Blue figures rose nonstop on the screen of the small appraisal device.
"Where did you get this?"
The middle-aged man asked after pushing his glasses up onto his forehead.
His gaze moved back and forth between the plastic container Cheol-woo had handed over and the hunter license on the desk.
It was a small specialized materials shop without even a proper sign.
However, among those in the know, the owner was a skilled dealer everyone recognized.
"I found it while clearing remnants from a closed dungeon."
"A closed dungeon? Looking at your hunter license, you are E-rank. If it was a recent job, would it not have been an F-rank dungeon?"
"Yes. During the final cleanup, it was rolling around in an inner corner, so I just picked it up."
Cheol-woo gave the answer he had prepared in advance with an indifferent air.
The materials dealer’s eyes narrowed.
He took a magnifying glass from a drawer and carefully examined the Azure Mana Iron fragment.
Then, using special tweezers, he scraped a tiny amount from the surface and pushed it back into the appraisal device slot.
WHIRR.
With a mechanical sound, the mana conductivity and purity appeared on the screen.
After checking the numbers, the owner’s eyes widened.
"Huh. This is not something that should come out among F-rank scraps. The purity is incredibly high too."
"I suppose I was lucky."
"By any chance, do you have more of the same material? With quality like this, I can offer you a very satisfying price."
The owner leaned forward slightly and asked in a subtle voice.
There was blatant curiosity and greed in his eyes.
But Cheol-woo waved his hand.
"I do not. I found exactly that one piece."
"Come now, no need to be like that. There are plenty of porters who hide good things and test the waters first."
"I really do not have any. That place has already been processed as closed by the Association, so I cannot enter it again anyway."
Cheol-woo’s voice was firm.
According to the Association’s records, Goblin’s Abandoned Mine had indeed already been cleared and closed.
Perhaps the owner knew that too, because he clicked his tongue in disappointment.
Since the item’s source was a closed dungeon and there was no remaining stock, he had no grounds to press further.
"That is a shame. Well, very well. It is only a single sample, but the quality is excellent, so I will purchase it."
The owner tapped on a calculator, then turned the display toward Cheol-woo.
When Cheol-woo saw the number on the screen, his eyebrow twitched slightly.
It was hard to believe that this was the price of a mineral fragment only the size of his thumbnail.
It was a lump sum he would only be able to touch after spending months breaking his back as a porter and cleaning up remaining monsters.
"How would you like to proceed?"
"Yes. Please send it to my account."
Cheol-woo nodded, pretending to be calm.
A moment later, his smartphone vibrated briefly.
[Deposit: 3,500,000 won]
After checking the notification on the screen, Cheol-woo rose from his seat.
The owner held out a business card and smiled genially.
"If you happen to get lucky and pick up something like this again, make sure to come to us. I will give you a proper price."
"I will."
Cheol-woo shoved the business card into his pocket and left the materials shop without hesitation.
When he stepped outside the building, a cold wind struck his face.
Cheol-woo stood in a corner by the roadside and turned his phone screen back on.
Staring down at the balance displayed in his banking app, he let out a short breath.
"So this actually works."
A single fragment was worth 3.5 million won.
He could not even guess how much the two-meter vein stretching across the wall would be worth if he mined it all.
The urge to go to a department store at once, buy armfuls of clothes for his parents, and reserve a good restaurant surged up inside him.
But Cheol-woo soon shook his head.
‘Hold back. Not yet.’
If he suddenly spent a large amount of money, his parents would undoubtedly be the first to suspect something.
Money without a clear source became poison.
Cheol-woo turned off his phone screen and walked toward the bus stop.
Today, he did not replace even a single piece of his old equipment and headed straight home as usual.
When he arrived at his rented room, he tossed off his coat and sat at his desk.
The first thing he did was open his notebook.
The hand holding the ballpoint pen moved quickly.
[Azure Mana Iron Sample Purchase Price: 3.5 million won]
[Dungeon Mana Consumed: 150]
[Notes: Quality is extremely high. Risk of source tracing if additional sales are made. Suspend sales for the time being.]
Cheol-woo drew a thick underline beneath the words.
The first transaction had succeeded, but its limits were also clear.
If an individual continuously supplied such a rare mineral, he would be traced.
It was the perfect situation to become a target for a fence or a major guild.
"Until I open a safe distribution channel, this is sealed."
The most important thing was safety.
The vein was not going anywhere. It would remain quietly inside the dungeon.
Time was on Cheol-woo’s side.
A few days later.
Cheol-woo entered Goblin’s Abandoned Mine again.
It was because the Azure Mana Iron regeneration time displayed on the management window was approaching.
