I Became the Guardian of Big Shots in the Game

Early morning.
The colony subjugation team that finished camping began to move.
It’s already the 3rd day since they moved to the abandoned mine.
Their purpose is only one.
To eliminate all monster colonies in the abandoned mine for mana stone mining.
With mana stone prices skyrocketing due to the war in Cragent.
Once mining begins, not only will there be exceptional profits.
It can also solve the mana stone shortage in the Etrion Kingdom.
The mercenaries will get a large sum if the request is successful.
The Sharian Count family will gain wealth by being involved in mana stone distribution.
Ethan can solve the mana stone shortage.
Everyone approached the operation with a serious mindset.
Of course, there were exceptions.
The children were still dozing off in the wagon, not fully awake yet.
Ethan gently covered the children with blankets before returning to his seat.
The mage Dusty was checking his equipment.
“Thank you for helping.”
Though Levin and Dolty remained at the mansion as their bodies weren’t fully recovered.
They joined Ethan’s journey, saying they were still fit.
The addition of those who had been exploring the depths of the labyrinth until recently was a great help.
So Ethan was sincerely grateful.
“Don’t mind it. Repaying what we’ve received is an explorer’s duty.”
Dusty’s tone was straightforward and honest.
It wasn’t just simple humility.
“Besides, it doesn’t seem like we’ll need to step up. It’s hard to say we’re repaying the favor this way.”
His eyes were on Borka, who was dozing off leaning on Elyssia’s shoulder.
“Though they’re talented children, they won’t be able to match the Douglan exploration team’s long experience.”
“I’ve thought this before, but you really have a way with words. Hahaha.”
The road to the abandoned mine entrance was peaceful.
After chatting with Dusty for a while as they climbed the mountain path.
A wide ruin appeared.
Traces of a small village that once stood there.
When the minerals to be mined dried up, people left and the village was abandoned, leading to its current state.
“Don’t enter the buildings as they might collapse due to age.”
“Unload the supplies first and set up the tents!”
In an instant, a command post and tents were set up.
Ethan also joined after waking up the children.
‘Root, please arm me.’
[The first root of the World Tree bestows and upon the user.]
The children who were struggling to put on armor were surprised once again at this sight.
“What on earth…”
Yesterday he absorbed skill books.
Today he summons armor and a sword.
Elyssia and Greg looked on with envious, amazed eyes, saying “I’m jealous, it’s amazing”.
But Borka was visibly flustered.
Levi seized that gap to interject.
“Do you understand now? Ethan-nim is different from ordinary humans.”
“…I don’t know.”
Borka who denied it out of a feeling of rebellion.
“Even if you keep denying it, you’ll realize it someday.”
Though annoyed by Levi’s subtle eye smile.
On the other hand, she began to harbor different thoughts.
‘Why does she believe in Ethan-nim to that extent?’
Could he really be an incredibly capable person?
Borka unconsciously began to expect more from Ethan.

Temporary command post.
When Count Sharian, Cecil, Ethan, Dusty, senior knights, and the mercenary captain gathered in one place.
Cecil opened her mouth.
“I’ll confirm once more before we enter. Ethan-ssi’s group will take the lead in tunnel 1, and those with dungeon exploration experience from the mercenary group will take the lead in tunnel 2. Afterwards, the remaining mercenaries and our family’s forces will be appropriately divided and inserted in stages into tunnels 1 and 2.”
The advance party will open the way.
The follow-up troops will back up the advance party.
That way, they will advance to the cavern where the colony is located and engage in battle.
If they eliminate the queen producing monsters, the colony subjugation will be over.
“The second and third colonies are located in deeper areas. They are estimated to be in the miners’ rest area and the open space where iron ore was mined out. We haven’t actually seen this side, but we obtained information by hiring a mage, so we’ll have to check later.”
‘Did they see through the underground structure with scrying magic?’
If so, it should be quite accurate information.
“The first colony is a goblin horde. The second colony is a big bat swarm, and the last colony is estimated to be stone worms.”
The mercenaries’ faces darkened.
Goblins can be defeated without major losses if they form a defensive formation and deal with them.
Big bats are just large vampire bats, not particularly formidable monsters.
But the last stone worms are different.
“Stone worms, you say. To catch those, we need several high-ranking combat mages and expert-level knights.”
Giant worms over 5m long with rock-hard outer shells.
They’re hard to even cut with ordinary swords, and if such creatures have formed a colony.
“It would be suicide to clash with our current forces.”
“Sir Stanley will be with you. Don’t worry.”
“I know he’s a famous expert-level knight, but he’s just one person!”
“Even for a small colony, there will be at least 20 stone worms. Sir Stanley alone can’t draw all their attention.”
For large monster subjugation, each role has different tasks to perform.
If even one makes a mistake, it can cause great damage on another side.
A typical example is aggro ping-pong.
It’s practically impossible for Sir Stanley alone to hold aggro against multiple stone worms.
The damage will be greater than expected.
Perhaps the entire mercenary group might have to lay down their lives.
Though the knights didn’t openly express dissatisfaction.
They looked just as uneasy as the mercenaries.
Ethan asked the mercenary captain.
“In summary, we need to draw the stone worms’ attention, right?”
“That’s right. That’s the minimum condition for tackling stone worms.”
“Then there shouldn’t be a big problem.”
“Pardon?”
Ethan called Borka.
“What is it?”
“Here.”
And handed her Dolly, which he took out of his backpack.
“Dolly!”
“Can you enlarge it once?”
“Okay!”
“Whoa! Not here!!”

