CHAPTER 42: MINING EXPLORATION III

’Is it growing back?’

Dorian thought as he stared at the glowing dragon ore roots.

Until now, he had assumed the reason why he was lucky enough to have found dragon ore underneath this place was probably due to the death of a dragon. Dragons were said to emit mana capable of making these dragon iron ores.

However, since dragons were almost impossible to see, people no longer had access to the rare materials. Though the corpse of a dragon that had probably rotted could still create it after being ignored for, say, a couple of years.

’But if it can grow back, then it might not be a dragon corpse making it. Could there be a live dragon here?’

Dorian glanced further into the cave, his eyes squinting in suspicion.

[You’re thinking it’s possible, aren’t you?]

’Can you blame me? This whole thing sounds too convenient—first, multiple dragon ores, and now a secret tunnel underneath the entire barony. Sounds weird, doesn’t it?’

Dorian slowly stood to his feet, turning his gaze to Maria, who just so happened to be closer to him at the moment.

"Say, what do you think the chances are a dragon is sleeping inside here?" he asked, pointing in the direction.

Maria’s face clenched in surprise.

Not because she was scared, but because she was aware of the employees’ reaction upon hearing that.

And she was correct.

All of the workers who had been chatting away as they disembarked from the trolley suddenly fell silent, staring at Dorian with wide, terrified eyes.

When Dorian noticed this, he realized he needed to play with their minds. He had forgotten the workers were in the cave with him.

So, with a robotic look, he uttered to Maria, acting as though he didn’t see their reactions.

"But that would be impossible, right? A dragon can’t survive in here, especially near humans. Right?"

It was obvious his lie was doing nothing to calm their nerves, not until Seraphina uttered, pointing at one of the dragon iron ore roots.

"Look, Lord Dorian. The dragon ores are glowing; does this mean we can use the roots as well?" she asked with excitement.

Each employee who had the roots close by also took a look, soon becoming enthralled with the golden radiance.

Ever since they mined all the dragon ores in this spot, none of them really went back to check, so it was more of a shock to see what could happen after leaving a dragon ore root untouched for a while.

"We’ll think about that later; for now, we need to hurry, or you all will run out of mana and the air protection will wear off."

Dorian turned around and began to walk away.

The workers followed, making sure they were not too close to one another in order to avoid mistakenly knocking out each other’s air shields.

As they walked, Maria moved closer to Dorian.

"Were you serious about the dragon sleeping in here?" She whispered, making sure her voice wasn’t too loud.

"Only a guess." Dorian blinked. "The dragon ores are not supposed to be repairing themselves. Something else is at play here."

"And you think that is a dragon?" asked Maria.

"Well, do you know any other creature equipped with releasing strong dragon energy capable of hardening into dragon ores?"

Maria glanced away.

"I do not."

"I thought so." Dorian quickly looked behind him, noticing how the workers were following at the back, acting as a shield around Seraphina as though she were a fragile egg in their midst. She had an ink and paper in her hand, drawing the map of the place as she moved, the workers helping her by describing everything in sight.

"Push comes to shove, if there is indeed a dragon in here. Everyone needs to run."

Without any warning, Dorian suddenly stopped.

The path ahead was thick with dark mist and also had no source of light.

Because no one had gotten this far into the mining cave, they had been unable to plant lanterns on the wall.

Luckily, they all came prepared.

Some of the workers lit fire torches, giving one to Maria to use.

Because of the presence of light, they were now able to see the path ahead.

The ground was covered in green sticky slime that stretched further into the darkness, and the air was thick with poison, so much so that it felt like it was going to slip through the protective wind they all had around themselves.

At the same time, the ground had multiple dragon ores growing out of it, even stretching all the way to the walls and ceiling, each taking different sizes.

Raising the torches further, they were all able to see an even deeper view of the cave.

They could make out two paths ahead, separated by a wall in the center, not far from where they were.

"Two routes. Should we split up?" Maria asked.

Dorian stared for a while.

’Splitting up might make this faster, but it only makes it more likely for the weaker squad to run into danger with no way to protect themselves.’

He glanced back at the workers, noticing that about two of them were leaving markings on the wall already in order not to forget their way back.

’It’s best we stick together. There is no reason for us to do it all at once. We can take it slow until we are done with the entire thing.’

Now looking back at the two routes, Dorian decided to inspect and see just what he was going to be dealing with once he walked through one of the dark tunnels.

[You are currently using the skill Resource Gathering and Analysis.]

[What would you like to make your target?]

’Deadly monsters.’

Though it was hard for him, all he had to do was imagine a creature scary and capable of killing him, and the system would do the rest.

[Request confirmed.]

[Monsters have been found.]

[Monster has been found.]

[Monster has been found.]

The notifications kept spamming in front of him.

Along with that were golden threads trailing into both the caves he was still contemplating entering.

There was so much that it felt like the ground had been painted by them. The sheer number left Dorian shocked; he could not count them, but he knew, in that moment, whatever lay beyond the tunnels was not something he would want to mess with so freely.

Then-

[The skill Analysis is active.]

...

[A/N:

I should add, and please remember, this world is diverse with many races, so many we haven’t touched yet. The further we go, the more I will introduce; heck, some are made up too.]