Chapter 12: Profession Arc 1.

Sitting in a recliner chair and enjoying the last of the day’s sun, Tobi turned the page of his book, and continued reading. A nice, warm cup of Cloud and Mist Tea sat on the table by his side, along with a plate of sandwiches that had already started to harden due to his distracted neglect. The sound of chess pieces being moved on a nearby table barely registered in Tobi’s ears as Lorry doubtfully tried to outmaneuver the tavern Landlord. Having saw the move being made in the corner of his eye, Tobi smiled and tried to refocus on what he was reading.

“Checkmate!” Borren declared brightly, slamming his queen on an angle to Lorry’s King.

Exasperated and annoyed, Lorry backhanded one of the pieces off the table and sent it skidding across the garden. Borren didn’t normally let his guests into his private back yard, but since speaking to Tobi a few nights earlier and finding out about his ability to ‘see in the dark’—which included seeing people that were stealthed—he’d taken it upon himself to become Tobi’s friend. Since then, Tobi had been joining his days relaxing in the garden.

“Another game?” Borren asked, already setting up the board, knowing that Lorry would resign himself to another beating after collecting the piece he’d smacked away.

Lorry didn’t answer the man and silently went to retrieve the pawn he’d sent flying. As he returned with the piece and placed it down, he sighed and shook his head, “I don’t know how you can stand it.”

Turning his head to Lorry, knowing the statement was for himself, Tobi asked what he was talking about.

“Staying cooped up here all the time,” Lorry answered, huffily sitting back in his chair. He’d only been logged in for 7 hours and he already felt bored beyond reason. Tobi on the other hand had already been here for 4 days. It was only about 24 hours in reality, but even still, Lorry knew he couldn’t have stayed sane being trapped in a Tavern for four days straight. He really couldn’t understand how Tobi could stay so relaxed and carefree.

“Don’t really have much choice.” Tobi shrugged.

“Don’t you get bored?”

Thinking about it for a moment, Tobi figured that he probably was bored. There wasn’t much he could do about it though. It was only a few nights earlier that he guessed Aevitas wouldn’t be that boring after all, and yet here he was days later, with absolutely nothing to do and nothing interesting happening at all, “I guess. I want to learn some professions and start levelling them, but after all the warnings you and dad gave, I don’t go anywhere except the library.”

“What professions do you have?” Borren asked, having finally finished setting up the board and moving his first piece as he spoke.

“None.”

“What professions do you want?” Lorry asked, his attention seeming to have shifted more toward the game that had restarted than maintaining the conversation.

“Cooking, Mining, Lumberjack, Carpentry, Tailor, Masonry, Hunter and Blacksmith.”

After making his move, Lorry considered it for a second, “That’s only eight, what about your other two?”

“I dunno. I can’t decide on any of the others.” Tobi answered, half closing the book and using a finger as his page marker.

Having already made his next move, Borren sat back in his chair and looked toward the clouds drifting in the sky. He knew Tobi was restricted in his movements, though not why, and figured it must be for something big if he didn’t even dare to wander the city too much, “You could learn cooking in my kitchens. You will only learn the basics, but it will get you started. You won’t be in any danger here.”

“And on the days I’m here,” Lorry continued, suddenly inspired, “I can take you for your others. Maybe not hunter, but I’ll take you for the others.”

Closing the book fully, Tobi felt some excitement and quickly tried to decide which profession he wanted more. He’d just about decided on Mining, as that was the furthest from the city, when he stopped himself and considered again, “Why not hunter?”

“Because it’s too annoying and time-consuming. As a Merchant you will have to use traps and snares and it’s hard to gain any experience doing just that once you reach level 15. I don’t recommend you get it at all.”

“It’s not that hard to gain experience.” Borren objected before Tobi could fully process what Lorry told him. When Lorry looked at him doubtfully, Borren chuckled and shook his head, “I don’t have the profession myself, but during my adventuring days, it was our Merchants job to act as our tracker. It wasn’t something we made him do, it was just what he did, on account that he had level 70 Hunter when he first joined us. He got most of his experience by making and disarming traps. The kind meant for humans more than beasts. Gaining experience doesn’t always mean catching or killing prey. Do you know what a ‘Slime Trap Pit’ is?”

Lorry nodded his head, and to Lorry’s surprise, so did Tobi. Unlike Lorry that learned what the trap was thanks to the dungeons he’d ran, Tobi had learned about it in the books he’d been reading. The slime trap pit is a two part trap. At first it was just a regular pit with a mana crystal inside a sealed glass jar. The slimes were attracted to the mana and blindly made their way over. They couldn’t absorb or digest glass though, so the mana crystal remained safe and able to attract more slimes that were in the area. Once enough slimes were in the pit, the trapper would returned and fish the jar out. He’d then hide the trap and turn it into a pit-fall. The end result was the Slime trap-pit.