Mercenary Captain Tron laughed emptily.
The action Ethan took, saying he could draw the stone worms’ attention, was.
Simply handing a toy to a small child.
‘Is he joking now?’
Everyone’s nerves are on edge as they’re about to be deployed into the narrow, dark abandoned mine, and he does this?
Could he be trying to mock the mercenaries by flaunting his friendship with the count?
Such thoughts occurred to him.
“Captain, what kind of nonsense is this?”
“How should I know?”
His subordinates were also full of complaints.
Thinking this shouldn’t just be watched, he was about to say something when.
The girl called Borka ran far away and put the toy on the ground.
And then.
-Flash!
Light burst from the girl’s fingertips and.
The toy began to grow.
“???”
Everyone rushed out of the command post to see it growing endlessly.
Finally, when it stopped growing.
“A golem?”
With an appearance that would frighten even veteran mercenaries who had been through countless battlefields and.
-Kuoooooo!!!
Just a short roar.
Made trees in the mountain break and birds fly away in surprise.
It clearly wasn’t an ordinary object.
Yet despite unleashing such a dangerous thing.
Ethan and Borka were unfazed.
“Borka, can you adjust Dolly’s size? I think it needs to be smaller than now to move freely in the cavern where the colony is located.”
“How much?”
“About half the current size. Can you do it?”
“It’s possible.”
Rather, as if familiar with it, they immediately received feedback and even adjusted the golem’s size on the spot.
The mercenaries and knights were left speechless.
“Is this enough to draw the stone worms’ attention?”
“…It’s enough. Yes, of course.”
Tron instinctively nodded his head vigorously.
‘If I nitpick here, what will happen?’
The image of himself in his imagination was horrifying.
When the captain bowed his head, naturally his subordinates sealed their mouths too.
Thus, the personnel’s complaints became zero.
Shortly after, the advance party entered the abandoned mine.
The colony subjugation plan proceeded smoothly.

“D-Daughter. Did you know about such things too?”
“…No, I didn’t.”
Count Sharian, who couldn’t close his mouth as if his jaw had dropped, and.
Cecil, who couldn’t hide her dumbfounded expression either.
The father and daughter met eyes and laughed helplessly.
“I was foolish. To not recognize such a noble person.”
“But you didn’t antagonize him, so he’ll forgive you.”
“Is that so?”
“Yes, because He is generous.”
Even though Cecil barged in in the middle of the night without proper preparation, Ethan instead showed consideration by telling her to stay the night and leave the next day.
And that’s not all.
Even when she begged for help again the next day, he only sent Cecil away with words.
He didn’t cause any harm.
And he even solved all the problems cleanly.
“So He’ll finish this job safely too.”
The count nodded while looking at the abandoned mine entrance.
Faith that wasn’t there before began to spring up.

