I just beat the crap out of a mouflon i'm taming. After the fight, a red 15, (My final parry move that won the fight.) and a yellow 45 popped up. I tethered him to the post, and it didn't seem to give any taming points. (The last two times i got taming points from beating him, then tethering him to a hitching post.) So was that yellow 45 that popped up directly after the fight the taming points i got, or the HHP damage i dealt with the last parry? I can't figure it out.
And for the mining question, is are caves level 1 in the mines or just it's own level, like a level 0, or cave level?