Chapter 280 Jackpot
Nial proceeded slowly through the Nightfall valley's forest. By using his dark energy and the Dragonflame spear simultaneously it was not difficult to kill the weakest beasts instantaneously.
He proceeded to eliminate the other beasts, which attacked him and the others without a care for their lives.
"Just how strong are you?!" Kelia mumbled in astonishment as she observed his fight with her mouth hanging open. Nobody had heard her because she was speaking quietly enough to talk to herself only.
However, it was just a moment later that Nial began to smile. He shrugged his shoulders as he answered honestly,
"I don't know for sure, but this is nothing."
His answer further befuddled everyone. They were not sure if Nial wanted to show off that he had no problems fighting against 3rd Intermediate Mirae ranked beasts, or if he was just being honest.
Nonetheless, the others were bothered because Nial had killed the majority of beasts around them.
"If he continues like that, we can hardly follow our system of loot distribution," Timothée grumbled as he saw how Nial killed another batch of Nightmare wolves without breaking a sweat.
"You wanted to give everyone a fair share? Well, you can forget about that now. Nial might have killed more beasts than the four of us did together!" Cecile gritted her teeth as she spoke.
It was not that she liked Nial in any way. However, one had to acknowledge if someone was stronger than them. If one wouldn't be able to accept something so simple, life could turn miserable.
"I think we should just distribute everything amongst ourselves in the old-fashioned way. Everyone gets what they killed, and what they pick up. We might not get much from the beasts all around the Nightfall valley, but that is not our goal, to begin with, right?" Leo joined the conversation all of a sudden. His entire demeanor resembled that of a sly fox, a chubby one though.
"The mines…if we find a hidden mineral cave, it should be possible for us to gain a huge fortune. The only issue is that it has already been a day since the Nightfall valley's dungeon resetted. All caves might already be occupied by others," Timothée growled when he slashed out at a beast, ending it in a single motion.
Everyone gained more motivation to fight because they were jealous of Nial as he made them feel weak and miserable. It was definitely not something they looked forward to but Nial's high combat prowess indirectly forced everyone to give their all and not to fall behind a lot.
Timothée was the most affected by Nial's terrifying strength. However, after Leo told him about Nial's identity and what he did before and during the fight against the Dryx, Timothée understood that there was a big gap between the two of them.
This was frustrating but it was not as if it was actually Nial's fault. He was just stronger than them, and he was definitely not showing off or trying to make them feel low purposefully.
If he wanted to show off, his fighting style would be completely different, focused on elegance and magnificent movements, not to eradicate the opponents around him as quickly as possible.
"I can sense some of the ores you guys mentioned earlier. There should be a cave nearby," Nial suddenly recalled after he had heard everything the others had spoken about.
He didn't mind their behavior, and it didn't actually matter how they would share the loot. Nial wanted to test his strength and collect a few ingredients to create more runic armaments, that was it.
His [Mana Sense] clearly perceived different mana fluctuations in the direction he pointed at. The group walked in that particular direction without another word about the distribution of loot.
It might be important to decide that before anyone would dare to demand more than they actually deserved, but Nial didn't actually seem like a bad guy. Timothée was certain that Nial would be nice and fair and that there was no reason to worry about anything that had yet to happen.
Nial's range of perception could perceive everything in a range of 500 meters with exceptional clarity. Only within 100 meters, everything could be visualized perfectly, but the range of 500 meters was still more than enough for him to perceive the outlines of everything and everybody, if only slightly blurry.
"The cave should be here," Nial said with a small smile.
"But we're standing right in front of…nothing?" Cecile asked, looking around wildly. She then furrowed her brows and looked at him in suspicion.
Leo and the others looked around but they couldn't see anything either.
"I mean, the cave should be below us, roughly 10 meters below us is the entrance," Nial was still smiling, ignoring Cecile's doubt completely.
"Below us…so there shouldn't have been anyone else yet…that's amazing!" Timothée exclaimed as he readied himself to start digging. However, Leo and Kelia could only look at Nial in shock.
"You can sense what lies 10 meters below the surface?" Leo asked, his voice cracking at the end.
"Oh, that is nothing," Nial waved his hand off as he continued to speak, "As long as the dirt, rocks, and other materials below the surface are not dense in mana, I can probably sense things that lay 50 meters below the surface. If I use one of my abilities, it's even more than that."
Nial spoke calmly but the content of his information shocked Kelia and Leo extremely.
"You can use your perception to 'see' what lies past the several-meter-thick layers of earth, and rocks?? Everything inside the dungeons holds mana…so you can see what lies past these layers of mana…." Kelia mumbled in shock. She was holding her head in pain, while her expression turned complex all of a sudden.
Leo felt just like Kelia, but he was able to hold himself together much better than his comrade.
Meanwhile, Cecile and Timothée were not really good with theoretical stuff. They could only tell that their range of perception below the surface was around a meter or two but that was already it.
But it was no surprise to them that Nial's range of perception was better. After all, his mana control was much better than theirs and he was blind which was why he relied on his range of perception much more than others.
