Chương 7: My First Boss Dropped a Pickaxe

The massive iron doors slammed shut behind them. The ambient blue light of Black Hollow felt dimmer inside the cavern. The air was still, dusty, and metallic, and in the center of the sprawling underground excavation site stood The Old Foreman. Matt had expected his first Boss to look like a monster. A dragon, maybe. A giant spider. Some enormous demon wrapped in black armor.

Instead, it looked like somebody had taken a Goblin Miner, scaled it up to eight feet tall, issued it industrial safety equipment, and made it extremely angry about unpaid overtime. Its skin was the same mottled green as the Goblin Miners Matt had been fighting for three days, but everything else was exaggerated: a barrel-shaped chest, arms like tree trunks, soot-stained work clothes reinforced with dark metal plates, and a battered yellow foreman's helmet pulled low over its face.

Both hands gripped an enormous sledgehammer whose head looked large enough to crush Matt's entire upper body. His AR interface flashed. THE OLD FOREMAN Black Hollow Mine — Instance Boss Life: 100% Matt tightened his grip on the longsword.

"That's a goblin?"

"Technically," Ethan said as he raised his shield. Chloe eyed the eight-foot creature and its hammer.

"Only technically."

"Very reassuring." The Old Foreman noticed them. Two red lights appeared beneath the rim of its helmet. It didn't roar. It gave a low, irritated grunt, almost like a supervisor discovering three employees standing around instead of working, then raised the sledgehammer. Ethan shifted forward.

"Wait." Chloe's voice snapped through the room. He stopped.

"They're behind us." Matt could still hear faint voices and metal from the corridor outside. The other party wasn't far away.

"I know," Chloe said.

"If they enter before he dies and participate, the loot claim expands to include them. But dying faster won't help us." Ethan exhaled through his nose.

"Fine." Chloe's eyes never left the Boss.

"Standard Foreman. Ethan holds the front. I flank. Matt handles adds."

"Rats?" Matt asked.

"Rats." That was actually reassuring. Cave Rats, he knew. Chloe continued quickly.

"Thresholds at seventy-five, fifty, and twenty-five percent. Four rats, then six, then eight. We slow down before each threshold, stop damage, clear the wave, then resume." Matt glanced at the Boss's Life bar.

"And if we push through two thresholds before the first wave is dead?"

"Then both waves are your problem," Ethan said. Matt looked at the hammer again.

"Let's not do that."

"Exactly." Chloe adjusted her grip on the shortsword.

"I'll call phases. Slow means ease off. Stop means stop. Adds means rats. Clear means they're dead. Resume means hit him again." Matt nodded.

"Easy enough."

"It is until somebody gets excited." Ethan lifted his shield.

"Ready?" Matt raised the longsword.

"Ready." Chloe took one breath.

"Go." ◆ Ethan moved first. Overmuscle flashed crimson across his arms and shoulders as he charged with his shield raised. The Old Foreman reacted immediately. The sledgehammer rose overhead. Then came down. BOOM. Ethan caught the strike on his shield and slid several feet across the stone. Matt flinched.

"You good?"

"Fine!" Ethan reset his stance. His Life had dropped, but not catastrophically. It was a massive hit from an F-rank Boss, not an execution.

"Behind him!" Chloe called. Quick Frame shimmered pale green as she slipped around the Foreman's left side. Matt went right. He saw an opening beside the Boss's leg and instinctively started to channel Cleave.

"Basic attacks!" Matt killed the activation. Right. Cleave was for groups, and his assigned job was about to involve a lot of them. He replaced the Skill with a normal strike. Steel hit reinforced work clothing, shaving a small amount from the Boss's Life. Chloe attacked from the opposite side while Ethan kept the Foreman facing forward. The hammer suddenly swept sideways.

"Back!" Matt moved, but a fraction too late. The outer edge clipped his shoulder plate and spun him halfway around before he caught himself. Life: 101 / 113 He checked his shoulder. No injury.

"Okay." Then he moved back into position. The fight settled into a rhythm. Ethan managed the front while Chloe and Matt worked opposite flanks. The Foreman's attacks were simple enough to read: an overhead smash that demanded a dodge or block, a wide horizontal swing with enough reach to punish greed, and an occasional shove or kick whenever Ethan stayed too close. Nothing magical. Nothing exotic. It was a Boss designed to teach fundamentals. Matt could appreciate that. Mostly. Boss Life: 94% The hammer rose again.

Matt backed out before it fell, Ethan caught the impact, and Chloe darted in for two quick strikes during the recovery. Matt added one of his own before retreating with her. Boss Life: 89% The next wide swing missed Matt entirely. 84%"We're actually doing okay," Matt said.

