“She’s impossible,” Kvim said, the words accompanied by a long sigh.

Ealan studied the expression as Kvim leaned back on his chair. They sat in the lunch alcove, and Kvim was still clad in his overalls, ready to get right back to work after lunch, which today was peas and root potatoes. A rationed meal due to storm season, and not very tasty, but still nutritious enough to keep Ealan’s team working.

Kvim was tall for a dwarf, though still short overall, with a shaven face that looked odd on him. But the mines were easier to handle without a beard, and Ealan knew Kvim valued work above other things in life. Kvim wasn’t quite a mine overseer like Ealan, but he was a supervisor—a rank directly underneath Ealan.

“She has not been useful?” Ealan asked, a bit worried. He had hoped this would go well. That could place him in good graces with Vivian Runeblessed. But if the fiend was problematic for the team… he couldn’t just pretend that the fiend was worth keeping at the mines.

“No, she’s most definitely useful,” Kvim said. He spoke slowly, clearly considering his words. “It’s not that she’s not helpful. Vivian didn’t lie about that odd ability. The fiend is just… She’s one hell of a handful to keep up with.”

“She has found metals, then? She has the ability to smell ingots?”

“I don’t know how she finds them,” Kvim said, “or even where. I’ve asked her to search a cave thoroughly, and to return with her findings. We’ve sent her to plenty of smaller, more annoying caves for information, just to see whether it’s worth sending a real spelunker. And she does receive the orders with enthusiasm, seemingly understanding what’s being told. If she finds rare ore, she is ordered to nod. If not, she is ordered to shake her head.”

“But it has not worked?” Ealan asked.

“She takes a long time in those caves,” Kvim said. “The first time it happened, we thought she got stuck, and planned to send someone down there. As we were doing that, the damned fiend showed up from above us, from the exact opposite direction, with a high-grade ensium chunk in hand, and a wide grin. And I mean high grade. No idea where she’d disappeared; no idea how she got up above us, and I’ve certainly got no idea where or how she even got that chunk mined. She had no pickaxe.”

Ealan placed his elbows on the table. He smiled subtly. “That does sound interesting.”

“Exhausting, at the very least,” Kvim said, sighing again. “Not necessarily because she’s causing trouble. She has been polite, for the most part, only knocking over a few tools here and there, but we genuinely have no idea where she keeps finding this goddamned ore. She always shows up with a tiny amount. We’ve been trying to track her to find the respawn zones, because there’s bound to be more.”

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“Has she gotten along with the miners?” Ealan asked.

“Oh, everyone loves her,” Kvim said with an exaggerated eye-roll. “To the point that her presence affects work. She’s like a cute dog. Hard to get angry at her, with that face and big pink eyes pouting at you.”

Kvim ate a spoonful of peas, when excited little taps sounded from outside. Seconds later, a white-haired shorty could be seen running into the lunch alcove. Sharp fiendish teeth showed on her grinning mouth as she ran to Kvim, stopping next to his chair.

“Wiiimmm!” the fiend said, probably trying to say Kvim’s name.

A smile suddenly appeared on Kvim’s face, the exhaustion gone. “Well, hello,” he said. He quickly put on his right glove, which sat on the table, and pat the fiend on the head, rubbing her hair.

With that done, the fiend’s expression turned serious. She held up the ore and said, “Ivwi.”

“She keeps saying that,” Kvim said to Ealan. To the fiend, he said, “You know, I still have no idea what you mean with that one, little Emmy.”

He picked up the ore, however, examining it with a naked eye. He could easily hold it with two fingers.

“Looks like asmite?” Ealan asked.

“No, asmite would be darker,” Kvim said. He continued examining it, now curious. Then he offered it back to Eem and said, “Bring it to the inspectors. You know where they are, right?”

The fiend pouted, still holding up the ore. “Emiwiuum.”

“Yes, emiwium,” Kvim said. Feeling Ealan’s gaze, he shrugged and said, “Whatever that means.”

“Ivwi!” the fiend insisted. “Emiwiuum.”

“Bring it to the inspectors, Emmy,” Kvim said. “They will tell you what the metal is. Bringing it to them is your job.”

She looked upset that she wasn’t understood, but she left the room as asked, toward the inspectors’ office.

Kvim sighed, a vague smile still on his face. He, too, looked happier when in the presence of the fiend. “That’s how every conversation goes. She keeps saying ivwi, ivwi, and I can’t for the life of me figure out what that’s supposed to mean.”

Ealan thought about it for a bit, but couldn’t come up with anything. More so, he was curious about the metal the fiend had just found. “You’re pretty good at recognizing metals. I’ve seen you identify them on sight.”

“I have no idea what that one was,” Kvim said. “Most likely, it was mostly just stone with something very pure inside. She has found adamantite ore like that, some venerium, and one small piece of othnite.”

“Othnite?” Ealan said. “It’s been a while since that has respawned.”

“Yeah,” Kvim said with a gloomy look. “That’s exactly the problem. This fiend finds rare metals like they’re nothing, but when we ask where she found them, she laughs and runs off for a few hours, and then she comes back with more rare metals.”

“Interesting…” Ealan said. He nodded, satisfied. “It seems the fiend has a home here, then.”

“Yeah,” Kvim said, leaning back. “Unfortunately, it looks like we’ll have to run after her for a while longer. She is cute, though.”

“And she is Vivian Runeblessed’s friend,” Ealan added. “That is the most important thing. Treat her nicely, and we are bound to be rewarded.”

“I suppose so,” Kvim said.

Lunch continued, and they spoke about normal topics. Ealan didn’t mind a break, and Kvim was always pleasant to talk to.

By the end of it, however, Hilda, a guidewoman, hurried to the lunch alcove, calling, “Is Ealan here?”

Spotting him, she walked right over. “Ah, good. We have visitors. Important ones.”

“Is Vivian back?” Ealan asked.

“No,” Hilda said. “It’s someone called Thomas Warren’s Son. The grandfather of Vivian Runeblessed. He’s asking to see our metals.”

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep