When they got to the foot of the mountain, Kara sent Andrea to scout the best mountain trail. So far, they hadn't seen too many beasts. The highest one they saw was a Level 60 mountain lion, who looked at Thaddeus as a tasty treat. But when an ice javelin was shot in its direction, it decided to move on. They didn't have to wait long, for Andrea to return.
"I found an earthen ramp that goes to the mine. It's covered in vines and overgrowth but it's the shortest path. But he could tell it was made by humans long ago. The stories about his place may be true," Andrea announced.
"Good, we'll follow you. Be ready at a moment's notice," Kara commanded.
Ward and Kast cleared the vines and brush with their swords. Thaddeus cast [Erosion] to clear that path below. Now he could clearly see the dirt, beneath his feet.
"Stop it, don't use mana wastefully. Save your mana for when you need it, not to clear worthless vegetation that we can easily cut through with our swordsmen," Kara instructed.
Thaddeus had the urge to say "Yes, ma'am," but he didn't. He nodded his head and followed her advice.
It took them 45 minutes to walk up the steep ramp. The top was a high cliff. From the cliff, Thaddeus could see his village and the Dragon Domain across the river.
"Everyone ready? Remember to keep a tight formation. Everyone remember your roles and do your best to stay safe. Now everyone, follow Ward!" Kara commanded.
As soon as he stepped inside, he received a second system warning. But this time he chose to ignore it.
System Message
You have left your territory. Now entering the Ironwood Mines. Please be careful!
They followed Ward inside, and they walked further from the cave's entrance the light grew darker and darker until Thaddeus could barely see anything. It took a few minutes for his eyes to adjust to the darkness.
"All right light the torches," Kara instructed, and all six party members took out a torch and lit it.
Now Thaddeus could see around him. When he checked out his surroundings, he saw old lanterns and wires. His mind couldn't help but marvel that he entered a Standard Dollar cryptocurrency mine.
Crypto mining was historically done by algorithms solving complex puzzles to mine digital coins. Validating the coins on a blockchain network and finally adding them to a ledger.
But in-game, people or monsters mine ore that could be turned into digital currency, which then would be validated and added to the game's ledger. It was surreal to even consider.
"This was either built by humans or dwarves. Look at the wood support beams, the rails going deeper into the cave, and the lanterns along the wall," Ward said softly.
Thaddeus could tell everyone was impressed by what they were seeing. He too was in awe. This cave had not been entered in hundreds of years. Yet, humanity's mark had not disappeared. That something like this existed in his territory was amazing. Now he hoped to find an iron vein. One iron vein would pay for this whole excursion.
"Two Level 63 kobolds guards, around the next bend," Andrea warned.
Kobolds were small green lizard men who loved shiny things. They generally wore tattered clothes or poor-quality armor and had poor-quality spears. Unlike lizard men who lived in the swamps, kobolds preferred living in the dark mines where they could mine for shiny gems.
"I'll take care of them," Raine said disappearing into the shadow, and a moment later Thaddeus received 230 experience points.
As the Bright Guards traveled further down the tunnel killing more kobolds, Thaddeus' experience points ticked up higher.
'Alfred, how are experience points distributed at a party?' Thaddeus thought.
"Sir, the person who does the most damage earns 70% of the EXP. The rest is proportionally distributed by each player's effort," Alfred explained.
'So, I earned 230 EXP for doing nothing?' Thaddeus thought.
"That is correct, sir," Alfred replied.
'Is this how it feels being a rich second-generation heir?' Thaddeus jokingly thought.
But then he noticed, the adventurers killed the kobolds but didn't loot their bodies. He decided to ask Alfred, 'Do you know why they don't loot the bodies?'
"Sir, only Travelers may loot bodies, NPCs adventurers can only gain experience from killing monsters and beasts," he explained.
"Experience and loot? Christmas came early," Thaddeus said looting all the bodies.
"Lord Brown, what are you doing?" Brynn asked.
"As rearguard, I want to make sure these kobolds are dead. I don't want any faking dead and then trying to sneak up on us from behind," he lied.
