After receiving our protective gear and tools from Yuta-san, we began surveying the rock face alongside the experts. If we started digging randomly, there was a risk the cliff itself might collapse. Since we had professionals on hand, it only made sense to confirm where and how to dig safely before we began. Even with our abilities, I doubted we could withstand the entire cliff face coming down on us.
Well, if it were just a minor slide at a shallow depth, we could probably get away in time.
"Let's see. Helmet, safety glasses, dust mask... and what’s this?"
"That’s a simple protector—a leather apron," Yuta-san explained. "It’s meant to shield your body from rock fragments that might fly back during excavation."
"And earmuffs, goggles, and gloves... these are anti-vibration gloves, right?"
"Yes. After consulting with the experts, I bought a set of everything available at a home center. I didn't know your exact sizes, so they might not fit perfectly..."
"Just having them ready is a huge help. We were a bit careless ourselves and didn't think to prepare anything like this."
The apron was a little large and the gloves were a bit small, but it wasn't enough to cause any real issues, so I gratefully accepted them. A few adjustments to the straps were all it took to make them wearable.
By the time we finished donning our gear, the experts had finished selecting the excavation site. Although we had joined them for the walkthrough, we were amateurs and had no idea what to look for, so we left the decision entirely to them.
"This spot looks promising," Takarada-san said. "The excavation itself might be a bit difficult, but there are no odd fissures. It looks sturdy enough that even if an amateur digs a bit roughly, it won't collapse."
"I agree," another expert added. "There don't seem to be any loose rocks or trees directly above that might fall, and I don't believe the vibrations from digging will cause the rock face to crumble."
"There's also plenty of space to set aside the excavated soil. I think this is the place."
With the three experts giving their seal of approval, we had no reason to object. The site was decided. To my eyes, it was just a sheer, vertical wall of rock. I found myself wondering if we really were going to bore a hole into this thing.
Once the location was set, we gripped our pickaxes and shovels and took our places before the rock face with renewed resolve.
Standing before the towering wall, we looked at each other with slightly bewildered expressions. We knew we were supposed to dig, but we weren't entirely sure how to take the first step. I didn't know if I should lead with my pickaxe or if Yuji and Hiiragi-san should start with their shovels.
Sensing our hesitation, Takarada-san offered some advice with a wry smile.
"Don't overthink it. You can just dig like you're making any other hole. In a typical manual excavation, you start by breaking the rock with a pickaxe and clearing the debris with a shovel, gradually smoothing the walls as you go deeper. It’s easier if you mark the rock surface first and sketch out the general size of the hole."
"I see... Thank you. We'll try following that procedure."
"That's just one way to do it, of course. Whatever feels easiest for you is fine. Just keep safety in mind."
"Understood," I said. "We aren't sure how to gauge our strength yet, so things might get dangerous with flying stone. Everyone should stay back a bit."
Once I confirmed that Yuta-san and the three experts had moved to a safe distance, I used my pickaxe to score an outline into the rock. I made it large enough for about two people—roughly the size of two doors.
With the preparations complete, it was time to begin.
"Alright, let's start by breaking it up with the pickaxes like they said."
"Daiki, don't put too much power into it at first, okay?" Yuji warned. "Seriously, we have no idea how much force we're dealing with here. If you overdo it, you'll probably snap that pickaxe before you even dent the cliff."
"I know, I know. I'll take it slow and see how it goes."
I gave Yuji a quick nod, raised my pickaxe over my head, and swung it toward the center of the outline. I exhaled lightly, using the same motion I would to swing a sword. The point of the pickaxe struck exactly where I intended and sank deep into the rock without the slightest hint of resistance.
Wait. This isn't a soft garden bed. This is a rock wall, right?
"Ah!"
I let out a startled cry at the result. I had expected the rock to shatter, but instead, the tool had simply buried itself. Now what?
Faced with a pickaxe buried up to the handle in solid rock, I froze, unsure of what my next move should be.
"Well, that's certainly stuck... What's the plan now?" Yuji asked.
"It was a magnificent strike with absolutely no collateral damage, but... it's a bit of a problem, isn't it?" Hiiragi-san noted.
"What should I do?"
Perhaps swinging it like a sword had been a mistake. I let go of the handle, but the pickaxe remained perfectly horizontal, embedded in the cliff. We stood there in a state of confusion, staring at the bizarre sight.
Curious about our sudden stillness, Yuta-san and Takarada-san's group walked over. When they saw the pickaxe, they let out gasps of pure shock.
"Good grief... that's incredible."
"How do you even get a pickaxe to sink in like that?"
"Um... that is certainly a sight."
"I suppose it's impressive... in its own way?"
The four of them stared at the embedded tool, their faces twitching with expressions that hovered somewhere between awe and disbelief. It wasn't something you saw every day—a pickaxe driven into solid rock without a single crack or chip around it.
"Sorry about that. I think I got the force dispersion wrong..."
"I don't think 'getting the force wrong' usually leads to this," Takarada-san said. "Is this something any high-level explorer can do?"
"Hmm, I wonder," Yuji replied, tilting his head. "If you mean the raw power to drive a pickaxe into rock, then yes, plenty of people can do it. Any mid-level explorer or higher has the strength. But if you're asking if they can drive it in with that level of precision, leaving no wasted damage through pure technique... then I'd say the number of explorers is pretty limited. Unless they're using skills, then you'd see it more often."
