Chapter 61: Rocking Rocking Rocks Rocks

Acquired: Iron Ore [Quality 5%]

Acquired: Iron Ore [Quality 9%]

Acquired: Iron Ore [Quality 6%]

Acquired: Iron Ore [Quality 4%]

Acquired: Iron Ore [Quality 11%]

Level Up!: Mining has reached Level 14!

“5 Iron ore per golem, that’s pretty good right?” Aegis asked excitedly.

“A dungeon like this is really rare.” Rakkan looked on in amazement.

“It depends on the golem’s respawn times and how many spawns are in that dungeon, but I’ve never heard of a dungeon like this before. It’s my first time even fighting golems.” Lina replied.

“Me too.” Rakkan added.

“Same.” Darkshot joined in, to which Rakkan and Lina both gave him a look.

“10,053 is some really good experience, let’s go fight more!” Pyri shouted excitedly. Aegis looked around to see that everyone but Rakkan had gained a level from the fight.

“Yeah, just let me pre-” Something clicked in Aegis’ head. “Hang on, why did you get the same experience as me? Me and Lina should’ve gotten more because of our Marriage bonus, right?” Aegis asked, looking to Lina for confirmation who promptly nodded with red cheeks. As he looked, he spotted Rakkan and Darkshot both avoiding his gaze. “Wait… when you took them with you in Orm… don’t tell me…” Aegis looked at Pyri in disapproving disbelief.

“It’s just for the experience bonus, right?” She tried to wink innocently at him.

“Seriously mom?”

“What?” She chuckled as Aegis glared at Darkshot.

“So, phew, Iron inside the golems huh? We better get back to the cave and find the next golem, right Rakkan?” Darkshot hastily began walking back up towards the dungeon entrance.

“Y-yeah.” Rakkan quickly followed behind him.

“Both of them?!” Aegis shouted, his voice carrying over the mountainside. Lina had to look away and put her hand over her mouth to not let out any laughter.

“Turns out, Eirene is a fan of polygamy!” She gave him a thumbs up.

“Do you understand how weird that is?” Aegis’ face went red with embarrassment.

“Oh c'mon. Either it’s all for the experience bonus, or none of it is.” She motioned to Lina who was facing away to hide her laughter. “You didn’t want us falling behind, did you?”

“Well, n-no, but. It’s just…. C’m…” Aegis couldn’t think of the words he wanted to say. After a few seconds of not being able to think of a logical argument to support his embarrassment he instead let out a frustrated groan.

“I don’t want to hear anything about this again, ever, from any of you.” Aegis shouted loud enough so that Rakkan and Darkshot could hear him as well.

“Yes sir!” Pyri cheered as she and Lina followed the stomping Aegis back to the dungeon entrance. Once they all got there, the five were surrounded by an awkward silence filled only with the sound of the howling wind blowing into the cavern.

“S-so, do you think there’s going to be other types of golems? Or just more lesser guh-niece golems?” Darkshot asked in an attempt to break the tension.

“Guh-niece?” Aegis asked him with a raised brow.

“Yeah, that was a guh-niece golem we fought, right?”

“It’s pronounced nice.” Pyri corrected him.

“Really?” Rakkan replied surprised as Darkshot started fiddling with his interface to look it up. Aegis just rolled his eyes and started walking forward into the cavern.

“Lumina!” Pyri chanted as her staff lit up once more.

“Oh yeah, huh, go figure. It is pronounced Nice. They weren’t very nice though. Get it?” Darkshot forced a chuckle, though no one else joined in. “He’s gonna kill me.” he whispered under his breath so that everyone but Aegis heard.

“That’s number 10.” Aegis shouted as another, this time level 24, Gneiss golem collapsed in front of them. They were deep in the cavern now and the walls and ceiling were both wider apart and higher up, making it easier to fight the golems within the area they were found. Aegis had gained a few skillups and the others were dealing more damage thanks to him remembering to cast bless on them, making it possible to kill the golems just as he was running out of mana, but they still needed long breaks in between each fight.

“I think that’s all of ‘em.” Rakkan said as he motioned down the cave in front of them.

“What do you mean? It keeps going.” Aegis asked as he looked further into the darkened cavern, pointing beyond what Pyri’s Lumina spell could show them.

“Nah, I recognize those markings from when I was playing a sage.” He motioned to a small line of symbols on the wall to the left and right that climbed all the way to the ceiling until meeting in the middle.

“Good eye, didn’t even notice that…” Aegis walked over to it to brush some moss off of the symbols. “What does it say?”

“I dunno, can’t remember and can’t read it without my sage skills, but Wizard dungeons had those as wards to lock in intruders. It means when we go in there, we’ll get locked in, which usually means it’s a boss room.” Rakkan explained, which prompted Aegis to take a few steps back.

