Gold Mine and Salamander!

Chapter 28: 028. Gold Mine and Salamanders!

Bear Cub knew he was in the wrong, so he wanted to carry Mercer on the way home.

But Mercer didn't agree.

"Why carry me so early in the morning? We can carry me later when we go out."

Bear Cub thought for a moment and agreed.

In the wind and snow, one person and one bear started their journey home.

Not long after, Mercer and Bear Cub arrived home.

Breakfast was already prepared.

The two people and one bear finished breakfast heartily. Kureha took out a thermal plastic storage box with holes, "Take this with you later. If you find a salamander, use this to store it."

"Got it."

Mercer agreed, and soon Bear Cub came over after washing the dishes.

Everything was ready, and the two people and one bear went out.

After a long time, Kureha put on a fluffy fur coat.

It was the one Mercer had given her before.

In the wind and snow.

Bear Cub ran ahead, while Mercer and Kureha sat on his back. Mercer sat in front, with Kureha behind him.

It was a bit crowded.

But it was acceptable.

Under Kureha's guidance.

They crossed the Drum Mountain to the east and arrived at the foot of a mountain covered in ice and snow.

Everywhere here were rugged, ice-covered rocks.

"Okay, stop."

Kureha patted Bear Cub and jumped off his back.

In front of them was a narrow gap formed by two collapsed giant stones, and inside the gap was a dark cave.

Kureha said, "It's a bit dark inside. I'll go first, you two watch your step."

Saying that, Kureha walked in with a flashlight. The cave was narrow, and they had to walk sideways to enter.

Extremely narrow at the entrance, This was a crevice leading underground. There were very few footholds, but fortunately, they could use their hands to support themselves on the rock walls and descend.

The crevice slanted downwards.

Kureha bit the flashlight in her mouth, and under the light, she agilely descended.

Mercer followed closely.

Bear Cub followed behind, supporting himself with his arms.

After descending for a hundred meters, "We're almost at the bottom. Just jump down later. It's only about one or two meters, don't be afraid," Kureha said.

A few seconds later, Kureha disappeared ahead, and then the ground gave way under Mercer's feet. He also fell.

As soon as he landed, Mercer instinctively lunged forward.

At the same time, a heavy object crashed down.

Mercer looked back and wiped the non-existent sweat from his forehead.

"Oof!" Bear Cub cried out in pain, clearly having fallen on his backside.

He glanced around. It was a tunnel two meters high, one meter wide, and of unknown length. Kureha was about two meters ahead.

Seeing Kureha wave her flashlight at him, Mercer smiled and then followed. Seeing Mercer leave, Bear Cub quickly followed.

The tunnel was difficult to navigate. Some parts were high, some were narrow, and the terrain sloped downwards. But as they went further, the humidity in the air became more noticeable.

After walking for about a kilometer, They turned a corner.

The two people and one bear emerged from the difficult tunnel.

The surroundings suddenly brightened.

A vast underground space appeared.

Drip! Drip! Drip!

Water droplets continuously fell from above.

Mercer looked up. From the cave ceiling, dozens of meters high, hung stalactites of various sizes, all with pointed tops. Sparse stone pillars dotted the damp ground around them.

The space around them suddenly brightened.

Colorful.

Extremely beautiful and spectacular.

The smooth stalactites continuously reflected the natural light shining in from multiple small ventilation holes in the ceiling.

"A stalactite cave?"

Mercer said, "I didn't expect Drum Island to have a place like this."

"Hee hee hee~" Kureha chuckled happily. "I found this place when I was bored before. It's an underground cave. Because it's underground, the temperature is much higher than above.

And here, along the underground river, there's a lot of vegetation, small fish, and shrimp. If nothing goes wrong, there will be salamanders here too."

"And these stalactites..."

Crunch crunch!

Crunch crunch!

Mercer and Kureha turned their heads. They saw Bear Cub hugging a bamboo shoot-shaped stalactite and gnawing on it with all his might.

He was eating with "juice overflowing" and stone fragments flying everywhere.

Mercer put a hand to his forehead, sighing helplessly. "That's a stalactite, also called a stalagmite, but it's not a bamboo shoot.

You glutton."

"He's a bottomless pit," Kureha said with a laugh, then continued what she was saying earlier. "...And this stalactite is also a medicinal ingredient with quite potent effects.

Let him eat it, he won't get a stomachache anyway.

