Sora finished his business in Var, thinking about what to do next. He skimmed through his stats and stopped to look at his Digging Skill. It was ready to be advanced so Sora figured that he might as well do it while he waits for his Elven Dew Drops to sell. He went back towards the flight service, the line was long but his destination was fairly far away. He could hear other players in line talking about the Elven Dew Drops, triggering a slight smile from Sora as he thought of the profits. The line thinned out fairly fast so Sora didn’t have to wait long before boarding the giant crow and flying to the South. His destination was a place called ‘Low Rock Canyon’, which was a hotspot for people with the digging skill.

From above he saw the forest turn into plains, then the plains turned into a rocky terrain with short grass and enormous rocks that came out of the ground. Even from up above the rocks made up enormous bodies of land. A canyon cut across the area, creating a deep scar that cleanly cleaved the enormous boulders in two. The flight service landed at an area that could hardly be called a camp, located right next to the entrance of the canyon. The only thing set up was a couple of tents and many boxes filled with archeology equipment. The number of players here were virtually none, with most of them looking like old miners that were filthy.

Sora went towards one of the many tents located here, the only thing distinguishable about it was a large backpack filled with climbing and excavation tools leaned up next to it. He walked in and saw an old skinny man that looked like he could be blown away by a slightly strong breeze. He was looking over some maps, drawing circles in different areas and would sometimes scribble out things he had written down. He seemed to have noticed Sora come in and immediately turned to face him.

“Adventurer! Tell me, do you have an interest in excavation?”

“Well ye-”

“Of course you do! Everyone loves to dig, right?”

“...Right.”

“Hehe, that’s the spirit! From the looks of things, you are most definitely a hard worker, how about a little test to see if you’re ready for the big leagues?”

“What kind of test?”

“Ohoho, how about a little story first? Ah, what am I saying, of course, you want to hear the story first! Low Rock Canyon is more than it appears to be. For generations, we have excavated fossils from this area but they only keep appearing. Just when you think you have all the fossils in the area another one appears, making you go deeper and deeper until you can no longer see the sun. Oh, oh, oh, I haven’t even gotten to the best part yet! When you assemble the fossils, the creature will spring to life! Amazing don’t you think? Of course it is! It defies everything we have ever known! Ah, that’s enough storytelling, it got me so excited that I can’t wait to give you your test. All you have to do is assemble all the pieces of a fossil, then defeat the monster that awakens. Now, off you go, I can’t wait to hear about your results!”

Sora didn’t have any opportunities to get a word in, he left the tent and went towards the entrance to the canyon. The entire canyon was like a ramp, with one end gradually declining until it went so far down that you couldn’t see the bottom. Sora started heading down the ramp, occasionally seeing players that were hard at work, smiling when they finally dug up a fossil. Sora didn’t pay much attention to the beginning of the canyon and kept going down, eventually to the point where the closest player was still extremely far behind him. He didn’t stop until the canyon started going into the earth, creating more of a tunnel than a canyon. He pulled out his pick and started going to work on a nearby rock, only stopping to switch tools. A large hole was dug out until he finally found a bone that was buried in the dirt. After shoveling the dirt away and dusting it off he picked the bone up.

[x1 Unidentified Fossil obtained]

He finally had a use for his identification tool. He had been holding onto it because equipment or items that have high properties or are extremely ancient needed to be identified before you knew what they were. He decided to hold off on identifying it until the very end, tucking the bone away into his inventory before continuing to dig.

Just a few feet down from where he found the fossil was a rusted sword that still had a clean edge. The sword was plunged into a rock so Sora tried his best to break away the rock without damaging the sword. After only a few swings the sword broke apart and disappeared without any chance to save it. Sora could only accept his defeat, his digging skill was still too low to easily pull up swords. He continued to dig without worrying too much about the lost sword, his main goal was fossils anyways.

…..

A full day of excavating had only resulted in 15 fossil pieces, which Sora had yet to identify. If he was lucky then every fossil would be the same creature, if not then he would still have a lot of digging to do before he could complete his skill advancement quest. He sat down in the hole he had made, which was big enough to fit a single story house into at this point, and pulled out his identifying tool. It was a small magnifying glass that didn’t look very special. He had bought the most basic tool since he would only need it to identify low tier items. The higher tier tools had a special function that made identifying easier since some of the higher tier items were complicated to identify. He pulled out a fossil and set it on the ground.

His magnifying glass was set above the fossil, triggering the fossil to glow slightly and lift into the air in front of him. Sora looked through the magnifying glass and started to slowly spin the fossil, only stopping it when a small rune could be seen. He aligned the rune into the center of his magnifying glass and held it still as the rune started to slowly be traced by a black line. Once the line had completely traced the rune it made a small shattering noise and the rune broke apart. He started to rotate the fossil again, stopping to trace any runes he saw. After two more runes were shattered the fossil floated back down to the ground.

