Chapter 19: Mine(3)

The girl excitedly stood on the windowsill and removed her red necklace.

After a few seconds, her ears grew and became pointy. Her black pupils turned green and rushed out through the window. She then started to jump roof to roof while following Luke. She then started to mumble in happiness.

"A legendary beast, I can't believe I'll be seeing one in my entire life! Haha! My ancestors must be proud of me!"

She then followed Luke to the rocky mountain with a bright smile on her face.

Meanwhile, Luke suddenly felt a chill on his spine. He doesn't know what caused it but he can only guess one reason.

'It must be the cold winds, it's quite chilly in here after all

Luke decided to ignore it and continued to fly towards the rocky mountain. He then finally arrived and landed on a flat boulder.

Luke looked around the rocky mountain and finally saw a cave. He then stopped in front of it and heard Nash's voice.

"I... I sense so many stored mana in there! Mana stones! This cave has mana stones!"

Luke's smile became wider and walked inside the cave. The cave is pretty deep and long but once he got to the end of the cave. He saw a dead end. He then heard Nash's voice.

"The mana stones are at the other side of this thick wall!"

Luke nodded and punched the wall with his [Herculean Strength].

'Money here I come.'

The wall broke effortlessly and countless stone rubbles fell into the ground. Luke's eyes were then blinded by colorful lights but soon saw it clearly.

"Ha, ahahahahah! Hahahah! Were rich!"

Luke laughed out loud while looking at the colorful highest-grade mana stones sticking out of the cave walls with a very pleased smile. There are hundreds, no, thousands of mana stones in front of Luke. Luke looked at this with shining eyes and Nash asked with an excited voice.

"This is ours now right?"

Luke nodded with a bright smile and took out a sack.

'Of course, it's ours why do I even come here if these weren't mine?'

Nash immediately understood and added spatial magic inside the sack. Luke then took out a pickaxe and started mining, he also called out to Nash.

"Hey, help me out. I'll do this side and you do that side."

"Okay!"

They then started to mine with bright smiles on their faces, thinking about the possibilities they can do with these loads of mana stones.

They continuously threw the mined mana stone into the spatial sack for hours. Then after a while, they finished mining and Luke happily looked inside the bag.

Colorful lights glowed out from the bag. He then took out a big piece of mana stone and passed it to Nash. Nash caught it with wide eyes and looked at Luke. Luke just answered him while putting the sack into his coat's pocket.

"That is for you, you worked hard today."

Nash clenched the mana stone that Luke gave him and smiled.

"Thanks!"

He then happily put the mana stone in his spatial dimension and sat on Luke's shoulder. The bright cave covered in mana stones became dark and Nash cast a light orb on top of Luke's head for him to see. Luke smiled at Nash who doesn't need to be told what to do anymore.

'Nash is truly smart.'

Luke thought about that and faced a large boulder inside the cave. Nash then exclaimed in surprise.

"Hey it's weird, a power similar to yours is inside the boulder!"

"Yes I know, step back. I'm going to crush this."

Nash nodded and jumped from Luke's shoulder. Luke formed a fist and punched the boulder with [Herculean Strength].

Boom!

The boulder was then crushed into pieces and clouds of dust flew up from the ground.

"Cough, cough! Damn it."

Luke fanned the dust away from him and saw a purple stone glowing on top of the stone rubbles. The purple stone is the same color as his eyes. He then slowly picked up the stone and smiled.

"Swordmaster aura, here I come."

Luke then crushed the stone and it crushed like wet sand just like the blue stone from before.

Purple light then flowed from the crushed stone to his body. The purple light swirled on his body before it completely entered his body. Luke then felt an enormous power entered his body once the purple light was gone. His insides feel like they are rumbling for a second but finally calmed down.

Luke then took out his sword and activated [Aura].

Suddenly, A bright and thick purple light covered his sword. The aura waved calmly like the ocean on his sword.

Luke then smiled and tried to swing his sword. Luke swung the sword and then the cave wall suddenly had a deep cut mark from where Luke's sword brushed past from. Luke smiled in satisfaction as he put back his sword.

'Now with the power of [Herculean Strength] and [Aura], my attack power will rise as one of the strongest in the kingdom. This might be enough to protect me, but not yet, I need cover-ups and safety nets If I really want to secure my safety.'

Luke then turned around and his eyes widened.

Nash is nowhere to be found at the cave. Luke tried to call out to him.

"...Nash?"

Luke walked around and examined the whole cave. He then called out once more.

"Nash?! Where are you?! Nash?! Are you playing with me?! This is not funny!"

There was still no answer. He then started to panic.

'Where the hell is he? Damn it!'

"Who are you?!"

Luke then heard Nash's voice outside the cave. Luke then rushed out from the cave and saw Nash's fluffy body.

Luke raised his pace and finally went out of the cave. He then called out to Nash.

"Nash!"