Consider it a calcium supplement."

Bear Cub let out a "Ying~" and broke off a pointed piece of stalactite, offering it to Mercer, gesturing for him to eat too, saying it was delicious.

Mercer waved his hand. "I won't eat it. My teeth aren't good enough. You should offer it to Doctor Doriel."

Kureha's face twitched, and she glared at Mercer. "You're so filial, you're killing me with your filial piety."

"Hehe!" Mercer shifted his gaze and looked around. In just a few seconds, Mercer walked to a corner.

He looked at the large, dark red, vine-like rocks, seeping with a blood-like color. Mercer scraped a bit of the "juice" with his right index finger and tasted it on his tongue.

"Mmm, tastes like rust. Ptooey!"

"Bear Cub, come here~ There's something delicious here." Mercer called out to Bear Cub, who was still gnawing on the stalactite.

Upon hearing this, the latter immediately trotted over, his large head poking forward. Mercer said:

"This is iron ore. You eat it, and remember to refine the alloy for me. I have a use for it."

Bear Cub's bear face froze, and he widened his bear eyes to look at Mercer, letting out a "Wuwu~" roar and backing away.

He didn't want to eat and then throw up, then eat again.

Mercer grabbed Bear Cub's ear. "Objections invalid. If you refine high-quality alloy, I'll update your equipment, and it'll also help develop your Devil Fruit ability."

Seeing Bear Cub hesitate, Mercer played his trump card. "Work hard, and I'll take you out for a big meal in the future. Otherwise, I won't take you with me when I go out."

This time, Bear Cub became a little nervous. He quickly nodded, grabbed the ground with his paws, opened his large mouth, and took a bite.

Crunch, crunch.

The "vines" shattered.

Kureha glanced at them and smiled without saying anything, walking off on her own towards a patch of vegetation by the underground river.

Mercer took off the plastic storage box tied to his body, patted Bear Cub's head, and then followed her.

As the saying goes, beat the grass to catch the rabbit.

Mercer did the same.

He gently kicked the vegetation under his feet, and at the same time, activated his Observation Haki, sensing the surrounding auras.

"Did you sense anything?" Kureha asked. "Is the aura too dense?"

Mercer nodded. "I didn't expect there to be so many small animals in a place like this. Although most of them are in this river."

Before them was a deep blue underground lake, shaped like a crescent moon, with faint ripples on its surface.

Yellowish-brown moss and lush aquatic vegetation grew along the shore.

Occasionally, palm-sized, silvery-white fish would leap out of the lake.

They looked delicate and cute.

But he didn't know how they tasted.

"Huh? What is this..."

Suddenly, Kureha's slightly surprised voice came from nearby. Mercer turned his head and saw her moving a large rock, looking at what was underneath.

"What is it?"

Mercer walked over and took the large rock from her hand, tossing it aside.

"This is..."

Beneath the rock was a layer of rock face, now exposed to the air, revealing a lump-shaped crystal that vaguely showed a golden hue.

"Is this a gold mine?"

"It should be. Bear Cub, come here." Kureha beckoned to the Bear Cub, who was gnawing on iron ore. "Come eat here."

I am a brick. Wherever I'm needed, I'll be moved.

If the Bear Cub could talk, he'd definitely be singing this line right now.

Although he couldn't speak, he still listened to Kureha.

He swallowed the ore in his mouth and ran over. As he got closer, he saw it was still ore.

The Bear Cub's face twitched, but he got into character.

He lay down on the ground and started gnawing.

"You've refined gold before, and you know how to refine it, so I don't need to teach you. Go for it."

The Bear Cub didn't look up, just grabbed the gold ore and started gnawing.

Afterward, Kureha and Mercer continued to search for salamanders.

Following the gold mine interlude.

Their luck seemed to be getting better and better.

Before long, Mercer found five pinkish-white creatures resembling small lizards in a small pond. They had six external gills, three on each side, like small red horns.

He quickly and accurately caught them and placed them in a plastic container, then filled it with water from the pond, adding some small rocks and aquatic plants.

Maintaining their growth environment.

After he finished, Kureha also made a discovery. Mercer went over and saw three earth-brown salamanders.

They were placed in the container together.

"Are we catching more?"

Mercer asked.

Kureha thought for a moment. "Let's catch a few more. They're for experiments, after all. To prevent any anomalies, it's better to prepare more."

The two continued to catch more.

