Gold Mine and Salamanders!

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

But Mercer refused.

"It's too early in the morning to ride. You can carry me when we head out later."

Bear Cub thought it over, then agreed.

Through the wind and snow, the man and bear set off for home.

Before long, Mercer and Bear Cub arrived.

Breakfast was already prepared.

The two men and the bear enjoyed their breakfast, and then Kureha took out a ventilated insulated plastic container. "Take this with you later. If you find any salamanders, put them in here."

"Sure thing."

Mercer agreed. Before long, Bear Cub had finished washing the dishes and came over.

With everything ready, the two men and the bear headed out.

For the first time in a while, Kureha had put on a fluffy fur coat.

It was the one Mercer had given her before.

In the wind and snow,

Bear Cub broke into a run. Mercer and Kureha rode on his back, with Mercer sitting in front and Kureha behind him.

It was a little cramped.

But bearable.

Following Kureha's directions,

they crossed the mountain east of Drum Mountain and reached the foot of a snow-covered mountainside.

Jagged, snow-covered boulders were scattered everywhere.

"Okay, stop here."

Kureha patted Bear Cub and hopped off his back.

In front of them, two fallen boulders formed a narrow gap, within which lay a pitch-black cave.

"It's dark inside," Kureha said. "I'll go first. Watch your step."

With that, she entered the cave, flashlight in hand. The passage was so narrow that they had to turn sideways to squeeze through.

At first, the passage was narrow,

a crack leading underground, with few places to set their feet. Fortunately, they could brace their hands against the rock walls as they made their way down.

The crack sloped downward.

Kureha held the flashlight in her mouth, its beam illuminating the way as she nimbly descended.

Mercer followed close behind.

Bear Cub followed behind him, supporting himself with both arms as well.

After they had descended a hundred meters,

"We're almost at the bottom. Just jump down when you get there. It's only one or two meters, so don't be scared," Kureha said.

A few seconds later, Kureha disappeared ahead. Then the ground vanished beneath Mercer's feet, and he dropped down after her.

As soon as he landed, Mercer instinctively sprang forward.

At the same time, a heavy lump came crashing down.

Mercer turned to look and wiped sweat from a brow that wasn't even damp.

"Wuu!" Bear Cub cried in pain. He must have landed on his butt.

Mercer looked around. They were in a tunnel about two meters high and one meter wide, stretching an unknown distance. Kureha stood two meters ahead.

Kureha swept the flashlight beam over him.

Mercer smiled and caught up. Seeing him move, Bear Cub hurried after them, trotting along.

The tunnel was difficult to navigate. Some parts were high, others narrow, and the ground sloped farther and farther down. The farther they went, the more noticeable the dampness in the air became.

They walked for nearly a kilometer.

Then they rounded a corner.

The two men and the bear emerged from the difficult passage.

The space around them suddenly brightened.

A vast underground cavern opened up before them.

Drip! Drip! Drip!

Drops of water fell from overhead, one after another.

Mercer looked up. Stalactites of various sizes, each with a pointed tip, hung from the ceiling dozens of meters above. Sparse stone pillars had also accumulated on the damp ground around them.

The space around them suddenly grew bright.

It was filled with color.

The scene was breathtaking.

The smooth stalactites reflected the natural light filtering in through multiple tiny vents in the ceiling.

"A stalactite cave?"

Mercer said, "I never expected Drum Island to have a place like this."

"Hehehe~" Kureha laughed happily. "I discovered it when I had nothing better to do. It's an underground cave system. Since it's underground, it's much warmer here than above.

"There's also plenty of vegetation along the underground river, as well as little fish and shrimp. And if all goes well, there should be salamanders here too."

"And these stalactites—"

Crunch, crunch!

Crunch, crunch!

Mercer and Kureha turned around. Bear Cub was hugging a bamboo-shoot-shaped stalactite and chomping away.

Juice was "splashing everywhere," and bits of stone were flying.

Mercer held a hand to his forehead and said helplessly, "That's a stalactite, a stone stalactite. It's also called a stone shoot, but it's not a bamboo shoot.

"You glutton."

"More like a bottomless pit," Kureha teased, then continued what she'd been saying. "...And these stalactites are medicinal too, with some pretty impressive effects.

