Chapter 513: Chapter 513
"Will it refresh right at midnight?"
Jiang Yuan was eyeing the rows of glittering treasures on the shelves, ranging from herbs to special building materials, heavenly and earthly treasures, blueprints, and pill formulas. Then he noticed the countdown and the prompt at the bottom right corner.
It’s almost six in the morning, which means if he wants to exchange for a gift pack today, he better hurry!
Although it only gives points, and no basic materials can be obtained from cutting trees or digging stones, the corresponding skill experience increases, and when you calculate, using points to exchange for gift packs isn’t too off.
The main issue is the refresh every day, and the exchange items that appear are random.
The big gift pack he’s interested in today might be gone tomorrow. The optimal strategy is to diligently earn points and exchange when needed.
"Forget it, I’ll go home, cook, and take care of the chores in the field..." Jiang Yuan wiped his sweat, just about to exit when he suddenly realized he had triggered his health bar!
"Oh, come on, sneak attack?" Getting hit in a non-exoskeleton-equipped state didn’t hurt much, and when he turned his head to look, it was a small monster with a very short health bar, about half a meter tall, with a pair of sharp teeth and flapping wings flying towards him.
[Blood Bat: Low-level monster, appears in the first twenty layers of the Mysterious Cave, excels at sneak attacks and blood-sucking. Randomly drops common materials]
Jiang Yuan casually pulled out a long spear from his storage bag and directly pierced through it.
The small monster, Blood Bat, let out a sharp scream, flapped its wings a couple of times, then turned into light spots and disappeared.
[Gold Coins +20; Blood Crystal +1; Points +50]
As expected, it’s common materials. These blood crystals are often dropped when defeating small monsters just after entering the Wilderness World.
Luckily, after the system made Wilderness World into a game, the design is quite reasonable. There are occasional tasks requiring the consumption of some common materials, and random monsters encountered while mining in the Old Dragon Cave also drop them, so there’s no shortage for now.
Gold coins are just a bonus; the most important thing is points!
Killing one small monster earns 50 points, much more efficient than tirelessly cutting trees.
No wonder the Mysterious Cave dungeon offers three revival chances; surely the deeper you go into the cave, the more and stronger the monsters get, and naturally, the more points you can earn!
The tempting reward mechanism stirred Jiang Yuan’s competitive spirit, and he wanted to see what kind of monsters lurked deeper and earn enough points to exchange for a large gift pack of building materials, so he could upgrade the Tea Workshop today.
Besides earning points and exchanging for a massive amount of supplies, according to the system’s calculation mechanism, no matter whether it’s small monsters or advanced ones, the basic combat skills experience given is the same, so killing small monsters is more efficient for leveling up skills.
Before, there was no dedicated place to grind monsters, but now with the Mysterious Cave, he had to quickly level up his combat skills.
Of course, skills like Heaven-Burning Flame and Black Flame Storm could also gain experience while fighting monsters.
Jiang Yuan promptly exited the dungeon, teleported home, cooked, farmed, fed, managed the workshop, and after delivering gifts to the Elf You Meng in the Old Dragon Cave, he eagerly re-entered the new dungeon.
Everything was exactly the same as when he had left, the cave, apart from the occasional wind howling mixed with the roars of demon beasts, was even more quiet and eerie with the sound of dripping water coming from who knows where.
Jiang Yuan swung his long spear and killed another blood bat, sweeping the entire 200 square area of the first layer cave and making sure there were no more small monsters but still couldn’t find the entrance to the next layer.
"Strange, is there a hidden mini-boss?" Having killed sixteen small monsters, plus the points earned from cutting trees and digging stones, they barely surpassed 1000+ points, not even enough to buy the cheapest wooden gift pack. He was eager to kill more small monsters to earn points.
After going around one more time to confirm no living creatures remained, Jiang Yuan had no choice but to continue using an axe to cut dead trees, excavate various-sized stones, shovel the ruins, and finally use a sickle to harvest all the wild grass.
As the last bundle of wild grass was cut down and turned into points, leaving the entire first layer of the cave empty, a downward hole emitting a faint red glow appeared where the last wild grass was.
