PAGE 2
That morning, I was digging in the cave with Ril.
As I watched, a rock that was much bigger than her crumbled away in front of her.
“Woah. You can already dig that much!”
Upon hearing this, Ril hopped around happily.
Only a day had passed since I taught her, but she was already able to dig by herself.
That being said, it was still dangerous with all of the rocks flying around, and so I had several slimes nearby to protect her.
“I bet you could mine by yourself now… But no, we should probably stick together for a while.”
Last night, Rienna had told me to keep an eye on Ril, as she was still small.
Ril wasn’t as unpredictable as human babies, but it was still necessary to watch over her for a while.
And so I occasionally glanced in her direction as I continued to dig.
While it slowed down my pace, there really wasn’t any reason to rush now. And so I didn’t mind working a little slower than usual.
Just then, I heard my stomach grumbling.
…I wonder what’s for lunch today…?
I had never really cared for the food that was served back at the palace.
Though, my inability to enjoy it probably had something to do with the looks my brothers would give me.
But now, there was no need for that. I had a great time eating with the others.
After all, Rienna’s cooking was delicious.
Not much time had passed since breakfast, and yet I was already hungry. That meant that my body desired more of Rienna’s cooking.
And while we didn’t have much variety when it came to food, Rienna’s skills more than made up for it.
Still, things had improved greatly from when I first arrived here. Back then, I was lucky to be able to catch some fish…
Currently, there wasn’t anything in particular that troubled us…
“…Ahh. Peace! So peaceful!!”
As I muttered to myself, the area in front of me suddenly began to shine brightly.
The crumbling rocks were automatically put into storage, and at the same time, a golden wall appeared before me.
“…Hmm?”
Was this…gold?
I was no longer surprised at finding something like gold. However, when it came to something of this size, I had no idea how many ingots it would be.
If everything I was looking at really was gold, it might be more than all of the gold within the kingdom.
However, why was it in a place like this?
After all, this was clearly a man made wall of gold.
What if there were more Golems… Hmm, I was able to sense some magic, although it was weak.
“…I guess I should try digging.”
I gestured for the Mithril Golem, Number 15, to come.
I wanted it to protect me, Ril and the slimes if we were attacked.
Of course, I also set up a shield around us.
“Alright… I’m counting on you, Number 15.”
The Mithril Golem bowed. And then I swung my pickaxe.
Then the wall of gold crumbled away, and opened up into a very bright area.
As it all happened so suddenly, I had to cover my eyes with my arm.
And then I slowly opened my eyes again…
“…What? What is this place?”
The walls were so bright that I thought I was outside.
The reason for this was the Shining Stones on the walls and ceiling…
And the reflectiveness of the golden floor and walls.
On the right sight, there were shelves that were also made of gold. And they were stacked with what appeared to be golden barrels.
And on the left side, there were metal pipes that looked just like the ones that Mappa had made. And there were also things that looked like glass bottles.
The wall in the far back seemed to be made of glass, and the space behind it was filled with a purple liquid.
Hesitantly, I entered the room.
“Shiel. Can you tell one of the slimes to go back to the surface and let them know I’ll be investigating this place?”
And then Shiel started doing gestures to a different slime.
After seeing this, the slime started hopping away.
“Alright, let’s go then. Ril, come over here.”
I squatted down and offered my hand. Ril nodded and jumped up onto my shoulder.
Then I stood up and started to search the room with Shiel and Number 15.
First, it seemed like the magic was coming from the table near the pipes.
This table had several handles and bumps. And on the other side of the glass, I could see a wheel.
…What is this?
A long time ago, a foreign king had visited the palace in Sanfaris. And he had shown us a strange table.
Apparently, it was used for alchemy, which was an art that was quite different from magic…
And from what I remembered, he had pushed these bumps that he called ‘buttons’ and created a plant.
However, he had only been working with very small glass bottles.
But the glass bottles here were large enough for a human to fit inside.
Was it for making a large amount of medicine? Also, this shape…
I couldn’t explain why, but my hand started to move towards the bump.
It was odd, but it just made you want to press it…
PAGE 2
The Cave King will live a Paradise Life -Becoming the strongest with the mining skill?-
However, I thought I heard someone telling me not to, and so I pulled away.