"Let him eat. It's not like he'll get a stomachache.

"Think of it as a calcium supplement."

Bear Cub gave a little "ying," snapped off a pointy piece of stalactite, and offered it to Mercer, inviting him to try some.

Mercer waved it away. "I'll pass. My teeth aren't up to it. Offer some to Doctor Doriel."

Kureha's face twitched. She shot Mercer a sideways glance. "You're so filial, you could make me die of it."

"Heh!" Mercer looked away and glanced around. A few seconds later, he walked over to a corner.

There lay a large patch of dark red, vine-shaped rocks, with blood-colored liquid seeping from them. Mercer scraped some of the "juice" with his right index finger and tasted it.

"Mm, tastes like rust. Ptooey, ptooey!"

"Bear Cub, come here~ There's something tasty over here," Mercer called to the bear, who was still munching on stalactites.

At once, Bear Cub trotted over and leaned his big head close. Mercer said,

"This is iron ore. You can eat it. Remember to refine the alloy for me. I have a use for it."

Bear Cub's face went blank. He stared at Mercer with wide eyes and let out a "Wuu," then backed away.

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

Mercer grabbed Bear Cub by the ear. "Objection overruled. Once you refine some high-quality alloy, I'll upgrade your gear. It'll also help you train and develop your Devil Fruit abilities."

Seeing Bear Cub hesitate, Mercer pulled out his trump card. "Work hard, and I'll take you out for a big feast sometime. Otherwise, I won't bring you along when I go out."

That made Bear Cub nervous. He nodded quickly, planted his paws on the ground, and opened his mouth to take a huge bite.

Crunch, crunch.

The "vines" went flying as he chewed.

Kureha glanced over and smiled without a word, then headed toward a patch of vegetation near the underground river.

Mercer took the plastic container strapped to him off, patted Bear Cub on the head, and followed her.

As the saying went, rustle the grass and scare up the rabbit.

Mercer did the same,

gently kicking at the vegetation underfoot while activating his Observation Haki to sense the auras around him.

"What can you sense?" Kureha asked. "Are there too many auras?"

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

Before them lay a deep-blue underground lake, crescent-shaped, its surface rippling faintly.

Yellow-brown moss and lush aquatic plants grew along the shore.

Every now and then, palm-sized silvery fish leaped out of the water.

They looked delicate and cute.

He just didn't know how they tasted.

"Hm? What's this?"

Suddenly,

Kureha's surprised voice rang out. Mercer turned to see her moving a large rock and looking underneath it.

"What is it?"

Mercer walked over, took the rock from her, and tossed it aside.

"This is..."

Under the boulder was a layer of rock, now exposed to the air. A clump-shaped crystal lay on it, its surface tinged a faint gold.

"Is this a gold mine?"

"It should be. Bear Cub, come here." Kureha beckoned to Bear Cub, who was chewing iron ore. "Come eat this."

I'm a brick.

I go wherever I'm needed.

If Bear Cub could talk, he'd definitely be singing those lines right now.

He couldn't talk, but he still had to listen to Kureha.

He swallowed the ore in his mouth and ran over. Up close, it was still ore.

Bear Cub's face fell, but he got into the spirit of things.

He lay down and chomped into it.

"You've refined gold before, so you know how to do it. I don't need to teach you. Keep it up."

Bear Cub didn't look up. He grabbed the gold ore and kept chewing.

Then Kureha and Mercer continued searching for salamanders.

After their lucky find at the gold mine,

their luck seemed to keep getting better.

Before long, Mercer spotted five pinkish-white, lizard-like creatures in a small pool. Each had six external gills, three on either side, like little red horns.

He swiftly caught them and put them in the plastic container. He poured in water from the pool, then added a few small rocks and some aquatic plants.

That would preserve their habitat.

Once he was done, Kureha made a discovery of her own. Mercer went over to look and saw three brown salamanders.

He put them in the container too.

"Should we catch more?"

Mercer asked.

Kureha thought for a moment. "Let's catch some more. They're for an experiment, so we should have extras in case of any outliers."

The two of them continued catching salamanders.

Half an hour later,

they had caught eleven more between them, and then couldn't find any others.

Maybe the rest had hidden underwater.

Nineteen in total.

