"Siiiigh. I have many mouths to feed but I lost my job ……"
"Can"t you just find a new job?"
"Look at me. How could I find a new job with my age and this body?"

It made sense.

No matter how you looked at him, his body was short and weak, not suitable for mining. He didn"t even have the strength to use a pickaxe that he was using a small hand hoe.

His method of working was using that hoe to crack open the rocks that the other miners threw away to collect minerals like he was gleaning.

Jonnan"s body wasn"t like this from the beginning. At one point, he was so strong that he was called the greatest wrestler of t.i.tan Valley.

You"re asking how he ended up like this?
It was because of Akto"s curse.
A curse that will actually be a blessing for me! Thanks to that, I will be able to learn the foundational knowledge related to alchemy.

But that"s a story for the distant future. Since it"ll be around the time the Successor compet.i.tion ends, it"ll be around 2 years later in Royal Roader.

To at least prepare with that future in mind, I needed to become soulmates with Jonnan. I can"t receive Akto"s blessing without it.

"Siiiigh, I was completely stabbed in the back by that d.a.m.n Bae Doochi."
"What do you mean?"

I pretended to not know and asked. You needed to have a lot of conversations to increase your intimacy, and you needed that to become soulmates.

As I scratched the itchy spot, Jonnan started to sing the blues.

In the beginning, Jonnan"s fame spread wide as one of the miners representing t.i.tan Valley, along with Batoom and Goultan.
However, after having a large accident while competing for the owner position, he ended up being unable to work.

It was not only Jonnan. His wife and two kids as well. His whole family was working together to help him when the accident happened.

It was an accident created by Akto"s curse.
If it wasn"t for that curse, this mine would not be the Batoom Mines, but the Jonnan Mines. Jonnan"s skills as a miner was much higher than the others.

Anyways, Jonnan"s wings as a miner were broken because of that accident, and he even failed in a business before becoming penniless.

Since then, he had been working as Bae Doochi"s servant to survive.

It had been 10 years like that.

"Sigh, I knew about Bae Doochi"s ruthlessness from the beginning, but for it to be this bad. Do you know how much I have done for him?"

I know Bae Doochi"s personality really well too.
An extremely selfish person.
For his own gain, he doesn"t care if someone else dies or not.
That is why he is someone who cannot be the mine owner.
That was what majority of the miners though. Jonnan was the same.
Was that the reason? Jonnan stopped singing the blues to talk to me like he was resenting me.

"How could you make that kind of trade with someone like Jonnan? If someone like him becomes the mine owner, the future of the miners will disappear."

It"s not a surprise that I also hate Bae Doochi. I definitely don"t want to see someone like him living arrogantly.

However, do things in life go the way you want it to go? Sometimes a blessing might end up a curse, and a curse might end up a blessing.

That"s why phrases like "Blessing in disguise" and "Persistence can overcome anything" exist.
I know a bit about Royal Roader"s future.

In order for it to go the same way that I know about, Bae Doochi must become the mine owner. It is only then that a better future will be created for not only the miners, but also myself.

Of course, I can"t tell Jonnan something like that. Not like he would believe me anyways.
"Why didn"t you tell me this earlier? Then I would have traded with Gildeon and not Bae Doochi."
"I was living thanks to him. How could I step forward against him in such a situation?"
Jonnan dropped his head again and let out a sigh. The world in front of him must have become dark thinking about how to survive from here on.

The atmosphere is ripe for picking!
Now it was time to show Jonnan a new path.

"Senior, since it"s like this anyways, how about we help each other out?"
"How do you propose?"
"Senior, you are a expert that even Bae Doochi recognizes. I am strong but extremely lacking when it comes to experience. So senior, you will be in charge of experience and I will be in charge of the strength."

Honestly speaking, this was the cold truth in front of us.
My strength and stamina had increased a lot, but I was still extremely lacking when it came to experience. Even though I was working twice the amount that the other miners worked, my gain was not even half of theirs (TL: Apparently this master RR player has no experience after now working probably 4 years in the mines…)

On the other hand, Jonnan was skilled in finding lodes. He was also very accurate about selecting the money making minerals. However, because of a chronic illness and Akto"s curse, he did not have the strength to break the rocks.

In other words, we would be the perfect partners.

