my slow journey to infinity

Chapter 15 Pickaxe attack makes people happy!
This is the largest town on the first level [Tolbana], excluding the six starting towns.

Now that the night is getting darker, Kirito has separated from Aqua Regia. Tomorrow he will advance to the maze area, trying to reach level 10 and put on the ring, and at the same time replenish his economy.

After all, the materials for strengthening weapons and equipment and a large amount of cash have been taken away by his old father Wang Shui. Starting tomorrow, Kirito will be clearing monsters with high intensity.

Wang Shui also finally finished sorting out the item boxes in the town and planned storage space for various materials in advance for easy retrieval later. This is the basic quality of an experienced player.

Although I was on the road today and only painted a ruins in the middle, I gained more than all the previous ones combined.

Thanks to Kirito's donation, Aqua Regia now has most of the materials to enhance weapons to [+6]. The only material such as steel ingots cannot be directly dropped by monster spawning, and monsters can only drop ores.

The town where Aqua Regia is currently located [Tolbana] is in front of a valley. This is a long and narrow valley in the east-west direction. Many monsters here can drop ores. In various wild mines, players can also mine ores by themselves. Take it to town and smelt it.

But no matter which method is used, the efficiency is far lower than professional [mining] skills.

After entering the town, Wang Shui also went out to slay a few monsters that would drop ores. He tested the [Gathering] skill, but the things he obtained were too miscellaneous, and the efficiency in obtaining additional ores was not very high.

So Wang Shui planned to master the [Mining] skill. Although he didn't understand how to master this life skill, he had to believe in his talent. He might unlock it with the first pickaxe!
He emptied his backpack and set out with only simple food, water, sleeping bags and aqua regia for ten mining picks. Yes, it was getting late, but he set off.

The destination is a mine controlled by the town.

Following the simple track for transporting ore, Shui Wang found the mine 3 kilometers away from the town under the illumination of a few lights. There were several simple stone houses here and a space carved into the mountain wall, surrounded by a stone wall. A huge square was built, which seemed to be used to pile ore, but now there is no one here.

There is a fee to enter the mine, which is 100 kel per time. There is an additional fee for deeper mines.The people watching the scene are the town militia. Although the level is not very high, if you mess with them, you will be hostile to all NPCs.

To be honest, the price is a bit expensive, and the militia only provides security guards for the first two floors. They will clean up the monsters in the valley and prevent them from entering the 0th floor (the floor level with the valley). They will also clean up about five meters underground. [Mine Level 1], but starting from [Mine Level 2], players will not only have to pay an additional 50 koels, but will no longer be protected by the town.

Monsters will also be refreshed in the mines, mainly some beetles, a small number of undead creatures, and - kobolds. Yes, sometimes kobold miners and kobold overseers will be dug up.

The above information is basically what the players have only mastered a few days ago.

Now in the public beta version, the money drops have been reduced. The elite players who rushed to this mining town are stuck on the metal ingots with enhanced weapons. Just two days before Aqua Regia arrived here, they started to delve into the mine. strategy.

But the effect is not ideal.

After paying the money, Wang Shui walked into the 0th floor, which was level with the valley floor. Sporadic jingling sounds reached his ears. There were only about four or five players scattered in the extremely vast mine. Wang Shui couldn't even see their miner's lamps shaking.

Wang Shui learned this afternoon that there were about 130 players who had conquered this place in the first week of the game, and at least 100 people had participated in the mine's assault. Although they did not form a team, they worked together to clean up the monsters and suppress the monster groups. Stacking is also a common strategy.

The mine strategy team advanced to [Mine Level 5] in one go. Only the appearance of level 20 monsters there forced them back. [Mine Level 4] already had quite a lot of mineral points, and the ore grade was also quite high. , it stands to reason that the harvest should be huge.

But everyone was very helpless to find that without the [Mining] skill and a high-level mining pickaxe, the more advanced minerals are harder to knock. Not only that, slightly more advanced minerals cannot be knocked without the [Mining] skill. At low cost, the extraction efficiency is even lower than killing monsters.

So everyone withdrew. No one was willing to put the [Mining] skill in the extremely valuable skill grid in the early stage. At worst, they would just use money to buy steel ingots, or wait for professional miners to engage in production, so they are no longer seen in the mines. How many frontline players are there.

Of these few, Wang Shui estimates that they are extremely aggressive players. They farm monsters during the day and barely rest at night. They mine ore on level 0 despite low efficiency. A small amount of wealth accumulation will make them feel extremely satisfied. and happiness.

Wang Shui understands them quite well, because he is also this kind of player.

However, Aqua Regia did not dig on the 0th floor. He went directly to the [Mining 1st Floor]. The types of ore here are almost the same as those on the 0th floor, but the ore points are much harder and the mining is slower. The advantage is that occasionally a small amount will appear. A higher grade of minerals.

Walking down the wide spiral stone staircase, you will find a brightly lit simple miner's camp below, with a smash-proof wooden and stone structure low shed and a fully equipped campfire. There is a wooden bed in the low shed for sleeping bags, and the campfire can be used for cooking and heating food.

