"Ugh, all of these are really hard to use." A male member of the Redtooth tribeined. He was building a tent frame with burning logs. "My palms have turned ck too."


    "Don''tin, Zhen." Another man, also building the frame, reminded him. "Just move your ass."


    "This is all because Tosa forgot to mention that this area was burned! Even though he was told by the tribe in the east!"


    Setting up the tents meant that they would be in this ce for more than a day. They anticipate the rain.


    So, how much salt will they mine?


    I passed the sacks that were still lying around, surveying the situation in the area that was only filled with a handful of people. I saw Anne sitting alone, staring at the crack on the cliff.


    Because I was too worried, I came here. However, there doesn''t seem to be anything extraordinary.


    After making sure everything was fine there, I moved to the field filled with colorful flowers. There were about ten people there, and most of them were archers. Apparently, if the miners in the cave ran outside, the archers were tasked with shooting down the chasing monsters.


    "You collected that for your son, Yogi?" Lara bowed slightly beside Sena''s father, who was picking various colorful flowers in the area.


    Yogi turned to Lara and raised an eyebrow. "Huh, how did you know?"


    "Sena once showed me his favorite item." Lara smiled. "A purple dried flower that looks simr to the one here."


    Looking at some of the flower stalks he was holding, Yogi smiled too. "It is a souvenir from my previous expedition. And Sena really likes it."


    I checked the situation again and found Tosa standing with his arms crossed, focused on the dark cave. Some people can be seen mining there.


    It seems everything went smoothly. Am I being too paranoid? Perhaps I should return to my colony, keeping an eye on the inhabitants as usual?


    "Heaah!!!" The booming voice of a man echoed from the cave.


    It was Reha''s voice.


    I rushed into the cave and found the workers still busy mining the salt, lit only by a few torches. Some had already started to carry containers containingrge chunks of salt and brought them out of the cave.


    Meanwhile, Reha stood guard by shouldering his giant cleaver in the slightly deeper part of the cave. His weapon appeared to be covered in white liquid, and near his feet were the five corpses of stump scorpions lying around. The dull brown beasts that resembled scorpions without a tail were nearly crushed by the sh from Reha.


    "Come on, guys. Keep it up." While mining with a pickaxe, Lin gave encouragement, but not too loudly. "We have to mine as much as we can, so that when wee back here in the future, we can just take these salts without having to enter this cave."


    Ah, so that''s it. They wouldn''t immediately bring a lot of these things to their tribe.


    Reha yawned. "Argghhh!!! I''m bored!"


    "Don''t talk so loud, dear." Lin hissed. "We don''t want a giant stump scorpioning at us."


    "Heaah!!!" Reha eximed while shing a stump scorpion the size of an adult''s head that came at him. "I want to fight the big one, Lin!"


    "Hey, can you pay attention to what I''m saying?" Lin threw down her pickaxe, and put her hands on her hips. The other workers also stopped to watch what was happening. "We can''t be reckless here. I''ve been hearing that you keep screaming every time you kill those monsters. Please, once again, be quiet."


    "Tsk!" Reha snorted, turned around, and started walking to his lover. "Hey, you can''t just control me, woman! Yes, we do…."


    The bald man''s speech was interrupted by the appearance of the shriek from inside the cave. The workers stopped and looked around. The shriek was like a singer''s voice with such a high pitch, but at the same time, I felt that the voice didn''te from a human.


    If I were in the real world, my heart would be beating fast right now, and I would be breaking out in cold sweat.


    "Run!" Lin gave the order.


    The workers immediately ran out. Lin was about to run too, but she was look horrified when she saw that her lover didn''t move. Reha was still at his ce, and his loudughter echoed in the cave again.


    "About time! Finally, the one I''ve been waiting for hase!"


    "Hey, we have to go now, Reha! ording to Tosa''s orders, we must flee immediately if there is a loud noise!" Lin shouted.


    "Shut up!" Reha shed some stump scorpions that came at him. "I''m the greatest hero of the Redtooth tribe! I will defeat all these ugly beasts so that our tribe can mine in peace!"


    Now, the stump scorpions that appeared were twice the size they were before. Reha''sughter grew louder, and his movements were getting more agile. He shed and stabbed the beasts almost without a break.


    "We have to get out now, dear!!!" Lin started to cry, but at the same time, she didn''te forward to pull Reha at all. Either because she was too scared or because she was being held back by her guardian spirit. "You can die if you stay there!!!"


    Reha didn''t answer and continued to attack the animals like a madman. In no time, the corpses of the stump scorpions were scattered, creating puddles of disgusting white liquid.


    And none of those monsters could hurt Reha. Seeing that, Lin finally stopped screaming and looked at his lover in amazement.


    "Heaah!!!" Reha shed thest stump scorpion. His breath was now ragged, and his body was full of white liquid from the monsters he had killed.


    Is all this over? It only takes one person to defeat them? This is far from what I imagined after hearing talk about the salt cave, which is said to be horrifying.


    However, that terrifying shriek still echoed in the cave.


    "Come on!" Reha walked forward while spreading his arms. "Give me more!"


    The shriek stopped right after Reha shouted, reced by the fast and tight tter of something approaching. With a big arrogant smile, Reha took a stance, ready to attack.


    And from the darkness of the cave, I could see the appearance of a stump scorpion whose size was much more massive than the others, maybe as big as a minibus. The color is also darker, the proportions of the pincers are more enormous, and the body is full of nodules.


    I had to back away because I was intimidated by the beast even though my life was not in danger at all.


    "Ahahaha!" Reha dashed forward, but the giant stump scorpion elerated at an incredible speed and suddenly was in front of the bald man. The self-proimed hero didn''t have time to do anything when his stomach was mped by the monster.


    Reha also didn''t have time to scream when the pincer of the monster closed, splitting his body in two, sttering fresh blood everywhere.


    "Kyaaaaaaa!!!"


    I could hear Lin''s hysterical screams.