Chapter 42 – Mail Plating Maze

Su Mo did not plan on getting any new pets for the next while. Putting aside the fact that Lafu had become stronger, he needed to level up the baby panda. Even if he got a new pet, he would not have much of an opportunity to use it.

Taming Scrolls came from the gacha, and once the market was saturated with them, their value would definitely greatly decrease. When the time came, they would not be worth much anymore.

The mercenary hall did not have any good requests, and the ones that were there were not very easy to do. As such, Su Mo contacted I Love Luo.

"Two Taming Scrolls? Old Iron, what's going on with you recently? This will be able to give you enough funds for three years." I Love Luo was very shocked.

"Stop joking around, three years? It won't even last me one month. Remember those gold coins I bought from you last time? That was for buying these Taming Scrolls. How much can I sell them for?"

"There's no need to sell them together; it's better to sell them one by one. If you want to sell them faster, then 250 gold coins; if you want to sell them slower, then 260 gold coins. Gold coins are worth different amounts every day, so I recommend that you sell them as soon as possible."

"How about I directly sell them to you and you find buyers?" Su Mo felt quite annoyed towards the old Beast Tamer. He knew that he would suffer a loss from this; he had bought them for 550 gold coins, but he could only sell them for 500.

"Alright, I'll buy them for 260 gold coins each; I won't profit from you. In the future, let's continue to work together."

"I'll send it to you now," Su Mo said before asking, "Are there any requests with good payments? If I don't take any requests, I'm going to die of poverty."

"Ahaha, I'll send all of the requests I have to you; you'll be paid after each one."

Su Mo sent the Taming Scrolls over and received the requests from I Love Luo. As a well-reputed broker, even though I Love Luo did not have as many requests as the mercenary hall, they were all quite good ones.

Stealing business from the system; this was quite admirable.

The reason why I Love Luo was able to expand his business so much was because of his character. Before the Taming Scroll had even reached I Love Luo, Su Mo had already received a notification that he had received the money.

After looking through the requests, there was one that he was interested in.

$8,000 for 16 pieces of Blue Water Diamond. Because no one knew where they dropped or could be mined, the client gave this request to I Love Luo, hoping that he could find someone in his extensive network of experts.

This seemed to be the simplest request, at least for Su Mo, who had the Boss monster chat group.

Su Mo soon found the location of the Blue Water Diamonds—it was at the intersection between Big Bird Kingdom and Kelo Kingdom, Lanly Ravine. Lanly Ravine was very small, less than 20% of Harrington Plains. However, this was the location of many of the Eastern Continent's minerals and ores.

Big Bird Kingdom and Kelo Kingdom continuously fought over this area, wanting to take it into their territory.

Currently, the Big Bird Kingdom occupied Lanly Ravine. Kelo Kingdom sent 100,000 or so soldiers, preparing to cross Sigal Mountain at any moment to attack. Those who dared to come here to mine were all desperate fugitives.

This kind of war environment looked quite scary, but in actuality there was not much to be afraid of. Su Mo directly teleported to Lanly Ravine's Lanly City.

"Pay tax, 20 silver coins!" After coming out of the teleportation tower, he was obstructed by a soldier, looking incredibly ferocious. There were not any proper processes, and it was evident that these soldiers were just taking the money for themselves.

As expected from Big Bird Kingdom; there were few rules and limitless freedom.

"Alright, here's the money." 

Su Mo handed the money over, cursing inwardly.

 "For your medicine!"

He did not stop before leaving Lanly City. He passed through mine after mine before stopping in front of a massive mine. This was the famed Mail Plating Maze.

Compared to the other mines, which were relatively empty, there were many players fighting monsters and mining here.

A few players came out from the mine, and seeing Su Mo, their eyes lit up and rushed over, saying, "Big brother, do you have anything to eat? I'm about to starve to death; just a bit of food is fine."

Even though this game had beggars, no one would come to such a remote place to beg.

They most likely had been trapped in the maze for a long time. Seeing that Su Mo looked quite clean and presentable, he had most likely just arrived. As such, they wanted to beg for some food from him so that they could recover their stamina and return to Lanly City.

Lanly Ravine was one of the rare maps that did not allow teleporting back to the city.

For the players who were trapped in the maze, unless they committed suicide, they had to find their way out of the dark mine.

Su Mo took out a few pieces of bread and two bottles of water. "Do you have any Blue Water Diamonds? I'll trade you for the food."

"Never heard of them before. Can't we just give you money? We'll pay ten times or 20 times the normal rate," the beggars said as they all shook their heads.

"Forget it, I'll give it to you for free then. It's not worth much anyways." Su Mo was not someone who liked to profit from others' misfortune. Since they did not have any Blue Water Diamonds, he would have to go in and look.

"Big brother, the terrain inside is very complicated, and there are many Mail Plating Rats and Mail Plating Scorpions. Think about this carefully."

The people ravenously devoured the bread as they goodnaturedly warned Su Mo. Seeing Su Mo's posture, he was evidently preparing to go into the mine to look for Blue Water Diamonds, which they had never heard of.

"Thanks for your goodwill, but don't worry." 

Su Mo did not look back as he waved and said, "I'm not directionally-challenged like Su Xiaojiu; how could I get lost?"

There were four entrances in total, and it did not matter which one he entered from, as they were all connected.

The information Su Mo had received gave him a rough map. He walked resolutely and killed many monsters. When he faced a fork in the road, he would exercise his judgment and continue walking until he reached the end of a path.

The end of the path was not because there was a wall but because there was an unfathomably deep hole that cut off the passageway. Anyone who saw this would only be able to go back and look for a different path.

Su Mo stood on the side of the deep hole, wondering where this deep hole connected to, as well as what would happen if he jumped down. Who knew if anyone had jumped down before?

There were still some remnants of a path, but they were covered with moss and could not be used.

Su Mo had expected something like this. He took out a coil of rope and a special arrow. He tied the rope to the end of the arrow and shot at the wall ahead. He had done this in real life before, so it was not too difficult for him.

After hitting the wall with the arrow, he vigorously pulled, and the arrow was unable to stay rooted in the stone. Su Mo was not dispirited and pulled it back. After checking the arrow, he once again shot it out.

Next time, he would have Soni Junior make some special items for him. This game seemed to be obsessed with mimicking real life, and there were a lot of loopholes that players could exploit.

After trying a few more times and losing a few precious Barb Arrows, Su Mo was able to make a rope bridge.

Su Mo held a long stick and carefully walked onto the rope.

In actuality, it would not matter much if he fell down; at most, he would just lose some EXP. Who knew? There might be a miracle waiting for him below. If he wanted to become stronger, apart from going bald, perhaps he should fall.