The clone trio continued advancing through the dungeon, effortlessly killing all the monsters they encountered. After all, this was merely the first layer, and even if it was the Hell Difficulty, all the monsters were only lvl 1-5.

On this layer, the majority of monsters were Mine Gremlins, Mine Bats, and Coal Slimes. Of course, they also had rarity levels.

For example, there were Experienced Mine Gremlins and Veteran Mine Gremlins, each having a 10% and 25% overall boost, respectively, and even additional or enhanced racial skills.

For the floor guardian, there was also a Gremlin Supervisor, who had +50% stats and actively used Earth Magic and Support Magic behind the miners. But they all died the same.

They even took some detours, intentionally mapping everything, and searched for treasure chests, even breaking a few breakable walls. And there were also traps, which they disabled.

Of course, they received several titles, along with related skills.

 

 

Naturally, they also received loot, including Magic Crystals, Gremlin Equipment, Potions, Spell Scrolls, Alchemical Ingredients, and Minerals.

But there was no money, though. It made sense, since if the dungeon introduced money into the economy, there would be a money overflow, causing money devaluation.

The trio then stared at the portal, which led to the next layer, in deep thought.

"Should we head to the next layer?" Sonia asked.

"We would need to face stronger mobs... and clearing the dungeon is secondary for us for now." Nidawei shook her head.

"Hm. We only have one mission this time." Asher seriously nodded.

The eyes of the trio flickered. Of course, they were referring to grinding skills! And what was the best skill to grind within a coal mine?

Hefting his pickaxe, Asher spoke.

"Let's start mining!"

"Yeah!" The other two cheered.

They then returned to the coal nodes they found and started mining.

Within the Dungeon, there were specific resource locations that spawned randomly, and you had to find them. Within this dungeon, the resources were specifically Coal Nodes and Glowing Mushrooms.

A single Coal Node was enough to fill a whole mine cart, and the entire mine had plenty of nodes. However, this was also due to the misuse of the Hell Difficulty dungeon. Normally, only a set number of nodes appeared each day, about 10-15, and the annual production was about 4,000 tons of Magic Coal.

Naturally, this also necessitated guards to kill the mobs and clear traps that daily spawned within, and then find the nodes. Expert miners handled the actual mining, while slaves were tasked with loading the carts and moving them. And this necessitated dozens of workers.

But in the trio's case, they could completely monopolize everything. And that wasn't all...

Ting* Ting* Tack*

Asher found a lode and mined it, coal dropping on the floor as he received a message telling him that he earned the Initiate Miner title and Mining Skill. He then checked the coal that dropped.

 

 

"Another ambiguous description... We need to compare it later to regular Magic Coal." Asher said to the other two.

"Boss, let's just save it for now. This is probably rare stuff, and we don't need to sell it." Sonia said while mining.

"We can later use it for ourselves. Knowing how games work, this would probably be useful when crafting high-end gear." Nidawei added.

Asher thought about it, nodded, and continued to mine.

The vast majority of what they mined was Magic Coal, but they also mined Extreme Magic Silver Nuggets, likely due to their higher luck. However, there was only about a pound in a whole ton lode. But the trio also mined quickly and could mine a lode within an hour. As for the coal itself, they dumped it all into Asher's storage before moving on.

Just like this, they continued mining for ten hours. They mined a total of 30 tons of coal and 5 kg of silver before calling it quits and returning to the town.

By this time, the town already become accustomed to the clones. After hearing they were doing this to upgrade skills, the mayor allowed it under the condition that it wouldn't negatively affect the town economy, IE, flood the market with cheap (albeit effective) labor and materials. He also requested some community service, such as fixing the town wall or participating in certain building projects that lacked workforce. In exchange, he would halve their taxes.

Naturally, the trio readily agreed. After all, they were looking for places to grind skills! Since the mayor provided it, why not?

Once evening came, the real bodies woke up from their meditation, ate, and then had nighttime grinding. But this time, it was different. Instead of a 3P, it became a full-blown clone orgy as their house became a house of debauchery, having the clones fuck in various ways until they were exhausted, before finally replacing them with fresh clones with new energy reserves, who then did various home activities until daybreak.