I had a feeling that pressing just one thing could lead to a horrible chain reaction.
“…I won’t do that now.”
I shook my head and moved away. I would look at the rest of the room first.
“Still, I wonder what this liquid is?”
I said as I looked at the reddish-purple liquid on the other side of the glass.
There was something about the color that made me think of poison, but it also looked like wine.
Besides, I thought I could smell a hint of grape in the air.
That being said, that smell wasn’t coming from the glass, but the very neatly stacked barrels on the shelves.
These golden barrels had bungholes just like the wine barrels I was familiar with.
Surely it would be obvious if I just licked a little…hmm?
I saw that there were some very out of place rocks between the barrels.
They vaguely created the shape of a person, and I saw that there was a Heart Stone.
In other words, this had been a doll.
But there was nothing else of note outside of the rocks and the Heart Stone.
After a little more searching, I found the remains of another doll close by.
“This place must have been abandoned for a very long time.”
As for me…being able to make more dolls…I mean, golems, was great.
It strengthened our defenses and they were useful for transportation.
And so I gathered them up…
As I was gathering the Heart Stones, Ril started touching my ear as she clung to my shoulder.
“What is it? Ril? Huh…that…”
What Ril was looking at, was a square glass jar that was placed far back on the right side of the shelf.
And I could hardly believe what was inside of it.
The glass contained beautiful, deep purple grapes.
It was inside of a liquid that was clear like water. And there were grapes of other colors too, including yellow and red.
And in front of that glass jar, there was a smaller jar that appeared to contain seeds.
It was at that point that I decided that this place must be a winery.
“Ah. What an unusual place this is.”
I turned around to see Baris standing there.
And an angel with white wings was also there…it was Kamyu, a former orc.
“Oh, my. I do love gorgeous rooms like this!”
“Baris, Kamyu. You came.”
Baris nodded.
“Yes. But what a strange ruin… No, can we even call this a ruin?”
“It’s much too pretty to be a ruin… But it seems to be devoid of any life as well.”
Baris and Kamyu said as they looked around.
Indeed, it was hard to believe that there was no life down here. Everything looked clean and organized.
After a while, I saw goblins and orcs appear behind Baris and Kamyu as well.
Apparently, they were all coming down here.
Just then, Kamyu seemed to notice something as she looked up in surprise.
“…This smell. Could it be wine?!”
“Oh, you think so too?”
“Of course! I do love wine! And this smell suggests it is of very high quality!”
“I see. I don’t know much about wine… But I thought there might be wine inside of these barrels…”
“There must be! …Wine! Ahh, it has such a wonderful ring to it! We must taste it at once!”
Kamyu rolled her tongue as she repeated the words. Then she picked up a golden goblet that was sitting on the table.
“Wait, wait. Well, there doesn’t seem to be any magic cast on it… But I should still check for poison.”
I said as I took the goblet away from her.
“Oh… How kind of you, Lord Heal!”
It was a lot easier to accept compliments from her these days.
After all, she now had the kind of face that would have noblemen all over the country on their knees and asking for her hand in marriage.
It made me feel a little embarrassed.
Kamyu teased me when she saw this.
But then I realized something else.
…This really wasn’t something that I should be doing.
Well, it’s not like I really didn’t want to. But it was still unsettling.
But ‘that guy’ who was always wandering around was not here this time.
I mean, where was he?
We had discovered such an interesting place. Shouldn’t he be here by now?
Well, maybe he was so busy with teaching people at the smithy these days…
And so I held the goblet and was about to open the bunghole.
But before I could…
“Aaaaahhh!!!”
Rienna’s scream echoed near the entrance.
“Rienna?!”
I headed towards the entrance with Baris and the others.
And then, I saw that Rienna was looking very pale as she stared at the glass in the wall.
It wasn’t just Rienna.
Everyone present. The goblins, kobolds, even the Cave Spiders… Everyone had the same expression as they looked towards the glass.
And so I too, looked at the purple liquid behind the glass.
And…
“…Ma…Mappa?”
There he was, mouth agape and with his eyes rolled into his head. He floated limply in the liquid.
“…Ma-ma-mama-ma! MAAAAAPAAAAAAAAA!!!”
My scream echoed in the golden room.
