[Results is shocking. Mining here is extremely beneficial.]

This base is at least spread out about hundred of roughly build huts and with tents all around its perimeters. A few of them are quite well built, and from far, you could already expect it to be quite an important building. Four towers are erected, but instead of fully stone built, it was partially made with mixing wood and clay. It possesses around 10 metres height and could fit at least ten archers on the top dome. I quickly entered this so-called base and noticed that most of the workshop have at least a building here, which means your usual daily needs and activities will not be hindered. Food is available to be sold as well, hunted by the adventurers and some of them even trading into the restaurants that providing foods for people within this area for a fee.

When I walked over to the restaurant to have a look, I am slightly surprised by the cost.

Brass Mountain Quick Food Menu:

Vegetable Fried Rice with Wild Boar Steak

1 Black Spirit Crystal

Vegetable Platter with King White Cabbage

1 Black Spirit Crystal

Wild Boar Steak with Happy Mushroom

2 Black Spirit Crystals

Wild Boar Steak with Blood Berry Sauce

2 Black Spirit Crystals

King Bull Steak with Exploding Peppercorn Sauce

3 Black Spirit Crystals

King Bull Steak with Ripe Blood Berry

3 Black Spirit Crystals

Mixed Platter

6 Black Spirit Crystals

Ordinary Bun x 10

2 Black Spirit Crystals

Well, I guess there is actually wold boars, bulls, peppercorn, mushroom and cabbage here. Food I usually had in the cafeteria within the refining workshop is usually chicken or meat that I got no idea where it came from, so I assume them to be from the beast that hunted by us humans. I guess when you actually have more capability to live in this world, you will slowly be approached with all this stuff sooner or later. But since I have no need to enjoy all this, I just purchased a total of 20 buns for 4 Black Spirit Crystals, and begin to make my way into the huge opened tunnel within just directly at the bottom of the mountain.

Before I entered the mountain, I met a person who is on duty of overlook the mountain cave and the number of people within the cave. He registered my name into his list and withdraws a total of ten stones with the appearance of a Mining Cart, strapped together on a piece of rough string. The person soon explained to me that since the cave within has no tracks for the Mining Cart to roll into, their only solution is to provide the Compartment Cart that could be only used to store Crystals or Mining Rocks within. Each piece of stone representing one full-size empty cart, so in my hand, a total of ten carts capacity is available.

Since it was dimly lit with some torches along the way, I managed to enter the tunnel and starts to look for a location to start mining. Over here, nobody is restricted to do whatever they want, so it is almost following the law of nature. If anything misfortune happened, it is because of a person's bad luck, and nobody could be blamed for it. With the assistance of the Scan Skill, I managed to slowly find my way to a location dense with ores, but with fewer people. Since this area has no trash area at all, sacks of trash are dumped all around the tunnels, as I gather all I could along the way. Finally, I reached a location where only two other miners located here.

"They must be quite experienced because, in comparison, the rocks around here have the highest density of ore within," I comment as I looked at their tunnel, which quite well dug from the entrance. I entered another direction and started to mine as well, but to make my action more secretive, I place a large amount of disposable trash around the entrance and put a piece of Medium Night Glowing Crystal on the floor before I start to mine. With the assistance of the batteries, my mining managed to go pretty smooth.

Using the battery on the Fine Grade Pickaxe while personally holding the Medium Grade Pickaxe myself to mine, I manage to quickly obtain a total five full carts from the Fine Grade Pickaxe in a hundred minutes, while myself, I managed to fill in one full cart of mining rocks. Spending another forty minutes to fill the remaining four carts, I went out from the cave after a total of two and a half hour. The staff looked at me and say "It is alright, most people will exit the cave early because they lack preparation, do not felt bad about it, you will perform better in the next few entry." he speaks. I know he was out of kindness to tell me about that, so I only politely thanked him for his words, as I returned to the Base and went into the Milling area.

"I guess it is labelled as a base because it is smaller compared to those workshop in the town," I whisper to myself as I waited for my turn to use the Millstone. There is only a total of four millstones within this base, so to cater for about a hundred to two hundred miners, this area would, of course, be packed. I expect the same applied on the Sieving Area and Smelting Area as well, where I actually hit the jackpot. Just waiting for my turn, I actually spend a total of three hours! After I got all my task completed, I am secretly delighted by the results. Although wasting a total of three hours waiting is quite hard to accept, but with the material you mined is actually a brass component Dust instead of two separate Zinc and Tin Dust, the number of Brass Component I managed to smelt totalled up to 91 Brass Rod (1%), compared with around thirty for every ten carts in the Ling Hun Ore Cave.

