Chapter 6: Exploring the Abandoned Mine
Editor: Atlas Studios
After entering the mining cave, Liu Ming gradually began to find it dim.
Liu Ming walked along the passage, where he could occasionally see the skeletons of a few unknown animals.
The Ghostly Flames that appeared on the skeletons acted as a light source in the passage. At the same time, it also made the mining cave look even more terrifying.
Fortunately, Liu Ming had always been brave. Otherwise, he might be alarmed and frightened at the slightest thing, let alone explore the mine and fight the monsters. However, Liu Ming couldn't help but curse in his head, Those damned planners. Can't you just add a few torches or oil lamps? Must you really do this?
After casually cursing at the game planners, Liu Ming made use of the Ghostly Flames's faint light and continued delving deeper into the mining cave.
The further he went, the darker it got.
...
After walking along the passage for a while, Liu Ming was greeted with two other passages that led to two different places.
Liu Ming looked at the entrances to the two passages, but he didn't discover anything special about them. Hence, he casually picked the one on his extreme left and entered. However, as soon as Liu Ming entered the passage, a loud sound suddenly came from behind him.
Hearing that, Liu Ming immediately turned around and looked over, only to see that the passage's entrance behind him had been completely obstructed. Not a single ray of light could penetrate through.
If not for the fact that there were also some specks of Ghostly Flames in the passage, it would have been pitch-dark.
Since the passage behind him had been obstructed, Liu Ming was certain that he did not choose the wrong path.
After all, even if it was a hidden mission, the novice players probably wouldn't be killed immediately and be respawned in the novice village since they were still in the novice stage.
Even if the passage that Liu Ming chose did not lead him to his target destination, it at least wouldn't lead him to death.
After confirming that, Liu Ming stopped thinking about what might be in the other passage. Instead, he walked towards the cave's deeper areas without hesitation.
Before Liu Ming could even take a few steps forward, a large translucent shadow suddenly descended from the sky and slammed into him.
-28
At the instant that Liu Ming got attacked, he slashed the unknown monster ruthlessly.
Heavy Slash!
-229
Under Liu Ming's retaliation, the monster immediately vanished.
Liu Ming did not expect the monster—which had suddenly attacked him—to be that fragile. It was immediately killed by him. In the end, Liu Ming found the name of the monster in the system's information board.
[System Hint: Attack the Phantom Spider and gain 180 EXP]
Liu Ming could tell that the Phantom Spider had high Attacking Power from the damage that the monster had just inflicted on him.
Liu Ming's Defense was only at 75 points, and he lost 28 HP after being attacked.
For other Level 6 players, having 40 Defense points would be enough to last them a few days. In other words, other Level 6 players would at least lose 60 HP or so after being attacked by the monster.
Losing 60 HP in one go was overwhelming, even for Liu Ming—who currently had plenty of HP—let alone other players.
Besides, those monsters were extremely mysterious and stealthy. Perhaps, even the various guilds' elite players would be subdued by them.
Most importantly, that was the first monster Liu Ming had encountered after entering the mining cave. God knows what kind of danger lurked in the mining cave's depths and was awaiting David.
...
After discovering that the mining cave did not have a regular map, Liu Ming immediately slowed down in his tracks and continued advancing while keeping his guard up.
After Liu Ming increased his vigilance, the monsters that hid in the dark could indeed no longer launch sneak attacks on Liu Ming. Basically, Liu Ming would kill those monsters as soon as they approached him.
Liu Ming quickly passed through the second stage of the passage and arrived at the second intersection. However, before Liu Ming could decide which passage to enter, the one behind him collapsed all of a sudden.
The collapse soon started spreading and got closer and closer to Liu Ming. Upon seeing that situation, Liu Ming immediately ran towards the leftmost passage.
As soon as Liu Ming scurried into the passage, the fallen rocks and debris obstructed and sealed the entrance.
That obstruction happened twice, and the second time was much worse than the first. Liu Ming immediately cursed. Damned planner! If you have what it takes, do something more ruthless.
...
During the rest of the journey, Liu Ming discovered that he had belittled how psychotic and maniacal God Domain's planners really were.
The passage collapsed, sealing off the return paths. Monsters were also hiding in the dark to launch sneak attacks. However, those were just appetizers. Along the way, every surface that Liu Ming stepped on would collapse. When he was fighting monsters, large rocks would often appear out of nowhere as well.
However, the worst thing was that he realized that all of the passages were almost connected after reaching the mine's depths.
The entire mining cave formed a cobweb-like structure. If Liu Ming were to choose the wrong entrance, it was very likely that he would end up going back to the original place.
Fortunately, Liu Ming soon found a deeper passage without making many mistakes.
Liu Ming passed through the nearly straight passage and soon reached the 'deepest' part of the mining cave.
Liu Ming was greeted with the sight of a thick stone wall that was impossible to pass through.
In addition, there were many decayed tools for mining that were left behind a long time ago, as well as a few remains that obviously belonged to humans.
Clearly, that was the deepest area that the miners of the village had reached. However, he reckoned that there must be other caves and passages in the deeper parts of the mining cave.
For the time being, Liu Ming could not verify if the entrance to the hidden cave was present.
However, before Liu Ming could find the entrance to the hidden cave, a large part of the passage not far ahead of Liu Ming collapsed.
This time, the collapse was not as severe as the ones before and it happened to allow Liu Ming to see the space that was deeper in the passage.
Liu Ming looked into the deep pit, only to discover that it was a massive space.
Even if he was only roughly looking at the bottom of the pit,Liu Ming was certain that the cave at the other side was much larger than the largest space in the mining cave.
Liu Ming was completely sure that the other cave below the deep pit was the passage to the destination.
Hence, Liu Ming jumped into the pit without hesitation and landed on its surface.
After regaining his balance, Liu Ming finally looked at the surroundings of the cave.
The entire cave looked incomparably spacious. Apart from a few pieces of bones and some faint Ghostly Flames, there was nothing else at a glance.
However, after Liu Ming observed carefully, he discovered that there were plenty of still figures in the entire cave.
-- Gift
received