect feelers atop its head, just about to continue eating.
But a black energy tinged with red shot out from the Blackstone Greatsword at the center of the Ritual Site, piercing through the Rust Monster's body.
A phantom drifted out of the Rust Monster's body and slowly flew into the Blackstone Greatsword.
One magic rune after another briefly lit up across the greatsword's blade, but soon dimmed once more.
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