Knight and Wand

Chapter 185 In-depth exploration
Lohak left in a hurry with his attendants.

Without any trivial matters delaying his rapid progress, Leon estimated that he would be able to reach Avalon via the forest road before dark.

If things go well, reinforcements will arrive tomorrow. After all, everyone has been walking along the earth veins, stopping and starting all the way to get here, so this place is actually not far from Avalon.

But Leon was not sitting there waiting. Although he had no intention of continuing to look for minerals, he still took Olivia, Corvis and Treya to search for traces of wild goblins in the surrounding area.

Since the wild goblins can travel in and out of the mine, there must be a real entrance and exit nearby, except for the collapsed pit that Olivia accidentally collapsed.

Moreover, this mine tunnel is so close to the surface, and judging from its trend, it must not be far away.

Following the direction of the tunnel, the four men searched in the woods on both ends and soon found the entrance to the mine supported by thick wooden beams at the foot of a gentle slope south of the sinkhole.

However, there is no external mining site around here. Not only is the track not extended, but it is also surrounded by barren land and trees. It is obviously not the real entrance or exit of the mine. Perhaps it is just a branch road that has been dug too far?

Not knowing whether this place leads to the collapsed tunnel just now, Leon decided to go in a little deeper to take a look.

He turned on the earth vein lamp, Corvis activated the sword, Olivia and Treya lit the torches, and the four of them walked in.

The light sources held by each of them illuminated the dark mine tunnel.

After walking a few steps, Leon saw a large number of spiritual vein crystals exposed on both sides of the tunnel. He was satisfied and felt that the trip was worthwhile anyway.

Moreover, after clearing out the wild goblins in this area, people will be sent to utilize this ancient mine tunnel, saving the workers the trouble of opening up the mine in the early stages.

"Leon, look, there's not only spirit vein ore here! There's a lot of iron ore around." Olivia looked around the rock wall of the tunnel with the help of the firelight. As the daughter of a blacksmith, she naturally recognized the characteristics of these raw ores.

Only then did Leon notice that there were large areas of dark rock occupying more positions on the rock walls covered with new spiritual veins.

Corvis approached the tunnel wall, reached out and touched the obvious traces of excavation in the past, turned his head and smiled at Leon, "It's still 'black crystal iron', my lord, this is a very high-quality iron ore."

Leon was a little surprised when he heard this.

Although he couldn't tell what kind of black mineral rock there was in the world surrounding the tunnel, he knew Olivia and Corvis would definitely not bluff.

This was an unexpected bonus.

Spiritual vein ore cannot be converted into cash in this era, but an iron mine, especially a high-quality iron mine, is of great value to humans in any era.

I just don’t know how much high-quality iron ore reserves are left here after being mined by ancient miners.

Continuing forward, they soon found themselves at the end of the mine track ahead, on which sat a severely corroded mine cart.

Leon went over and looked over the edge. There was some black iron ore chiseled from the rock wall piled inside.

They explored along the mine track for a while and did not encounter any forks in the road. Suddenly, they saw sunlight from the surface shining in front of them and realized that they had arrived at the entrance of the cave that was collapsed by Olivia.

"Let's stop here, Corvis. You set up a warning spell here to guard against the wild goblins, and we'll go back to the ground." Leon stopped and looked up.

The altitude is okay so we don’t have to go back the same way.

Corvis took a few steps forward and arranged the technique horizontally, cutting the tunnel in half.

Leon waved to Olivia: "Look, is this the distance I threw you up, or you threw me up?"

The girl looked up to measure the height, then extinguished the torch, stretched her shoulders and said with a calm smile: "Let me do it, I'm strong, but you better be careful not to fall."

Olivia finished speaking, half-crouched, crossed her gloved hands, and built a "platform" for the lovers to step on.

Leon was not afraid of hurting the other party. They threw each other directly into the air like this, which they did many times during their daily training.

