Eli awoke in his bed to his surprise, having recalled falling asleep in the Simbox. He was still wearing his clothes from the previous day, and his right shoulder felt sore as if he’d pulled a muscle. He got up to see it was already early afternoon and a paper rolled off of his bed.

‘You were up all night studying, right?

Work till 8, food in the fridge.

P.S. accidentally banged your shoulder on the door frame trying to move you,

Love, Mom’

Winter devoured the sausage and eggs left for him by his mother without bothering to warm them up, then drowsily made his way back to the Simbox. He hovered over the office simulation for a moment while thinking over the subject of his first exam on Monday.

“Eh, I’ve got it.” He nodded to himself, opting to select The Shattered World Online.

His ears were immediately filled with the sound of pickaxes hitting stone echoing across the copper hills, other players already hard at work in the early morning hours of the game world. A quick glance at his interface told him that he was still partied with Silentwire and she was offline, as was Davoth.

Not to waste time he pulled out his pickaxe and started working away, but after an hour he couldn’t help but feel he was being inefficient with his time and started scouting for ore that had a Rockjaw nearby. It wasn’t a long search before he spotted one and it occurred to him that it was his first time seeing a Rockjaw.

A strange bulky creature with stone-like skin, four short legs and a round belly with a miniscule pointed tail. It’s most defining feature was of course its giant lower jaw which looked to be made of solid grey stone, so big it jutted out beyond its tiny black nose.

When Winter approached it, shield at the ready, the creature glanced at him and wiggled its pointed ears, then opened its mouth wide and began to snap at him with its large jaw.

You take 15 Piercing Damage.

He’d managed to use Brace, but it still did some damage, and unlike the boars it did not run off to wind up another charge, instead it rotated itself around him to try and bite from another angle at a much higher attack rate than the boars, but nothing he couldn’t handle as long as it was just one.

“Okay, now, the hard part…” He carefully tracked the creature's movement while raising up his pickaxe and hitting the ore deposit in front of him. It worked fine, but he swore that doing this had pissed the Rockjaw off and it began growling louder.

With his mana regeneration as it was and how much he healed for now he was able to hold the Rockjaw on him for a solid minute and gather 20 ore in the process before he had to flee. Rockjaws were much slower than the boars so he was able to run far enough that it lost interest, though he got a few quizzical stares from nearby miners as he did this.

From there, he planned out his day. Anytime he had full mana he would mine near one, otherwise just mine and eat, and he was extremely relieved that the Rockjaws did a damage type that didn’t hurt so bad through a shield.

It was a long grindy process, but it was nothing compared to the long study sessions he was used to, no menial task was enough to deter him. The sun set and the sun rose in the Shattered World Online, twice, yet he continued to mine and mine.

Not wanting to waste time going back, he managed to barter with another miner to trade 200 ore for 4 copper shields as his had started breaking. It set him back a bit but not by much. After 48 in-game hours he had reached level 6 in his leather armor proficiency, level 15 in shield mastery, and minor heal reached rank 7 - from there things began to pick up massively. He reached the point where he was able to take hits from a Rockjaw infinitely and was able to pull them into their enrage, defeating them through exhaustion. It took a significantly longer period of time than the boars did but his experience started to flow in alongside his copper ore.

Harvesting the Rockjaws sometimes yielded more ore, leather, meat, and rocksalt. After experimentation with the rocksalt and other spices, he got the hang of cooking delicious Rockjaw Steak that restored 5% stamina a minute for ten minutes, and 10 stamina immediately upon consumption. He swore to never go back to Boar steak after this discovery, and with it his downtime became almost non-existent.

The only break he took was to eat dinner with his mother that night, otherwise he grinded on through the ore and Rockjaws the entire weekend, sleeping only a few hours Sunday morning.

“That guy, does he ever logout?”

“Why does he just let the Rockjaws hit him while he’s mining? Why doesn’t he just kill them?”

“I feel like I recognize him from somewhere.”

“That’s Makaroth’s son, the guy who couldn’t kill a boar.”

