“Cave King Kairos,” Jim gallantly started the ball rolling.

“Troll King Kairos,” Alan immediately caught on the joke.

“Monster King Kairos,” Edward finished with a smile, and as he finished, a Cave Troll immediately echoed.

"Mmfmmphh Kekk guuk KAAROUUUU!!”

It started a series of rumbling by the other trolls that tried to follow the strange language.

“Mmffmph Kek kkuk Karouu!”

“Mmffmph Kek Guk Karouu!”

The boys burst out laughing, unable to stop. What started as a joke had become revered, and unfortunately, there was no way to even explain otherwise to these creatures.

“Mmmmmmmffmmmmpppphhh KEEEK GUUKK KaaaarRROOUUUUU!”

A final, deafening, roar reverberated throughout the cave, and for a moment there was a respectful silence among the monsters.

This human boy had defeated their previous king with an absolute show of might, and absolute might equals absolute loyalty for their race.

“Well… it looks like Edward made you King Karouuuu,” Calculus said with an evil snicker.

His buddies, Edward, Alan, and Jim, stood crossed armed behind Calculus, snickering openly.

“Gah, you turncoats.

Have you guys forgotten our mission?” Kairos rolled his eyes.

“Oh right. Let’s go look for ores!”

“By the way, after this, you’re dead Edward.”

“…”

The group quickly change their focus to searching for the egg-shaped stones their instructor asked.

The reason they ventured deeper underground in the first place was because monster lairs have the highest chances of finding good spirit ores since such things could help converge the elements and enable monsters to breed and grow stronger.

Right now the natural earth elements in this area are so concentrated that they have no doubt they will find some great ores in the place. And protected by such a mighty race, there’s an excellent chance to have incredible things found nowhere else.

In the southern mage countries, such places with an abundance of natural energies are called ‘the dungeons’. These monster spawning grounds are famously filled with adventures, valuables, and danger, which cause individual treasure hunters or small parties to flock to it. However, in Saint Empire, professional miners does the combing in a methodical and massive scale which boasts of higher profitability.

As cadets, they were better than treasure hunters and knew enough to spread out in the area, knocking on the walls with small hammers to check if it sounds different from other places.

It is likely if there is a dull thud that a hard spirit ore is hidden within the rock formation.

Because of how difficult it is to survive in the academy, their status as second years is on another level compared to the first year students; this alone proves their ability in whichever field they enrolled in, which in the first place they wouldn’t be in the blacksmithing class if they were mediocre. Of course, Kairos and his group were exceptions due to the political struggles between the Third and Fifth princes.

However, it did not mean they are as good as those who do this for a living.

At this time, Calculus started observing the gemstone they took from the entrance of the mine and the other boys who saw quickly followed suit. When the stone gives off a pink light, it would mean that there are poisons they could not smell in the air.

On the other hand, the girls in their group rolled their eyes but otherwise did not say a single word. If the trolls’ nest does not have any indication of poison in the air at the start, then they are not creatures that live in such environment.

It is unlikely that these creatures would build a nest with such dangers, but the Devilheart heir waved his gemstone around as though he was smart for being prudent.

Alan, Jim, Edward, and Kairos followed suit, not knowing better and Alucard, who by all rights should know his facts, joined in because his buddies were doing it.

With the six boys waving the glowing stones around, the Cave Trolls started bobbing and weaving their heads to their beat, and the entire cave turned into a silent dance party.

Nobody knew who started first, but first, there was tapping, then odd sounds followed suit, echoing in the place. The creatures began making clicking, scratching, whistles, and even the sound of water drop despite none found. They sounded horrid, yet at the same time, enchanting. The ultra-competitive trolls started challenging each other to the sounds they could make.

Things turn creative as these monsters that are naturally capable of magical chants tried to out-manoeuvre each other. Unfortunately, nobody could tell who is better in the noise although, once a while there will be a roar of victory.

Little did they know especially Calculus who started it, that this would turn into a favourite sport among the trolls and eventually aided them in weaving tremendous and mysterious magicks.

It was a fantastic sight to behold, but the group of humans did not linger. They scouted carefully and managed to find that many of the massive stalactites are hiding denser rocks within and carefully extracted those out.

They had to work skillfully to prevent breaking the hard outer layers during extraction. If they were careless, many of the spirit ores would quickly lose the pure elemental energy within through any cracks; even worse, if they accidentally made a hole in the spirit ore and destroyed the entire thing.