This is also an extremely important part of Olivia's school's advanced training in somersaults, leaps and other body skills. The "sword techniques" created by the girl that fly over the enemy's head and strike vertically at the head's vital points cannot be used without jumping to a sufficient height.

Leon took a few steps back, took a short run, and stepped his iron boots on the hand stand set up by Olivia. In an instant, the girl shouted and threw him high into the air.

Although he was not as cool as the girl before, Leon still lay half of his body firmly on the entrance of the cave and pushed himself up.

He threw down the rope and pulled his companions up one by one. After that, Leon stopped running around and set up camp near the bare rocks to wait for reinforcements.

That night, when Leon was on guard, he heard the shrill sound of the warning spell coming from the cave.

This means that some living creature has crossed the "cordon" that Corvis had set up in the cave during the day.

Running to the cave entrance and looking around, he saw the figures of the wild goblins who were frightened by the loud noise and hurriedly retreated back into the depths of the tunnel after realizing their whereabouts had been exposed.

These little monsters are hiding inside.
In the second half of the night, there was no movement in the tunnel.

The next day, the brother came back faster than Leon expected.

Before the sun rose to the zenith, Lohak led his army back to the bare rock area in the forest. Almost all of his warriors went out in full force. The nearly one hundred soldiers immediately brought more liveliness to the lonely woodland.

But since they were trekking in the forest and couldn't ride horses, Leon also told Lohak not to bring Uncle Brian, who had difficulty walking, along.

It's okay to walk on the normal ground, but walking through the forest is really a torture for the lame old knight, so there is really no need for him to come.

The hundreds of elite soldiers at present, plus Leon and others, are like using a sledgehammer to kill a chicken and a cannon to kill a mosquito when it comes to the task of wiping out a nest of wild goblins.

"I respond to the call and serve you, my lord." Larian, who came with the army, greeted Lion.

The Knight Ranger looked somewhat excited, as this was his first serious mission to defeat monsters after being hired by Leon.

He and Margarina lived a very comfortable life in Avalon Castle. In the lord's fortress filled with all kinds of wonderful facilities, life was better than in their hometown in the south.

But the more comfortable he felt every day, the more ashamed Larian felt for having a high monthly salary but nothing to do.

He also wanted to chop off a few monsters' heads as soon as possible, show off his abilities, and prove that he was not just someone who lived in his employer's castle and ate for free.

Leon nodded and asked the other party to help. Naturally, he was impressed by the professionalism and martial arts of the ranger knight who was like a "demon hunter".

He left some soldiers to set up a temporary camp near the cave entrance, and then led the assembled elite and heavily armored guards to the entrance discovered yesterday.

Halfway through the journey, Lohak came up to Leon and whispered the information he had learned from the Mage Tower.

"Ms. Laura said that this area was under the rule of 'Gervin', the commander of the Yanyang Guards who was once demoted by her. She said that she had not paid much attention to this place in the past. Before the formation of the spirit-like field, she naturally did not know about such trivial matters as someone mining and digging wells here, as she was far away in the King of Law Court."

Luohak reluctantly repeated the words of the white-haired lady, and then asked in great confusion: "By the way, what is the identity of Ms. Lola? What are the Yanyang Guards? What is the Court of the King of Law? Who is Gelvin? Gelvin? Why do I feel like I have heard this name somewhere before?"

Looking at his brother who had turned into a curious baby with 100,000 questions, Leon patted his shoulder and said, "Don't worry, I'll explain it to you when we get back. Let's get the important things done first."

After saying this, he looked at the Knight Ranger standing beside him and said, "Do you know anything about wild goblins?"

Larian nodded and replied, "I know very well, sir. Those little monsters are not difficult to deal with in most cases. Although ancient books say that some of their subspecies will domesticate a dangerous giant poisonous spider in the caves, but based on my experience of going deep into caves and caves over the years, I have never encountered one. Perhaps it has already become extinct."

Listening to the knight-errant's experience in hunting demons, Leon led the army to the destination.

