Knight and Wand

Chapter 184 Ancient Tunnel
There was no need for special attention and tracking. As everyone followed the guidance of the earth vein spirit lamp impartially, they all noticed that the messy traces of the wild goblins' activities were heading in the same direction.

Just a few hours later, a rocky area surrounded by trees suddenly appeared in front of Leon and others.

He raised the spirit lamp in his hand, and the emerald green light was dazzling and rich, reaching its peak brightness, almost as bright as that near the vein node of the Mage Tower, and was so eye-catching in the sunny environment.

Either this is another node of the earth's spiritual vein, or there is a large amount of spiritual vein ore here.

For the time being, he was not interested in caring about the whereabouts of the wild goblins. Business was more important. Leon told everyone, "Search separately. The spirit vein mine may be here."

The vein near Kosos is not deep, and spiritual vein ore is usually produced by the magic power overflowing from the vein to the surrounding area. In addition, due to the influence of the spiritual field environment, even if the vein here does not grow and expose to the surface, it must not be very deep.

If this is the place, then I'm afraid we can find some bare ore if we dig a little bit.

Olivia put down the tool backpack she was carrying. She, Leon, and Lohak picked up the steel pickaxes, and the other three picked up prospecting shovels. They searched separately in groups of two.

Leon came to a rocky area, swung his steel pickaxe, and smashed it into the bare rock with all his might.

With a crisp sound, the rock crust on the ground shattered into pieces.

Leon kicked away the broken rocks and swung the pickaxe again.

The powerful knight smashed down with great force, breaking the rock fragments below into pieces.

After just two chiselings, Leon saw that the cross-section of the broken rock blocks was covered with blue mineral crystals, and he was immediately delighted.

Haha! ~Got it!

He picked up a piece and looked at it carefully, looking at the spiritualized spiritual vein ore body between the layers of bare rock, and felt a little regretful that he was not living in the ancient Lorelit era thousands of years ago.

Otherwise, owning a spiritual vein and mineral deposit would be considered a considerable fortune.

Unfortunately, for the human civilization on the continent today, these spirit vein ores are nothing more than rare mineral crystals with impure appearance, except for being useful to a small number of spellcasters and alchemists.

They now have another common name, "Blue Death Stone".

Although it basically only exists near spiritual veins and is rare in number, once the spiritual vein mine is mined, if it is not specially processed, its spiritual properties will gradually disappear over time and it will become a worthless gray raw stone. Even unscrupulous jewelers who make and sell counterfeit goods are too lazy to even look at this rare mineral that cannot preserve its color and is useless.

Weighing the ore in his hand, Leon wondered if it had any higher value besides being used to make Neti cards.

There is a vast mine of minerals, and if only Corvis and I were to use them up, we would never be able to use them all up until we die.

How about exporting some and selling them to the spellcasters in the Northern Warlock Society?
Leon sighed instead.

He had just come into conflict with the Warlock Society because of Mette's matter, and now Hilgard was probably still under house arrest in the Trosa Army. It would be difficult for him to go to the Northern Society to do business with the warlocks.

What about sending someone to the Alchemist Guild in the capital to ask? Even if the demand among alchemists is not high, they should be able to sell it for some money to supplement their family income.

Leon felt like an ancient man who discovered a rare earth mine or natural gas. Although it was a precious resource in an era of advanced technology, it was useless to others in the "ancient times".
--boom!

With a loud bang, the large rock under Olivia's feet was smashed and cracked.

The girl raised her hand to catch the broken and flying stones, and was delighted to see that the characteristics of the stones matched the description in the magic book.

"Leon, look! Is this it?" Olivia shouted to her lover not far away.

Leon threw down the ore and smiled at her: "Yes, these are the things. Okay, everyone, don't dig anymore. Pick up a few pieces of raw ore and take them with you. Let's go around again."

After saying that, he also called out to Lohak and the other two on the other side.

Once they return to Avalon, they will organize some soldiers and workers to carry out later development and long-term excavation.

Olivia nodded, squatted down, picked out a crystal that looked the largest and most beautiful in cross section, and stuffed it into her backpack.

But just as she was about to stand up and leave, she suddenly felt a slight vibration spreading under her feet.

There was a dull sound of rock breaking, and the next moment, the cracked and collapsed rock shell instantly fell into the ground, carrying the surprised girl with her face.

“Olivia!!”

