It was lunchtime.
All of the miners were eating bread and some vegetables. Meat is quite expensive, so there's no meat or even eggs in their meal.
Lennard missed earth so badly. He couldn't help but feel down whenever he thought about his past life. He had a comfortable life back on earth, so adapting to this new lifestyle was very difficult for him.
He ate his meal and drank some water. The water tasted quite bad, but he needed to drink it regardless because he didn't want to risk dehydration.
The man from earlier approached Lennard and asked, "Hey rookie, what's your name?"
"I'm Lennard. I'm not from the Carmil Village though." Lennard knew that he was the only one who was different from the people living in Carmil Village, so there wasn't any point to lie about it.
"I know." The man sat next to him which caused Lennard to scoot away to give him some room. "Also, I admire your hard working attitude. Even when the others were resting, you were still busy mining. For you to work that hard, you must be really poor.."
"Ah no, I barely got iron ore.. It wouldn't even help that much." Lennard sold most of his iron ore to the system so receiving this much praise didn't feel right.
"Nonsense.. I believe that those who work hard to achieve something are praiseworthy." The man showed a respectful attitude towards Lennard.
Lennard couldn't help but think to himself as he took a peek at the system.
> Charisma: 3
"Is this the effects of charisma?" Lennard knew that he was just an average looking man, so he assumed that this must be the system's work.
Seeing Lennard's blank stare, the man coughed and said, "Actually, we're running out of people who are willing to work deeper down the mines because they're afraid of being trapped down there.. I was thinking that you would be interested? Don't worry, we'll pay you twenty silver coins for this job."
[F Tier Quest: Mining In the Sunrise Hill Mines]
[Luis is inviting you to mine deeper in the Sunrise Hill Mines to dig for something. It has been known for a long time now that the mines only produce iron. But why is the Curero Company so interested in an iron mine? Unless there's something else in the mines that they want to claim for themselves.]
[Completion Requirements: Mine 10 gold ores and return them to the men from the Curero Company.]
[Quest Failure If: Unable to mine ten ores before the day ends]
[Reward: 3$, +25 Favorability to Luis]-[Accept? Y/N]
Lennard's eyes almost popped out from their sockets. "Gold?! No wonder the ore that I thought was iron turned out to be gold."
Not letting go of this opportunity, Lennard immediately accepted.
"Yes, of course I'd be willing to." Lennard nodded his head.
Luis sighed in relief. "That's great to hear. The name's Luis. If you need something other than money, you can go ahead and ask me."
"Got it." Lennard showed a slight smile.
Luis left and went to talk with another man in the Curero Company's uniform. It seems like they were talking about Lennard.
Lennard didn't care and laid down and took a short nap.
As Lennard rested, he and the mining crew heard a carriage arrive at the mines.
Lennard, who had been sleeping for ten minutes, woke up to see a small carriage with the Curero symbol.
It was another batch of workers not from Carmil Village, but the neighboring village called Treist Village.
When these new workers arrived, Luis clapped his hands together and shouted. "Alright everyone, back to work." He then shifted his gaze to Lennard and the other people who agreed to go to the deeper areas.
"You guys." Luis pointed at them. "Grab your equipment and follow me." Luis gestured with his hand.
They quickly grabbed their pickaxes and followed Luis.
Luis entered the mines and walked past the miners mining the tough stone walls. But it wasn't long until he strayed away from the path where the iron ores were located.
One miner noticed this and asked, "Sir.. this path isn't leading to the usual iron veins.."
Luis smiled and said, "Oh I know."
They then came across an area barricaded by wooden planks. Luis kicked them down and continued walking forward.
The miners were nervous. They didn't know where Luis was taking them.
Lennard however, was surprisingly calm.
He trusted Luis and because of the quest that he received earlier, he treated it as a chore more than anything.
Luis suddenly stopped and said, "Alright, fourteen of you will be mining here for ores. And you…" Luis pointed to one of the workers and said, "You'll be a gatherer so make sure to load the minecart with ores so that we can retrieve them later. Got it?"
"Y- yes sir! I'll get it done." The gatherer nervously responded.
Luis nodded and left.
The workers all looked at each other for a short moment before they began working.
Lennard excitedly dug for ores. He struck the tough stone wall and continued mining. Even though it was noisy, Lennard adapted the correct posture and technique so that he wouldn't be as tired as before.
And not too long after, he found a small piece of ore.
Grabbing it, the system identified the item.
(Common Grade Gold Ore - Price 3$)
[Sell? Y/N]
Lennard sold it and the ore disintegrated into purple particles as usual. He looked around and saw that no one noticed him sell the ore, so he continued with his work.
