Chapter 28: Encountering the Mine Tunnel, the Empire of Huaxia

A title and an enchanted diamond pickaxe.

Title: Undead Slayer LV1 — deals extra damage to undead creatures such as skeletons and zombies, with an additional 2.5 points of damage per hit.

Moreover, this title is upgradable. To reach level two, one must defeat a thousand undead monsters, and each subsequent level requires four times the kills of the previous one, while the extra damage doubles.

After equipping it, a skeleton icon and its attributes appeared on the right side of Chen Fan’s character interface.

Enchanted Diamond Pickaxe (Efficiency 2, Fortune 1).

Next, he tossed the diamond pickaxe, which still had three-quarters durability left, to Yang Keli.

He glanced at the time; it was already past ten at night. It was time to go to bed and plan tomorrow’s tasks. This was a real world after all—if one didn’t sleep, fatigue was inevitable.

They had been busy all day and were mentally exhausted by now.

Especially Yang Keli, who was already yawning.

---

The next morning, Chen Fan woke early, stepped out to the balcony, and stretched. The fresh air filled his lungs, refreshing his mind.

[Weather: Clear, Temperature: 10–17°C]
[Daylight Duration: 10 hours]
[Reminder: 3 days until the arrival of deep winter…]

He looked around, contemplating the day’s plan.

Yang Keli and the others woke up one after another and gathered by Chen Fan’s side.

“Chen Fan, what’s the plan for today?”

“Today, we’ll continue mining in the caves to upgrade our equipment further.”

Chen Fan turned to Ram and Rem to assign their tasks.

“Rem, break down all the bones we collected yesterday into bone meal to speed up crop growth. Also, spend some time searching for supply chests.”

“Ram, you’ll be in charge of fishing. If we run out of bones, you can go hunt some skeletons.”

Rem and Ram replied in unison, “Understood, Master.”

With everything arranged, Chen Fan crafted a fishing rod and tossed it to Ram.

Before that, he went to the farmland to hasten the ripening of carrots and potatoes. They had consumed too much food yesterday due to their excitement. What was supposed to last two days was already nearly gone in one. They needed to prepare more before heading to the mines.

---

After harvesting twenty carrots and twenty potatoes, he gave the bones and bone meal he carried to Rem.

Back in the wooden cabin, Chen Fan cooked the potatoes, as cooked food restored much more hunger.

While waiting, he listed the four iron axes he had acquired from the wandering merchant yesterday afternoon on the trading platform.

They didn’t sell for much—only about 20 loaves of bread or 200 gold coins each.

With everything prepared, he entered the cave with Yang Keli.

Outside the cabin, Ram glanced at Rem with curiosity.

“Sis, it seems the Master knows everything. We don’t even need to teach him.”

“Hmm, those who came with him to this world knew nothing at first. It was the Master who taught them, and they slowly caught on. At first, they didn’t even know how to collect cobblestone.”

Rem paused her task and continued, “The Master knows so much that there’s little left for us to contribute.”

Ram nodded, fell silent, and turned toward the river, whispering, “I hope the other sisters can follow this Master too.”

With that, she cast her fishing line.

---

In the mines, Chen Fan and Yang Keli quickly descended to level -20. As before, they split up to mine separately.

He decided to dig a few more levels down, suspecting there might be richer veins.

Sure enough, after just a few layers, Chen Fan uncovered four iron ores and two redstones.

Thanks to the Fortune enchantment on his diamond pickaxe, he lucked out with one extra iron ore.

Since diamonds were scarce, Chen Fan used an iron pickaxe for mining stone to speed up the process.

After a short while, Yang Keli sent him a message.

“Chen Fan, come quickly! I found a mining tunnel.”

Chen Fan paused his digging, read the message, and immediately ran toward Yang Keli.

Just below where he had been digging, there were several diamonds.

Minutes later, he arrived at her location.

“You’re unbelievably lucky,” Chen Fan said with a mix of excitement and envy. “Let’s go down and check it out. Mining tunnels are great spots for diamonds.”

He cleared the stones blocking the way, jumped down, and placed torches nearby.

The pitch-black tunnel instantly brightened. Water trickled through cracks in the rocks, pooling into small puddles.

Yang Keli also took a moment to observe before walking a few steps and swinging her iron pickaxe to mine some coarse copper ores embedded in the wall.

Chen Fan set up a workbench and crafted some stone stairs to pave the path.

The tunnel was rich in ores, most of them exposed and easy to mine. With some luck, they might even find supply chests.

---

The tunnel was not only abundant in minerals but also teeming with cave spiders. There was a chance to encounter monster spawners, and plenty of spider silk to collect.

This place was another excellent farming ground for Chen Fan.

When he first acquired the land deed, he had already envisioned a grand blueprint—to build his own Chinese empire in this world.

Thus, he needed to find more farming spots to accumulate gold. The construction of a monster farm would have to wait.

After all, the safe zones were insufficient. If a malicious player destroyed just one block, it could be disastrous.

After securing the path back, Chen Fan proceeded forward, placing torches and keeping alert.

They hadn’t gone far before reaching a crossroads.

Suddenly, an arrow shot out from the darkness, aiming straight for Chen Fan’s head.

He immediately raised his shield to block it and quickly lit a torch on the wall to locate the skeleton archer.

As the torchlight illuminated the area, Yang Keli charged forward, swinging her sword fiercely. The clash of bones echoed.

[1 Bone + 1 Arrow + 5 Experience Points.]

She wielded a diamond sword; her hair flowed with her movements, and her expression was resolute.

Now, whenever she saw skeletons, her heart burned with the desire to slay them. If anyone dared to harm Chen Fan or speak ill of him, she would be filled with the urge to fight.

Even she was puzzled by this feeling. Could this be the instinctual reaction of love?

Chen Fan looked at her, bewildered. “Keli, why get so worked up? It’s just a weakling skeleton. We both have shields; it can’t hurt me.”

“Huh? Hehe!” Yang Keli smiled brightly. “I don’t know, I just don’t like it.”

Chen Fan shook his head helplessly. Although puzzled, he didn’t press further.

He knew Yang Keli was often whimsical, her thoughts as elusive as clouds drifting across the sky.

“Alright, never mind that. Let’s continue exploring the tunnel.”

With that, they ventured deeper into the mine.

Along the way, Chen Fan found plenty of iron and coal. Whenever he encountered iron ore, he mined it with his diamond pickaxe.

They had already gathered two stacks of coal but only 36 iron ores.

As they went deeper, the tunnel became damper, water droplets constantly trickling down the walls, forming small puddles on the ground.

After some time, they came upon a fork in the path.