Ch.226226. The Golden Bird

The Ore Vein Mountain Range wasn’t a place you could just quickly find and be done with.

I didn’t rush things either, slowly revealing the map as I tackled the mountain range.

Still, as I continued to steadily reduce the number of Gold Birds flying through the sky, the dangerous situations were gradually decreasing as their numbers dwindled above.

Of course, this wasn’t yet the Bratrium Mine with its concentrated dense chaos energy, so I couldn’t completely let my guard down.

About 7 days.

After commuting to and from the Ore Vein Mountain Range for that long, I felt like I could navigate the biome’s paths reasonably well even when fog obscured my vision.

And on the 7th day, I finally discovered the Bratrium Mine.

[Sub Quest]

[SS-Rank Dungeon]

[The center of the mountain range filled with dense chaos energy, the Bratrium Mine at the core of the Ore Vein Mountain Range, is packed with chaos energy so thick it’s difficult to even approach. In this place where mere contact exposes one severely to chaos energy, Bratrium crystals that absorb chaos energy have clustered to form a mine. The Gold Bird nests, exposed to and soaked in the dense chaos energy flowing toward the Bratrium, are a pure amalgamation of gold and Bratrium without any impurities. Defeat the Gold Birds guarding the Bratrium crystals and destroy the crystallized dense chaos energy to purify the chaos spreading throughout the Ore Vein Mountain Range.]

[Reward: 100 Farming Stat Points, 10 Achievement Points, ‘Legendary’ or ‘Mythical’ grade reward boxes x2]

I’m not particularly fond of repetitive rewards.

Rewards should be varied enough to create anticipation for new quests, but simply increasing the quantity of rewards as dungeon ranks increase isn’t the best reward system.

There were many discussions about this in the Farming World.

However, in the Farming World, this repetitive reward system—simply increasing the quantity and quality of rewards in a tiered fashion—was the main approach, with occasional unique rewards added as supplements, so it wasn’t a major issue.

Rather, the problem arises when the quantity and quality of these repetitive rewards are insufficient. For me now, clean rewards were actually much better than receiving rewards whose purpose I couldn’t even determine.

Besides, the two ‘Legendary’ or ‘Mythical’ grade reward boxes were useful in themselves, and what was inside them was more important—in a way, random item boxes created more anticipation than direct random items.

“So this is how dense chaos energy dungeon rewards work, I see.”

They give higher rewards in exchange for being difficult to clear.

They’ll pack various biome-specific supplementary rewards into boxes for me to take.

Like the SSS+ ability selection, I preferred having things I could actually use.

The issue now was tackling this SS-rank dungeon.

A Gold Bird flies at me like lightning, instantly pursuing me to the spot where I just leaped.

Clang-

For the first time, my leap was anticipated.

No, not anticipated—it twisted in a split second to follow me to where I had leaped.

“Damn.”

The Gold Birds in the Bratrium Mine had SSS-rank agility.

The difference from my current agility was quite significant, making it difficult to react.

Even with mana detection helping me predict and dodge halfway, they followed so quickly that not only counterattacking but even evading was difficult.

Moreover, attacks from their beaks, accelerated by tremendous speed, dealt such damage that without my SSS+ defense ability, my health might have been reduced by more than half.

“This is brutal.”

Even so, my Gear Sword consistently pursued the Gold Bird.

The one I was facing wasn’t the Golden Bird, the dungeon master, but a Gold Bird—one with over 30% gold content, mixed with Bratrium.

If I couldn’t get past these creatures, I wouldn’t be able to defeat the Golden Bird either.

I took out the doping potions I’d brought, drank them, and drew up divine energy to restore my fallen stats.

It would take quite a lot of divine energy to completely dispel the dense chaos energy, but now wasn’t the time to worry about that.

Whether I recover after killing the Gold Bird or not, I needed to kill it first.

Papapat!

Twenty-one swords gathered around me, forming a shield.