The soldiers immediately formed their formation in front of the tunnel entrance.

The crossbowman guards with weapons on their waists walked in the front row, helping the crossbowmen carry large shields, while the archers holding the Silver Mountain crossbows were behind them.

On the left and right were heavy armored guards and knight squires, Leon and others walked in the center of the team, and at the end followed by chain mail spearmen at the rear.

With a slight distance between the front and rear teams, the soldiers in armor and armed with sharp weapons entered in a row with rumbling footsteps and an orderly manner, and advanced along the mine tunnel.

Pairs of boots stepped over the top cave area, and torches illuminated the dark depths that had previously been unexplored.

The tunnel was parallel for only a short while before everyone felt the angle was decreasing, as if it was going further underground. In the tunnel with no other reference except the sound of footsteps, even the sense of time gradually blurred. Fortunately, the hourglass on Leon's waist could remind him that everyone had only been exploring for more than ten minutes.

Following several turning ramps, I walked who knows how many meters underground, but the torches were still burning as usual, and the slight cold air current coming from the front seemed to show no sign of lack of air circulation.

Leon looked around at the passage that remained unchanged.

The mine tunnel with thick beams crisscrossing is not narrow, and there is still enough space for several people to walk side by side. The green and black-silver ore bodies are intertwined on the rock walls. The more Leon looks at it, the more he is pleased with the rich mineral reserves here.

It’s settled, he’s really going to get rich now. Even if he can’t estimate it now, he knows that this ancient underground iron mine is absolutely priceless.

Suddenly, the team in front gradually stopped.

Leon looked up and found that the front was suddenly clear and it seemed that he had arrived at the entrance of a tunnel.

But the light from the torches in the soldiers' hands, which were swaying in the wind outside the cave, could only barely illuminate the extremely deep darkness around them.

Outside the cave entrance, there are no rock walls on the left or right, except for the mining tracks extending out from under your feet, which are built on a wide rock path that can accommodate more than ten people walking side by side.

Leon walked up to the cave entrance, tentatively stepped on the rock path that carried the railroad tracks, and turned back to call out to his little wizard: "Corvis, take a look around."

The young wizard immediately lit up the sword, controlled the sword to rise into the air, and quickly flew towards the surroundings of the rock bridge in front.

As the dazzling magic light spread, an astonishingly huge underground cavity suddenly appeared in front of everyone.

As for the left and right sides of the rock bridge directly in front, the reason why the torches could not illuminate the rock walls was because that was basically an empty underground space.

The soldiers gasped in shock at the shocking scene before them.

The knowledgeable Larian was also surprised. He had never heard of any country that could dig out such a huge underground space.

The soldiers who had just tentatively stepped onto the rock bridge platform, seeing the bottomless darkness at the edge, couldn't help but shrink back in fear of heights.

There was not only a rock suspension bridge in front of them that led straight to the distance, but also rock bridge platforms crisscrossed with mining tracks everywhere the flying sword's light shone on.

".Prophet! Can a man dig this out of the ground?"

Lohak opened his eyes wide and looked along Corvis' flying sword at the huge hole that he could hardly believe was artificially created.

But nature will not create standard straight rock suspension bridges connecting each mine tunnel for each mine track.

Leon came to one side and used the earth vein spirit lamp to illuminate the endless darkness below. Although he was not afraid of heights, he still felt a little creepy.

He kicked down a large stone and then listened attentively.

It took several full seconds before the slight echo of the ground was heard spreading upwards.

But this also made Leon feel relieved.

After all, it is not a terrifying bottomless abyss. It does have a bottom, probably around one or two hundred meters.

Olivia pulled Leon's arm and pointed forward: "There are footsteps ahead, those wild goblins."

As if confirming her reminder.

"~Crack!"

An inhuman scream drew everyone's attention back to the front of the mine track rock bridge.

Larian, who was skilled and courageous, drew his long knife and rushed forward with a torch in hand.

