Chapter 359 The Drula Mines Part 2

Chapter 359 The Drula Mines Part 2

I changed the previous chapter's name to The Drula Mines Part 1 in case anyone's confused.

.

.

.

—

/Later... Somewhere further down the mineshafts.../

/Splatter!/

"Phew..."

[DING]

Dale pinned down another bug with his spear, ending their life as a notification played by his ears:

[Your current Level is 79 (12.92%)]

But he wasn't satisfied, his progress was too slow, and the casual bugs in his path just seemed to make it more of a drag.

'This is taking too long.'

As he checked his surroundings, he took out a small compass from his inventory making sure he was still moving East.

Although he didn't know where he was, he still remembered many key details of the mines, for as long as he found a familiar sight, the chances of him recognizing his location would greatly increase, and with it, the speed of his search.

Even if he failed in finding what he was looking for, as long as he followed the trails left behind by the Ant's movements, he would reach one of the Queen's chambers, achieving the same result regardless.

He would reach his objective, one way or another, but for the sake of simplicity, he had to find his way through these mines.

"We've been moving in the dark for a while, you sure we ain't lost?" David questioned as he looked around, his eyes shining weakly as he glared

"No, we aren't lost, I know the way back... But I don't know where we are either. I'm working on it." Dale replied as he looked at the wooden beams supporting the ceiling

He approached one of them, and hidden underneath a thick layer of dust and grime were numbers:

"F-4-172..." He whispered to himself as he thought deeply

"What does that mean?"

"It means we are in sector F, in the 4th tunnel, this is the 172nd pair of wooden beams since its start."

"If we turn back now and look at the numbers, this number will decrease until reaching 1, which will coincide with the entrance shaft we came from, as for the tunnel, they are numbered down based on discovery and creation."

"It's pretty simple to understand that this is the 4th tunnel as we entered it, but if we find any form of documentation mentioning another tunnel, we would need a guide to know where it leads since the tunnels aren't linear."

"Tunnel 1 won't lead to Tunnel 2, it depends on their rate of discovery and creation, don't ask me why they decided to make it like this, I don't know."

"I'm looking for any Tunnels I'm aware of since I never walked through here in the past... I used another entrance, if it still exists that is."

"What do you expect to find there?"

"A map of the mines."

'It's a shame that Hardcore players don't have access to the map function, I really hate this limitation.'

'But I have to work with what life gives me, can't make a lemonade out of air...'

/Stop.../

Upon further inspection, it seemed to be a report of some sort, full of numbers and diagrams, regardless, Dale was not proficient enough in the language to read it all, only a few fragments here and there.

Most important, however, was the series of parchments hanging on the wall.

A depiction of several long minecart systems throughout the Drula Mines, in other words, a map, and a very detailed and intricate one at that.

Proud of his discovery, Dale checked his location before taking the map out of the wall.

"With this, our mission can be deemed partially completed." He said as he carefully pocketed the documents and map

'As for the rest...'

The room wasn't very big, being around the size of his room back at Resko.

There was a large table, a few chairs, and a drawer, being a mix of an Office area and a recreational room.

There were several old items inside such as pickaxes and mining uniforms, but they held no value aside from a historical one, which Dale was very keen on preserving.

History was something Nobles loved to discuss about, so he wouldn't mind keeping those things intact...

Although he had no right talking about it, given what he just did to this 'historical site'...

He did grab one of the lantern helmets though as he felt they were... 'Niche'.

"What's that?" David asked as he stored the documents

"These?... A series of reports relating to all sorts of things inside the mines, from its overall production to other important research data such as how many miners were employed at any given time and how much of a given ore was expected to be extracted every year from within."

With each word he uttered, Dale continued to remember how things went when he first found these and what would happen in the following days.

"After these are studied, everyone will figure out that the mines are still mostly unexplored and that there's still a ton of ores left to be mined, the mountains themselves were hollowed out but the underground is mostly untapped."

"Resko still has a lot of mineral resources, enough to last a few more centuries... If we focus on our sole development that is, exporting ores is another issue altogether."

"This is... Quite the good news isn't it? I mean, this is only one of the many mining sights of the South, wouldn't things be similar in other places?" David asked out loud

"These are good news indeed, but there's still the issue of reactivating the mines. As for the other sites, some are indeed better left abandoned."

"The other ones can be reactivated over time as we deem fit, right now, we're best focusing our efforts and manpower in one area."

'I explored several of those sites and only a few are worth our time, the rest... Are better left for the players to explore.'

'One of my plans is to use their locations as rewards, players would love to get access to an unexplored Dungeon they can farm. They can have them as I do not need them.'

'For a high Quest completion rate, I need to secure rare resources, so I'll have to find a way to safely escort miners there, but that can be left for successive Quest steps...'

[DING]

[Your quest has been updated]

"..."

'Speak of the Devil... Right on time.'

...

.

.

.

Notes