I am the Arcane Archer, and all my skills are self-created.

The passageways in the mine were much wider than Li Wu had expected, enough to accommodate a mine cart. At intervals along the walls were embedded stones emitting a faint glow, providing limited illumination to the darkness.

Li Wu gripped the bow in one hand and slowly walked into the deeper water. His feet splashed and smacked in the puddles.

The passage was winding and circuitous, but fortunately, traces of the mine cart tracks remained on the ground, so Li Wu wouldn't get lost as long as he followed the tracks.

After walking for about five or six minutes, the view suddenly opened up, and a huge underground cave appeared in front of Li Wu.

Huge stalactites hang from the ceiling of the cave, while in the center of the cave is a bottomless underground lake with eerie dark green water and a completely still surface.

A walkway made of planks and iron chains leads along the cave wall to the exit at the other end.

Li Wu stepped onto the plank road, his eyes scanning his surroundings warily.

Just as he reached the center of the boardwalk, the calm lake surface suddenly began to bubble.

Immediately afterwards, monsters covered in green slime and with eight arms crawled out of the lake.

[Cave Lurker, LV27, Common Monster.]

These monsters resembled octopuses, but were much larger. They supported themselves with their tentacles and quickly crawled towards Li Wu, hissing as they did so.

"It's that disgusting stuff again."

Li Wu frowned slightly; he had never had a good impression of these sticky monsters.

He didn't back down, but instead drew back the bowstring.

Whoosh whoosh!

Three lightning arrows, imbued with the energy of thunder, shot towards the three cave lurkers at the forefront.

-1550!

-1520!

-1580!

Three damage numbers appeared above their heads.

These monsters were very weak in front of Li Wu and were instantly killed, turning into a pool of green liquid that merged into the lake water below the boardwalk.

The remaining cave lurkers seemed unfazed by the death of their companions; they waved their tentacles and charged forward even faster.

Li Wu's gaze remained unchanged as he gently plucked the bowstring with his fingers.

[Chain Lightning Arrow]!

A bolt of lightning roared from the bowstring and struck a lurking creature.

Immediately afterwards, lightning began to leap among the monsters.

Sizzle—

In an instant, the entire cavern was enveloped in lightning. Damage exceeding 1500 points continuously appeared among the monster horde.

With just two Chain Lightning Arrows, more than a dozen cave lurkers were wiped out.

Li Wu skillfully stepped forward and picked up the few silver coins and materials dropped by the monster.

"The slime from the cave lurkers seems to be an ingredient for making slowing potions, so it's not entirely useless."

He put the materials away and continued along the boardwalk.

After passing through this underground cavern, the passageway began to branch out. Countless mine tunnels crisscrossed the area.

"This is getting a bit troublesome."

Li Wu stopped, looking at the complex mine tunnels before him, perplexed. The mission only stated that the Star Iron was in the abandoned mine, but didn't specify its exact location.

With so many mine tunnels, searching one by one, I don't know how long it would take.

Just as he was about to randomly choose a path and try his luck, he suddenly noticed that there seemed to be some marks on the ground at the entrance of one of the mine tunnels.

They were fine, silvery powders.

Li Wu stepped forward, squatted down, and picked up a small amount of powder with her fingers, examining it closely. The powder shimmered with the luster of stars.

"Could it be...?"

A thought struck Li Wu, and he looked toward the depths of the mine tunnel.

Sure enough, deep inside the mine tunnel, he saw even more, scattered silver lights.

"This should be it."

Li Wu's spirits lifted, and he stepped into the mine tunnel.

This mine tunnel is much narrower than the main tunnel, only wide enough for one person to pass through at a time, and the walls are covered with marks from pickaxe work.

The further you go in, the more of those twinkling, star-like specks of light appear in the air.

After walking about a hundred meters, the road ahead was blocked by a pile of collapsed rubble.

"It seems that this route is blocked."

Li Wu was somewhat disappointed and was preparing to return the way he came to find another way.

