104 Time to Mine

I can't pass up this moment. Getting Gold Ingots during the first mining will yield a lot here. Gold ingots can be used to forge good weapons and armor along with some necklaces and other accessories. I don't plan to sell them but to use them for my own to increase my stats and damage output.

With the help of Leona, I arrived at the nearest place where the Underground Cave of Gold is located. I didn't drop directly to the place of the dungeon as it may attract other players nearby. The place I landed into is a hidden place I am quite familiar with which is why I am confident enough it is safe to use this place as my landing point.

There are still no players on the road to Underground Cave of Gold's vicinity which means many players right now might be testing the new classes and checking the changes of the game.

"Bladeheart! Over here~" Dolly is waving at me in front of the entrance to the Underground Cave of Gold.

"Is this the dungeon entrance you mentioned?"

"Yes. I wanted to clear this dungeon while other players have not discovered it yet."

"You got the confirmation that you are the first one to discover the dungeon?"

"Uhuh, but I don't want to share it with others since I might get backstabbed once more."

"Then why did you contact me?"

"I can tell that you are not going to do the same as those other players. You are strong enough and you have no intention to abandon teammates. Besides, you might have already beat me up in the beginning since you can solo dungeons right? My presence will be a hindrance if you are one of those backstabbing players."

"Heh, you are indeed a strange one. But thanks for inviting me to this dungeon raid. Let's get inside and check it out. Add me to your party."

After forming a party with her, we went inside. Entering the dungeon entrance, the notification appeared before me,

[You have discovered the dungeon; Underground Cave of Gold]

[Underground Cave of Gold]

Difficulty: Medium

Level range: 50-90

"I checked the main entrance only and did not come deeper. However, I can easily tell there are enemies in the far distance," Dolly said.

"Let's continue then. We can begin our raid once the difficulty of the dungeon pops out. We don't have to worry too much about it."

Not too far from the main entrance, two cave slimes appeared, eating an ore vein.

[Cave Slimes]

Level 50

HP: 10,000/10,000

MP: 1000/1000

Attributes: Slime, Metal Element

Unlike weak slimes, Cave slimes are annoying. They are not as easy to defeat enemies and if you are unprepared, they will melt your defense and armor before you can react, and will immediately suffer.

"Dolly, hit them with Flame magic. They don't easily die with physical attacks and most elements except fire magic are resistant against these monsters."

"Okay!" Dolly immediately invoked Fire Plume to the Cave Slimes. She has quick casting skills so she immediately released magic before the slimes can notice.

-Dolly dealt 5,348 damage.

-Dolly dealt 7, 540 damage.

...

She continues to release it and before the Cave Slimes can even counterattack, it died. Unfortunately, they don't drop anything. They are well known to drop Iron Ingot if killed so I am disappointed it didn't drop. However, we are still in luck as an ore vein is available.

"Can we stay here a bit? I can't afford to pass up the opportunity in mining the ores," I asked Dolly.

"I am not in a hurry so do whatever you needed to."

Getting Dolly's permission, I pulled out the pickaxe in my inventory and started mining. It would have been nice if the Versatile Weapon can transform into a pickaxe but that is not possible as there is no Miner class in the game. Besides, Pickaxes are part of consumables. Once the durability of the pickaxe is gone, it is gone forever and cannot be repaired so to get the most in one pickaxe, you need to be a master in using one.

TINK!

An ingot fell. I can't tell what ingot it was until it will be processed so I have no idea what dropped though I hope they are gold.

TINK TINK TINK!

Ingots keep on dropping on the vein for quite a while until it got exhausted. The vein's supply of ingot will be replenished tomorrow so once it is out, I have to find a new vein. After the last ingot dropped, a pop up appeared.

[Your Mining skill has risen from level 0 to level 1]

Finally, it leveled. Mining skill affects the number of ingots dropped and the amount of durability a pickaxe will consume. The higher your level, the lesser durability is consumed every strike of the ore vein. If my level is higher, every strike I make will allow me to obtain 2 ingots in one strike and it will increase the higher it is.

"You are done with the mining?"

"Yeah. I got at least 12 ingots. Want me to split it?"

"No thanks, Bladeheart. I am not a blacksmith and I don't plan on becoming one so you can keep it," Dolly said.

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah. I am not interested in it."

"If that is the case, all the loot from the monsters here except if they drop ingots and ores, all belongs to you. How does that sound?" I proposed.

"Huh? Isn't that too unfair?"

"Nah, you can have the drops. I am not greedy enough."

Compared to the ingots, the drops on this dungeon does not excite me. The ingots will be a good source of materials for me to use to create weapons so getting the drops are not necessary for me.

We met a few more Cave Slimes on the way but Dolly took care of all of them. We finally arrived at the main place for the dungeon to reveal itself. The moment we stepped into the boundary, the difficulty setting appeared before us.

"The Hard, Hell, and Abyss modes are locked. Only Easy and Normal are here," Dolly said as she tried to click Hell Mode.

"We need to clear the Normal Mode to unlock Hard Mode, then clear Hard Mode to unlock Hell Mode and clear Hell Mode to unlock Abyss Mode."

"Seriously?"

"Let's go to Normal Mode for now. "

Dolly sighed before she agreed.

"After clearing the Normal Mode, let's clear the next levels. I want to challenge Hell Mode as soon as possible."