The smell of barbequed meat wafted over Gon's nose, but he forced himself to wait just a bit more. He saw a pair of slim and slender jade hands dig into the cooked meat, only to bring it to the mouth of a bearded old man.
"Hoho, the sect at least knows the mine isn't in good shape. They've left it to us to fix it. We're just one of the many mines surrounding the sect."
"And did you really need to eat in front of me? At least let me finish cutting down this tree first." Gon ignored the hunger pangs, slamming his axe into the tree once more.
"Yet for a young man you're showing a lot of restraint. Anyone else would've stopped for the day and went to eat. Everyone else has already gone, you know." Old Qiang made sure to slow his eating, taking a piece of salamander meat and squeezing the juices out of it.
This old man… Does he really wanna annoy me by doing that with his food?
"By the way. Any barbers here? Or do I have to go to town?"
"Guam's a good barber. He cuts most of our hair here. You want to celebrate your new life by changing your hairstyle as well?"
With one final cut, the tree began to fall to the side. He led Old Qiang far off, watching it slam to the ground. Gon ran some fingers through his long, black hair that was greasy. "Yeah, thinking of cutting it down. Gets annoying to look after." Gon patted Old Qiang's back, ushering him to leave. "Enough distracting me, I need to roll the log towards the pile. Heard one of the guys comes from a family of carpenters, so he should be able to help with making the supports for the mine. I'll come for dinner in a bit."
In fact, if I can spare some time, I should also learn some carpentry. My best mate from the past was one, so I know some bits and pieces. It'll definitely be a useful skill long term.
Finishing off his plate of food, Old Qiang let out a long burp. "I think I'll have another plate."
Gon watched him leave, thinking back to all the other foremans he's worked with in his life.
Out of all the bosses I've dealt with, he's definitely one of the chillest. Is it because all the miners here practically live together at the nearby village? Speaking of, I live in a shitty dorm with the other young miners.
Gon dropped the axe, stretching his entire body. "Man, I really wanna eat, but I have to test this out."
I shovelled a deep hole earlier on during lunch when everyone else was gone. Since the mine is nearby, I didn't have to dig long to find some mineral deposits. So, I'll need to test that feature.
Finding the hole with a pair of shovels and pickaxe nearby, Gon jumped in.
Rather than the shiny black deposit he had found before in the mine, this time it was a dull brown, and rather soft to mine. "Sub-bituminous coal, huh. So let's extract this one."
Gon carefully struck the surrounding rocks to loosen the coal, until it came off.
This time, Gon thought with intent.
He envisioned the Inner World, a bleached land with The Depths and the Mining Altar.
The mysterious depths, that went deep into even the mysteries of his own mind. Exactly how many secrets were hidden in the ground?
Gon envisioned the esoteric Mining Altar, which he felt had even more secrets than the amount of minerals in the depths itself.
The coal in front of him disappeared into white motes, entering his body.
And had been stored within his Inner World.
"Just what is the limit? Could I theoretically store thousands of tons of minerals? I'm going to assume that the entire bleached land is the amount of space I have." Gon grabbed a handful of dirt and tried doing the same, but it wouldn't enter his Inner World.
If Gon could store an absurd amount of ores, then his worries of storage had completely diminished.
Mining was an industry that required the work of not only hundreds to thousands of people, but also required an absurd amount of land and space.
Gon would have been rooted to one spot if he were to be a traditional miner in this world. Luckily, thanks to his unique method of cultivating, he was basically a one-man army as a miner!
"I thought I heard that goofy System say something about storing objects in the Inner World. Since mining is what gives me strength, then my main resources would of course be all sorts of mineral deposits. The issue is finding time and being out of everyone's sight and mind, working on this."
Gon brought out the status bar.
Status:
Name: Gon (Kuang Gong)
Age: 21 years old (36 years old)
Title: Ghost Axe Gon
Blue Collar Physique: Copper Physique (15%)
Cultivation Level: Ore Refining Layer (Surface)
"My physique sure is climbing at a decent rate. But, it definitely stalled until I went out to eat a massive lunch. I'm guessing my ridiculous metabolism and speed of building muscles is what's causing it. I still have to figure out the mechanisms of that altar as well… I need to mine some sort of gem, aye?"
"Let's finish off this task before worrying about the next." Gon leaped out of the hole and dusted off his clothes. He made his way back to the log pile.
"Boss, I've arrived." A figure waved towards Gon. He was the carpenter Old Qiang had mentioned named Mujiang. Mujiang mirrored Gon in height and build. He was a lean man with muscular forearms and his hair tied into a loose bun.
"So you're Mujiang? I've been meaning to speak with you." Gon extended his hand and gave a firm handshake. "What do you think of this pile of wood? Will it be enough?"
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Mujiang circled the wood, his eyes analyzing it up and down. Satisfied he gave Gon a thumbs up. "It'll do. Let's move it quickly back to the mine entrance." His eyes sparkled and hands trembled, ready to dig into this wood pile like a married man ready to consummate his first night.
I think he loves wood… A lot. Gon thought to himself.