Thaddeus was thrilled. Not about the loot, but about the iron spears. If the kobolds had iron spears, that had to mean there was iron in this mine. He hoped and prayed, the iron vein hadn't gone cold.
The adventurers' sneak attacks were effective, and they were able to travel swiftly through the mines killing small groups of patrols until they got ramp leading down to the next level. From what he saw, the kobold patrols had the same attack pattern when they were attacked.
"A few yards away, there are 13 Level 25 kobold miners and one Level 38 enforcer," Andrea described.
"I take care of this. [Ice Prison]" Kara cast, giving Thaddeus another 658 EXP.
"Alfred, is this cheating?" Thaddeus asked feeling guilty.
"No, this is a well know shortcut," Alfred sending Thaddeus a forum post written by the privileged guild master of the Golden Lyons Guild. The forum was posted the same day Heaven's Gate was launched. Which meant the children of wealthy families really were playing a different game from the start. Thaddeus felt like a fool for feeling guilty. He got where he was with his hard work, and now he was working hard to add a mine to his settlement. Whether he killed the mobs or not he was still working hard as the rearguard.
"Let's wait here until Kara, cool down expires," Ward suggested.
The top floor of the mine was large, almost 800 square feet, with a high cavern ceiling, and wooden support beans along the walls. Even though the wood looked old, the mine still seemed sturdy. While everyone rested, Thaddeus looted all the kobold ice statues.
System Message
Your party has killed 14 kobolds. Reward: 1 poor iron spear, 1 poor iron armor, 13 poor pickaxes, + 70 coppers,
After he finished, he examined the mine walls where the kobold miners were digging. He looked inside a small mine wagon, which was repurposed to roll along the mine floor instead of over rail, which the miners used to store the ore they mined. When he looked inside the saw tens of metallic-red iron nuggets. Thaddeus was thrilled and pumped his fist in celebration.
"What's in there that's made you so happy?" Raine asked.
"Iron! This mine is still functional," Thaddeus said happily.
"Is this worth a lot?" Raine asked quizzically.
"Raine, that's enough questions," Ward warned.
"No, it's a valid question," Kast said
"No, it's not valuable, but it can be used to make valuable things. After we're finished, I'm happy to pay you in iron," Thaddeus said, cooling the tension.
"I prefer to be paid in gold," said Andrea and the rest nodded.
"I'm fine. Let's continue onward," Kara said assertively.
Andrea was the first to move, disappearing into the shadows. She reappeared moments later with the scouting report. Four Level 71 kobold warriors ramp to the second floor to patrol. Past them on the second floor of the mine were more Level 27 miners and two Level 37 enforcers. But they have spread out in a cavern twice the size as the first floor. No way could kill them easily as Kara did before. This meant they were in for a fight.
"Andrea and Raine, take care of the patrols. If you can dispatch them quietly, we may be able to get the drop one enforcer," Kara ordered.
The kobolds patrols walked in columns of twos. Andrea was able to slit the neck of two warriors in the back without alerting the front two patrolmen. However, the best-laid plans of mice and men often go astray, as the saying went, Raine's arrow killed a third kobold warrior, but his body fell to the cave floor before Andrea could catch it. A loud thud echoed in the mine. Andrea killed the last kobold before it could alert the others. But the damage was done. The second-floor enforcers had already sounded the alert.
"Charge!" Kara commanded.
Ward was the first to run down the ramp and onto the second floor. Thaddeus watched him taunt the two enforcers who ran like crazed demons toward him. While Ward fought the enforcers' Kast ran to the miners. If Ward was an immovable wall, Kast was an unstoppable force. Kast killed the miners with the grace of a chainsaw. Raine and Kara picked off the miners trying to flank Kast. And Andrea disappeared and reappeared behind escaping miners, herding them back into the kill zone.
Thaddeus was captivated by synchronized teamwork. Thaddeus could tell this was an experienced party who was used to fighting together and had fought in a range of skirmishes.
"Lord Brown, watch the ramp!" Kara yelled.
Thaddeus turned around to see a spider the size of a small sedan approaching him. He analyzed the spider and read the prompt.
System Message: Young scout Cave Spider Level 35
'Level 35 is young?' Thaddeus said surprised.
