Pickaxe strikes brought joy!

This was Tolbana, the largest town on the first floor apart from the six Towns of Beginnings.

Night was deepening. Kirito had already parted ways with Wang Shui. Tomorrow, he would push into the labyrinth area, working toward level 10 so he could equip the ring while replenishing his funds.

After all, his dear old dad Wang Shui had carried off his weapon and equipment enhancement materials along with a large amount of cash. Starting tomorrow, Kirito would be back to intensive monster grinding.

Wang Shui had finally finished organizing his item storage in town, allocating space for the various materials in advance so they would be easy to find later. This was a veteran player's basic competence.

Although he had spent most of today traveling and only cleared one set of ruins along the way, his gains exceeded everything he had earned before combined.

Thanks to Kirito's donation, Wang Shui now had most of the materials needed to enhance a weapon to [+6]. Steel ingots were the one material monsters could not drop directly. At most, they dropped ore.

Tolbana, the town Wang Shui was currently in, stood before a long, narrow valley running east to west. Many monsters here dropped ore, and players could also mine ore themselves in the various wilderness mines and bring it to town for smelting.

But neither method came anywhere close to the efficiency of the specialized [Mining] skill.

After entering town, Wang Shui had also gone out and killed a few ore-dropping monsters. He had tested the [Gathering] skill, but the things it yielded were too varied, and it was not particularly efficient at obtaining extra ore.

So Wang Shui planned to grind until he unlocked [Mining]. Although he had no idea how to master a life skill like this, he had to believe in his talent. Who knew? He might unlock it with his very first swing!

After emptying his inventory, Wang Shui set out with only some simple food, water, a sleeping bag, and ten pickaxes. Yes, it was getting late, but he set out anyway.

His destination was the mine controlled by the town.

Following the crude ore transport tracks under the sparse lights, Wang Shui found the mine three kilometers from town. There were a few simple stone houses and spaces carved into the mountainside, with a huge yard enclosed by stone walls outside. It seemed intended for stockpiling ore, but there was not a single piece there now.

Entering the mine cost money: 100 Cor per visit, with additional fees for the deeper levels. The town militia guarded the place. Although their levels were not particularly high, antagonizing them would make every NPC hostile.

Honestly, the price was a little steep. Besides, the militia only provided security for the first two levels. They cleared monsters from the valley to keep them out of level 0, which was level with the valley floor, and also cleared [Mine Level 1], about five meters underground. Starting from [Mine Level 2], however, players not only had to pay an extra 50 Cor but also lost the town's protection.

Monsters spawned inside the mine too, mainly beetles, a few undead creatures, and-kobolds. Yes, sometimes players dug into kobold miners and kobold overseers.

Most of this information had only been discovered by players over the past few days.

In the current open beta version, money drops had been reduced, and the elite players who had rushed to this mining town were all being held up by the metal ingots needed for weapon enhancement. Two days before Wang Shui arrived, they had begun pushing deeper into the mine.

But the results had been disappointing.

After paying, Wang Shui entered level 0, which was level with the valley floor. Scattered clinks reached his ears. Only four or five players were spread throughout the vast cavern, and Wang Shui could not even see their mining lamps moving.

That afternoon, Wang Shui had learned that around 130 players had reached this place within the game's first week, and at least 100 had taken part in clearing the mine. Although they did not form parties, gathering together to clear monsters and prevent their numbers from building up was still a form of joint progression.

The mine progression group had pushed all the way to [Mine Level 5], where level 20 monsters finally forced them back. [Mine Level 4] already had plenty of ore deposits, and the ore grades were quite high,

so their gains should have been substantial. But everyone discovered, to their frustration, that without the [Mining] skill and high-grade pickaxes, higher-grade minerals were increasingly difficult to break. Worse still, without the bonus from [Mining], extracting even slightly higher-grade ore was less efficient than killing monsters.

So they all pulled out. Nobody wanted to devote one of their incredibly precious early-game skill slots to [Mining]. At worst, they could buy steel ingots outright or wait for professional miner players to start production. As a result, few frontline players could normally be seen in the mine anymore.

Wang Shui figured these few remaining players were the hardcore grinders: killing monsters during the day, barely resting at night, and mining ore on level 0 despite the poor efficiency. Even a little accumulated wealth would give them immense satisfaction and happiness.

Wang Shui understood them perfectly, because he was that kind of player too.

But Wang Shui did not mine on level 0. He went straight to [Mine Level 1]. The ore varieties here were almost identical to those on level 0, but the deposits were much harder and slower to mine. The advantage was that small amounts of minerals one grade higher occasionally appeared.

Down the broad spiral stone staircase was a brightly lit, rudimentary miners' camp, with low timber-and-stone shelters to protect against falling debris and fully equipped campfires. The shelters contained wooden beds where sleeping bags could be spread out, and the campfires could be used to cook and heat food.