[Would you like to enter the next layer?]
"Tsk! So it’s like the Mist Ridge dungeon; you must eliminate everything." Jiang Yuan finally figured out the correct way to explore the cave and clicked to enter the next layer.
It was still the not-so-dim cave. Standing beneath the pit from the previous layer, he could even gaze upwards and see some scenes from the upper level.
The difficulty on the second layer of the Mysterious Cave hadn’t increased much, still the same two or three types of low-level monsters. Wielding a long spear embedded with a gem, enhancing his attack power by +1200, Jiang Yuan quickly annihilated all the small monsters and continued clearing the site to proceed to the next layer.
In one go, he made it to the tenth layer, where he encountered a mini-boss that resembled a moldy radish, capable of emitting foul-smelling moldy gas.
However, for Jiang Yuan, its damage only served to remind the passive skill—the Great Wilderness Heart Method of its presence, barely adding any experience.
The olfactory damage from the stench was far worse than the combat damage; even as he was nearly finished with the eleventh layer, Jiang Yuan still felt there was a lingering foul odor.
Despite the smell, as a mini-boss, its drop rate was decent. Besides some basic materials, it dropped a broken exchange coupon. Collect three to synthesize an exchange coupon for any prize at the little general shop.
With renewed vigor, Jiang Yuan pressed on!
Assuming each mini-boss would drop a broken exchange coupon, theoretically, by reaching the thirtieth layer, he should be able to obtain the most expensive gift pack. Combined with the accumulated points, he could exchange for at least two gift packs today, speeding up upgrades for the courtyards and buildings!
[Would you like to consume Wood +100; Stone +100; Blood Crystal +50; Fiber +50; Spirit Stone +10000, to construct a direct passage to the Mysterious Cave? Once the passage is built, you can consume certain Spirit Stones within the first layer to directly reach the constructed passage layer.]
Upon clearing the twentieth layer, accompanied by the appearance of a pit, the system prompted.
Without thinking, Jiang Yuan clicked to construct. Although the first twenty layers were easy for killing small monsters, it was still quite time-consuming to cut trees, break stones, and clear ruins. With a direct route, he could skip the earlier layers and go straight in for special materials when needed.
Of course, his plan was to clear each layer and build the direct passage first. Later, he could consider only farming boss layers for exchange coupons, which would be much simpler and more efficient.
The gray mist dissipated, and a stone platform resembling a teleportation array but with a more ancient style appeared at the entrance of the twentieth layer. After clicking, another prompt appeared—[You can choose to consume Wood +200; Stone +200... Spirit Stone +20000, to upgrade the direct passage. After upgrading, you can select any layer among the first twenty layers for teleportation.]
"Upgrade! This way, I won’t miss the tenth layer’s mini-boss." Jiang Yuan didn’t need these basic materials and Spirit Stones, so he promptly clicked to upgrade the direct passage to Level Two. Tʜe sourcᴇ of thɪs content ɪs N0v3l.Fiɾe.net
As expected, after clicking again, he got options from the first to the nineteenth layers, allowing arbitrary selection.
Only one broken exchange coupon remained, and Jiang Yuan noticed it was already noon. He sat down and took out the prepared grilled fish and spicy noodles from his storage bag to feast on.
After eating his fill, he continued grinding monsters, and after reaching the boss of the forty layers, he finally got another broken exchange coupon!
[Synthesized ’Exchange Coupon,’ which can be used in the exchange shop]
[Would you like to consume Wood +400... Spirit Stone +40000, to build a direct passage to the Mysterious Cave?]
"Build!" Jiang Yuan gasped for breath.
The first twenty layers were easy; layers twenty to thirty were no challenge; he felt good about the thirty to forty layers, but the fortieth layer introduced new gameplay.
Not only was the boss annoying, but it would also randomly spawn wild bosses for sneak attacks!
He could foresee that from the forty-first layer onwards, small monsters should still be manageable, but the randomly appearing wild bosses could blindside him. For safety, Jiang Yuan put away the long spear and strapped on the Mandarin Duck Swords.
After all, these Spirit Swords were sustained by Immortal Jade, and now that it was time for battle, they had to show some value, right?