Chapter 69: A Good Meal

“There’s a wooden cart over there—you can load the stones onto it.”

When Su You told him to head back, Lake was naturally uneasy. He had no idea what was happening below; all he knew was that when he returned with another torch, he found the bottom of the pit completely empty—not a soul in sight.

Lake: …!?!

Fortunately, Su You responded to his calls, letting him know she was safe.

“This is a series of connected mines. I’m in another tunnel, and it’s safe here.” Su You paused, then continued, “I’ll head back after I finish checking things out here. Once you’ve taken the stones back, if you have time, chop some wood. I’ll need a lot of lumber and stone this afternoon for building.”

“And pass a message to Dolly for me—ask her to gather more red berries. We’ll have a good meal tonight.”

Not only had they opened up a new path to the mine today, but they’d also caught a black-striped tiger… and now, they’d even discovered a network of connected tunnels!

With one piece of good news after another, tonight definitely called for a celebratory meal.

After relaying all these instructions, Lake was still reluctant to leave, but he chose to follow orders.

“All right then…” Lake said helplessly. “I’ll head back now. Please be careful, my lord.”

Once Lake left, Su You prepared to explore the second tunnel. But before going in, she crouched down and reached her hand out to the white ermine.

“Come up.” Maybe it really understood her, because the ermine didn’t hesitate at all—it scampered up her arm and perched on her shoulder.

Its tiny, nervous paws clung to her clothes, while its long tail draped across the back of her neck.

With the ermine in place, Su You steadied herself against the cave wall and slowly moved forward. As she went, she kept her construction interface open, always on the lookout for a spot to place a campfire.

She didn’t know how long she’d been inching along before she finally found a clearing big enough for a campfire. The moment the fire was lit, it felt like her entire world brightened.

Now, Su You could finally see where she was—a vast, open cavern, completely different from the cramped tunnel above.

Even better, she could see traces of various ores in the rock walls. Just at a glance, she spotted three types: coal, copper, and something called “Refined Magic Ore.”

Coal and copper were self-explanatory—the former was fuel, and with coal, Su You could finally craft basic portable lighting.

As for copper, its main use was to make tools and equipment of the corresponding tier. Besides that, copper could be used to mint copper coins—currency in this world could actually be crafted.

Not just copper—silver and gold ore could also be made into silver and gold coins.

But usually, people didn’t do this. Ores were a limited resource—once mined, they were gone, and they were consumed in huge quantities.

Once a trading post was built, currency could be obtained infinitely through trade.

Ores could also be traded for, but merchants rarely had much in stock. The main source was still to find and mine them yourself.

As for Refined Magic Ore, even though it was an ore, it couldn’t be used to craft anything directly. Instead, it was an enhancement material—people liked to call it “enchantment material.”

Its main use was to add it during crafting, which would increase the chances of getting better attributes or higher quality on the finished item.

It sounded impressive, but early on, it wasn’t very useful, since you needed the right crafting skills.

Without the proper skills, Refined Magic Ore was useless—Su You didn’t even have any NPCs who could craft things yet.

Still, as long as there was copper, this mine was decent quality… What Su You feared most was ending up with a silver or gold mine.

Although silver and gold were more valuable than copper in every way, mining silver required a copper pickaxe, and mining gold required a silver pickaxe…

Luckily, that wasn’t the case here—whether that was good or bad luck, she wasn’t sure.

“Did you know there was a mine here?” Instead of immediately digging, Su You turned to look at the little creature on her shoulder after spotting the copper.

In response, she got an innocent look.

‘Chirp?’ What are you talking about?

Su You: “…” She almost forgot—they didn’t speak the same language.

Since they couldn’t communicate, Su You let the matter drop… though in her heart, she already had her answer.

After all, Lake had been led here by the ermine, and she’d only started investigating the surface tunnel after noticing the ermine’s odd behavior—only then did she discover the interconnected mines…

Since they couldn’t chat, Su You stopped trying and picked up her pickaxe, ready to dig up some coal and copper to bring back.

…

While Su You was mining, the white ermine hopped down from her shoulder. It sat obediently by the campfire, watching her dig for a while, then twitched its nose…

Even though Su You was focused on mining, she kept an eye on the ermine out of the corner of her eye. At first, seeing it quietly by the fire, she didn’t think much of it. But just a few minutes later, when she glanced over again, the ermine had vanished.

Noticing this, Su You paused for a moment, but didn’t stop mining to look for it. She chose to keep working.

[Obtained Coal x6]

[Obtained Copper Ore Fragments x48]

[Obtained Copper Ore x5]

[Obtained Copper Ore x8]

…

Copper ore fragments were similar to the sandstone shards she’d found before—both had their own drop rates when mining. The difference was, sandstone shards were useless, but copper ore fragments could be refined in a furnace to extract copper, though at a lower yield.

Normally, one copper ore smelted in a furnace would yield one copper ingot, but it would take 10–20 copper ore fragments to smelt a single ingot.

The efficiency depended on the furnace’s level—the lower the level, the less efficient the filtering, and the more fragments it took. Higher-level furnaces were more efficient and used fewer fragments.

Given her current setup, these 48 copper ore fragments were worth less than two and a half copper ingots—but every little bit helped.

(End of chapter)"