Also, this world where magic could not be used still retained some traces of it. The rudimentary miners' camp contained a huge [Expulsion Crystal]. The grass-green crystal, as thick as a thigh and one meter tall, was encased in a pitch-black steel cage firmly welded to the ground.

No monsters would spawn within fifty meters of the crystal. Approaching monsters would also be driven away, their aggro cleared. This was the protection the town provided.

So this was also somewhere players could mine safely... provided they did not dig beyond fifty meters, or kept their tunnels straight enough to run back easily.

Without further ado, Wang Shui got to work. He did not need to dig into the stone walls now; he could start directly on the exposed deposits. Nobody had been here for a long time, and many large deposits had already grown quite tall.

Ah, yes, the ore here grew. Whether because of the floating castle Aincrad's limited size or not, many resources could respawn and grow. The most obvious example was the monsters.

Not only did the ore here grow, but its physical models were also almost identical clusters of columnar crystals. Judging by the color and texture, their purity was approaching that of elemental metal.

Wang Shui grumbled inwardly as he swung his pickaxe furiously. Every strike reduced the deposit's durability. Once that section's durability ran out, part of the deposit would crumble, and the player would receive some ore.

What followed was endless, monotonous pickaxe work. Wang Shui opened the built-in music player, which contained some game music he had unlocked, mainly instrumental suites for towns and environments. It was just something to keep the loneliness at bay.

At first, Wang Shui needed more than thirty strikes to obtain a little ore. That gradually dropped to thirty, then twenty. Just as drowsiness grew heavy, his aching, numb arms suddenly felt lighter, and his next swing struck the deposit's crystals with a heavy blow.

[Mining complete! Obtaining materials...]

[Coal ore: 21]

[Tin ore: 14]

[Copper ore: 13]

[Iron ore: 11]

...

The ore yield this time had almost tripled.

Wang Shui leisurely brought up his menu panel and opened the skills tab. Sure enough, after [Flying Sword], which occupied a separate row, there was now a [Mine Ore] skill.

Wow~ So overpowered~

Expressionless and utterly calm, Wang Shui praised his bro-tier talent, [Arrogant Knower], and that was that.

Yes, it certainly looked powerful, but so what?

This was only a game world. No matter how powerful you were inside a game world, it was all fake.

Wang Shui had spent half a year in Iron Edge City under his boss, the [Dream System]'s control. He had read a great many books and performed plenty of experiments, yet had never unlocked a single skill.

He could easily unlock skills in large numbers after entering the game world. Wang Shui did not understand it, but he had a feeling that only here could he learn skills so easily.

But as with his unruffled mood, unaffected by favor or disgrace? That was probably what it felt like.

Such was life. Why always strive so hard that you made yourself unhappy? Wang Shui had long since lost his competitive drive. All he saw now were benefits and a comfortable life.

Right now, mining felt quite comfortable to him.

The clinking of strikes continued to echo through the dim mine as Wang Shui's inventory and sense of satisfaction slowly filled.

Crack~

The pickaxe in his hands completed its final strike. Its wooden handle snapped with a sound effect before dissolving into motes of light.

Wang Shui mechanically opened his inventory, only to discover that he had used up every pickaxe. The clock showed a little past five.

This was far from his first time using up all the pickaxes in his inventory. Eight days had passed. Yes, eight whole days!

Over those eight days, Wang Shui had not even touched a weapon. He had simply traveled mechanically between town and the mine, delivering inventory after inventory of ore to the smithy, while large quantities of assorted basic metal ingots filled his storage.

His storage in town had long since hit its limit. Wang Shui had spent a fair amount of money unlocking another twenty pages of space to store the smelted ingots.

Whenever Wang Shui suddenly encountered something that interested him, he became particularly addicted. But the moment it grew a little stale or he encountered a substantial learning bottleneck, he would quickly lose patience and stop improving.

That was why Wang Shui had accomplished nothing before coming to the infinite world, though that was still true now.

Wang Shui's enthusiasm for mining had yet to run dry. The walk back to town was another way to relax, though his footsteps were a little heavy.

An inventory full of ore affected his movement somewhat. Items in the inventory would not affect a player until their weight exceeded 80% of the carrying limit. Beyond that point, the player would feel the burden in proportion to the excess, as though gravity had increased.

The weight limit for equipped gear worked much the same way. Both increased with the [Strength] stat, and an auxiliary skill could raise the limits too: [Weight Carrying]. Wang Shui had unlocked it while hauling ore back and forth over these eight days, and had even ground its proficiency up to [Weight Carrying (133)].

His highest proficiency was in mining, higher even than his weapon skills, at a full 402.