“A hunter will gain experience just for making a trap.” Borren continued after seeing them both nod their heads, “And more experience when the trap works for whatever it was designed for. The pit for slimes is a good way to gain experience. Turning it into a pitfall afterward will add some extra experience. If you use a lure and purposely lead something into the trap, more experience can be gained. It’s a trap that can be used repeatedly for endless experience. The amount you get relates directly to whatever fell for the trap. The good thing about the slime trap is that anything can fall victim to it so long as it fits into the pit.”

“So if the pit is big enough and a dragon falls into it, it will still work?” Tobi asked doubtfully.

“Depends on the slimes,” Lorry answered, beating Borren to the answer, “Slimes rarely grow beyond level 12 by themselves, but slimes in a pit are known to grow much stronger. They don’t just grown in level, but in size too. A level 40 Slime will be as tall as a Goblin, while a level 60 will be as tall as a man and a level 80 as tall as a Hobgoblin. It’s said that they grow as large as a Talin before they stop, which is around 3 meters in height. Slimes can manipulate their form though. It can make itself into a long rectangle to try and reach out of the pit it’s trapped in; so the pit really would have to be big enough for a dragon if you wanted such a high level slime to stay trapped inside.”

“So a high enough level slime will eat a dragon?”

“Sure. Dragons are mostly made up of magic, and that’s what Slimes eat.” Lorry finished.

“That’s not why people use slime pits though,” Borren added with a smile, “It’s because of the fall-out. Slimes store their prey inside a dimensional core. When all the magic and mana is absorbed from their meal, the remainder is ejected as waste. That’s what the hunters really want. Slimes will eject everything that no longer holds mana. You just have to retrieve it before the slimes mucus starts to corrode it.”

“Such as?” Lorry prompted, having never seen a slime pit being used except in a dungeon.

“Mostly just armours, weapons and coins. Metal corrodes slower than the other stuff that usually gets ejected. Rarely a corpse, or even the remains of one. The occasional bone or skull maybe but that’s about it. The rest is absorbed by the slime. If it was a mana infused weapon, like a staff, then not even a splinter of wood would remain.”

Tobi and Lorry both imagined scenes of a mage being eaten by a slime. Though the images they had in mind were different, both involved the mage drowning to death inside the slime’s body before being absorbed into the sub-dimension inside the body’s nucleus. The man then broke apart into nothing until only a few junk items remained. Everything from his skin, bones, robe and staff was all absorbed by the slime, throwing out only coins and a skull once it had finished.

“OK, we’ll do the Hunter after you’re released,” Lorry finally said, snapping out of his reverie and breaking Tobi out of his, “We’ll do the others first.”

“After I’m released? Won’t you go back to your own things by then?”

Realizing that Tobi was right, Lorry blushed for a second before deciding he might just help him for a little while longer, “We’ll see when that time comes. What would you like to learn first?”

“Now?” Borren interrupted, looking between the pair in surprise, “It’s almost nightfall.”

“Tobi and I don’t really sleep much. I still have about 30 hours before I have to leave again. It would be nice to leave the city though, shall we go to the mines?”

Considering it was mining that Tobi had considered first, Tobi readily agreed. Mining had been hard during the tutorial, but he still planned to get it. Especially after reading about the skills Miners had. If he got to level 100 Miner, he definitely planned to pick Magnetic Aura as his acquired spell. While out of combat, it allowed a miner to locate ores and gems in the earth. During combat, it would absorb the full impact of a single attack and reflect 50% of the intended damage back to the attacker. He didn’t know if the attack it could absorb had a limit, or what other factors were involved, but for his non-combat class, it seemed perfect.

Leaving the chess game unfinished, much to Borren’s chagrin, Tobi and Lorry set off almost straight away. The only delay was Tobi needing to collect his backpack from his room. Lorry didn’t like that he so casually left it lying around, but as a soul item, nobody else could use it or even get into it, so Tobi wasn’t worry about it being taken. Even if the pack was stolen, locating a soul item was easy. No matter where Tobi was, he always knew which direction would lead him back to it—like some kind of natal philopatry; except it leads to his pack instead of the place he was born.

Excited to be on their way, Lorry escorted Tobi to the city gates at a speed Tobi could barely manage. Tobi didn’t mind the speed however and only cursed his stats for not letting him move faster. Now that he was finally able to leave the Tavern and do something different, he truly understood how bored he’d been. While it hadn’t seemed to matter at the time, and he felt he’d kept himself sufficiently occupied, it was now obvious how much he’d wanted to go out and do something. Anything.