As he walked through the mineshaft, taking in the familiar smell of earth, he stopped in front of the forked path.
"The mana is a bit of a waste, though."
Cheol-woo checked the mana value on the status window floating in the air.
He had gathered a little mana while clearing monster spawn areas, but once he spent 150 to open the mineshaft, the amount would become dangerously low again.
Still, he would not feel at ease unless he confirmed it with his own eyes.
[150 dungeon mana will be consumed.]
[Temporarily restoring Collapsed Mineshaft.]
RUMBLE!
With a vibration, the rock wall split to either side, revealing the narrow passage.
Cheol-woo strode inside before the dust had even settled.
After about ten meters, the dead-end wall appeared.
When he turned on his flashlight, the faint blue light struck his eyes first.
"Oh."
Cheol-woo moved close to the rock wall and shone the light on it.
The end of the vein he had chipped away with a hammer a few days earlier.
In the hollow space that had been gouged out, thin, transparent blue crystals had sprouted like frost.
He took off his glove and lightly brushed the crystals with his fingertips.
A hard, cold texture was vividly transmitted to him.
There had also been a change in the system window floating in the air.
[Harvestable Amount: 99.8%]
[Regeneration Time: 12 days 4 hours (based on current state)]
It was really growing.
The piece he had sold was being restored exactly as it had been.
Cheol-woo did not touch the newly grown section. Instead, he took out a measuring tape and carefully measured the full exposed length of the vein again.
Thirty centimeters wide. Two meters long.
There was not the slightest difference from when he had first seen it.
"This is insane. It really is a perpetual motion machine."
Cheol-woo let out a hollow laugh and put away the measuring tape.
It was not a one-time lottery prize.
He exited the mineshaft and watched until the rock wall closed again.
Only when the wall locked perfectly into place with a heavy THUD did the tension in his taut shoulders finally loosen.
After returning to his residence, Cheol-woo leaned roughly against the bed and stared into the air.
The status window was still floating before his eyes.
More than the balance displayed in his banking app, the words [Goblin’s Abandoned Mine] written under the owned dungeon entry felt far more valuable.
He briefly recalled the past.
There had been a time when he had hovered around, trying to enter a named guild.
He had tried desperately to join a good party somehow and pick up even the smallest scraps.
But the label of E-rank had always held him back.
The reality of a porter was that he was the first to shoulder dangerous work, yet he was pushed to the very back when settlement time came.
‘I do not need to do that anymore.’
There was no need to watch a guild master’s mood, and no need to argue with party members over reward distribution.
It was perfect private property that only he could enter.
If a single abandoned mine could yield this many mana stones and Azure Mana Iron, what would a higher-ranked dungeon be like?
The hidden value concealed within would be difficult even to imagine.
Cheol-woo opened his notebook to the first page.
Then he pressed down firmly with the ballpoint pen and wrote.
[Objective: Search for dungeons where 100% raid contribution can be achieved.]
[Condition 1: Low external evaluation and no competition.]
[Condition 2: High possibility of hidden resources or a hidden boss.]
Ordinary hunters always targeted dungeons with high grades and guaranteed rewards.
But Cheol-woo was different.
It had to be a place he could completely clear alone for it to become fully his.
To do that, he had to improve his skills and prepare meticulously.
"For the time being, I will quietly reap the rewards."
For the sake of keeping the secret, sales of Azure Mana Iron would be suspended for now.
Instead, he decided to focus on what he had already been doing: hunting goblins and mining mana stones.
No one would suspect him if he handed ordinary resources over to the purchasing office.
First, he had to build up a generous amount of starting capital without standing out.
On the next operating day.
Cheol-woo put on his old work clothes as usual and took his equipment pouch.
Standing in front of the gate, he lightly rolled his neck and stepped inside.
The musty smell unique to the abandoned mine pierced his nose.
Cheol-woo called up the management window out of habit.
A transparent panel appeared before his eyes and displayed the dungeon’s current status.
[Owned Dungeon: Goblin’s Abandoned Mine (F-rank)]
[Accumulated Dungeon Mana: 280]
"Oh."
Cheol-woo’s eyes gleamed.
Even though he had spent mana to open the mineshaft last time, the value had recovered quite a bit.
It seemed the rate at which dungeon mana accumulated was gradually increasing thanks to repeatedly clearing monsters and mining.
"Good. Let us go earn our keep."
He adjusted the pickaxe slung over his shoulder.
From the other side of the dark mineshaft, the rough breathing of goblins began to reach him.
The dull daily life of a perpetual E-rank porter had already shifted onto a completely different track.
Humming to himself, Cheol-woo walked deeper into the abandoned mine.