PAGE 2
That morning, I was digging in the cave with Ril.
As I watched, a rock that was much bigger than her crumbled away in front of her.
“Woah. You can already dig that much!”
Upon hearing this, Ril hopped around happily.
Only a day had passed since I taught her, but she was already able to dig by herself.
That being said, it was still dangerous with all of the rocks flying around, and so I had several slimes nearby to protect her.
“I bet you could mine by yourself now… But no, we should probably stick together for a while.”
Last night, Rienna had told me to keep an eye on Ril, as she was still small.
Ril wasn’t as unpredictable as human babies, but it was still necessary to watch over her for a while.
And so I occasionally glanced in her direction as I continued to dig.
While it slowed down my pace, there really wasn’t any reason to rush now. And so I didn’t mind working a little slower than usual.
Just then, I heard my stomach grumbling.
…I wonder what’s for lunch today…?
I had never really cared for the food that was served back at the palace.
Though, my inability to enjoy it probably had something to do with the looks my brothers would give me.
But now, there was no need for that. I had a great time eating with the others.
After all, Rienna’s cooking was delicious.
Not much time had passed since breakfast, and yet I was already hungry. That meant that my body desired more of Rienna’s cooking.
And while we didn’t have much variety when it came to food, Rienna’s skills more than made up for it.
Still, things had improved greatly from when I first arrived here. Back then, I was lucky to be able to catch some fish…
Currently, there wasn’t anything in particular that troubled us…
“…Ahh. Peace! So peaceful!!”
As I muttered to myself, the area in front of me suddenly began to shine brightly.
The crumbling rocks were automatically put into storage, and at the same time, a golden wall appeared before me.
“…Hmm?”
Was this…gold?
I was no longer surprised at finding something like gold. However, when it came to something of this size, I had no idea how many ingots it would be.
If everything I was looking at really was gold, it might be more than all of the gold within the kingdom.
However, why was it in a place like this?
After all, this was clearly a man made wall of gold.
What if there were more Golems… Hmm, I was able to sense some magic, although it was weak.
“…I guess I should try digging.”
I gestured for the Mithril Golem, Number 15, to come.
I wanted it to protect me, Ril and the slimes if we were attacked.
Of course, I also set up a shield around us.
“Alright… I’m counting on you, Number 15.”
The Mithril Golem bowed. And then I swung my pickaxe.
Then the wall of gold crumbled away, and opened up into a very bright area.
As it all happened so suddenly, I had to cover my eyes with my arm.
And then I slowly opened my eyes again…
“…What? What is this place?”
The walls were so bright that I thought I was outside.
The reason for this was the Shining Stones on the walls and ceiling…
And the reflectiveness of the golden floor and walls.
On the right sight, there were shelves that were also made of gold. And they were stacked with what appeared to be golden barrels.
And on the left side, there were metal pipes that looked just like the ones that Mappa had made. And there were also things that looked like glass bottles.
The wall in the far back seemed to be made of glass, and the space behind it was filled with a purple liquid.
Hesitantly, I entered the room.
“Shiel. Can you tell one of the slimes to go back to the surface and let them know I’ll be investigating this place?”
And then Shiel started doing gestures to a different slime.
After seeing this, the slime started hopping away.
“Alright, let’s go then. Ril, come over here.”
I squatted down and offered my hand. Ril nodded and jumped up onto my shoulder.
Then I stood up and started to search the room with Shiel and Number 15.
First, it seemed like the magic was coming from the table near the pipes.
This table had several handles and bumps. And on the other side of the glass, I could see a wheel.
…What is this?
A long time ago, a foreign king had visited the palace in Sanfaris. And he had shown us a strange table.
Apparently, it was used for alchemy, which was an art that was quite different from magic…
And from what I remembered, he had pushed these bumps that he called ‘buttons’ and created a plant.
However, he had only been working with very small glass bottles.
But the glass bottles here were large enough for a human to fit inside.
Was it for making a large amount of medicine? Also, this shape…
I couldn’t explain why, but my hand started to move towards the bump.
It was odd, but it just made you want to press it…
PAGE 2
The Cave King will live a Paradise Life -Becoming the strongest with the mining skill?-
However, I thought I heard someone telling me not to, and so I pulled away.
