Welcome back Guys! Finals are done, Got hired for the local renaissance fair, got to dress up as a failed keebler elf, and now were back with chapter 6! Enjoy! Also now we are getting to the actual game bit so if you have any ideas on what should happen during the beginning grind fest all noobs do let me know in the comments.

  Chapter 6

  *Whoooo* *Whoooo*

  Hearing the whistle telling the end of the work day, Onyx put his pick down on the ground. Rubbing his arms he looked at the three quarter filled minecart next to him. ‘Damn just a little longer and I could have finished another cart.’ Onyx decided to sit down for a minute before bringing up the ore. It was now the final day of his probation period. Over the last few days Onyx found out just how hard mining was.

  On his first day when he brought up his first cart of ore he was reprimanded because it seems about half the stones were just plain stone. So he had to go back down and empty the cart and refill it, taking each chunk and inspecting it for minerals. Thanks to that he barely got his one cartful. The next day he tried eating a stone for the first time. It was actually kind of tasteless. However when he activated his Iron Stomach skill the texture of the stone became something similar to corn bread. Every time he took a bite it would crumble a little. But it filled his satiety rather well and stopped him from needing to go to the surface for provisions so he put up with it. With the time he saved Onyx barely got 2 carts full of ore by the end of the day.

  Now it was the end of his third day of probation and he had already brought up 2 carts of ore. Disappointed that he couldn’t get the third one like he promised himself he would, Onyx decided that since he wouldn’t get paid for the full amount of the cart, he might as well try the second part of his Iron Stomach. Reaching into the cart, Onyx pulled out a large chunk of copper ore. Taking a bite he was surprised at how it tasted like caramel. True the texture was off, but it tasted almost exactly like the caramel from the candy store that was right down the street from his apartment in the real world.

  ‘Must be the system trying to allocate a taste from my memory to ores. Hmm…. If that’s the case I wonder what tastes like taffy. Maybe tin? God how I miss taffy.’ Onyx thought while taking another bite. After eating a few more chunks of ore a window suddenly appeared

  ‘Hmmm… not all that great a gain, but it was just copper. If I got this from copper I wonder what I’ll get from something stronger, like mithril!’ Smiling at the prospect Onyx decided to bring the cart up anyway since he would be assigned his permanent station tomorrow and most likely wouldn’t be this one. He didn’t want another miner to get a bonus because they had an already almost filled minecart. I mean that would just be unfair.

  After bringing up the cart, for an extra 50 copper, and eating dinner, Onyx went out to roam the hills. Since he wasn’t a NPC he didn’t technically have to sleep. He could if he wanted and it would pretty much fast-forward the game to the morning, but Onyx decided he could just train. After all, he had a biome of hills and stone surrounding him.

  All through the night Onyx would dig holes and mine stones in the hills. Occasionally he would try to forage for plants to level up his low light vision and to try to get the foraging skill. When his satiety got low, he would eat stones nearby and drink water from his waterskin. When his muscles start to burn and he can barely hold his tools, he would take out one of the books he borrowed from Butch and read. Thanks to that, Onyx learned a lot about the different types of ores as well as where to find rare crystals and minerals. The interesting thing was that by reading these books his mining skill increased as well.

  The next morning Butch assigned Onyx to one of the iron veins since Onyx’s mining skill past the 50% mark last night. It seems certain ores can only be mined after certain percentages of the skill. This was to stop players from going out and trying to mine mithral veins when they just got the skill. In fact you couldn’t even mine mithral until the expert level.

  For the next week Onyx worked in the mineduring the day and trained his skills at night. By the end he had gained a total of 37 silver and 50 copper; enough to buy a starter weapon. So Onyx decided to go back to the city. It also helped his decision that he reached the max in strength and vitality yesterday. So he went to Butch to let him know he was returning to the city.

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  “Well that’s your decision. We never discussed a time you had to work for. A bit of oversight on my part but if you ever want to come back for some change just let me know. Honestly you’re one of the most promising miners I’ve seen. I don’t know how you stay down there so long.” Butch said after Onyx returned the pick he was borrowing.

  “Well what can I say; I’m made for the earth. Thanks for your help. This is way better than what I could have gotten in the city.” With that the two shook hands and Onyx left to return to the city. On the way he decided to check his stats.

  Smiling at just how strong he got in just a week, admittedly a week with a lot of hard work, Onyx called up his new skills

  ‘With this I should be able to easily survive the first few levels with ease!’ With that thought Onyx began his journey back to the city to finally start playing the game.