Just then, he keenly heard a series of clanging and knocking sounds coming from behind the pile of rubble.

"Is someone inside?"

Li Wu immediately became alert. He held his breath and carefully approached the pile of rubble, listening intently.

Ding...Dong...

Ding...Dong...

The tapping sound was rhythmic, one tap after another, neither too fast nor too slow.

Besides the knocking sound, he also heard a strange clicking sound, like gears turning.

"Not a player."

Li Wu immediately made a judgment. Players wouldn't make this kind of mechanical sound when mining.

He walked around the pile of rubble and found a narrow crevice, just big enough for one person to squeeze through. He hesitated for a moment, then decided to go in and take a look.

He shrunk his body to its smallest size and slowly squeezed through the gap.

Behind the crevice was a small mine shaft.

In the center of the mine, a dwarf golem, less than 1.5 meters tall and made of steel and gears, was mechanically striking the rock wall in front of him with a pickaxe.

[Mining Golem, LV28, Elite Monster.]

At its feet, a small pile of gleaming silver ore had already formed. Each piece of ore shimmered with starlight, beautiful and mysterious.

This is the Star Iron that Li Wu is looking for!

"Finally found it."

Li Wu was overjoyed.

The mining golem seemed unaware of his arrival and continued its mining actions.

Li Wu didn't rush to make a move; he carefully observed the elite monster.

He had dealt with these golems before in the Black Iron Mine and knew that they had extremely high physical defense and were immune to fire damage.

However, they also have a fatal weakness: they are afraid of lightning energy.

Li Wu silently raised his bow, and lightning began to flash on the bowstring. He aimed at the energy core on the back of the mining golem's neck, which was constantly flashing red light.

That is the common weakness of all the puppets.

Lightning Bolt!

Whoosh!

A bolt of lightning, accompanied by a piercing whistling sound, instantly struck the mining golem's energy core.

-1780! (Weakness Critical Hit)

A four-digit damage number appeared above the mining golem's head. The mining golem's health bar, which was as high as eight thousand points, instantly dwindled by a small amount.

ka ka ka-

The mining golem that was under attack suddenly turned around, its crystal eyes glowing red as it locked onto Li Wu.

It threw away its pickaxe and charged towards Li Wu with heavy steps.

Li Wu remained calm and drew back the bowstring once more. Three more lightning arrows were fired in quick succession.

-1810! (Weakness Critical Hit)

-1850! (Weakness Critical Hit)

-1790! (Weakness Critical Hit)

……

Before the mining golem could even reach Li Wu, its health bar was completely depleted. Its massive body crashed to the ground, smashing into a pile of lumps.

[System Notification: You have defeated a Level 28 Elite Monster, the Mining Golem, and gained 68 experience points.]

[System Notification: Your talent, Soul Devouring Fortune, has been triggered, granting +0.08 Luck and +0.08 Intelligence.]

Li Wu nodded in satisfaction.

He stepped forward and picked up the several golem cores and a high-quality mining golem blueprint that had fallen from the mining golem.

Then he turned his gaze to the small pile of star iron.

He walked over, bent down, and picked up a piece.

【Name: Star Iron (Rare)】

[Type: Forging Material]

[Description: A special ore that has absorbed the power of the stars, it is an excellent material for crafting magical weapons and equipment.]

Li Wu tried to put the ore into his backpack, and the system notified him that he had obtained Star Iron x1.

"Looks like I don't need to dig it myself."

Li Wu breathed a sigh of relief; he really wasn't good at mining, a life skill.

He collected all the dozen or so pieces of Star Iron from the ground into his backpack. Target progress: (15/600).

"Five hundred and eighty-five yuan still needed, a long and arduous road ahead!"

Li Wu glanced at the mission progress, then turned his gaze to the rock wall that the mining golem had just been striking.

That rock face was covered with countless silver veins that shimmered with starlight.

This place is actually a rich vein of Star Iron!