Chapter 272 (1/2)

Chapter 272 North Slope Mine

The further down into the mine, the more humid the environment became.

Sylvie was holding up a torch and gingerly evading the drop of water falling towards her head as she led the group further into the mine. Even without any light, her Eye of Truth wasn’t something that could be stopped by the darkness. Thus she merely used the torch to save her magic power.

“There is another fork in the road,” Nightingale who was walking at the front said after she stopped, “Which cave is this already?”

“Twenty-third after passing the first fork from the entryway,” Lightning answered, as she took a look at the records.

“I hope this is the last one,” Sylvie grumbled, then completely opened her magic eye, “The left side… spreads away from the mining area, there is no ore there. The right side… is the same.”

Lightning wrote down the results then announced, “In that case, those caverns were also the last gates we had to inspect.”

“Come on,” Nightingale said and went from the front to the end, leading everyone back. It didn’t seem that her ability was as simple as invisibility, Sylvie could only see faint changes in Nightingales’ magic power, but was ultimately unable to capture her figure or movement. According to Lightning’s introduction, she was the strongest fighting witch.

This may also be the reason why Roland had her to follow them. There were rumors that the mine had once been a nest for ancient monsters, and there had already been several events of miners going missing. Before their departure, His Highness had also told them several times that they had to be careful and that in case they couldn’t determine the situation, they should first exit the mine and report back to him.

However, Sylvie couldn’t accept this as correct. There existed no monster which could escape the investigation of her magic eye, even those animal corpses, and the twisting soft-bodied snakes within the walls were clearly visible to her.

There were four people in the expedition team, herself, Nightingale, Lightning, together with a little girl called Lucia. Every time they found some minerals, she would convert them into a variety of debris, and after carefully classifying them she would put them into her pocket, which would later be handed over to His Royal Highness.

Lightning was responsible for drawing the map of the mine, since in her own words, there didn’t exist any adventure from which she could be excluded. Hearing her prideful speech, Sylvie couldn’t help but think of the captain who was temporarily staying on Sleeping Island.

The 23rd cave was at the lower level of the mining site and could actually be regarded as an enormously deep hole. After penetrating several hundred steps into the mountain, it divided into three paths again, and after following each to their end, they would once again split into several branches. However, since they were at the exterior area of the mining site, with only the rare possibility of find any veins, they had decided to end their exploration.

Returning to the first fork, which Lightning had recorded as “Gate of Life”, Sylvie cast her ability to observe the 23rd cave and the circumstances of those three pathways.

The further she spread the range of her Eye of Truth, the greater the magic consumption was, and the heavier the burden on her body. So she decided to observe one channel after another at each fork.

“Cave number three… yes, there aren’t any mining areas at the end of it. There are… ” she spent a moment frozen in shock, “There are five branches, including one that seems to lead further downwards while also making a detour.”

“Downwards?” Lightning repeated.

“It is indeed like that,” Sylvie confirmed while taking another look. It didn’t take long until the slender downwards leading path turned around a corner and pointed straight back at the mine. When she tried to further explore along the road, her mind suddenly became flooded with a strong sense of dizziness which interrupted her contact with her magic eye, “I think it may lead to a mineral deposit.”

But this interpretation was a bit far-fetched, the North Slope Mine’s tangled and complicated cave system was clearly not something which had been artificially dug out. Furthermore, if she hadn’t been specifically looking for ore, it would be unlikely she’d have discovered any unknown veins, even if they were hidden between two channels. If not for her Eye of Truth which was able to penetrate any obstacle, it would be simply impossible to find any minerals hidden behind rocks and under piles of mud.

“No matter what, let’s immediately go and take a look,” Nightingale said, and shrugged her shoulders.

The group entered the cave behind the third gate one after another, and about a quarter of an hour later they had already arrived at the end of the passage.

There the tunnel divided itself into five like she had seen it. One among them was even so narrow that it was impossible for people to walk through and so it could only be entered by crawling. However, the strange channel Sylvie had seen before was located in the middle of the five, and its topography changed dramatically, almost forming a deep slope when compared with the place they were standing now.

“It seems as if it is going straight down,” Nightingale said and held up the torch, “I feel as if this grotto is somewhat similar to the deep cliff of the Impassable Mountain Range.”