-Swoosh!
Crimson flashes brushed past the dark cave walls, tearing monsters apart.
“There’s a hole in the ceiling!”
“Okay, big brother! I’ll handle it!”
Hwaryon quickly covered the gaps.
“Hop goblin in front!”
“I’ll go!”
When a strong opponent appeared, Ponya advanced and cut it down.
‘A strong opponent… is it?’
A hop goblin is a threatening monster that normally takes 4-5 average adventurers to hunt together.
But it was nothing to Levi, Hwaryon, and Ponya.
“It’s easier than the labyrinth.”
“Right! The monsters are weaker than the ones we met in the labyrinth.”
“Still, we shouldn’t let our guard down.”
At that, the Douglan exploration team and Sir Rashid following behind were left speechless.
“At this rate, there won’t be anything for us to do, will there?”
As Slan said.
The passage clearing work was finished with just the strength of three people.
“Are you all okay?”
“Y-Yes.”
Elyssia clung tightly to Ethan, her voice trembling.
Greg looked slightly tense but didn’t seem scared as he nodded his head.
Borka was also a bit tense in the unfamiliar environment, but showed no signs of fear.
“Then let’s keep going. I’m counting on you, kids.”
“Yes, Ethan-nim.”
As they gradually reached the end of the passage, Ethan sent a mana messenger ball to the rear.
The main force waiting in standby should arrive soon.
“Kids, then now let’s slowly enter and…”
“Yes, we’ll finish it quickly.”
“Levi? Wait-”
Levi instructed Ponya to charge in and.
Jumped into the cavern together with Hwaryon.
“Krrrr?!”
The goblins’ attention focused on the three of them.
At the same time.
“Kwaaarrrr!!!”
When the goblin king and queen roared.
All the goblins remaining in the cavern gathered under the command of the goblin royal guards.
“Oh no!”
There are too many.
It would be big trouble if they get surrounded.
Ethan and the Douglan exploration team immediately ran after Levi.
But.
“Yeah! Now this is a real fight!”
Ponya engaged six goblin royal guards simultaneously, cutting off their heads one by one.
“Ugh, it smells like goblins.”
Hwaryon kept complaining about body fluids splattering while constantly mowing down the goblins rushing at Ponya.
“Die.”
Levi bound the goblin king and queen tightly with one whip lash, then pulled hard and burst them.
“Well, well.”
Dusty laughed in amazement while catching his breath.
“They’re real monsters.”
Perhaps it wasn’t the children who came on a field trip.
The Douglan exploration team members thought it might have been themselves.

“We’ve wasted too much time! We need to match pace with the other side! Break through!”
“Aaah! The floor is too slippery!”
“Hey, you bastard! Get your act together!”
Green goblin bodily fluids are splattered everywhere.
The passage is narrow and they keep popping out of holes dug all around.
“Aaaagh!!”
One mercenary was dragged away by three goblins that jumped out of a hole.
The screams quickly ceased.
“I said break through!”
Tron urged his subordinates but had no good solution.
The knights were equally flustered.
Sir Stanley was skilled enough to deal with a hop goblin in one blow.
But in the long, narrow, dark, and sloping passage, he couldn’t exert much strength.
‘At this rate, we’ll be annihilated.’
Tron was about to give the order to retreat to at least save his subordinates.
If the knights block the way, he was willing to die fighting those bastards in a dogfight.
He was about to do that when.
“Krrrr!!!”
Something sharp protruded from the belly of a goblin rushing towards Tron’s shield.
“Krarara!!”
The creature was dragged backwards.
‘What’s that?’
Someone walked from the cavern side, swinging their arm.
Every time the dazzling whip lashes touched the goblins, their bodily fluids and bone fragments splattered.
The goblin horde that had the mercenaries and knights struggling was cleared in an instant.
“Who are you!”
The mercenaries tensed up at the appearance of an extraordinary expert.
When the person walked to where the torchlight reached.
The mercenaries’ tension turned into awe.
“It’s a girl?”
“Yeah! One of those kids we saw earlier!”
“Ethan-nim is waiting. Let’s hurry and join up.”
The silver-haired girl they had seen at the command post.
She was a member of the advance party that went into tunnel 1.
‘Have they already broken through on that side?’
“Contact the main force! We’re advancing quickly!”
As they followed Levi.
“My goodness…”
The first target, the goblin colony, was already annihilated.
Not only the advance party from tunnel 1.
Even the main force had arrived in the cavern.
“They really were unbelievably skilled experts.”
Tron muttered that it was fortunate they were allies.

Deep in the abandoned mine.
In the place that was once the miners’ rest area and temporary iron ore storage.
A man was sharpening a heavy greatsword on a whetstone.
After lifting the greatsword and turning it this way and that to check if it was well sharpened.
The man’s eyes sharpened at the vibrations echoing above his head.
“Looks like they’ve finally made it this far.”
The time had come to thoroughly drench his sword in blood after a long while.