Miner's Hardships (I)

Volume 4 Dungeon Instance Chapter 191 The Miner's Dilemma (Part 1)

... The orcs. Each one possesses considerable combat power, with strong attack power, but their strength and health are pitifully low.

For Li Wei and Zheng Yutong at this moment, killing them would be no difficulty at all. Li Wei wouldn't even need to use his true energy; he only needed to use the ebony sword he had temporarily picked up to chop it seven or eight times, and the Orc would be killed on the spot.

Meanwhile, he collected even more junk items. Li Wei picked out a bronze sword that suited his needs, swung it a couple of times, and was quite satisfied.

Zheng Yutong continued to use her familiar bow and arrow, but she rarely had the chance to fire. The monsters were mostly cleaved in two by Li Wei's bronze sword.

After advancing for another ten minutes or so, Li Wei could see in the distance that the open ground ahead was littered with the corpses of various monsters.

Upon closer inspection, it became clear that these monsters had all been killed by humans. Judging from their wounds, they were likely killed by reincarnators, probably members of the Viper Squad or the Bisky Squad who had left earlier.

Therefore, it is clear that this direction is indeed the route to the mine.

After walking for a while, Li Wei suddenly stopped.

"What's wrong?" Zheng Yutong looked at Li Wei with some surprise and asked.

"I've found the mine!" Li Wei said with a grin.

Zheng Yutong looked around. There was no sign of a mine shaft. Mines are usually dug at the foot of mountains or under rock walls, but there was nothing like that here.

But then, under Zheng Yutong's questioning gaze, Li Wei took a few steps forward, then squatted down and started digging in the dirt with his bronze sword, which made Zheng Yutong extremely angry and amused.

"Hey, I'm telling you, you're not trying to dig a hole out of nowhere, are you?" Before she could finish speaking, Zheng Yutong heard a metallic clanging sound.

"Haha, found it!"

Li Wei chuckled and scraped aside the loose soil he had dug up. Suddenly, something appeared in front of Zheng Yutong.

"What... what is this?" Zheng Yutong stared in astonishment at the thing hidden under the soil.

What appeared beneath the soil was a section of railway track. Although it was rusty and dilapidated in many places due to its age, there was no doubt that it was indeed a railway track.

Or rather, it's a section of guide rail buried in the soil.

In fact, almost all mines are equipped with these guide rails to facilitate the transportation of ore by mine carts. These guide rails are old and have long since become unusable scrap metal, but their function has been changed to road signs.

Afterwards, Li Wei and Zheng Yutong followed the intermittent guide rail forward. After walking for a few more minutes, they saw a hill. The guide rail, amidst gravel and pebbles, led straight to the base of a cliff on the rocky hill, where a dark cave entrance could be seen in the distance.

"Found it!"

The two sped up and soon reached the cave entrance, where piles of discarded ore lay scattered about. Several dilapidated minecarts, some standing and some lying overturned, were covered in a thick layer of dust, making the place look particularly dilapidated.

It's difficult to tell from these places how long the mine has been abandoned.

Li Wei glanced at the slightly damp soil at the cave entrance and a smile appeared on his face.

"Looks like we're the first people to find this place!"

Zheng Yutong glanced at Li Wei: "How do you know? There are clearly so many footprints on the soil at the cave entrance!"

Li Wei really didn't know what to say to this beautiful woman who suddenly liked to argue with him; he wasn't good at coaxing girls.

"It's actually very simple. Look, although there are crisscrossing footprints in the soil, most of them are pointing outwards. Pay attention to the direction of the footprints."

After Li Wei's reminder, Zheng Yutong looked closely and indeed found that was the case. Moreover, she could smell a stench of decay from the soil.

"These footprints are from zombies," Zheng Yutong saw certainty in Li Wei's eyes.

"So that's how it is. But why haven't we seen any zombies around here?"

Zheng Yutong was still somewhat unwilling to give up.

Li Wei didn't answer, but instead pointed to the sky. The latter immediately understood.

It was afternoon, and the sun was blazing. At first, they hadn't noticed it as they moved through the Jungle, but now, exposed to the sun, especially with bare rocks all around, the heat made them feel extremely uncomfortable.

Zombies are yin-type monsters, so naturally they don't like sunlight. Therefore, seeing a zombie at this time would be truly ghostly.

"What do we do now?" Zheng Yutong asked, shrugging.

"Of course we'll go in. Let's try mining first. If we don't need any special tools, this task shouldn't be too difficult!"

After saying this, Li Wei took the lead and walked into the mine.

The world inside the cave was completely different from the outside. It was cold, damp, and dimly lit. Even the slightest movement would stir up a cloud of dust. As soon as you entered the mine, you could see that the walls on both sides were lined with mined ore, and near the walls, there were piles of discarded rubble, forming a sloping shape against the walls.

The glittering metal mixed in with those pebbles must be ore, but it's hard to tell what kind of ore it is just by looking at it, and its quality is also hard to tell.

Of course, this is only under the premise that Li Wei did not use his Eye of Perception.

As Li Wei walked over and picked up a piece, he immediately saw a series of messages appear.

"High-quality iron ore, this is a very common type of iron ore, but because it contains many impurities, it is difficult to sell at a high price!"

When Li Wei obtained the ore, Li Wei specifically checked the Yellow Paper. The number of iron ore items in the task list on it had not increased, which meant that this low-quality iron ore could not meet the task requirements.

Therefore, only high-grade ore could be used. With this in mind, Li Wei concentrated his true energy, forming a small blade that struck the wall, causing many stones to fall down.

Li Wei picked up the stones one by one and examined them, discovering that they were not minerals, and did not even meet the required quality standards.

After several more attempts, Li Wei was certain that it was impossible to obtain even the lowest grade of ore by brute force alone. Therefore, the ore required for this mission could only be mined using a miner's pickaxe.

Therefore, it was necessary to send Nina out earlier.

Since mining was not an option, Li Wei decided to collect Zombie Bone first, so he and Zheng Yutong walked into the cave one after the other.

Just as I rounded a bend, I saw the ground move, then a hand covered in rotting flesh reached out from the soil, followed by a head with its skull exposed.

A series of terrifying growls came from the monster's throat. Li Wei looked closely and immediately smiled.

Zombies, with relatively low health.