Rick climbed out the [Gate Gear], turning the lights off upon leaving the room. Checking that the front door was locked before heading to bed, he turned the rest of the lights off behind him in route to the bedroom. Upon reaching the bedroom he checked his phone messages, and returned a text, to Tonya, about her coming over the weekend to visit.

After finishing his reply, he put his clothes in the closet hamper and climbed into bed. Haveing slept for 3 hours earlier, it took him a little longer to fall asleep.

Waking up six hours later to use the bathroom, he decided to stay up. He got dressed and proceeded to the spare room to workout, today was lower body and cardio. Once the weight training was done, he ran around the block four times, came back home, and took a shower.

Taking the eggs out of the fridge, and grabbing the loaf of bread, he scrambled a couple eggs with milk. Turning the stove top on, and pulling the skillet out of the cupboard, he dipped the bread in the eggs and gently arranged them in the pan. When the french toast was finished cooking, he put a little maple syrup on them sat down and ate.

When Rick finished eating breakfast and cleaning up in the kitchen, he made his way to the spare room. Laying down in his VR capsule, he joined [Kingdoms Online] to start a new gaming day.

It was still early in the morning when he climbed out of bed and left the inn. From the inn, he hiked to the east gate and informed the sleepy looking guards, he was heading out. Once outside the gate, he opened the inventory and equipped the red semper fi t-shirt and shorts he just made and began jogging east.

Rick was headed toward the mountains in the distance about 5 miles from town. Wanting to do some physical training and see if he could get lucky finding some iron to practice his blacksmithing he headed toward the mountain to mine.

He kept up a quick pace, pushing his body to make some gains. Near 30 minutes later he made it to the foot of mountains quite out of breath. While catching his breath, he opened his notice message.

New Stats Notice!

New Stats Awarded!

Stamina: +10 (+2 awarded each forced pace mile)

Vitality +10 (+2 awarded each forced pace mile)

This body needs some work, I need to come up with a plan and start training. If I find enough iron I could try and make some free weights to workout with.

I think I will explore first before I just start mining into the mountain. It would be safer to find a spot that can't be found easily. I don't want bandits or monsters finding the entrance, and attacking me in there, or someone to mine out all the resources when I'm away.

He began walking along the base of the mountain, looking for an out of the way spot to mine. Rick came across a fracture in the stone about 7 feet high and 2 feet wide. The gap seemed to split the stone leaving a very narrow passage.

If I scrunch my way through this gap, I can open a mine up back in there that will never be discovered.

Squeezing into the fractured stone crevice, while flattening himself against the stone wall, he sidestepped toward the interior. Near 30 feet into the fracture, he couldn't advance any further. Removing one of the pickaxes from his inventory, he began mining into the stone.

Picking into the mountain stone was allot easier than he thought it would be. He had prepared himself at first for the jarring impact before swinging the pick, only to watch it slice through the stone like he was mining clay.

With the combination of my Intermediate level 4 in mining and the knowledge from that mining book, I'm cutting football size chunks of stone with each swing.

The mine reached a good distance in after 15 minutes of shaping out a 4x7 tunnel through the stone. Though the further he cut into the mountain from the entrance the harder became to see in the growing darkness.

As he thought about how he should have bought a lantern, the sound of his pick impacting the stone drew his attention. The sharp ringing sound was gradually becoming dull sounding.

Stopping he examined the pick looking for splits in the handle or fragmentation of the metal. He was sure something had happened to the pick but found nothing wrong with it.

Remembering of how he had channeled his mana into the library card he had an idea.

Holding the pick in his hands he channeled his mana into it. Closing his eyes he focused on his mana, examining the cohesion of the wood handle and iron pick. As the mana flowed around, he began to feel the overall rigidity and impurities of the pick.

He began to get a feel for the quality of materials and level of craftsmanship applied to creating it. After thoroughly examining the material for a few minutes he opened his eyes he could detect minuscule fractures in the wood and impurities of the iron.

Now that is cool my eyes can find the flaws but they are hardly any at all. This seems to be a good pick and in new shape still. Oh, I got a notice!

New Skill Notice!

