The earliest mining sequence I recall remembering is to Use pickaxe, with --> rock. If fail, repeat. If successful, repeat. One pick type, one swing per click. And try not to die in the process due to the map-wide player-killing. Or carry a big sword...of course, that would take up an inventory space you could otherwise use for an ore/coal. I remember choosing Miner for my character at the type selection prompt...Still holds true to this day. Mining is still my highest stat (Granted, I've logged in maybe 100 hours of gameplay in two years - a decent sum of that the past week.) I still remember the line to infinity to talk to whatshisface (NPCs only being able to talk to one player at a time back then) for the Dragon Quest/to buy the Rune plate.