The players were all busy with Moros right then, finding a spot to anchor the subterranean spider — chaining it up with several iron chains so the poor thing could serve as their training partner. It had barely gotten secured when the guys over at the mining face let out a howl. Every single person's attention snapped over there, and the whole crowd went stampeding over in a clatter, everyone itching to see the action.
There stood a player with 【OldMacDonald】 over his head, pickaxe in hand, staring excitedly at the rock face — several hammered-open holes in the wall glowed with a pale yellow shimmer.
It looked just like glittering gold — or some metal of that general description.
"What is that? A gold mine?"
"No clue, man. One swing of my pick and I hit this stuff." The player known as OldMacDonald didn't have answers for the other players' questions either. But he held up his pickaxe — snapped nearly in half at the middle, clearly busted from hammering on that pale-yellow metal — and after showing it off, said: "This stuff's GOTTA be worth something! Two swings, and my pickaxe broke! Did I just mine something insane?"
"Could be! Density like that? Might really be something valuable!"
"Somebody go grab the Dungeon Lord to appraise it! Is this a new item in the game or what?"
While the players stood around chattering over each other, Sharlock was already walking over. The players parted to make way, every face full of anticipation as they watched him. OldMacDonald stood there excitedly hoisting his pickaxe like he was waiting for a commendation. And when Sharlock saw that busted, unusable pickaxe head, his heart twinged — those cost ten magic stones apiece!
It stung, sure — but Simba could already make pickaxe heads, so a replacement was no big deal. Sharlock decided to first see what exactly the player had dug up.
Sharlock first waved off the crowd of players — back to training for some, back to work for the rest — then called Simba over. Mineral appraisals called for a professional. Simba set down his work, first had the other players clear away all the diamonds around that stretch of wall, then went at the odd-looking metal ore with taps here, hammers there — he even got down and gave it a lick.
After a good long while of appraising, Simba pronounced with total confidence:
"This is gold essence ore! The purity's not great — it'll need refining once it's dug out. It's superb material for making weapons, though honestly, using this ore for weapons would be a bit of a waste. Its magic conductivity is excellent — it's typically used for alchemy tables, magic items, or portal foundations. All very fitting."
"Can it sell?" The second Simba finished explaining, Sharlock cut straight to the heart of the matter.
"It'll sell, though the exact price depends on purity and market demand. An ore chunk the size of a goblin could go anywhere from a few hundred magic stones up to a thousand-plus. Beyond that, I honestly couldn't say." Simba was a master smith, but buying, selling, and markets were not exactly his strong suit.
Sharlock nodded — but now a new problem reared its head: could the ore even be mined? Going by OldMacDonald's pickaxe from earlier, two swings and it was toast. This gold essence ore was clearly way harder than diamond. Sharlock laid out his concern, and Simba scratched his head and said:
"A diamond pickaxe definitely can't harvest this gold essence ore. To mine it, you'd need a pickaxe made from higher-grade materials — but that takes magic stones. Let me write to the shop and ask about pricing."
"Fine. Once you've got the price, don't ask me anything — just get me ten pickaxes that can harvest gold essence ore, ASAP. As for the magic stones, I'll pay with the gold essence ore we mine out." What Sharlock lacked right now was, well, money. He'd been hoping a magic stone vein would turn up to ease the squeeze on his wallet — instead, no magic stone vein, but gold essence ore. Not bad, all told. He just felt sure the gold essence ore wouldn't earn like straight-up mining magic stones would — but better than nothing, right? Read this novel at novelping . com for the best experience.
As for hoarding the materials to build alchemy tables, magic items, portal foundations, and so on down the line — yeah, no. Sharlock had no such needs for the moment. His dungeon couldn't even keep everyone fed and sheltered yet. Better to keep more magic stones on hand and buy whatever he lacked later — way more practical than hugging resources to death. Sharlock was not a man incapable of adapting.
It was a new era. Even in the Underworld, nobody just hugs their dungeon and grinds away in solitary silence anymore — you network, you trade, you do business. It's a market economy now, people! The merchant outfits had already banded together to build neutral dungeons. As a Demon Lord of the new era, there was no way Sharlock was going to fall behind and copy the old-timers' playbook.
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Hearing Sharlock's instructions, Simba went off to write his letter. The dungeon's mail all moved by magic: Simba finished the letter, took out a handful of mail-delivery magic powder, lit it, tossed the whole letter in, and the flames swallowed the paper before vanishing altogether.
The letter was on its way to the "None Pricier" smithy in Frostlake City. As for when there'd be an answer — all they could do was wait.
The players were still plenty curious about the newly discovered vein, but without proper tools there was no harvesting it. A few tried to have a go with their own pickaxes anyway, but the dungeon core "Bru" spotted them in no time and shut it down promptly.
As for OldMacDonald, the player who'd found the gold essence vein, Sharlock magnanimously awarded him a set of armor and a shortsword, plus one silver coin and a thousand reputation points on top.
It LOOKED lavish, but to Sharlock it was basically worthless. I mean, what's a set of armor and a shortsword, really? Copper coins were even more of a joke, and as for reputation — verbal honors like that were straight-up comedy in the Underworld! In an ordinary dungeon, anyone who found a vein like this would've been rewarded handsomely — usually in magic stones.
