Chapter 32- A Miner’s Life

Abel felt completely unburdened after seeing the amount of credits he had in his account.

Although his expenses were still a couple of months away, the sooner he covered them, the better. He could calmly play the game with a peace of mind, hopefully making even more money.

He was now left with 22 silver and 30 copper coins he could use to purchase things, but he didn't particularly need anything at the moment.

Although he could upgrade his armguards, pants and boots, this wasn't an urgent matter and he had already bought a pick axe earlier on.

He swiftly set out to the dungeon once more, leaving the city and its night-time bustle behind him.

This time, he didn't need a torch to light his way. The night's darkness couldn't hinder his vision at all with the aid of his new Adaptive Eye skill.

He trekked his way through the woods, bypassing cunning Umber Wolves and other small monsters alike. He was able to see them before he entered their sensing range so he saved himself the time taken to subdue these weak monsters.

'It's hard to imagine just 2 days ago I was worried I'd get done in by these Fierce Rabbits and Umber Wolves.'

Abel thought in amusement as he bypassed another small pack of Level 5 Umber Wolves.

He could also spot some players out hunting in party's in the distance. The light from torches was a dead give-away for players at night.

Unless they had some unusual stroke of luck to gain a night-vision skill or a special rogue-type profession, then a torch was a necessity.

Abel had once seen on TV that a night-vision skill-essence crystal was auctioned off in a city within the Kaelia Region for an astronomical price of 97 gold coins!

It was discovered by a group of friends adventuring in the wilds and they came across a treasure chest. It was around a week after the release of the game so the conversion rate was lower, at around 1.8 coalition credits to silver.

Still, that single sale netted them more than 17,000 coalition credits.

'I might not have the luck to stumble on such a skill but that's fine, I'm a battlesmith!' Abel pumped himself up as he reached the entrance of the dungeon.

He made his way to the room full of loot and started stuffing his spacial bag with as much monster parts as he could.

He first took all the claws, pelts and teeth and they took up 24 stacks, 12 stacks and 39 stacks respectively. He decided to put aside the rat tails for the time being, he needed to leave some space for the ores he planned to mine.

While he didn't know how much low grade Nocturnium would fetch on the market, it was definitely more than the tails. In fact, he suspected it was worth more than the monster parts too but he wouldn't know until he went to the market.

He figured he'd make another run back to the city to sell off his goods and find out then. He still had 47 slots available in his bag so he had to see how much ore he could get.

After packing up all the monster parts save for the tails, he went down to the second floor and pulled out his cheap pick axe. It had horrible stats but that was expected seeing it merely cost 80 copper coins.

Clang

Clang

Clang

Abel didn't waste any time and started whacking at the walls in the room. Although he had never mined before, it was simple to hit at the soil around where the ores were visible.

+1 Pick Axe Proficiency

+1 Pick Axe Proficiency

'I wouldn't be surprised if my pick axe proficiency exceeds my sword proficiency before I'm done'

He thought in amusement as he carried on with the monotonous task of mining. He had gotten the legacy and skills after killing all the monsters so his all weapons mastery couldn't increase the EXP for his weapon proficiency skills before now.

*Ding*

Mining successful: +1 Low-grade Ore

Just a few minutes later, he saw he had succeeded and a black ore fell off the wall. He reached out to grab it and try and see its details.

"Inspect"

*Ding*

[Low Grade Nocturnium Ore]

Low-grade ore that's useful in crafting weapon and armor with special properties.

'How useless, I should have figured as much.'

Abel used inspect out of habit, forgetting his newly acquired blacksmith-appraisal skill.

'Metal Insight'

*Ding*

- When used in crafting weapons, enemies can gain minor debuff stat.

- When used in crafting armor, items can gain minor enhancement related to evasion.

- The presence of impurities reduces overall effectiveness, making it a challenge to extract the full potential. Crafting success rates may be slightly lower compared to higher-grade Nocturnium.

'That's much better… though my skill is still too low-levelled. I'm sure I'd get more details after leveling it up'

After satisfying his curiosity, Abel carried on with the task at hand. He'd spent around 3 to 4 minutes just mining this single low-grade ore but he was sure his speed would see an increase as he practiced his proficiency skill.

Clang

Clang

Clang

Clang

Abel carried on while humming a small tune Xiaowen used to hum while forging. While he would occasionally fail in his task causing the ore would crumble into nothingness. He would stop only to take a small break, pulling up his satiety and stamina levels before getting right back to work.

The humming helped pass the time and before he knew it, the minutes had turned into hours, he didn't stop mining until he saw the entire chamber was emptied out of ore.

He had increased his proficiency with the pick axe to 38% of greenhorn, meaning he had reached the second stage of the first level already.

'Hopefully all this ore can be stacked and fits into the 50 spaces I have… let's see'

Abel started stacking 5 ores into each inventory pocket of his bag. Thankfully, the ore could be stacked as usual all and merely filled up 15 stacks.

He had spent 3 hours hacking with his pick axe, other than the times when his skill failed him, he had gotten 75 low-grade ores.

'I should log out to get some food, I haven't eaten since lunch. If I don't log out soon, the system will just remind me. I'll take the loot back to the city and then come back to log out. After grabbing something quick to eat I'll get right back into it.'