Thaddeus ran to the spider and activated [Bash] and slammed the spider against the cave wall. The spider shrieked and tried to use its fangs to attack Thaddeus, but it was pressed sideways against the cave. Thaddeus pressed harder and used his left hand to cleave the spider repeatedly. It shrieked and wailed and gave up fighting instead it used its webbing to yank itself out from the wedge. He quickly checked the fighting logs and saw that the young spider only had 4058/15,6546 HP remaining. The spider shirked at him and sent a ball of webbing at him.
"Two can play this game," Thaddeus said casting [Arrowhead] and sending small shards of rock and ore propelling to the ball of webbing.
The rocks and webbing collided like two missiles, neither damaging the other. But the spider was shocked to see its web was blocked. It turned and hissed at Thaddeus and scampered away. Instead of chasing after it, he left the spider to go and decided to better job protecting the party's rear.
"Stay alert next time!" Kara yelled at him, as she killed a group of kobold warriors coming up the ramp from the third floor.
"Second floors clear, move to the ramp," Ward shouted.
Like clockwork, the party moved to the ramp. Ward moved to the front. Kast stood on Ward's right, and Andrea stood to his left. Standing in a diamond formation, they plugged the ramp to the third floor. Brynn stood in the middle of the formation and cast [Greater Heal]. A light fell on Thaddeus and the adventurers filling their HP back to full. Kara and Thaddeus stood in the back of the formation.
"Wait before we move, let me clean up," Thaddeus said hurrying to loot all the kobold corpses.
System Message
Your party has killed 85 kobolds. Reward: 57 poor iron spears, 57 poor iron armor, 28 poor pickaxes, + 170 coppers,
"Please take your time, milord," Kast said sarcastically.
"I'm done, let's go," Thaddeus said.
The party moved down the ramp slowly to the third floor. But halfway down the ramp, they met an army of Level 71 to Level 75 Kobold Warriors who threw spears at them. Unlike the previous kobolds they faced, these kobolds also had short swords on their hips. They took out the sword and charged forward.
"There's too many, they'll were us down. Does anyone have any ideas?" Ward asked.
"Let me try something," Thaddeus said. He cast [Stone Wall] and [Erosion] to make little 3-foot stone hurdles with pits between them.
"I told you he'd come in handy," Kara bragged.
"Whatever, just hurry, we don't know how long he can hold out," Raine said rapidly firing arrow after arrow.
Kara cast [Icicle] and send sharp spherical ice shards toward the kobolds. Without shields, the kobolds were like blades of grass in front of a lawn mower. As fast as they tried to hurdle the hurdles and jump the pits, they were mowed down.
"Hurry, I can't hold on much longer," Thaddeus said, he could feel his MP steadily depleting. He started straining and sweating trying to maintain the spells as a tsunami of kobolds tried to destroy his hurdles and ladder over the pits.
"Brynn, help him! We're almost at a manageable number," Kast yelled out.
"Goddess of Light, your humble servant asks that you transfer mana from me to him, [Mana Transfer]," Brynn cast.
Thaddeus could feel his MP suddenly increase over 100 points. The strain he was feeling disappeared, and his spells strengthened as well. Thaddeus felt much better, "Thanks, Brynn!"
"We are definitely going to the bottom of this mine. These reptile-looking bastards keep taking the ore below. And this many kobold warriors mean they have something important to guard," Kast said giddily.
"We cannot accept more than we negotiated, or do you want to run afoul of the guild again Kast," Kara asked. "All right, we should be good. Thaddeus, cancel your spell and take a rest. We should be able to handle the rest from here."
Thaddeus did as he was told and got a new system message.
System Message
Congratulations you have reached Level 31. You have 5 Stat Points to allocate.
When they reached the third level it was larger than the second level. Each level was larger than the next. When they reached the third level, they saw it was empty. There wasn't a kobold insight.
"Something's not right, where are they?" Kast asked warily.
"Hurry to the next ramp, they were stalling us for time!" Kara shouted.
They ran as fast as they could across the room, only to see another army of kobolds running to meet them.
"[Ice Wall]," Kara yelled blocking the ramp's exit. Trying to buy them time.