In addition, in this world where magic cannot be used, there are still some traces of magic.In the simple miner's camp, there is a huge [Expulsion Crystal]. The thigh-thick, one-meter-high grass-green crystal is wrapped in a pitch-black steel cage and then welded firmly to the ground.

Monsters will not be refreshed within the 50-meter radius of the crystal. Monsters that are close will be stimulated to run away and clear their hatred value. This is the protection provided by the town.

So this is also a safe place to mine... as long as you don't dig out 50 meters away, or the mine tunnel is dug straighter to make it easier to run back.

There is no nonsense, Wang Shui took action. Now he does not need to dig the stone wall, he can dig directly from the exposed mineral spots. No one has come here for a long time, and many large mineral spots have grown to very high places.

Ah, yes, the ores here will grow. I wonder if it is limited by the size of the floating city "Aincrad". Many resources can be refreshed and grown. The most direct ones are monsters. .

Not only do the ores here grow, but their physical models are almost identical to columnar crystal clusters. The color, texture, and purity are almost as high as those of simple metals.

Wang Shui was complaining while waving the mineral pick crazily. Every time the pickaxe hits, the mineral point will drop durability. When the durability of this part is lost, part of the mineral point will collapse, and then the player will get some ores.

Adding to the endless boring pickaxe shooting, Wang Shui opened the built-in music player, which contained some of the game music he had unlocked, mainly pure music suites for towns and environments, just to kill loneliness.

At first, it took more than 30 pickaxe strikes for Aqua Regia to harvest a small amount of ore, and then it slowly decreased to 30, then to 20, until when he was very sleepy, Aqua Regia suddenly felt his sore and numb arms feel relaxed, and the next time he waved, he harvested a small amount of ore. The mining pickaxe below struck the mineral point crystal heavily.

【Mining completed!Obtaining materials...]

【Coal Ore: 21】

[Tin Ore: 14]

【Copper Ore: 13】

【Iron Ore: 11】

……

This time the output of ore has almost tripled.

Wang Shui slowly brought up the menu panel and opened the skills column. Sure enough, after the [Flying Sword] skill in another row, there was another [Mining] skill.

Wow~ So invincible~
Wang Shuihui was expressionless, and he praised his brother's talent [arrogant knower], and then nothing happened.

Yes, it does look powerful, but so what?

This is just a game world, and you in the game world are fake no matter how powerful you are.

Wang Shui spent half a year in Tiefeng City under the control of his boss [Dream System]. He read a lot of knowledge books and did a lot of experiments, but he failed to unlock any skills.

Entering the game world, you can easily unlock a large number of skills. Wang Shui couldn't understand it, but he had a feeling that it was only here that he could learn skills so easily.But just like his plain mood, being flattered or humiliated?That's probably what it feels like.

In life, why do you always strive for progress and make yourself unhappy? Wang Shui has long lost his competitive mentality, and all he has in his eyes is interests and a comfortable life.

For him now, mining is quite comfortable.

The tinkling sound of knocking continued to echo in the dim mine, and Aqua Regia's backpack and satisfaction were slowly filled.

……

……

Kacha~
The mining pick in his hand completed its last strike, and the wooden handle broke and made a sound effect before turning into light debris and dissipating.

Aqua regia opened his backpack mechanically, only to find that the mining pickaxe had been used up, and the time pointed to a little over five o'clock.

This is not the first time that he has used up the pickaxe in his backpack. Eight days have passed, yes, eight days!

In the past eight days, Wang Shui didn't even touch a weapon. He traveled mechanically between the town and the mine. Packs of ore were delivered to the blacksmith shop by him. At the same time, a large number of various basic metal ingots were also piled up in Shui Wang's storage. luggage box.

The storage boxes in the town had already reached their upper limit, so Wang Shui spent a lot of money to open another twenty pages of space to store the smelted metal ingots.

Aqua regia is a person who will become particularly addicted when he suddenly encounters something he is interested in.But as long as he is slightly tired of aesthetics or encounters a major learning bottleneck, he will always lose patience quickly and give up trying to improve.

This is why Wang Shui accomplished nothing before he came to the infinite world, although he still doesn't do it now.

Wang Shui's current enthusiasm for mining has not been exhausted. The walk on the way back to the city is another kind of relaxation, but his steps are a bit heavy.

A backpack of ores has some impact on his actions. The weight of the items in the inventory will not affect the player until it exceeds 80% of the upper load limit. Once it exceeds, the player will feel the load according to the excess percentage, just like the gravity. was reinforced.

There is also a similar effect, which is the upper limit of the weight of the equipment worn. They are enhanced by the [Strength] attribute. There is also an auxiliary skill that can increase the upper limit - the [Weight-bearing] skill, which Wang Shui has unlocked during the eight days of carrying ore back and forth. After defeating it, I even raised its proficiency level to [Weight-bearing (133)].

In addition, the highest proficiency level is mining, which is higher than the weapon skill level, a full 402.