They didn't train their range of perception, which resulted in them only being able to perceive things one or two meters below them.
To them, the range of perception was simply not worth being trained in. They could see very well, and their other senses were also quite helpful.
"How about we start then?" Nial asked, and summoned several shovels made of darkness. Using mana he controlled the shovels precisely to start digging around.
Simultaneously, he also controlled the surrounding mana to replenish the mana he was using up. Nial didn't mind what the others were doing. He was just focused on getting his hand on the ores in the hopes of creating high mana conductive runic armaments with them anytime soon.
Timothèe and the others soon joined to dig deeper into the ground. Their current location was quite isolated from anywhere around, and it would be quite difficult for them to be found. As long as nobody caused a ruckus everything would be fine.
"I know that it is common for everyone to claim ownership of the materials they mine, but can we adjust this rule a bit?" Nial suddenly asked as he was focusing on digging deeper into the ground.
Only a few minutes had passed since they started but with everyone's hard work and effort they had already reached the stone layer.
Cecile and Timothée flinched upon hearing Nial's question and they looked at him doubtfully.
"H-how exactly do you want to adjust the dungeon 'rules'?" Timothée asked, feeling unsure of why he felt intimidated right now.
Nial took it easy when he waved off his hand to calm the others.
"Take it easy. I just want to buy the Dark Gold, the Niclan Silver, and the Titanium Copper which you guys will farm. I can buy it at the market price as well," He offered a deal in a calm voice that reached everybody but instead of feeling overjoyed, they frowned deeply.
It was almost as if they were trying to ask what he was scheming. However, Nial could only continue to smile. He felt that the current situation was ridiculous.
Who would have thought that they get so lucky? With luck on their side and Nial's precise and powerful range of perception, everything had been possible. It was amazing!
"I'm rich," He added as an afterthought as if it was the most ordinary thing one would say at this moment.
"O…okay…." Timothée answered. He was blinking his eyes and staring at him in shock, waiting for Nial to say that he was joking. But when he didn't, Timothee realized that Nial was serious.
"You really want to buy everything we will farm…at the market price??" He asked with a disbelieving look, but Nial merely nodded his head.
"Exactly," he supplied.
Timothée and the others looked at each other for several seconds. They had conflicted expressions on their faces. To them, Nial had done nearly everything since they had entered the Nightfall valley dungeon.
He had killed more than half of all the beasts they encountered in the dungeon and he had found the cavern entrance as well. Without him, they would have been injured and forced to return to the Forest of Life.
The group of four gathered and spoke to each other for a moment. Nial tried not to hear them but his hearing sense was simply too developed for him to ignore their words.
'They're really nice,' He thought when they finished discussing what they wanted to do.
"We will sell you all the ores and other things you want. However, the price will be 30% below the market price. We would feel guilty by exploiting you after everything you did for us…" Timothée said, not showing a trace of the arrogant and aloof behavior he had demonstrated in their first meeting.
"That's very nice of all of you. Thank you," Nial genuinely thanked them before he continued to find his way through the layer of stones.
The darkness shovels had turned into mining pickaxes that smashed on the stone, bursting it open easily.
It didn't take long before the hole they had dug was ten meters deep.
"Nial are you sure that there is something, I cann—" Cecile was just about to finish her question when Nial's smile turned brighter. He sensed that all five of his darkness mining pickaxes had hit at a spot that was nearby.
"Attention please, we will fall now, fasten your seat belts," he laughed before the ground below them crumbled, revealing utter darkness as a ten-meter-deep hole appeared below their feet.
Their feet didn't hit solid ground, so everyone just collapsed with the mud and rocks. Kelia screamed at the top of her lungs, while the others closed their mouths instinctively.
None of them could prevent their hearts from beating rapidly as they were devoured by the darkness. When they fell on the ground, everyone was panting. Only Nial was quite calm as he landed as if he had just done a somersault.
"There are three tunnels we can go in. I'm not sure how you guys want to proceed, but I think it would be best to split up. I cannot perceive a single monster in the surrounding area. Though, I cannot perceive everything in the underground," Nial said as he ignored the terrified faces of the other youths completely.
He could only smile a bit before he shrugged his shoulders as he expanded his range of perception with the use of his [Mana Sense].
"We've hit the jackpot!" Nial exclaimed in joy.
This was more than enough to force everyone to shut their mouths and turn their attention to Nial, who immediately noticed what was going on.
"If I'm not wrong, there is not only Dark Gold, Niclan Silver, and Titanium Copper, but also a type of crystal that can be used for the creation of runic solutions," Nial recalled while frowning.
"But why are you frowning then?" Cecile asked, her voice overflowing with joy.
"Well, I cannot sense a single beast underground, which is weird, and I am actually not sure how to price these crystals. Crevian told us about the magnetite crystals in a lesson about runic armaments. They're not necessarily rare, but mankind has yet to get their hands on a single source of them…" Nial was honest with his team.
There was no need to lie, after all.
When the others heard what Nail said, they immediately knew why Nial had been so astonished before.
"We have really hit the jackpot!!"
**
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