New Skill Learned!

Identify: Level 1 (Beginner 0%)

This skill is used to detect item properties.

Level Increases allow for further detection distances.

Identify skill huh, nice.

Identify!

A common pickaxe Attack 1-6 Durability 48/50 Defense 0 Bonuses none

This pick is perfectly fine it must be the stone making the dull sound then. Well, I got a nice skill out of it and ideas for future experiments. I need to play around with this channeling mana into resources and organics. Speaking of organics I need to try it on myself as well.

Shrugging his shoulders he continued to carve out the mine tunnel. The dull sound continued for a few minutes later until he found out the cause for the sound when his pickaxe drove through the stone in front of him leaving a black hole.

It looks like a broke through into a hollow pocket. I can't see anything in there it's pitch black.

He continued on cutting a doorway the size of the tunnel until he had an archway into the blackness. Heading back outside he took out his ax and found a dry fallen tree and began chopping the dead tree trunk into 2-foot sections, and split up about 50 pieces of firewood that he put into his inventory.

Since I am out away from town and have my ax out I should chop some wood for timber. If I want to build something later it will be my luck when there are no trees around.

Chopping down three larger trees and stripping off all the branches, he proceeded to cut them in half and stored them into his inventory. Then returning to squeeze through the crack in the rock and head toward the back of the tunnel, he removed some firewood, cloth, and his firestarter.

Stacking a couple pieces of wood in pyramid a shape, he put a small ball of the cloth under them and ignited the cloth. When the logs caught fire it lit the cavern up enough to see around without making to much smoke. The cavern looked to be a good 40 feet wide and the back was still too dark to see how deep it went.

Taking out another firewood log he split it up into thin pieces, then wrapping the cloth around the ends of them for use as torches. He stored all the torches in his inventory but one, and that he set on fire. While exploring the tunnel hunting for iron, he began to find some of the stone walls texture changed looking like lava rock occasionally.

I wonder if this was a lava tube in the past. If it is this cavern could go forever.

As Rick continued on he kept watching for any visible resources as the tunnel gradually sloped down into the mountain.

He began to hear water dripping ahead of him, that found its way into the tunnel collecting in a cavity on the floor. Inspecting the water he knelt down to smell it.

This water seems to be fresh. I don't smell sulfur or a stagnant smell and it is clear looking. The soil must have worked as a filter on it.

After building another small fire, he boiled a pot of the water to purify it, then proceeded to take out his vegetables and spices. Dicing them up, he tossed them in a skillet to lightly fry them in cooking oil spices. Removing the skillet from the fire to replace it for the pot of boiled water, Rick scraped the fried veggies into the water, and added some of the spices he had making a vegetable soup.

I wish I had meat right now, this wouldn't be such a boring meal. I need to buy a bow or try and make one. If I make one I can obtain a bowyer skill of some sort.

Mental note purchase/make a bow and arrows for future hunting. When I get back to town I can just buy some meat for now.

The soup tasted decent but the broth was a bit watered down. Considering the limited supplies it was passable and filled his depleted satiety level that had been drained due to all the physical exertion. Storing the leftover soup in a ceramic container and cleaning all his cookware, he stored it all in the inventory.

While I'm sitting here might as well review my notices.

Skill Increase! Mining: level 5 (Intermediate 51%) Stat Increase! Strength gained + 2 New Skill Notice!

New Skill Learned!

Lumberjack: Level 2 (Beginner 18%)

The skill of chopping down trees

Higher levels increase gathering speed (bonus to ax damage)

Lighting another torch after reviewing the notice messages, he took a quick look around as to not forget anything. Finding nothing left behind he continued down the tunnel once again.

It is hard to determine how far I have walked down here, or how long I have been exploring in this dark tunnel. If I had to guess I have been in this tunnel for near an hour so deducting the time for cooking, eating, and stopping and going it must be over a mile now.

It gets a little creepy when I think about that, and I have been traveling downwards. I must be far below the surface level by now.

As he thought about his sub terrain adventure his attention was drawn toward the wall up ahead, that looked to be a lighter color beyond his torch light.

