187: Fire magic and mining machines

[Opportunity Mission: The Moon Serpent is severely injured and unable to compete with other high-level Mist Monsters for the ownership of a habitable zone. While hesitating, it saw a Cold Ice Spring in your Shelter. Therefore, the Moon Serpent wishes to reside in the Cold Ice Spring within your Shelter's courtyard to recuperate. You are required to provide it with 30 tons of spinach and 90 tons of cabbage daily.

In exchange for food and lodging, the Moon Serpent is willing to temporarily serve as your Shelter's guardian beast, willing to help you dispel all threats, marks, curses, and erosions brought by high-ranking Mist Monsters, and willing to repel all invading enemies, and so on.

You must sign a temporary Shelter Guardian Beast employment contract with the Moon Serpent. The food and lodging conditions requested by the Moon Serpent will be detailed in the contract. The opposing party will strictly abide by the duties of a guardian beast, or else it will instantly be killed by the mist rule!

Furthermore, the Moon Serpent is willing to grant you an additional Skill, Fire Element Technique, which allows you to walk freely and unharmed in the environment of the Blazing Flame Disaster!]

[Contract Content: ...]

[Note: If you agree to this mission, please actively sign the employment contract!]

[Note: This mission is limited to 7 days. The guardian beast employment contract is a temporary contract, effective for only 7 days. After 7 days, the Moon Serpent will be expelled from your Shelter by the mist rule.]

[Note: The Moon Serpent is a temporarily employed Shelter guardian beast. Its range of activity is limited to your Shelter's courtyard and it cannot enter the interior of your Shelter.]

[Note: Any secrets concerning the Shelter, as well as any secretive information and memories about you that the Moon Serpent acquires during these 7 days, will be deleted by the mist rule on the day the contract is terminated, unless the opposing party is willing to permanently become your guardian beast.]

[Note: This Opportunity Mission is a long-term mission. If you accept it, you will receive generous rewards of Mist Points, as well as additional rewards.]

Su Lie looked at the Opportunity Mission prompt, which contained several pages of content.

His heart trembled, "This couldn't be another deception, could it?" Thinking this, he began to test it.

After a series of tests, he breathed a sigh of relief, "It really was sent by the mist rule!" Only then did he recall the prompt and look at the contract again.

The contract contained a total of 30 clauses, 15 of which were restrictions on the Moon Serpent.

Not only did these include the clauses mentioned in the notes, but they also stipulated that after becoming the Shelter's guardian beast, the Moon Serpent must take action to kill enemies when the Shelter encounters a crisis, or else it will be erased by the mist rule.

The Moon Serpent must also maintain the identity and attitude of a servant, or it will be erased by the mist rule.

There were 15 such similar clauses; if the Moon Serpent violated even one, it would be erased by the mist rule.

The remaining 15 clauses were Su Lie's promises to the Moon Serpent, including requirements for food and lodging, and the scope of commands the Moon Serpent could execute, and so on.

After reviewing it, Su Lie immediately accepted the mission and signed the contract.

[Buzz!]

Instantly, another prompt appeared.

[Congratulations on successfully accepting the temporary Shelter Guardian Beast Opportunity Mission!]

[You have obtained the Skill Book Fire Element Technique gifted by the Moon Serpent.]

[Congratulations on becoming the first Survivor to possess a Shelter Guardian Beast among all Survivors. Reward: 1 million Mist Points! Reward: 1,000 free attribute points! Reward: One Fine Quality mining machine!]

At this moment, a palm-sized mining machine materialized before Su Lie.

One end of the mining machine was a sharp drilling head, connected to a cockpit, and behind the cockpit was a cargo bed used for transporting minerals.

Its entire body was engraved with exquisite Mist Runes.

Clearly, this was a vehicle combining a Rune Array Formation with a mechanical construct.

At the same time, a scroll of a Skill Book involuntarily appeared in Su Lie's left hand.

He first looked at the Skill Book.

[Fire Element Technique: Blue Rare Quality, Passive Skill. When walking in an environment of Blazing Flames, high temperatures, or a sea of fire, it will automatically consume 10 Spirit points per minute to ensure you are protected from any erosion or damage caused by fire or high temperatures.]

"This Skill is extremely useful!" Su Lie's mouth curved slightly upward after reading it.