I had a feeling that pressing just one thing could lead to a horrible chain reaction.
“…I won’t do that now.”
I shook my head and moved away. I would look at the rest of the room first.
“Still, I wonder what this liquid is?”
I said as I looked at the reddish-purple liquid on the other side of the glass.
There was something about the color that made me think of poison, but it also looked like wine.
Besides, I thought I could smell a hint of grape in the air.
That being said, that smell wasn’t coming from the glass, but the very neatly stacked barrels on the shelves.
These golden barrels had bungholes just like the wine barrels I was familiar with.
Surely it would be obvious if I just licked a little…hmm?
I saw that there were some very out of place rocks between the barrels.
They vaguely created the shape of a person, and I saw that there was a Heart Stone.
In other words, this had been a doll.
But there was nothing else of note outside of the rocks and the Heart Stone.
After a little more searching, I found the remains of another doll close by.
“This place must have been abandoned for a very long time.”
As for me…being able to make more dolls…I mean, golems, was great.
It strengthened our defenses and they were useful for transportation.
And so I gathered them up…
As I was gathering the Heart Stones, Ril started touching my ear as she clung to my shoulder.
“What is it? Ril? Huh…that…”
What Ril was looking at, was a square glass jar that was placed far back on the right side of the shelf.
And I could hardly believe what was inside of it.
The glass contained beautiful, deep purple grapes.
It was inside of a liquid that was clear like water. And there were grapes of other colors too, including yellow and red.
And in front of that glass jar, there was a smaller jar that appeared to contain seeds.
It was at that point that I decided that this place must be a winery.
“Ah. What an unusual place this is.”
I turned around to see Baris standing there.
And an angel with white wings was also there…it was Kamyu, a former orc.
“Oh, my. I do love gorgeous rooms like this!”
“Baris, Kamyu. You came.”
Baris nodded.
“Yes. But what a strange ruin… No, can we even call this a ruin?”
“It’s much too pretty to be a ruin… But it seems to be devoid of any life as well.”
Baris and Kamyu said as they looked around.
Indeed, it was hard to believe that there was no life down here. Everything looked clean and organized.
After a while, I saw goblins and orcs appear behind Baris and Kamyu as well.
Apparently, they were all coming down here.
Just then, Kamyu seemed to notice something as she looked up in surprise.
“…This smell. Could it be wine?!”
“Oh, you think so too?”
“Of course! I do love wine! And this smell suggests it is of very high quality!”
“I see. I don’t know much about wine… But I thought there might be wine inside of these barrels…”
“There must be! …Wine! Ahh, it has such a wonderful ring to it! We must taste it at once!”
Kamyu rolled her tongue as she repeated the words. Then she picked up a golden goblet that was sitting on the table.
“Wait, wait. Well, there doesn’t seem to be any magic cast on it… But I should still check for poison.”
I said as I took the goblet away from her.
“Oh… How kind of you, Lord Heal!”
It was a lot easier to accept compliments from her these days.
After all, she now had the kind of face that would have noblemen all over the country on their knees and asking for her hand in marriage.
It made me feel a little embarrassed.
Kamyu teased me when she saw this.
But then I realized something else.
…This really wasn’t something that I should be doing.
Well, it’s not like I really didn’t want to. But it was still unsettling.
But ‘that guy’ who was always wandering around was not here this time.
I mean, where was he?
We had discovered such an interesting place. Shouldn’t he be here by now?
Well, maybe he was so busy with teaching people at the smithy these days…
And so I held the goblet and was about to open the bunghole.
But before I could…
“Aaaaahhh!!!”
Rienna’s scream echoed near the entrance.
“Rienna?!”
I headed towards the entrance with Baris and the others.
And then, I saw that Rienna was looking very pale as she stared at the glass in the wall.
It wasn’t just Rienna.
Everyone present. The goblins, kobolds, even the Cave Spiders… Everyone had the same expression as they looked towards the glass.
And so I too, looked at the purple liquid behind the glass.
And…
“…Ma…Mappa?”
There he was, mouth agape and with his eyes rolled into his head. He floated limply in the liquid.
“…Ma-ma-mama-ma! MAAAAAPAAAAAAAAA!!!”
My scream echoed in the golden room.
