Tommy rummaged through his bag and brought out bread and a water bottle for everyone. These were things he had brought from the combat unit’s provisions, just in case.

When Dwig asked if it was really okay, Tommy nodded vigorously. He wanted to repay Dwig, who had saved him in some way.

“Brother, have some. Miss too.”

Dwig handed two pieces of bread to Elion. It seemed like he considered Rosé and Elion as a pair. Gratefully, Elion pushed the bread he received towards Rosé.

“Please have it.”

Rosé pushed the bread back towards Elion, gesturing with her hand. It was only half a piece of bread split into two.

Eating one piece each would only make them more hungry. So she wanted to give in to Elion, who had suffered fighting demons.

“I’m not hungry at all because I ate a lot in the morning. It’s okay…”

Rumble.

Rosé blushed without finishing her sentence. This guy with no patience had never been helpful in her life. Embarrassed, Elion coughed lightly and pushed the bread towards her.

“I also ate a lot in the morning so I’m not really hungry…”

Rumble.

Rosé looked surprised and looked down at her stomach. But the vibration didn’t come from her stomach.

Glancing at Elion, she saw him blushing like her, scratching his forehead.

“It seems like we both digested what we ate in the morning.”

“Let’s eat together, then. Just do it.”

With a soft laugh, Rosé extended a piece of bread to Elion’s lips. After hesitating for a moment, Elion nodded and accepted the bread.

At that moment, Dwig, who had been silently watching the two hesitating figures, chuckled and spoke up.

“Seeing you two reminds me of my time when I was a newlywed. We used to share even a single bean back then. Now we fight just to not have it taken away.”

As Rosé nibbled on the bread, she bowed deeply. Glancing at Elion, she saw him looking somewhat flustered, staring blankly into space.

They couldn’t just say that they were a transmigrator and a middle manager… It might be better to just leave them misunderstood.

“Dwig, what grade do you think they are?”

Horace, who was cleaning his pickaxe, asked at that moment. After pondering for a while, Dwig narrowed his eyes and replied.

“I’m not sure either. But at least they’re not Grade 5.”

Dwig’s tone indicated that he didn’t want to make hasty judgments.

Knowing the exact grade was helpful for those accustomed to being on guard like the Blue Knights, but for ordinary people, it could be more harmful than helpful. Some hope was needed to survive.

“We might all die like this.”

“Even the combat units are all dead… Can we make it out on our own?”

Dwig looked around at the dejected people and tried to put strength into his voice.

“By now, Sir Sergi must have reported back. Don’t worry. Even if not all seven officers come, he must have organized a rescue team with quite capable members by now.”

Elion explained quietly to Rosé, who looked at him with a questioning face, 

“Sir Sergi is one of the seven officers.”

“They are an elite force of Pumong patrolling the upper boundary. I heard some of them are former Blue Knights.”

As he continued his explanation, Rosé’s mouth widened in surprise. Oh. She had thought it was just a scary big organization, but hearing this made it sound more like a guild.

“I heard that the high-ranking officers are stationed near an open boundary. Even if this place is considered high-level, they probably won’t bother with us.”

Nicholas smirked. He had been quite upset that Pumong had formed a low-ranking combat unit under the guise of being a Grade 5 boundary.

Pumong assigned guild members with poor skills in mining cheap magic stones like yellow magic stones and green magic stones to combat units.

At that time, even the mining team was composed of cheap external laborers whose lives were cheap. That’s how it turned out like this. Out of forty people, only seven survived in such a miserable state.

“Let’s wait for now. There’s no other way anyway.”

Horace said in a tired voice as dry as a bone. Not only him but everyone here seemed exhausted.

What they lacked was sleep. Dwig took out a pocket watch to check the time. The hour hand had passed 1 o’clock.

“For now, let’s take a nap. Two people stand guard in pairs for two hours each.”

Dwig summarized the situation in concise words. Everyone agreed and decided on the order of the watch.

Shortly after, Nicholas and Dwig, who had the best stamina, decided to take the first watch and picked up their pickaxes.

“I hope nothing happens.”

Setting aside Dwig’s earnest words, the remaining five fell into a light slumber.

* * *

The last watch was Elion and Tommy.

However, Tommy, who had slept deeply for four hours, still couldn’t get out of his drowsiness. Eventually, not even 30 minutes into his watch, he closed his eyes and snored.

It was an opportunity for Elion. After confirming that everyone was fast asleep, Elion reached out into thin air.

〈SYSTEM〉 Unable to summon ‘Asker’s Sword’ to the current location. Target the fosterling.

It was expected. Elion reluctantly picked up his pickaxe and called up another system window.

〈SYSTEM〉 Displaying player’s status window.

Caregiver Stamina 1000

Caregiver Charisma 3

Caregiver Intelligence 1000

Caregiver Diligence 1000

Caregiver Control 5

Caregiver Affection 554

Caregiver Livelihood 788

Caregiver Wealth 15

??? 0

From caregiver stamina to caregiver wealth, it was beyond his concern. They seemed to fluctuate by 2 or 3 points depending on whether he prepared breakfast or overslept.