Not long after, Aqua Regia returned to the town, and under the frightened eyes of the blacksmith, he filled all 10 smelting furnaces in the shop with ore. After paying the fee, Aqua Regia still filled all the smelting furnaces that could not be filled. The ore is all stored in the blacksmith shop. I spent some extra money to ask the blacksmith uncle to help me refine it. He will come to pick it up when the time comes.

Afterwards, Aqua Regia left the blacksmith shop with the metal ingots he had saved last time and 30 level 10 mining picks.

Mining and smelting like this is extremely expensive. The nearly [-] koels that Wang Shui once saved (Kirito contributed [-]) are basically spent. He will soon consider going out to farm monsters to make money. As for metals, Ingots, without knowing the market price, Wang Shui didn't want to sell them at a price lower than the price in the NPC shop, because he found that the metal ingots in the blacksmith shop were starting to be sold out, but the NPC did not have the ore...

This is probably a task, but Wang Shui has no interest or time to trigger it. He plays the game and has no special utility, even if it is a death game.

There are obviously more players on the streets of the town. In fact, as long as players get through the initial period of fear, they will find that the difficulty of the first level, all the way to the maze area, is relatively low.

Whether they were forced out of money or they really mustered up the courage, about 7% of the players in the six starting towns took the first step in the death game, which is [-] to [-] people...

So in just eight days, the second and third echelon players who originally planned to develop in the low-level area have been forced to come to the valley and gathered in the town of [Torbana].

As for the original first echelon, they either continue to hang out here and collect strengthening materials, or they have already begun to conquer the maze.

Fortunately, the map on the first level is a hundred times larger than during the closed beta. Even if the number of players out there doubles, the world will be enough for them to develop and become stronger.

But one thing that surprised Wang Shui was that no one initiated the BOSS strategy on the first level. He originally thought that if there were enough elite players, the BOSS strategy would be advanced. After all, at least people can afford to die.

Even in the maze area on the first floor of the floating city "Aincrad", they have not yet reached the BOSS room.

Will the plot line return automatically?Or has the maze area become much more difficult?Having never entered the maze area, Wang Shui really doesn't understand it.

The only thing that hasn't changed is probably the mine. Currently, no one in [Tolbana] is willing to learn the [Mining] skill.

Not bad, at least no one is grabbing the mineral points.

When Wang Shui went out and passed by the militia training ground outside the town, he actually saw a familiar scene of player battles. It seemed that the guys in the small forest village had brought their habit of relaxing duels here. It was only around six o'clock in the evening, so be greedy. Before the players returned to the city, there were already 30 people on the training ground playing against each other or simply watching the show.

The aloof miner didn't pause for a moment, and Wang Shui quickly returned to the mine. Today, his [Mining] skill proficiency reached over 400, and he was going to [Level 2 of the Mine] to have a look.

The second floor was much darker, to be exact, it was pitch black. The area that had been cleared out of the mine was also very small, with only a circular space with a radius of less than 2 meters.

Moreover, there is no [Expulsion Crystal] here, there is no simple miner camp, and the only small fire pit is also filled with dust.

There is a fist-sized lantern on Wang Shui's waist, and a crystal miner's lamp on his head that focuses the light forward, which is basically enough to illuminate this small mine.

After confirming, there are no monsters here on the 2nd floor. The militiamen who came to the camp at the entrance of the 0th floor to change the defense said that the space on the 2nd floor of the mine was originally very large, but the stone walls in the mine could grow like the mineral spots, and it had not been there for a long time. When people mine, the space here shrinks to this much, but one advantage is that no monsters will spawn in a space that is too small.

Of course, if the space was too small, no mineral spots would be exposed. So Wang Shui found a random direction and started swinging the mining pickaxe.

The rock cave wall is extremely fragile under Shui Wang's [Mining] skill with a proficiency level of 400. Shui Wang can even dig out an area with a depth of about one meter and a height slightly higher than his height with a dozen strikes. This is simply too much. Magic.

According to a more scientific plan, Aqua Regia should use the fish bone mining method, but in order to prevent being blocked by monsters in a small space, Aqua Regia chose to fully expand. Yes, he expanded the mining area in all directions and used the most efficient method. Mining.

He started working around 06:30 in the evening. When he went up to the simple camp on [Level 1 of the Mine] to rest at two o'clock in the morning, seven and a half hours of non-stop work reduced the entire ground radius of the mine cavity on Level 2. At least doubled.

The backpack is full of props named [Rocks] and [Soil], which are not purchased by NPC and are very heavy. Wang Shui is also thinking about how to deal with them, but now he is too tired and he just wants to rest.

Of course, these seven and a half hours were not all about digging rocks. Aqua Regia also dug out many large mineral spots.

Starting from level 2, copper ore and tin ore begin to decrease, the number of iron ore increases, lead ore and sulfur ore begin to appear, and there is also a small amount of silver ore. In addition, the amount of coal ore also begins to increase, which is strange.

The new minerals aroused Wang Shuixin's interest again. He had never seen corresponding chemicals for sale in the town. He thought that the item settings in this world were relatively simple, but now it seemed that not many things were exposed.

Speaking of which, Aqua Regia's interest in chemistry is not small.

(End of this chapter)