Unfortunately, because of how delicate this work is, after taking those stone eggs out of the rock, it is hard to tell what kind of ore is within or if it indeed contained any spirit ores. Reversely, thanks to the unknown nature of these eggs, many stone gambling stations appeared in the mining centre. If one is lucky, they might uncover something rare and become rich.

Kairos quickly found a large stone egg. Carefully chipping away the natural rock covering it, a rough, hard, and white limestone surface is revealed.

He worked at the top and the bottom until the edges to the limestone are exposed, then using the crafting tools he prepared, started removing it from the stalactite. After studying at the academy, Kairos had developed a healthy interest in different artisan apparatuses. Despite being thrifty towards himself, he couldn’t help but get the best equipment when it comes to manufacturing things.

However, it still took him a lot of effort with heavy concentration before he acquired his first prize.

What he took out was a man-sized rock.

It was such an impressive size that those who saw from afar couldn’t help but gasp in astonishment. What kind of luck is this to discover such a large stone egg? Even if it contains only a low-grade spirit ore within, its size is enough to arm a guard detail fully. Just imagining five full sets of Huang Grade armours and weapons is enough to make even high nobles like Calculus and Alucard salivate.

“Strange. There’s something wrong about this,” Kairos muttered inaudibly to himself.

*C…ome…*

“A … voice? But its quiet here. This rock, however, is silent?”

Kairos stood there unmoving for a while, then all of a sudden he summoned a bulky mining pick and struck the stone egg violently.

A loud shattering sound turned everyone’s heads when they just went back to searching their ores. Even the curious trolls jumped in shock, preparing to fight the enemies of their new king.

“No! Such a large piece would score well with the instructor,” when the giant rock shattered, the blacksmith Flora couldn’t help but bemoan the loss.

After extracting the spirit ore from a stone egg, the only ways to preserve its natural elemental energies is to temper its exterior or keep it in a container properly; otherwise, when the essences are lost to the air, the value is lost; except for the most special ones.

But the pieces that fell were mere shards of worthless hard rocks.

After confirming his find was indeed useless, Kairos did not linger his eyes on the rubbles and immediately turn towards where he heard the whisper.

*Come…*

*Come…..*

“Is this the voice of the earth…? Over there?”

He reeled from the new experience. It was as though he had discovered a new organ and was assailed by a storm of information. Voices called out his name, not with words but their intent and yet he could hear them.

A shiver ran across his arms.

“Aisa, if this is what I guessed… I have unlocked an auditory ability?”

En~ Kairos is maturing!

“First ocular, now audial.”

He made his way in full concentration, following the strongest voice he heard. It stood out above the rest, like a torrent of rain that covered other noises.

When Kairos finally reached, he found himself at the exit of the lair. A different one than the tunnel they came from.

“There is the sound of live water here.”

He picked up the pace and headed out of the lair following a small path to an underground river. At that place, there were plenty of trolls standing guard to their only watering hole. Of course, as their Mmffmph Kek Guk, they respectfully grunted and stood aside.

Kairos gave them a nod, without knowing if they understood him, then he walked to an isolated corner and started digging near the river.

The trolls watched him curiously, but otherwise, they did not move from their posts.

*Come*

The beckoning became louder as he dug, using his mining pick and the physical strength equalled to regular immortals, he broke through the hard ground and bedrock. And with a couple of strikes, he had worked his way down hundreds of metres until he finally uncovered a luminous, nearly-glittering, yellow soil.

“What’s this, Aisa?”

Kairos~ it’s the Origin of the Land! Wooow, there’s only one in each realm, and you found it!

“What does it do?”

It’s like a seed~ just bury it in a place, and the area will start growing spirit ores. The earth element will also become abundant, and sometimes spirit stones will be born.

“This is an unbelievable treasure, isn’t it?!”

Hurry and keep it then!

After carefully bundling it up with silk, the two returned to the lair and saw that most of them have already found their share of stone eggs hiding in the stalactites.

The Origin of the Land is a catalyst for spirit ore, but since it is not an ore, Kairos still does not have anything to submit. Of course, he wouldn’t expose its existence even if it was.

Noticing Kairos was alone, Calculus silently approached from the back.

Kairos who is searching for the whispers calling him did not notice.

“Just who… or what are you?” asked Calculus as he pulled Kairos to face him.

When surprise coloured Kairos’ face Calculus asked again, “The elementals follow you, my Five-Clawed Golden Dragon wishes to go with you, and your body can generate Heavenly Lightning which is thought to be power only Heaven has.

And… even the beasts on the Beast Taming Mountain bowed down … to you…?”