Having made his plans, Abel made his way up to the first floor. He packed up 32 stacks of Rat Tails since he had the space and swiftly made his way back to the city.

'Although the dungeon's close, I'm still wasting so much time going back and forth.'

He had the urge to get a larger spacial bag but he had just bought the bag he was using and felt it was too much of a pity to lose so much coin over its resale.

'I'll take a look at how much the ore is worth. If the low-grade ore can sell for a nice sum then it means the higher-grade ore on the third level would be worth even more.'

He doubted the ore on the third level was high-grade, much less a peak grade ore like the one from the chest. He guessed it was mid-grade but probably not all of it, it should be a mix of middle and low grade Nocturnium.

After a short 20-minute jog, Abel was back in Velskryn walking through its streets.

He wanted to pay a visit to Universal Bazaar but he wasn't sure they'd purchase raw ore. He figured he'd ask when he off loaded his monster loot and see what they had to say.

After navigating through the familiar streets, Abel found himself before the store front.

Tring Tring

Surprisingly, it wasn't the same attendant as always. Although he looked similar, the young man was slightly older than the NPC Abel was familiar with.

"How can I assist you dear customer?"

"Excuse me, is the other shopkeeper not on duty today?"

"Ah, you must be talking about my little brother. He usually mans the shop during the day while I take over duty at night."

"But I was here I couple of nights ago and it was also him here…"

Abel didn't hide his suspicion, he was just as wary of NPC's as he was of players. He remembered all those long posts about people getting scammed by NPC's.

"Yes, I was out of the city. I had some business to attend to in the southern city of Stormwatch. I just returned today."

"That makes sense. Very well then, I'd like to sell off some monster parts"

Abel took his word for it, seeing as he looked similar to the attendant and what he said added up. He was asking out of both caution and curiosity. He had found it a little strange since he would see the same attendant every time he would visit the shop.

NPC's also needed to rest and would abide by a routine, the stronger and higher levelled an NPC, the less the need for rest. But even then, they'd still need to sleep every few days at least. He had thought the young man was simply a high-levelled NPC and would rest less often than normal.

He made his way to the table in a practiced manner and started removing the monster parts he had on him.

"Quite the collection of monster parts. 120 rat claws -3 copper coins each. 195 rat teeth -4 copper coins each. 70 rat pelts – 5 copper coins each and finally 175 rat tails at 1 copper each. That brings the total to 16 silver and 15 copper coins. Do you agree to the transaction?"

The parts were worth more than those level 4 rats he first hunted, but it was understandable seeing as the monsters in the dungeon started at level 5. The man seemed to have the same fast calculation skills as his little brother, or perhaps it was just a normal ability for a merchant.

"Yes. I would also like to inquire whether you purchase ores…" Abel pulled out a single low-grade Nocturnium ore from his spacial bag.

"I apologize sir but we do not. We have no blacksmith in our family, it is just me and my brother and neither us have the skills to turn these ores into more lucrative products. I suggest you try out the blacksmith shops on Artisan Street."

Abel figured he'd get this answer but he asked just in case. Just as he was about to put it away, he thought of something else and asked,

"May I know how much it is worth? Or do you not know…?"

Abel asked without expecting an answer, he guessed the man would tell him to go to a blacksmith's shop to find out. But contrary to his expectation, the man took hold of the ore for examination before answering him,

"They are of low-grade but they seem to be a rare Nocturnium. If I were you, I wouldn't sell a kilogram for less than 10 copper coins."

Abel was happily surprised at the answer, he didn't know why the attendant seemed so friendly but he didn't question the price.

If a single peak-grade Nocturnium ore could sell for 5 gold coins then a single low-grade ore should sell for a dozen or so coppers. He guessed a mid-grade ore would sell for a silver while a high-grade ore would several for a few dozen silver.

He took back the ore and thanked the man before making his way out of the shop.

What Abel didn't know was that the usual attendant he dealt with was also a potioneer and the rat meat he'd been selling them was refined by him. The young attendant was advancing his potioneering skill while also making a lot of money.

When his elder brother came back, he had told him about all his gains over the past couple of days and the young traveler that would come and sell loot every so often.

Sometimes, a player would gain favorability with an NPC without them knowing and it would aid them in the form of little bits of knowledge or assistance in something small.

Abel made his way to the Artisans Street and started asking around. The first couple of shops tried scamming him by offering a low 3 or 4 coppers so Abel blacklisted these shops for good. He went shop by shop until he reached a store that was actually honest and gave him a fair price of 11 copper coins.

'If I hadn't asked at Universal Bazaar and just sold it where ever, I would have lost out big time!'

Abel angrily thought as he started taking out the ores in his spacial bag.

The 15 stacks came up to 45 kilograms, apparently the ores would differ but approximately every ore was around 0.6 kilograms.

After making the transaction, his savings were looking healthy again at 43 silver and 40 copper coins. He decided to quickly make his way back to the dungeon before logging out. Once he had a quick bite to eat, he could log back in and get back to mining the last of the ore on the third floor.

'A miner's life sure is tough'

With this thought, Abel swiftly made his way out of the city.