Chapter 63

It wasn’t really clear to me how this all worked. What if someone killed the tyrant of the labyrinth before me? Cleared the dungeon? Would they be rewarded with the First Relic? Would it time out, would I have to wait?

And where was Ironclad? Why wasn’t he here now? Or was he doing the quests in a different order?

Whatever the truth of it was, I was against the clock. Those random heroes might have been meat for the grinder, but this Theseus was different. If there was anyone who would complete this quest, rob me of the chance to progress and stop Ironclad, then it was him.

I had to beat him. I had to be the first to complete the labyrinth. But not yet. I needed to be ready.

First. Haircut. Okay done. Ten times more expensive than the first guy. No one laughing and pointing, okay good.

Next. I couldn’t go into the labyrinth with nothing but a copper sword to my name. I needed weapons and armour befitting of a charioteer.

I didn’t have nearly enough shekels to buy what I needed, so it would be the old ways, farming and crafting. I left the city limits and went into the wilderness. I crafted a simple pickaxe from ash wood and opened up the mini-map, locating the copper deposits. Then I started mining.

It really shouldn’t have been, but it was exhilarating. The copper deposits appeared as slightly oval boulders, glinting with the copper beneath. Every strike of my pickaxe would cause the copper ore to fly from the deposit and fall on the ground. Every now and then a little circle would appear on the deposit, a little silvery ring. I found that when I struck it, the ore coming out would triple. More than once gold ore was also given up by the copper deposit.

I did this for hours, going from deposit to deposit. My pickaxe broke about five times. By the sixth, I headed to the forge and crafted an artisan’s pickaxe. Then I went back, and I went to town. Copper was flying off at twice the speed, the durability of the pickaxe quadrupled.

[Achievement unlocked: Miner of Minos – Mine four copper deposits on the island of Crete.]

[Achievement unlocked: Boulder Breaker – Mine ten deposits of copper. Reward: Breaker Pickaxe blueprint.]

I immediately opened up my inventory, examining the Breaker Pickaxe blueprint, but I couldn’t craft it yet. It was higher up in the technology tree, using materials I hadn’t yet unlocked. I filed it away and went back to work.

I was gaining experience the whole time as well. Not huge amounts, but enough that I ticked ever closer to Bronze four. Soon I had enough copper ore to have built five full copper armour sets. I called on Cyrus to help me haul it back to town. He was ecstatic. I warned him not to double-cross me. He agreed. I warned him again. He agreed, less enthusiastically.

There was something that had been activated in my lizard brain. If I’m being honest, I might almost have abandoned everything, become a copper merchant or something. But as evening fell, I had to remind myself that this was a means to an end.

I headed for the forge and set about crafting what I needed. It was late, and I needed to get some sleep, so there was no time to do what I’d done the night before, and get them all to +1.

Damon appeared a few times, watching me with amazement. Warrior, miner and now apparently forge master. The fires blazed, and my muscles ached sweetly, and once the metal had cooled, I had it. A full set.

Copper chest piece, gauntlets, greaves, and helmet. Copper shield, too. A shield! There had been no such thing in the Stone Epoch, and with it I could now use the second ability of the charioteer. Along with the first, I put them in slots one and two of my hotbar.

[Daze Strike – Guaranteed damage, dazes opponent for 5 seconds.]

[Fortification – Doubles AC for 10 seconds, reduces damage by half. Requires shield.]

My AC now stood at a not too shabby 50. I also got a new passive from a full copper set.

[Poison Resistance – Resists poison and venom by 80%. All damage by poison and venom clears automatically over a minute and does 50% reduced damage.]

This was awesome. I knew I’d not seen the last of the Drenched or those Arabu scorpions. Their stingers and swords both caused venom, and this would really help. 80% resistance, which meant there was now only a one in five chance that any individual strike would even inflict the status ailment. Even better, it cleared automatically, and the individual ticks were also reduced.

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It was past midnight by the time I was done. I had to admit, it had been one of the best days of my life. God, I loved farming. And I loved loot. Today, the bronze gods had granted me both.

I had made a profit too, selling the excess copper. It might have been useful to hold on to, but it was heavy stuff. I couldn’t just stuff it into my inventory, and I didn’t quite trust Cyrus to store it. Currency like the shekels, whilst not quite weightless, had a greatly reduced weight.

I used said shekels to rent the taverna suite. It was slightly larger than the previous room, and its stains were reduced by up to fifty percent. I also bought supplies, food and water, as well as salve heals. If no one had ever escaped the labyrinth, then I needed to be prepared to be there for some time. I was laying back on the soft bed, when there was another knock on the door.

I was already dozing off to sleep. I got up irritably. If it was another courier telling me I was, I don’t know, the Miner of Minos, with an invitation to join the mining guild then…actually that didn’t sound too bad.

‘Yes,’ I said, rubbing my eyes and opening the door, ‘it’s me.’

But the woman looking back wasn’t the courier. It was the stranger from the bandit caves.

And she looked pissed.

‘Sure, come in,’ I said as the stranger stormed in without invitation. ‘Make yourself comfortable.’

‘Where were you?’ she snapped immediately.