The enthusiasm for the journey didn’t last long. In their haste to get to the mines quickly, both had forgotten about Tobi’s lack of endurance. By the time they were passing the farms just outside the city, Tobi was already forced to stop and take a rest. Lorry didn’t have an endurance stat at all, let alone a stat with a pathetically low amount, but thanks to his level which gave him a corresponding boost to how long he could maintain his max speed, he hadn’t lost much energy at all. Almost none in fact.

Still determined to keep going, Lorry gave Tobi several moderate energy potions and a small chocolate cake. A quick appraisal on the cake informed Tobi that it gave an overboost of 10 energy and reduced energy consumption by 5% for 5 minutes. With this, Lorry hoped it would count as an apology and agreed to walk the rest of the way.

Still gasping, even after drinking two of the potions, Tobi ate the cake slowly and got back to his feet. His energy was now at 100(+10), with his Satiety remaining strong at 93. So long as he managed his activities at a steady pace, it should be good enough to last him the night.

By the time Tobi and Lorry finally reached the mines, the sun had completely set. While Tobi didn’t have any trouble with the dark, Lorry was forced to walk a little slower.

“I thought Assassins could use the dark to sense their surroundings?” Tobi asked, his breathing heavy despite the ample energy that remained.

“Aevitians can,” Lorry answered distractedly, his eyes focused on the rocky path up the mountain, his breathing as steady as when they’d first set off.

“What’s the difference?”

Almost tripping the second he took his eyes off the path, Lorry skipped a step and saved himself from falling, “It’s hard to explain. A mage can cast spells by drawing on their mana and invoking the spell with words. This is possible for players and Aevitians. For an Aevitian mage, it is easy and natural. No different to breathing. For a player, they have to locate the mana inside themselves and figure out how to control it. As it isn’t something they have in real life, it is often impossible. Some figure it out, but not many. They use the spellbar instead and try to understand what their body is feeling or sensing when they cast spells. The same is true for Martial Artists and using Qi. Sometimes I think I can sense the shadows, but it’s like thinking someone is watching you, only to turn around and see that you’re by yourself.”

“So you haven’t worked out how yet?” Tobi asked in gasps.

“No. I probably never will. Out of thousands of mage players, only a couple hundred can use their mana at will. Out of just as many Assassin players, only one is confirmed to be able to manipulate shadows the same way the Aevitians do.”

“Who’s that?”

Lorry shrugged and turned his eye toward the moon rising in the distance. It didn’t quite light up the path yet, but it was already starting to provide some light, “An Assassin on the Korean server. Used to be a Beta tester like me. Was the only Beta tester to break past level 60 before the official release.”

Tobi wanted to continue asking more but he was too out of breath and couldn’t be bothered. As interested as he was about the Beta testing, and how long Lorry had been with the company, he was more interested in reaching the top of this damned path.

Finally topping the crest of the hill, Tobi stopped to catch his breath and crashed to the floor in a heap. His stamina was still in the high seventies, yet his chest was hurting with each breath he took.

Smiling down at Tobi, perfectly at ease, Lorry waited patiently, “You should consider putting some points into your Endurance. It won’t let you match the warriors with their stamina stat, but you will find trips like this are a lot easier.”

“How are you not tired? Assassins don’t have Stamina or Endurance, do they?”

“Nope,” Lorry laughed, “but that doesn’t matter much to me. I have 70 Miner and 55 Blacksmithing. Every 2 levels in miner reduces my energy consumption by 1% and every 5 levels in Blacksmithing does the same. My energy consumption from professions alone is reduced by 44%. I’m also level 88, which improves my physique by a value of 25% in all physical and mental stats—including the ones that don’t exist on my class. Although I can’t see them or improve them, and don’t get the benefit of them when trying to equip stat requirement weapons, it’s basically equal to having 22 stats in everything. Endurance, Stamina, Strength, Intelligence, Mind, Luck, Wisdom, Agility, Defence and all the others. I don’t actually have those stats, but as far as my physical attributes, bonuses and resistances go, it’s not much different.”

“So if I was level 4, it would be the same for me?” Tobi asked, his mind already thinking up the many stats he’d read about in the List of Skills and Spells book he’d been reading the night before.

“Except for Strength and Defence, yeah. Merchants have an exception when it comes to strength. Haven’t you noticed that you can lift pretty much any item that is consider loot no matter the weight? A Keg of Ale, for example. As long as it can go in your inventory bag, you can pick it up. There are exceptions, but that’s how it usually works.”

“What about defence?”

Lorry shrugged, looking toward the mines, “Doesn’t exist, but your Luck kind of has a similar bonus to it. The attack value of my dagger is 121 to 148. Adding my stats and various spells and stuff, then my true damage can hit anywhere from 450 to 700 per strike. Against a Merchant, I am practically guaranteed to hit much harder and will almost always hit over 700—due to your non-existent defense. But thanks to your luck counteracting my stats, I might be seriously unlucky and roll a 450. It’s unlikely, but it’s possible.”