Takarada-san looked at the rock with a mix of suspicion and admiration. Yuji’s noncommittal answer seemed to suggest it wasn't that rare, which only made the experts look more stunned.
Granted, even for an explorer, replicating that through technique alone would be difficult without significant martial arts training. If you factored in skills, then yes, a fair number of people could probably do it.
"So there are other explorers who can do this..."
"And a decent number of them at that..."
"...Explorers really are terrifying people."
The three experts stared off into the distance with hollow, enlightened eyes, as if they were seeing a reality they weren't quite ready to accept.
We couldn't stand around forever, so I gave a small cough to break the tension and move things along.
"Ahem. Sorry about the delay. What should I do now? Should I just pull it out, or should I twist it to break the rock?"
"Hmm, let's see," Takarada-san said, snapping back to attention. "If you can, you should probably pull it straight out. If you try to twist it in that state, you'll likely snap the wooden shaft. It's in there quite deep and clean."
"Understood. I'll pull it straight back."
Following his advice, I gripped the metal head of the pickaxe rather than the wooden handle to avoid snapping it and pulled. There was some resistance, but it slid out smoothly.
When I checked the mark it left, there were a few minor cracks around the hole, but otherwise, the rock was undamaged. As far as 'crushing the rock wall' went, this was a complete failure.
"This is a bit hard to explain," Takarada-san began, "but could you swing it so the force... spills out? Wastefully, if you will? If it just goes straight in like that, it's not really helping with the digging."
"If we were doing blast excavation, it would save us the trouble of drilling boreholes for the explosives," another expert noted.
"But for manual digging, it's just too... perfect."
I understood what they were getting at. This time, I would try to "diffuse" the impact. Instead of concentrating the force on a single point, I needed to strike with enough power that the shockwave would propagate through the rock.
I asked the four of them to move back again for safety and swung the pickaxe once more.
"Hah!"
"Whoa!"
This time, it worked. Yuji and Hiiragi-san rushed over to check the impact site and let out impressed whistles. Radiating from where the pickaxe had struck, large cracks spread across the rock face like a spiderweb.
The cracks extended a bit further than the outline I’d originally sketched, but an outline was just a guide. I figured I could just adjust as I went.
"...And now it's something else entirely."
"Is a pickaxe even meant to do that?"
"Did you pack explosives into that first hole while we weren't looking?"
"As expected. Correcting the mistake in a single try," Yuta-san said.
While the three experts were busy rubbing their eyes in disbelief, Yuta-san just nodded as if he had expected nothing less.
The reactions were a bit much, but now that I had the hang of it, it was time to get to work.
"Alright, I'll keep breaking the rock like this. Yuji, Hiiragi-san, could you two clear the debris?"
"You got it. Daiki crushes, we haul. Once we've made some progress, either Hiiragi-san or I will start smoothing out the sides. Sound good, Hiiragi-san?"
"That sounds like a solid plan. Let's get started."
With our roles established, we dove into the excavation in earnest.
About an hour into the work, Yuta-san's voice rang out, letting us know our time was up. We stopped what we were doing, dusted ourselves off, and walked over to the four men who had been watching us from a distance.
At first, we had been clumsy and uncoordinated, but within five minutes, we had found our rhythm. By the ten-minute mark, the work had become a routine, and our efficiency skyrocketed. The excavation had accelerated rapidly, and by the time the call to stop came...
"Good work, everyone. I... I never imagined you would actually tunnel all the way through the cliff," Yuta-san said.
"Haha, to be honest, neither did we."
Yuta-san offered us words of praise, but his expression was a complicated mix of exhaustion and resignation. We had gotten so caught up in the rhythm of the work that we had hollowed out the rock and popped out the other side. That was the thing about repetitive tasks—sometimes you look up and realize you've done something insane without even noticing.
In the end, we had bored a tunnel roughly twenty meters long.
"We smoothed out the walls a bit, so it should be usable as a passage. Though we're just amateurs, so I can't promise anything about the structural integrity," I said.
"This was just to verify your excavation capabilities, so I don't think it'll be used for anything," Yuta-san replied. "Don't worry about it."
"I see. Given the risk of a collapse, should we fill it back in later?"
"Well, people don't usually come here, but considering the potential for secondary damage if the cliff were to fail... Professor? Should we backfill it?...Professor?"
Yuta-san turned to Takarada-san and the other experts for their professional opinion, but no answer came.
Concerned, we checked on them. All three were staring at us with hollow eyes and translucent expressions. They seemed to be in a daze, as if their brains were refusing to accept what they had just witnessed as reality.
"Um, excuse me... is everyone alright?"
"..."
No response. Seeing that they were in a bad way, Yuta-san hurriedly pulled bottles of tea from the cooler and urged them to drink. Originally, we were supposed to take a break and hear their evaluation of our work, but it looked like that wasn't going to happen for a while.
Using the fact that we were covered in dust as an excuse, we decided to leave the "caregiving" to Yuta-san.
"Yuta-san, we'll grab some tea too."
"Ah, yes, please! I have my hands full here, so help yourselves!"
"Thanks. Sorry to leave the heavy lifting to you."
"Don't worry about it! Just take a rest!"
With that, we grabbed our drinks and moved a short distance away to relax. I could have used my Cleansing skill to get rid of the dust and grime instantly, but... well, you know. I hated being dirty, but I figured I should wait a little longer before using magic to make the mess disappear.
It really is a thing—when you lose yourself in repetitive work, sometimes you wake up to find you've done something incredible.