Lennard was feeling quite happy.
He checked his balance and his smile grew wider.
Balance: 8.3$
"Yes! I'm only 6.7 dollars from buying the experience bar!" Lennard spoke in his head.
However, it felt off.
"Usually, other people who had systems already leveled up by now." Lennard laughed bitterly before smashing his pickaxe down.
"BUT THAT'S BECAUSE THEIR SYSTEMS ARE COOPERATIVE!"
Crash!
Lennard kept mining with indignant rage inside his heart.
Goodness gracious, all he wanted was to live a nice life with his fiance and get married. But no, this useless system had to make him suffer in this unknown world and not only that, it even made him cough out his own cash!
Unbelievable!
The others looked at Lennard strangely.
This ferocity whenever he struck the stone walls… What did this person go through in order to express such anger in his heart?
They soon ignored him and continued working. They didn't pay much attention to Lennard, he'll probably run out of stamina soon enough.
…
Soon, it was nighttime..
A miner sat down as he used his shirt to fan himself. This god-damned mine was getting too hot for a human to handle.
Lennard laid down on the ground, exasperated. He was mining for gold crazily and after doing so, he filled out the quest requirements.
When he checked the quest details, he found out that selling gold ores deducts a digit from the counter.
Since Lennard sold the first gold ore he found, it was -1 when he checked. It was a good thing that he learned and worked honestly this time.
[Quest Complete!]
+3$ +25 Favorability to Luis +1 Favorability to members of the Curero Company
Lennard sighed in relief.
"At least this system actually tells the truth.." Lennard wiped his forehead because he was too drenched in sweat.
As the miners rested, they heard footsteps from the entrance of the cave's section and saw Luis.
"How much have you guys mined?" Luis asked them. But Lennard could see that he was a bit nervous when he asked.
The gatherer quickly stood up, afraid of responding too slowly and said, "They all mined a total of 22 iron ores. This man right here mined the most, numbering at ten ores." The gatherer pointed at Lennard.
Luis looked at Lennard and his gaze became noticeably more friendly. "Alright, I can see that you're all tired. But I want this exported outside now. All of those who still have the energy to move, make sure to use it now."
The miners nodded and began pushing the minecart out.
Lennard, although very tired and breathing exasperatedly, stood up and tried helping.
"Oh no no, you can rest.." Luis stopped Lennard. His opinion on this man was very positive. Lennard was hardworking and he put his all on a task. This was something that Luis liked.
"Thank you sir.." Lennars showed a barely held up smile as he walked out of the mines with the others.
…
Soon enough, everyone reached the surface and since it was getting dark, the carriage showed up and the driver with his nasty mood was there to bring everyone home.
Lennard was part of the people who was brought home first. The carriage was filled with very tired men and most of them couldn't help but lean to the next person next to them to rest.
Lennard sighed. "These kinds of working conditions are definitely breaking basic human rights." He knew that the laws back on earth are useless here, so that added to his distaste to this world.
The same bumpy road made his buttocks sore and they soon reached Carmil village.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
The driver banged on the door. "Get up, all of you! I have more people to bring back here so don't make my job difficult!"
"Ngh.." A miner who had a good nap scratched his head.
As tired as they were, they still walked out of the carriage and began walking towards the stone house to receive their salary.
A group of very tired workers entered the stone house and went up to the counter.
The stone house wasn't that nicely furnished to begin with, so this entire experience felt like a prison more than a normal job.
A miner walked forward and took five silver from the counter. After this, he immediately went home. Or… whatever you'd call that broken down mound of mud.
It was soon Lennard's turn.
He received the silver coins and left shortly after.
(Silver Coins 5x- Price 5$)
[Sell? Y/N]
Lennard went to the shop and bought some bread for one silver. He kept the rest with him. He found a random tree and laid down next to it. He sold three silver coins and saw that his balance was enough to buy the experience bar.
> Balance: 16.3$
He swiped towards the system and selected the experience bar.
> Experience Bar: 16$ [Buy?]
"Oh of course buy.." Lennard scratched his face before pressing the buy button.
Bling!
> Experience Bar Unlocked!
[Lennard J. Copperowl - Level:0]
Strength:1 Speed:1 Endurance:1 Vitality:1 Intelligence:1 Magic:0 Detection:1 Reflex:0 Resistance:1 Charisma:3 Luck:1
Attribute Points: 0
Balance: 3.3$
Experience Bar: 0/10
"Yayy~" Lennard lost too much energy this day, so the moment he finished his bread, he fell asleep on the spot.