Thinking about the unseen stats Lorry described, Tobi remained where he was to consider them. He knew already that some items required certain stats to be wielded; such as staffs that required a specified amount of intelligence or wisdom in order to be used. The unseen stats weren’t included for the requirements of those items, but they still existed. It explained a lot. Like how the squishy mages had better stamina and endurance than Tobi despite the fact he had an Endurance stat and they didn’t.

Not quite managing to fully understand the intricacies involved, Tobi sorted the information into how he believed it probably worked. Like how Earth didn’t have stat windows but still had people of different strengths and abilities, the unseen stats were probably the same. A person’s physical fitness level therefore, wasn’t entirely ignored. But did that also mean he could train his Endurance or stamina by running laps around the city?

Deciding to test that theory at some point later, Tobi rose to his feet and looked across the clearing toward the mines. The open mouths of the mines were already in view, with two to four men standing at each entrance. Some appeared to be guards while others were obviously miners. Another clearing to the side was where the foreman was located. He had a guard of his own and mostly stayed by an area filled with boxes, crates, sacks, barrels, small mine carts and other miscellaneous items.

“Come on.” Lorry said, already walking toward the foreman before the words were fully spoken.

Quickly catching up, Tobi fell in step beside Lorry and continued to look around. He was surprised by how many people were still up and about and working. It made sense for players to visit the mines 24-7, but the Aevitians too?

“Are the mines open all day and night?” Tobi asked as they got closer.

“Yeah. During the Beta stages I asked about it too. They said, ‘What difference does it make? The mines are just as dark whether it’s night or day.’ and then laughed about it. I wondered myself if we also mined day and night, back during the bronze and iron ages.”

The foreman noticed Lorry’s approach quickly, as did his guard. The way they subtly moved into formation made Tobi a little apprehensive, but Lorry just smiled and twist his arm. A pickaxe appeared from nowhere and he hoisted it onto his shoulders. The guards visibly relaxed in response, but they still kept their eyes fixed on the darkly dressed assassin. It was almost as if they didn’t noticed Tobi at all.

“Business, or Business.” The foreman asked, his eyes narrowing slightly on the final word.

Looking toward Tobi, Lorry considered his response for a quick second, “Just mining. My friend here will need a pickaxe though, and someone to provide instruction. Do you have anyone available?”

All eyes slipped to Tobi in one movement. The weight of their looks suddenly felt like a heavy, burdening pressure. The feeling they gave disappeared quickly, but the powerful gaze of the foreman remained. Having never experienced such a strong emotional or physical response from being stared at before, Tobi let the feelings circulate a little and processed them slowly. He had no choice but to believe it was an effect of Aevitas. He couldn’t believe that a simple glance could have such an effect in real life.

“Bone, Bronze or Iron?”

“Uh, what?” Tobi asked in response to the foreman’s random question. At first he thought maybe the foreman was asking what he planned to mine, but that wouldn’t explain the bone. Would it?

“What type of pickaxe do you want? Bone, Bronze or Iron. We sell up to Steel here, but if you don’t have at least level 10 mining, then Iron is the best you can use. Although some argue that different pickaxes are better for mining different ores. Personally, I think the better grade works best no matter what mineral you’re mining.”

Looking to Lorry for a clue and meeting a shrug in response, Tobi turned back to the foreman and considered it for all of three seconds, “How much are they?”

“20 Copper for Bone pickaxe, 90 Copper for Bronze, 2 Silver for Iron.”

“I’ll take one of each.” Tobi answered, already knowing he’d buy them all before the prices were even listed.

The foreman raised his brow in surprise, gesturing with his head for another man to go and collect the pickaxes, “You’re an odd one, eh?”

Lorry laughed at that and nodded his head before Tobi could even respond, “I think he forgets he’s a Merchant, sometimes.”

‘Huh? ...Ah! I didn’t barter the price or inspect the goods first. Stupid.’

“Not to worry,” the foreman laughed, “We don’t sell faulty goods and the prices can’t be bartered. The price’s are set by Lord Brackley and as he isn’t here, so nobody has the authority to negotiate the cost.”

‘Loophole against my Profit and Discount passives?’ Tobi guessed, his mind already imagining the many ways it could be used. If everyone did the same kind of thing, both passives would become useless, wouldn’t they? So why didn’t other people do the same thing?

Barely hearing the conversation between Lorry and the Foreman as he continued to imagine ways to get around a Merchant’s passive abilities, and wondering why other people didn’t do the same, it almost came as a surprise when three pickaxes were presented to him. Taking all three and putting them in his pack, Tobi finally returned his attention to the foreman.