Strangely, his charisma, control, and wealth didn’t seem to fluctuate much. Perhaps charisma and control were probably because he didn’t target Rosé, and wealth seemed to be due to the money limit imposed on him.

Wealth: 299 sillas

Since becoming a ‘player’ by some unfortunate event, he could only hold less than 300 sillas. He was advised to focus on the fosterling rather than useless thoughts.

And the part written as ‘???’

0.

It hadn’t increased at all since then.

“Sigh…”

Elion, grasping at straws, decided to focus on the ability he could uniquely wield rather than the one he had lost.

He possessed two amazing abilities that no one else could have: one was tracking the fosterling’s location, and the other was…

〈SYSTEM〉 Sharing the sight of fosterling ‘Rosé Mora’.

It was sight sharing.

Soon, Rosé’s sight appeared on the virtual screen above. It seemed she was sleeping soundly with her eyes closed.

Elion continued down the path. Detecting magic with just his body was difficult, but not impossible.

At what seemed like an empty path’s end, there was a door. It was a newly appeared door from three hours ago.

Elion felt around the center of the door and confirmed the engraved inscription. He could feel several overlapping characters.

As expected, the Quamad watched over them and modified the inscription each time. Among them, a newly carved letter mocked Elion.

‘I know what you want.’

Confirming the corner of the screen brightening up, Elion turned his steps. Rosé had woken up. It was time for the fosterling to run.

* * *

“Umm, Elion…”

Awakening from sleep, Rosé felt around the adjacent space like a fledgling bird searching for its mother. But she didn’t feel the warmth she should have.

Suddenly feeling uneasy, Rosé sat up straight.

“Miss, how are you feeling?”

At that moment, a gentle voice was heard. It was Elion holding a pickaxe. Only then did her tension seem to ease.

“Oh. I was on watch.”

“Yes. We should start waking everyone up.”

Including over there. Elion smiled and pointed at Tommy who had fallen asleep while on watch. He was one of those who had agreed to stand watch.

“I should have woken up too. Leaving Elion alone…”

Feeling sorry for Elion, Rosé narrowed her eyes. She was the only one who hadn’t been put in a group of two.

The reason was because she was the only woman among men. Dwig had considered her and worried about what might happen if something occurred between the two.

“I’m glad to hear you say that.”

People began to wake up gradually upon hearing their conversation.

Dwig, who woke up first, looked pitifully at Tommy, who had fallen asleep with his mouth open.

That’s how the young ones are. If one fell for him, Elion would be married at a young age and still be so gentle even after not sleeping for hours.

Although his eyes were not clearly visible due to his hat, it was clear he was quite handsome by the way he was dressed.

They made a good pair. Dwig thought so as he started waking up the others who were still in slumber.

“Ugh… Is it already morning?”

“Well, whether it’s night or day, it’s all dark…”

They each got up and packed their belongings, muttering complaints. Using the little water left, they moistened their lips and then checked their pickaxe blades.

Before they knew it, it was close to 9 o’clock. It was a time when they could hope for a rescue team. Dwig engraved large letters on the stone wall with the end of his pickaxe.

‘There are seven survivors.’ The numbers were engraved as clearly as possible in case one person was missing from being rescued.

“Can’t we just wait here?”

Nicholas asked, stroking his tangled hair in drowsiness. Everyone seemed to be secretly expecting that, waiting quietly for Dwig’s response.

Dwig met their eyes squarely and spoke.

“It’s still dangerous. If we stay in one place for too long, the monsters will catch the scent of humans and come running. We have to keep moving.”

Especially the monsters living underground had highly developed senses of smell, making it even more dangerous. If they stayed any longer, a giant monster might emerge from underground, like the mole earlier.

“Damn it, let’s just go for now.”

Horace followed Dwig, tousling his hair. The rest, who were just watching each other, eventually followed the two.

But Elion was not among them. Rosé grabbed Elion’s unmoving sleeve.

“Elion?”

“Please follow me.”

Leading the hesitating Rosé, Elion headed down an unexpected side path.

The others walking ahead were too busy watching out in front of them to notice where the two were going.

In the meantime, the two barely squeezed through a narrow passageway and reached a dead-end. Elion pushed her into a gap in the rock wall.

“Do we really have to go in?”

“I’m sorry. Please bear with me a little longer.”

Elion held Rosé tightly, making sure not a single strand of hair was visible. Rosé couldn’t focus due to the faint scent of soap emanating from his body. Despite not wearing any perfume, there was a refreshing fragrance.

“What’s in there?”

“It seems to be a door.”

It was the voice of the group ahead. Not far away, something had been discovered, and the voice echoed vividly inside the cave.

Just like Elion had done at dawn, the men found a door engraved with words. Dwig, who was at the front, read along the inscription.

“The door will open with the voice of an adulterer…”