After devouring the centipedes, we continue on our way and got blocked by monsters once more. Just like before we do our usual job and eliminate them before they can unleash anything. It's necessary if we want to have a casual and easy time without getting overwhelmed by monsters as of being noisy and ear-catching.
As we continue to move, we soon arrived in a chamber of the cave filled with some kind of glowing blue gemstones sticking on the wall and floor. There are also some in the ceiling but I decided to leave that one out as that can potentially cause a cave-in if I became greedy enough. After a few inspections on it, I found out it was just a Lapis Lazuli node. Although not as precious as gold, silver, and iron for me, they are still somewhat useful as they are basically components in some potions if I grind them to powder and mix them during alchemy. They have some decent components but are not that much needed. Still good to have so I didn't take this chance to go to waste and harvested them.
I left a few of them behind as over-mining is not going to end up good for me and my surroundings despite being in the game since those accidents happen here as well and they don't repair themselves, it stays and if you are trapped, you are trapped there until you die and get sent to the Cathedral.
After walking for a bit more, we soon arrived in another chamber, this time, it was full of gold ores which are pretty similar to the gold ore cave Dolly and I found back then. The amount is not that much but it's quite big for a random node in the cave. The only bad thing is that it is being guarded by some insects gnawing at it. From the looks of it, it's those insects that are called Gem Eaters, insects that eat any kind of ore, metals, and stones. Even minerals and poisonous stuff are not spared by them as long as they are counted as "minerals", they are food. But their favorite is obviously gems, as their names are implied despite eater of different materials.
These things are not hard to deal with and they are not that dangerous. The only problem with them is that they tend to spray acid on the minerals they are eating, corroding them in the process and deeming the material useless as a result.
"Master, there are some bugs over there on the gold nodes, what should we do? Should we kill them?" Gobu asked.
"Wait for a bit," I hold them back from attacking just yet and surveyed the area for a bit. Once I ensured that there are no other monsters besides the Gem Eaters, I gave the signal to attack.
Tina released the usual [Sleeping Powder] to them and once they fell asleep, we immediately strike ahead and dealt them with, saving the gold ores from being corroded. As soon as we finished killing the Gem Eaters, Cotton glows all of a sudden, signifying she leveled up.
"Wow, that was a slow gain. She is now level 2!" Gobu noticed.
"Indeed. We killed a few monsters around and no one from us is gaining experience points that much except for Cotton and yet she barely leveled up just now. How big was her exp pool for it to last that long?" I frowned.
"Still, it is good that she leveled up. It will take some time but it seems we will be doing quite a lot of exploration for now so it doesn't matter much as we will get more opportunities to raise her levels later on."
Everyone nodded as they agree that the monsters here are always present, giving us chances to fight more of them and rake in more experience points for her. For now, raking in the treasures is the first priority for me.
Mining the gold ores takes a few minutes to do. I am thankful that I brought in the upgraded version of my pickaxe that can easily mine this stuff fast as it will take a few hours to mine all of the ores we just found.
Once we harvested all of the available gold, we press on, and soon enough, we stumbled into a nest of monsters but this time around, I am shocked to see that the next boss for the final wave is present there, resting and seems to be charging up her body. I should have expected it to be their home ground but seeing their nest is just something else.
"Master, this nest is big and it seems we can easily sabotage this place and destroy it before it awakens up. What should we do?" Tina asked.
I am conflicted. There is a big possibility that if I kill the current boss here, without it letting march down the swamp, the barrier blocking all the players from exploring this place disappears. Then there is the sense of danger I have with it. If we don't kill it, there is a chance it will awaken and starts to attack the players before they can recover from the previous raid and prepare."
"What are you waiting for? Isn't that your main purpose? To find monsters and kill them? If you kill these guys down, you will satisfy my cravings and you get to do some beautiful carnage as well," Cath Palug nudges me to do it.
"You shut up. I am thinking here."
"Aw come on, just do it the usual way yeah? You kill them, you f*ck them up, and you gain their stuff, which is cool. So why can't you just do that?" he frowned.
I didn't respond to him. Before he can give another follow-up, I made a decision.
"Let's leave this thing for now. Let's explore the other chambers of this cave first before we head back here and destroy the nest. Let's make sure there are no other similar nests like this around before we return."
Yep, this is for the best. I need to explore the other areas first, loot all of the treasures, and make sure I return with my hands full of loot.
This content is taken from fr(e)ewebn(o)vel.𝓬𝓸𝓶