“This is it. I have to see what lies inside.” Miles looked at the hole on the mountain across the abyss.

After separating from Culga, Miles returned to the Academy with three fruits. What Xavic said wasn’t true, and fruits wouldn’t lose their effects regardless of how many of them they consumed, but the energy increase gained by the fruits was limited, and after consuming one, the following fruits wouldn’t be as effective. So sharing it was more logical.

Miles used one of the fruits that night and felt the energy in his body getting hotter. With the increase, came the rush to move. He practiced all night to spend the energy filling his body. He couldn’t even remember how many times he used the same move. He swung his claws, sword and fired arrows over and over again to empty the energy filling his body. But because of the fruit and practice, his energy got denser. He was at the peak of the low-tier now.

After that, he came back to the cave Val showed him. Now that his energy was stronger, he could at least take a peek at the cave.

“Here goes nothing.” Miles fished out the wing orb and wings attached to his back. He flew towards to hole with his energy hidden behind Veil. The bow was on his back, and there was a glove on his right hand. Although charging both cost him a lot of energy, he waited before entering, so he could refill his energy.

The hole on the mountain ridge was only big enough for a human to pass. He hardly squeezed through it.

The inside of the cave was dark, so he activated dark vision. He looked at the narrow corridor in front of him and counted more than 20 different metals hardly visible on walls. He still had to mine and process them, but the value of this narrow corridor was hundreds of times anything Val earned from the bet. Although it was because she couldn’t mine this cave, Miles still felt thankful.

He walked out the narrow corridor and cursed in a low breath. The end of the path was opening to a giant opening. The opening was a hundred meters below the hole he previously entered and filled with monsters. They were all bat-like creatures with different mutations and unlike their counterparts, they weren’t sleeping on the ceiling. They were all on the ground.

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“Luckily this hole isn’t big enough.” Miles sighed in relief. The hole at the end of the path, and the hole on the mountain wall were only big enough for a human. The bat-like creatures were as big as horses.

Miles had a rough estimate and counted more than three hundred of them. “I can’t enter their nest. Bats have scary sonar abilities, although most of them are in Grunt-Rank.” Miles shook his head and returned to the corridor to dig.

He bought a pickaxe orb in the academy at a cheap price. Although its level was mid-tier, its price was half of a low-tier weapon. After all, the orb was a tool and didn’t have many uses in the battles.

Miles covered the pickaxe with his energy and started to dig the walls. But when the pickaxe hit for the first time, an echo reverberated in the cave. Suddenly bats started to scream and fly.

The collective scream of hundreds of bats deafened Miles's ears. He only got rid of the pain by plugging his ear with energy.

“Shut up, freaking giant birds!” Miles shouted, but he regretted it in the next second. Bat-like creatures started to hit the wall with their claws, making the cave tremble. “Will this opening stand?” Miles looked at the wall with hesitation. “I can dash out if something happens.”

He kept on digging and mined metals. There were hundreds of them throughout the small corridor, but Miles couldn’t carry all of them. Metals were heavy after all, and he still had to fly across the abyss.

————

Miles looked at his bleeding hands and metal ores on the ground. There were tens of different colored ores on the ground. It took Miles more than ten hours to dig without a stop, but he finally finished mining for the day.

Middle of his digging, bats started to shout like crazy and aimed at the opening, so Miles pulled out his bow to kill a few of them. After that bats dispersed, so he could dig in peace, but he was still dead tired.

He left the cave with a handful of ores in his arm and carried them to the other side of the abyss. Then he returned. A handful at a time, he carried all the ores to the other side.

“Time to leave.” He placed all the ores into a giant strong bag and carried it on his back. “I hope I can fly with this weight.”

Miles barely floated and flew towards the academy. He was able to mine all the metals he needed and could forge all the ordered items now. He still had to buy some others he had failed to find, but all in all, he earned big-time by exchanging the location of the cave with his share from the bet.

And it was effortless too. All he had to do was moan loudly all night.

"And earn that title." Coin added.

"Fuck you too, buddy. Fuck you too." Miles cursed as he kept on floating. "I will make all of them pay for naming me with such a stupid title!"