106 Chapter 106. Gathering while Hunting

When Jack reached his quest quotas for the Gnomes and Gremlins, the area nearby was mainly devoid of monsters. The drops from these kills were plentiful: many copper coins, some silver coins, several pickaxes, and some trophy loots. The trophy from the Gnomes was their red pointy hat, while from Gremlins, he got their teeth. After picking up all the loot from the monsters, he was about to leave the rocky area when Peniel called him over.

Peniel had been in the open since Jack left the vicinity of the capital; without other Players around, she didn't bother to hide in her pocket dimension. Even when Jack was combatting with the Gremlins and Gnomes, Peniel flew around without a care. The monsters didn't bother her, and she did not provide any assistance to Jack. She acted like a bystander just passing through.

Jack went over to her.

"See the dark rock formation here?" Peniel pointed at a rock protrusion quite different than the rocky ground around it. It was black with a hard and shiny surface.

"What about it?" Jack asked.

"You got a few pickaxes from killing the gnomes, right? Bring one of them out."

He did as Peniel requested.

"Now mine that rock," she instructed.

"Mine? This thing can be mined?"

"Yes, I was surprised that God-Eye thingy you wear hasn't notified you of the mining spots around here."

Now that she mentioned it, he paid attention to his monocle screen. The dark rock formation Peniel had pointed out had a green marking around it, indicating a usable thing. 

Green color marks indicated common items. In the Tutorial period, they were still special. After coming to this world, almost everything was marked with green. Even in the city,  his monocle had been sending markings on so many things he passed by that he had started to ignore them. Unless it was blue which indicated uncommon items, or other colors, he seldom make the time to check them out.

He began to mine the rock. He swung the pickaxe at the dark rock producing a clanging sound.

"Again!" Peniel instructed.

Jack swung the pickaxe. After the third strike, a portion of the rock chipped off. Jack picked it up. It was iron ore.

"Wow, so I can get iron ore for upgrading armor from mining here?" Jack exclaimed.

"Iron ore is the most basic ore. It is the most likely ore to get from mining. Keep on mining; you should see similar dark rocks around this area. This place is mining heaven; you should make use of it since you are here."

Not to let the chance go to waste, Jack got back to hitting the dark rock with his pickaxe. He got another two iron ores, but on his next hit, the pickaxe broke.

Jack was startled, but Peniel said this was normal. Pickaxes were not permanent mining equipment. Luckily, the Gnomes had dropped quite a few. He checked his inventory and saw that he still had eleven pickaxes. He took out one of them and continued mining.

After getting the fourth iron ore, the dark rock formation crumbled and turned pale grey. Jack was startled again by the change. Peniel explained that this indicated an exhausted mining spot; it would be a full day before the spot recovered for mining again.

Understanding the mining mechanics now, Jack proceeded to the other spots. He continued to mine all around the rocky area. After using up all the pickaxes, he had accumulated another 33 iron ores, five steel ores, and one copper ore. The former two were common materials, while the latter was an uncommon material.

There were still some mining spots left, but he had run out of pickaxes. If he wanted to get more, he would need to kill more Gnomes and hope for pickaxes to drop. But Jack decided against it. It would take too long to go around searching for Gnomes or waiting for them to respawn.

He had spent quite some time mining; the sun was already starting to lower on the horizon. He decided to continue his journey southward, hoping to complete more of his hunting quests before the appointment at the ruins the following day.

He met more Silver Wolves and Goblins on his way. He managed to fulfill his quota for those two monsters; four down, another six hunting quests to go. He also picked up many Wolf's Fur and Goblin's Knife, their trophy items.

"See that rows of trees over there?" Peniel said while floating at his side.

"Yes," Jack nodded.

"You should pass through there; that is the habitat of the Grey Sabrecat."

Another hunting target! Jack immediately went into the woods. Sadly, he saw no red dot on his radar, but he noticed that his monocle marked some of the surrounding trees and grasses in green. He pointed them out to Peniel.

"Are those weeds and trees valuable?"

"Yes," Peniel answered. "The weeds correspond to your Forage skill, while the trees are for your Lumbering skill."

"There are lots of them," Jack commented.

"There are. Right now, you can only do the foraging. For the trees, you will need a lumbering axe, which you don't have at the moment."

"Where can I get one?"

"You can buy them from tool shops in the city. They function much like the pickaxe and will break after a couple of uses, so you will need to stock up if you plan to do Lumbering. You can also buy pickaxes in the city. But are you planning to busy yourselves with these gathering jobs?" Peniel asked.

"Why not?" Jack asked back.

"There are limitless resources which you can gather in this world. If you gather everything you see, you won't have enough time to hunt or do quests anymore. I suggest you pick one or two gathering jobs and simply focus on them. After all, you can only upgrade one of the four gathering jobs to the highest level."

"What's the highest level?"

"There are four levels. After Apprentice, will be Expert, then Master, the highest is Grandmaster. Each level is also divided into three sub-levels: Basic, Intermediate, and Advanced. Only one job can reach Grandmaster level; another one can reach Master level. The remaining two will be locked at Expert level no matter how many times you use them."

"I see," Jack said, thinking it through. "I assume this is also the case for the other Auxiliary Jobs? For example, Artisan jobs; if I upgrade my Cooking job to Grandmaster, then my Blacksmith will be stuck at Master level, is that so?"

"You are correct," Peniel confirmed. "So you see, it is better to focus on one of them because you cannot excel at everything."

"Okay then, let's just take things as they come. Since I don't have a lumbering axe, we'll forget about the trees. I'll harvest the grasses as we search for the Grey Sabrecat."

He then approached the grass with the green mark.

"How do I do this? Do I just pull them up?" Jack asked Peniel.

"Technically, yes." She answered.

Jack then bent down, grabbed the grass, and pulled at it. It didn't budge. Instead, a partially filled loading bar appeared. Jack kept tugging at the grass, full strength, but the grass refused to be pulled out. Instead, Jack noticed that the harder he pulled, the faster the loading bar was progressing. Once it filled up, the grass disappeared, and a single leaf materialized in his hand.

Green Leaf (common ingredient)

'That's quite a fake game mechanic,' he thought, disgruntled.

He considered the leaf in his hand. Had he not learned an Alchemy recipe that used a Green Leaf? Unfortunately, he did not have a mobile Alchemist Apparatus like Bowler's; otherwise, he could make potions. Nevertheless, he could gather these green leaves and ask Bowler to make potions for him. That way, he could save coins on purchased potions.

He was so focused on foraging as he made his way through the woods that he didn't notice a red dot speeding towards him. He snapped back to attention when he heard a growl.

"Watch out!" Peniel shouted.