"It's F-rank," Ethan answered.

"Don't get confident," Chloe warned. Matt looked at the giant hammer.

"Wasn't planning to." Ethan shifted too far to one side and the Foreman began turning toward Chloe.

"Ethan."

"I know."

"Then fix it." He backed left and deliberately dragged the Boss around until its front faced him again. Matt watched carefully. Tanking wasn't just surviving attacks. Ethan was controlling where the dangerous end of the Boss pointed. The Foreman settled into position again. Cleaner. Boss Life: 79%"Slow." Chloe's call changed the pace immediately. Ethan stopped counterattacking after every block. Matt passed on safe openings, and even Chloe only darted in when the percentage needed a careful nudge.

Deliberately refusing to attack felt wrong with a giant hammer swinging at them. 77% Chloe struck once. 76%"Stop!" All three ceased attacking. Ethan guided the Boss away from the walls and toward the center of the chamber while defending. Matt noticed what he was doing.

"We're choosing where the wave spawns."

"Exactly. More room." The Foreman committed to another overhead smash. Chloe waited for the recovery, stepped in, and stabbed once. Boss Life: 75% The Old Foreman froze. It planted the bottom of the hammer handle against the floor. CLANG. Four sets of red eyes appeared around the edges of the arena. Cave Rats poured through narrow openings in the walls.

"Adds!" Three came straight for Matt while the fourth angled toward Chloe. Matt planted his feet and activated Anchored Step. The first rat hit his chest and failed to move him; the next two piled into the same space behind it. Perfect. Cleave. Mana: 53 → 49 The red arc caught all three. Two dissolved instantly and the last survived badly wounded, so Matt finished it with a normal downward strike instead of wasting another cast.

Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation. Across the room, Chloe killed the fourth. Ethan had stopped attacking the Boss entirely and was doing nothing except keeping The Old Foreman occupied. Matt scanned the arena. Nothing moving except the Boss.

"Clear!"

"Resume!" They collapsed back onto The Old Foreman. Matt finally understood what Chloe had meant. The fight wasn't about maximizing damage. It was about controlling when the damage happened. ◆ The second phase settled into a steadier rhythm. At sixty-eight percent, Ethan tried to absorb another overhead smash and his shield arm dipped. Chloe noticed immediately.

"Don't eat every hit."

"I know."

"Then dodge one." The next hammer came down. Ethan stepped aside instead of blocking, and the sledgehammer struck empty stone. Matt and Chloe punished the recovery before both retreated ahead of the sweep. Boss Life: 63% The Foreman kicked Ethan and forced him out of position. The Boss started turning toward Matt's side.

"Turn him!"

"Working on it!" Ethan recovered, struck with his shield, and pulled the Foreman back around. Keeping an attacking Boss pointed in one direction for several minutes was considerably harder than the phrase tank holds Boss made it sound. Then voices echoed from outside the iron doors. Closer now. Matt glanced toward them.

"They're getting close."

"Then hit harder," Ethan said.

"Not too hard," Chloe snapped. Matt laughed once. That was apparently the entire fight. Boss Life: 59% The hammer swept. Matt moved early and took no damage. 56% The doors behind them vibrated faintly. Someone had reached the outside corridor.

"Eyes on the Boss," Chloe said without looking back. Ethan attacked again. 54%"Slow." The pressure outside made slowing down feel worse this time, but they obeyed. 52% The doors creaked slightly. Ethan began a counterattack on instinct.

"Don't rush. Fifty-one." He stopped the blade. Matt checked his Mana. Nearly full. Good. Chloe shifted into position.

"Ready?"

"Ready."

"Ready." She struck once. Boss Life: 50% CLANG. Six Cave Rats erupted from two openings. Four came from Matt's side. Two appeared near Chloe. They were too spread out for one clean Cleave. Matt backed up.

"Bring yours in!" Chloe understood immediately. Quick Frame shimmered across her body as she slipped behind the pair on her side and drove them inward instead of killing them herself. The other four kept charging Matt. Closer. Closer. Ethan yelled from the middle while the Foreman hammered his shield.

"Take your time!" Ethan dropped to one knee under the impact.

"Easy for you to say!"

"Not actually!" The rats finally compressed. Matt anchored himself and swung. Mana: 53 → 49 Four were caught. Three disappeared. Instead of immediately attacking again, Matt repositioned until the surviving rats crossed the wounded one's path. Second Cleave. Mana: 49 → 45 Ash. All six gone.

"Clear!"

