Chapter 67: Did He Hit His Head?

The reason Su You attributed it to external factors was because, based on her understanding of Lake, while his thought process was a bit slow and he wasn’t the sharpest tool in the shed… as she’d mentioned before, his greatest strength compensated for these flaws—he was obedient.

Su You had just checked the number of stones on the ground; there was no way someone could have dug up that much in just a short while.

In other words, Lake must have left not long before Su You arrived, which made her even more convinced that something else had caused him to leave.

As she pondered this, Su You arrived at the mine entrance Lake had mentioned.

The mine wasn’t very big—only wide enough for two people to walk side by side. Because of its small size, no light reached inside, and Su You’s field of vision was extremely limited.

Just as she was about to gather some materials for a light source, she vaguely heard a shout from inside the cave—a classic expletive:

“Damn it!”

Su You paused, hesitated for a moment, then decided to head straight into the mine.

That energetic shout reassured her that Lake probably wasn’t in any real danger—he’d just run into some minor trouble.

“Lake?” Su You called out tentatively, and quickly got a response.

“My lord! I’m here!” Lake sounded happy to hear her, but as soon as he remembered his current predicament, he started to panic. He quickly shouted, “Wait—be careful, don’t come in yet! There’s a pit in here, don’t fall in!”

So it was a pit… No wonder the voice sounded like it was coming from below.

With no light source, Su You didn’t dare move forward after hearing Lake’s warning. If she fell in too, that would be a real mess.

Left with no choice, Su You decided to check on his situation first.

“Are you hurt? Do you know how deep the pit is?”

“I’m fine, it’s not that deep. I’m not hurt.”

Good, at least he wasn’t injured.

“Wait there for a bit. It’s too dark for me to move around. I’ll go get something.” Su You had plenty of wood on her; she could make a wooden ladder, and then Lake could climb out.

But without a light source, she couldn’t build anything—she couldn’t see where to place things.

So she decided to go back to where she’d been mining, grab a stone, and make a campfire. Lighting equipment like campfires could be built even in the dark.

“All right, be careful, my lord.” As soon as he finished speaking, Lake heard her footsteps fading away.

The tension from accidentally falling in vanished the moment he heard Su You’s voice.

He breathed a sigh of relief and reached out to push himself up—only to grab a handful of something furry.

“…Huh, I forgot you were here, little guy.” Lake muttered as he picked up the creature and cradled it in his arms.

“Chirp!” The little thing squirmed, but if it couldn’t escape from Su You, it certainly wasn’t getting away from Lake.

That’s right—the furry creature was the white ermine Su You had “forcibly released” earlier.

For some reason, it had shown up here again… In fact, Lake had chased it all the way to the mine, which was how he’d ended up falling into the pit.

Thinking about how he’d fallen in because of this little guy, Lake felt a bit annoyed.

He ruffled its head and muttered, “What are you running out here for? Isn’t it nice enough in the territory with food and shelter?”

White Ermine: Huh? What are you talking about?

“The forest is dangerous. If you get caught by a tiger or something, there won’t be another person as awesome as my lord to save you.”

Whether it understood or not, the ermine stopped struggling.

Lake had no idea that Su You had forced the ermine to leave, nor that it had been following them since morning. As far as he knew, the ermine had just snuck out on its own.

In reality, the ermine wanted to go back, but the territory’s owner wouldn’t allow it.

…

While the man and ermine were “bonding,” Su You returned with the materials she’d gathered.

She set up a campfire and lit it. By its light, she could see the pit’s location and the inside of the mine.

She looked down and could vaguely make out a figure below.

“My lord?”

Su You couldn’t see clearly, but with the light beside her, Lake could see her just fine.

He waved, “I’m here.”

“Step aside, I’m going to lower a ladder.” Su You opened her construction panel as she spoke.

Lake immediately took two steps back, making room for the ladder.

[Consume 9 wood to build a wooden ladder?]

Wooden ladders were a special kind of structure—the amount of wood required depended on the height needed.

Once Su You chose the placement, the system would automatically set a height range, which she could adjust as needed.

For this pit, it only took nine pieces of wood to reach from the mine floor to the bottom. If she remembered correctly, each meter of ladder used two pieces of wood, and anything less than half a meter was rounded up. So, nine pieces meant the pit was about 4 to 4.5 meters deep.

That wasn’t very deep, but it was lucky that Lake was tough—otherwise, a normal person would be hurting for a while.

“All set, come on up.” Su You had planned to ask what happened after he climbed out, but as Lake started up the ladder, he seemed to run into some trouble, muttering to himself the whole way.

“Hey, don’t move!”

“I’m climbing the ladder here—stop squirming! If I fall, you won’t be happy either!”

“Ugh… stop crawling around, that tickles…”

Su You: “?”

She’d been sure Lake was fine, but now she wasn’t so sure.

Did he really not hit his head when he fell?

Why was he suddenly talking to himself?

Since the ermine was hidden in Lake’s clothes, Su You couldn’t see it, and just thought Lake was acting weird.

(End of Chapter)"

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