“Should we help him, maybe? I feel bad.”

“Just leave him alone, he doesn’t need help. Kid is probably a millionaire, doesn’t need to be good at the game because of who his dad is.”

“Look, he’s not even taking it seriously.” The comments from the onlookers and other miners were becoming a headache, but Winter learned to focus on the sounds of the Rockjaws and rely on their grunts to time his Brace usage. Every once in a while a higher level player would show up looking to level mining, and they’d explain to the low level players what Winter was doing by mining and taking hits at the same time. It’d result in either the gossiping players calling him mental, or trying to copy him and ending up dying to a Rockjaw instead.

It wasn't until Monday at around one in the morning realtime that he finally got a notification pop up on his screen that he’d been struggling for all weekend, the past 6 in-game days.

Quest Complete! 3/3 Copper ore mined [Quality: 50%+]: Return to Chief Miner Belthas

Level Up!: Mining has reached level 13!

“FINALLY! IRON!” Winter shouted triumphantly. He got applause from a few of the other miners who’d been mining that’d avoided gossiping about him, but it died out quickly. Disappointed that he couldn’t brag to Davoth, or even Silentwire, as both were offline, he turned to the next best thing, Ruffily.

‘IRONNNNN’ He cheered into the messaging interface.

“Woof!? What?! Seriously?! You’ve barely just started playing!? How?!”

“Hard work!” Winter smirked as he began trekking towards Orm.

“No way! I mean, I don’t even have Iron yet, I’ve been playing for a month. How di, Woof! You’re insane, most players take two months,”

“I’m coming back to Orm, I can prove it.”

“I won’t be here, Woof! I’ve got mining to do, I can’t fall behind!” Ruffily shouted with determination before closing the messaging window. He took the time to check the progress he’d made from his grand copper grind.

Name: Winter

Race: Human

Gender: Male

Level: 5

Class: Priest

Health: 311/311

Mana: 121/121

Stamina: 80/80

Hunger: 100/100

Armor Rating: 59 (-11.78%)

Strength: 18

Agility: 17

Constitution: 25

Intelligence: 10

Spirit: 20

Charisma: 10

Equipment

Chest: Simple Leather Armor - Armor: 18

Legs: Simple Leather Pants - Armor: 12

Feet: Boar King's Treads - Armor: 12 (O1: -5% dmg from Beasts)

Hands: Simple Leather Gloves - Armor: 8

Mainhand: Copper Pickaxe (Tool)

Offhand: Copper Shield

Class Skills [Priest]

Minor Heal(Beginner): Level 12

Smite(Beginner): Level 1

Gentle Touch: Passive [Eirene]

Pacifism: Passive [Eirene]

Basic Skills

Shield Mastery(Beginner): Level 16

Sword Mastery(Beginner): Level 1

Leather Armor Proficiency(Beginner): Level 11

Crafting Skills

Mining (Beginner): Level 13

Woodcutting(Beginner): Level 7

Herbalism(Beginner): Level 5

Creature Harvesting(Beginner): Level 10

Weaving(Beginner): Level 4

Sewing(Beginner): Level 4

Refining(Beginner): Level 7

Blacksmithing(Beginner): Level 5

Woodworking(Beginner): Level 4

Alchemy(Beginner): Level 1

Tanning(Beginner): Level 6

Leatherworking(Beginner): Level 6

Artistry(Beginner): Level 1

Architecture(Beginner): Level 1

Scribing(Beginner): Level 1

Cooking(Beginner): Level 9

Despite the fact that his Shield Mastery stopped gaining any experience from the Rockjaws at level 16, Winter felt all too pleased with himself. A giant grin followed him all the way back to Orm.

Just as he’d arrived at the threshold of the village and eyed the craftsman guildhall, he was interrupted by a message through the Simbox.

“Eli, exams, bed.” His mother commanded him. Eli gazed at the guildhall for a moment longingly, then reluctantly exited the simulation.

“You barely slept and played all weekend. You better ace those exams.” His mother scolded him.

“I’ll be fine.” He yawned as he wobbled back to his bed.