Nash turned his head and ran into Luke's shoulder. He then spoke warily.

"Luke, there was a weird person that followed us."

"...Weird person?"

Nash then extended his fluffy paw and pointed at the black-haired woman tied up in mana rope. After a while, Luke finally recognized this lady and asked her.

"Lady receptionist...? What are you doing here?"

The black-haired girl looked at Luke with bright eyes and shouted.

"Are you the legendary beast's companion?! This is the first time in history that a legendary beast and a human get along and traveled together! Oh, by the way, my name is Lina, not receptionist lady!"

Luke looked at the girl who looks quiet at the reception desk but surprisingly a chatterbox. He then asked Lina a question.

"What are you doing here? Why are you following us?"

Lina looked at Nash and said in an excited voice.

"I saw you and the legendary beast flew out the window! I wanted to see the legendary beast more closely so I decided to follow you! Don't worry! I won't tell anybody!"

Luke sighed and brushed his face with his hands. He then looked at Lina closely before his eyes turning wide with surprise. He looked at Lina's pointy ears and noticed that her eyes changed from black to green. He then asked.

"Are you perhaps an elf?"

Lina smiled and answered while still tied up in the ground.

"No! I am a half-human and half-elf!"

"...I see, so why are you following us again?"

"You see, we elves literally worshipped legendary beasts. And seeing one in person is something that should be told for the next generations! I bet my ancestors will even come out from their grave and dance in happiness for me!"

Nash and Luke blankly stared at Lina who is still chattering and praising Nash. Luke then heard Nash's voice on his shoulders.

"I like praises but... Isn't this too much?"

Luke sighed and massaged his temples. He then shot a question to Lina.

"If you are an elf, why are you working at an inn for humans? I thought elves hate humans."

Lina then frowned and pouted.

"As I said, I am half. And I grew up mostly with my human mother and the rest of my mother's family. I finally have my mother's permission to leave on my own but with the condition to wear the necklace that will transform my appearance into a human. And the necklace is basically a seal for my elf powers. Pretty cool huh? My dad send it to me-"

"Hold up, I just asked why are you here but you almost ended up telling your whole life story. Haa anyways, since you promised not to tell anyone about Nash then that is fine. Then, see you."

Luke turned around and Nash cast flight magic, Nash also removed the mana rope tied around Lina. Luke is about to fly up but then he felt someone grabbed his ankles.

"Wait! Oof!"

Luke looked at Lina, who plopped flat on the ground while holding his ankles, with surprise. He then asked her a question with a frown.

"Hey what are you doing?! Let go!"

"No! Let me come with you! At least let me follow the legendary beast! Please!"

Luke looked at Lina with a deep frown.

'Haaa! This is crazy!'

"No, let go."

"Nooo! Let me come with you please! I'm pretty useful you know?! I can cook! I can clean! I can do errands! I can cut the throats of the people who will stand in your way-"

"What?"

"What? Did I say something wrong?"

"You just said that you cut throats..."

"Ah, you mean that? That is nothing! My mother and her family are in a house of assassins! They taught me all of the techniques fitting to be an assassin!"

Luke looked at Lina with wide eyes.

"What assassin family is your mother on?"

"Hmm? Are you interested? It is the Clenn family! And I am Lina Clenn! I am very proud of my family! But mother said not to brag much about it though..."

Luke looked at Lina's disappointed face with a blank stare.

'You are from an assassin family, you think you'll be safe if you brag about where you from?'

Luke just heaved a sigh.

"Did you perhaps heard about a family of assassins that suddenly disappeared?"

"Huh? Oh yeah! Mom said that there was one family, but she didn't really care about those guys. Hehehe, isn't my mom cool?"

Luke let out a sigh of relief. Fortunately, she is not from the assassin family that Noah obliterated. If Luke became a Viscellete, there will surely be dangers but thankfully he now knows that the duke did a good job eliminating the assassins.

He then spoke to Lina who was still holding his ankles.

"Uh, nice meeting you Lina... Can you let go of my ankle now?"

"No! Please let me come with you! Please! Please! Please!"

Luke formed a troubled look, he then stared at Nash but Nash just shrugged his shoulder like he doesn't know what to do either. Luke's frown becomes even deeper. He then asked a question.

"What kind of assassin is so open about her identity?"

"Huh? Erm, you see... I don't know why I started to tell you my identity either... Maybe because you have the legendary beast with you?"

'What kind of reasoning is that?'

Luke looked at Lina's hand that had no plans of letting his ankles go. He then formed an unhappy face while speaking like he was forced to eat the food he didn't like.

"Hnnng, o-okay... You can, can, come with us..."

"Really?! Thank you so much!"

Lina then let go of his ankles and stood up. Luke then turned around and sighed.

'Another person to feed... Great, just great... I feel good... Not really.'

The troubled Luke and the happy Lina started to fly back to the inn.