Chapter 009

The Mines

Ren’s plan for the day was to login to Flow and head off for the mountains to find a mine to start collecting ore from, so far only the first step was working out.

“Hey hey, we need someone extra for our party wont you join us?”

Ren was sweating lightly in panic as he was backed up against a wall after being cornered by a trio of girls. “Uh..uhh..i..i’m still only level 1 you know, I wouldn’t be any help to you.”

“Aww don’t say that, we’ll find something you can do to help out, mmm.. maybe like giving us back rubs when we take breaks..” The leading girl’s two companions both nodded eagerly at her words, they all seemed to be almost drooling at the thought of having a cute boy like Ren with them.

A shiver ran up Rens spine. “I..I’m really sorry but I was already in the middle of doing something when you approached me…so….”

“nnnnnnn!”

Ren could have sworn he heard a voice calling out loudly in the distance but he was to focused on the trio baring down on him like a pack of hungry wolves.

“Awww, pretty please? After we do our quest we’ll come help you with what you’re doing.”

“EEeeennnnnn.”

There it was again, Ren tilted his head around curiously, he could swear it was someone calling his voice. “I’m sorry, but I have to focus on training my skills currently I won’t be any help at all on quests and… guaf!!”

“REEENNN! I found you hehe!” The trio of girls were bowled out of the way as a tall busty elf women charged forward and clung to Ren, pulling him to her in a tight hug, his face being buried in her chest causing him to flail his arms about in surprise.

“Hey what do you think you’re doing to him!?” The trio shouted at the same time.

“I’m giving my Ren a big hug, see.” The unknown women squeezed Ren tighter into her chest causing him to flail more furiously in an attempt to escape, not that he actually minded the feeling of such lovely cushioning it was still an extremely embarrassing situation.

“Your Ren!? We saw him first and were about to head off on a quest together so get your hands off him you shameless hussy.” The trio were now steaming mad.

The women holding Ren finally let go to face the trio. “Who are you calling a hussy, it’s obvious that you just want Ren to yourselves as well.”

“Wha..what! We just want to complete our quest and for that we need one more person.” They each nodded.

“Why focus just on him then? There are plenty of other boys that will start drooling over those fake avatars of yours and help you without question.”

“This is how we really look!” The trio were getting furious now, you could almost see the steam pumping from them.

“Ohhh? Really now?” The unknown women leaned down towards the trio to look them over carefully. “Hmmm, not a single blemish on that lovely skin of yours though is there.”

The leader of the group backed up a little. “W..well.. I did a few little touch ups.. but this is my real body! Now stop getting in our way so we can go questing with Ren!” They pushed the women aside together to get to Ren behind her but stopped and blinked. “Huh?... Ren?”

As the group got into their heated talk Ren had slipped away and was now on his way out the north gate. “Phew… I wasn’t sure how I’d get away from that…that other women seemed familiar though….” He shrugged and continued on his way towards the mines.

The walk to the mines was relatively uneventful, as the road was often used to transport ores and supplies to and from the mines the road saw very little monster activity, the distance though was still quiet far. Ren managed to hitch a ride with a supply wagon on its way to the mine. The wagon was carrying food, medicine and some other necessities that could not be obtained at the mine. The wagon driver was an older male with short black hair and a short neatly trimmed beard.

“So lad, off to earn some coin working the mines are you?”

Ren shook his head. “No, I’m hoping to find a small mine nearby where I can obtain ore for my own use.”

The man lifted a brow. “Oh? Been mining before then have you?” Ren shook his head again. “Well lad, if you want some friendly advice I’d recommend you take up a job in the mine for a while, you won’t get to keep the ore you find but you’ll earn some coin and learn the basics of mining.”

Ren nodded lightly as he saw the wisdom of the man’s words. “That sounds like a good idea... to be honest I was just going to wander along the mountain till I found an old mining spot and hack away at it hoping I’d find something…”

The man chuckled at this. “To those that haven’t mined before that may be indeed what it looks like, just randomly chipping away at rock and hope you get lucky, but there’s more to it then that I can assure you. When we arrive you should go find Earl, he’d the foreman and even if your inexperienced, as long as you’re willing to do the work he’ll give you a shot at it.”

In total the trip even by wagon took a bit over an hour real time, Ren made sure to note he’d have to get a real big haul before heading back to the city, he didn’t want to have to make too many trips back and forth as he trained his smithing skills.

As the mine came into view it almost looked like a small quarry, a large semi circular rock face littered with mine entrances, each with a set of mine cart tracks leading into the darkness of each mineshaft. Leading upto the mine was a small shanty town, Ren guessed it was where the miners slept between shifts.