"Resume!" By now Matt was watching the Boss's Life without needing Chloe to call every percentage. 47%"Hammer coming," Ethan warned. Matt backed away while Chloe shifted to the other side. The wide swing missed all three. They returned immediately. No shared HUD linked them together. No automated system told them where to stand or when someone was in trouble. Just three people calling what they saw. And somehow it worked. ◆ Below forty percent, The Old Foreman became more aggressive.

It didn't gain a spell or reveal some hidden supernatural trick. It simply attacked faster, shortening the gaps between swings and putting more pressure on Ethan. He blocked one overhead smash, barely ducked the follow-up sweep, then took a kick before he could fully reset. Ethan slid across the floor. The Foreman turned toward Matt.

"Oh." Matt moved. The hammer caught the edge of his armor anyway, knocking another chunk out of his Life. He immediately used a Life Flask and backed away while warmth restored the protective layer. The extra Life gave him enough room to recover without panic. Ethan regained control of the Boss. Boss Life: 35% The rival party was now unmistakably outside. Voices. Footsteps. The iron door shifted. Ethan glanced at it.

"Come on."

"Boss," Chloe said.

"I know."

"Then look at him." They pushed the Foreman down through thirty-three, then thirty-one percent.

"Slow." The final threshold. Everyone was tired, and another team was seconds away. That made the correct answer—slowing down—feel worse than ever. 29% Chloe attacked once. 28% Ethan blocked, grew frustrated, and started a counterattack on instinct.

"Stop damage!" Chloe's voice cracked across the cavern. Ethan physically pulled the sword back.

"Right." Matt lowered his own weapon completely. 26% The Old Foreman kept attacking. Nobody hit back. Matt could hear the other party clearly now.

"Boss is still up!"

"Hurry!" Ethan heard them too.

"Twenty-six," Matt called.

"I know." Chloe guided the Boss back toward the center. One percentage point remained before the final wave. Another team was seconds away. And the correct move was still to wait. The Foreman raised the hammer. Committed. Good.

"Ready," Matt said. Ethan answered first.

"Ready." Chloe inhaled.

"Twenty-five." She lunged. Boss Life: 25% The hammer handle struck the ground. CLANG. Eight rats poured in from three directions. Matt stared for half a heartbeat.

"That's more rats."

"Very observant!" Ethan shouted.

"Matt!"

"On it!" The largest group was already tight enough to hit cleanly. Matt met them head-on, anchored himself, and Cleaved through four. Mana: 53 → 49 Three disappeared. Chloe was guiding two others toward him instead of killing them, exactly as she had during the previous wave. Matt moved to meet them. The wounded rat joined the pair. Three targets. Cleave. Mana: 49 → 45 Gone. Five down. Three remained. Two had spawned near Ethan. Bad.

The Old Foreman was still attacking, and Ethan couldn't safely turn away while the rats latched onto his lower armor. His Life started falling faster.

"Ethan!"

"Busy!" The hammer crashed into his shield hard enough to nearly break his stance. Matt ran. Quick Frame wasn't equipped. He had to cross the chamber normally. One rat climbed higher up Ethan's leg. Matt reached it and killed it with a basic strike, then kicked the second away from Ethan. The third came at him from the side. Two targets lined up. Cleave. Mana: 45 → 41 Both disappeared. Matt swept the arena with his eyes. Nothing else.

"CLEAR!"

"Boss!" Chloe was already moving. The Old Foreman remained at twenty-five percent. No more thresholds. Ethan shoved against the Boss.

"Now we can burn him!" Matt raised his sword.

"So now we can be stupid?"

"Within reason!" For the first time in the fight, they stopped holding back. Matt spent Mana on Cleave even though there was only one target. Chloe attacked relentlessly under Quick Frame, while Ethan used Overmuscle for offense instead of simply surviving behind his shield. Boss Life: 20% The hammer came down. Matt dodged. 17% Chloe stabbed into an opening. 14% The iron doors behind them began moving. A voice carried through.

"They're still fighting!"

"Keep going!" Ethan shouted. 11% Matt attacked. 9% The Old Foreman gave its first real roar of the fight and swept the hammer across the chamber. Chloe escaped cleanly. Ethan blocked. Matt ducked beneath the edge. 7% Matt used Cleave. 4% The doors began to open. Ethan drove his broadsword forward. 2% The Old Foreman lifted its sledgehammer for one final overhead smash.

