Chapter 7

Although Li Huailin had beaten the blacksmith Bard thoroughly, he did not gain any practical benefits. Looking at his experience bar, which had dropped to -500/500, Li Huailin felt a great deal of pressure. He calculated that he was probably the player with the least experience among the hundreds of millions of players in the Chinese server, the absolute bottom of the bottom.

"I have to level up, otherwise I'll never leave the newbie village in this life," Li Huailin thought.

Determined, Li Huailin headed south of the newbie village. Fortunately, the mine was not hard to find. Just as he left the newbie village, Li Huailin found some new players carrying pickaxes. Following these players for a short while, Li Huailin found the mine. After a rough estimate, it took about 5 minutes to walk from the newbie village to the mine.

As soon as he entered the mine, a bustling scene greeted him. The walls near the mine entrance were lined with players, all performing the same action—using their pickaxes to strike the walls, creating a cacophony of clanging sounds that were quite irritating.

Li Huailin thought for a moment and did not immediately rush into the depths of the mine to find higher-level monsters. Instead, he picked up the ancestral miner's pickaxe given to him by the blacksmith Bard and found a wall that no one was working on.

With a "clang," Li Huailin's pickaxe struck the wall, but the wall showed no reaction, and he did not obtain any ore.

"Of course, it's not that easy to get ore. Otherwise, if one piece came out with each strike, the ore supply would have exploded long ago," Li Huailin thought as he continued to dig.

After nearly thirty strikes, there was finally a reaction.

System notification: Obtained one piece of iron ore.

Li Huailin checked his inventory and found one piece of iron ore with a quality of 4, estimated to sell for 5 copper coins. He then immediately checked his character attributes.

Secondary profession:

Apprentice Miner (Experience -2/1000): Can mine in the mine with a very small chance of obtaining rare ore.

"Ha ha." Seeing the secondary profession with negative experience again, Li Huailin could only laugh. "At least I was prepared. Secondary professions are indeed not for me."

Without further ado, Li Huailin immediately raised his miner's pickaxe and shouted to a group of players who were working nearby: "Everyone, come and take a look! The blacksmith's ancestral miner's pickaxe, a bronze-level pickaxe that increases mining speed by 20%, it's a real killer! Now for only 10 silver coins, only one in stock, first come, first served, 10 silver coins, you won't be disappointed, 10 silver coins, you won't be cheated..."

"Damn, a pickaxe that increases mining speed by 20%, what a godly item!" The surrounding players, who had been mining for hours, were already on the verge of collapse from the repetitive work. Now, hearing someone selling a godly item that increased mining speed, they all looked at Li Huailin with red eyes.

"Come on, only 10 silver coins, the first person to trade with me can take it," Li Huailin continued to shout.

As soon as he finished speaking, a large number of trade requests came in. Li Huailin did not expect that these miners actually had some money. Although 10 silver coins were not much, they were still a considerable amount in the newbie village stage. Looking at the trade request records, Li Huailin saw that the first person to apply was named Wolf Clan·Miner Twenty.

"Are you from the Wolf Clan guild?" Li Huailin sent a private message to Miner Twenty.

"Yes, friend, I'm from the logistics department of the Wolf Clan guild," Miner Twenty replied, a bit excited. Thinking that he was just a miner in the logistics department of a large guild, if he obtained a bronze-level miner's pickaxe, he might have a chance for a promotion.

"Do you have 10 silver coins in cash?" Li Huailin asked.

"Yes, yes," Miner Twenty immediately replied.

"Great, let's trade." Li Huailin put the miner's pickaxe on the trade list. Miner Twenty also checked the equipment attributes, which indeed increased mining speed by 20% as Li Huailin had said, so he happily placed 10 silver coins.

"Done, the miner's pickaxe has been sold. Those who didn't buy it can wait for the next one," Li Huailin shouted to the large group of miners still waiting for a trade.

"What? It's already traded? I already sent a trade request, why didn't you accept it!" a player nearby shouted.

"You sent it a bit late. I said first come, first served, and I already traded with the first person who sent a request," Li Huailin explained.

"Who bought the pickaxe? I'll offer 15 silver coins!" another player immediately shouted.

As soon as he finished speaking, everyone noticed a player in front of Li Huailin who was examining a green glowing miner's pickaxe, Miner Twenty.

"It's him!" A group of people immediately abandoned Li Huailin and surrounded Miner Twenty.

"Quick, sell me the pickaxe!" a player shouted, almost hysterically.

"I didn't say I was going to sell it," Miner Twenty looked at the surrounding players and swallowed hard...

Regardless of what happened with Miner Twenty, seeing that everyone had shifted their focus, Li Huailin took the opportunity to leave. Now that the pickaxe was sold, he really needed to start his leveling journey.

He walked a bit further into the mine, and the scenery immediately changed. At the entrance of the mine was a large hall where many people could mine, but as he walked further in, it turned into real mine tunnels. Each tunnel was only about 4-5 meters wide, and there were over a dozen of them, leading to unknown places.

The lighting in the mine tunnels was very poor, with only a few oil lamps for illumination. Normally, in such a dark place, one would need to bring candles or equipment with lighting attributes to avoid being ambushed by monsters. However, Li Huailin was purely there to die, so he didn't care about ambushes.

He randomly chose a tunnel and walked in. After a short while, Li Huailin encountered a monster.

Cave Bat: HP 300, Physical Attack 45, Physical Defense 30.

"Great," Li Huailin said without hesitation and charged forward.

-35

The Cave Bat was a level 6 monster, 5 levels higher than Li Huailin. Not to mention that, Li Huailin was wearing newbie gear with only 2 points of defense, so he lost 35 HP in one hit.

"Powerful, indeed powerful," Li Huailin was abnormally excited. The player was right; the monsters in the mine were indeed formidable.

-37, -40

Before he could finish his thoughts, the Cave Bat attacked again with two quick strikes. Li Huailin's head tilted, and he was killed.

The screen turned gray, and the next second, Li Huailin appeared at the respawn point in the newbie village.

"This is the effect I wanted," Li Huailin, now excited, immediately ran back to the mine.

When he reached the hall, the group of people who had been buying pickaxes had already dispersed. Li Huailin didn't care who ended up with the pickaxe; he was focused on leveling up.

He chose another tunnel with fewer people and charged in again. Within two minutes, Li Huailin was killed once more.

"Hmm, the running time is about 5 minutes, and finding a monster to kill myself takes about 2 minutes," Li Huailin calculated. "I need to die 18 more times to reach level 2, which is about 126 minutes, or about 2 hours.

Since I'm at negative experience, leveling to the second level is a bit slower. After level 2, I can level up every 10 deaths, which takes about 70 minutes per level. To reach level 10, it will take 126 + 70 * 9 = 756 minutes, or about 12 and a half hours. Compared to other players who take 3 days to reach level 10 and leave the village, this is really fast.

"This is what leveling up is all about," Li Huailin said with a smile.