Waking up the next morning Cliff had some herring and a potato cooked on a stick.
After eating he started cutting down pine trees into 6ft logs
Tying the rope, he had into a harness he then pulled the logs one by one to the mountain until he had 30 of them. This would allow him to build supports at least 40 meters into the mountain
When that job was done, he then grabbed his shovel, pickaxes and 1 sled.
Grabbing his shovel Cliff then began digging a 7x7foot entrance and 2 feet in he placed his first supports
The loose soil he then hauled with the sled a 100 meters away from the entrance near the mountain base.
This he continued on for 4 hours until lunch time. At this point his mine was already 12 meters in and he found his first deposit of coal.
Having some herring and potatoes he then observed his status having felt a change in his body.
Name: Cliff Short
Current Class: Miner Lvl 5 [115/175]
Grants +1 STR +1 END per level
stats
STR 9
CON 7
END 10
AGI 7
DEX 3
INT 5
Wis 4
Skills
Beginner Mining lvl 3 [5/100]: gives beginner mining knowledge
Beginner Construction Lvl 2 [2/60: grants beginner knowledge of construction joints
Beginner Identify metals lvl 1 [9/10] : can identify basic description of metal while holding
Beginner axe lvl 2[1/60] increase axe durability 6%
Beginner shovel level 6 [45/500]- increase shovel durability 18%
Beginner pickaxe level 5 [15/400]- increase pickaxe durability 15%
Besides the strength that his enhanced stats gave him he also found that by levelling up the construction and mining skills his knowledge of the two were refined.
And those tool skills, now those were a life saver since he had no one to sell him any if his break and he can’t make any currently.
Continuing on with his day it was not till close to suppertime Cliff found his first metal
When using identify metals all that it showed was non-ferrous
And this was what finally upgraded his identify skill to level 2 but unfortunately when testing it on the same metal no other information was given.
Mining into the rest of the metal vein he was able to fill up 5 sleds with the ore which he ended up hauling to outside the mine into their own piles.
The next day he spent building a lean-to fo protecting the ores from the rain.
And while throwing each chunk of ore into the shed he used identify on each one to increase the skill level and each time he did so he received the notification that these were all non-ferrous metals
Getting the identify metals to level 3[60/100] but still no change
For the next three days Cliff continued mining into the mountain and cutting trees into supports.
During this time, he built 4 more sheds to house ores.
2 contained the same non-ferrous metal that he found on day 1 while 1 shed held another non-ferrous metal that looked different from the other 2. And the last shed contained coal.
But as of the 7th day on Yarnam his schedule changed
Today was his last day of food if you don’t count the beans that he plans to keep to grow. But with how the Leaves on trees seem to be turning, it must not be long till winter.
So today Cliff was going hunting. Using his axe, he sharpened a blue maple branch into a spear before charring the end in a fire.
After traipsing through the brush, he found what looked to be a deer trail.
Crouching down he looked for any tracks, which he did find but they were nowhere near a deer’s hooves. They looked like a raccoon’s paws that were ten times too big.
As he followed these tracks, Cliff kept his head on a swivel hoping to see other animals.
But strangely enough even though he heard bird noises and chittering he has not even seen a rabbit or a bird.
It was not until he approached a blood red willow that he saw his first animal.
It was the size of a bear, had a grey body with a black and grey ringed tail. It was hunched over something under the branches.
From the sound of it the giant raccoon seemed to be munching on some sort of bones
Admiring the beast, he snuck forward slowly hoping to catch it off guard, but the creature seemed to have smelt Cliff causing it to turn around with a snarl.
With that snarl not only did the giant raccoon charge him but 3 others also appeared from behind the willow.
It was at this moment Cliff realised he was fucked.
But pushing the fear down he rushed forward at the first raccoon. But just before the two collided, Cliff knelt on the ground and thrusted his spear towards the chest of the coon.
The spear met very little resistance, but Cliff attributed that to his increased strength stat.
With a great thump the large creature fell on Cliff.
With a panicked rush he crawled out of the heavy beast ready to fight the other three.
Pulling his axe off of his back he swung at the smallest one, which quickly dodged with only a light gash being proof that he hit.
Rushing to the next coon he did an overhead swing catching the bugger in his skull and finishing it off.