Half an hour later.

They had caught 11 more each, and then they couldn't find any more.

Perhaps they had hidden in the water.

A total of 19.

They secured the breathable plastic lid.

The two went over to the Bear Cub and were speechless when they saw the scene. The Bear Cub had already dug a pit a full ten meters in diameter.

Beside the pit was a small pile of irregular gold lumps.

Judging by the color and texture, it was clearly refined, and of very high purity.

As the two approached, the Bear Cub climbed out of the pit below and spat out the last irregular gold lump from his mouth.

It was about half the size of a fist.

At this point, the Bear Cub also pointed to the area below and shook his head at Mercer, indicating that there was no more gold ore there.

Mercer rubbed the Bear Cub's head. "Good work. I'll see if I can hunt something when we get back. If I can, I'll treat you to roast meat."

Mercer piled the gold together and did a rough calculation.

The total amount of gold came to about 77,280 grams, which converted to Bellies...

Mercer looked at Kureha and smiled. "Doctor Doriel, I calculated it. Based on the current gold price of 10,000 Bellies per gram, this should be around 770 million."

Kureha's eyes narrowed. She did a quick mental calculation and nodded after a few seconds. "772.8 million Bellies."

Mercer blinked and gave Kureha a thumbs-up. "Impressive."

"With this income, I'm sure Doctor Doriel's research won't be lacking in funding for a while, right?"

"Heh, if I were to really go all out with my research, no amount of Bellies would be enough."

Patting Mercer's shoulder, Kureha smiled. "Kid, your mission is still far from over. This is just the beginning."

"Alright, since we've got everything we need, we can head out now. This place isn't going anywhere. If you need iron ore, you can come back and get it yourself when you have time."

"Okay."

Without Mercer's command, Bear Cub immediately opened its mouth and swallowed all the gold, storing it in its belly.

Practice makes perfect.

They returned the way they came.

Half an hour later.

As it grew colder, the two of them and the bear cub emerged from the rocky crevice.

They arrived outside.

It was nearly noon with all the hustle and bustle. Mercer looked at the sky and said to Kureha, "You two head back first. I'm going to scout around and hunt some prey."

Kureha smiled and took the plastic box containing the salamander from Mercer's hand. "Okay, be careful. But remember, no provoking the Laboon herd. You're not strong enough to beat them yet, and you might get hurt. Those guys will use the environment to cause avalanches. Be mindful of everything, now scram."

"Got it. You take care."

Kureha rolled her eyes at Mercer and, grinning, rode off on Bear Cub, separating from Mercer.

Walking alone in the snow, feeling the wind and snow, and the surrounding loneliness, Mercer suddenly felt like singing a song. A rather catchy tune even popped into his head.

"What should I call it? Hmm, let's call it 'Two Cows.' How did it go again? Oh right, like this."

On the hill to the east, there were two cows, ah. The bull said to the cow, "I love you." The cow said to the bull, "Aren't you ashamed?" The bull said, "No shame, no shame, I love you!"

In the howling wind and snow.

Mercer hummed the strange tune, dressed in a fluffy white Laboon coat, appearing and disappearing in the snowflakes.

Unknowingly, Mercer arrived at the entrance of a low-lying valley. Looking at the faint plum blossom imprints underfoot and clumps of fresh, hard, black droppings.

Mercer's Observation Haki spread out. He sensed many presences of varying strengths within the valley.

His heart stirred.

He quickly ran towards them. After a few minutes, he slowed his pace. Not far ahead, Mercer saw a herd of deer.

A herd of over a hundred deer.

His breathing deepened, and he entered a state of Unity of Heaven and Man. He blended his aura with the wind and snow. He approached them at a steady pace, like a snow leopard ambushing in the snow. Danger crept closer.

Twenty meters away.

Mercer took a deep breath, holding a surgical knife in each hand, his eyes quickly scanning the deer. He finally selected two very robust bucks.

The next moment, Mercer burst forward. He charged out rapidly, and as he did, he threw the surgical knives in his hands forward.

Pfft pfft!

Two faint thuds sounded one after another. As Mercer charged, the deer herd was startled and became chaotic, scattering in all directions. However, two deer remained forever.

[Obtained F+ grade Soul Crystal * 2]

Mercer carefully put away the two rice-sized soul crystals. He walked over, grabbed the antlers of the two deer, and disappeared into the snowstorm with them.

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