Chapter 118: Gorging on Blessing Oil

The entrance to the Woma Forest, home to the Woma Temple, is located at the one-o'clock position on the main Bicheon map. It sits directly across the Bicheon River—which runs through the heart of the Bicheon continent—from the entrance to the Serpent Valley at the two-o'clock position. To reach the Woma Forest, Lin Jia and his companions had to first travel from the Serpent Valley to the Bicheon Imperial City to reset their return points before heading toward their destination.

In "Legend," if you cross a major map boundary without entering a city's safety zone, using a Town Return Scroll, Dungeon Escape Scroll, or teleportation magic will send you back to the map you originally came from. You must enter a city's safety zone to update your return point. For example, since Lin Jia’s group traveled from Mengzhong to Bicheon, if they flew directly to the Woma Forest entrance using a Random Teleport Scroll without first entering the Imperial City, any emergency use of a town return or teleportation spell while in danger would send them all the way back to Mengzhong, wasting a significant amount of time. Random Teleport Scrolls, however, are not restricted by this rule.

As they reached the Serpent Valley, they noticed "Gufeng Yizhen" shouting trade offers in the chat box using yellow text. Lin Jia quickly clicked his name to initiate a private conversation.

"You guys are here! Come quick, come quick! I'm in the Serpent Village! I’ve got the Blessing Oils you wanted last time!" Gufeng Yizhen said with a cheerful laugh.

Since it was on their way, the three of them reached the Serpent Village and found Gufeng Yizhen standing in the safety zone, stark naked and holding a pickaxe. The kid seemed to have developed a habit of running around in his birthday suit lately. The pickaxe was a tool, not a weapon; while it had a negligible attack value, it wasn't meant for combat or leveling.

Just like in reality, its purpose was to dig. In the mines of Bicheon and the Serpent Valley, players could use the pickaxe to chip various ores out of the cavern walls. Much like the meat harvested from deer, sheep, or chickens, it was a way for beginners to earn gold. Initially, few knew about this method, as players had to reach level 11 to equip the pickaxe.

Once discovered, it quickly became a craze. Players too poor to afford potions flooded into the Zombie Caves—the mining zones—frantically hacking at the walls to extract ore, which they would then sell to the blacksmith. If lucky, a full day of mining could yield 200,000 to 300,000 gold coins, providing enough funds to level comfortably for several days.

Consequently, droves of newcomers occupied the mines. Upon entering, one would see a dense army of miners stretching like the Great Wall, shoulder to shoulder, hacking away at the walls deep into the dark, gloomy tunnels. It was a spectacular, bustling scene of "the working class joining hands to ensure prosperity."

Many impoverished player organizations and guilds even formed dedicated mining squads to station themselves in the mines, ensuring a steady supply of funds for the guild. For a time, mining became the primary economic activity in "Legend."

There were several types of ore: iron, copper, black-iron, silver, and gold. Gold ore was the most valuable; a high-quality piece could fetch thousands or even tens of thousands of gold coins at the blacksmith. Silver came next. While the other ores sold for less, they were much more common—much like rare equipment drops, the more valuable the item, the lower the drop rate. Ores also had a quality rating, which likely represented the purity of the metal contained within.

The strangest one was "Black-iron Ore." It wasn't particularly expensive, yet it was even rarer than gold ore, which infuriated players. If it was so hard to find, it should at least be worth something!

Lin Jia and his friends didn't bother with mining. With the time it took to earn 200,000 to 300,000 gold, they could have hunted rare items worth much more. It wasn't just about losing leveling time; it was about the poor returns. However, other players didn't see it that way. "Behind the vermilion gates, wine and meat go to waste; out on the road, frozen corpses lie." Lin Jia and his friends, being among the first to get rich, couldn't fathom the hardships of the average player. Could you imagine spending hours in a dark, sunless mine, wielding a pickaxe just to afford a pack of potions or to repair a piece of gear, often stripping naked to save on durability repair costs?