"What's the plan here, because I don't like our chances!" Andrea said cautiously eyeing the ramp up to the second floor.
"We're not retreating!" Ward shouted.
"We're overwhelmed and without a plan. I say we're fucked," Raine countered.
Cracks started appearing on the [Ice Wall]. The adventurers and Henry could see ice chipping.
Thaddeus cast "[Erosion],"' creating a large deep pit. The pit was so deep, they could see thousands of spider webs and angry spiders below.
"Kara, quick cancel your spell!" Brynn shouted.
Soon hundreds of angry kobolds fell to their deaths below trapped in webs. The kobolds from behind stampeded forward sending the ones in front to their deaths. Others were trampled to death as the kobolds raced forward trying to reach the third nine floor. By the time the kobolds in the back realized their mistake, it was too late, two-thirds of the kobolds were dead.
"Ha-ha, the Goddess Hestia has blessed us!" Brynn shouted cheerfully!
Thaddeus canceled his spell and checked his notifications. Sending the kobolds to the spider lair counted as killing them him. Thaddeus wondered if he should join a party with the spider next time.
System Message: Congratulations you have reached Level 36. You have 5 Stat Points to allocate.
While leveling was great, what he liked the most was his new title.
System Message: New Title: Spartan. At higher levels can kill thousands of enemies with a blink. Stat Increase: +10 SP, +100 EXP
When the third floor was secure, in the brief amount of time to rest they had, Thaddeus used his Surveyor skill to examine his surroundings. He checked out the clothes cart. That's when I noticed there was silver inside mixed with iron. Thaddeus said to himself, 'This mine is a mint.'
"Fall back behind me! Let's moved!" Ward commanded and the adventurers and Thaddeus followed in a single file.
Unlike in the past, the ramp to the fourth floor wasn't blocked by kobold warriors. The trouble was walking over the dead bodies that died in the stampede. The tunnel was filled with the carnage of our previous battle, but Thaddeus tuned it out. He couldn't let himself get lost in the destruction brought by a group of monsters.
Once they confirmed that nothing and no one had come up from the next floor, Thaddeus looted the bodies as he step over them. The game mercifully the intent of his actions and looted hundred kobold corpses at once.
System Message: Your party has killed 475 kobolds. Reward: 475 poor iron spears, 446 poor iron armor, + 964 coppers,
"Did we kill them all?" Kast asked.
"There's always a boss," Kara reminded him.
When they reached the bottom, instead of finding a mine, they found a village.
System Message:
Now entering the Kubaclan Kobold Village.
The city was breathtaking, houses were carved out of the mountain. It looks like Michelangelo sculptured the city out of the mountain's black stone. A waterfall fell 60 feet into a pool below and grass grew alongside. He could tell at one point, long ago, a farm used to be there.
But eerily the large city sat empty, the roads were clear, and there was no activity in the central square, But he could tell this was once a mighty city that had fallen from grace. Around the city was a large black impressionable black wall that was now in ruins.
The city looked Dwarvish, straight out of Tolkien. It looked like Heaven's Gate licensed the images from the Hobbit movies. But something didn't make sense. It was bright, but there wasn't any sunlight.
"Look up," Andrea called out.
As a group, they lighted their heads and stared up at the twinkling lights above them. There were thousands upon thousands of these lights shining down illuminating the entire city.
They were all marveling at the lights when Kast yelled, "Guys we got company!"
"Ki-Ki, come to claim my territory? I never thought the spider would go so low as to contact the humans. I am Kuba and you invaders die today," he said laughing, and brought out two short swords. Behind him was the last of his army. He sneered at us, and they commanded, "Attack!"
'Shit, I think I'm going to die!' Thaddeus said.
'Sir, I detect a church nearby. Would you like me to set your respawn point there?" Alfred asked.
"Yes," Thaddeus replied
"Stay together as a group. Don't let anyone get passed us. Raine if they do, you're on mop-up duty. Brynn buff us now. Thaddeus, you're in the front this time next to Ward. See if you can learn a thing or two. Andrea, do your thing. And Kast, go berserk!" Kara instructed.