There were several more sturdy looking buildings, one seemed to be an office of some sort, another was a large open area that looked like a cafeteria, and the other was a small smithy where tools were made and repaired.

“Well lad, I need to drop these supplies off, if you want to try your hand at some work just head over to the foreman’s office there and ask for Earl.”

Ren smiled and thanked the man before hopping down off the wagon and headed over to the office, knocking on the door someone within called out to enter and he stepped inside.

Sitting behind a desk sorting through various piles of papers was a bald and rather dirty man, he glanced up at Ren, his brow rising curiously at the sight of the small elfling entering his office. “Can’t say I’ve ever seen any elflings come here before, what I can do for you?”

Despite his dirty appearance he seemed to have a polite personality. “Sir, I was told that if I inquired I might be able to get some work here at the mine?”

The foreman Earl tilted his head curiously and stood up, stepping around his desk to stand before Ren, looking him over with an appraising eye. “While generally I won’t turn anyone away if they’re willing to try, are you sure you’ll be upto the task? It’s not an easy job, I pay according to how much you dig up, for lodging you can bunk in any of the available shanties, but you’ll have to pay for your own food at the canteen.”

Ren nodded to Earl’s words. “That sounds fair sir.”

Earl smiled at that. “A polite one hmm? I’m going to assume you’ve never mined before correct?” Ren nodded.

“Alright, I’ll have you team up with one of the more experienced miners for a few days, they can show you the ropes.”

With that Earl stepped outside the office motioning for Ren to follow, as he approached the mine he turned his head left and right as if looking for something. “Ah, HEY FRITZ!” He motioned for someone to come over.

The man approaching them was about the same height as Ren but he was a lot wider, his arms and legs were as thick as small trees, his head was bald but from his face grew a large dark red beard, the dwarf trudged over to the foreman, a pickaxe slung over his shoulder. “What can I do for ya boss?”

Earl motioned to Ren. “I know you don’t usually like to teach the newbies Fritz but I’m hoping you’ll make an exception with this one, being around the same size and he’ll learn better if he can see how you work rather than trying to imitate one of the taller fellas.”

The dwarf looked Ren over for a moment, Ren just smiled and held his hand out. “Hello, I’m Ren, its nice to meet you.”

This made the dwarf rise his brow and weather it was on purpose or just an automatic reaction he reached out and shook Ren’s hand with a nod. “Mmm… call me Fritz.”

This seemed to be enough to make Earl think the dwarf would take on the task. “Just for a few days show him the ropes if you would Fritz, don’t go easy on him, though I know you won’t.” He chuckles then as he heads back to the office.

The dwarf didn’t say anything else and just turned and headed towards the mine, Ren blinked and quickly followed. “u..umm… if this is going to be a hassle to you I can find someone else to show me the basics.” Ren caught up and started walking alongside the dwarf who just gave him a side glance and shrugged.

“It’s fine.” Seems he wasn’t much of a talker.

Before entering the mine the dwarf headed over to what looked like a station where the mine carts were kept, Fritz stepped upto the next cart in line and began to push it along the tracks, pausing for a moment to look back at Ren and nodded to the next cart behind him. “That one’s yours.”

Ren nodded and quickly stepped the next cart that was in line and gripped the handles on it, pushing it as best he could. The dwarf made it look so easy but the cart was made of solid iron and even though it was on tracks it was still an effort to get it moving, but he managed to do so thanks to the strength he had gained from Donan’s training. The dwarf’s brow rose in slight surprise at seeing the elfling pushing the cart up behind him. “Where to?” Ren smiled brightly to the dwarf.

Fritz was a little shocked to be honest, his first expectation was that Ren wouldn’t even be able to budge the cart let alone keep up with him as he pushed it along the winding maze of tracks that were in the mines. Not only that but he noted that Ren seemed quite happy about pushing the cart through the mines, his eyes darting everywhere as he seemed to take in everything with an unlimited inquisitiveness.

Each mineshaft had at least two or three sets of tracks, one was for entering and the other for exiting, the third track seemed to lead off into other more narrow shafts that were used by a single person when they hit a rich ore vein. Fritz explained to Ren that if someone found an ore vein they had the right to claim it and mine it all themselves, especially if it was a more rare ore then just iron. At least that’s what Ren had gathered from him, it wasn’t explained to him in quite so many words.

They eventually came to a stop down the end of a shaft, Ren was a bit worn out from pushing the cart already but he could feel his stamina regaining quickly and his eagerness was now burning brightly as they were about to finally start digging.

“You hit here, dig, find ore, put it in your cart and dig more.” Fritz pointed to a section of wall that looked just like every other part of the mine walls, but Ren wasn’t going to argue against a dwarf, after all they were famous for being the best miners in every fantasy game and story there ever was.