They sealed the ventilated plastic lid.

The two of them went over to Bear Cub. When they saw him, they exchanged speechless glances. He had already chewed out a pit a full ten meters across.

Beside the pit lay a small pile of irregular chunks of gold.

Judging by the color and texture, it had clearly been refined—and to a very high purity.

When they arrived, Bear Cub climbed out of the pit below and spat out the last irregular lump of gold.

It was about half the size of a fist.

Bear Cub pointed down at the pit and shook his head, telling Mercer there was no more gold ore below.

Mercer rubbed Bear Cub's head. "Thanks for the hard work. When we get back, I'll see if we can hunt something. If we can, I'll treat you to some barbecue."

Mercer piled up the gold and did a rough estimate.

The pile came to about 77,280 grams, which converted to Beli—

Mercer turned to Kureha with a smile. "Doctor Doriel, I worked it out. At the current price of ten thousand Beli per gram, this comes to about 770 million Beli."

Kureha narrowed her eyes and calculated mentally. A few seconds later, she nodded. "Seven hundred and seventy-two million, eight hundred thousand Beli."

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

"With this income, you probably won't be short on research funding for a while, Doctor Doriel, right?"

"Hah. If I really let loose with my research, no amount of Beli would be enough."

Kureha patted Mercer on the shoulder and smiled. "Kid, you've still got a lot of work to do. We've barely started."

"Okay, now that we've done everything we came for, we can head out. This place isn't going anywhere. If you need iron ore, come back and get some when you have time."

"Sounds good."

Mercer didn't need to tell him what to do. As soon as Bear Cub heard they were leaving, he opened his mouth and gobbled up all the gold, swallowing it to store in his stomach.

Practice really did make perfect.

They retraced their steps along the way they had come.

Half an hour later.

The temperature kept dropping as the two of them and a bear emerged from the crevice in the rocks.

They had reached the outside world.

After bustling around for a while, it was nearly noon. Mercer looked up at the sky and said to Kureha, "You two head back first. I'll look around and hunt something."

Kureha smiled and took the plastic box containing the salamander from Mercer's hands. "All right. Be careful, though. And remember, don't pick a fight with the Laboon herd.

"You might not be able to beat them yet. You could get hurt, and those fellows can use their surroundings to trigger avalanches. Watch yourself. Now, get going."

"Will do. Take it easy."

Kureha rolled her eyes at Mercer, grinned, then climbed onto Bear Cub and headed off in the opposite direction.

Walking alone through the snow, with the wind and snow whipping around him and the desolation all around, Mercer suddenly felt like singing at the top of his lungs.

A rather catchy tune came to mind.

"What was it called again? Hmm, I'll call it 'Two Cows.' How did it go? Oh, right. Like this."

On the eastern hillside~ 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, no, I'm not. I love you!"

Amid the howling wind and snow.

Mercer hummed the strange tune, his white, fluffy Laboon Coat appearing and disappearing among the falling snow.

Before he knew it, Mercer had reached the entrance to a low valley. At his feet, he spotted faint hoofprints and piles of fresh, hard droppings like black pebbles.

Mercer spread his Observation Haki and sensed numerous auras of varying strength in one part of the valley.

An idea struck him.

He sprinted toward them. A few minutes later, he slowed down. Not far ahead, he saw a herd of deer.

There were more than a hundred of them.

As his breathing steadied, he entered a state of Unity of Heaven and Man.

He blended his aura into the wind and snow.

Moving at a decent pace, he headed toward them like a snow leopard lying in wait.

Danger crept closer, unnoticed.

Twenty meters away.

Mercer took a deep breath. He held a Surgical Knife between each finger of both hands, his eyes quickly scanning the deer.

At last, he picked out two particularly sturdy stags.

The next moment, Mercer sprang into action.

He charged forward, hurling the Surgical Knives from both hands one after the other as he leaped.

Thup, thup!

Two soft, muffled sounds rang out in quick succession.

Mercer's sudden attack sent the herd into a panic.

They scattered in every direction.

But two deer would never leave.

[Obtained 2 F+ Rank Soul Crystals]

Mercer put away the two grain-sized Soul Crystals.

He walked over, grabbed the two deer by their antlers, and disappeared into the snowstorm with them.

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