10 Chapter 10: Trading for Ore

"Why are there so many people here? Are they here for Mahjong?"

Jiang Ming asked one of the players who stood next to him as he walked into the crowd.

"Do you really think that someone would scream like this if they were playing Mahjong?" The player rolled his eyes as he replied to Jiang Ming. "We're just lifestyle players that mine around these caves. However, as we were mining just now, a large number of snake monsters came out of nowhere. Some of us managed to escape in time but I guess the unfortunate ones were killed."

Snake monsters? The bosses that were usually seen in these mines were 'Thieves and Burglars' but they wouldn't normally attack the players. So, the mines were a safe place for these lifestyle players. It's quite impossible for these high-level offence monsters to be here!

When something doesn't seem right, it must mean that they had done something wrong. Perhaps they triggered a hidden mission as well?

Jiang Ming muttered to himself after hearing what the player next to him said.

"Look, there are so many snakes crawling out of the mine!"

At the moment when someone shouted, all of them turned and looked at the entrance.

They saw a group of black serpents of different shapes and sizes crawling out of the mine. However, they did not attack any of the players around and disappeared into the wilderness with a hint of fear in their eyes.

Black Serpent : Level 7 normal monster

HP: 500

Attack: 56-67, Defence: 15, Skills: poison; once bitten, enemy would be poisoned and lose 10 HP per second, lasting for 5 seconds.

Jiang Ming looked through the Black Serpent's attributes as they crawled out of the mine. They seem to be quite powerful since they even had a special passive skill. Even those players of the warrior job class would be in trouble. It was not surprising that so many of the lifestyle players had died.

Fortunately, the Black Serpents did not continue targeting the players around. Otherwise, it would have caused a bloody scene.

"Anyone still planning to go inside?" Just when all the Black Serpents left, one of the lifestyle players asked the other players around.

"My inventory is almost full, I don't think I'll be going in anymore. Plus, this mine is extremely dangerous. Another monster might appear out of nowhere. We should probably go to the other mines."

"Same, I'm done for today. My luck sucks today. I only got one copper piece and then the Black Serpents appeared. I might go to the other mines instead."

　　...

There were some players who immediately gave up after seeing the Black Serpents, but there were still a group of them who wanted to continue mining. However, when they heard the screams that were coming from inside the mines, they decided against it and all the players around started leaving.

"Wait a minute!"

At the same time, Jiang Ming who was standing aside suddenly shouted and smiled as he walked towards the crowd.

"Is there anything wrong, brother?" One of the lifestyle players asked.

Jiang Ming laughed and said to the crowd, "I would like to buy the ores that you have with 10 pennies more than those in the store. What do you think?"

Upon hearing Jiang Ming's words, all the lifestyle players looked at each other, wondering if they were talking to an idiot. Then, one of them walked out and replied to Jiang Ming sarcastically, "Although the iron and copper ores aren't that expensive but with all of our ores combined together, it would at least cost you twenty gold coins. Are you sure that you can afford it?"

"Yes!" Jiang Ming smiled as he nodded his head.

"Hahaha, bullshit! It's not easy to find a player who has one gold coin, and you are saying that you have twenty? If you really have that much, why don't you just buy the equipment directly? Why are you buying these ores from us?" Another player from the crowd asked.

Jiang Ming wasn't bothered about their sarcastic tone and replied, "Well, believe it or not. This is just business. I'll pay for it as long as you have the ore."

When the other players saw that Jiang Ming was so confident, they were all stunned. Then, one of them walked towards him and said, "I'll sell mine to you."

"I don't have that many good coins with me now. Those who are willing to sell it to me, please come with me to the warehouse."

With that, Jiang Ming walked towards the novice village.

"Let's go and see how this fool is going to find these gold coins." The player who did not believe Jiang Ming smirked and followed behind him as they walked towards the novice village.

As they walked into the novice village, it was a really dramatic scene as Jiang Ming was leading a huge group of players, which caught everyone's attention.

"Woah, look at that dude! He has so many followers!"

"Isn't he the one who killed the three brothers recently? I remember when the fight ended, he left with the president of TK, Mu BaiTing. Is he from TK as well?"

　　...

At that moment, everyone around him was talking about him but Jiang Ming remained unbothered. He went to the warehouse and retrieved thirty gold coins and started his business after listing down the prices for each item.

The lifestyle players then clicked into Jiang Ming's store and saw the list. They tried by selling a small amount of ore first. What they didn't expect was that they really received a good amount for it.

"Hahaha, I guess what you said was true. I can't believe the small amount of ore that I had was worth thirty silver coins. It was great dealing with you, bro!"

One of the players said to Jiang Ming after selling his entire bag of ore and left.

After him, all the lifestyle players who were around him started selling him their ores and within a short amount of time, all of their ores were sold, including the two players who did not believe Jiang Ming before this. Although they didn't want to admit it, they were still stunned that Jiang Ming had so many gold coins.

As they saw Jiang Ming close his store, they saw him walking towards the blacksmith and started whispering to each other, "He has so much gold coins and look at his level! Would it be because he completed some hidden mission?"

"It doesn't matter what mission he completed. Let's tell big boss about this since the gold coins are what's important to us."

　　...

"There are twenty ores in each bag. Other than the thirty bags of iron ore and five bags of copper ores in the warehouse, I still have ten bags of ores with me. I'll just fuse them first."

When Jiang Ming reached the blacksmith and completed his mission, he started fusing the ores.

He took out the Divine Furnace and threw five pieces of copper ores into it and clicked onto the 'fuse' button.

Ding~ system notification: Fusion successful, you received one piece of equipment.

Instead of checking out the equipment that he got, he decided to continue fusing since he had already recovered his HP up till 170 points which meant that he could still fuse for another seven times.

Ding~ system notification: Fusion failed.

Ding~ system notification: Fusion successful, you received one piece of equipment.

　　...

He tried the fusion for eight times; four were successful while the remaining four failed. In the end, he got four pieces of equipment.

"Damn it, even with the help of the Divine Furnace, the success rate only improved by 10% and along with the 50% success rate from my skills, the total success rate is only 60%…. I even have the hidden luck attribute, yet my luck is still so bad that I failed four times!"

Jiang Ming couldn't help but mutter to himself as he stared at the four pieces of equipment in his bag.

But as he realised what the four equipment were, he couldn't help but smile.