3: Chapter 3 Promotion Test

The bald man laughed uncontrollably, but the sound only terrified the mine slaves more; they didn't even dare to breathe loudly.

Among the mine's Overseers, this bald man was the most brutal; he changed his face faster than a heavenly change.

Moreover, he took great pleasure in torturing people, using extremely cruel methods.

If one truly fell into his hands, it would be better to just die quickly.

Sure enough, the bald man's laughter stopped abruptly, and his expression instantly turned cold and ruthless.

"Then do you know the consequences of lying to me? I promise you, when the time comes, you'll be begging me to kill you."

Tang Long didn't panic at all.

"You won't need to kill me, because I'm not lying."

The bald Overseer sneered, "Your promotion test will begin immediately. I'll lock you in a separate mine shaft. If you haven't mined five pieces of spirit residue by sunrise tomorrow, you fail. If you don't find them, I'll skin you alive under the sun you love so much."

"Follow me."

As the bald man was about to turn around, Tang Long hurriedly said, "My Lord, I've been working all day and have no strength left. Testing tonight is unfair to me..."

"Shut up! It's too late for regrets now. If you keep dawdling, I don't mind working some overtime tonight."

The bald Overseer seemed unable to restrain himself, his hand reaching for the short blade behind his waist.

Tang Long quickly changed his tune, "At least give me something to eat so I can fill my stomach."

The bald Overseer couldn't help but sneer, "Trying to trick me into giving you a final meal? I've seen plenty of your kind. Move it!"

He was the butcher's knife, and I was the meat on the block.

Tang Long knew he couldn't say any more and had to follow him toward a mine shaft.

Seeing the two walk away, the mine slaves finally began to sigh and lament.

"He's finished."

"This kid is so stupid, telling such a lie just for a bite to eat."

"It's only his first day; he probably hasn't figured out how things work here yet. He even dared to provoke Vulture."

"If I were him, I'd end it myself tonight and not wait for dawn."

...

In the pitch-black mine shaft, Tang Long weighed the small hand pick the bald man had thrown to him, his stomach growling incessantly.

He had intended to use the 'aim for the top to get the middle' tactic to at least trick his way into some food.

But he hadn't expected that damned bald man to see right through it.

Fucking Blue Star people.

But it didn't matter; it was just Mining.

In the heavenly change game, Mining was the most common life skill. One could learn it from a life skill instructor or comprehend it after a single successful excavation.

Life skills were divided into six levels: Apprentice, Proficient, Expert, Adept, Master, and Divine Work.

In truth, even with an Apprentice-level Mining skill, it wasn't hard to mine five pieces of spirit residue in a night; the difficulty was that players usually couldn't find the Mining areas.

When the panel was activated earlier, the system had compensated him with the authority to instantly promote two life skills to Master-level; now was the perfect time to use it.

He wasn't entirely sure how effective Master-level Mining was, as he had only been level 39 back then.

He began tapping and digging in the pitch-black mine shaft with his hand pick. The cave rock was far harder than he had imagined, and things weren't going well. He could only find a relatively soft spot and increase his effort.

Over an hour later, as a large rock rolled away and a mass of sand and soil collapsed, a red crystal the size of a fingernail appeared before his eyes.

[You have successfully completed an excavation and comprehended the life skill: Mining {Apprentice}!]

[Proficiency +1, Experience Points +3!]

[You have the authority to directly promote a life skill to Master-level {Current: 2}. Promote immediately? Yes/No]

[You have obtained: Mining {Master}! Current Proficiency: 1/1,000,000]

Tang Long wiped the sweat and dirt from his face, picked up the spirit residue, and slumped to the ground.

[You have obtained fire spirit residue!]

After the notification, the red crystal suddenly vanished.

Tang Long was startled, but a familiar row of grids suddenly appeared in his vision.

"Is this... the Inventory?"

Although the initial Inventory only had ten slots, just like in the game, his shock at this moment was no less than when the panel was first activated.

Because even on Doomsday, when supernatural powers manifested in reality, not all game functions had appeared. Things like an Inventory had completely vanished; how could he have one now?

Wasn't this equivalent to a private storage space that others couldn't see?

He looked at the spirit residue in his Inventory. With a thought, the red crystal appeared in his hand, his eyes shining brightly.

It felt... very good.

But it didn't solve his current predicament.

Although he had successfully mined the first piece of spirit residue and raised his skill to Master-level, he still felt he had underestimated the difficulty of Mining.

Mining in the game was all about progress bars, but doing it himself, he hadn't expected it to be so exhausting.