Watching his lover's figure sinking as the ground sank, Leon was so frightened that he broke out in a cold sweat and rushed over.

However, after hearing the girl's light shout, Olivia grabbed the edge of the rock with one hand to gain leverage and threw herself back into the air above the cave entrance.

The girl somersaulted in mid-air and landed steadily on the ground. Then, with lingering fear in her heart, she stood up and retreated to the people who were running over.

It was a false alarm, Leon took her hand and breathed a sigh of relief: “Are you okay?”

"It's okay, I just got scared. I'm sorry, I hit the rock too hard, I didn't expect there was nothing underneath the rock." Olivia apologized bitterly. She looked at Treya who was coming over and was especially thankful that she had let her avoid the rubble and retreat to the side. She didn't know how deep the pit was. If it was a deep cave, it would be a big problem.

"Hey, this is weird, Leon! Come and take a look, there seems to be a tunnel underneath. What's that on the ground? It looks like something man-made."

Leon heard his companion's surprised exclamation, and turned around to find that Lohak had been standing at the edge of the pit, looking down into the cave.

"Why are you still getting close? Come back quickly, or the collapse might spread." Leon frowned.

"It's okay. It doesn't matter if you fall down. It's not that deep down here. Come and take a look and you'll know." Lohak waved at Leon with interest.

Seeing him signal that there was no danger, everyone came to Lohak curiously. Leon also stuck his head out to look, his eyes widened in surprise.

The collapsed rock cave was indeed not particularly deep, and there was a tunnel underneath.

At this height, except for Treia and Lohak's servants, the others might sprain their feet. With their abilities, they wouldn't get hurt even if they jumped down.

But what really surprised Leon was that with the sunlight coming in from outside, he could see between the rock layers and soil blocks he had just fallen into.

There was actually a rusty, narrow iron track that was obviously man-made.

Looking at the long, rusty rail supported by sleepers that stretched deep into the tunnel, Leon touched the back of his head. The size and width of the rails should be those for transporting mine cars.

Is there a mine underneath?
But since it is underground in the Nightmare Forest, it was definitely not built by people of this era.

"Do you have the rope? I'll go down and take a look by myself." Leon turned around and said.

"I'll go too." Olivia said quickly.

"No, you stay on top, I'll tie the rope around my waist, and if there's any danger you just pull me up." Leon shook his head.

The girl thought about it and agreed. This way she could better protect the other person than if she went down herself.

Without wasting any time, everyone fetched a rope and tied it tightly around Leon's waist.

Drawing out his sword, Leon leaped into the underground tunnel.

The heavy body wearing plate armor fell to the ground with a thud.

At the same time, Corvis's flying sword lit up and flew to Leon's side, illuminating the environment inside the tunnel for him.

Before he could straighten his knees, which were bent due to the fall, Leon used the light of Corvis' flying sword to see the faint footprints on the ground.

The three-toed paw prints were undoubtedly those of the wild goblin.

Judging from the depth and shallowness of the features, they are probably left behind recently.

Standing up and kicking away the broken soil and gravel, Leon looked at the railroad tracks covered with old rust.

No matter what, at least this railroad track could not have been built by the wild goblins, no matter considering the time period or the intelligence of the little monsters, it is impossible.

But those little monsters who are afraid of light may have used the underground tunnels as their nests. They like to live in caves and underground.

Leon shouted upwards, asking Corvis at the cave entrance to control the flying sword to accompany him, and then continued to move forward a few steps.

This tunnel is very long.

Even the light of the rune sword cannot reach the end.

Leon did not continue to go deeper rashly. He turned back to the cave entrance and let Olivia pull him back to the ground.

He was very curious and wanted to find out the truth. After all, this would be his mine in the future, and all hidden dangers had to be eliminated.

It is impossible to allow our workers to work here permanently and risk being attacked by wild goblins.

But Leon would not be in a hurry to take everyone deep underground.

He is now the lord who rules this place, not the miserable adventurer in the story who has to take risks alone no matter what happens.

"There may be wild goblins building a nest down here, Lohak. Go back to Avalon and gather our troops to clean it out. Remember to call Knight Larian along," Leon ordered.

"Okay, then you guys better be careful here too." Lohak nodded.

"Oh, by the way, when I get back, I'll look for my 'teacher' and ask her if she knows what the mine here used to be like." Leon reminded with a try-it attitude.

(End of this chapter)