There were many branching paths deep inside the mines and the paths led to various places. With the Ghost leading the way, they arrived at a rather spacious hall after a few turns.
The hall was filled with exposed ores, but due to the depth of the place, it was darker and much harder to identify the ores.
“Look, it’s that guy!” The Ghost pointed at a blob of shadow in the corner.
The monster resembled a black iron ore but was slightly smaller than a soccer ball. Without the Ghost’s guide, it would have been difficult to identify it.
The Ghost had failed to notice this monster when he first arrived at the hall. He actually wanted to lure all the bats into this spacious place and blow them all to hell altogether.
After he exploded, he realized there was a black little monster in the corner that did not receive much damage from his self-destruction. Upon a closer look, the Ghost finally remembered that it was the monster that Mohai had told him to look out for.
“It’s the Black Rock Bug!” Mohai was delighted when he saw the black little monster nibbling on ores in the corner. If he had not run into the Black Rock Bug here, he would have to travel a long way to another mine to test his luck.
“Surround it and kill it. Don’t let it escape,” he said.
The bandit leaders then spread out and surrounded the little monster.
Thankfully, they were all monsters. If they had been players, the Black Rock Bug would have been startled and probably fled.
The Black Rock Bug’s body looked like an ore and it was great at camouflaging. Its movement speed was top-notch, so catching the bug in the mines was not an easy task.
“Roar!”
The Black Rock Bug turned around and roared at Mohai and the others when it sensed them getting closer. It tried to warn them to stay back.
As it got angry when its warning did not work, its eyes glowed in anger and its body engorged rapidly.
Bang!
A piece of ore was fired out from its mouth.
“Surround it!” Mohai ignored the Black Rock Bug’s attack and charged towards the bug.
It seemed like the Black Rock Bug reacted differently against players and other monsters. If it were players, it would have fled right away and would only fight when it was surrounded.
The Black Rock Bug’s Attack was low, so even players with lousy gear would not be in danger when they met the bug in the mine, let alone Mohai and his Elite bandit leaders.
However, Mohai dared not underestimate the bug. When the Black Rock Bug’s HP dropped to a certain level, it would use its skill. It was not an offensive skill, and even if a player got hit, it would be fine, but it would be fatal to Mohai and his bandit leaders.
The Black Rock Bug’s HP dropped to 80% quickly. Its mouth glowed as it wanted to activate its skill.
Mohai was prepared for this. Before the bug could cast its skill, Mohai used [Heavy Bash] on it and stopped the bug’s casting. The bug’s skill was nothing stellar, but when struck, it would teleport its target outside the mine.
If the target was a player, the player could simply run back and all it cost was some time. If any one of Mohai’s bandit leaders or himself got hit, the monsters outside would gang up on them.
After the 80% threshold, the Black Rock Bug would cast the skill with every decrease of 10%.
The Black Rock Bug was a special monster that could not be provoked. It might not be an Elite, but it had higher HP than one. A Level 18 large sand wolf had 20,000 HP, but a Level 15 bug had 30,000 HP.
If a party of players was fighting the bug, several members would be forcefully teleported out of the mine, but when a group of bandit leaders surrounded it, the bug could not even cast its skill successfully. It was beaten to death swiftly.
If the players managed to kill the Black Rock Bug, a large number of ores would drop, but upon its death in Mohai’s hands, it dropped nothing.
Nevertheless, Mohai was not overly concerned. As he fixed his gaze at the carapace that swiftly melted, it corroded the ground into a black hole the size of a man.
“What’s this?” The Ghost found it curious.
The wall of the hole was glowing a faint blue, but even with the dim light, they could not see the end. It seemed like a passage leading somewhere else.
“I’ll go in first. You guys follow. There will be a lot of monsters inside, so be prepared.” Mohai did not answer the Ghost directly since he would find out for himself when he went down.
After Mohai, the Ghost excitedly jumped in, followed by No. 13 and the others.
After Mohai’s team went into the hole, the two little lolis appeared at the mysterious hole, sizing it up with a curious gaze.
“Strange! Where is the hole leading to?”
When Mohai had fought the Black Rock Bug, the two of them were already there, waiting for a chance to ambush him. However, they did not expect the Black Rock Bug to be this weak. The two little lolis did not even have a chance to move.
“I don’t know. Let’s go in and find out.” WinterSnow jumped down straight away instead of wondering where the hole led.
“Wait for me!” SummerFruit was curious as well, so she jumped into the hole after her sister.
After a short period of darkness, the two little lolis’ sight returned to normal.
“What a spacious mine!” SummerFruit widened her eyes and looked around. She and her sister had fallen into a round mine with at least a 50-meter radius.
At first glance, the mine was blanketed with concentrated exposed ores whereby the glitter from the ores almost lit up the entire mine.
The group of bandit leaders was at the other end of the mine, fighting another group of monsters. There were many skeletons, bats, spiders, and even rats.
However, after being killed more than a dozen times on the way there, the two little lolis knew that these monsters were not strong enough, so they knew they would not get the chance to ambush the bandit leaders.
As expected, in less than 10 minutes, the monsters in the mine were all wiped out. If the two little lolis had used [Stealth] and snuck over, they would probably have been as dead as those monsters.
Since the entrance at the surface looked like it could disappear at any time, o the two lolis dared not go in and died as they had done before. If the entrance disappeared, they would lose their last chance of completing their mission.
The two of them only focused on their missions and did not care about their own character levels. They had a lot of free time to play with this group of bandits.
Because this mine was unlike the one at the surface, the two little lolis might get a chance to sneak up on the bandit leaders. If they could not find a chance now, they would have to wait for the next.
The group of bandits was digging the exposed ores on the ground.
SummerFruit and WinterSnow exchanged glances and discussed their plan. They decided to mine the ores while waiting for a chance.
Before SummerFruit could swing her pickaxe, she glanced over her mining skill and realized something extra. “Huh? Sis, my mining skill has level turned into 1+1!”
“I saw it too. This map is the Underground Mine, Level EX-1. It has a temporary +1 buff to mining skills.” WinterSnow was much more knowledgeable than her sister.
“Great! We can mine more ores in the meantime!” SummerFruit was eager to swing her pickaxe.
This hole was unlike the others and it piqued her curiosity.
On the other side, Mohai and the others selected the high-tier ores on the ground to mine.
Their Level 2 mining skill grew to Level 3 in the EX-1 map, but the XP they gained was calculated using a Level 2 skill!
On top of that, the exposed ores in this place were unlike those on the surface.
Copper and iron ores drastically decreased while black iron ores were all over the place. There were also a lot of silver and gold ores in the area, as well as red copper ores, red iron ores, and so on.
This place was the famous Underground Mine. In the Underground Mine, the players’ mining skills would be buffed temporarily and the quality of the ores was better than in other places.
In order to gain access to the Underground Mine, the only way was to kill the Black Rock Bug that fed on ores.
Black Rock Bugs only appeared in rich mines and would only spawn once every month. A maximum of 20 players was allowed to enter the Underground Mine. Once it was full, the entrance would disappear.
There were only a handful of mines where the Black Rock Bug spawned and those mines were usually crowded with players. It was only possible when Lady Luck favored a particular player.
Many players never got the chance to even come in. It was also Mohai’s first time in the Underground mine.
However, he knew this was just the start as there were better things coming his way.
They might have reached the Underground Mine EX-1, but this place did not have the amber ore that Gaven required.