[Server Announcement: Congratulations to the player, Knight of Light for being the first player to reach level 10]

[Server Announcement: Updating system, Server Leaderboard now available.]

"Huh? Someone already reached level 10?"

Li Wei was surprised. He had been slowly enjoying his meal when the server announcement was suddenly made. Li Wei was leveling pretty fast already, he was able to hunt a lot and kill the Red Bandit Leader, but someone already reached level 10. It made his own achievement look meaningless.

What Li Wei did not know, was that he was actually one of the fastest to level up as a solo player. Unfortunately, New Earth was not a game to be played alone. In other Beginner's Town, many families and associations gathered their forces and worked together and so, they were able to level up faster.

It was also important to note that it was a server announcement, that is only comprising of those who will spawn on the Dominion Empire. There was a total of 10 servers, and all of them had skilled players.

Li Wei could not help to feel some pressure. The reason he was rushing to level up and get stronger, was because he did not want to just be one of those average players lost in the masses to be used as cannon fodder.

As for the Leaderboard, right now it only contained Knight of Light's name at the top. As there was only one level 10 player, only one leaderboard was available, but later, many more would be unlocked.

....

After his lunch, Li Wei left Little Root Town. He still needed to collect middle-grade iron ores for his ring. He went to the Western Mines and met the miners once again. However, even if only 1 day has passed, Li Wei saw a lot of players in the tunnels.

These players were already patrolling the tunnels, waiting for the ores and Mine Rats to respawn, Li Wei did not want to fight for resources as it would just be a waste of time. Instead, he left this mine and went to the Sealed Mine.

There was another mine not too far from the Western Mines called the Sealed Mine. In the past, it was extensively used, but an incident happened there, corrupting the beasts inside and for the safety of Little Root Town, it was sealed.

Li Wei walked into the direction of the Sealed Mine. In front of it was a group of militiamen guarding the entrance. When they saw Li Wei, they quickly greeted him. They all recognized him and respected him for his actions during the battle of the Red Bandits.

Li Wei chatted a little with them to get some information about the Sealed Mine but did not stay for long. It was already 12:45 and Li Wei did not want to fight monsters during the night cycle.

He learned from the militiamen that level 7 bats used to be found in the Mine, but after the corruption spread to the mine, they were now level 9 monsters.

As Li Wei expressed his desire to go in, the militiamen opened the seal using a magical formation. The huge stone in front of the entrance started moving to make a very loud noise, revealing a dark tunnel. Li Wei then took out a torch from his inventory and lit it up before stepping into the mine.

....

At first, the tunnel was not different from the western mines, except that the walls and floor were covered with ores. Having been left untouched for a long period of time, all the ores had respawned and were just waiting to be picked up.

And Li Wei did not hold back, quickly, "Tink Tink Tink!" resonated through the tunnel as Li Wei mined all the ores he could find. He mostly collected low-grade ones, but could occasionally find middle-grade ones.

Li Wei cleared the area and advanced into the tunnel, the torch was not strong enough and Li Wei only had limited visibility. Suddenly, Li Wei heard the flapping of wings, which was quickly followed by a piercing scream, "Shriikkk".

He quickly put his pickaxe back in his inventory and drew his sword. As he had to hold the torch, he could only fight with one sword.

Quickly, a shadow appeared in front of Li Wei and before he could react, a pair of claws scratched his face, "-10" popped over his head.

He quickly turned around to find his opponent, but the bat was just too fast. Li Wei barely laid his eyes on it that the bat spun in mid-air and scratched Li Wei left leg, "-8".

"Crap!" Li Wei jumped and turned his back at a wall to avoid being taken by surprise and slashed his sword at the bat.

But the latter was just too fast, it swiftly avoided the blade and scratched Li Wei's face again. "-10" Li Wei was starting to regret not having his shield. In mere seconds he had already lost almost half of his HP.

The environment was just so unfavorable to Li Wei, the darkness was allowing the bat to remain hidden until the very last second. Even though Li Wei could sometimes feel the movement of the bat, the latter was very agile and could avoid Li Wei's sword.

Li Wei continued to swing his sword at the bat and even started using the torch but that was in vain. "-8", "-7","-10" appeared all over Li Wei's body, leaving him with just one-third of his HP. The damage varied depending on where the bat scratched him.

Eventually, the bat avoided the torch, but the flame at the end was able to touch its wing. It did not deal a lot of damage, but it was enough to disturb the flight of the bat and make it make a weird spin in mid-air. Li Wei immediately took the opportunity and stabbed his sword and successfully landed a hit.

Being hurt, the bat flapped its wings trying to escape but Li Wei did not allow him to. He directly stabbed once again but this time with the torch, pushing the flame onto the bat.

"Shrriiiikk"

The bat screamed as its HP depleted to 0.

Li Wei let out a sigh of relief, he drank a Health potion and approached the corpse. But at that moment, flapping of wings came from the depth of the mine. It looked like the final scream of the bat alerted the other bats.

Hearing that, Li Wei quickly turned around and fled. One bat alone already caused him so much trouble; what could he do against a whole group? He ran as fast as possible towards the entrance, but the flapping sound was becoming louder and louder.

He needed at least 5 more minutes to be able to reach the exit, and he knew he could not outrun the bats. Instead, Li Wei turned around and cast a spell, [Earth Wall]. It was the spell associated with the ring, he manipulated the earth so as to completely block the tunnel. Fortunately, he was at a narrow part of the tunnel.

The wall looked rather thin, but Li Wei did not take time to examine it. He quickly restarted to run towards the exit.

"Shrrrikk" "Shrrrikk", muffled screams came from the Earth Wall followed by scratches, but Li Wei ignored them and continued to run as fast as he could.