Looking at the numbers of Brass Rod I have in hand, it hurts me to not spend it on upgrading my pickaxe, where I did and quickly went over to the Forge Area. With all 90 Brass Rod had been used, I managed to make my Fine Pickaxe to remain on where it used to be and upgraded the Medium Pickaxe into an Upper Grade one. Happily, I went out to the store nearby and seen a few different kind of Compartment Carts for rent. I asked for the reason why the cart is not available for purchase, but when the staff says that to purchase a normal 1 x Cart Size Compartment Cart, it would cost around 200 Black Spirit Crystals. A 5-time Size Compartment Cart would cost roughly 1000 Black Spirit Crystals, and there aren't too many buyers for such compartment that could only fit in mining rocks.

When I tell the staff that I am looking for one, she mentioned that their store could help me to get a 5-time size compartment cart if I'm willing to pay a total of 1100 for the price. I considered for a moment before I reject the offer, stating that I will temporary rent them for now. Each time the token holder enter this place, they will be given a total of 10 compartment cart to be used in mining, but if they needed more, further renting option would be available, depending on your wealth and requirements.

A Single Compartment Cart would cost 1 Black Spirit Crystals, unlimited usage, while five times Compartment Cart would cost 5 Black Spirit Crystals, also unlimited usage. After some consideration, I decided to take a total of four-five times compartment cart, for a total cost of 20 Black Spirit Crystals. With a capacity of 30 Carts now, I could estimate that I will roughly take about seven hours to fill all of them. Just like this, I entered the Outskirt Cave once again. Of course, this time, Its no longer only for mining purposes, but as well with the intention to obtain some of the Mountain Borax Stone. I entered the cave and head into the deepest, as I activate the Level 5 Super Scan Quirk!

"ZUSHH!" a layer of light seems into the wall of rocks, and very soon, I could see a shining brilliantly spot about fifty metres from my location. Through activating the battery on the Fine Grade Pickaxe while myself is using the Upper-Grade Pickaxe. The rocks within this fifty metres are quickly got mined away, revealing a small part of different kind of stones stored within. Carefully, I land a hit using the Quirk from my Tenth Grade Pinpoint strike, and a critical strike quickly separates a piece of the marble-like feature stones.

After I take a look on this piece of stone, I roughly guess its weight. Damn, this piece of about a fist only weights around 500 grams. That means I need to mine more than a three hundred similar pieces to fulfil the 150kg quota. Luckily, this vein before me seems to have at least 20 to 30 Kg, if I could get another few within this five days, most probably I will have enough to fulfil my Contribution Quest. Just like this, I give no rest and continue to work. The moment I went out from the Cave, I get a short few hours rest, before I continue.

Since my Super Scan could only be used once a day, there is no other choice but to wait for 24 hours each time after usage, before it could be reused again. During that period of time, I managed to increase my stash of Brass Component by a huge amount. During the first day, I actually spend a total of fifteen hours to get a total of sixty full carts, where after smelting, it came out as a result of 610 pieces of Brass Rod (1%). I continue this for a total of six more days, where I finally managed to gather enough Mountain Borax Stone to bring back to the Blacksmithing Workshop.

I mine twice a day, so except spending a total of fifteen hours on mining, the remaining nine hours is used to process the materials, and rest. The moment I return to the Ling Hun Town Portal Gate, I have a total of 4300 Brass Rod (1%) in my inventory, along with around two hundred Copper Rods (1%). I immediately went to the Blacksmithing Workshop to deliver the goods. The moment Lady Su Rou saw the materials before her, she could only mutter a word. "You worked hard. Thanks."

I know that from today onwards, I will need to stop assisting the Blacksmithing Workshop for a while as I am still involved in the Refiner Wars. I hurried back to my room and kept all my belongings back to the Storage Box before I went for a good sleep. In my mind, All I have is how to fully utilize the Brass Component I have, and also where should I go to get more crystals.