Infinity Is My Affinity?!?-Chapter 139: Big Fish Meets Bigger Fish

Garek snatched the Acceptance Letter straight out of his wife’s hands, and scribbled his signature across the bottom like he was stabbing the paper personally before he shoved it right back into my chest pocket.

Then, without another word, he walked out of the shrine.

Shaking my head with a chuckle, I gave Mistuki a look as if asking, ’This guy?’ before following the meathead.

The moment we stepped back outside, the whole basin looked completely different from when I first walked in because the place that had been empty twenty minutes ago was now crawling with people.

Adventurers in full armor were hauling crates toward the big wooden living quarters on the eastern side while a bunch of bearded dwarves were yelling at each other near the loading docks sitting right under the mountain entrance, like this was some kind of industrial war zone.

I adjusted the strap of the shotgun over my shoulder and glanced around before asking, "Where the hell was everyone hiding twenty minutes ago?"

"You showed up right during the shift change," Garek grunted while continuing to march forward without even turning his head. "I was covering the gap alone."

We ignored the whole busy dock area and kept walking straight down the central dirt path as Garek led me past a row of empty wooden carts and directly toward the huge reinforced cavern that served as the mine’s entrance.

And the second we stepped across the stone threshold, the temperature dropped so fast it felt like someone had opened a freezer door.

The damp cold clung to my skin while the smell of crushed rock and raw orichalcum completely overwhelmed my nose.

[Yeah... A fantasy mine... mining a fantasy ore...] I thought, looking up at the ceiling.

Thick wooden beams carved with glowing runes held up the cavern roof while a pair of rusted iron tracks ran straight down the middle of the dirt floor and disappeared into a multitude of tunnels like the entrance to a sprawling maze.

The constant clang of pickaxes and the distant rumble of ore carts bounced around the stone walls, making the whole place resound with the sound of people working themselves to death.

We followed the tracks deeper into the staging area, passing a group of soot-covered dwarves dragging crates full of raw ore, before Garek finally stopped at a brightly lit alcove carved into the rock right next to the main tunnel split.

Behind a rough wooden desk stood a stout dwarf built like someone had tried to compress a person into a barrel.

The guy was holding a clipboard and wearing a fancy silk vest that looked so out of place in a dirt tunnel that I almost respected the audacity.

He looked up when he heard us walking over, and the second his eyes landed on Garek, this greasy little smirk spread across his beard like he had been waiting all day for this exact moment.

"Well, look who finally decided to join the working class..." the dwarf said with the most punchable grin I had seen in a while. "You were in that shrine for quite a while, Garek. You sure you were just handling the new kid’s documents or were you slacking off on company time and handling your woman?"

Garek stopped walking so suddenly that the gravel crunched under his boots like a gunshot. His shoulders went rigid and his knuckles turned white while his jaw locked tight enough that I was pretty sure he could chew diamonds if he wanted.

I watched the whole thing for a second and thought, [Yep, he absolutely wants to cave this guy’s skull in... and I don’t blame the man. I would’ve done it by now.]

But instead of punching him, Garek slowly reached into his pocket, pulled out my Adventurer’s Card and Acceptance Letter, and tossed them onto the desk hard enough that they skidded across the wood.

"The new F Rank replacement..." Garek said through clenched teeth.

The dwarf scoffed and grabbed the card with one hand while still looking like he had just won the argument of the century, before finally glancing down at the card, expecting to see some disposable rookie, and then suddenly froze. 𝕗𝐫𝐞𝕖𝕨𝐞𝗯𝚗𝕠𝘃𝐞𝚕.𝐜𝗼𝚖

The smug expression slid right off his face.

He blinked once as the 6 Circuits and 3 Affinities clicked into place, and what that meant.

And blinked again, as he read the name, and something in his head rang.

His eyes snapped up to my face while the card trembled slightly in his hand.

"Wait a damn minute," the manager said while taking a slow step backward. "The transport crews coming back from the capital were talking about some crazy rumor earlier."

His gaze bounced between the card and my face like he was trying to solve a math equation that kept changing.

"And they said a young man walked into Shinkotsu with a literal Greater Dragon as his Familiar," He swallowed hard before continuing, "... and they said his name was Nico."

Garek’s head snapped toward me so fast it almost made a cracking sound.

"This..." he said slowly while staring down at me like he had just discovered a new species, "... is the first time I am hearing about a damn dragon."

I leaned back against the cavern wall, folded my arms, and gave both of them the biggest grin I could manage.

While the manager’s beady eyes darted past my shoulder, frantically scanning the dark tunnel entrance like he expected a scaly snout to poke through at any second.

"W-where is it?" he stammered, the sleazy grease in his voice entirely replaced by the panicked squeak of a cornered rat.

"She," I corrected, staring straight into his eyes. "And she’s back in the capital, doing her own thing."

The dwarf let out a massive, shuddering breath before scrambling to grab an ink-stained stamp on the table and slamming it down onto the Acceptance Letter.

"R-right! Of course! Sir Nico," he squeaked, his attitude doing a complete one-eighty as he plastered on a terrified customer-service smile. "I am Manager Brok. Welcome to the Iron Vanguard’s security detail! We are absolutely thrilled to have you!"

I snagged the documents off the wood and slid them right into my pocket before giving the dwarf a polite nod.

[Bullies really do fold the second they realize they’re talking to a bigger fish...] I chuckled at the sudden shift in workplace dynamics.

Garek, meanwhile, just stood there.

I could practically see the gears in his head grind to a halt as he stared down at me, actively processing the fact that the Tier 1 brat who had just shut down his nervous system also casually commanded a strategic-level monster.

Rubbing his temples like he was developing an instant migraine, the Vanguard leader reached out and grabbed my shoulder, physically turning me away from the desk.

"Come on, kid," Garek grunted, "Let’s go introduce you to the rest of the team."