Ren took out his pick and look over the wall carefully, trying to see if there was some kind of hint about there being ore hidden within it but he couldn’t see anything that would hint at such. Looking to the dwarf he was already hammering away at another section of wall with his pick, every so often a chunk of ore would fly over his head and land in his cart. Ren grinned and wondered if he could get that good one day.

Eagerly Ren started to hammer his pick into the wall, chipping away the rock bit by bit, the pick was heavy and large so he had to use both hands to wield it, but something he did find neat was that he seemed to not receive much feedback shock from the strikes, likely due to the shock absorption skill he’d gotten from hitting the solid iron anvil. “Huh… mining will probably be a good way to train that skill actually.” He grinned to himself.

Originally Ren had thought he’d have to hit his head against a wall or some such to train the skill but now it would basically train on its own as he worked on mining, not only that, hitting the stone wall with the pick was nothing compared to smacking the anvil constantly.

Gradually bit by bit he dug out a small hole in the wall, following Fritz’s example though he would both high and low, carving out an alcove in wall that reached up as high as Ren could reach with the pick and was at least three times as wide as himself, Fritz had explained that this was to ensure there would be space for him to move and swing the pick as he dug deeper into the mine wall.

Thanks to Fritz pointing him where to start digging it didn’t take to long before he felt the pick hit something harder than rock, pulling the pick back he could see a dull sheen nestled inside the rock and quickly set about digging it out until the clump of ore fell from the wall and at his feet. “Yes! My first piece of ore!” Ren grinned and picked it up quickly showing it to Fritz. “This is iron ore right?”

Fritz glanced over at the chunk of ore Ren was holding out and nodded. “Good work.” With that he motioned to Ren’s cart. “Put it in your cart, need to keep digging if you want to eat later.”

Ren nodded to his words and eagerly set back to work digging out the wall, as they dug every so often a person would come by with another cart and shovel to remove the rocks and rubble they had made while digging, Ren later learned that the rubble was taken to a crusher to be crushed and sieved in case any smaller bits of ore resided in the rubble. The crushed rock powder that was left over was bagged and sent off to be used to make mortar for building.

By the time Ren had just managed to cover the bottom of his cart with chunks of ore Fritz already had a full load and was ready to take it back. “Come, turn in ore and take short break outside.” Fritz started to push his cart back out of the winding maze of mineshafts, Ren hurried to follow behind, even though he barely had a layer of ore in his cart he could feel the strain of the extra weight as he pushed the cart out of the mine.

Once they were outside Fritz led Ren upto a weigh station where the ore would be tipped out of the carts onto a large flat tray that seemed to be enchanted to detect the worth the metal placed in it, Fritz took a pin out of his cart that unlocked it, letting it be tipped over. The ore spilled onto the tray and various runes began to glow along the edge of it which seemed to indicate how much ore was on the tray and the quality of it.

The man inspecting the runes nodded and made a note in a book before counting out a handful of silver coins and passing them to Fritz who nodded and pocketed the coins before pushing his cart along the track which lead it to the back of where the unused carts sat. The tray with Fritz’s ore on it was pushed away to be taken to another section of the mine to be loaded onto a wagon for transport and another trey was pushed in for Ren to use.

Ren pulled the pin from his cart and with a little help from the ore assessor pushed it over to trip out his meagre spoils onto the trey, as he expected barely a couple runes lit up for him and the man handed him a single silver which caused Ren to raise a brow curiously. “Isn’t this to much?”

The man just smiled and ruffled his hair. “Think of it as a small incentive for the new kid, it’s not much ore, but you worked hard to get it, next time I want to see twice the amount though.” The man grinned at Ren.

Quest!

The assessor at the ore weigh station has challenged you to bring in at least double the ore you brought in the first time

Difficulty - ???

Rewards

Affinity gain with mine NPC'S

Small amount of bonus pay depending on the amount of ore you gather

Ren grinned and nodded. “I’ll do my best!” The man chuckled and waved Ren on so the next person could come in.

Ren pushed his cart back into the waiting bay and headed off to follow Fritz to the cafeteria area where he was already seated and eating what looked like a beef stew with and a small bread roll. Ren took a seat across from him and pulled out one the few rather stale bread rolls he still had on him from when he first joined. “… I’m going to have to start buying food now… or maybe learn to cook.” He nodded to himself as he chewed the bread down, despite the state of the bread it still filled his hunger bar.

Fritz seemed to give him a curious glance as he watched him eating the stale bread but didn’t make any comment as he finished off his stew. Once they were done eating and relaxed for about five minutes they headed back into the mine once more, Ren eagerly set back into his section of wall, his mind set on digging up more than double what he’d gotten before.