“Jules, take him to tunnel three and show him what to do.” The foreman called, attracting a small but very well built man in his middle years. A thick black beard speckled with grey and silver swayed with each bowed step while his bald head reflected the moon. At first glance, Tobi almost mistook the man for a Dwarf.

“The copper tunnels are 3 Copper to enter and 10% of the resources are to be paid as tax.” The foreman continued, holding a hand out to Tobi.

“I’ll be paying,” Lorry said, cutting across and handing the 6 Coppers over, “And I will be joining them in tunnel 3.”

The foreman said nothing and turned away again, leaving them to their own business.

Jules gave Tobi a smile as he reached them, but for Lorry he only narrowed his eyes, “I will teach you where to strike the rocks and how to get the ore you want until you reach level 2. After that, you’re on your own.”

Tobi agreed with a nod and followed the shorter man toward one of the many openings on the cliff wall. Lorry followed close behind, acting more like a tourist than someone that planned to do any work. He still held the pickaxe on his shoulder though.

Around five feet into the tunnel, Jules stopped and fished a lantern out of his pack. He didn’t continue on until the lantern was lit and illuminating the way. He continued to lead them for around twenty meters before turning right and heading down a much narrower path. The walls reflected the light with many strange and unexpected colours. Blue, white, green, brown, grey and orange making up the majority of the colours on display.

Being led to a slightly wider alcove, Jules gestured for Tobi to step closer, “See this part here? Looks like some blue ink has leaked out from inside the wall, right? This is what you’re looking for. It’s called an Ore Vein, or in this case, a Copper Vein. Watch how I do it first. Step back.”

Tobi and Lorry stepped back, watching the small man get to work. Once he dug out the blue colouring, the wall turned a much darker shade; almost to the point of turning black. He walked back to Tobi and shown him the final result.

“Do you have the appraisal skill?” Jules asked. A quick quick nod from Tobi and Jules instructed him to appraise the rock in his hand. The appraisal claimed it was ‘Rock with Copper inside’. Seeing that the rock had lit up slightly during the time it was being appraised, Jules grunted in satisfaction and broke away the loose rock and clay with his hands; using the tip of his pickaxe to break off some of the more stubborn parts. In the end, he was left with a much smaller rock that didn’t look much different to the one he’d just broken down.

“Appraise it again,” Jules instructed calmly. Tobi did as he was told and, to his surprise, the appraisal description had changed. It was now ‘Unprocessed Copper’. He remembered from the tutorial what to do next with the copper ore and how to make it into Copper, but it looked completely different. In the tutorial, he just hit the pickaxe on a ‘Copper Rock’ that protruded out of the ground like a swiss-cheese looking boulder. A green block would eventually fall off, having the same shape and appearance every time without fail.

“A bit different to what I was expecting,” Tobi said, directing his words at Lorry.

Lorry chuckled and agreed, “I felt the same. Different veins are different. They won’t always look like that, but the appraisal will always work the same way. You will get used to it.”

Taking Lorry’s word for it, Tobi nodded and turned back to Jules. He obviously didn’t follow what they were talking about very well, but he didn’t dwell on it and just got back to teaching.

“When the Mountain Sprites find out that some Copper has gone missing, they will grow a new vein to replace it. This means you can come back to this vein as often as you like. It usually takes around 2 minutes for the Sprites to grow it back, but that’s only after they have located the empty vein in the first place. Give it 30 minutes and a copper vein will almost always be back to how it was before. Other veins will take longer. A gold vein can take up to five hours to be regrown, but you usually get very little in each vein. It’s often more profitable to mine lesser ores such as iron or coal. Come, I will show you the best way to dig the copper out of the vein.”

For the next 40 minutes, Tobi followed Jules’ instructions to the letter. He didn’t always hit exactly where Jules told him to, but he was never far from the mark. The fact that he got so close so frequently actually impressed Jules a little, telling Tobi that he must be a natural. Whether it was flattery or not, Tobi felt a boost to his morale.

When Tobi’s miner finally broke through to the next level, Jules slapped him on the back and laughed heartily, “Said you were a natural, didn’t I? That’s got to be the fastest I got someone to level two in a long time. Keep going how you are and when you hit level 5, come out and find me. I will show you around some of the better tunnels.”

“Better tunnels?”

“Sure,” Jules smiled, “this tunnel is just for training people. No point sticking in here after level five. You will spend more time waiting for the ore to be regrown than doing any actual mining.”

“Nah. We’ll go to a better tunnel now,” Lorry said, rising from the rock he’d been sitting on the entire time. He hadn’t mined anything at all and simply watched, “if I have to watch you mine for five hours without doing any myself I’ll lose my sanity. Do any of the tunnel contain Copper, Tin and Iron?”

“Tunnel 17,” Jules answered instantly, his forehead creasing slightly, “but the entry cost is for iron, even if you only mine copper.”