Li Wei eventually reached the exit. He could no longer hear the bats and finally relaxed. He walked out of the mine and sat with the militiamen. The militiamen quickly asked him what happened but did not laugh at him; they knew how strong the bats were and the terror they inspired. As long as they remained in their territories, the bats were nearly invincible.

Li Wei sat down and thought for a while, he needed 18 more middle-grade iron ores for his ring, but what should he do next? Go back and fight for the ores in the western mines? Or stay here and wait for the ores to respawn?

While the first option looked safer, he knew that the players there were probably fighting among themselves for the resources. But then, Li Wei came up with a plan. He drank another Health potion, refilling his HP bar and walked towards the Western Mines.

By the time Li Wei arrived there, it was already 16:23. While many players were still hunting, some already started to return to Little Root Town, with inventories full of their harvests.

....

An hour later, a group of players just finished mining from the depth of the Western Mines. Today was their first day at this location, they had just leveled up to level 6 and wanted to try this area. They spent a whole day in this dark environment, mining and killing rats, and now, their inventories were full.

They walked out of the mines, ready to go back to Little Root Town to relax after a long day of grinding. When they passed near the entrance, where the guards of the mines were located, they noticed a group of players arguing around what appeared to be a stall.

It could not even be called a stall, it was just a table, with nothing on it, except for a small sign on it: "Buying middle-grade iron ores for 2 gold and 10 silver. Limited amount desired, first come first served."

The group saw the sign and was immediately interested, middle-grade iron ores could usually be sold to Blacksmiths for 2 gold but here, there was an opportunity to get 10 additional silvers for each one. It was a golden opportunity and as a result, the group decided to check out the situation.

When they approached they saw two players arguing, a player, Scarlet Moon and what looked like the buyer, Seven.

Scarlet Moon: "What do you mean you won't take all 12 of them? "

Seven: "Yes, as the sign says, I will take a limited amount of them, I only need 8 more. You can just sell them to the Blacksmiths like you would have normally done."

Scarlet Moon: "I am not selling then, it is all the 12 or none. You know how rare these things are... They are not easy to find and many players have already left..."

Li Wei was annoyed, he came up with this idea to buy the middle-grade iron ores from the players would have already mined them. He had about 52 gold remaining and by buying at a slightly higher price than the market price, he could gather the ores easily without conflict.

It was true that he was wasting money, but it would allow him to avoid conflicts and allow him to focus on other things! By spending money, Li Wei was effectively saving time.

Li Wei successfully bought some ores from players and now, he only needed 8 more to reach his required amount. But then, a player came and wanted to sell 12 ores to Li Wei. The latter did not agree but what he said was right. Most players had already left the mines by now, if he did not accept, he would have to come back tomorrow to mine the remaining ores by himself.

Li Wei was debating whether to agree or not when a group of players stepped in. "Excuse me, are you buying middle-grade iron ores? I have some here."

Li Wei looked at the newcomers, it was a standard team of 6, one from each class. It was the Paladin, Sleepy Dragon that talked to him.

"Of course, but right now I only need 8 more ores. I will only buy 8 not one more."

Sleepy Dragon turned to look at his team, they did collect 10 middle-grade iron ores, but they were not as greedy as Scarlet Moon; getting 80 additional Silvers was already a large bonus.

"All right, here are 8 Ores. Let's do the trade," said Sleepy Dragon as he opened the Trade Window.

New Earth had a trading system for exchanging items between players; both players put in what they wanted to trade and confirmed the trade. After a final confirmation from both sides, the exchange would take place.

Li Wei readily agreed, he did not need to argue with the other player anymore.

"Hey hold on! I am doing a trade here; can't you wait for us to finish?" Said Scarlet Moon, looking annoyed. He was about to sell all his 12 ores, but this team had to come and ruin his plan.

Li Wei looked at him with disdain, "What do you mean? We are not doing any trade. Please don't bother us and leave!"

Li Wei then opened his own trade Window and put in 16 gold and 80 silvers. Sleepy Dragon also disregarded Scarlet Moon and proceeded with the exchange.

"Hey! Don't ignore me!" But Scarlet Moon could only observe as the two completed the trade. He was infuriated. He now gained nothing and had to sell his own ores at the Town.

"Happy to do business with you," said Li Wei, before taking out the sign on the table and moving the table back to the guards' camp.

"Haha, me too," answered Sleepy Dragon while leaving the scene with his team.

Both parties were very satisfied with the transaction but one person wasn’t

Scarlet Moon could only stomp the ground in anger as he watched the two ignore him. He then went back to his own team and explained to them what happened. They could only blame Scarlet Moon for being too greedy but then, the thought of that money bag walking back alone to Little Root Town crossed their minds.

"You said he purchased at least 15 middle-grade ores? That means he had at least 31 gold maybe even more. If we are able to kill him. Even if money cannot drop, we can obtain his equipment, considering the amount of money he has, they are definitely good stuff. Just the middle-grade iron ores would give us a big profit," said one of Scarlet Moon's teammates while rubbing his hands.

"I agree. He is just a rich brat that is showing off, we might as well relieve him of some of his items."

"Agreed! But let's check things out first, he might have a team behind him."

"Haha! yes!"

...

Li Wei was unaware of all of that, he put back the table where he took it from and left the camp for the town. I was already 17:12, but there was still some time before the night cycle.

Little Root Town wasn't too far and there was a track connecting the mines to the town. Li Wei was calmly walking as he arrived at a bridge; there was a river between the town and the mine, and so, a bridge was built there. This scene reminded Li Wei of the ambush of the Red Bandits. It was strangely familiar... Everything was quiet, too quiet...