Unlike last time Ren started to use some skills he thought might help a little as he went, and if they didn’t then he’d at least be training the skills. First he tried activating ‘Iron Grip’ which was now at beginner level 5 after using it so much during Donan’s trials. At reaching level 5 the mana requirement had reduced by 1 down to 9 mana per second which meant he could use it for a whopping 18 seconds in all before his mana ran dry.

By using ‘Iron Grip’ as he wielded his pickaxe he was able to focus on putting his strength into each strike without having to worry about his hold on the pickaxe, this let him dig a little bit faster for those 18 seconds he had, the base regen for mana and health was 0.2 per second unless you stopped and sat down to rest which would boost it to 0.5 per second, this meant it would take about 14 minutes for his mana to fully restore itself without stopping to rest, in battle that would be rather slow but for a crafting class that worked mainly outside of battle it wasn’t so bad, but he couldn’t afford to rest each time his mana ran out at the moment.

Thankfully the mining skill was one of many skills his one of a kind class had started him with already learned, of course that didn’t mean he knew how it worked. “Show skill Mining.”

Mining Level 1 (Beginner 31%)

This skill allows you to mine

Skill level determines your ability to wield a pickaxe with speed and precision

The higher the skill level the higher the chance of digging up ore

Higher skill levels are required to mine higher quality ores

(Most areas have set ore types available to mine regardless of skill level

“Seems pretty straight forward, the more I dig the better I’ll get.” As he read the message he was still swinging his pick though a bit blindly, he still struck a piece of ore as he did so though and tossed it into his cart. He barely had the same amount as last time so far but gazing over at Fritz who’s cart was about half full meant he was faster than before or Fritz may have slowed down to give him more time, he wasn’t sure but he started to put even more effort into his mining regardless.

By the time he finished his second layer of ore in the cart Fritz had already been finished for at least 15 minutes and had been waiting for him to meet his quota. “Ahh.” Ren dropped the last couple chunks of ore into his cart which put it a little over double what he’d collected before and turned to Fritz. “Thank you for waiting Fritz, I’m sorry if I’ve caused you trouble.”

Fritz seemed to just wave it off as nothing. “Its fine, I don’t mind waiting for someone that works hard and shows promise.” That was the most he had heard him say in one sentence and Ren could only tell that he gave a light smile by the way his facial muscles moved, his mouth for the most part was hidden by his beard.

Ren smiled back at him and quickly got behind his cart to start pushing it as Fritz took off with his own. He’d learnt a bit of the route to take to get to their mining spot but he knew he’d get completely lost without Fritz to guide him through the winding mine tunnels.

At the weigh station the assessor grinned as he saw Ren’s load of ore this time. “Ho oh, seems you went all out on the second run eh?”

Ren shook his head though. “I tried my best but I couldn’t get it done before Fritz was done, he stayed back a little longer while I collected the amount I needed.”

This caused the assessor to rise a brow curiously and glanced across to Fritz who was already halfway to the cafeteria for another break. “Is that so?” He turned back to Ren and smiled. “Then that’s even more reason to class this as a win for you.” He grinned and ruffled Ren’s hair playfully. Why does everyone do that to him!? He thought to himself but just looked up at the man confused.

“Why is that? If he hadn’t waited I wouldn’t have gotten twice what I did before.”

The man chuckled. “Fritz takes mining very seriously, he is a dwarf after all, its in the blood. That being said, he wouldn’t have waited for you if you weren’t giving it your all to meet my small challenge, and if the effort you were putting in was good enough for him then its good enough a reason for me to see it as your win.” He smiled and handed three silvers to Ren this time, again this was more then what would be the usual going rate for the ore.

Ren looked at the coins “Are you sure sir? Wont you loose money giving me this much?”

The man chuckled and waved it off. “No need, I’ll be able to make it up later, some of the other guys were placing bets on whether or not you’d beat my little challenge.” He grinned. “I’ll be collecting from them later, so a bit of that is your share.”

Ren blinked but shrugged and pocketed the coins with a smile. "Ok, thank you very much, I'll try and do better next time still." The man chuckled and waved him off to let the next miner in to weigh his ore load.

Quest Complete!

Due in part to your honesty and Fritz's reputation as the best miner as the mine you completed the ore dig challange

Rewards

3 Silver

Affinity gain with the mine NPC'S

It was about time for Ren to logout but first he headed to the cafeteria and offered to buy Fritz his meal as thanks for waiting for him in the mine but he politely refused, Ren then bid him a good day saying he was tired but would be back again to learn more from him. Fritz just nodded at that seeming to not mind his company in the mine. Ren then headed to one of the empty miners shanties and logged out for the day.

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