Chapter 334: Hidden Wealth (1/2)

“You wanted to see me, sir?” the young woman said with a shaky voice, clearly afraid to enter the large room where Zac had been training with his shield the past day. ”I'm Emma.”

Zac looked over with some confusion, not recognizing the girl by the entrance. But he quickly realized who it was, and stowed away his shield.

“Are you the scout I asked for?” Zac asked, trying to not sound threatening.

“Y-Yes. I was in charge of a scout team looking for valuable veins within the Unio- ahem, Lord Atwood’s domain,” Emma hastily explained, keeping her eyes at the ground.

“Great. Come with me for a bit,” Zac said, leaving the training room and the group of Valkyries who had been his sparring partners.

The councilors from the Underworld Council left yesterday along with a group of ambassadors led by Tylia and Joanna, taking the impatient Emily with them. Zac himself had decided to follow up on the idea he had while waiting for things to get sorted out, and called for the person who had written it up, which was the girl currently following him.

Unfortunately she had been out on a mission and it looked like she only returned just now. So since Zac had some time to spare he decided to work on some of his undead skills. All of them were still at the Early Stage, and he hoped that one way to improve his battlefield impact if he upgraded them.

[Bulwark Mastery] was the easiest, as it only required him to learn and incorporate the movements with the shield. It took him less than an hour to upgrade the skill to Middle mastery, and another 10 hours to reach late mastery. But just like with [Axe Mastery] he found that there were something missing to push it toward peak mastery, so he could only stop there.

Upgrading [Bulwark Mastery] did not improve his attributes or allowed him to unleash some new power, but it did help a lot in utilizing his shield, and the fractal equivalent in [Immutable Bulwark]. It even showed him how to properly fight with a weapon in one hand and shield in the other.

Until now he had been a bit clumsy and limited in that department, but he quickly learned how to use both his weaponry to their full potential. The shield was not only a large plank to block out damage, but it was a tool that would also create the opening for him to finish his enemies with his weapon. His other skills, unfortunately, weren’t as easy to level up, but he didn’t despair. Hopefully he would be able to push some of them forward in the following weeks.

“Don’t worry, you’re not in trouble or anything like that. I have read some of your reports. You were the one who wrote this, correct?” Zac wanted to confirm after the two entered his office, handing Emma the report he found the other day.

He could understand Emma's nervousness. She had worked in the department under one of the leaders who were found guilty of human trafficking just this morning. Almost two-thirds of the leaders of the Union had been found complicit to the slave trade, and they were executed as punishment. It wasn't unthinkable that the minions would suffer for the sins of their boss as well.

“Wha- Oh? Yes!” she stammered after glancing over the first page. “I was the one who wrote it. I am the only survivor from that excursion.”

“Large vein deposit. Unknown resource. Quality - Highest. Danger level – Highest,” Zac said, listing the main points from his memory. “Infested by, and I quote you, an insane number of mutated bugs. But no location?”

“Leonard, the department head, did not want us to write the location in the reports of very valuable things. He was afraid competing departments was spying on him. I only told him in person,” the scout said.

“Tell me about this place,” Zac said.

“The vein is three day’s travel from a remote outpost, hidden in a huge cave system at the bottom of a lake. We found it by accident when looking for valuable resources underwater. When we entered we realized there was some odd crystal that was emitting a really mysterious light, but we didn’t have time to excavate even one before we were overrun.”

“By what?” Zac asked.

“Insects, each about as large as a large dog. But they were so strong! We barely managed to harm them, but they slaughtered everyone in seconds. I only managed to use my identification skill once before I fled. The insect was level 68. That was one month ago,” the scout said with horror in her eyes.

“Have you seen anything like that before?” Zac probed.

“No, there are really some strong insects down here in the Underworld, but they are usually solitary. We saw thousands of peak F-Rank beasts, and we didn’t even really enter the vein. I’m sure it’s teeming with E-Grade beasts further down, especially now that so much time has passed,” she said.

“How did you survive?” Zac asked with some suspicion. “You’re only level 42, and I am sure you were lower at that point.”

“I have a good movement skill,” she said, “and the beasts stopped when I jumped into the water to get back to the surface.”

Zac slowly nodded. He wasn’t disappointed when he heard how dangerous the mysterious cavern was, but rather the opposite. A place crawling with extremely strong beasts was exactly what he needed.

His plan was simple. He wanted to throw himself into the thick of it, and with the help of [Deathwish] and [Fields of Despair] grind all the way to level 60. Normally such a thing might have taken over a month, mainly because beasts strong enough to provide a nice boost of energy were few and far between.