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Turning back to the one injured coon and the larger fresher one he had to make a choice.
He chose the injured fast one hoping that the larger one was slower.
Charging like a bull he imbedded the axe in the fast raccoons’ shoulder before it could react.
But before he had a chance to pull the axe out the last raccoon bit into his right arm.
Cliff panicked and began thrashing around uselessly before his mind focused again on the task.
Using his free Hand Cliff began pumbling into the coons’ face.
He the clenched his fingers into a hook before clawing out the raccoons right eye.
The creature shrieked in pain and quickly let go, using it paws to clutch at its missing eye.
During this Cliff was also on the ground in pain but before he could attack again the now one-eyed racoon rushed off behind the willow and out of Cliffs sight.
Grunting in pain, Cliff took his shirt off and tied it firmly around the wounds on his arm.
Looking at the 3 dead racoons he was very pleased. That fur would great for winter and the meat would be very welcome, he was sick of salted fish.
Unwinding some rope that he had wrapped around his waist, Cliff cut down some small trees to make a sled which he then put the raccoons on and he began pulling towards his camp.
At his camp Cliff used the axe to gut and skin the monsters.
Stretching the crudely removed hides over a log he angled them so they would receive the most sunlight for drying.
Next, he made a tri-pod which he stood over the firepit so that he could begin smoking and cooking the meat.
Finally, when the meat was cooking, he had a chance to clean his wound and to check his status.
Name: Cliff Short
Current Class: Miner Lvl 15 [1150/2150]
Grants +1 STR +1 END per level
stats
STR 19
CON 7
END 20
AGI 7
DEX 3
INT 5
Wis 4
Skills
Beginner Mining lvl 15 [5/1600]: gives beginner mining knowledge
Beginner Construction Lvl 5 [2/300: grants beginner knowledge of construction joints
Beginner Identify metals lvl 9 [900/1000] :can identify basic description of metal while holding
Beginner axe lvel 10[1/150] increase axe durability 30%
Beginner shovel level 15 [45/500]- increase shovel durability 45%
Beginner pickaxe level 20 [15/400]- increase pickaxe durability 60%
Beginner tunnel sight level 10 [400/1100]- allows night vision in tunnels 1 meter in distance
Looking at the progress he was pleased at his success but was confused since the killing of the raccoons only improved his axe skill, not his class level or even grant him a spear skill.
Pondering this he asked the system
Crafting class may only learn crafting skills and experience
Combat Classes may only learn combat Skill and experience
But by combining the two types of classes into one you may receive experience from both activities.
Nodding in understanding he could not help but glare at the skill level of the Beginner Identify metals. So far nothing has changed he still can only see ferrous or non-ferrous when he observes the ores. But all he can really do is continue levelling it in hopes that it changes.
After washing his shirt and rewrapping it around the bite wound, he then questioned the system again
“System? Back on earth I used to go hunting with my friends and I was in charge of the skinning process, why is it that I did a worse job even though I have been doing so for years?”
Please be aware that using class skills that you do not either have a skill or class for will result in a 60% penalty.
Cliff could not help but swear especially after glancing at his tools
His tools were in quite the state and he would need new tools instead of just replacing the handles and soon.
If not having the corelating skill which could only be received upon having a certain class, then having no experience building tools while receiving a 60% hit on success, then he was most certainly in the shithouse.
But he will come to that bridge when he got there.
Next day Cliff woke up to a light chill in the air.
Seeing that he was still living outside with winter coming, he decided today’s job will be hollowing out a home inside the Mountains.
Walking 5 meters into the tunnels he then began hollowing out a 5x5x3 meter room
When the room was dug, he then grabbed a long wooden pole and begun bashing a small chimney that would lead to outside the mountain.
Then he grabbed large stones that he threw out from mining and some river clay, then began constructing a nice fireplace
After lighting a fire to see how the smoke travelled, he then dug some small air vent into the main tunnel so that when he had a real door he would not suffocate.
Then with some dried grass and leaves he made a bed in the corner.
Next across from his new house on the other side of the tunnel he dug another alcove which would act as his pantry, he was hoping that the chill in the winter would keep the food fresher.
Going back to mining and storing the ferrous and non ferrous metals separately it was not long until beginner identify metal reached level 10 and it very first change
Now when using the skill he received two pieces of information.
