Removing the barricade turned out to be easier than I expected. With one touch, the logs and poles vanished neatly into my inventory, leaving behind a shallow opening framed by moss and cracked stone.
Despite my initial worries, there weren't any monsters lurking inside. In truth, calling it a mine was generous. The space was little more than a five-square-meter hollow carved into the cliff face, barely deep enough to step inside without brushing your back on the rough stone wall. It looked more like a half-finished alcove than an actual tunnel.
It made sense, though. This was only a prospecting site, an old test dig to see if the rock contained anything valuable. When they'd found little of interest, the miners had abandoned it. Perfect for what I needed, small, private, and quiet.
Josey surveyed the area with her usual confidence. "Let's set up camp here while Abel gets to collecting. Daisy, scout the perimeter and check for signs of monsters or goblins. Ria, help me with the gear."
Her tone was calm but commanding; the voice of someone used to taking charge. The other two nodded and moved without hesitation. Ria began clearing a space for a campfire while Daisy slipped away into the trees, vanishing like smoke.
"So, Abel," Ria said as she knelt beside the firepit, stacking kindling. "I'm curious. How exactly do you plan to collect rock here? You don't strike me as the type to swing a pickaxe all day."
I grinned and reached into my inventory. "You'd be surprised."
When I pulled out my newest tool, she blinked in mild disappointment. "A steel pickaxe? Really? That's it?"
"Just watch," I said, laughing under my breath.
[Steel Pickaxe — Durability 500/500 — +5% Resource Gathering Bonus]
This was no ordinary pickaxe. The steel glinted faintly in the light, its edge sharp and perfectly balanced. Not only was it fifty times more durable than the stone version I'd used before, but the built-in gathering bonus meant it would extract more material per strike. Efficiency begins with the right tools: that's true whether you're mining stone or managing a business.
I raised the pickaxe, aimed at a section of exposed rock, and gave it a light tap.
The sound that followed was like a sharp chime, and then; an entire cubic meter of rock vanished, leaving behind a perfectly smooth indentation.
Ria froze mid-motion. The bundle of sticks she was holding fell from her hands as she walked over, wide-eyed. She reached out and ran her palm over the flawless surface, then turned to me, mouth half open. "That's… that's not possible. You didn't even swing properly."
I shrugged innocently. "Guess the pickaxe is efficient."
She muttered something under her breath about "violating the laws of nature," but I pretended not to hear.
Once I got going, the process became almost meditative. Each strike neatly cleared a cubic meter of stone, feeding material straight into my inventory. Occasionally, my [Prospector I] skill would trigger, yielding extra minerals: small veins of iron, copper, nickel, zinc, lead, silver, and even the occasional gold flake. I'd also stumbled upon deposits of salt and aluminum ore, which would be incredibly useful later.
As I worked, I received an unexpected notification:
[Slain with Produced Weapon: Goblin +1 XP]
I blinked at the glowing text hovering in front of me. That could only mean one thing: Daisy had killed a goblin with the karambit blades I'd made for her. Somehow, I was credited experience for the kill.
That changed everything. If weapons I produced generated experience when used by others, I could theoretically level up without ever fighting again. All I needed was to keep crafting and distributing quality equipment. The thought made me grin as I swung the pickaxe again, stone giving way like sand.
By the time the sun reached its zenith, Daisy returned from her patrol. "All clear," she reported, brushing leaves from her cloak. "No sign of goblins nearby."
"Perfect," I said, setting my pickaxe aside. "Then let's make camp; properly."
Josey raised a brow. "We already set up tents."
"Yeah," I said, cracking my knuckles. "But I've got something better in mind."
"Daisy, keep an eye out while I work," I added. "Ria, you might want to watch this."
I selected an open area in front of the mine and began marking out a U-shaped trench, one meter deep and ten meters on each side. Once dug, I filled it back in with stone blocks, layering them upward until a four-meter-high defensive wall enclosed the entire perimeter.
Ria's jaw nearly dropped. "You're building a fortress," she murmured.
"Just a small one," I replied with a grin, placing a heavy wooden gate into the opening before sealing it in place.
Inside the walls, I laid a 5x5 wooden foundation, and from there, a cabin rose to life: sturdy timber walls, a shingled roof, and even an outhouse nearby. Within minutes, I furnished it with two bunkbeds, a table, chairs, and a fireplace. I installed my Cooking Station in the corner and queued up a few dishes for lunch.
Outside, I placed down thirty stone furnaces in neat rows and filled them with ore, setting them to smelt into ingots of steel, copper, and every other metal I'd mined.
The girls just stood there, silent, watching as the base materialized around them.
When Ria finally found her voice, she shook her head in disbelief. "Did you just build an entire defensive wall and cabin for four people in less than an hour?"
I gave her a modest shrug. "I did, yeah. That's why I needed so much stone. The plan is to do the same for the village fortifications. Goblins can't exactly chew through solid walls."
Josey chuckled. "Not unless they start breeding hobgoblins. Then we'd just have to worry about them tossing the little ones over the top."
Ria laughed, leaning against the wall. "Still, that's… incredible, Abel. You really might save this village."
When lunch was ready, we gathered inside the cabin. The air filled with the smell of roasted meat and stew. I served up the cartoon-like silvestre meat on the bone, fowl-and-vegetable stew, fresh bread, and for dessert, a sweet fruit cake which only required a small amount of flour, sugar and fruit to make.
The four of us sat around the table like old friends, discussing defense strategies between bites. Josey proposed doubling the perimeter guards; Ria suggested magical wards; Daisy quietly offered to set traps in the forest paths leading toward the village.
After we ate, I returned to mining, continuing my systematic approach: top to bottom, left to right. By nightfall, I'd carved a chamber deep enough that I needed a ladder to climb out. The walls of the hollow glowed faintly in the torchlight, smooth and perfect, like something carved by machinery rather than man.
From time to time, the girls came by to check on me, each visit breaking the rhythm just enough to remind me I wasn't alone out here. Despite how easy my tools made the work, swinging the pickaxe all day was still tiring. My muscles ached pleasantly by evening.
As the last rays of sunlight faded, I wiped the sweat from my forehead and had an idea.
"If we're staying the night," I said to no one in particular, "we might as well do it in comfort."
Using leftover wood, metal, and a bit of ingenuity, I crafted a large wooden bath, big enough for three people. Beside it, I built a rudimentary boiler.
When I mentioned the bath, the girls froze. Then Ria's face lit up like a sunrise.
"Wait… a bath? As in, a real bath?"
Josey grinned. "If you're serious, you just became my favorite person in this world."
"You girls can get in first, I will get in after. Then, we can feast!"