He had currently only acquired the power to protect his Shelter from the erosion of Blazing Flames and seas of lava, but he had not gained the power to venture out in such high-temperature environments.

The Fire Element Technique undoubtedly compensated for this deficiency.

Immediately, Su Lie used the Skill Book and Strengthened the Fire Element Technique to god-tier.

Buzz!

In the blink of an eye, the description panel for the god-tier Fire Element Technique appeared in Su Lie's view.

[Fire Element Technique: Red God-level Quality; Passive Skill. Any Blazing Flame, high temperature, or fire cannot harm you, obstruct your breathing, or burn your body. You can walk freely in fire.]

"Excellent! Good!" Su Lie nodded.

This time, he finally had the means to go outside.

He couldn't help but look up at the sky, "I wonder when the meteor shower mentioned by the mist rule will arrive!"

His thoughts shifted, and he looked at the mining machine nearby.

[mining machine: Green Fine Quality; Daily mining volume is 100,000 units. Can mine Stone, iron, and crystal ores. Requirement: 1 driver. Consumption: Consumes 10 monster crystals daily. Special Effect—Automatic Collection: Resources excavated by the mining machine will be automatically collected into the mining cart's cargo bed via the Rune Array Formation.]

"This thing can increase mining efficiency! It's a pity there's only one. If it were a blueprint, I could manufacture them on a large scale!" Su Lie said seriously.

Currently, the Little Skeletons and the White Bone Demon General are divided into 9 mining teams working on stone ore veins.

It is estimated that each team mines between 700,000 and 900,000 units per day.

That is to say, Su Lie can harvest 9 god-level ore vein hearts every day.

But if he wants to harvest 1,000 hearts of the ore vein, he will need at least 112 days.

Even with this additional mining machine, it is merely a drop in the bucket.

However, having it is better than not having it.

In order to quickly complete the Shelter's second advancement mission, Su Lie would certainly welcome anything that aids mining.

He immediately used the Enhancement Talent on the mining machine.

Buzz! Buzz! Buzz!

In the blink of an eye, the mining machine was Strengthened into a god-tier mining machine.

Su Lie looked at its panel again.

He saw that the mining machine's quality had changed from Green Fine to red god-tier.

The daily mining volume became 5 million, and it could excavate all ore vein resources.

It consumed 100 monster crystals daily.

The driver requirement remained 1 person.

Besides the Automatic Collection special effect, it gained 4 additional special effects.

[Special Effect—Storage Compartment Cargo Bed: The cargo bed has 10 storage compartments, and each compartment can stack infinitely. Special Effect—Extreme Speed Mining: Increases mining speed by 100 times. Special Effect—Never Worn Out: The mining machine will permanently not be damaged. Special Effect—Harvest heart of the ore vein: The mining machine has the function of harvesting the heart of the ore vein and storing it in the Storage Compartment Cargo Bed.]

"Good! This type of vehicle can even harvest the heart of the ore vein. This truly saves me time!" Su Lie's eyes lit up after seeing this.

He immediately called for No. 6 Little Skeleton and handed the mining machine over to it.

Number 6, excited, saluted Su Lie and thrillingly took the miniaturized vehicle down to the second underground level.

There, it activated the mining machine.

Buzz!

The mining machine instantly expanded into a tracked vehicle 7 meters long and 3 meters high.

Number 6 fiddled with the mining machine for a while and finally activated it.

Rumble!

Only then did it drive the mining machine into the mine tunnel.

Su Lie watched Number 6 mine for a bit before leaving contentedly.

When he returned to the first floor of the Shelter, Su Liya found Su Lie.

She said solemnly, "Master! An adult named Moon Serpent wants to come in outside the Shelter door? I sensed an aura of kinship on it!"

"Hmm? An aura of kinship?" Su Lie was stunned.

He used his Super Sense of Smell.

After just one sniff, he instantly understood Su Liya's words.

The so-called aura of kinship was because Su Lie and all the Little Skeletons and Skeleton Demon Generals under his command possessed a unique scent exclusive to him.

Now, the Moon Serpent outside the door also possessed such a scent, though it was very faint!

Su Lie smiled faintly, then took Su Liya and strode toward the entrance.

As he walked, he explained the situation regarding the Moon Serpent to Su Liya...