“That’s alright. Come on, Tobi. Once you reach level five, you can just jump onto Tin without having to pay to change tunnels.”

Tunnel 17 was very different to tunnel 3. For a start, tracks for small mining carts were all over the place. In the first section of the mine there was only two tracks; one for carts going in and another for the ones coming out. The tracks soon branched off into different tunnels though and small offshoots for carts to be moved off the track dotted the line on either side. Most of the offshoots were empty but not all. Every now and then, a miner would walk up to one of the carts sitting to the side of a track and add some rocks to the pile inside. The additional miners in the tunnel was the second difference compared to tunnel 3. Unlike the empty tunnel they’d just left, Tunnel 17 had miners in almost every area.

“The numbered boards beside the tunnels,” Lorry began, indicating a sign with the number 7 on it, “is to say how many miners are inside. The board next to it tells you the limit on how many miners are allowed in each section and what ore is contained inside.”

The board to the left of the number 7 shown that 12 miners were allowed down that tunnel, and that it contained 43 Tin veins and 24 Copper veins.

“So we can go in that one?”

“We can, but let’s see if we can find an emptier one with a larger deposit.”

They continued through the main tunnel until reaching branch 28, which was the third from last branch in the mine. The board outside listed 22 Copper veins, 34 Tin veins and 12 Iron veins. The limit of miners was 12 while the number of occupants was 1.

Tobi didn’t need to ask if they’d be going into that one. It was the only branch they’d found that contained all three types of ore. Not only did it contain all three types, but it was practically empty too. He already turned his feet toward that tunnel before Lorry got close enough to read what the sign said.

“Your eyes are such a cheat,” Lorry complained, as he lift his lantern to the sign and read what was inside. Tobi didn’t respond and just continued his way in.

Having not immediately spotted the other person that was supposed to be inside, Tobi took out his Bone Pickaxe and moved to one of the copper veins. It was the same pickaxe he’d been using while Jules taught him the profession and Tobi had decided he liked it.

“I’ll just be over there at the iron veins,” Lorry said as he passed, “if anything strange happens, just shout me.”

“Strange like what?” Tobi asked, the tip of his pickaxe rest on where he planned to strike first.

“I don’t know. A rock golem spawning or something. The so-called Mountain Sprites summon them if you steal too many of their ores too quickly.”

“The mountain sprites are real?” Tobi asked in surprise. He’d thought it was just the Aevitians way of explaining why the ores respawned. Something to explain the unexplainable.

“Yes.” Lorry said, stopping to look at Tobi for a second, “They are all level 1 without the ability to level up, but they have 2 dangerous spells that they use on miners. They have a lot of abilities, but it’s only those two spells that we have to worry about: Summon Guardian and Rock Fall. Summon Guardian will spawn a Golem that relates to whichever ore you are mining, so for you it will be a level 10 Copper Golem. For me it will be a level 20 Iron Golem. Rock Fall is worse. The cave will shake and then stones and boulders will fall from the roof like condensated drops of water. It will continue until this section of the mine is completely filled with rocks. The miners will then come and clear it all out again.”

“So if the ground starts shaking, I run?”

“Yes. But keep your eye on the floor. Wherever a rock is going to fall will glow red before the rock actually falls. It happens quickly, so make sure you don’t stand on any of the red zones.”

His brow creasing as he imagined being crushed to death, Tobi felt that mining was probably more dangerous than he would have liked, “Should I be here if it’s so dangerous?”

Lorry laughed as he dismissed the comment, “If either happens, I guarantee you will be safe. You will know what I mean if any of them do happen. Don’t expect it to happen though. Like I said before, my mining is level 70, and I have never had a cave in or a Golem appear. It’s really rare.”

‘Really rare? So is getting trapped in Aevitas, and look at me now.’ Tobi grumbled inwardly, looking dubiously at the rock walls around himself. ‘I swear, if I get buried alive…’ Having no actual threat he could give, to anyone or anything, Tobi took a breath and focused on the ore vein in front of himself.

Roughly 5 and a half hours after they’d started mining in the new tunnel, Tobi was enduring yet another break. He needed to rest, eat and regenerate his energy and satiety around every 40 minutes. Each break required around 10 minutes for his bars to fill back up. This was his 6th break so far, while Lorry had only stopped to rest twice.

Not wasting any of his ‘precious time’, Tobi sat chewing a beef jerky and reading a book while he waited. Seeing a white glow in the corner of his eye, Tobi stopped what he was doing and looked over. It appeared to be a circle inside another with a strange symbol at its center. The inner circle was surrounded by small runes while the outer circle surrounded the runes.

