Chapter 43 – Pilfering Food

Su Mo casually but unhesitatingly walked forwards. He did not let himself feel afraid—the more afraid he was, the easier it was for something to go wrong.

He remembered doing something like this in the past; he had been with a few teammates and one had fallen down. Fortunately, that had only been a drill, and they had protective gear. He had received all kinds of training, but very few of them had been used in real life.

"The more sweat you spill, the less blood you'll shed," the instructor would say.

After reaching solid ground, Su Mo put the rope back onto his back.

Before, he would occasionally see some players mining or killing monsters, but after this hole, it was just him. After walking a few hundred meters, he did not encounter anyone else.

Su Mo summoned the panda baby.

The panda baby was probably feeling incredibly stifled, and after coming out, it rolled on the ground before affectionately rubbing against Su Mo and holding onto his leg and not letting go.

Only when Su Mo gave the order to attack did it give a tender roar and rush at a Mail Plating Scorpion.

The Mail Plating Scorpion's stinger hit the panda baby on its head, making it teary-eyed from pain. However, it still bravely fought like a man. Then again, Su Mo still had no idea if it was a male or female—how could he tell?

Perhaps it was because it was higher grade than Lafu, the baby panda was evidently more human.

If there was no comparison, Su Mo might not have been able to realize this. Lafu truly was a stiff, trash Common monster—oh, trash Elite monster, while the panda baby was incredibly intelligent and expressive.

It was a pity that the panda baby was unable to withstand many hits from the Level 20-something scorpion, even though it was nearly Level 10.

Su Mo led the panda baby forward, and he soon came to the blue mine that the Scorpion Boss had told him about in the chat. The mine was very pretty, and everything was blue. The temperature here was lower, and the monsters were blue scorpions and rats.

The Mail Plating Maze was named such because of these rats and scorpions that seemed to have a layer of mail plating on them.

Su Mo found a spot and stopped, and he took out a pickaxe to start mining.

Any player could mine, but they could not compare to Blacksmiths. Most people who wanted to mine would become Blacksmiths, as they had decent battle power and bonuses when it came to mining and forging.

When monsters spawned in this mine, Su Mo would order the panda baby to attack while he would look out for it while mining.

The Blue Water Diamonds were not something that dropped easily. After a few minutes, Su Mo only obtained a few Blue Iron Ores. Even though they were very pretty, they were not what the client wanted.

"Eee!" A blue Mail Plating Rat that was charging at Su Mo was taunted by the baby-like Vicious Dragon Roar, and it immediately changed direction and rushed at the panda baby.

The panda baby, which was about as big as the Mail Plating Rat, rushed over without fear. After being knocked back and rolling twice, it bravely got back up. Its main battle technique was to use its two small paws to swipe at its enemies; it did not yet know the adult pandas' technique of sitting on their enemies.

As such, it fought quite slowly, and Su Mo would heal it with Pet Healing whenever the skill was off cooldown.

Seeing that it could not last any longer, Su Mo took out his arm cannon and finished off the monster in a few blasts.

At that moment, a blue but crystalline ore appeared, and Su Mo immediately grabbed it. This was the Blue Water Diamond that he was looking for.

He could not help but whistle. Mining 16 of these was $8,000.

Knowledge was power!

Wait no, it was Lafu—Lafu was his golden goose!

Now that he had mined one, would it take long to get a second?

The second quickly arrived. Su Mo did not neglect the baby panda as he mined. When pets died, they not only lost Loyalty but also EXP. Lafu's level was limited by Su Mo's level, so it did not matter if he lost a bit of EXP. However, he was trying to power level the baby panda.

The monsters would leave drops after they died, but Su Mo was not in a hurry to collect them as there was no one else and they would not despawn for a while.

This was until Su Mo saw a scene that made his heart almost stop.

He looked back and saw the panda baby holding a blue crystalline ore in its paws, bringing it to its mouth.

"Stop!" Don't carelessly eat things—what if you hurt your stomach?

It was a pity that before he could finish speaking, the panda baby had already shoved the Blue Water Diamond into its mouth.

"Don't eat it, don't eat it, it's a few hundred dollars." Su Mo shook the panda baby a few times and almost turned it upside down.

"Burp~" The panda baby burped and the Blue Water Diamond was gone. The baby panda started to happily laugh, seeming very pleased with the taste of this gemstone.

At the same time, it finally reached Level 10.

This panda baby could gain EXP by eating things?

Did that mean it had digested the Blue water Diamond?

Su Mo wouldn't be able to get it back even if he dissected it?

"You're a panda, why are you eating gemstones?" Su Mo felt like he was on the verge of tears. He knew that he could get Blue Water Diamonds here, but he had never thought that monsters would drop them too. He wondered if more of them had been secretly pilfered by this baby panda before.

The baby panda could not tell its owner's grievances and took the initiative to run at a new monster.

This was a scorpion monster, and it would use its stinger to stab its opponents. The panda opponent had already been stabbed many times, but it did not retreat.

Seeing how courageous the panda baby was, Su Mo felt a bit better.

However, this time, the scorpion's stab attack did not work—when the stinger hit the panda baby's head, it was blocked by a shield-like thing.

Only then did Su Mo remember that after reaching Level 10, the panda baby would receive a new skill.

Azure Dragon Barrier: Level 1, Active Skill, Summons a shield that absorbs 400 damage for the pet.

It seemed quite powerful, but based on this, it seemed that the panda baby was destined to walk the path of a meat shield. It was possible for all three of its skills to be meat shield skills.

Seeing how good this skill was, Su Mo decided not to pursue the panda baby for pilfering food.

What kind of assets would he need to feed it, gemstones? It looked like Su Mo needed to do more expos and have the girls feed it gemstones in exchange for cuddles.

By 7 pm, Su Mo finally obtained the 16 Blue Water Diamonds that the client wanted. 12 of them had been mined and four of them had dropped from monsters. He still remembered the one that had been pilfered by the baby panda.

Since the baby panda liked to eat them so much and eating them would give it EXP, Su Mo decided to mine a few more in the future.

Evidently, Su Mo was not someone who mistreated small animals.

Before logging off, Su Mo sent the Blue Water Diamonds to I Love Luo and completed this request. I Love Luo promptly transferred the money and praised Su Mo's efficiency. He was also very curious towards Su Mo's information channel; it was a pity that he could not find out anything about it.

The reason why Su Mo logged off so early today was because his father and mother had come back and Su Mo needed to go back to eat with them.

Moreover, it was very likely that Su Xiaojiu would tell on him. If Su Mo was not there, who knew what kind of story she would make up. He would most likely be given a beating before even having the opportunity to explain.