Corvis also turned his flying sword and pointed it forward, illuminating the huge rock platform at the end of the rock bridge and the wild goblins on it with their fangs and claws bared.

Leon followed closely with his sword drawn. He could see that there were not only wild goblins on the platform, but also a number of long-abandoned ore trucks, and even a huge iron structure deeply embedded in the edge of the rock platform, which was suspected to be some kind of elevator.

There is no doubt that these advanced ancient mining facilities could not have been the creation of the current human civilization in the Western Continent.

He now roughly understood where those wild goblins came from.

When the spirit-like field still covered this area, this large underground mine naturally turned into a cursed land. The spirit-like field that spreads with the wizard tower as the center will not only affect the surface.

But now, with the dissipation of the spiritual field, the mine, which was originally a forbidden area for life, has once again become a passage through which mortal life can travel freely.

This underground tunnel is so interconnected that no one knows where each rock bridge connects to, just like the mine tunnel they came from.

This group of wild goblins may have accidentally discovered the surface of the Nightmare Forest from the vicinity of Kossos County, or Mamor County, or Glade County, or somewhere else.

Seeing their lord leading the way, the soldiers had no choice but to put aside their fear of the dark abyss on both sides and quickly followed in batches.

Fortunately, the huge and solid rock suspension bridge under our feet can bear a weight beyond imagination. The weight of just dozens of people cannot be compared with the tons of fully loaded mine cars that once traveled on it.

In the darkness in the distance, a large group of wild goblins roared and yelled threateningly at the "intruders".

But then, seeing the neatly-dressed teams of armored warriors and plate knights armed with swords and spears, the fear that was almost engraved deep in their blood made these little monsters who bullied the weak and feared the strong turn around and "charge" backwards without the slightest hesitation, and in panic, scattered like birds and beasts along the surrounding rock bridges.

When the crossbowmen saw the ugly monsters clearly, they immediately dismounted their crossbows and started shooting at the captain's command.

With a sound of bowstrings, a rain of arrows instantly pierced through more than a dozen wild goblins.

The Larians at the front walked as fast as cheetahs. In just a few seconds, they crossed a distance of dozens of meters and rushed into the fleeing monsters.

The moonlight flashed by, and several wild goblins who had just turned around hurriedly were cut in half by his demon hunting blade.

With a "puff", scarlet blood spread all over the ground, and the dismembered brown body parts fell to the ground and rolled.

Larian was about to continue chasing, but Leon quickly spoke up to stop him from behind.

"Wait a minute, no need to chase. This place is a little bigger than expected. We'll have time to slowly investigate the passages and clean them out one by one."

Leon walked to his side, and the soldiers behind him stepped onto the rock platform in the center of the underground cave.

There were only a few sporadic screams of wild goblins around, as the crossbowmen used the firelight to try to kill a few more monsters that had not yet escaped into the darkness.

Of course, to these wild goblins who had only recently explored this underground cave, the army from Avalon Territory was more like terrible monsters that suddenly appeared.

On a platform lined with torches, Leon led everyone through the area where the mine cart tracks intersected, and walked towards a huge black shadow in front that could not be fully illuminated, but the outline was particularly eye-catching, and it was suspected to be a sculpture.

Pausing before the tall steps, he raised his lantern.

The emerald green light slowly rose upwards, illuminating this huge "man-made structure" inch by inch.

It is an ancient stone sculpture carved from underground rock with a craftsmanship that can be described as supernatural.

The giant statue of more than ten meters in height actually depicts a dwarf wearing armor, holding a double-edged battle axe, with a thick beard down to the waist, but with an exceptionally short and stocky body?

"A statue of the Heran people." Corvis muttered, looking up.

Underground, mines, advanced technology.
Leon sighed with relief.

Should have thought of it earlier.

If the people who could build such a giant mine were not the ancient Lorelits with advanced technology, then the only ones who could have built it were the short-lived "Heraen" men who had disappeared from the continent for hundreds of years.
(End of this chapter)