Lorry dashed toward the circle with uncanny speed, striking at the empty space in the center. At the very moment his strike passed the outer circle, a large, faceless Golem appeared. It appeared to be made of a grey metal and had two orange glows on the upper part of an otherwise smooth and featureless face.

Lorry’s strike hit the nape of its neck, the dagger effortlessly sliding into the metal down to the hilt. A quick flurry of blows followed before the Golem quickly crumbled into rock and dust. Two iron bars and an uncut Sapphire fell among the remains. It all happened so quickly that Tobi didn’t even have time to appreciate what was happening.

“Ugh. Sapphire. Looks like my luck was bad,” Lorry moaned, picking up the items and passing them to Tobi. All the ore he’d gathered so far was in Tobi’s pack, along with his own ore as well. Unlike Tobi, Lorry’s pack was severely limited.

“That was an Iron Golem?” Tobi asked, already knowing the answer.

“Yeah. They always drop an uncut gem, but what you get depends on the ore you’re mining. Sapphire is the worst an Iron Golem drops.”

Tobi smiled at that and put the items into his pack. In the 6 hours he’d been mining, he now had 251 Unprocessed Copper, 312 Iron Ore, 2 Iron Bars and 1 Sapphire. 24 of the copper was from his training with Jules where he progressed from level 1 to level 2. In the hours that followed since, his gathering speed had improved steadily. The first forty minutes he’d gathered 27 copper in one go. Following the 10 minute break, his next 40 minutes allowed him to gather 33 more and reach level 3 Mining. From level 3 to level 4, he gathered 37 and 42 respectively and reached level 4 Mining. He then mined 44 ores twice in a row, but had yet to break into level 5. His experience wasn’t far, but his energy had dropped to 12 and he was forced to stop and rest.

With Lorry returning to work, happy at getting his first ever Golem, Tobi made a mental note to never go mining by himself. While the Golem was taken down quick enough, he wasn’t deluded enough to think the Golem would be weak or slow. It was just that Lorry was fast and strong. Even if he ran for his life, Tobi was sure he’d get all of 6 steps before it finished spawning, and probably not much further afterward.

While his thoughts remained on the Golem, and his eyes where the summoning circle appeared, Tobi saw a copper vein visible regrow before his very eyes. It had happened many times already, but this was the first time he’d watched it happen. All the other times, he was either busy reading his book or mining at a different spot.

The process was kind of odd. It looked like the cave was actively regrowing itself. The rock and ore regrow into exactly how it had been before. At least, as much to how it had been as Tobi could remember. The moment it finished regrowing, the dim light empowering its growth faded and a small, palm-sized shadow appeared in front of it.

Blinking twice, Tobi focused on the shadow and recognized it. The tiny feet were smaller than a fingernail, the copper-coloured pants were held up by the tiniest belt Tobi could imagine existing. Its muscular chest was bare with not a single hair upon it. His long, orange hair was tied back in a pony-tail and two semi-transparent wings were flapping silently at his back.

The little fairy nodded in satisfaction and began to move on. He got as far as the next copper vein before frowning and coming to another stop. He twisted his tiny hand and a miniature copper-coloured staff appeared in his hand. Diving forward, the little fairy sank into the rock vein and disappeared.

For the next half-minute, Tobi watched as the vein regrew. Just like before, an almost imperceptible glow empowered its growth up until the moment it was finished. The dim light disappeared once again and the fairy came back out of the rock.

‘Mountain Sprites are fairies?’ Tobi wondered, watching the little fairy work inspect its work with satisfaction.

Freezing where it hovered, the small fairy slowly turned his head toward Tobi. His small eyes were opened as wide as they could manage, his little mouth shaped like a comical ‘o’. The second its eyes locked on Tobi’s it spun around in fright, threw its arms into the air and shot backward into the cave wall—disappearing beyond.

Before Tobi could laugh in amusement, a dozen red circles appeared scattered around the floor. Each circle quickly grew, spreading like ripples on a pond with ever more circles appearing inside. The cave walls vibrated and the floor rumbled. In the second that followed, Lorry crossed the gap between them and grabbed his arm. The constantly appearing circles spread ahead of them and the cave rumbled even louder.

Pulled along at a speed he couldn’t normally manage, feeling as though his arm was about to be wrenched out of the socket, Tobi realized what was happening and tried to push his legs to work even faster. All the speed was maintained by Lorry, while Tobi’s efforts only allowed him to stay on his feet. The first rock to fall crashed right next to where Tobi had been sitting, quickly followed by an even larger one falling where he’d been sat.

One rock fell after another, quickly filling the mining area they’d just vacated. The tunnel behind was quickly filling too; giving Lorry barely enough time to make it into the main shaft before the whole tunnel began dropping one rock after another in quick succession. They’d been out of the tunnel for all of three seconds when a mass fall filled the branch tunnel to the brim.

