Michael encountered more goblins on the way deeper into the mine, and at the same time he also bumped into two or three groups of NPCs inside, whom are heading outside with their carts full of two different ores called Black Mithril and Black Iron, and as their names, both ores are as dark like a charcoal.
Michael greeted them on the way, as he also asked for directions where it is possible to mine Black Mithril, which made the NPCs laughed as they just ignored him after glancing at him.
But he didn't mind, he just continued moving forward after that, but this time, it wasn't just goblins anymore, because he also encountered foot long cave bats attacking him.
Where he killed them all with such ease that it looks like he was playing around with the bats, even though they are a level higher than him.
But the one that truly gave him trouble this time is a Level 13 Elite Hobgoblin he accidentally bumped on the way, who are as tall as an adult man and had a bit of human semblance in its appearance.
Bang!
Michael rolled towards the side as a huge axe swept through above him, and struck the wall behind him, sending dust and debris flying everywhere.
"Damn!" Michael cursed, as his appearance is truly pitiful this time, his face full of soot and dust, and he only has thirty percent of his health left as the lesser grade health potions he has on him can't keep up with his usage and there are only three of the potions remaining, while the hobgoblin still has a little bit over half of his health.
Michael just kept retreating backwards to make some distance between the two of them, then he looked at the cooldown of his [Shadow Dance] and saw that there's still twenty more seconds left before he can use it again.
Michael stopped when there is already a considerable distance between them, which is twenty or so meters.
UOHH!
The hobgoblin roared and once again charge towards him as it brandished it double edge axe towards him.
Michael just stood there with a dagger in hand as he waited for the monster to get closer towards him.
Thud! Thud! Thud!
The hobgoblin raised its axe above its head, as the blade shone with silvery light and hacked down towards Michael.
Shadow Blur!
But Michael suddenly disappeared and appeared behind the hobgoblin as he plunged his dagger at the hobgoblin's back and activated [Bleed], then sent a few more stabs before retreating backwards as a flash of light flashed by his neck, just barely dodging the hobgoblin's attack by a hair's breadth.
"It's like I'm fighting a boss...good thing this monster is a bit dumb as it just kept repeating the same attack pattern unlike the Elite Green Goblin that I face before as it at least knew how to change its attack pattern, but damn, its attack damaged is just too high for my current defense" Michael complained as his previous attack only reduced the monster's health by three percent at most.
He immediately downed a health potion which immediately filled a good ten percent of his health back to forty percent.
So Michael just took his time fighting the hobgoblin as he just kept dodging the monster's attack as the damage of the monsters is just too high for him to bear, as it would shave a good five to seven percent of his health everytime the monster's attacks lands on him.
And a few minutes later, the monster finally disappeared in a flash, leaving behind a couple of silver coins, and two uncommon items on the ground, which one of them is a crude looking bow and a pair of leather shoes.
"I have the double drop rate buff but the monsters here are so poor" Michael muttered as he picked up the silver coins and the two items from the ground and sat a few distance away with his back on the wall as he started eating bread, as his blinking red health slowly climbed upwards and became yellow, then a few minutes later became green, before disappearing.
Michael then slowly stood up from the ground, and took out the the pickaxe that Farle lent to him and walked towards a place where there are signs of being dug up or scraped by a pickaxe.
Ting! Tang! Ting! Tang!
Michael continuously hit the rock wall with his pickaxe, as pieces of rock would roll down on the ground.
"Damn, this is serious work!" Michael said as he wiped the sweat on his forehead, and even a few minutes later, he still hasn't seen a single ore so far!
"How come there's not even a single ore?" Michael muttered in frustration as he raised his pickaxe above him and struck the wall in front of him in anger and frustration!
Clang!
Michael suddenly raised an eyebrow as the sound this time sounded different, so thinking that he might be onto something, he eagerly struck the same place on the rock wall.
"Yes!" Michael exclaimed, as he finally saw something different on the wall when some of the debris fell off on the ground.
Clang!
Michael hurriedly picked up the ore that rolled on the ground. It was black, it has no proper shape and covered in dirt, but the message window that appeared in front of him made him feel relieved.
[Mithril] [Rare]
One of the rarest ores that can only be found in the mines of Augur and other similar mines around the continent.
[Stronger than Black Mithril, but weaker than Adamantium]
"Finally...but are you sure that this isn't some kind of an epic grade ore? Because this one took me a pretty long time to even dug up one of this" Michael complained as he stored it inside his storage space.
He stayed there for half an hour and only managed to harvest seven of them before deciding to head deeper, in hopes that he could dig up more the deeper he goes inside.
[You're really amazing you know, you got any interesting items there that you want to sell?]
Suddenly, a message from Storm Bringer appeared in front of him.
[Nothing yet!] he sent a reply.
[Make sure to sell it to me first, okay?]
[We'll see]
Then he closed the chat window and continued moving forward.