[x1 Primal Tiger Fossil obtained]

-Combine 10 Primal Tiger Fossils to create a full skeleton.

Sora continued to identify the fossils, in the same manner, never messing up any identification. The process was tedious but even if you failed it would only make you start the process over, so it wasn’t too nerve racking. In the higher tiers, it could take a full day to identify an item which is why most players would simply pay an NPC to do so. The only downside to that was the high cost and the fact that the stats would be slightly affected if an NPC did it.

[x1 Primal Tiger Fossil obtained]

[x1 Ancient Predator Rat Fossil obtained]

[x1 Primal Tiger Fossil obtained]

[x1 Broken Fossil obtained]

Sora was lucky enough to get six of the Primal Tiger Fossils, making up more than half the needed amount to create the full skeleton. He was also a bit unlucky and had a total of four broken fossils that were basically trash. The remaining fossils were from the Ancient Predator Rat and the Earthen Boulder Breaker Orc. From the way things were going he would have to fight the Primal Tiger to complete his quest. Sora took a quick break from the game before going back in, ready for another day full of digging up fossils.

Sora was a bit more impatient this time and identified fossils as he unearthed them, luckily obtaining two more fossils from the Primal Tiger in a row right as he started. After a few more broken and random fossils he was able to have a complete set of the Primal Tiger. He exited canyon, leaving a large hole that could easily be called a cave if someone were to stumble upon it. His entire body was dirty and he looked a bit more like the old miners that he had seen when he entered the camp. After a quick check of his equipment and making sure he was buffed by eating a Roasted Crater Fish he stepped to an open area not far from the camp. Sora pulled out a fossil and used it, making a confirmation message pop up in front of him.

[Would you like to consume 10 Primal Tiger Fossils to summon a Primal Tiger Fossil?]

Sora quickly confirmed the message and prepared himself to fight. The fossils inside of his inventory appeared in front of him before swirling around each other, eventually creating an orb made of bone that hatched to reveal the savage looking skeleton of tiger. The tiger somehow made a roaring noise as it prepared to pounce on Sora.

Level 40 -(Elite) Primal Tiger Skeleton-

Even as an elite monster the tiger wasn’t too much of a threat since Sora was ten levels over it. He dodged to the side as the tiger pounced towards him, successfully evading the attack and setting himself up for an easy counterattack. The defense of the creature was no joke, even with an advantage of ten levels he had done a small amount of damage. A [Concuss] gave Sora even more time to attack before the tiger could even turn around to face him. A couple well-timed parries were executed before a [Slash] hit the tiger, dropping its health by a decent amount. He continued trying to dance around the creature but still had to take a couple hits; luckily the tiger’s offense wasn’t as effective as its defense, resulting in extremely small damage numbers that didn’t even break through his shield. The fight ended with the tiger falling apart and the bones blowing away as a fine white dust, revealing a couple pieces of loot.

[x1 Ancient Coin obtained]

[x1 Unidentified Greatsword obtained]

Sora pocketed the ancient coin since it would only be sold for money and didn’t have much of a use other than that. The rusty greatsword was placed in front of him as he pulled out his magnifying glass. This time it would be a bit trickier to use identification since the greatsword is on another level than the fossils. The greatsword started to float after Sora pulled out his magnifying glass, slowly spinning as he looked through the glass. The runes were even smaller than the ones on the fossil, making them harder to find. It took Sora a couple minutes to find his first rune, which was actually moving along the edge of the blade. Sora had to keep the rune within the magnifying glass as it moved around, nearly messing up a couple times but managing to trace the rune. Once the rune was traced, the edge of the blade that looked rusted and chipped suddenly transformed as a white light traveled from the bottom of the edge to the tip of the sword. Everywhere the light passed by was cleaned and sharpened, creating a shiny looking edge that looked like it could cut through steel.

Sora continued finding runes on the blade, one was along the other edge of the greatsword, one was at the bottom of the pommel, one was directly in the center of the blade, and one was circling around the hilt. Sora had only messed up one time and had to restart the process, luckily he was getting the hang of things and was able to quickly make up for the time he lost from messing up. The last rune was traced as the entire sword flashed in a white light, revealing a simply looking great sword that was extremely sharp.

[x1 Ancient Double Forged Greatsword obtained]

Rarity - Rare

Durability - 60/60

Damage - 112-134

Requires - Level 45 - Greatsword Class

“A greatsword from an ancient time, it’s blade was built to be simple yet effective.”

+45 Strength