Blood mole.
A monster that resembles a mole, as its name suggests.
The “blood” prefix is likely due to one of two reasons:
Either because its slippery body is as red as blood.
Or because these creatures, with their almost atrophied eyesight, are incredibly adept at detecting the scent of blood and swarming towards it.
Encountering a blood mole in a narrow tunnel is extremely troublesome.
That’s why, during mining operations, if you get injured, you must quickly treat the wound with bandages or similar.
You don’t want blood moles to be attracted to the scent of your blood.
“R-run away.”
“Got it!”
The wounded blood mole thrashed about in all directions.
Pickaxes struck the ground uselessly.
‘Too slow.’
I stepped in.
Chomp!
As I bit down hard on the blood mole, it wriggled for a moment before falling still.
A small monster without poison resistance had no chance against neurotoxin.
“Whew, that scared me.”
“Well done, snake!”
The dwarves praised me.
But the real praise should go to the seedling chimera.
“Did it sense the blood mole nearby?”
“That’s amazing.”
The startled dwarves soon calmed down.
A single blood mole wasn’t something to be afraid of; it was when multiple attacked at once that was the problem.
The seedling chimera continued to wave its cotyledons towards the blood mole.
Ah, now I understand.
I took out the dagger Ashura and dissected the blood mole.
Just as I thought, there was a mana stone.
It was only a small, bean-sized 1st-grade mana stone, but it was definitely a mana stone.
That’s quite lucky.
As soon as I placed the mana stone on the chimera’s leaf.
Whoosh.
The mana stone melted and disappeared.
The seedling chimera danced happily.
I hadn’t noticed, but its senses were quite impressive.
It must be thanks to the skills this little one possessed.
──────────────
[Seedling Chimera lv2]
[Traits]
[Seedling], [Baby], [World Tree]
──────────────
Oh!
Its level increased.
Could it be that it leveled up from eating the mana stone?
In my case, no matter how many mana stones I ate, my level didn’t increase.
Well, I was worried about how a seedling would hunt and gain experience, but it seems it can absorb mana by eating mana stones.
Perhaps one of its traits has such an effect.
The trait “World Tree.”
That one looks particularly impressive.
The seedling chimera also had skills.
──────────────
[Skills]
[Sixth Sense lv1], [Perception Expansion lv2], [Absorption Growth lv1], [Leaf Waving lv4]
[Status]
[Happy]
──────────────
What an impressive skill window.
Why do I feel like I’m about to cry, remembering my own childhood?
The only skills I had when I first started were “Venomous Fang” and “Quick Crawling”.
“Perception Expansion,” “Sixth Sense,” “Absorption Growth.”
They’re all amazing.
If we’re talking about pedigree, the chimera is probably at least in the late teens.
And its potential was clearly high as well.
Yes, as long as you grow up happily, I don’t mind anything.
I gently stroked the chimera’s head.
“This is actually good news.”
I heard Manjin say.
Good news? That we encountered a monster?
“The presence of blood moles means there’s a bone steel vein nearby.”
Now that I heard it, it made sense.
Apparently, these blood mole monsters are very fond of bone steel.
In our current search for a new vein, encountering a blood mole was actually fortunate.
“Hey, friend.”
Manjin smiled at me and asked.
“Can you keep that seedling with you?”
Of course, no problem.
The seedling chimera preferred being by my side rather than in the subspace.
We headed deeper into the tunnel.
At some point.
The chimera started acting strangely again.
I alerted Dunkel about it.
“Wait.”
Dunkel stopped the dwarves.
The chimera had started waving its leaves towards one of the walls.
Could it be another blood mole?
The dwarves gulped.
With a hand signal to keep quiet, Manjin took his position.
Manjin and one dwarf held pickaxes, while the others shone their lights.
“Hup!”
And Manjin alone started swinging his pickaxe at the wall.
The other dwarf waited, on guard in case a blood mole jumped out.
However, this time there was no thud sound, nor did any blood spray out.
Clang!
With a clear metallic sound, the dirt covering the wall crumbled away.
And a snow-white metallic vein was revealed.
“Oh, it’s a bone steel vein!”
Manjin let out a cheer.
Then he took out a small chisel and tapped the bone steel.
After closely examining the broken piece.
“The purity is amazing!”
I thought another blood mole might jump out, but instead we found a bone steel vein.
The seedling chimera really knew how to keep us on our toes.
“Let’s mine some ore here and take it back. Everyone will be pleased.”
Manjin said.
It had been about 4 hours since we entered the tunnel.
Originally, they had planned to spend several days searching for a bone steel vein before starting full-scale mining.
The dwarves started pickaxing enthusiastically with bright expressions.
Clang- Clang-
Each time the pickaxes sparked, pieces of bone steel fell.
Today they would only mine as much as they could carry, and from next time they would use carts to transport it to where they had laid rails.
‘Chimera, why did you find this?’
The chimera probably detected the blood mole because of its mana stone.
But why did it react to bone steel, which is just an ore?
“Because it’s not just ore,” Pelerian said.
‘Is bone steel really the bones of monsters?’
“It’s highly likely. Originally, it would have been the bones of enormous creatures. Creatures that large were undoubtedly monsters.”
Apparently, the mineral known as bone steel was originally the bones of living creatures.
So it’s probably something like a fossil.
If it’s from a past that even the long-lived elves call ‘ancient’…
‘Isn’t it dinosaur bones?’
“Dinosaur? What’s that?”
There’s no other answer, is there!
‘You know, like dragons. With huge heads, like Tyrannosaurus.’
“I’ve never heard of such a monster. It can’t be dragons. Something as precious as dragon bones wouldn’t be lying around like this.”
To think he doesn’t even know about dinosaurs. Silly Pelerian.
I brought a piece of bone steel close to the chimera.
The chimera extended its cotyledon and received the bone steel piece.
It was amusing and cute to see it use its leaves like hands.
And then.
Tsu-tsu-tsu-tsu-
The bone steel, which had been faintly glowing white, lost its color.
In the end, it turned a dull gray.
Tak.
The bone steel fell to the ground and crumbled into pieces.
‘The leaves seem to be getting glossier!’
The chimera’s cotyledons, which had been extremely tender, turned a bit greener.
“Ooh! Did it absorb mana from the ore?”
‘Come to think of it, bones are rich in phosphorus, right?’
“Phosphorus?”
‘You know, they sometimes use bone meal as fertilizer.’
“You know all sorts of things.”
Pelerian was surprised that I knew something he didn’t.
