Chapter 208: The Red Ore Vein

The light dissipating from the orb started to illuminate a good deal of that cave in the middle of the night. Jim saw many shining things inside, reflecting light and turning the dark cave into a small galaxy.

'Amazing,' the old man commented, 'your luck is really great tonight,' he laughed and his words and laughs didn't help to explain anything to Jim.

"Do you know what that is?"

'It's an ore mine,' the old man said, 'one of the rarest types in such a place.'

"Oh… so these sparkling little stars are all ores?" Jim was tempted to enter but he kept his place while checking every single corner illuminated by the light.

'The cave looked safe,' the old man said, 'and you need to hurry and extinguish that light or else you might not only draw monsters but also couple enemies alongside them.'

Jim didn't hesitate to enter after these words of the old man. The light coming from the inside, augmented by all these reflections of the ores made this place so noticeable from far away.

And he didn't want any unwelcome visitors to crash upon the place he worked so hard to find.

"How can I extinguish it?" he held the small piece of rod and tried to immerse it in the ground. However the cave was entirely made out of stone and he couldn't even push it deeper than a breadth of a finger.

'Just threw it inside with all your might,' the old man said, 'the cave is obliquely heading to the bottom of the earth, it won't cause much trouble there.'

Jim followed his old man's advice and threw the rod far away with all his might. The rod travelled for a certain distance before hitting something and then fell deep inside what looked like an abyss.

And darkness prevailed once again over the entire cave, giving Jim very dark thoughts.

"I'd prefer that light now," Jim took a deep breath while he couldn't even see his hand clearly in this darkness. "Don, come here."

The next moment he felt a small thing hitting his right leg and rubbing it. he knew it was his pet but this gave him a little scare for a moment.

'You hare darkness?' the old man asked.

"I lived in it for my entire life," Jim paused, "I never thought anyone would adapt to living in the dark."

He then stretched out his arms right and left and slowly moved while stamping his feet so heavily so he wouldn't stumble on anything. He finally touched the cold irregular surface with his stretched left hand, and it seemed he hit something sharp there as he felt a sudden sting of pain and some warmth of his blood.

Then the next moment the wall started to shine strangely in a faint red light that startled him. Yet the light didn't last for a long time before it started to gradually fade away.

"That's… quite interesting," Jim touched his injured palm where a shallow wound was there before he touched the dying little red rock with his hand filled with blood and watched the light intensify.

'It has a great amount of energy inside,' the old man said, 'it's a fiery natured ore. But it needs a trigger to show its effects.'

"Is it like the ores Jenny used to use?" Jim asked, "or… perhaps a little weaker?"

'On contrary,' the old man said, 'It's much higher in quality than those orbs. To simplify it to you, the ores Jenny used were like mere ground rocks compared to this little gem here.'

Jim watched in astonishment that little protruding rock while the red light was reflected over his face. "Then why is it dying out fast?" he said, "why does it need my blood to be activated?"

'I believe this is just a tiny piece of the large ore,' the old man said after momentarily pause, 'if you can take a small piece of it then you'll be amazed by its quality.'

Jim didn't hesitate and took out his sword. The next moment he was shining in golden color, something that made him think why he didn't use his sword before to push the darkness away.

The next moment he hit the ore with his sword. He didn't aim directly towards cutting it loose from the wall, despite it would be easier for him to do that.

But he aimed towards the rocks surrounding it. After a couple of hits the rocks cracked before it fell to the ground, with the sound of Jim's sword echoing in the entire cave and seemingly the entire world.

"You are absolutely right old man," Jim cracked a wide smile while the red light coming from the red ore got intensified by the revelation of a larger piece buried underneath the rocky wall, "it's a giant piece of ore."

'I believe it's a vein,' the old man said, 'so don't aim to excavate it all and just unearth a part of it and be satisfied with that.'

Jim didn't listen to his words while spending the next hour hammering over the rocky wall and cracking it to pieces.

After one hour he felt extremely exhausted. He never saw himself suited for the hard work, but the result he got made him quite satisfied.

He wiped the thick layer of sweat off his forehead with the sleeve of his coat before glancing in admiration to this pyramid shaped piece of ore he managed to excavate.

It wasn't that small anymore, as it was in the size of his body at least. The light coming off from it was enough to illuminate a large piece of the cave, while red wisps started to dance like lightning arcs over that piece.

He had to keep it shining by using his blood, however the more he exposed it the longer the intervals needed to resupply it with blood became.

'I believe you should chop it now,' the old man said, 'this piece is a real treasure that will provide you with enough energy for a long time.'

Jim nodded before asking what bothered him. "Anything I touched with energy got sucked dry instantly, but this one didn't," he said, "I even couldn't feel any energy entering my body."

'Foolish boy this is a great ore vein,' the old man couldn't help but laugh, 'how can you expect to absorb anything from such a beast? You need to cut it first and separate this small part off before you can absorb its power.'

"Then it goes down," Jim moved to the side while raising his sword high in the air, "this piece is mine!"

He landed the sword and red sparks appeared, yet he was stupefied next.

It wasn't due to the deep crack his sword did to the ore or the fact that the sword just got stuck in there. It was for that strange black long snake that kept drawing silently and fast towards him.

And just before he could do anything, that snake circled around his body and snatched him fiercely towards the depth of the cave.

"Screw you," Jim tightened the grip over the hilt of his sword before hurrying to grab it with the other hand. With all his might he clenched to his sword as if his entire life depended entirely on that.

And in fact it was.

"Don!" Jim screamed while feeling the sweaty hands slipper slowly away from the sword, "do something!"

"Roar!" Don was surprised as well and petrified in place just like Jim. Yet the next moment he roared and Jim didn't feel anything this time.

"Damn it!" he tried to shake off his body, kick with his legs, however the more he moved the lesser his grip became.

It was apparent that his resistance right here would fail so soon, and the next thing that would come to him would be a total nightmare.

That strange snake was squeezing his body strongly that made him start to feel numb all over down there. Despite that he didn't stop his attempts to clutch himself to that piece of ore using his sword.

"Clang!"

"Crack!"

Yet the next moment he heard a sharp voice coming from the ore as the sword cracked deeper under the enormous pressure, making the sword move deeper and push Jim's body further away.

And that small stretch came out all of sudden and made him scream out of deep pain.

"Crack!"

The last resisting piece of the ore was finally severed. Jim felt all the resistance coming from the sword instantly vanish, and even his grip went loose and his body moved in extreme speed backwards.

The snake dragged him in extreme speed, yet strangely the sword deflected and moved in greater speed towards the snake.

"Chop!"

The next moment Jim felt his body suspended entirely midair without any pressure exerted over him of any kind. Then he fell heavily on the ground, rolled over the rocky irregular earth bed there before finally stopping tens of meters away.

But he didn't stop or lie there to rest despite all the pain and agony he was feeling. The moment his body stopped rolling he didn't hesitate to push it up and started to run.

"Swoosh!"

"Swoosh!"

"Swoosh!"

This time the hidden monster decided to go all out and not let its prey run away. Jim could perfectly hear three to four things moving in the darkness behind, and from the sound of it they were drawing fast towards him.

"F*ck you!" Jim abandoned the idea of running all the way to the entrance of the cave and threw himself instantly over the large piece of ore he just chopped.

And a sword appeared next in his hand.

"Boom!"