He was already hungry, and after expending so much physical strength, his body was even weaker. His overall status had dropped to 32%, and he didn't want to move at all.

Furthermore, it wasn't just hunger; Tang Long felt his Strength was too low, only 4 points on the panel.

It was said that 10 points of Strength in the game represented the peak level of an ordinary Blue Star person; 4 points wasn't even half of that.

At this level, let alone fighting a Blue Star martial artist, he was even weaker than back when he was a scrawny student in university.

On the bright side, one successful Mining attempt had given him 3 experience points.

It only took 100 experience to get from Level 1 to Level 2. He only needed to mine 33 more pieces of spirit residue to level up.

33 pieces...

Crap!

That many?

There was nothing for it; he had to overcome this hurdle.

Fortunately, he had learned the Breathing Method earlier. Although this eerie technique was painful to practice and even drained Health and life, it could indeed squeeze power out of his body.

Tang Long rested for a while longer, then performed two breathing cycles. As strength surged through him, he immediately resumed Mining.

Then...

Just three minutes later, he found the second piece of spirit residue. Unfortunately, he accidentally hit it with the tip of his pick, and it shattered into a cluster of fiery flames with a pop.

Ten minutes later, he found the third piece.

Looking at the {spirit residue X2} in his Inventory, he suddenly felt a sense of unreality.

Because... it was too simple.

It was as if he could sense where the spirit residue was; he could vaguely see thin threads of light extending from them, and they were the source of these threads.

As long as he dug toward the thicker or denser clusters of light, he might not be precise every time, but he was usually spot on.

To verify his suspicion, he followed a certain thread of light to a stone wall and gently scratched at it with his fingers. A flicker of fiery red light shone through, and he easily plucked out another piece of spirit residue.

"Is Master-level Mining really this badass?"

His gaze instinctively drifted toward a corner of the ground, where the thickest thread of light in this mine shaft extended.

Another half-hour passed. During that time, Tang Long used the Breathing Technique once more to replenish his stamina, even losing four points of Vitality in the process. But when he cleared away the soil and stone and felt an egg-sized oval crystal, his breath hitched, and his heart was filled with joy and shock.

This thing was actually a Spirit stone!

[You have mined a fire spirit stone! Experience +30!]

[Under the enhancement of the psionic sensory perception from Mining {Master}, you have broken through some of the restrictions of the Juling Breathing Technique {Fragmented} and comprehended the derivative skill: Fire Eye LV1!]

[Fire Eye LV1: By gathering psionic energy in your eyes, you can see the veins of psionic energy. Proficiency: 0/1000, Next Level Requirement: Spirit 10.]

Tang Long thought to himself, "Holy cow."

To be able to break the limits of a technique and even comprehend a new skill—this couldn't be described as just "badass."

By the way, was this really an original feature of the game? Did I play for nothing before?

He tried using the skill. His vision instantly brightened; the entire mine shaft seemed illuminated by firelight, and the fiery red psionic veins became even clearer, filled with a unique beauty.

What had felt hazy before was now crystal clear.

However, as clear as the Fire Eye was, it was also quite demanding on his psionic energy.

It consumed almost one point of psionic energy per second; even with Tang Long's mana pool, he didn't dare keep it active for long.

Also, he had actually mined a Spirit stone...

Didn't they say this was a depleted mine? How was it so easy to find a Spirit stone?

After a moment, Tang Long couldn't help but chuckle.

For others, it might indeed be very difficult.

But for him, it would be abnormal if he didn't find any.

Making a fuss over it would be a sign of disrespect to a Mining Master.

One could even say that while trading five Spirit stones for freedom was like a dream to others, it probably wouldn't be much of a problem for him.

Freedom might not be far off.

At that thought, he couldn't help but smile.

Come to think of it, his game level in his previous life was only 39. In the late stages of the game, players were generally Level 60+, the average for professional tiers was over 80, and a few top players even reached the game's cap of Level 100. In that environment, Level 39 was hardly different from a Level 1 newbie.

Although his level had reset to zero, he felt it was well worth it to trade that for such a high starting point.

But after a moment, he couldn't help but sigh deeply.

The events of his past life were still vivid in his mind. What should he do in this life? How could he save Earth? Why was he reborn, and what was the purpose of all this?

Before, he hadn't had the time to consider these things, and even now, he couldn't find the answers.

But he had reason to believe that with his current starting point, he would find the answers and solutions in the future.

In any case...

For now, he should at least be able to get a full meal.