What is life? A truly profound question.

A being granted life and promised death at the same time. A being racing toward death, struggling to leave behind biological or spiritual descendants by any means possible.

A subject worthy of deep philosophical and scientific study, and a creation of God.

Life itself is the very essence of the bizarre.

Which raises a question: What distinguishes the living from the nonliving?

Scholars had proposed various criteria, but those were ultimately subjective. Objectively distinguishing life from nonlife was practically impossible.

The forum system would be no different. Surely its creator's subjective views had gone into it.

The problem was that I'd been trading other objects just fine all this time.

Yet for some unknown reason, the forum had classified the mithril gleaming brilliantly before me as alive.

"..."

I stared at the mithril, lost in thought. My head was filled with one question: Why on earth?

The minerals broken off this vein could be traded. But the entire vein couldn't, because it had been classified as alive.

'Could it have a core inside, like a guardian?'

If so, that was dangerous. It meant this mithril vein might move around like a guardian.

It was buried underground, so I couldn't be certain, but I couldn't help feeling uneasy. The forum had judged it to be a living creature. I needed to be careful.

'But it hasn't budged even after all that pounding...'

The guardian had reacted the instant I used mana. This thing hadn't reacted even when I used mana to hit it.

Just what kind of life-form was this vein? I couldn't make sense of it. In the end, all I knew was that it was alive.

What if, instead of taking on a defined shape like a guardian, it stayed amorphous like a slime from a certain game?

What if one day, while I was sleeping, it suddenly sprang up as spikes? Ta-da!

What would that mean? A critical injury at the very least. The human body was fragile. If it pierced my head, I'd be saying goodbye to this world on the spot.

With that risk hanging over me, I couldn't ignore a living vein of ore.

'Should I ask the dwarf first?'

A living vein of ore. The dwarf was the only person I could ask about that. If even he didn't know, I'd post a question on the forum.

Hey. Emergency. Emergency.

Let me ask you something.

Passing Dwarf

What?

Are there... living ore veins, by any chance?

Passing Dwarf

What the hell are you talking about?

What were your language arts grades like in school?

My parents died, so I focused on work rather than school.

Barely met the attendance requirement.

Passing Dwarf

Oh, fuck, now you're making me look like an asshole...

Then give me a serious answer.

Passing Dwarf

What mineral are you saying is alive?

You mean the mithril?

Yeah. I watched it after what you said, and the fragments scattered around it wriggled back and reattached themselves.

I tried trading it just in case, and all I got was a window saying living things can't be traded.

Passing Dwarf

No idea.

Just ask the forum. I get that you're not talking nonsense, but I don't know lol.

Even the dwarf, the expert, had given up on figuring it out.

In the end, I decided to ask the forum. Someone was bound to know.

Just in case, I recorded the whole process, breaking off a few more fragments for good measure. It was doable because even the forum window could be photographed or recorded.

Can minerals be alive too?

Wild Grylls

(Photo of the mithril vein)

(Video of a trade rejection window appearing when attempting to trade the mithril)

(Video of fragments wriggling back to the vein and attaching themselves)

Exactly what it looks like in the videos. Passing Dwarf told me it's mithril.

But he said mithril isn't alive. Anyone ever seen this?

What the hell is this stuff, and why is this happening?

└Heavenly Demon It crawls like an earthworm. It seems to be struggling to survive.

└Sword Masta Doesn't it look more like it's trying to get bigger?

└What am I looking at?

└Never thought I'd live to see mithril fragments crawling like worms...

└Even in the Forest of Four Seasons, how does that make any sense?

└Could there be a core or something embedded inside?

└Whatever. Grylls, give me some mithril. I'll put it to good use.

└Come to think of it, that really was mithril lmao.

└Everyone was so shocked they focused on the videos instead of the mithril lol.

└This fucker was quick on the uptake, though lol.

└Allfather The forum classified it as alive... That is equivalent to saying the mineral possesses a mind of its own.

└Wild Grylls A mind of its own?

└Allfather Yes. It seems the forum prohibits trades of anything it deems to possess a mind. This is a result I have demonstrated through years of research.

└So plants don't have minds? Herbs and trees trade just fine.

└Allfather To possess a mind is to think. Through thought, one learns and, beyond that, develops.

└Next you'll be saying cancer is alive. Why doesn't cancer count?

└Allfather Who said that?

└Read it in an old book.

└Allfather You seem to have no mind of your own, given that you entrust your thinking to others instead of thinking for yourself. Shall we make a trade, then? Would you entrust that head to me? I happen to have a friend for it, too.

└Sorry...

└Wild Grylls Anyway, you're saying this vein has a mind? One that can think and make decisions for itself?

└Allfather Yes. Besides, it is not entirely unheard of for inanimate objects to develop minds. Are you familiar with ego weapons? Weapons with minds of their own.

└Don't Abandon the Hero Oh! I know those too! The Hero's holy sword is a weapon with a mind of its own!

└Allfather An excellent example. However, this is my first time seeing a mind in a mineral that has not been forged into a weapon... You would do well to be careful. A guardian might be born from it.

└A mithril guardian? That's insane lmao.

└Could anyone even kill that?

└The mithril alone is bad enough. If a guardian shows up, Grylls is just dead.

└That's genuinely terrifying...

└Wild Grylls So there must be a part that houses this mithril's mind, right?

└Allfather That is likely the case.

└Don't Abandon the Hero For the holy sword, it's the jewel embedded in the center of the hilt!

└Wild Grylls I didn't ask.

└Don't Abandon the Hero Okay...!

└Wild Grylls Sorry. I'm stressed out, and that came out a bit harsh.

