Chapter 70: Forbidden Magic Ore

「Bloody Ore?」

Even the president was bewildered since those were unfamiliar words for him too.

「This is something from quite a while ago.」 Said Aisha as she sat back on the sofa, crossing her legs facing the two.

The president and Yuuma exchanged glances, both were equally puzzled by Aisha’s remark.

「Around three years ago, A few professional Explorers entered 『Black Dungeon』 located deep in the mountain in Kyrgyzstan. It wasn’t a deep dungeon but they met a rather unusual monster in the middle layer of the dungeon. They have thick limbs and tough, steel-like skin. At glance, their appearance resembled that of a gorilla. Later on, that monster officially called as “Vali”.」 [TL: ヴァーリン/Vali: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vali_(Ramayana)]

「Never heard of that. Though it’s rare for monster in black dungeon to get official name like that, does that mean the monster is really a rare monster?」

「Nope, they aren’t that rare. Many witnessed them inhabiting most of the middle layer of the black dungeon. They have terrifying physical strength but, it’s easy to beat them with range attack from thunder or fire magic.」

「The heck. Does that mean the low drop rate of their magic ore made them extremely rare?」

「Nope, the drop rate of their magic ore is the same as any 『Black Dungeon』’s monster. Their magic ore itself appear in the market every now and then.」

The president became even more confused hearing that fact.

「Ain’t that even more suspicious! How can a pro Explorer like me never heard that kind of monster or magic ore before?」

「That’s only natural. It’s simply because IDR and the government of each countries has been concealing this fact.」

「Conceal!?」

The president and Yuuma had no idea what Aisha was talking about. Why would the government conceal the news about the magic ore and the monster?

「When this magic ore was discovered, the researcher naturally tried to test its effect. They made the test subject eat the magic ore and observe the effect it caused in the test subject body. They then moved to the experiment phase. And then, the effect shown by the magic ore is truly dramatic. The physical strength of the human who ingested the magic ore literally shot through the roof both in speed and strength. They gained the strength of a superman.」

「Oh, awesome!!」

The president’s eyes shone in excitement.

His interest got picked up as soon as he heard that it could make him stronger.

「Such a simpleton. The problem happened after that.」

「The problem?」

「When the effect of the magic ore stopped after three minutes, the test taker who was moving like a fierce god until then suddenly stopped moving, and vomited blood. He bleed from all of his orifices, and died.」

「Oioi, that’s…」

「After the autopsy of his corpse the researcher found that his bones had already broken in many places, his blood vessels ruptured, his muscle and tendon torn apart. In short, his body couldn’t withstand the power of the magic ore.」

The president and Yuuma couldn’t hide their shock at hearing that. Reason being the “Magic Gem” or “Magic Ore” harvested from the dungeon was commonly known for their safety without any side effects.

「In short, this is the first “Harmful” magic ore…」

Seeing the president asked with a frown on his face, Aisha gave him a scornful smile.

「Harmful, is it? Well, a test taker did died after all.」

「Why are you having such dangerous magic ore then!?」

「Easy, it’s because I’m a researcher of the 『Black Dungeon』. How can I not be interested in such interesting magic ore.」

「I-… Interesting?」

The president glared at Aisha with a rather dumbfounded look on his face but, Aisha blatantly ignored his glare and continued on.

「Well properly speaking, there should be an announcement about this matter the moment they found out about it but, the dungeon related business is just on the right track at that time. The government and the company spent a lot of money to make the dungeon related business walk on the right track and finally succeeded back then. If there’s another dangerous “Magic Gem” found in the other dungeon, it might affect the dungeon related business. So the government had to make a choice.」

「Is that why they concealed this fact!?」

「Yes. But thanks to that, the dungeon related business took flight safely and became a mainstream business all over the world. You also tasted the profit from that business right?」

「Guh…」

The president could only grit his teeth, unable to retort to Aisha’s remark.

「And then, the government strengthened the regulation to prevent anyone from learning about this fact. Namely narrowing down the number of of researcher of the black dungeon, and regulating the traffic of the black dungeon. It seems there’s no particular opposition from the researcher side since the black dungeon isn’t popular to begin with. The Japanese government has also gave a strict warning to me about this regard in exchange for providing research funds for me.」

「Don’t tell us about that then dammit!」

「Fufufufu」

Aisha stood up slowly and walks into the inner side of the room.

「But. I always wondered all these years about the reason that makes this magic ore so dangerous. So I performed trial and error.」

「Stop, no matter what you think, that’s way too dangerous!」

「Yes, it’s just as you say. No one is going to use magic ore which brings certain death after use. It should be a useless magic ore, even though I had already given up on this. But then――」

There was a strange light dwelling in Aisha’s eyes as she spoke. And the direction of her gaze was none other than Yuuma.

「What… If there’s a human who can turn his muscle into steel?」