"No need to deny it. One look at that bulging pouch and I can tell your mining's getting more and more skilled — your control of force is far better than those others'. The open-pit vein can't satisfy you anymore. You look like a vagrant hoping to scrape together enough to trade for a proper identity from the vein, am I right?"
Zhao Hou smiled.
Yang Ling kept his composure. "Uncle Zhao, I do want to buy a proper identity, but the caves are too dangerous. I won't go."
"If you went in just like that, then yes, it would be dangerous."
Zhao Hou smiled. "But if you bought a cave map from me, it wouldn't be so dangerous. Besides the map, I also sell some antidotes — if you run into a mine worm, they can save your life."
"A cave map?"
Yang Ling was a little taken aback.
These scattered caves actually had maps?
"What do you say? One cave map, two hundred coppers. The Fire Crystal Ore at your waist is worth about that."
Zhao Hou said. "If you meet a big block of Fire Crystal Ore in the caves, at your mining speed you'd earn it all back in a day, with a small profit on top!"
"How do I know the map's real or fake? If it's just something you scribbled, wouldn't that be the death of me?"
Yang Ling mused.
Seeing that Yang Ling was genuinely interested, Zhao Hou glanced around:
"If you're keen, we'll meet in the village tomorrow at noon. Ask Old Wang and you'll know where I live. As for whether the map's real — rest assured, this trade only happens because Steward Niu nodded to it. If you don't believe me, just ask Steward Niu later."
With that, he turned and left.
Yang Ling stood in thought for a moment, glanced at the sky, and headed for the exit too.
"Oh? Two catties of Fire Crystal Ore?"
Steward Niu opened the pouch, looked at the Fire Crystal Ore packed inside, and gave Yang Ling a slightly surprised glance.
Yang Ling smiled sheepishly: "Got lucky today — everything I found was in big blocks."
"Your mining speed is second to none among all the miners."
Steward Niu mused. "And your strength seems to have grown a fair bit since you first came?"
Yang Ling felt a small jolt. NPCs paid attention to such things too?
He said in a low voice: "Before, I couldn't eat my fill, so my strength was much weaker. It's only recovered a lot recently."
"I see. Looks like you had a good build to begin with."
As he spoke, Steward Niu counted out two hundred coppers for Yang Ling.
Yang Ling felt a quiet relief. Having just spent on the refined steel pick, he'd been down to fifty coppers; with these two hundred, his purse was full again.
"Steward Niu, may I ask one more question?"
Yang Ling said quietly.
"Zhao Hou told me you're thinking of going into the caves, is that right?"
Steward Niu said offhandedly:
"The maps in his hands — you can trust them eighty percent. The other twenty may have some gaps."
"Thank you, Steward Niu!"
Yang Ling hurriedly cupped his hands and bowed.
Just then Zhang Wei dragged his weary body over and dropped his pouch on the table.
He glanced at Yang Ling, his expression cold.
"One tael. Heh. Looks like you've found a way to survive here."
Steward Niu gave a faint smile and handed Zhang Wei ten coppers.
Zhang Wei took the money without a word of thanks and limped off.
That was the sign of muscle ache pushed to its extreme.
Yang Ling's expression shifted; he took a glance at Zhang Wei's attributes.
Name: Zhang Wei
Class: Miner
Level: 2
Strength: 3
Agility: 2
Spirit: 1
HP: 30
"He leveled up? So he can't see the attribute panel, but he seems able to level up too. Then this point of Strength — did he add it himself, or did the 「Divine Realm」 system add it for him?"
"But every time I gather experience, it eases my fatigue and muscle ache. He still can't do that, so clearly he can't sense the experience either."
"He very likely doesn't even know his own Strength is already 3."
At that thought, Yang Ling decided to observe a while longer.
To make sure Zhang Wei wasn't deliberately hiding it.
This point mattered greatly to him.
He suspected there had to be a whole batch of players in 「Divine Realm」 right now.
They were just scattered across different locations.
If he alone could actively sense experience and actively allocate points, that was his advantage!
"You were the one who looked after the kid the day he arrived, and now you've ended up enemies?"
Steward Niu said with a mirthless smile.
"Steward Niu, he and I were never close to begin with."
Yang Ling grinned.
Steward Niu gave a light nod. "Go on. In a place like this, one person is stronger than two."
On the way back, Yang Ling turned Steward Niu's words over in his mind.
"Two people working together... one of them very likely turns greedy at the sight of profit. Seems this sort of thing isn't rare on the vein. Steward Niu really is quite the kind soul."
Back in his hut, Yang Ling lay straight down to sleep.
The next day, he went to find Uncle Wang and asked for Zhao Hou's address.
When Zhao Hou saw Yang Ling, he smiled and invited him to sit.
Then he drew out a map and slowly spread it across the table.
「Fire Crystal Ore Cave Map 1, 2, 3, 4, 5」
The map's attributes surfaced before his eyes at once.
Yang Ling felt a stir. So the map really was valid — otherwise the 「Divine Realm」 system wouldn't have recognized it.
"This map of mine covers five caves, all of them worth something."
Zhao Hou smiled. "Take a good look — you won't remember it all anyway. Where mine worms have appeared, where big blocks of Fire Crystal Ore have turned up, it's all marked. Even where cave-ins have happened, I've noted it down. Though I haven't been into the caves these past two months, so if anything's changed inside, that's no longer on me."
At that, he slowly rolled up the map and smiled:
"Two hundred coppers."
Yang Ling thought it over, then counted out two hundred coppers and handed them across.
Only then did Zhao Hou hand the map to Yang Ling with a smile.
「Cave Map loading...」
A system prompt suddenly appeared.
Yang Ling kept his composure.
Several seconds later, a new Map tab appeared on his attribute panel.
He opened it — it was exactly the map before him.
"Uncle Zhao, if I don't need this map later, can I resell it?"
Yang Ling suddenly asked.
"Sell it to someone else? Of course not. This map I bought back with my life — it's the fruit of my labor."
Zhao Hou smiled. "If you resell it, that breaks the rules. If I don't come after you, Steward Niu will. Of those two hundred coppers, a hundred are Steward Niu's."
"Not even sell it back to you?"
Yang Ling smiled bitterly: "I suddenly regret it a little. Going somewhere that dangerous, I'm afraid I'll lose my life."
"Sell it back to me? I don't take returns here."
Zhao Hou eyed Yang Ling warily:
"If you want to back out, you can leave the map, and I'll refund you a hundred coppers at most."
"Can't you make it a bit more?"
"No. Those are the rules. If you weren't still inside my door, I wouldn't refund a single coin."
Zhao Hou said mildly.
"Fine, a hundred coppers it is."
Yang Ling said.
Zhao Hou's expression turned a little odd, but he didn't ask further. He put the map away at once, tossed Yang Ling a hundred coppers, and waved a hand:
"If there's nothing else, off you go. I've another customer to receive."
Stepping out of Zhao Hou's dwelling, Yang Ling couldn't hold back a secret glee.
A hundred coppers for a cave map — an unexpected windfall.
"I've still got a hundred fifty coppers. I need to prepare some antidotes, and some wound salve."
At that thought, Yang Ling headed for an apothecary in the distance.
It was the apothecary Overseer Wu ran.