└Don't Abandon the Hero It's fine! I've heard worse! Someone even called me a f*cking bitch once!

└Wild Grylls ...

I suddenly felt sorry for the admin, but never mind that. It came with being a moderator.

I looked at the mithril vein that supposedly had a mind of its own. How was I going to get rid of it? I was scared something would go wrong while I was mining.

"Ahem. Hey, buddy?"

"..."

"If you can hear me, could you move out of the way?"

So I made a very polite request. I might have looked like a dumb*ss, but I was serious.

Of course, the vein didn't move.

It had no ears. Not everything alive had ears, after all. Would a jellyfish listen just because you spoke to it in human language? Absolutely not.

"Tch. This won't do."

I couldn't leave it like this. I made a decision worthy of saving a nation.

I would mine out every last bit of mithril, even if it meant tearing up the entire back of the cave. Better to defuse the bomb myself than sleep on top of it.

'If we'd never known the other existed, it would've stayed put.'

Ignorance was bliss. I felt like I'd needlessly woken a sleeping creature.

But what could I do? It was already done.

I put Speedy on my back as a precaution and started mining.

THWACK! THWACK!

Instead of mining the mithril itself, I carefully chipped away around it. I needed to see just how big it was.

Fortunately, it seemed to live only within the cave.

'Games really are nothing like reality.'

In a certain blocky world, you could dig all the way down to lava with nothing but an iron pickaxe.

Apparently, only superhumans could be protagonists. I was just a human dropped into the Forest of Four Seasons as some god's prank.

I sighed, but mining came first.

THWACK! THWACK!

How much time had passed?

Once I'd dug down to my own height, the overall outline gradually began to come into view.

"Oh, for fuck's sake. Seriously."

I took it back. What I'd seen was only the tip of the iceberg.

No matter how far I dug, there was no end in sight. Just how far did this vein extend? I couldn't begin to guess.

'This is driving me insane.'

At this rate, I'd have to tear up the entire cave, not just the back. Still, I needed to sleep inside. More than anything, I wanted to rest.

With a heavy heart, I stared at the glittering mithril vein.

'Was it Gyeongju? They say you can find artifacts there just by digging up your yard.'

Meanwhile, I'd dug up mithril, and it was giving me a headache.

Worse, it was a mineral that might turn into a guardian. An orichalcum guardian was horrible enough. A mithril one?

'No choice. I'll have to mine it all out.'

I changed plans. I would mine the mithril itself and find the source of its life.

I didn't know whether it would actually become a guardian, but I couldn't ignore the worst-case scenario.

CLANG! CLANG! CLANG!

So I mined away. My hands gradually grew numb, but I endured it.

My life would be in danger if I didn't deal with this thing anyway. This was literally mining for my life. At least I had the pickaxe the dwarf had given me just in time.

I stored the mithril fragments and chunks I broke off in the extradimensional bag.

"Hah... Hah..."

After an hour of swinging the pickaxe, I was the first to tire out.

Meanwhile, the mithril vein still stood there, flaunting its solid form. Strangely, it felt harder with every swing. More precisely, the deeper I dug, the stronger it became.

'I'll have to make sure the dwarf makes me that mithril pickaxe.'

Either that or perfect my aura blade. I was getting nowhere.

Still, I had to do as much as I could. Every little bit added up, didn't it?

Heavenly Demon.

I'll give you a chunk of mithril, so please use it to get yourself a weapon.

It's compensation for the sword I gave you before.

Heavenly Demon

There is no need for this.

You are too kind for your own good, my honored friend.

I owe my life to the sword you gave me so many times over.

Without it, I'd have died long ago.

So please accept it.

Heavenly Demon

It would be rude to refuse.

I shall gratefully accept.

I used my break to give Heavenly Demon a chunk of mithril.

Mithril isn't pocket change, so you'll accept it, right?

All Hail the Sun

Not even a king could call mithril pocket change...

Then please take it. It's to thank you for the shields you gave me.

All Hail the Sun

You gave me a mature mandrake, remember?

I think that was plenty.

So you don't want it?

All Hail the Sun

Nobody dislikes free stuff.

Thanks.

I'll make some jewelry with it.

Thank you.

I also gave a chunk of mithril to All Hail the Sun, who'd gifted me the shields.

Then I went back to mining. It was a never-ending battle.

But even by evening, I hadn't managed to mine it all out.

'I'll just have to sleep as far away from it as possible.'

My hands were numb from swinging a pickaxe all day. Rubbing my tingling palms, I opened the forum.

There were about thirty minutes until dinner, so I planned to browse until then.

'The dwarf sent me a message.'

I'd been giving him mithril as I mined it, along with an insistent request to make me a solid mithril pickaxe.

If he was messaging me now, he must have finished it or be in the middle of making it.

Passing Dwarf

Hey. We're fucked.

Instead, the message was miles away from what I'd expected.

Short and concise, it summed up his situation perfectly.

The moment I saw it, I replied, more puzzled than anxious.

What's wrong?

Passing Dwarf

The mithril won't melt.

? What do you mean?

Passing Dwarf

It won't melt no matter what I do, so I can't pour it into a mold.

It won't even break.

And what the dwarf said next...

Passing Dwarf

I checked, and there's way too much mana inside.

I'd need a specially built furnace to melt it.

So I guess I'll have to send it back?

You're not saying I have to melt it down and make the equipment myself, are you?

Passing Dwarf

Yep. Exactly.

Fuck.

Passing Dwarf

Still, the performance will be fucking amazing lol.

...amounted to saying I had more work to do.