[Ding! You have obtained: Murky Crystal Fragment ×1]
Daniel bent down and picked up the thumb-sized crystal from beside the monster's corpse, holding it up to the light for a closer look.
The grayish-white crystal was covered in cracks, and within it, faint black threads seemed to writhe as if alive.
Even in his hand, it gave off a slight, almost imperceptible warmth.
The next moment, the system description unfolded before his eyes.
[Murky Crystal Fragment (Quest Item)]
Description: A crystal fragment containing strange energy. It seems to point toward the source of some kind of infection. Collect 3 to complete this investigation quest! (1/3)
A faint smile curled at Daniel's lips.
He remembered it clearly—this kind of fragment was actually the core byproduct of the beastification infection. Any monster that had been deeply infected would condense one inside its body.
The more he collected, the more the NPC's favorability would rise when he turned in the quest at the end.
And that money-grubbing scholar Adrian?
If you maxed out his favorability, he could cough up some truly good stuff.
Daniel tossed the fragment into his inventory and continued deeper into Windmill Town.
For the rest of the day, the monsters of Windmill Town were in for absolute misery.
From East Street to West Street, anything that could still breathe—whether it was an ordinary Level 15 Beast-Turned, a Level 20 Iron-grade monster, or even those little mobs that had just respawned in the corners of walls and hadn't even had time to open their eyes yet...
The moment a thunderous blast rang out, they vanished.
Daniel was like a walking harvester. Everywhere he passed, explosions linked together into an endless chain, flames soaring into the sky.
Every now and then, players in the distance would catch sight of the flashes and hear the explosions from afar. Terrified, they would turn and run, thinking the game had glitched out somehow.
By evening, in the center of Windmill Town—
Daniel opened his inventory.
[Murky Crystal Fragment ×97!]
Level: 35!
He put all 300 newly gained attribute points into Agility, preparing for the battle ahead.
Daniel enlarged the map.
Two kilometers north of Windmill Town, there was a small mine icon. Beside it was a tiny label:
Windmill Town Mining Cooperative (Abandoned)
Familiar memories surged into his mind instantly.
The mine!
The root of Windmill Town's beastification lay inside that mine!
He still remembered that, in his first life, one of the major guilds had pushed their exploration all the way here and unearthed a buried piece of history.
The miners of Windmill Town had dug too deep while mining. In the process, they broke through a layer of rock and discovered an ancient church buried deep underground.
That place was the source of the villagers' beastification. After the miners were infected, they returned to town and passed it on to the villagers...
One infected ten, ten infected a hundred, and just like that, all of Windmill Town was doomed.
And most importantly—
That mine had a fixed drop: a universal movement skill book.
Daniel's thoughts sharpened.
A movement skill!
Having reincarnated four times, he understood better than anyone how important movement skills were.
Especially when fighting bosses.
Whether you had a movement skill or not made it feel like two entirely different games.
One version was getting chased all over the map by the boss.
The other was kiting the boss around like you were walking a dog.
Without another word, Daniel grabbed his bow and headed north.
The two-kilometer journey took only ten minutes.
The entrance to the mine was halfway up a hill, concealed behind a dense mass of vines. If it hadn't been marked on the map, there would have been no way to discover it.
A crooked wooden sign stood at the entrance. The writing on it had long since faded, but a few words could still barely be made out:
Windmill Town Mining... No Unauthorized Entry
A rotten stench ten times stronger than the one in town drifted out from the cave, making Daniel frown deeply.
He took out a torch and lit it, then inhaled deeply before stepping into the entrance.
[Ding! You have discovered a new map: Abandoned Mine, Floor 1]
[Recommended Level: 20–30]
[Current Exploration: 0%]
The mine was extremely dark. The torch only illuminated a radius of two or three meters around him.
The ground was littered with overturned mine carts, rusted pickaxes, and scattered ore.
There were shallow mining marks on the walls, but even more than that, there was black moss everywhere, slick and slimy to the touch.
Daniel lightened his steps and moved forward slowly.
He hadn't gone fifty meters before a rustling sound came from up ahead.
He planted the torch into the wall, then raised the Moon Reaper and aimed toward the source of the sound.
Very soon, three humanoid monsters staggered out from around the corner.
They were still wearing tattered miner uniforms, with rusted pickaxes hanging at their waists.
Their skin was an unnatural grayish-black, and parts of their bodies bulged with fist-sized lumps, as though something inside them was writhing beneath the skin.
Their eyes were completely clouded over, and low, unconscious rasping noises came from their throats.
[Beast-Turned Miner · LV22]
[Beast-Turned Miner · LV22]
[Beast-Turned Miner · LV23]
"Tch. What a miserable sight."
Daniel shook his head, drew his bow, and fired.
Whoosh—
One arrow pierced through the chest of the first miner. The arrowhead exited from its back and buried itself into the belly of the second.
Boom! Boom!
The two explosions went off almost simultaneously. The three closely packed miners were blasted into the air together, chunks of flesh splattering all over the wall.
But the next instant, a cracking sound came from overhead.
Daniel looked up, and his expression changed slightly.
The explosion had shaken several cracks loose in the ceiling of the mine, and bits of rock were already falling down in a shower.
"WTF—I forgot this is a mine!"
He immediately ran forward. Behind him came a thunderous boom, and the spot where he had been standing was buried under a pile of rubble in the blink of an eye.
Daniel wiped cold sweat from his forehead.
Looks like I'll need to control the blast radius.
I can't just go wild inside a mine. If a cave-in buried me alive, that'd be one hell of a joke.
After all, Stellar's freedom level was absurdly high. He had personally seen players embezzle quest items after accepting a mission, only to end up being put on a wanted list by the NPC who gave them the quest.
From there on, Daniel fought much more cautiously.
Whenever possible, he avoided triggering explosions.
Although pure piercing damage from arrows had limited effect against these half-dead things, quantity made up for everything.
After all, how was a monster supposed to survive when its entire body was full of arrows?
Whenever he ran into large groups of monsters, Daniel would fire one arrow and immediately reposition to avoid getting crushed by falling rocks.
By the time he cleared the first floor, his level had risen to 40, and the loot wasn't bad either.
[Obtained: Rusted Pickaxe ×5 (Common-grade)]
[Obtained: Durable Warrior Armor (Bronze-grade)]
[Obtained: Rare Longsword (Bronze-grade)]
[Obtained: Murky Crystal Fragment ×12]
[Obtained: Copper Coins...]
Then he continued down to the second floor.
And there, Beast-Turned Overseers · LV25 appeared!
These monsters were a head taller than ordinary miners. They held whips in their hands and wore slightly more presentable clothing, suggesting that they had managed others while alive.
Their attack patterns had changed too—they would lash out with their whips first, then blow whistles to summon smaller mobs.
Back in his first life, Daniel had nearly suffered at the hands of these things. The moment he killed an overseer, several miners had rushed out from the side and cornered him, hammering away until his HP dropped by a third before he barely managed to survive.
"But this time?"
"If you can even touch me, I lose."
The moment Daniel encountered a monster, the arrows in his hands flew like they were free.
The entire group of monsters barely managed a few steps before they were turned into human pincushions!
[Ding! You have slain Beast-Turned Overseer · LV30. Gained 23,950 EXP! Current Level: 45!]
[Obtained: Hardened Shield (Bronze-grade)]
Rumble—!
As a thunderous roar echoed through the mine, the gate to the third floor slowly opened!