Moving ahead to the discolored wall he found a large wide white stripe running up the wall. Holding the torch light up to it he discovered it was a 6-foot wide quartz vein that ran up into the darkness toward where ever the ceiling is.

From what that mining book said, gold is very often found in or near quartz veins similar to real mining. From what little I know about real world mining they find ores mixed with the rock quite often, and crush the rock to collect it all.

In the game, the book explained that ores are found in solid veins.

I guess I can think of it like a hamburger in-between the sesame seed rolls (the quartz) is the meat patty (The gold). The deliciously, charbroiled, juicy meat patty. Dammit, now I want a hamburger!

Propping the torch up between a couple rocks and taking out the pickaxe again Rick began cutting into the center of the quartz vein. Carving his way straight into the quartz for near 15 feet in he finally found something, a thick solid gold vein running through the quartz.

This is a lot of gold but what I can I make with it? Gold is too soft to make weapons, armor, or tools. It would be good for Jewelry maybe if I cast some rings and take some of this quartz crystal and have it cut and polished I can make some jewelry to sell or enchant.

Chipping away at the gold vein happy to find something at least, but continuing to think of what he could use it for.

I want to leave town here soon and I will need money to buy land how can I make money off this gold? Thinking about all the gold coins needed and the ton of gold he was collecting he had an idea.

He walked over to the torch and withdrew a gold coin from his inventory and examined it under the light.

Just as I thought this coin is really crude compared to modern stamped coins. It looks as if someone hammered the gold flat into a semi-circle, then tool stamped a face and back like the old pieces of eight you see in those pirate movies.

I need to disconnect and check this out online real quick.

Disconnecting he jumped up out of the [GATE GEAR] booted up his computer and did some searches on medieval era gold coin minting. He found a couple ways used, one way they made a cylinder metal coin die and hammered it into the gold coin blanks front and back. From what he researched from this era Craftsman known as a Moneyer used the hammered die method and later on they built coin mints that used a screw press that would size the coin to the desired shape and size.

It seems I need to first create a set of tap and dies to thread the cast iron round bar. The threaded round bar has a leverage bar attached to the top allowing to twist the coin die down into the gold. The bolt threads through two metal sleeves that are threaded like a nut. When I get established in the future I could have a few of these made and have workers making gold coins all day long to use the [Land Management Menu].

***************************************

[Kingdoms Online] Has a Menu option that players use to purchase land that is not claimed, rented, or owned by any of the games people or other players. When land is purchased a new menu becomes available, it is the called [Land Management Menu].

A few of the options available within this new menu are the option to buy additional land bordering your current territory. This is how players increase their Feudal Domain size.

The player also has a [System Gate] option used to mark a designated location for the system purchased orders to spawn.

Resources purchased can also be made at highly inflated prices. The high prices are set high to encourage trading and gathering. All purchased resources will spawn at the [System Gate].

Then there is the [Immigration Recruitment] option which allows players to purchase nonskilled slaves, commoners, craftsman, and nobles. The costs will vary depending on the purchased person's class. These people will become the property of the kingdom and will never move away from your kingdom. They can be captured by hostile forces and recaptured by you or your forces. All purchased people will be spawned at the [System Gate].

Players will also have the option of inviting people and players to join their kingdoms. If a player forces people to join their kingdom they may stay, escape, or try to revolt depending on the captured person's mindset.

****************************************

Finishing his research on the coins Rick shut the computer down and reconnected to the game. Once back in the cave he continued to mine a large amount of the discovered gold, now that he had a plan to use it.

I have enough gold and quartz on me to fill the bed of a pick truck now. Thank god, no wait thank goddess faith that the game doesn't have inventory encumbrance.

I think I have enough gold for now, and I can always return here if needed to mine more. I still want to find some iron so I should wrap it up here and move on.

Resuming the tunnel exploration, he found scattered amounts of iron that added up over time, also a small amount of silver.

Far below in the heart of the mountain, he sat down on a rock, taking a break eating some of the soup again he made earlier. As he sat and ate he thought about the things that happened today and about how he learned a skill from channeling mana into his pickaxe.