Calculus had thought that because he has the golden dragon as his contract beast, he has the great destiny to be Emperor. As the chosen one, when facing the ferocious creatures on Beast Taming Mountain, he had once believed they were bowing down to him. But the more he saw, the more doubts grew in his heart, until today when the impossible happened before his eyes. Twice.

“I… I don’t know?” Kairos said truthfully. As the person who experienced all these first-hand, he is not oblivious to all the miracles happening around himself. If he has to give a reason or a source for all these, it would be that mysterious True Lord that brought Aisa into his life.

Calculus grabbed Kairos angrily by the collar of his robes and pulled him over, “What DO you mean you Don’t Know? What makes a village boy like you so different that you are special in everyone’s eyes!? TELL…”

“Hey Kairos,” Snow came over at the perfect time and Calculus quickly let go of Kairos and stepped back. It wasn’t the girl that made him restrain himself, but the fact that he had almost admitted being inferior to his rival.

“Did you find anything yet?”

“There is a huge stone egg that I discovered under the Cave Troll King’s throne. I was just about to call you guys over to help,” Kairos quickly changed the subject. He had discovered through, the intermixing voices, something that was calling for him more powerfully than the rest.

Despite the sound weaker than the Origin of the Land, if the strength of their calls was an indication of the treasure’s spiritual energy, this ought to be a pretty powerful spirit ore.

After a short while, the group gathered and went together to the centre of the troll city.

At that place, among foul-smelling wastes and filth, there is an elevated large, flat, rock clattered with sticks, stones, rusted weapons, scraps of armour and lots of animal bones.

“This trash pile is where Kairos…,” started Alan, but before he got to the end of his sentence, he mysteriously flew straight up and landed headfirst into the messy pile in front of them.

The attack was too fast for their eyes to catch. Nevertheless, the group stared at Kairos.

“Whoa, why did he dive right into it?”

“R…right…”

“Captain is the stone egg you’re looking for underneath this place?” Alan crawled out of the trash and asked, seemingly unaffected by what happened.

“It should be around where you landed.”

“….”

The seven of them worked carefully and soon found a hard layer of sedimentary rock just as Kairos said.

They carefully chipped away the unwanted parts until they revealed a rock larger than a carriage.

The guys stood silently in awe of it, basking in the surge of elemental energy that accompanied the stone.

“That’s not good! We must’ve cracked the stone. Hurry, we need to seal it!” Flora shouted suddenly.

A spirit ore within its cradle should not give off energy like this. Even the subterranean creatures that use spirit ore to grow stronger only crack it open when they are strong enough to absorb the energy without wasting.

The usual spirit ores will only direct earth elements over to grow, which is why many creatures make their nests nearby.

But Kairos only smiled and shook his head, “We extracted it nicely. It is because the spirit ore within is a little bigger that we can feel the difference.”

After saying that, he stood there silently looking at the gigantic stone egg.

The thing was found by him but extracted by everyone, so how should it be split?

When Alucard noticed a frown, he walked over.

“Kairos, you don’t have to worry about sharing this with us. We wouldn’t be able to reach this place without you.”

“Yeah boss, just keep it. You’re the one that found it,” Jim said.

“I…,” Calculus began, but was interrupted immediately.

“Shut up. You only used your eyes,” Edward said.

“Yeah, shut up!” Alan echoed.

“Hmph, I’m not interested in a trifling stone like this,” Calculus denied even though his eyes looked as though they are going to pop out, “I only wanted to say that we have wasted enough time here, let’s return to the surface.”

“Umm, Kairos,” Snow frowned.

They had overlooked something serious and she told them in a worried voice, “We might not be able to take this big one away. The moment you step out of their lair, you are no longer their king.

The leader needs to face every challenger. Only those that are weak flee their throne. The moment we bring this out, we will incur their wrath, and they will chase us to the surface.”

Everyone appeared stumped. This carriage-sized stone egg will definitely weigh them down. Few time-space rings could hold it, and even if one of them has such a treasured artefact, the massive stone egg was a treasure belonging only to the troll king and those vying to become the next leader would not allow Kairos to take it away.

“Bwahaha. Look at you marvelling at the rock. Can’t even bring it out. Wasted effort for a …”

Without letting Calculus finish, Kairos kept the biggest stone egg they found into his Thunder God’s Ring.

Then, in a conversation that no one else could hear, Kairos sent a mental message, “Aisa, do you want new pets?”

A squeal answered him, followed by an impish giggle.

Yay~ Kairos let me have new pets. They are so ugly… I like them!