Dungeon Miner Slave

Flinx didn’t use his 7th-level Teleport skill to exit the 20th floor of the dungeon of Mara. He still wanted to present a rule-abiding persona to the guild. Since he just recently arrived in Ilioven, he didn’t want to earn a reputation for someone who was trying to avoid paying guild tax.

Of course, once he reached the dungeon floor, possibly above the 40th floor of the dungeon of Mara, that would allow him to earn experience points and level up his wizard class at an acceptable pace, then he planned to utilize his Teleport spell 80 percent of the time.

Completing the 20th floor, he earned a total of 22 low-level mana stones, 7 medium-level mana stones, and 1 high-level mana stone. That meant that he would need to pay the guild a total of 345 low-level mana stones or their equivalent in gold. Since his system required mana stones, he chose to pay the guild 345 gold coins. After paying, Flinx still had more or less 1600 gold coins in his 4th tab space.

At first, Flinx thought that the guild staff would be amazed at the amount of wealth he had earned, but according to the guild staffer, it was on the low end for the 20th floor. The man pointed out that it was because he didn’t submit any monster body parts.

Flinx just shrugged and left. He still didn’t have any intention of gathering any monster body parts. He was thinking that any gold coins that he would want would probably be provided by the business that he was planning to open with Olivia.

He would bother harvesting the monsters if he could sell them for mana stones, but apparently, you could sell mana stones for gold, but not vice versa. Since mana stones were the resource that allowed magic items to function, and the resource that allowed powerful beings to increase their power, how, Flinx still didn’t know, Ilioven and any city that had a dungeon, for that matter, wouldn’t normally give mana stones for anything.

That meant that the value of 100 low-level mana stones for 100 gold coins was only theoretical and that adventurers couldn’t really exchange their gold coins for mana stones, only the other way around. It worked since most adventurers didn’t require mana stones and would actually prefer gold coins. Basically, the use of mana stones to increase power was only for the high-level classes.

The only places that still pay adventurer mana stones were the remote ones like Balder Town. When he arrived at the Galder’s tower by using his Teleport skill after hiding in an alley, the sun was still up, and the four children, Olivia, and her brothers were still not home.

Flinx went to his room on the fifth floor to take a long, hot bath to relax his body. After that, he spent the time reviewing his spells, and when he got tired of that, he started reading a web novel.

It was truly late when the family arrived home. Flinx wasn’t worried about them since they were guarded by three powerful earth elementals. Apparently, Olivia wanted to complete the shopping mission that day and was successful in doing so. Thankfully, she had the help of three strong stone golems who were each pulling carts that were filled to the brim with items that Olivia had purchased.

Flinx greeted everyone, and thankfully, Christopher didn’t need to cook their dinner since they brought home meals they had purchased from a restaurant. Dinner that night was delicious, which made Christopher admit that he would need to learn a lot more to function as the family chef.

Christopher and Ambrose started quarrelling when Ambrose sneered at Christopher, saying that Christopher’s ambition of becoming a chef was lowly and stupid. Based on Olivia’s reactions, that sort of quarrel between the two was normal.

Flinx was entertained by Olivia’s brothers for a few minutes, then he stopped them and told them to start storing the items they had purchased, since they could only rest once everything was arranged neatly inside the tower. Everyone groaned, including Olivia, but they did start working immediately. Flinx also helped. Still, it took them a couple of hours to complete the job. Everyone then tiredly went to their room to take a shower and rest. Flinx commanded Ambrose to make sure that David, Arcios, and Keero take a shower before sleeping, which made Ambrose groaned but the boy understood that it was Flinx’s punishment for him in starting a fight with his twin brother.

Once everyone was clean and ready to rest on their beds, Flinx told Ambrose to meet him on the first floor first. After a couple of minutes, Flinx shook his head when Ambrose was followed by everyone, including the four children.

Flinx asked Ambrose to sit, ignoring everyone.

“Do you know anyone who can identify magic items that came from inside the dungeon?”

“Yes! I’ve been to the guild, and I know where you’re supposed to go to identify items.”

Flinx retrieved the sword, shield, and bracers he had acquired from the 20th floor.

“I received them from the 20th floor, so they should be good items. Once they’re identified, just tell me how much the fee was.”

Basically, the fee for identifying dungeon items was 20 percent of the total value of the said items, which was also the tax. That was why Flinx didn’t pay a tax for the three items since they needed to be identified first. The guild did know that he received three items from the 20th floor, since he declared it when he paid his tax after exiting the dungeon.

Everyone was extremely excited upon seeing the items since they were obviously powerful magi items. The sword, shield, and bracers were glowing with magical lights.

Ambrose brought the three items with him to his room, and everyone could see the look of excitement on his face. David, Arcios, and Keero tailed him and were just as excited. Christopher was calm, though, and that brought home the fact to Flinx that the boy really didn’t want anything to do with adventuring.

“Why are you encouraging Ambrose to become an adventurer?” Olivia asked.

“You can’t stop him anyway, and the best thing we can do is to arm him with the knowledge and strength to survive. Once our business is open, just allow your brothers to pursue their passion.”

Olivia was taken aback. Flinx saw that she wanted to ask him something, and based on the hesitation on her face, it was probably along the lines of why he was helping everyone. After a few seconds, Olivia cowardly changed the subject and told Flinx that she planned to search for the venue of their business, and he just nodded.

The next day, Olivia and Christopher would head to the merchant guild, followed by one of the stone golems as their bodyguard, to inquire about the best place where they could open a shop and, at the same time, register their shop at the Merchant Guild. They also brought the sample products that Flinx gave Olivia to be shown to the merchant guild.

Ambrose would head to the Adventurer Guild to have the three magic items from the 20th floor identified there. One of the stone golems would follow him and carry the magic items for him. The four kids would remain in the tower to play on the pond. They should be safe there since they would be taken care of by the water elemental and one of the stone golems.

Flinx allowed them to swim but only up until around three in the afternoon. Later than that, and the temperature would start to fall.

Before they all left, everyone ate the food that Christopher prepared, which was acceptable enough. After breakfast, Flinx decided to ask Christopher to find someone to teach him how to cook as soon as possible.