Vine Mine

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A/N: I apologize for not updating these past few days. After I took the small trip, I took an unannounced break that I really needed.

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"I waited for you and expected some materials to make some equipment," said Mingyue Li as she cleaned the counter at her blacksmith shop.

"Weren't you busy making weapons and armors?" Yuan Tai looked at Mingyue Li with a wry smile, hoping to get out of this somehow.

Mingyue Li stopped and looked up at Yuan Tai.

Yuan Tai continued to stare back at Mingyue Li, feeling a bit awkward about the stare.

"Haaa! No! I wasn't busy. I had no materials and I have no steady stream of costumers to fix up their weapons and armors.

I was depending on you for this reason," said Mingyue Li with a stressed look on her face.

"What about a steady stream of normal materials?" Yuan Tai asked curiously.

"Not possible, every other big blacksmith shop buys them in bulk to train the new blacksmiths," said Mingyue Li with some anger in her voice.

Yuan Tai frowned but continued nonetheless, "Then how did you and your father survive in this blacksmithing world."

"An old friend of my father's. He brought us materials at the end of every week. Large amounts that would last us two weeks," said Mingyue Li with a light smile on her face. "He would always bring us more and more materials each time he reappeared. Sometimes some high leveled monsters…"

Listening to Mingyue Li, Yuan Tai can feel the atmosphere turn sad. He could sort of understand what had happened to the man without having Mingyue Li tell him.

It was obvious that this man must have met his end a couple months or years ago seeing as how Mingyue Li was doing alright when he had arrived. The large amount of materials must have lasted them until a couple weeks ago.

"How about i get you some normal materials and metals? Is there a nearby mine or something like that?" Yuan Tai was ready to give Mingyue Li a ton of materials to make up for the fact that he had given her none the past few days.

"All the mines here on earth had been taken over by huge companies and by the big blacksmithing places," said Mingyue Li as she glanced over at Yuan Tai.

"Then what can we do?"

"You will need to either mine in the World's Dungeon, or defeat some monsters and bring me back their bodies or just their bones, claws, fur… and whatever you don't want to keep," said Mingyue Li. She looked at Yuan Tai curiously and wondered what he would choose.

Yuan Tai kept quiet and thought about it for a minute. He wanted to get stronger fast, but his parents had advised him against growing in strength too quickly and being poisoned by the greed for more strength.

Scratching the back of his head, Yuna Tai looked at Mingyue Li and said, "I'll go ahead and mine in the World's Dungeon."

"Great! I still have the pickaxe that the previous material collector used," said Mingyue Li as she ran to the back of the Blacksmith shop and into a little storage area.

Mingyue Li returned a couple of minutes later with a chipped, yet shiny and powerful, pickaxe in her arms. The head of the pickaxe was black and the stick holding it was a white wood with a dirtied white bandage at its bottom.

[Black Steel Pickaxe]

[Durability: 237 / 10,000

Rank: Rare

Ability(s): Insta-Mine - Lvl 1 Tier 1, Increased Toughness - Lvl 10 Tier 1

Description: Made from a rare metal similar to steel. Defective due to low quality materials used.

Made by the hands of a skilled expert blacksmith granting the pickaxe to go through stone like butter.]

'If an expert could make a Rare pickaxe with some low quality materials, what could they make with high quality materials?'

Yuan Tai looked at the pickaxe in awe and put it in his inventory before facing Mingyue Li. "Then I'll be off, Boss Li."

"Be careful out there, here's a map that shows you a good mining point in the World's Dungeon. Every mineral and ore mined at the World's Dungeon returns after a certain period of time. The more rare a mineral mined is, the longer it will take to appear once again," said Mingyue Li as she waved goodbye to Yuan Tai.

Yuan Tai nodded and left the Blacksmith shop, heading straight to the shrine gate that leads into the World's Dungeon.

Whilst running over to the shrine gate, Yuan Tai looked closely at the skills on the Black Steel Pickaxe.

[Insta-Mine: Instantly obtain all minerals in a 1 meter radius. 30 Minute Cooldown. Costs 2 Durability.]

[Increased Toughness: Weapons' durability takes longer to decrease by x times. (x = Skill level)]

'These are great skills… let's hope they are put to good use,' thought Yuan Tai as he revealed a small smile and sped up his speed to reach the Dungeon World's shrine gate.

Time to mine!

…

"This mine looks pretty hidden," muttered Yuan Tai as he headed deep into a forest far away from the World's gate.

He performed many turns to make sure no one was following him as he traveled.

Yuan Tai even evaded monsters no matter how weak they were. If they were strong monsters, Yuan Tai was even more careful.

Traveling to the mine took him almost a whole day, Yuan Tai could only sigh. He would have to get a higher Dexterity stat if he would want to be more agile and fast. Luckily the Dexterity stat isn't just for speed and agility, but also hand eye coordination.

It was just like the Constitution stat that not only increased Health and a small amount of defense of the body, but it also increases the stamina.

Standing in front of the mine, Yuan Tai gazed at the entrance amazed at how the previous material collector was able to find this mine when it was hidden behind the trees and many vines.