With the sword shield between us, I leaped in the direction opposite to the approaching Gold Bird and hid.

Boom!

The heavy sound of the Gold Bird colliding with the swords spread through the fog.

Being SSS+ grade mana swords, they didn’t completely collapse but rather dispersed the shield, absorbing the impact.

In that moment, I thrust my sword through.

A path opened through the sword shield, and my Light Demon Sword pierced into the Gold Bird’s mouth.

Clang!

The Gold Bird was solid not just on the outside but inside as well, made of gold and Bratrium.

If it were just gold, that would be one thing, but mixed with Bratrium, known for its hardness, even my mana-infused Light Demon Sword couldn’t easily tear through the Gold Bird’s interior in one strike.

But if it weren’t for the ultra-high-speed flight…

If I could just get a chance to use Leap Slash, I could deal more than enough damage.

“Die!”

I dodged the Gold Bird’s attempt to close its mouth and cut off my hand, and slashed at its neck.

Kakakakakang-!

In an instant, dozens of sword strikes hit the neck, and the Gear Sword filled that space.

Kakakakakang-!

One, two, three.

In just 1-2 seconds, exactly 21 swords used Leap Slash on the Gold Bird’s neck in sequence.

Even the Gold Bird’s sturdy neck was cut through like a radish.

If broken down into 0.0001-second units, each sword cutting a little bit would look like slow motion, but the whole process took less than a second.

“Phew. Weakling.”

I wiped away my cold sweat and butchered the falling Gold Bird.

Unlike easily hunting Gold Birds outside the dungeon after learning Gear Sword, the hunting difficulty here was intense enough to require everything I had.

I realized that without the doping potions prepared by Lee Ji-hyun with her alchemy ability and those I brought from Earth, this would have been truly challenging.

This is why proper investment is important.

If I had only focused on hunting abilities, I might have hit my limit with Gold Bird hunting and postponed the Bratrium dungeon conquest, running to a level 3 biome instead.

At least in that respect, I’m not greedy.

In the Farming World, it was natural to go to a lower-level biome if your specs weren’t sufficient.

If there’s a hill worth climbing, of course I’d challenge it with limited resources for the sense of achievement and pride in my skills when clearing it. But there’s nothing more foolish than challenging something completely beyond your capabilities.

Even in the Farming World, the death penalty is quite severe.

While dying once doesn’t erase the farm you’ve worked hard to build, the penalties are significant enough that I, who focused on playing safely, considered myself quite sharp at estimating what I could handle.

In that sense, the Bratrium Mine is doable.

“I have armor too.”

The Corrupted Ogre Leather Armor was holding up well, and the SSS+ defense ability Tough Skin I recently learned provided a sufficient foundation to withstand the Gold Birds’ attacks.

Of course, it would be foolish to just charge in recklessly, and I still needed to be careful since I hadn’t yet learned any active skills related to defense abilities.

Kakakakakang-!

Kieeeeek!

After taking down a couple, I started to feel like I was adapting.

I wasn’t sure about the boss yet, but at least I could start hunting near the Bratrium Mine without too much trouble.

And when I returned home,

I sought out Kukum once again.

“Kukum!”

I had asked Kukum to process gold into gold bars, but now I needed reinforcement.

Even though I could hunt sufficiently with alchemy potions, I needed to raise my specs using everything available.

Fortunately, the Light Demon Sword didn’t demand hero-grade reinforcement stones for enhancement.

It was a good SS+ grade item, but naturally inferior compared to the growing SSS+ grade Corrupted Ring.

I also planned to proceed with purification reinforcement to maximize everything I could.

“Need to gather all the reinforcement stones.”

Looking at the storage, quite a lot of corrupted resources had accumulated.

I hadn’t put any corrupted resources into the purification cauldron since the swamp, and I hadn’t touched that line in the Steam Forest either.

I decided to purify all the accumulated corrupted resources, convert them into purification stones, reinforce my equipment, and then go back.