Their hopes for better gear rested entirely on those ugly rocks. Compared to wealthy players, the gold earned this way—and the gear bought with the fruits of their own labor—felt far more rewarding. Years later, they might even look back fondly on the days they spent mining in the dark, shirtless and determined.

***

Seeing that Lin Jia and his friends had arrived so quickly, Gufeng Yizhen was surprised. "How did you get here so fast?"

"We're heading to Woma!" Lao Si laughed.

"To fight the boss?" Gufeng Yizhen, who seemed to be online 24/7, guessed their intentions immediately. He drooled, "If you get a Woma Horn, you’ll be rich! You can sell it for real money! I saw someone in the capital shouting that they’d pay 1,000 yuan for one. Apparently, some guild tried to go down there several times and couldn't get it; it must be incredibly dangerous... Oh, by the way, I sold five gold bars to a classmate two days ago and had a feast with the money. It was great!"

Lin Jia and his friends exchanged a knowing smile. The kid had made a decent profit flipping gear they had given him. While they took the lion's share, the markup he earned added up.

"Here, take the Blessing Oils!" Gufeng Yizhen chatted for a bit before opening the trade window. "The price of these has skyrocketed lately. Not many newbies are willing to sell them cheap anymore; they’re hoarding them to sell in the capital. I only managed to collect about thirty. Some I bought early for a few thousand gold, but now even at 50,000, no one wants to sell. Why do you need these anyway?"

"They add attack power," Lin Jia explained simply. He took the ten oils and immediately used one. A system prompt appeared: "Congratulations, your weapon has gained luck..." He used another and saw the same message. He thought, if luck adds attack, wouldn't more luck mean more attack? He opened his inventory and started clicking rapidly on the remaining oils.

However, it didn't work as he expected. Instead of a guaranteed increase, a series of system prompts appeared:

"Invalid!"
"Invalid!"
"Your weapon has been cursed!"
"Congratulations, your weapon has gained luck..."
"Congratulations, your weapon has gained luck..."
"Your weapon has been cursed!"

Lin Jia froze. He checked his Crescent Moon blade, which now had +4 luck and 1-4 magic damage. He turned to Laoda and Lao Si. "Damn it! Don't use all the oils! They don't always add luck; they can be invalid or add curses!" The others rushed over to look at his screen.

Laoda asked, bewildered, "Blessing Oil can add curses? Isn't it supposed to add luck? Did these expire?"

Lao Si scratched his head. "Maybe it's a probability thing! Like when we kill people and get cursed—sometimes it happens, sometimes it doesn't? Damn, these things are 50,000 gold each! Let's save them and just use them when we need to counter a curse from killing someone!" His own Frost Sword only had +2 luck, and he had only used two oils. It seemed that getting to +1, +2, or +3 was easy, but beyond that, curses and failures became common.

Laoda had just managed to remove a -3 curse from his high-quality Descent Demon (which had +3 accuracy and 1-3 Taoist power) and was being stingy, having only used one oil to add +1 luck. He glared at Lin Jia, "You don't know how hard it is to earn a living! You just wasted ten of those 50,000-gold items! That’s 500,000! You spendthrift!" Lin Jia remained silent. If he hadn't tested it first, they probably would have wasted them all too.

After reminding Gufeng Yizhen to keep an eye out for a level 25 "Assassination Sword Technique" for Lao Si, the trio set off for Bicheon. The long journey was tedious, and the three brothers complained about the lack of buses or taxis in the game to speed up travel.

After a brief stop in the Imperial City, they followed the endless stream of leveling newcomers out the west gate. They followed the Bicheon River straight to the Woma Forest at the northern edge of the map. To be honest, they hadn't really explored the Woma Forest before, only hearing that it was filled with Orcs, Orc Warriors, Hook Cats, Forest Yetis, and Man-eating Flowers. For their current levels, it wasn't particularly dangerous, but for those under level 20, it was a leveling paradise. The vast map provided plenty of space and monsters for new players to grow. With enough patience, anyone could find enough enemies to satisfy their leveling needs.