“So this is a Wizard’s dungeon? Doesn’t look very wizardly.” Darkshot commented.

“There’s probably more going on here that we don’t know about yet. It’s tough to know this stuff without a sage.” Rakkan sighed. “I bet those golems and the symbol on their chest have something to do with it though.”

“Makes sense.” Pyri nodded. “Maybe I’ll get some sage themed skills next time I’m in Kordas. At least the beginner ones.”

“You gonna go Sage for your intermediate?” Rakkan asked her hopeful.

“Uhm. Probably not, it’s not really my style.” She replied. “Sorry.” She saw Rakkan’s look of disappointment at her answer.

“D’you think a Wizard hid his treasure here and summoned these golems to protect it?” Darkshot suggested.

“Maybe…” Lina shrugged. “There’s a chance that when we kill the boss, the other golems will stop respawning. The first one we killed took 1 hour to respawn.” Lina explained to Aegis as she watched him stare down the cave with curiosity.

“I don’t think we can beat the boss of this dungeon right now anyway. We’re barely winning against the normal monsters…” Aegis said as he turned and began walking from where they came. “If we can kill them a bit faster, that’ll be 10 golems an hour, that’s 50 iron ore an hour…” He started mumbling to himself as his voice trailed off, sounding like mad ravings as they echoed off the cavern walls around them.

“We’re gonna be here awhile, aren’t we?” Darkshot asked.

“Yup!” Aegis called back excitedly. “I won’t be able to learn to mine Mithral until I’m at least intermediate mining, and this place seems like the best place to get iron. We should try to take advantage of us being the only ones who know about it while we can.” Aegis explained.

“How long is that going to take, you suppose?” Pyri asked him.

“Hmm, with all these experience bonuses, I bet only for a few days.” Aegis shrugged.

“W-well, gathering starts to slow down a lot when you get near 30 for anyone who isn’t playing a crafting class. Iron should give a lot more experience than copper, but…” Lina said apprehensively.

“Okay, then a week. A Week of killing these golems, and we should be fully equipped in magnificent Iron equipment. Not to mention much more powerful.” Aegis replied confidently.

Two in-game weeks later…

Shinji shuffled into the employee kitchen within the Fanta-see Network studio, his fluffy flip flops clicking and clacking on the tiled floor of the quiet, dark building. There were lights on in the hallway but the other rooms were dim, the dark orange glow of the morning sun was just peaking over the nearby shabby buildings and creeping in through a single kitchen window which sat behind a sleek coffee machine on the kitchen counter.

The coffee machine stood out from the other appliances in the room, it was the only device that looked like it’d been upgraded recently and kept clean, the others seemingly abandoned due to underuse, or misuse. Shinji had dark purple bags under his eyes that disappeared only for a second when he opened his mouth wide for a big yawn. He pressed a few buttons on the machine, and after a ding, a small compartment opened up with a full cup of steaming coffee. He pulled the cup out and took a sip, and just as he flip flopped his feet over to another appliance resembling a microwave, the sound of a second pair of flopping feet could be heard entering the kitchen behind him.

“Morning.” Hae-won yawned as he turned to see her approach the coffee machine in sweatpants and a sleeveless white shirt, one hand in her pants scratching her butt. Her hair stood up in all directions as if she’d just rolled out of bed.

“Morning.” Shinji mumbled between sips as he pressed a few buttons on the microwave. “Long night?”

“You have no idea. I’m stuck casting for this wannabe bard who swears he went to school with Yumily.” She groaned as the coffee machine beeped for her. She pulled the cup out and took a sip. “The only reason he has viewers is because she randomly winked at him during her concert last week in Lanusk, so people believe his story.”

“How many viewers?”

“267.” Hae-won replied.

“That’s not bad.”

“Kill me. His music sounds like two cats fighting on a chalkboard.” Hae-won whined as she took a seat at a small table in the kitchen.

“You want a plate?” Shinji motioned to the microwave machine as the machine beeped and he pulled out from it a fully prepared plate with an egg and two slices of toast on it.

“Hit me.” She waved him on and he nodded, pressing a few more buttons on the machine. After 30 seconds, it dinged again and he pulled out a second plate of food and placed it in front of Hae-won before sitting across the table from her with his own food. “The only upside is I get to listen to Yumily’s music all day. Did you hear her new songs?” Hae-won asked.

“Is she still using the harp?” Shinji asked with a look of disapproval.

“Nope, you should see it, she’s got a ton of her instrument skills up now. On top of that, her voice, it’s amazing. Rumor has it she’s closing in on a Bard Advanced class. Oh what I’d kill to be able to cast for someone like her. Millions of viewers, top 10…” Hae-won day-dreamed.

