I Evolve By Collecting Infinite Spirits-Chapter 51: Investigating

Sin quickly noted the basic features and names of every other ore collector on his team.

Everyone wore orange overalls with large white letters on them reading: ’ORE COLLECTOR.’

They were wearing yellow plastic caps with the same writing on it as well.

Sin was given this equipment as soon as he arrived, the clothes folded and the cap placed on top.

Sin didn’t see any of their Hunter ID’s, so he assumed they were normal workers.

While he and the workers waited at a table, he glanced at the table right next to them.

There, the Hunter’s for the quest were sitting and waiting for their members as well.

They were all surrounding a crystal ball that was sitting atop a small pedestal right in the center of the table.

’Is that Surfin?’ Sin mused, making the assumption.

He found it a bit weird that the Hunter’s would sit at another table entirely, but no one else in his table seemed to mind.

They were all men in their thirties and forties for the most part. All they spoke about was random old man stuff about life that Sin didn’t really care to pay attention to.

The Hunter’s on the other table were decked out in expensive equipment. Glancing at their IDs, Sin saw that they were all D to B Rank at max.

There were three D ranks, all men. Two C ranks that were women were also on the team, along with one B Rank Hunter who looked to be everyone’s leader--a younger-looking man.

Sin kept his presence low, not talking much or making any sudden decisions.

He was getting a bit of money from this job, but more than that, he was investigating Surfin’s quest. So, he didn’t want to get caught early.

His plan was to somehow get Surfin’s dungeons in the future, so he couldn’t afford to let his identity be known yet.

If Surfin or other rich buyers knew Sin was their competitor, they would most likely crush his ability to buy their dungeons quite easily.

For now, the best route was to stay anonymous.

After waiting for another few minutes, one last Hunter arrived at the Hunter’s table. A man who was also C-Rank.

As soon as he arrived, the Hunter’s moved quick without any communication to the collector team.

Still, the ore collectors moved no slower--swiftly following behind the Hunters.

Outside, two carriages were waiting for both teams.

Sin entered the carriage with his team, silently waiting for the quest to begin.

The dungeon they were going to was a D-Rank one. It took them about three hours to arrive at their destination.

It was a series of small ruins covered with moss and aged by nature.

At the center of the ruins, there were stairs leading into the depths.

Sin and the Ore Collector team were told to wait on the side while the Hunter’s went in and cleared all of the beasts within the dungeon, along with beating the dungeon boss.

"Tsk... those guys really don’t trust us, do they?" An older ore collector chuckled, "Back in my prime, I could probably fight no less than an F-Rank Hunter myself! Don’t underestimate me!" He said as he lifted his right arm--he and the other men laughing as though what he said was satire.

Sin’s eyes narrowed.

The man who made the joke turned, looking at Sin.

"You didn’t find that one funny, young man?"

Sin was a bit thrown off by this. He was trying to be out of everyone’s attention by staying silent, but he realized only now that being silent while everyone else was interacting only made him stand out even more.

"Oh... no, it was funny. I was just... thinking of something else." Sin quickly made up an excuse.

"I see..." The man replied, everyone else’s attention now pointed at Sin. "Whats your name bud? I don’t want a nickname like Silent Boy to catch on or something! My men are quite quick when it comes to stuff like that. Hahaha!" He burst out into a laugh.

The other collectors did the same--laughing their assess off.

’So this guy’s the leader huh?’ Sin mused, "Its Bob. You can call me Bob." He replied.

He decided not to give his real name--he wanted to keep his identity hidden from anyone at this location just in case it somehow reached Surfin’s ears through the Hunters or something.

"Bob huh? Well I’m Thurfos, nice to meet you." The man reached his hand out, "Usually, Lord Surfin hires us for his Ore Collecting. We aren’t a group or anything... we just happened to keep doing the same quests and now are all friends. You, however, are a new face. I hope we can continue doing business together in the future."

Sin shook his hand, nodding, "I see... I feel the same way." He returned the kind gesture.

After this, he began to talk a bit more in conversations--still maintaining a fairly invisible presence in the group. 𝒻𝓇𝑒𝘦𝘸𝑒𝒷𝓃ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝒸ℴ𝘮

An hour or so passed and the Hunter’s exited the dungeon.

The leader pointed at the dungeon entrance, "Thurfos! Lets go..."

Thurfos nodded at the Hunter, "Alright boys!" He addressed the Ore Collectors, "Lets get this party started and stopped before dinner!"

Sin followed Thurfos and the group into the dungeon.

They were accompanied by the leader of the Hunter group, who made sure everything was collected properly and also no merchandise was stolen.

The dungeon itself was plain at first.

The stairs were lit up by torches after you went far enough down.

Eventually, they arrived at an open room that was beginning to get overpowered by natural stone.

Beast corpses were lying around the area--but their bodies had already been salvaged for goods, it seemed.

Eventually, Sin and the others arrived at an unexpected location.

To the side of the dungeon, a random opening led to quite a large cavern room that was completely natural-looking.

It didn’t follow the pattern of the dungeon, which was ancient ruins.

This place was a 100 by 200 feet large natural cave.

However, thats not why Sin’s jaw was currently on the ground... far from it.

Sin was frozen with shock, his eyes glimmering blue as he saw hundreds of Spirit Crystal nodes sprawled all through the cove.

A single Spirit Crystal was already very expensive, so this room was like a chamber filled with liquid gold. It was a gold mine.

’Oh... I get it now.’ Sin put the final puzzle piece together. ’The reason they buy these low rank dungeons is because... these specific dungeons have coves like this attached to them.’