A total of forty minutes later, Daru was back at the massive cave entrance.
He excitedly stepped inside, prompting the name of the location, [Fangforge Cavern], to appear above him before dissipating a few seconds later.
The first thing Daru noticed was the Swordspawns patrolling inside.
The closest ones to him were scorpions with black chitin armor, wielding two steel falchions.
As much as he wanted to charge and engage the arachnid spawn, Daru decided to give his strategy a try first.
He tapped his belt bag to open the inventory, then the map.
A notification appeared in front of him:
[Valmaris Continent Map has been updated! Chittersteel Cavern has been renamed to Fangforge Cavern!]
[The layout would be updated as you explore the area.]
'Oh…so I still need to explore the entire cave first, huh?' he mused, 'fine, I'll unseal my sword as I explore the cave."
Based on his experiences in the past two days, an hour or so was more than enough to explore an entire area, an hour and a half for larger areas like the Critter Forest.
Daru turned to look at the creature nearest to him and began reading its nameplate window:
===
Sunderer Scorpion Lv. 15
HP: 620 / 620
===
He tried farming the remaining Novice Swordheart Cores from lower-level Swordspawns, but he couldn't obtain any, no matter how hard he tried.
Daru concluded he could only obtain them from ones of the same level as him or higher.
He shall attempt his luck in this area a few times before moving on to the next.
And so, summoning his iron tachi again by simply opening his palms, Daru grabbed the scabbard and pulled his sword out, leaving the container to dissipate on its own before rushing towards his first victim.
The Sunderer Scorpion immediately noticed him the moment he stepped into the spawn's aggro range, unhesitatingly lunging as two horizontal, black slash marks shot towards him.
Daru's gaze sharpened.
Less than a minute of sword clashes later…
[You've slain a Sunderer Scorpion Lv.15]
[You've obtained 160 Experience Points.]
[You've obtained 12 Swordcoins]
[You've obtained (1) Black Chitin.]
[You've obtained (1) Novice Swordheart Core.]
He smiled faintly at the series of notifications before shifting his focus to his next target, proceeding to attack once more.
Daru continued fighting one Swordspawn after another, progressing his experience bar, replenishing his coin reserves, and obtaining a few much-needed Novice Swordheart cores, all while exploring the dark Fangforge Cavern.
An hour and fifteen minutes later, another notification appeared in front of him:
[Your area map of the [Fangforge Cavern] has been updated!]
Daru closed the notification and quickly tapped on his belt bag to open the inventory and the map.
Collecting Novice Swordheart Cores from regular Swordspawns is extremely slow.
Even after an entire hour of grinding and exploring, he gathered only five. He needed six more to unseal his sword.
Perhaps [Elite] Swordspawns and Field Bosses would drop more? Plus, Daru wanted a challenge.
Focusing on the map, Daru noted a few areas described by an online article as the types of locations elites and bosses could spawn in, nodding before closing the map and heading to the nearest one from where he was.
All he found were, unfortunately, regular level 16 Swordspawns.
Of course, every time he got the chance to, he would fight Swordspawns, luckily obtaining one more Novice Swordheart Core in the process.
The unfortunate part, however, was that the first four locations he visited had nothing but regular spawns.
He hadn't encountered a single [Elite].
...Until he noticed a strange rock in the corner of the fifth location.
Daru recalled he had also seen the same rock in two of the other possible elite spawn areas he had visited, and aside from those areas, he had not seen it with the spiraling design.
They were quite pleasing to look at. He didn't realize they made a subtle impression on him.
Daru walked closer to it, thinking it might be something he could harvest when, suddenly, the pretty "rock" moved.
It uncoiled and showcased its true form: a spine-chilling centipede with sharp, sword-like legs.
It stood tall and screeched at him as its nameplate panel appeared:
===
(Elite) Cutterleg Centipede Lv. 16
HP: 880 / 880
===
Daru's eyes narrowed, and he quickly stepped back, assuming his combat stance.
'It's coming…'
In the next moment, the hair-raising Swordspawn planted all its feet in the ground, unpredictably zigzagging towards Daru.
Dirt flew everywhere.
The swordspawn then screeched once more before stabbing both its antennas at him.
In all honesty, he didn't expect such an attack and was pleased to learn something new again.
But Daru was still able to respond.
He nimbly somersaulted backwards, slashing at the air and firing a lethal red crescent near the base of the antennas.
His attack cleanly severed the antennas and cut an opening in the black chitin protecting the Cutterleg Centipede's head.
The Swordspawn screeched in pain and began bleeding red cubic particles rather heavily, unexpectedly struck in a vital point.
Daru was quite disappointed at the spawn's questionable decisions.
With how numerous its legs were, it chose to attack with its antennas and exposed its weak spot.
'Dumb…' he remarked inwardly.
While Daru liked difficult battles, he wasn't one to give his opponents freebies, especially in a real battle with stakes involved.
To him, this was a true battle. Losing here meant losing a third of his life.
He quickly capitalized on the advantage he obtained for himself, dashing at the Cutterleg Centipede, who then counterattacked furiously with a crossing, outward-horizontal swipe of its front legs.
Sharp shockwaves echoed outward as the horrifying cutterlegs struck nothing.
But Daru had already lunged, holding his tachi in a reverse grip, landing on the Swordspawn's head, and stabbing his weapon deep into the opening created by his sword skill.
A defiant screech echoed one last time in the depths of Fangforge Cavern as the Cutterleg Centipede fell to the ground with a loud thud and dissipated in red cubic particles.
[You have slain an (Elite) [Field] Swordspawn [4] levels higher than you! Calculating experience point rewards…]
[You've obtained 1,500 Experience Points!]
[You've obtained 100 Swordcoins]
[You've obtained (5) Black Chitin.]
[You've obtained (5) Novice Swordheart Cores.]
Daru's heart raced as he read the last notification.
With this, he had finally gathered enough cores.