“You sound like a real fan girl.” Shinji joked.

“Oh yeah, how about you? How’s your pet project? The Makaroth boy. I was hoping I’d at least be casting for him by now.”

“It’s uh… He started the game late, so it’s gonna be awhile before he catches up to the other top players.” Shinji replied nervously.

“That bad, huh? How many viewers?” Hae-won sympathized.

“Well.. he peaked at 75 when he was in Kordas registering his land deed and getting married, that was pretty good stuff…” Shinji avoided the question, to which Hae-won just raised her eyebrow at him patiently waiting for an answer. “On average, like 3.” Hae-won let out a hard laugh, putting her hand over her mouth to avoid spitting out the toast she’d just bit into. “And based on the chat, I’m pretty sure two of those viewers are parents of Lina, one of his party members.” Shinji mumbled depressed, but this only made Hae-won laugh harder.

“Nice investing skills there, Shinji.” she managed to get out between laughs. “Thanks, I needed that, I feel way better now about being stuck with my guy.” She eventually calmed down.

“Hey, he’s leveling up really fast, if this was at the games launch, he’d be ahead of the pack and have a ton of viewers. He just hit 30 and is ready to go for his intermediate class.” Shinji said defensively.

“Right, right.” Hae-won faked agreement. “So what’s he been doing?”

“Well…” Shinji hesitated answering. “He spent the last two weeks fighting with rocks and mining them.” Hae-won let out another loud guffaw, but did her best to cut it short to spare Shinji’s feelings.

“Action packed adventure like lord of the rings, huh?” She mocked.

“Hey, say what you want, I know what I saw in the kid, and I stand by it. He’s just preparing. All the right pieces are there… It's only a matter of time. This is the calm before the storm.” Shinji replied confidently.

“Mhm.” She said as she stood up, taking a slice of toast and her cup of coffee with her as she headed out of the kitchen. “I gotta get back to work. Keep me posted on that storm thing.” her voice trailed off as did the sound of her flip flops slapping against the floor as she left the kitchen to head back to her office. Shinji cupped his hands to his face after she’d left.

“Please, by the time I get back to the Simbox. Please be done leveling mining.” Shinji begged no one in particular.

*Ting*

The sound of Aegis’ pickaxe striking the torso of one of the golems echoed loudly off of the cavern walls. Around him stood his four party members watching in anticipation, they were now all equal at level 30, unable to progress further without first unlocking their intermediate classes.

*Ting*

Acquired: Iron Ore [Quality: 46%]

“Was that enough? Did you get it?” Darkshot watched Aegis put the loose chunk of Iron ore into his inventory.

“Not yet…” He pulled back the pickaxe to strike the golem torso again.

*Ting*

“Come on, you’ve been stuck at 29 Mining forever! We’ve all been ready to go intermediate for like two days now!” Darkshot complained.

“It’s n-not his fault. Even with his experience bonuses, crafting skills are really hard to get to 30 unless you are playing a related crafting class.” Lina defended Aegis.

“I don’t even remember what the sun looks like.” Pyri mumbled, longingly looking in the direction of the cave’s exit. “Being in the dark this long can’t be good for my elf skin.” She sighed.

*Ting*

Acquired: Iron Ore [Quality: 46%] Level Up! Mining has reached Level 30!

Congratulations! You have reached the maximum level for Mining(Beginner). In order to progress further you will need to advance the skill to (Intermediate).

“I got it! It hit 30! It finally hit 30!” Aegis cheered excitedly, his voice echoing off the cavern walls.

“Oh thank all the gods except Eirene.” Pyri flopped down on her butt with a huge sigh of relief.

“FREEDOM!” Darkshot screamed with joy.

“That was quick!” Lina smiled excitedly.

“QUICK!?” Darkshot screamed at Lina. “You call that QUICK!?” He shouted hysterically.

“It was pretty quick…” Lina mumbled back shyly.

“I’m never stepping foot in this damn cave ever again, or any cave, ever.” Darkshot protested as he began stomping for the exit.

“Wait, hang on!” Aegis called out to stop him.

“What, don’t tell me you want more ore.” Darkshot groaned back.

“Before we leave, we’ve still got one last order of business in this cave.”

“The dungeon boss.” Rakkan grinned as he walked in front of the others in the direction of the markings on the wall. Without saying anything more, Aegis and Lina followed behind him excitedly.

“Wait for me, sun, just a bit longer.” Pyri whimpered as she turned to follow them.

“You’re naming it Tower of Darkshot.” Darkshot said grumpily as he followed last.