"Move!" All three scattered. BOOM. Stone cracked and dust exploded across the floor. The hammer lodged there for half a second. That was enough. Chloe went first. Quick Frame carried her behind the Boss, where her shortsword drove into the base of its neck. Ethan attacked from the front. Matt came from the side. Three strikes landed almost together. Boss Life: 0% The Old Foreman stopped. Its hammer slipped from both hands. THUD. Then the Boss collapsed and dissolved into a storm of blue particles.

For a moment, nobody spoke. Matt stood there breathing hard, his sword still raised. Ethan looked at him. Then at Chloe.

"…We got him." Chloe finally exhaled.

"We got him." Matt grinned.

"We got him." Ethan threw both arms into the air.

"YES!" Matt laughed.

"Yeah!" Ethan slapped his hand hard enough to sting, then turned to Chloe. She rolled her eyes. Still gave him the high-five. Matt's interface flashed. BOSS DEFEATED The Old Foreman Then: LEVEL UP Matthew Hayes has reached Level 4. And immediately after it: LEVEL UP Matthew Hayes has reached Level 5. Matt stared.

"…Five." Ethan looked over.

"Two Levels?"

"Boss XP," Chloe said. Matt dismissed the notifications.

"I like Bosses."

"You liked parties yesterday," Ethan said.

"I can like multiple things." Then the loot appeared. ◆ Mana Stones materialized first, followed by heavy leather boots, an iron buckler, and several mining materials Matt didn't recognize. Then something else appeared in the center. Different glow. Different presence. Ethan stopped. Chloe stopped. Matt noticed their reactions before he noticed the item.

"What?" Ethan stared.

"…No way." Chloe's expression shifted.

"Oh." She looked at Ethan.

"We got one." Matt finally looked down.

"A what?" A pickaxe rested on the stone. Not a battle axe. Not some elaborate two-handed weapon pretending to be a mining tool. An actual pickaxe. Heavy, practical, reinforced. Matt stared at it.

"…A pickaxe."

"It's Unique," Ethan said.

"It's still a pickaxe."

"Read it," Chloe told him. His contacts identified the item. VEIN'S ECHO Item Type: Pickaxe Rarity: Unique Effect When this item is used to harvest a mineral deposit, each mineral produced has a 25% chance to be duplicated. Duplication is checked after other mineral-yield modifiers are applied. Duplicated minerals are identical to the original material harvested. Flavor Text Good miners find the vein. Great miners persuade it to pay twice. Matt studied the effect.

"Twenty-five percent extra output."

"On average, yes," Chloe said.

"And that's good enough to make both of you look like that?" Ethan grinned.

"About twenty grand good." Matt slowly looked up.

"…For the pickaxe."

"For the pickaxe." Chloe crouched beside it.

"Vein's Echo is one of the standard jackpot drops from mining Dungeons. They aren't uniquely rare—Black Hollow averages roughly one a week—but professional miners want them because the effect directly increases production." Matt looked back at the second line of the Effect. Duplication happened after other yield modifiers.

"So better mining builds get even more value out of it."

"Exactly." That was enough. The item didn't need to be legendary or one-of-a-kind. It was a piece of equipment that made its owner more money every day they used it. Twenty thousand suddenly sounded much less strange. Matt nodded.

"Good drop." Chloe smiled.

"Very good drop." Ethan raised one hand.

"We won." Matt looked at the pickaxe, then at the rest of the loot.

"We won." This time Chloe actually smiled.

"Yeah." The celebration lasted about five seconds before Matt pointed at the item.

"Loot rules." Ethan immediately sobered.

"Right."

"Anyone here planning to become a miner?" Two immediate noes. Matt considered himself. Definitely not.

"Auction?"

"Auction," Chloe agreed.

"Auction," Ethan echoed. The Boss Room doors opened fully. Four exhausted Delvers stood outside with weapons ready. Then they saw the empty center of the room. And the loot. The leader lowered his sword.

"Damn." Ethan gave him an apologetic shrug.

"Sorry." The man waved it off.

"First come, first served." No anger. They had simply arrived too late. One of them noticed the pickaxe. He froze.

"Wait. Is that an Echo?" Chloe nodded.

"Vein's Echo." The entire rival party looked at it.

"…Seriously?" Ethan sounded extremely pleased.

"Yep." The leader let out a long breath, then laughed.

"Nice. Congrats."

"Thanks." Matt picked up the pickaxe. The other party was disappointed. Of course they were. But the rules were simple. Matt's group had arrived first and killed the Boss before anyone else joined the fight. That was it. Chloe looked toward the exit.

"Let's go." They gathered the remaining loot and opened their Portal Scrolls. Blue light. Then sunlight. ◆ Matt stepped back into the Black Hollow staging plaza carrying Vein's Echo because a full-size pickaxe was considerably easier to hold than stuff into Ethan's loot bag. That was apparently enough advertising. A passing Delver slowed.