Once again Sharlock savored the perks of otherworld players. See? SO cheap!
Sharlock hadn't actually spent a thing, but in the players' eyes, a reward like that was earth-shattering — hands down the biggest payout anywhere so far. Before this, the ten guys who went with Moros to capture the subterranean spider only got five hundred rep, a hundred coppers, one armor set, and one shortsword. Now OldMacDonald goes mining, finds a new vein, and rakes in DOUBLE their reward? What is that? That's basically pulling a treasure chest out of the wall!
The looks the players gave the walls instantly went white-hot. In their eyes these walls were no longer mindless quest-objective mining — they were TREASURE CHESTS, each and every one! Who's to say you weren't the next OldMacDonald? One swing of the pick, a whole new vein, and a payout that fat!
That said, they couldn't just mine wherever they pleased — mining quests were handed out at random, and whether to take one was up to each individual.
With the gold essence vein unearthed, the dungeon plans he'd drawn up earlier needed a slight step up. Sharlock returned to the dungeon core hall and finished the revisions in no time. Outside, Simba came over with a letter in hand — the "None Pricier" smithy had already written back.
"Dear Lord Sharlock, We have received the letter you sent through Simba, and we extend our heartfelt congratulations and joy at your discovery of a gold essence vein. As for your request that we supply ten pickaxes capable of mining gold essence ore — naturally, we would never refuse. After all, you are our most loyal customer! Due to the special materials of these pickaxes, they cannot pass through a portal, so we have decided to have a caravan passing near your dungeon deliver them to you. Each pickaxe is priced at fifty magic stones, five hundred magic stones in total — simply hand payment to the caravan leader. The caravan is also interested in exploring cooperation with you regarding the gold essence vein; when the time comes, Lord Sharlock, we trust you will discuss the details with the caravan leader directly. May your life be pleasant and your endeavors prosperous — Sincerely, the entire staff of the None Pricier smithy!"
After reading the letter from the "None Pricier" smithy, Sharlock had a rough picture. Not being able to mine the gold essence ore right away was a bit of a shame, but waiting ten-odd days wasn't out of the question. Most importantly, judging by the letter, that caravan actually seemed interested in cooperating on his gold essence vein. Saved Sharlock the trouble of hauling the ore to Frostlake City to sell it himself — he could just sit back and negotiate with the caravan.
While Sharlock looked forward to the caravan's arrival, the players weren't exactly idle. Beyond daily quests and grinding away at dungeon construction, they funneled every coin they earned into combat-skill training, submitting themselves to Moros's brutal drills. As for armor and weapons, most players had a full set apiece after all these days of grinding. And with the bulk of the tools done, Simba had moved on to forging shields — priced the same as armor and weapons, six hundred coppers. Sharlock quickly had the dungeon core "Bru" whip up a simple description for the shield. Read this novel at novelping . com for the best experience.
【Diamond Shield (Common White gear)】
【Defense: 8】
【Weight: 10】
【Durability: 10】
【Forged by: Simba the blacksmith】
【Required rep level: Dungeon: The Eternal Kingdom reputation level 1 (lowest tier)】
【The most common standard-issue shield in Dungeon: The Eternal Kingdom, refined and forged from diamond】
The moment players saw new gear on offer, the ones with money bought it on the spot, and the broke ones dutifully went back to grinding quests. With Moros in the dungeon as skill trainer, the players' technique started advancing in leaps and bounds — they could even go toe-to-toe with the captured subterranean spider now. The only downside was that Sharlock got busier: players were constantly getting hurt in training or flat-out killed by the subterranean spider, so he had to keep running out to heal them or repair corpses for revival. The man could barely browse and manage his own forums anymore!
Speaking of forums: within half a month of Sharlock opening the official forums and launching CBT1, registered users had blown past a hundred thousand — and the count was climbing in a nearly straight line every single day.
Only a hundred players were in the beta, but that did nothing to dampen the enthusiasm of the other world's players discussing the game. Tens of thousands of them camped the forums daily waiting for beta testers to spill the tea, and the instant a beta tester showed up, they'd swarm in like mad and start calling them "big shot this" and "pro that" with maximum familiarity.
The three hottest topics on the forums right now: one, how to trigger the follow-up storyline of the mysterious NPC little pixie; two, where the newly discovered gold essence vein would go from here; and three — the thing everybody was most curious and most invested in — pushing the Spider Nest!
The Spider Nest map had been open for ten-odd days now. In that one week's span, the players had gone from a five-man push that got annihilated, to a thirty-man push that limped home in shambles, to the arrival of the newbie skill trainer Moros. After several days of everyone's training, and with the full three-piece kit of armor, weapon, and shield assembled, nearly twenty confident players lined up to make attempt number three at the Spider Nest!
══════════════════════ DUNGEON LORD'S NOTE ═══════════════════════
OldMacDonald snapped his pickaxe in two swings, uncovered a gold essence vein, and pocketed a silver — now every dungeon wall looks like a loot chest. Which random wall are you swinging your pickaxe at next? If the miners made your day, a 5-star rating and a review make mine — drop 'em if you got 'em!