Using it on the metal being stored now showed
Non-ferrous-Tin
Non Ferrous-Copper
Ferrous-Iron
Ferrous-Gant
The first 3 kinds of metals came from his home world but the last one was unknown.
Looking at the state of his pickaxe and shovels Cliff decided that with the amount of ores he had it would be alright to waste a few.
For the next few days
Cliff gathered wood and made charcoal which would burn faster then coal, made a clay oven and made a mold out of sand in the shape of a bowl
Next using stones, he chipped a bowl to melt metal in
Then tearing off his pant legs and cutting some wood he made a very very crude billow.
Starting with the iron he spent a whole day smelting enough in the stone bowl to fill up the sand mold. After cooling it he had his very first tool a pitiful excuse for a crucible.
The cavemen of earth would have done a better job! The Iron seemed too brittle, but for now it would work.
Smelting enough for a second iron crucible Cliff felt ready for his next set of plans.
Back in his old life Cliff liked history and once when he was watching a documentary of Egypt, he learnt a bit about Bronze.
Now Bronze was a Mixture of Majority Copper and a little tin, though he did not know the proper percentage he felt that he had enough to experiment.
Now in that documentary he found that Copper and tin had a low melting point compared to Iron and thus were more malleable.
Thus, until he got a forging class, he would use Bronze
But don’t mistake Bronze as being lesser of Iron. No! the reason why it went out of use was expense, with two metals being alloyed it put the price up and Tin was already hard to find due to overmining.
Anyway, the first thing that Cliff did was make a mold for a hammer head.
Making 2 mold of a 6x4x4inch head he made the mouth of the mold long enough so that the handle would be made of bronze too
Melting 3 parts copper to 1 part tin, separating the slag with a wooden spoon.
Next using oak branches as tongs, he poured the tin into the copper and gave her a mix.
Seeing the metals combine he then poured this into the first hammer mold
While that cooled, he made a second batch but this time equal parts tin and copper.
Pouring it into its own mold he broke open the first hammer and chucked it into the river to cool.
After a few moments he did the same to the second hammer.
Using identify metals on both hammers he got non ferrous-Bronze and non ferrous-Bronze
There seemed to be no difference in the metal. But Cliff was pleased that his first attempt resulted in bronze. Though the hammers looked like deformed lumps on a lumpy rod
Testing the two he then hit a rock with each of the hammers.
Here he found that the hammer with less tin was better then the one with equal amounts of tin and copper. Keeping the poorer Hammer as a back up, Cliff made 4 more molds
2 molds were for a proper set of tongues
1 mold was for a chisel
1 mold for a pickaxe head.
Starting off with the chisel he made sure to heat it up and quench it multiple times in hopes of making it stronger.
Next were the tongues which before heating and quenching multiple times, he used the Chisel to punch a hole in the center which a pin would go in to keep the two pieces together.
Finally, the main meal arrived the PICKAXE! Heating up both tin and copper he mixed the two after removing the slag, pouring it into the pick mold.
Making a hole in the center for a wooden head he then went through the same quenching process as the chisel.
Putting the pick to the side. Then using the axe and a oak branch he carved an ugly handle
Now the reason why he used a wooden handle and not make one out of bronze was because the Wood would reduce the shock sent into his body after impact and allow him to mine longer.
After wedging the handle into the head and putting a metal pin at the top, Cliff then went into the mines to test his handy work.
First off, the handle was too short, and the head was too heavy on one side while too light on the other. And the picks themselves seemed to curve upwards instead of down
The metal though seemed strong enough to withstand the blows against rock, soil and other ores for the most part.
After 1 hour of digging, he then sorted through the different minerals gathered
Non ferrous-copper
Non ferrous-tin
Non ferrous-coppon
Ferrous-iron
Ferrous-gant
Weirdly enough the coppon and Gant seemed to offer more experience while mining and inspecting compared to the usual earth metals. He put this down to never being exposed to them before.
Placing them into the ore sheds, he was very tempted to smelt them now to see the difference between them but felt that it was better to have a class skill to make the most of it. He would only smelt and smith when really needed a new tool.
--
It took two more weeks of constant mining to finally reach level 50 in his class.
By this time, he must have had 10 tons of unrefined ores just sitting in his sheds
And the snow has already begun to fall