"Foreman dropped an Echo?" Ethan answered before Matt could.

"Yep."

"Nice. Congrats." Another man turned.

"Seriously?"

"Yep." Matt leaned toward Chloe.

"Everybody knows this thing."

"Told you." A heavily armored man nearby groaned when he saw it.

"Ah, damn." Matt looked at him.

"What?"

"Nothing. Just means the Echo probably isn't showing up again tomorrow." His friend punched him lightly in the shoulder.

"That's not how probability works."

"I know."

"One dropping today doesn't stop another one dropping tomorrow."

"I know." The man stared at the pickaxe anyway.

"Still feels bad." His friend laughed.

"There goes this week's Echo." Matt looked at Chloe.

"Completely irrational."

"Correct." Ethan nodded solemnly.

"Emotionally devastating." Matt laughed. Fifteen years of supernatural rifts, magic weapons, Levels, and superhuman Attributes—and people were still inventing fake loot superstitions. Some things survived every technological revolution. ◆ Vein's Echo didn't go through the ordinary Mana Stone Exchange.

The Black Hollow Auction House sat closer to the commercial center of Camp, with more security, more glass, and private counters for Unique equipment, Rare Gear, Skill Gems, crafting materials, and other specialty drops. The appraiser barely reacted when Matt placed the pickaxe on the counter.

"Vein's Echo?"

"Yeah."

"Nice." He scanned it and pulled up recent comparable sales. Recent Sales — Vein's Echo $18, 700 $19, 900 $21, 200 $20, 400 Matt looked at Chloe.

"Twenty thousand really was accurate."

"I wasn't guessing." The appraiser recommended a short auction. The item had plenty of buyers and didn't need days of exposure. After a brief discussion, the three agreed. AUCTION LISTED Vein's Echo — Unique Pickaxe Starting Bid: $16, 000 Duration: 3 Hours Matt stared at the confirmation.

"Somebody is about to spend twenty thousand dollars on an F-rank pickaxe." The appraiser shrugged.

"It makes them money." Matt nodded. Fair enough. ◆ Three hours later, Matt sat at a picnic table outside a taco truck with Ethan and Chloe. Ethan had ordered too much food. Chloe claimed she hadn't. Matt suspected both were lying. They had already sold the ordinary Boss loot—Mana Stones, boots, the buckler, and the miscellaneous mining materials. Nothing spectacular, but still money. Most of lunch had been spent replaying the Boss fight. Ethan claimed he'd never been worried.

Chloe reminded him that she'd had to yell at him to stop attacking before the final threshold. Ethan called that tactical aggression. Matt called it forgetting the mechanic. Then his phone buzzed. AUCTION COMPLETE Vein's Echo — Unique Pickaxe Winning Bid: $20, 000. 00 Matt slid the phone across the table.

"Exactly twenty." Ethan grinned.

"Nice." Chloe nodded.

"Five percent tax leaves nineteen thousand." Matt divided it.

"Six thousand three hundred thirty-three dollars and thirty-three cents each." Ethan pointed at him.

"Your logistics background finally becomes relevant."

"I've been waiting." The rest of the Boss loot added roughly another hundred fifty dollars to each person's share. Matt leaned back and considered his first three days as a Delver. Day One: about $50. Day Two: about $2, 000. Day Three: about $6, 500. He stared into the middle distance.

"This is setting wildly unrealistic expectations."

"Yes," Chloe said immediately.

"Absolutely," Ethan agreed. Matt nodded.

"Good." Treasure Chest yesterday. Twenty-thousand-dollar Unique today. This was obviously not normal income progression. If it continued at the same rate, Matt would apparently own the state of West Virginia by next month. Probably not. ◆ That evening, Matt returned to G-214, locked the trailer, and dropped into his chair. He finally checked the number again. Level: 5 Two Levels from his first Boss. Whatever else Level Five had changed could wait until morning. Right now, he was tired. And pleased.

Matt opened his build notes. BOSS NOTES Respect thresholds. Clear adds before pushing. Get a movement Skill. He stared at the screen for a moment, then added one final line. Boss loot can apparently be a pickaxe. Matt laughed quietly. He had expected his first Boss to drop a sword, dramatic glowing armor, or maybe a build-defining Skill Gem. Instead, it had dropped a mining tool. Matt picked up his phone. The auction receipt still showed: $20, 000. 00 His first Boss had dropped a pickaxe.

It had also sold for twenty thousand dollars. Matt decided he could live with that.