Mythril Pickaxe

Both tools break the same blocks. This one looks slower on paper, but it reaches further and it responds to mining speed bonuses from armor, accessories and potions, which the drill ignores. Stack a couple of those and the pickaxe pulls ahead outright. The drill only wins if you are digging bare with no speed gear at all.

Reforging is close to pointless here. Several different modifiers round to the same mining speed, so take whatever cheap roll comes up instead of paying to chase a specific name.

This is the tool that opens the third ore tier. Until you have it, the two strongest ores in the world are decoration on your map. Make the pickaxe before you make anything else out of your first bars. Armor can wait one trip.