As though protected by some kind of barrier, the rockfall ended at exactly where the branch tunnel started. The main shaft was not affected at all. The rumbles hadn’t gone unnoticed though, as dozens of miners began exiting their own tunnels to see what happened.

“Quick,” Lorry called, rushing back toward the cave-in, “dig it clear before they come.”

“Why?” Tobi asked, rushing to the rock and chipping away beside Lorry.

Lorry just laughed and began swinging his pickaxe even faster. The rock broke down easily, crumbling into fragments and evaporating into nothing. Tobi felt as though he was trying to mine through a large piece of Tofu, it was literally that easy. In no time at all, more miners had rushed over and joined in. How they didn’t hit each other with their pickaxes, Tobi could never guess, but the space for other miners to help was soon filled and the rest could only watch helplessly.

Congratulations, you have levelled up your Miner Profession!

*You now have level 5 Mining.

* You can now mine Tin.

* Copper will be significantly easier to mine.

Quickly swiping the window to close it, Tobi continued mining at the rock. There was no need to pick up the debris or move it aside. It simply disappeared once the rock had broken down far enough. He saw Lorry grab a small, white object while he was mining and pocket it but didn’t pay it too much attention. As fast as they were all working, they hadn’t made it that far yet and there was still a long way to go.

Five minutes passed and the tunnel was about a fifth of the way cleared. The narrow tunnel had widened slightly and another miner rushed in to fill the space. It was then that Tobi spotted a small white object fall free with the rocks. Having seen Lorry pocket a similar item, he quickly put it into his satchel and continued. He wasn’t sure what it was yet, but it looked and felt like a white stone. Why it would be any different to the rest of the rocks he didn’t know; he simply took his cue from Lorry and felt it must be something special.

By the fifteenth minute, the tunnel almost two-thirds cleared, Tobi received another level-up message for his miner. In just 15 minutes, his mining level rose from 5 to 6. It was then that Tobi realized what attracted so many miners. It wasn’t the small white stones that people wanted, it was the experience. The rock broke away so easily and the experience was so great that it was a perfect grind spot. Even Lorry with his level 70 miner was enjoying the experience he received. It was also down to Lorry that the mine was being reopened so quickly. He was clearly the highest level miner there and done the work of three by himself.

“Haha! I got one!” The man to Tobi’s right shouted, holding up a brown rock. All eyes turned to look and even Tobi had to admire what he was looking at. A brown, egg-shaped stone was in his hand, held high for all to see. Crack lines spread out all over its surface, showing bright colours between the cracks. To Tobi, it was like looking at the Universe between the cracks of a brown egg.

Tobi’s first thought upon seeing it wasn’t that it was cool looking or pretty, or any other kind of compliment he could give the strange rock. It was something much more primal. Without need or reason, his thought was simple: ‘I want one.’.

It was perhaps the greediest thought he’d ever had, but it was there and it was accompanied by a wave of emotion that almost caused him to reach out to grab it.

“I’ll buy it off you,” Tobi said, almost at a whisper.

“Ha. Unless you’re carrying a couple Gold on you, you can forget it.” The man laughed, pocketing the small rock.

“How much?”

“Really?” The man asked doubtfully.

“Yes. How much.”

“Tobi, it’s only an Opal Geode.” Lorry cut in, “They’re worth about a Gold from the Merchant Guild.”

“I’ll give you a Gold for it.” Tobi offered, hearing what Lorry said but keeping his attention on the man that found it.

“H-here…” The man stammered, handing over the rock and backing up slightly from Tobi. Once Tobi handed over the Gold and accepted the rock, his mood returned to normal and happiness filled him from the inside. The sudden change in Tobi put the man back at ease and he started laughing; “Never seen someone get affected by the Opal curse that badly before.”

“Opal Curse?” Tobi asked, already casting appraisal on the stone.

Opal Geode ***

The Opal Geode comes in many shapes and forms. Popular among those with an affinity for nature. The Opal Geodes come with five ratings, from 1 star to 5. The higher the rating, the higher the potency.

All Opal Geodes carry a base function known as ‘The Opal’s Curse’.

This Opal Geode carries the Curse of Enamor. May cause greed and lust against the weak willed or weak minded. A popular gem to be slotted into equipment for the relevant bonuses.

Stone of Wealth Value: 1Gold 20Silver.

Slipping the gem into his satchel, Tobi resolved himself to ask Lorry about it later. In the meantime, he wanted to get whatever experience he could out of clearing the rocks ahead. The greed he had toward the gem had already disappeared now that he owned it. He didn’t forget how it had made him feel though. It was a bit of a shock for the description to claim he was weak willed and weak minded, but he also knew it was caused by the fact he had such low stats and was only level 2. There was nothing he could do about that right now though, so readying his pickaxe once more, he got back to work.

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