And so, the cycle continued. No, it is more apt to say that the cycle only grew larger since the trio also trained multiple Comprehension skills, especially Multitasking, which skyrocketed due to using over a dozen clones at the same time. Whenever their Comprehension increased by another 100 points, they could produce and control a new clone, adding to the workforce. Some even took on new trades, such as furniture making, painting, sewing, and gardening. As for glassworks and metalworks, they just purchased them.

In the case of the dungeon, whenever they finished harvesting the first layer, they also went to the second layer, killing everything before harvesting it all. But they mostly focused on the first and second layers.

Any other available clones they had were made to train physical and magical skills, or also meditate. While clones couldn't recover lost Mental Energy, they could recover Stamina and Magic. This accelerated their training in those areas.

Just like that, two months later, their new house was completed.

.

.

.

In the west side of Coalfell-

"No way," Kate muttered, her face twitching.

"Are they human?" Nettie numbly asked herself.

"These guys are in another league." Price muttered.

"I never imagined I would see something like this..." Mayor Irl wiped the cold sweat on his forehead.

They, along with dozens of citizens, stared at the masterpiece of the three beautiful monsters who moved into their humble town.

It was a Victorian-style grand townhouse, four stories high and with a huge cement-reinforced basement, and it was beautifully decorated. It was even larger than Kate's house! Kate estimated it was worth £4,000 unfurnished.

The building itself took one month. It has only taken them that long to complete a project that would take a professional crew of dozens of people at least six months to complete. The finish itself took them another month.

That's not all. They also created all the materials themselves, save for the windows and some metalwork, and even painted everything. They even decorated the interior with elegant decorations and furniture.

There was even a nice front yard and a small garden at the back.

All things considered, it was likely worth at least £7,000. Kate did a small calculation. The trio bought the land from her for £1,000, and for another £600, they also purchased the glass, metal, and fabrics. So they saved a whopping £5,400 by doing the work themselves.

And it barely took them two months.

And the worst part is that they didn't do it to save money, but to grind their skills! Kate even suspected that, if they were given a huge plot of land, they would build a whole city to grind the related skills!

Kate didn't know that she hit the money on that wild guess.

.

.

.

Meanwhile, the trio reviewed their mind-numbing gains.

Both Meditation and Multitasking reached lvl 10,000, transforming into Meditation (Max) and Multitasking (Max). Along with their titles, they had over 5,000 Comprehension, allowing them to maintain 50 clones each.

Aside from two True Limit titles, they also obtained a third, special title.

 

 

While it didn't give a bonus, it at least revealed one of the conditions to clear the game!

And it also revealed some important information.

"So we only need to maximise 100 skills? Seems easy enough..." Asher muttered.

"If we calculate it by 2,000 stat points per skill, we would have 200,000 stat points, including titles. Although it is almost 3 times more than Nightmare Challengers... we would barely match a lvl 1,000 mob on Hell Difficulty. So we would need to maximise at least 300 skills, if not more." Nidawei warily said.

"Really, fuck this game," Sonia grumbled.

The trio looked at one another and simultaneously sighed.

"So we will probably be stuck here for the next 10 or more years, depending on how fast we are," Asher said with a resigned look.

"Ten years of High Fantasy Steampunk Sandbox? It doesn't seem THAT bad. It is barely a few Mindscape sittings for us." Sonia tried to be optimistic.

"Possibly more if we want to stay on the safe side. Being a sadist myself, I would disable our Unique Titles and all the stat bonuses from other titles." Nidawei contemplatively said.

The trio's expressions suddenly changed.

"It would, wouldn't it?" Asher said with a twitching face.

"Considering everything... It would. Otherwise, it wouldn't be a challenge." Nidawei said with an annoyed look.

"Really, fuck this game." Sonia facepalmed.

The trio then looked at one another and began brainstorming on their next course of action.

"Let's send some clones to the City. Knowledge makes grinding skills faster." Asher said.

"Meanwhile, we can continue grinding skills here to increase our survivability and strength," Nidawei said.

"I heard there are floating cities in this world... so let's also build one!" Sonia grinned.

The trio smiled and raised their fists in the air.

"For the grind!"