The little female is incredibly sweet and soft, healing the five evil beasts right from the start.

Chapter 289 Difficult to Dig
Whether female or male, prisoners of war don't receive any star coins; they're essentially working for free here.

The male orc who had called them cheap frowned and remained silent, then seemed to realize what he had said and quietly added, "Oh, right, you're prisoners of war, free labor."

Pink Butterfly Beastman: ...

Mining was already unpleasant enough, and now this is really hurting me.

The pink butterfly orc pursed its lips, but in the end, it said nothing and continued mining.

"What are you standing here for? Why aren't you digging?" The sheep-like girl had appeared beside Jiang Mian at some point, looking at her with a puzzled expression. Her clothes were already stained with ore dust, and her face was covered in sweat.

At this point, she spoke weakly: "Don't even think about me giving you any nutrients if you don't dig."

Jiang Mian looked at her and saw that her shovel had only knocked off a thin layer of soil. She said quietly, "I don't think I'll be able to get a tube of nutrient solution even if I dig hard today."

"If you dig tomorrow, you might not get the nutrient solution until the day after tomorrow, which means you'll be starving for three days," the sheep girl muttered speechlessly.

"Hmm." Jiang Mian silently picked up the hammer and started hammering.

The sheep girl didn't say anything when she saw this; it was good that the other party could move.

However, when the sheep girl glanced at Jiang Mian again, she found that she had rested. So she went to check how much ore she had dug out of her basket and found a few small pieces of ore mixed with mountain rocks.

Sheep Girl: ...

"You can't even tell the difference between ore and rock, can you?" The sheep girl's lips curled up slightly. "And you're resting after only digging this little bit? You really don't want to drink any more nutrient supplements tomorrow."

The sheep girl probably knew that it would take her two days to dig enough for one basket.

Not only her, but even the female orcs would probably need two days of hard work to dig enough.

She had previously thought Jiang Mian was very confident and that he was hiding his true abilities, but she never expected him to be so incompetent, weak, and unable to even distinguish between different minerals.

Jiang Mian looked up at her and saw her face covered in sweat, looking speechless.

She knew the other person meant well in reminding her, but it wasn't that she couldn't distinguish between ore and rock.

“I can tell the difference between ore and rock.” Jiang Mian smiled helplessly. “I need to use these rocks.”

"Whatever." The sheep girl didn't want to say anything more, after all, saying another word would just waste her breath.

Jiang Mian didn't explain much, because digging with manual labor would be exhausting, so she decided to make a reagent.

The reagent can dissolve these hard rocks without destroying the actual ore, making the mining process much more efficient.

Jiang Mian was about to go out to find plants when the sheep-girl next to her noticed her movements and asked, "Where are you going?"

"Should I go line up for water?" Jiang Mian noticed that there was well water outside the mine when she arrived.

However, not only do you have to queue, you also need to fetch your own water.

"Oh." The sheep-like girl glanced at Jiang Mian speechlessly.

She now felt that Jiang Mian was even more spoiled than she was.

"Go get some water? I want to go too, let's go together." The pink butterfly beastman also stopped mining.

Jiang Mian had no objections and walked out, with the pink butterfly girl following beside her.

The two walked out, and as they approached the mine entrance, they saw other female orcs walking out ahead of them. However, as soon as the two female orcs reached the mine entrance, they were reprimanded by the orcs guarding the entrance: "It's not mealtime yet, you're not allowed to leave."

After the orc shouted at them, he casually lashed out at the two female orcs with his whip.

The two female orcs screamed and hurriedly ran back.

Jiang Mian and the Pink Butterfly Beastman subconsciously glanced at each other.

Then the two of them silently walked back, tacitly understanding each other; it seemed they couldn't leave early anytime soon.

After returning, the sheep girl looked at them in surprise: "Why did you come back so quickly?"

Jiang Mian simply recounted what had just happened.

"So it turns out we can't go out before the time to go down into the mine." Jiang Mian sighed softly.

The air inside the mine was very thin and hot, creating a very oppressive feeling.

"Didn't you bring in any water before you came in?" The male orc was surprised and picked up a bottle of water he had drunk from beside him. "I have a bottle of water here. You can drink it if you don't mind that I drank from it."

Before Jiang Mian could speak, the girl with the pink butterfly on her side walked over and said, "I don't mind, I don't mind."

Jiang Mian didn't accept it because her real purpose wasn't to go out for a drink; saying she wanted to go out for a drink was just an excuse.

After all, there were other people in the mine, not just a few of them. Their silence didn't mean they weren't there.

Jiang Mian would naturally not reveal his intention to make the potion in person.

This little incident has passed and will not affect everyone's continued mining.

As night fell, the mine became even darker, with not a single ray of light penetrating inside. Outside, the sounds of bustling conversation could be heard, indicating that people were going down into the mine.

Everyone carried their baskets and tools and went outside.

Jiang Mian didn't want to carry the contents of the basket away, but the sheep-like girl next to her reminded her, "Those who didn't fill their baskets also left carrying their ore. We'd better carry them too. If we leave them here, half a day's work might be gone when we come back tomorrow."

Jiang Mian only dug out a few rocks and ores for the experiment and then stopped digging. The bottom of the basket wasn't even full. With just a few scattered ores, surely no one would want to steal them?
Despite these thoughts, Jiang Mian still carried the basket and went out.

The male orcs were able to dig up a whole basketful in a day, and they all went to hand in their work and collect their nutrient solutions.

Those who didn't dig up enough baskets went back to camp to rest.

Jiang Mian didn't hear the mine manager say where they should stay. Instead, the sheep-like girl pulled her into a place with a large dormitory-style dormitory.

"There's no fixed place to stay here. Whoever comes back first can sleep in whichever bed they want," the sheep-like girl explained to her.

Jiang Mian was a little surprised, but she still randomly picked a bed that looked very dirty. No, all the dormitory beds were very dirty, so there weren't many good options.

Her bed was next to the sheep girl's bed.

"I'm going out to queue for water. Keep an eye on our baskets of ore," the sheep girl instructed her.

Jiang Mian paused for a moment before agreeing.

(End of this chapter)