NOVEL NEXT Chapter 90
“Kyurukyuru?”
With a blissful expression, she took another bite of the fruit, chewing happily before finishing it off and turning her round, sparkling eyes toward me.
It seemed she had a particular fondness for peaches, as she had been eating them nonstop for quite some time now.
Every time she finished one, she would lick the juice off her fingers in the most adorable way, stirring up my protective instincts.
As I watched Carol with a fond smile…
“Carol definitely knows something!”
Eve, dressed in a frilly apron with her hair tied back in a ponytail, carried over breakfast on a tray—though, in reality, it was an illusion created by “The World” spell, cast over a magically conjured puppet.
Today’s breakfast consisted of sunny-side-up eggs made with Kaiser eggs, a warm vegetable salad, and a cabbage potage soup made with milk.
Although I had stocked up on seasonings and other essentials when we last visited town, the core ingredients came fresh from my [Farm], allowing us to enjoy luxurious meals despite being inside a dungeon.
Once you get used to living like this in a dungeon, there’s no going back to a normal life. In fact, my biggest challenge going forward might not be facing powerful enemies but rather the inconvenience of forming a party.
Ignoring Eve’s outburst, I got lost in such thoughts—
“Don’t you agree, Master?!”
Eve’s face suddenly popped up right in front of me.
Startled, I nearly recoiled, but then I remembered—right, it’s illusion magic.
“I mean, sure, it’s suspicious, but how exactly did she carry that much orichalcum?”
When I measured the orichalcum that had spilled from the bed, it amounted to about half an ingot’s worth.
Based on Carol’s strength—judging by how she handled herself in her fight with Kaiser—it was certainly within her ability to carry that much weight.
But the real question was… where had she brought it from?
Even as I continued eating my breakfast, I kept an eye on Carol, who was steadily working through her endless pile of peaches.
There had been at least a hundred stacked up earlier, yet now only a few remained…
Where is she putting them all?
“Oh wow! It looks like we’re running low, so I’ll go grab more from the [Farm]!”
A shocked Eve rushed out.
As I watched her go, thinking about how tough her role was, something strange started happening with Carol.
“H-Hey… are you okay?”
Carol curled up, her body trembling slightly.
She seemed to be straining, and the sight made me uneasy.
“Kyuu… Kyuu…”
She was definitely putting in some effort.
I wasn’t sure what was happening, but I decided to watch over her for now.
And then—
—Pop! Pop! Pop!—
Something shot out from Carol’s rear in rapid succession.
When I saw what it was…
“No way…?”
Just then, Eve returned, carrying a huge haul of peaches.
“Phew… I brought back 200 peaches. That should be enough, right?”
She must have gone all the way to the [Farm] and back.
Then—
“Ahhh! Orichalcum?! Did you solve the mystery?!”
Eve rushed up to me, eyes shining with curiosity, and I found myself at a loss for how to explain it.
“Most likely, she’s an [Ore Eater], Master.”
Eve, looking down at Carol, who was still devouring peaches at an alarming rate, identified her true nature.
“Ore Eater?”
I tilted my head at the unfamiliar term.
“It’s a mythical beast from fairy tales. They’re said to live in mines and bring fortune to the miners who encounter them.”
Now that she mentioned it, I had managed to obtain a variety of rare metals…
Perhaps there really were people in the past who had acquired rare metals thanks to an Ore Eater like Carol.
“Their unique trait is that whatever they eat gets converted into metal when excreted. That probably explains why we kept finding mithril and valite lying around.”
“So… all that stuff I was so happy to pick up… was actually Carol’s… um… waste?”
“Most likely, yes.”
Eve’s confirmation hit me harder than I expected.
“I mean, I can understand mithril or valite being excreted from ores found in a mine… but how does eating fruit result in orichalcum?”
In response to my doubt, Eve prefaced her answer with, “This is just a hypothesis, but…”
“I don’t think the type of ore she eats is the key factor. Instead, it’s the power contained within the food. The vegetables and fruits from your [Farm] hold an immense amount of energy. Normally, that energy just gets absorbed and excreted like usual. But Carol, being what she is, can condense that power into solid metal.”
That was news to me.
But thinking about it, it would explain why my crops tasted so exceptional and never spoiled.
“Since Carol is a mythical beast, a good portion of her body is likely made up of magic itself. That theory makes sense to me.”
As if to prove Eve’s words, Carol began to tremble again as soon as she finished eating the 200 peaches.
Then, she promptly excreted six chunks of orichalcum—
“Kyururun~”
—and let out a satisfied chirp.
“Uh… so basically… if we keep Carol around, we’ll have an unlimited supply of orichalcum?”
“Normally, making an Ore Eater produce even a single piece of orichalcum would require an enormous amount of food. But in Master’s case, you can get as much as you need from the [Farm]. So, yes—technically, you could obtain an infinite amount.”
Carol, now finished with her meal, was looking up at us with hungry eyes, clearly ready for more.
This little glutton would probably eat all day if left in a feeding area.
“Well… in any case…”
“Yeah… this is another one of those things.”
Eve and I exchanged glances, reaching the same conclusion.
“Now we have yet another secret we can’t afford to let anyone find out.”
This was an ability that could spark conflicts between nations.
Even royalty wouldn’t be able to ignore something like this.
And so, I found myself with a new pet—along with an endless supply of precious metals.