Mana Stone Cave

Rei hurried back inside the cave.

He then sat near the Orc's dead body and started to dice his meat. He set up a barbecue and then started to roast the meat.

After Roasting the meat he started to munch on it. It had been a while since he had eaten roasted meat, or else he would just feed on bushes and berries.

"Sigh, the orc was nothing more than food to this fool."- Lucas sighed.

"…"

Rei's stomach was now full. He had ended up eating more than half the entire orc and as for the rest, he stored it in his inventory.

"Now what should I do?", Rei asked with a bored expression. He looked outside the cave only to see that it was still raining.

"Should I grind stones or what!?", Rei asked, having nothing to do.

-"If you don't have anything else to do then why don't you log in and grind some levels in the game?"- Lucas asked.

"Game? You are telling me to play a game!?"

"Here I am working my ass off to find my siblings and you want me to play a game?", Rei asked, not using even the tiniest portion of his non-existing intelligence.

-"Sigh…"-

-"Calm down! I am telling you to play because there is a possibility that you can level up by playing that game!"-

Rei, who was about to lash out, suddenly calmed down.

"Oh! Is that so? Why didn't you tell me that before?", Rei asked.

-'This idiot, I told him in the start to grind levels… How come he doesn't understand even simple words? Or is he just emotionally unstable…?'- Lucas questioned himself, wanting to pity Rei, but when he saw Rei grinning, he had other thoughts.

-'Nah… he is just a fool.'-

"Log in.", without wasting any more time, Rei logged in.

His body started to look like a 3D hologram and then transformed into pixels.

His consciousness once again faded away momentarily.

****

-"Hmmm, so this is your spawn spot…"- Lucas said as Rei appeared in the game, in a cave.

"Spawn spot?"

-"Well, it is... Never mind your brain won't be able to handle this information. If you forcefully try to put this information in your little tiny brain then I am sure that it will explode."- Lucas said jokingly to which a confused look appeared on Rei's face.

"Sigh, leave that. What should I do now?", Rei asked.

-"Go venture."-

At that time Rei started to observe the area. It looks like he was in some kind of cave. He started walking front and then soon reached the entrance of the cave but what he saw next made veins pop up on his head.

"Hahahaha!", Rei laughed loudly, the laughter echoing throughout the cave.

-"Ugh, have you finally gone cra-"- Lucas was about to joke with Rei, wanting to call him mad but when he spotted the exterior of the cave, he too had no choice but to burst into laughter.

It was raining…

"No seriously! What is wrong with my luck? Now, what should I do? Grind stones in this cave!?", Rei asked in a fit of anger.

-"Good idea."-

"Shut up!"

Rei thought that Lucas was being sarcastic, however, such a mission did exist.

It was displayed on the screen just seconds later.

*Ding*

< = = = >

[Daily Mission(s)]

[#1 Grind Stones.]

< = = = >

-"Hahahaha!"-

Lucas burst into laughter after seeing the mission whereas Rei felt as if he was being assaulted.

"That's it! I quit!"

-"Haha, no wait. At least check the rewards."-

"No thanks.", Rei merely shook his head, somewhat angry.

-"Come on, the job is easy. You will easily be rewarded."- Lucas further tried to persuade Rei, however, he just didn't waver. Also, he suddenly paused and didn't answer or say anything to Lucas' words.

-"Rei?"-

Lucas noticed that Rei was glancing at a particular place. Shifting his gaze towards the noticed direction, Lucas finally realized why Rei had suddenly become quiet.

Rei was looking at a shining rock that was lying on the ground. It was emerald green and looked very beautiful.

In fact, the cave was somewhat shining because of similar rocks all over the place – making it visible despite almost no light entering it.

Regardless, looking at the rock Rei's eyes suddenly widened.

"It's a mana stone!", Rei said as he sprinted toward the small palm-sized emerald green stone. He quickly lifted it and then started kissing it continuously, after rubbing his eyes, of course, to check if he wasn't just imagining it.

-"Ah…"-

-"A mana stone cave…"- Lucas said as he looked at many more mana stones, but smaller ones, lying around.

-'Hmm, if this is his temporary spawn spot… then that mission should be deeply related…'-

-"Just take a look at your reward for the mission,"- Lucas said, not interested in the kissing scene that went between Rei and the mana stone.

Well, as Rei had suddenly become happy, he didn't hesitate to listen to what Lucas said.

Rei once again looked at the blue screen in which the mission was shown. He specifically looked for the rewards and what was written made his eyes shine.

< = = = >

[Reward: Gain +5 stat points after finding 1000 mana stones.]

[Reward: Gain +1 strength point after mining ten mana stones]

[Reward: Gain +1 stat point on mining fifty mana stones]

[Reward: +1 increase in strength for every 100 strikes during grinding of the stones.]

< = = = >

Since this was a daily mission the rewards could be taken only once a day – in other words, if he failed to complete the task in a day, then the mission would expire. Furthermore, he could complete it only once, and he wasn't sure if he would receive the same benefits or mission the next day.

"Damn! Even grinding stones are so useful and this is the mine of the mana stone! I am so lucky!", Rei said, staring at the rewards.

-"I know right? You are damn lucky! Only very few people are spawned in a mining cave and that is too of a mana stone! How many places do you think there are with so good resources?"- Lucas said with a tone of excitement and envy.

Rei didn't give a damn about what Lucas said and continued thinking about the rewards. As for Lucas, he was a bit proud of his judgement.

-'I was right… this mission in providing a lot of rewards because it is based on his spawn spot…'-

"…"