[Secret that only some Blacksmith knows.]

Since the area is brightly illuminated by plenty of resources piling on the ground, the location of the battleground is already set. This person, Lu Fang, most probably will not get away from this spot because only by being around the circle he could fight like a normal person.

Being put in this kind of disadvantage, I slowly retreat from the hole I'm within and step backwards without an intention to start fighting. I tried to pick few more stones on the ground, but he immediately yelled. "Get the hell away and leave those stones! It belonged to me now! Appreciates that I don't ask you to leave all your belongings as well."

This man starts irritating me the more he talked. I lifted both hands in a surrender motion as I vanished into the darkness. He patiently waits while paying extremely high alert on the direction I vanished until his greed couldn't contain him anymore. The sounds from falling sands and stones captured his heart as he turned around and look at them with a big smile. That is what I had been waiting for so long. I am looking at him with my Wrist Bracer aims at him in the dark. What will he think when he got stabbed? I did not bother because, with a jerk of my finger, two needles are shot from the launcher and directly pierce through his throat.

Lu Fang turned around and looked at my direction. but I know, he will not be able to see me because I'm within the darkness while he is well illuminated by the lights released by the glowing sand and stones. He tried to speak, but all the voice could be muttered out is just some, "Huk... Huk..." sound. After a few minutes, he finally falls to the ground, dead with his eyes wide open. Those items dropped on the ground as I walked over to him slowly and pick up his waist compartment belt.

Although the belt is nowhere useful, those compartment does. A compartment is sold for the price between 5 Black Spirit Crystals to 50 Black Spirit Crystals, depending on the volume they could carry. For myself, I do possess three Lower Grade 10 Compartment, each with a volume of 3,000 unit of items depending on their size. A small pebble or a piece of Dried Meat Jerky would be counted as one, while my bracer, pickaxe, and the Refiner Stove (this stove is in a size of a mug) are treated as 10 Units.

There is item specifically treated as higher volume, depending on their quality and made. But as I check on Lu Fang's dead body, he actually owns three Lower Grade 10 Compartments like me. Within the compartment is just a few items and tools. The most precious within is only ten Medium Grade 10 Red Power Crystals, followed by the Medium Grade 10 Brass Dagger he dropped on the ground the moment he's dead.

The others are all rubbish as I over his three compartments as my own. With this, I could have 9,000 more spaces in my compartment to keeps the mined rocks that might have some hidden treasure within.

Back to mining, I continue to collect the resources flowing out from the gap until it stopped and to be cautious, I slowly pick the surroundings, only to reveal a hidden trap especially designed by the nature to give those greedy bastard a lesson. In my opinion, if Lu Fang is given the chance to continue, I have  90% confidence that he will widen the gap to allows all the resources to come out faster.

If he actually did that, he will be buried alive for sure because above the gap, a plenty of sand deposits awaits to be revealed at the same time. If I;m not being so cautious, I might end up being buried within this hole as well. The Sand deposits needed another place to safely flows, so in return for safety, I dug another hole, about three meters deep again and allows the sand deposit to slowly flows out from the gap I purposely opened.

"Ding!"

Huh? What's that? A bell sound rings in my ears as I looked around for a clue. But noticing nothing related to it, I opened the status panel to see if there is anything within. Unexpectedly, the sound actually came out from the Pedlar Setup Ring.

"Because the User had performed well in preserving his life through being cautious with his surrounding, The Pedlar Setup Ring had opened one of its 100 Life-Bound Skills!"

You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

What? Life-Bound Skills? Does that mean I need to go through 99 more near-death situations to unlock all of the skills? This Pedlar Setup Ring is quite an asshole, don't you think so? But I did not bother to think about it. A new skill is a new skill, plus it was a Life-Bound Skill, so it should be quite precious and not everyone could have it right?

Just like this, a box appears at the bottommost at my skill page and awaits me to click on it.

Do you wish to open the skill box and received a new Life-Bound Skill?

Yes

No

Of course, I am going to say... "YES!"

The box revealed, and as the blinding light is gone, a skill appears in my Skill Page.

Skill Name:

Life-Bound Skills (91/100) Battery Charging Level 1 (0/1000)

Specialty:

Allows User to possess the ability (Start Up) to be used on tool or machinery that required manpower to operates.

