He was curious about the cave, but right now his thought was that there would be some clues in the camp that related to the cave. So he headed toward the tents and checked its contents.

“From the camp’s condition, the cow heads must arrive at this cave for several days already”.

He moved from tent to tent checking all its contents. What he found was that the amount of food and water was enough for several days only and no clues whatsoever about the cave. This puzzled him because if the cave was not important, why they erected a camp, took a trouble to guard and examine the cave.

After a long while and he was satisfied with his search, Acma decided to take all the tents and its contents. So he wished all of them to enter his inventory. In a blink of an eye, everything was cleared.

Acma returned to the mouth of the cave. He was positive that nothing was dangerous in the cave because whatever it were, the cow heads had already cleared them. Acma was inclined to enter the cave right now, but he hold it.

Acma was conflicted but after a while, he managed to calm himself. He thought, it is better for him to take some rest and checked his equipment. Furthermore, having Alice controlling the surveillance drones just now drained his mana a bit.

There was a boulder not far from the cave entrance. Acma walked to and sat on it. He asked Alice to run a system check on FREEDOM to detect any anomalies. Luckily, no anomalies founded. It means, his battle before was flawless. He manage to kill all the cow heads without taking even a hit except the ram that sent him flying. He really grateful for all the training and battle experiences he receiveed from his father. If his father’s saw his battle earlier, he must be proud of him.

“Open Inventory”,

He checked thr inventory and found several bronze axes, armors and knives. At the bottom of his inventory panel, he could see a column that indicate how much money he currently have. After the battles and scavenging the cow heads tents, his accumulated wealth were 0 platinum, 5 golds, 75 silvers and 30 coppers.

“Maybe current currency exchange is 100 coppers = 1 silver, 100 silvers = 1 gold. Same goes with gold = platinum exchange. What I interested to know is, either previous world’s gold can be exchange with current world gold or not”, he thought.

There were also 30 white mana cores, several cicada wings, cracked cyclops eyes and cat fangs. The wing, the cyclops eye and cat fang were for upgrading but he still wondering about how to use the mana core.

He thought, it must be very useful since every monsters he slain drop the core. It means, every monsters have the core. The color of the core, match the color of monster's name plate, so if he killed a different color monsters, he will get a different color of the monster cores.

He took out one mana core and said ,

“Identify”.

Mana core

Formed by a condensed world mana inside the monsters body. Can be use for alchemy or to provide energy

“So, this thing is for alchemy and to provide energy. This is interesting. I might not have a use for alchemy yet, but I can use this cores to replace batteries. I will check it first with my drone”. He thought.

Then he took out one of the drones and remove the battery. His heartbeat was thumping faster and faster. Basically, he was about to make a discovery if the mana core can be used on modern equipment or not. If this successful, he will solve half of the world energy problems. A clean energy too.

On a second thought, although if it indeed working, it’s not necessarily a good thing too. He thought that in a long run, it can lead to the extinction of the monsters because the greed of humans were endless. This have been proven numerous times in history. To find an excuse to invade another countries for their energy supplies, some leaders nonchalantly kill their own citizens and blame it on others. After the invasion, even if the truth was found out, it can be silenced easily. But, the energy supplies already theirs.

But it could work in both ways. If human could use the mana core and hunted the monsters, then it's also possible that the monsters could use the modern technologies.

The minatours just now seemed to be santient and organized, so they had a capabilities to learn. If they could use the modern technologies, human might really goes extinct or worse, become a slave to the monsters and forced to transfer the technologies to them.

He realized too, that there were many geniuses in the world. So, someday, somebody might discover about this. then they announce the findings to the world and the cycles begun. But that was another story. For now, what most important thing to him is to focus on what lies in front of him.

Before he put the mana core inside the drone, he tried to fuse the core with the battery. But there was no reaction. Then he proceed and put the core inside the drone.

“What if the energy is too high and fried the circuit”.

He immediately remove that worrisome thought and proceeded with his little experiment. Once he switch on the drone, he let out a sigh.

“It's not working. Maybe it need a converter. Alice, can you build a converter that can extract the mana from this mana core and change it into electricity?", he asked.

"I need to do some experiment on it first. And I also need a good laboratary", replied Alice.

"Okay, set it as an optional task. In the mean time, please work on some theory on it"

"Yes, Master"

Acma kept the drone into his inventory. After he was done sorting out his inventory, he went to check his status.

“Open Status”

Acma Heart Level 9 Race Human Class -None- HP 895/900 MP 950/1100 Strength 266 Agility 316 Intelligence 368 Luck 220 Unallocated point(s) 45 Title Lord of The Heavenly Villa “I leveled up 7 times. If this system really similar to game, then I can assign a class when I reach lvl 10. One more level to go. What kind of class should I pick. I have mastered several weapons. But swordsman is probably the most suitable for me right now”, he thought with a smile as gentle as a morning breeze on his face. His heart felt great with that many level up. He knew that he might be stronger than average monsters in this world. But with his current level, he could fight against a monster with several levels higher than him only. If the difference was too high, he would opt to run. Safety over pride, life over death. As Starscream said, ‘Sometimes, cowards do survive’. He didn’t care about what people said, because what the most important to him was what he wanted to do and what he could do. If running away could save his life, he would definitely run. And when he got stronger, he will face the danger again. If he can’t run, then he will wager everything. “Hmmmm…running away is indeed sound coward. Let change it with, tactical retreat. Yeah, that sounds better”, he reassured himself. He look toward the cave entrance. Now he already get enough rest, his equipment was checked, his inventory was sorted out and he made some new discovery. So he was ready for a new adventure. He moved toward the cave’s entrance with his heart beating faster and faster. When he took a step inside the cave, a notification panel appeared. “This must be important since it came out even after I turned off notifications”, he thought. Ding~

You have entered a lord-less Nokium ore mine.

As a lord, you can claim ownership over territories, either by force or negotiation. If you wish to claim ownership over this mine, you have to subdue or getting cooperation from the mine’s dwellings

"This is incredible", he praised.