"Quam, go get your brother and help me take this wood back," he instructed.
"Yes, Boss!"
By the time the group reached the mine, the sun had long since disappeared behind the mountains, replaced by the lunar moon amongst the stars.
"It's late. Everyone finish off your dinner and get a good night's sleep. I need you fully rested for tomorrow." Gon said to his team.
I'm not going to allow a repeat of my previous life to occur. Only with suitable rest can we function and work properly.
"Aye, aye, Boss." The miner's slept peacefully.
Gon lay amongst his mates, atop the cool grass and below the starry sky.
Now that I have some time, let's check out the Inner World.
He closed his eyes and entered a deep trance.
Gon's spiritual body materialised within his Inner World. He looked around and noticed a few things; the singular cloud floated freely, the Mining Altar remained the same and there was now a pile of the coal he had mined placed near the altar.
He walked towards the coal and examined a piece. Gon focused his thoughts and tried extracting Qi from within, yet nothing happened. He walked up towards the altar and tried inserting the coal into the open slot…but nothing happened.
"So this ain't considered a gem." He mumbled to himself.
Gon then focused his attention on the small pile of spiritual jades he had kept. Using his thoughts, he tried to extract the stored qi but he felt a pressure within. The cloud atop was already at full capacity and could no longer store any more qi.
"Wait… what about this spiritual jade." Gon raised a piece of jade and placed it into the slot.
System achievement!
Discovered and slotted your first gem!
Gems slotted within the Altar will not be destroyed during refinement.
Gem Slot 1: Spiritual Jade (Flawed)
Effects: Increases the absorption rate of qi by 5%.
Gon broke into a smile and raised a fist into the air. "So it was that simple. It's a flawed gem… so it follows the grading system back on earth as well. I should be able to find higher grades later."
"I'll worry about that later. For now, I can't store any more qi to test, so let's check out The Depths."
Gon made his way back down the stairway and faced the wall of ore. It remained exactly how he had left it, mined up until where he stopped previously.
A pickaxe appeared within his hands and he raised it up high. Gon tensed his muscles and brought it down in one smooth motion. The satisfying sound of ore breaking entered his ears as a piece fell from the wall and dispersed into white motes.
"Yes! So I can go further now."
What followed next filled Gon with joy…a whitish-purple cloud formed next to the first one.
Elated, Gon continued to mine. His mind and soul focused on one single act, to see the end of this wall of ore. Each strike caused ore to fall and the cloud to increase in size.
After mining a few more metres, Gon once again felt the backlash. The pickaxe within his arms began to crack and shattered, disappearing into the void.
"That's it huh." Gon fell down and lay before the wall. "Status."
The status bar appeared within his view.
Status:
Name: Gon (Kuang Gong)
Age: 21 years old (36 years old)
Title: Ghost Axe Gon
Blue Collar Physique: Copper Physique (15%)
Cultivation Level: Ore Refining Layer (Surface)
Mining Altar:
- Gem Slot 1: Spiritual Jade (Flawed)
Looking at the screen, Gon couldn't help but raise an eyebrow. Even though he had formed two clouds within his world, his cultivation level remained the same. Gon could tell he had doubled his capacity to store qi yet his level showed no signs of change.
"How many damned clouds do I need to make before this increases?!" Gon waved away the screen in annoyance.
"Let's fill up the second cloud first." Gon focused his thoughts upon the pile of spiritual jade and extracted the qi within. This time however, the cloud filled up slightly faster than last time."
"Interesting, this could be useful if I ever run out of qi… I'd be able to replenish my qi faster. But, I also can't just absorb qi from the atmosphere and refine it like the rest. I can only get it from mining minerals that have qi in them."
"Paired with the growth of my Blue Collar Physique, I'm growing stronger steadily."
"Let's go to sleep for now and get some rest." Satisfied with his progress, Gon closed his eyes and disappeared from his Inner World and entered true deep sleep.
The night passed uneventfully and the sun rose just like any other day. Gon was the first to get up, or so he thought. Old Qiang had woken up before him and already gotten breakfast ready.
"You sure work fast, old man."
"Haha, it's nothing much. I consider it a good opportunity to pave the way for the youth such as yourself." He said while eating his third plate.
"...You just want to eat, huh."
The rest of the miners got up one by one and relished the breakfast Old Qiang had made.
"You sure know how to use your hands," praised Lil Hu.
"Alright everyone, gather around." Gon clapped his hands, capturing everyone's attention.
"Today, we're going to split up into groups. Mujiang, Guam, Quma and Bom, you're going to be responsible for carving out the wooden pillars and fixing them into place."
"Old Qiang, Lil Hu and Persimmon, I'm going to need you to clear out some more tunnels and focus on fulfilling our spiritual jade quota for the day. Whichever group finishes first can help the other out. Understood?"
"Yes, Boss!" The miners exclaimed in unison.
"I'll be going solo into one of the undiscovered routes to do some mapping. Get as much done as you can until I return." Gon waved his team off and made his way back into the mine.
I missed the smell of sulfur and rocks. Now… let's find a gem!