Chapter 16: Saryn mine

A group of five humans there. They look decent enough to protect me. Two of them are fully equipped vanguards: helmets, full armors and gauntlets. One duelist that has a sword and two archers.

"I will get ready in an hour" I head back inside and get my weapons

****

"So you are the mad merchant and capable of fighting, why do you need escorting?" The duelist sharps his blade

"Tch, he just want to laze around" the giant vanguard is chewing a sugarcane

"That is right. I hate to dirty my hands around. Besides, I need someone to mine some Saryn ore." I whip the goats.

Having a wagon pulled by goats is surely slow, but they are the only creatures around here that can withstand such heat in this near desert atmosphere. Objective for this trip is to mine at least around 50 thosagaf of Saryn ore.

Here we are, a Saryn mine that I noticed long ago but did not have a chance to go deeper.

"Since cave or mine air flows are really bad, we must not light a single flame," I point the cave entrance ", The reason I do not go too deep is because I smell a strange stench, I once tried to make a fire and barely made out of that sudden explosion, and please do not create a spark to cook something, I prepared ready to eat meals"

"If it is just some stench that gives much fear, why don't you hire some cleric instead?" The female archer crosses her arms

"Listen here, I also heard some crawling noises. Cave spiders are known for being very deadly with their poisons from their saliva to their blood."

"Then why don't you burn this cave first then?" The duelist glares

"You forgot the thing I just said, I hadn't gone any deeper yet, so you must know that I don't know how deep this cave is," I raise a finger ", Secondly, if I burn this cave, It will possibly recreate the Narwek's eternal flame incident" I raise the second

"He is right, I can't object this" The male archer stands up after relaxing on my wagon's top

"Alright, shall we go deeper?" I clap my hands

****

"So it has been hours since we started this, where is the Saryn?" The nimble vanguard keeps walking

"I am trying to look for signs but it seems like we have to go around 200 mases deeper. This Yalkan vein is getting thinner and then we can meet up with a Flamir cluster. Finally around a Flamir cluster, you should be able to see Saryn ore or Jilkan" I point forward

"I think I just heard screeching" The female archer is ready to draw her arrows

"Same goes to me" The male archer is glaring around

"I think I smell something stinks of corpses" The giant vanguard clenches his sword

"More reward for whoever kills the most cave spiders" I shakes my money bag

****

How does this come to this situation?

"Can you help us at least, Mr. Merchant?" The giant vanguard is holding a spider's fang with his shield

"I told you before. I can fight but I don't like it" I shrug

"Would you mind at least helping us a bit? " The duelist is dodging spider's spitting

"Haiz yai yai. Well, your bonus is cut" I dash forward

While two archers are trying to aim at spiders' eyes, the nimble vanguard is bashing all the spiders and the giant vanguard is trying to slash the spider in front of him. There are a total of 17 spiders initially of their ambush but now, there are around 10 spiders. I dash toward all of ten spiders and cut them down in half with just a dagger. It is a pain to clean myself afterward but I will continue on looking at the Yalkan vein. The other five look me with surprise the fact how quickly the battle ended.

****

"So after walking for a long time and after having a short meal, why don't you just hire miners instead of asking mercenaries to do this kind of tedious work?" The giant vanguard swings my pickaxe

"Yeah, this is not a very exciting job but why only two of us vanguards have to do this instead of all five?" The nimble vanguard raises my other pickaxe

"First of all, you two are the strongest among us. Secondly, we need to have guards to fight against spiders. Thirdly, I maybe fast but I don't have strength the swing around that kind of pickaxes" I point one of my pickaxe

The pickaxes are made by Galthoral and they are made from alloy of Saryn and Jilkan. So they are both hard and durable. Not even salt from drake's mines can corrupt these masterpieces.

****

After mining those ores, we head back out of the cave. Strange, I can feel some murderous intentions while I am carrying some of my gear. I intimidate the source of the intentions by glaring at it. It seems the duelist is the biggest source. So thus means this group is going to kill me if I put my guard down. Unfortunately for them, I am going to let them feel what hell looks like.

Wait, before killing anyone or making a move, I should look around a bit. I can hear something a human shouldn't be able to hear.

Krieeeekk

A giant bat. So the murderous intention was aiming at the bat not me heh? I wonder if I make a loud noise…

I throw out a paper charm to the nearest wall. This charm will make a big noise to make bats get confused and possibly hit the ground due to directional loss.

Bang

"It seems you are well prepared for what is ahead of yours, Mr. Merchant" The duelist crosses his arms

"I can hear a bit of sound ahead which is similar to bats so I made a judgement to confuse them before engaging" I smirk

We keep on walking until…

"We should stop around here, It is night anyway so we should take a rest before heading back to Nakitel. Also watch out for bandits around here" The giant vanguard tries to catch his breath while carrying ores

"Agree but you guys don't need to worry about bandits. They fear me more than high ranked mercenaries" I open my arms like a guardian

****

After settling for a campfire at the cave entrance, we do what we need to do. The archers check their string and arrows, the giant vanguard sharpens his sword and repairs his shield, duelist cleans his sword and makes some tea, lastly the nimble vanguard watches the first shift. I check my own weapons. I sharpen my dagger and clean my thunderstick, then reload the thunderstick. Lastly, I swing around my staff to kill some time. I remember those moves when I was Hiwan. Hit with the staff then barge with my shoulder, turn around and hit with momentum and lastly the sudden swing stance. I stab the ground with my staff, then all of sudden, I swing my staff vertically. This move usually to fight against foes who like to charge me head on. Although this move may seem idiotic, it gives the foes a nasty surprise, they get hit right on their face or fly upward to the sky. I was once a strong drake but now I have a human physical appearance so I rather use this to hit their face or chin real hard that they daze.

"Mr. Merchant, you seem to fight like an old drake rather than a normal human" The duelist sips his tea

"I learnt this while reading some books. It is kind of interesting how drakes fight with polearms" I rest my staff

"Can you spar with me once? I am curious how you fight off those orcs like nothing" He unsheathes his blade

"I will only use my staff to beat you" I make my stance

He rushes me in ziczac way, so I have to use this move. I swing my staff with two hands to make a circle and the wind pressure will knock his legs. He doesn't waver, it seems he walks on air not the ground. I stop my move and then suddenly, I turn like a whirlwind. He gets hit by my staff and disengages. He stands up and I stop my whirlwind.

"Alright, I get it. I get why they fear you"

"So, will you take the next shift? It seems you need some rest"

"Alright, then I take my break before then"

****

Next morning, we head back to Nakitel. We unload those ores in my shops, I check what we have spent and I reward them as I promised, 10 gold coins and some silver coins.

"Since you have done well, you may take a look at those weapons and pick two of them. Those two weapons shall be your bonus."

"We will discuss and give you decision then"

****

So they picked two large rectangle shields for their vanguards huh. Oh well, time to head to the tavern before going back to my kins next morning then.

In the evening, it is as lively as ever. Brawling and yamping, they are two things that happen in taverns. I order a drink and have a good meal here.

"Don't you think that merchant is dangerous?"

"He is not that scary, as long as you don't touch him, he won't bite back"

"So, you dare to compare me with a dog huh?"

The two human warriors are afraid of me, thinking I am a devil. That is right, I do not tolerate those who dare to compare me to low lives. There are things you should never do and insulting a drake's honor without apologising is one of those things. Once you insult a drake, he will beat you hard like no tomorrow morning. Even lords of drakes do not insult even the lowest rank of their army. Because that is how drakes' society works. I grab those two heads and slam them on the floor hard. I go back to my shop. I wonder, who was the black robe passing by?