Before long, Wang Shui returned to town. Under the smith's frightened gaze, he filled all ten smelting furnaces in the little shop with ore. After paying, Wang Shui left the ore that would not fit at the smithy too, paying extra for the smith to finish smelting it. He would come back to collect it later.

Then Wang Shui left the smithy with the finished ingots from his previous batch and thirty level 10 pickaxes.

Mining and smelting like this burned through money. The nearly thirty thousand Cor Wang Shui had saved up, fifteen thousand of it contributed by Kirito, was almost gone. Soon, he would have to consider killing monsters for money. As for the ingots, without knowing the market, Wang Shui did not want to sell below NPC shop prices. He had noticed that the smithy's ingots were starting to sell out too, but the NPC had no ore...

This was probably a quest, but Wang Shui had neither the interest nor the time to trigger it. He was not particularly goal-driven when playing games, even if this was a death game.

There were noticeably more players on the town's streets. Once players got through that initial period of fear, they would discover that the first floor was relatively easy to progress through right up until the labyrinth area.

Whether forced by a lack of money or genuinely finding their courage, roughly thirty percent of the players in the six Towns of Beginnings had taken their first step into the death game. That was sixty or seventy thousand people...

So in just eight days, the second- and third-tier players who had originally planned to develop in low-level areas had already been forced over to the valley, gathering in Tolbana.

As for the original first wave, they were either still hanging around here collecting enhancement materials or had already begun tackling the labyrinth.

Fortunately, the first floor's map was a hundred times larger than during the closed beta. Even if twice as many players ventured out, this world had enough room for them to spread out and grow stronger.

But something greatly surprised Wang Shui: nobody had yet initiated a raid on the first-floor boss. He had thought that with enough elite players, the boss raid would happen earlier. After all, at least they could afford the deaths now.

They had not even reached the boss room entrance in the labyrinth area on the first floor of the floating castle Aincrad.

Was the plot automatically correcting itself? Or had the labyrinth become much harder? Having never entered the labyrinth area, Wang Shui really did not know.

Perhaps the only thing that had not changed was the mine. Even now, none of the players around Tolbana were willing to learn [Mining].

That was not bad, though. At least nobody was competing for deposits.

As Wang Shui passed the militia training ground outside town, he actually saw the familiar sight of players fighting each other. It seemed those fellows from the little village in the dense forest had brought their habit of relaxing through duels here. It was only a little past six in the evening, and the greedier players had not returned to town yet, but twenty or thirty people were already fighting or simply watching.

The aloof mining fanatic did not pause for a moment. Wang Shui quickly returned to the mine. Today, his [Mining] proficiency had passed 400. He was going to take a look at [Mine Level 2].

Level 2 was much darker. More precisely, it was pitch-black. The excavated area was also tiny, just a circular space with a radius of less than ten meters.

Moreover, there was no [Repulsion Crystal] here, nor any rudimentary miners' camp. Even the one little fire pit was covered in dust.

Wang Shui had a fist-sized lantern at his waist and a crystal mining lamp on his head that focused light ahead. They were more or less enough to illuminate this little cavern.

He checked and confirmed that there were no monsters on level 2 yet. The militia arriving for a change of guard at the level 0 entrance camp had said that level 2 had originally been huge. But the mine's stone walls grew just like its ore deposits. After a long time without anyone mining, the space here had shrunk to this size. There was one advantage, though: monsters would not spawn if the space was too small.

Of course, when the space was too small, no ore deposits would be exposed either. Wang Shui picked a direction at random and began swinging his pickaxe.

With his [Mining] proficiency at 400, the rocky walls seemed extraordinarily fragile. In a dozen or so strikes, Wang Shui could excavate an area around a meter deep and slightly taller than himself. It was downright magical.

A more scientific approach would have been fishbone mining. But to avoid getting trapped by monsters in a cramped space, Wang Shui chose to expand the whole area instead. Yes, he expanded the mining area in every direction, mining in the least efficient way possible.

He started at around six thirty in the evening. By the time he went up to the rudimentary camp on [Mine Level 1] to rest at two in the morning, seven and a half hours of uninterrupted work had at least doubled the floor radius of the entire level 2 cavern.

His inventory was full of items called [Rock] and [Soil]. No NPC would buy them, and they were heavy. Wang Shui was considering how to dispose of them, but right now he was too tired and only wanted to rest.

Of course, those seven and a half hours had not all been spent digging stone. Wang Shui had also uncovered many large ore deposits.

Starting on level 2, copper and tin deposits became scarcer while iron deposits increased. Lead and sulfur deposits began appearing, along with a little silver ore. Strangely, the amount of coal ore increased too.

The new minerals sparked fresh interest in Wang Shui. He had not seen any corresponding chemicals for sale in town and had assumed this world's items were relatively simple. Now, though, it seemed that only a limited selection had been revealed.

Speaking of which, Wang Shui's interest in chemistry was quite substantial too.