At my suggestion, Jonnan abruptly raised his head. His depressed eyes also started to come back alive.

"Oho! That is a great method."

That was the start of our symbiotic relationship. Just like it was the case in Royal Roader, we had quickly become soulmates.

"Perhaps, is there a specific mineral you want to find?"
"Of course."
"What mineral is it?"
"The five-colored jewel. Among those, I am especially interested in the red Jewel of Luck."

I casually answered him.
However, Jonnan let out a laugh like it was impossible.

"Hahaha, you have such wild dreams. Don"t you know that the five-colored jewels are protected by the powers of the fairies? If you wanted to find the jewel of creation, it might be possible, but the rest cannot be found unless you are the best miner."
"Senior, I have you."
"Me? I tried. But I failed. Not only me, but even if you searched the entire t.i.tan Valley, you would not find the best miner."

Of course, even I knew about this.
The jewel of creation was something any expert miner could find, but the other 4 colors of the jewels could only be found by the best miners. And even if you increased the radius to the entire kingdom, there were only two people.

However, that is the current situation.
Soon, a "best miner" will be born in t.i.tan Valley. Not one, but four of them.
One of them will be you, "Jonnan".
Of course I could not tell him this right now.

"A person must have grand dreams. Haha."

I pa.s.sed it off like I was joking.

"But don"t have false hopes like that. You can"t find the Jewel of Luck even if you become the best miner. The Jewel of Luck does not come out in this vicinity."

That thought process will change soon too. I know where a lode of the Jewel of Luck exists.

When the time comes, I will develop the mine with my own hands. It would be even better if I owned the whole mine too.

From that point, I will be able to earn money at a different level. Not only would I be the richest man in t.i.tan Valley, I would be one of the richest in the Batorou Kingdom.

"It"s just a saying. Since we"ve rested quite a bit, shall we start working a bit?"
"Sure. Will you dig here? It"s somewhere I"ve been eyeing for a while. If we"re lucky, we might even find an Azurite lode."
"Senior, I will just trust you! Oosha!" (TL: Noise made when lifting things up.)

Clang Clang Clang.

[You gained 1 bar of azurite.]

"Oh, an azurite came out."
"Just as I suspected. Focus on mining with this area as the focus. I will pick out the minerals.
"Yes, senior. Oosha!"

Clang. Clang. Clang.

"It must be because you are young, but you are very strong."
"I do have some strength. Oosha!"

Clang. Clang. Clang.

Jonnan and I were a perfect pair as I expected. I just focused on swinging my pickaxe and Jonnan found all the minerals that were worth money in the rocks that I cracked.

Since our operation was perfect, it was no wonder that our earnings increased that much as well.

"Wow! Did the two of us mine all of this?"

Putting aside the 54 bars of t.i.tanium, the amount of minerals we mined was huge. When we took it to mine owner Batoom, he gave us 520,000 won.

This was not an amount I expected. When I was working alone, the best I did was 70,000 won in a day. On average, it was probably 60,000 won a day.

I thought that my earnings would be about three or four times that if we worked together.
If that was the case, it would be around 250,000 won on the high end.

But for it to be 520,000 won. Then each person can take back 260,000 won.

This amount is something only expert miners with at least 10 years of experience can take home. Of course, the only difference would be that they would work 5 to 6 hours a day.

Either way, it was above my expectations. It just meant that Batoom and my partnership was perfect. (TL: I"m sure he meant Jonnan.)

Batoom was also surprised.

"Are you saying the two of you mined all of this?"
"Hwi Ram is very strong. Plus, you should have seen how diligently he worked."

Batoom nodded his head at Jonnan"s words.

"Hwi Ram is definitely dedicated. I have never seen anybody in my entire life who works over ten hours in the mines."

Oh stop it, you"re embarra.s.sing me.
I guess I need to show some modesty in times like this.
"No, it was because Senior Jonnan has a good eye."
"Either way, you are two peas in a pod! What do you think? Do you want to become a professional miner? If you become a pro, I will lower the the tax to 20%."
(Author"s Note in comments: Original tax rate is 30%. It was originally listed somewhere but it must have been erased in the editing process).

It"s finally here! The occupation quest!"

Translator : Miraclerifle
Proofreader : Miraclerifle