"Well, I guess I will start mining now!"
-"Of course."-
And at that time Rei started to scratch the wall of the cave.
-"..."-
-"What are you doing?"-
"Can't you see?"
-"No. I went blind because of your idiocy."-
"..."
-"..."-
"I am mining."
-"And with what?"-
"Have you really gone blind?"
-"I guess I have. And you are responsible for that."-
"..."
-"Why the heck aren't you using any tools!?"-
"My nails are enough," Rei said and started to scratch the wall faster.
Apparently, he had never actually mined but had done something similar.
In the real world, Rei had once dug a hole in a cave – well, it was not a cave made up of hard and sturdy stones, rather, it was made up of clayey mud that was still wet, and thus, it was somewhat easy to remove the next layers.
Needless to say, Rei tried doing the same, only to have his nails broken.
-"See! You can't do mining with your fingernails! You need tools!"-
"It's not like I have some tools to use…", Rei shot back due to which the argument continued.
-'Well, he can't go ahead and use the daggers that he had collected from before for mining…'-
-"Sigh, alright. My bad. I forgot to tell you. Just buy a tool from a shop."- Lucas said in an apologetic tone.
"What shop? What are you even trying to say?", Rei once again shot back.
-"Just go to your status screen!"-
"Status!"
The familiar blue screen once again appeared in front of him. He then started to go through the things and in the end, he found what Lucas was talking about.
"Is this the so-called shop!?"
-"Yes! Click it!"-
Rei stretched his arm and clicked the icon - [Shop].
< = = = >
[Shop] [ Balance: 50 gold coins]
[Items available at the moment based on user's level:]
[Mining tool – 20 gold coins]
Pathetic tool - Grade: Pathetic
- Damage increase : 0%
- Hp: 10
[Farmer tool - 25 gold coins]
Normal tool - Grade: Normal
- Damage increase : 0%
- HP: 20
[Great Miner's tool - 35 gold coins]
Strong tool - Grade - Rare
- Damage increase - 5%
- Hp: 30
< = = = >
At first, it seemed as if it would be impossible to buy them as Rei was penniless, however, when he checked his balance tab in the status screen with Lucas' advice, he found out that he did have some gold coins.
This was because any newcomer or new player would be given fifty good coins.
"Gold coins…", Rei's eyes sparkled as he looked at his balance, however, Lucas assumed it to be a question and started explaining about it.
-"Well, it is the currency of the game and-"- And so the explanation continued.
Rei interrupted in the middle as he required no such explanation.
They then resumed buying a tool for grinding stones (mining).
Apparently, the exact definition of the type of tool wasn't given as they were just categories.
If Rei were to click them, only after that would he be able to view all the tools such as – sickle, axe etc.
It cost only 35 gold coins to get a good mining tool of rare grade, however, even it had fewer hit points – 30 hp.
Rei was somewhat sceptical about it, but when compared to his hp, the sickle had greater hit points. Since he was able to hit the orc and remain undamaged, he assumed the tool's mere 30 hit points to be quite high, for now at least.
"Uh, let me buy this mining tool…", Rei said as he stretched his had forward.
-"Huh? Wait what?"- Lucas was confused.
Rei had enough gold coins to buy a good rare mining tool, instead, he was selecting the worst one.
-"What are you doing?"-
"Uh? Buying a tool?", Rei stared at the orb for this silly question.
-"No, I meant, why are you buying the lowest quality one? Get the best one available. The great miner tool, get that one!"- Lucas shot back.
"No. I want to save money.", Rei said and proceeded to stretch his hand forward.
-"Bro if you sell the mana stone you found, you can get much more money!"-
-"So why are you hesitating?"-
But Rei didn't bother to listen.
Although he did give the reason that he was trying to save money, in reality, he just wanted to see if an actual tool would appear.
It was a sort of test.
If he had chosen the 35 gold coins option, and if it turned out to be a scam, then he would have no way to fulfil the quest, after all, he would be left with a mere 15 gold coins. And the first and weakest option was for 20 gold coins, thus, he decided to take it as a test.
As Rei clicked on the mining tool option, another screen appeared with many icons of different tools.
Of course, they did look different but were mostly pickaxes.
Picaxe were perfect to break rocks – mining.
Without any hesitation, Rei clicked on a pickaxe option.
*Ding*
< = = = >
[Do you want to purchase the pickaxe for 20 gold coins?]
[Yes/ No]
< = = = >
Rei clicked the yes button and right after that many pixels accumulated around his palm and took the shape of a pickaxe.
*Ding*
< = = = >
[20 gold coins have been debited from your account.]
< = = = >
"Well, this doesn't look that bad. It even feels quite comfortable.", Rei said, trying to justify himself because the tool that he bought right now, seemed quite trashy.
But yes, when compared to the tools back in his world, this seemed quite better.
-"From which side does it look good to you?"-
"From the left."
-"This me!"-
The pickaxe looked shabby and looked as if it would break with just a single strike, but Lucas still had some hopes with it having 10 hp.
Regardless, just as Rei was going to start mining, another notification popped.
*Ding*
< = = = >
[You have completed a mission – Spend Gold Coins For The First Time.]
[Reward: 50% refund.]
< = = = >
*Ding*
< = = = >
[10 gold coins have been credited to your account.]
< = = = >
And with that, his balance became 40 gold coins.