Those library cards and badges can tell the difference between mana presences and the badge can read it from the clothing it is attached to. That means the clothes can hold a mana signature if the clothes can, then that indicates that everything should hold mana signature related to its molecular structure. If my theory is correct then it should be possible to learn a specific items mana signature to somehow locate it.

A notice message, did I just receive this?

You gain +5 wisdom points through logical reasoning and deduction!

Ha, looks like I am on something if the system is giving me free stats. I just need to figure how I can see the differences in the mana waves around me.

While Rick sat thinking of ways to pick up on the mana around him the propped up torch behind him fell over and went out leaving him in complete darkness. Standing up to work his way over to relight the torch he stopped then sat slowly back down.

No, wait this might help me focus on the mana around me and not my surroundings. If I want to see the mana signatures maybe I should try using my eyes. Gathering his mana he began to pull it slowly into his eyes while focusing outward.

Concentrating in the darkness, gradually feeding mana into his eyes he began to see shadows or shapes. Thinking the shadows might be mana in the waves of some type he poured in more mana. Large shapes and shades of light became increasingly easier to see as he looked from side to side.

Following this routine minutes later he caught on to what he was seeing. The different shapes and shades are the contours and colors of the tunnel. Pushing a larger amount into his vision all at once the tunnel lit up. Craning his neck around he saw the extinguished torch on the ground where it fell.

I thought it caught fire again lighting the cave up, I can see everything around me perfectly now.

New Skill Notice!

New skill learned!

Night Sight: Level 1 (Beginner 0%)

A skill that allows the player to see in the dark.

Level increases allow for a larger view radius around Player.

(Passive- can be toggled to manual in options menu)

Not what I was looking for but this is an incredible skill to have. Looks like that idea didn't work onto round two.

Walking back to a spot nearby that he had seen a small amount of iron not worth stopping to mine he found it quickly it the complete world of darkness around him.

This time I will try a slight adaptation of the last test

Once again enhancing his vision with mana he focused on the iron in the wall a few feet in front of him. The minutes ticked by as he cleared hi mind focusing his vision then suddenly becoming disoriented feeling he was falling forward.

Throwing his foot forward to catch himself to discover he was standing up fine.

The wall looked like it was just rushing at me seemed but, it stopped instantly when I unknowing stop my mana flow? Another notice window now what happened this time.

New Skill Notice!

New skill learned!

Farsight: Level 1 (beginner 0%)

A skill that allows the player to magnify their view great distance

Higher level increases allow for longer range viewing.

It seems that enhancing the body works in many ways. I need to try this on my feet and hands later. I wonder what skills could develop?

This is a great skill but still not what I was expecting. I guess I need to try a different approach instead of enhancing my eyes I can try to use my man on the exterior to read the iron.

Rick still standing before the Iron in the stone wall gathered his mana and encircled himself with it. His mind slowly began to merge with his surrounding mana becoming and extra sense of touch or taste he began to perceive the difference between his surroundings. When he felt comfortable that it was possible to maintain this state Rick began to direct the mana around him to encircle only the Iron in the wall.

Without the distraction of the stone and dirt, he put his undivided attention into how the Iron felt learning and remembering what made it different. Closing his eyes he stood there absorbing the Iron's mana signature. Slowly opening his eyes confident in knowing the iron mana presence he looked down to see his notice icon flashing and opened it.

New Skill Notice!

New Skill Learned!

Iron Scan: Level 1 (Beginner 0%)

Iron Scan allows you to survey your surrounding for the presence of iron.

Higher levels allow for longer distance scans.

Yes! I finally figured it out!

Now I can apply this to just about anything in the world. I can make this for plants, animals, items, or even people!

Well, I think that is enough of this cave for today. I would like to stop by the library again to use the restricted room before they close for the day.

On his way back to the surface Rick tried out the new Iron scan and could feel the location of any hidden stone it happen to find in range.

I can't see where the iron is but for some reason, I can tell the direction and distance it is from my location.

Squinting his eyes from the blinding sun he took a moment for his eyes to adjust to being in the dark for some time now. With one last quick look around him that he had everything he channeled his mana into his legs and took off running back toward the city.