Charging Conversion:

2000 Units of Junk into 1 Battery (Level Up for more Advance Conversion)

A Battery could operate a tool for a maximum 10 Minutes. (Max Batteries 0/10)

Level Quirk:

None

Notice:

Skill only usable on User. Non-transferable and Open for other users.

Oh! Quite a good skill! I was shocked with the usefulness of this skill, as it allows me to operate any kind of tools and machinery for a time. Of course, there is a limit on maximum battery I could possess, and the materials needed for the conversion. I actually wished to use the stones I have in hand to quickly creates some for now, but after a consideration, I decided to put it aside.

There might be something within the stones, I think.

I repeat what I was doing for two more days, using up ten of the Meat Jerky as my food supply. Finally, I decided to exit the tunnel. Within my bag, a total of 680 Night Glowing Sands and  210 Night Glowing Stones is within with 16,000 units of rocks and pebbles that was supposed to be disposed of the way.

I raise my Token Stone high upwards and allows the light to envelopes me as it appears. The next moment, I appear within a building. Inside here, three guards is seen taking care of this teleportation gate. "Your name?" one of them asked. "Lu Bu, Night Glowing Cave" I answered. The moment they heard what I'm saying, they immediately came with another question.

"Young man, if you refine some Small Night Glowing Crystals, could you do this three guards a favour and exchange some with us with the rates of 12 Black Spirit Crystals each?" the second guard speaks. Listening to his word, I agreed since the total of Small Night Glowing Crystal required is only nine in total. I excuse myself and left the premises while heading first to the Blacksmithing Workshop.

Why?

Because my first concern is about the 16,000 Worthless stones and pebbles in my compartments. If I don't clear them up, it would end up as a waste of space! At least I could still see if there is anything I could get from it before I use all of them as materials to converts into some batteries.

I still managed to enter the Blacksmithing Workshop, but in my hand, only two Black Spirit Crystals remain. I tried to ask if they are willing to purchase the medium grade crystals I have in hand, but unfortunately, they couldn't purchase it from me. As I questioned about the reasons, the staff sitting behind the counter starts to explain to me.

Within this Tian Gong Country, only the most basic materials could be traded and exchanged in basic establishments. The moment an item grade started to get higher than Lower Rank, they will be treated as a speciality item. In my case, my Medium Crystals could only be sold in the Refining Workshop. It is the same to those in other grades as well, depending on their respective Representative Workshop.

Of course, this excludes some special establishments, such as the Marketplace, or the Flea Market that was approved to buy and trade resources and treasures without restrictions. But this also means that there will be a price charged to both sides. Which means, my only choice is to either sell the Lower Grade crystals or the Brass Rod Component I have or return to the Refining Workshop.

I walked into the Workshop after all the explanations and started to repair my pickaxe again. This time, I have to spend  23  Brass Rod Component to repair it into its peak condition. I went over to the Miller next and starts to activates the huge machinery with my both hands.

Using all my strength to keep the machinery running, I constantly toss a stack of thousand pebbles and rocks into the gap between the base and the running stone and after six hours, I finally managed to ground half of them into powder. I rest for a while before I continued, and finish another few Dried Meat Jerky.

A Blacksmith smelled the appetizing flavour comes from the remaining jerky I've yet to eat and came over to ask if I mind sharing it. Being a fellow blacksmith, I gave the remaining three jerkies into his hand, as he ate it in one gulp. "He is quite monstrous to be able to eat that in one mouthful."

"Kid, are those stones and pebbles from Night Glowing Cave?" he asked, while looking at the grounded powder I stacked at the side of the Machinery. "Yes," I answered. He looked patiently at the few stack of powders I have by the side before he continues to ask me another question. "Kid, do you still have the Night Glowing Sands in your hand?"

"Yes senior, I have yet to refine the Small Night Glowing Crystals," I answered him as he seems to be trying to guide me in this matter. "You must be quite hardworking, how long had you been within the Night Glowing Cave? Based on the amount of grounded powder here, it seems like you at least mined around seven to eight thousand stones. That's quite a lot, to be honest. I guess you must be almost forgetting how the sunlight looks like after being inside that hole for so many days."

I was puzzled by his words. As he continues talking, I started to understand why his word seems weird to me. Compared to them, my advantages are better than them because I have the Scan Skill when I'm within the Night Glowing Cave. Of course, I cannot proudly say that I managed to harvest 680 of the Night Glowing Sands right?