The dungeon has been parasitized

Chapter 132 Digging Digging Digging

"Daisy is amazing! She knows so much. By the way, what kind of magic is that?"

"Huh?! This, this is, uh, some kind of earth magic."

Daisy seemed uncomfortable with praise; after being praised by Yanami, she became shy and stammered even more.

"Shall I explain? It's a bit complicated to explain."

Seeing Daisy's stammering, Hyacinth offered to explain on her behalf, and Daisy nodded with a sigh of relief.

"Please, please."

It seems they are already very familiar with this way of getting along.

"It's a kind of earth magic, a kind of magic that anyone responsible for digging tunnels must master. Its purpose is to detect nearby rock strata. To put it simply... um."

Hyacinth paused, organizing her thoughts for a moment.

"What if we dig and dig and hit a really hard rock? Or what if we dig and dig through an underground river, hit a rock layer that's prone to collapse, dig a big hole and fall in..."

"That sounds terrifying..."

Hyacinth went on and on about all sorts of dangerous situations, and Yanami tried to imagine them herself and shuddered.

"Yes, so the effect of this magic is to know the condition of the rock layers behind it and avoid danger."

"We were trying to dig into the forest, but after using this magic, we discovered that the surrounding rock walls had become very brittle due to the high temperature. If we dug in, it would easily collapse and bury us."

"So you found that the rock strata here were still fine, so you started digging this way, right?"

Yanami made a joke, and Hyacinth scratched her head awkwardly.

"Yes... after all, this magic can only detect rocks, it can't tell if there are other creatures around..."

"But it's actually quite nice that we were able to meet because of this, isn't it?"

"yes."

After determining the specific direction and destination, Hyacinth and Daisy began to discuss how to dig and what methods to use.

However, Yanami and Klein couldn't understand any of this, so they could only wait silently for them to finish their discussion.

"Alright, we can start digging now."

Hyacinth turned to look at Annami, who was currently moving all the things she had bought into the plantation and arranging them. Klein had also built her a small hut to store her things.

"Is there anything I need to do?"

"No, but we'll probably have to dig until tonight. We hope you can guarantee our safety during that time."

"Of course, I'll have Black Wolf guard the door."

"Also, digging the tunnel will generate a lot of loose rock. What should we do with it? Should we pile it up here, or transport it to the forest?"

"Well……"

When faced with a problem she couldn't decide for herself, Yanami asked Klein again.

("Klein, how do we deal with the broken rocks?")

("Let's pile it outside the plantation first; there might be so much rubble that it will fill the entire plantation...")

("OK.")

"I plan to move it outside; this place is too small, it probably won't fit."

"Indeed... then let's use a horse-drawn carriage. Could you send your Shadow Wolves to act as horses?"

The two rock-breaking rats need to dig together, so if they want to transport the rock fragments, they need to rely on shadow wolves to pull the cart, since they can't all be pulled by human labor.

"As for Shadow Wolf... he might not be strong enough. I have other options."

"Then what should we use?"

Splash...

A sound came from the pool beside them, and the Thunder Crocodile crawled out of the pool and came to Yanami's side.

"Use this, it's powerful."

"Ah...you even have a Thunder Crocodile, that's great."

But since you're here to help, here you go.

Hyacinth took out a few pieces of cloth from her pocket, each about the size of a palm, with two thin strings attached to them.

"What is this?"

"Mask, for dust protection."

"Oh, it feels different from what I've seen before."

Yanami took a mask and tried to put it on, but found that it didn't cover her ears at all.

"Oh, right, you're human, so it's not really appropriate."

The ears of the mouse-like people are on top of their heads.

"Then I'll make some improvements."

Since there was no needle and thread readily available, Klein's vines would suffice for binding.

Having made all the decisions, the two men and two mice began construction.

Each of them brought one Rockbreaker to the excavation site and directed the Rockbreakers to begin work.

The rock-crushing rat opened its mouth wide at the rock wall. Its strong teeth were even larger than the hyacinth's iron pickaxe. Its four large teeth were like four giant pickaxes, easily biting off large chunks of rock.

Then, it extended its claws, which looked like iron hoes, and used both its mouth and claws. The two rock-crushing rats went side by side and quickly dug a large hole in the rock wall.

"Wow, that's amazing! No wonder it called out to the Rockbreaker Rat."

"Hmph, this is a valuable assistant to our rat tribe. Our tunnels are basically dug like this."

"If there were a lot of Rockbreakers, they could go anywhere, right?"

"That's true... but the actual situation is much more complicated."

The rock-crushing rat digs and breaks up the rocks as it goes, then kicks the broken rocks behind it with its hind feet to prevent the tunnel from getting blocked.

After digging out a pile of rubble, Hyacinth and Daisy stopped the two rock-crushing rats. They then used their rock-manipulation magic to create a ramp in the original hole location, blocking the large hole.

"Huh? What are you doing?"

Yanami looked at their actions with confusion, not understanding why they wanted to plug up the hole they had just dug.

"Because you're going to dig three meters high, right? But rock rats can't dig at that height, can they? They dig two-meter-high holes the fastest, so we plan to dig the upper layer first."

Once the upper layer is excavated, then the lower layer can be excavated. This way, it will be three meters high, and the speed will not slow down.

If you dig the bottom first and then dig the top, it will be much slower.

"You guys are so professional..."

"Of course, we've dug our fair share of holes."

After using the broken rocks to create a stepping stone, the rock-breaking rats resumed digging in their new location.

Hyacinth and Daisy followed behind them, using magic to transport the excavated rock fragments onto the wagon, and then Yanami controlled the Thunder Crocodile to transport the rock fragments outside the plantation.

Working together like this, they dug about fifty meters in an hour. If they continued digging like this, it would take at least six hours to break through. But this is only the upper layer; there is still a thinner lower layer.

Completing a tunnel three meters high and three meters wide would take at least nine hours, but the rock-crushing rats themselves also need rest, so it would only take longer.

"Looks like we'll be digging until very late."

Hyacinth and Daisy drank the tea prepared by Yanami, but they didn't look tired yet.

"As I said before, we have to dig until night, and it should be past midnight by the time we finish digging everything."

Moreover, the rock-crushing rats can dig for three hours straight, and then they need to rest for a while.

Because the time was already delayed due to the centipede dissolution, and with the time spent on Yanami cooking and having lunch together, the work that was originally supposed to be completed in one day could no longer be finished.

"No need to rush, there's still time tomorrow. If we can't finish digging in one day, we can continue tomorrow."

"If Yanami isn't in a hurry, we'd be happy to take it easy for a while, haha."

"I...I want to eat more...walking mushrooms."

Daisy swallowed hard; it seemed she had completely fallen in love with the taste of the walking mushroom.

"Then I'll continue making dishes with walking mushrooms tomorrow. I still have three walking mushrooms left, so I can try making other dishes with them."

"Yay, yay!"