Chapter 68: Black iron ore bestowed from the gods (1/2)
Chapter 68: Black iron ore bestowed from the gods
It was narrower inside the mining cave than Han Shuo had thought. The dwarves had shorter statures and could walk around with ease, but Han Shuo found it a bit inconvenient. Even with the light from oil lamps along the way, it was still rather gloomy inside the cave.
After a few minutes of walking, Han Shuo had to start stooping his body. The farther down they walked, the danker and more humid it got. Broken shards of stone could be found all over the ground, and when Han Shuo discovered that it was becoming difficult to progress even when stooped over, that was when the three dwarves finally stopped.
The dwarves ahead held metal spades and hammers in their hands, exerting themselves to the utmost as they mined. The sounds of tapping rang out continuously. When they discovered that Han Shuo had come in, they all involuntarily stopped their motions and measured up Han Shuo with suspicious gazes.
“The cave will become more and more spacious as we make our way past this narrow juncture. Although there are more iron and copper cores inside, rocks rain down from above when we transport the ores. There was a collapse a few days ago, and we spent an enormous amount of effort to reopen the path.” Bennett leaned back somewhat tiredly on the hard rock wall as he looked at Han Shuo when explaining.
Nodding, Han Shuo said, “Alright, make some space for me. I’m going to summon the skeletal warriors and have them go inside to mine the ore.”
In accordance with Han Shuo’s instructions, the dwarves cleared out of the area, starting from those furthest inside the cave. When there was no longer any dwarves within the cave, Han Shuo started the necromancy magic incantation. Seven skeletal warriors, in a row, appeared within the passageway, completely blocking it off.
Han Shuo had only been able to control six skeletal warriors originally, but now that he had meditated using the round green ball, his mental strength had improved again and was now able to manipulate seven skeletal warriors simultaneously.
“Put your iron spades and hammers on the ground. I’ll command the skeletal warriors to use your tools and mine the ore inside.” After the seven skeletons had appeared, Han Shuo looked at and spoke to the dwarves who had retreated.
The dwarves hesitated upon hearing Han Shuo’s words, and then flung out the mining tools in their hands one by one upon Bennett’s persuasion. Han Shuo manipulated the skeletal warriors, commanded them to cast out the bone daggers from their hands, and pick up the mining tools on the ground instead. Each of them arched their bodies and slowly plodded into the depths of the mining cave.
A “wraith” was released and floated into the depths of the cave along with the skeletal warriors, according to Han Shuo’s instructions. With the aid of this wraith, Han Shuo could observe the environment surrounding the wraith. With the wraith leading the way, Han Shuo could observe the sights of the depths of the cave as if he were there in person.
It was as the dwarves had said, the skeletal warriors had to stoop and slowly thread their way through an exceedingly narrow entrance, after which the space became increasingly larger. Except, there were no light facilities inside. Thus, Han Shuo was unable to clearly see all of his surroundings.
As the “wraith” and the skeletal warriors covered a large distance, to the point where Han Shuo felt that he would no longer be able to manipulate these dark creatures, he issued the mission to start mining ore. According to the “wraith” vision intermediary, Han Shuo focused his concentration and manipulated the seven skeletal warriors to start tapping and hitting the ores around them.
Loud rumblings noises sounded out, accompanying the skeletal warrior’s movements. After a short while, Han Shuo could clearly feel via the “wraith” that because of the skeletal warriors’ digging, the rocks at the top of the mining cave had started to shift. Some large rocks actually fell down after a while, directly smashing the skeletal warrior in a pile of bone fragments.
Focusing his concentration, Han Shuo closed his eyes and stood in front of the dwarves, carefully manipulating the skeletal warriors. He sent the “wraith” floating to the top of the cave and observed the loosened rocks with utmost care. He would hastily send the skeletal warriors dodging to the side whenever the rocks fell.
After proceeding like this for a while, another skeletal warrior was directly smashed to smithereens by another large rock. Han Shuo’s mental strength was severely depleted and he felt a wave of vertigo in his mind. He immediately understood that he had over exhausted his mental strength and hastily commanded the remaining five skeletal warriors to stop mining ore, pick up the ore fragments that they’d extracted, and start moving them backwards.
When the five skeletal warriors started moving the ores on the ground one by one to the narrow pass, the dwarves on Bennett’s side cheered and started walking to the pass without waiting for Han Shuo’s instructions. They picked up the ores from there and moved them safely to Han Shuo’s side.
After this went on for a few minutes. Han Shuo felt that his mental strength could no longer sustain the skeletal warriors’ continued actions and so immediately and decisively chanted an incantation again, sending the remaining skeletal warriors and the “wraith” back to the other dimension.