Chương 1261: 1260. A Whole New World

Gnawing and grinding, the sound of industrial mining filled the dark tunnel. Beasts covered in cold sweat hid in dark corners and barren dead ends as the wave of Minas Mar flooded into the tunnels. The swarm of worker drones spat from the bowels of the magic tower made no difference between flesh and rock. The native beasts, remnants of the demonic birthing pools, were no threat to the automatons and mining golems. Monique was the first who step through the dark portal and enter the noisy caves.

She expected the unbridled darkness Seth had described. A darkness that even blinded the <Night Vision> skill. However, she came too late. The primordial ink had been driven away by magic lanterns and electric light. Civilization had come to claim this ancient refuge several hours ago and transformed it, squeezing all the resources and spirit of adventure out of the location, like juice from a fruit.

Now, this prehistoric cave, the venue of an ancient battle between demons and supposedly angels, was now brightly lit. All the mysticism was gone. It reminded Monique of movies about mines, or that cave system she visited at school once. Magic generators powered a net of electric lights, while magic lanterns were placed wherever the cable didn't reach.

The air was filled with the deafening sound of the golem's work, as they expanded the cave, digging greedily for the various ores hidden within the rocky walls and transporting them back to Urth. Among the golem were people, and enchanters, busy installing the light fixtures.

"Oh ho, the operations have already started. Looks like they are making good progress," Jane commented. She was second to pass the gate. The head of finance couldn't help but praise the desecration of Monique's fantasies. She had been looking forward to an exciting adventure, not a documentary about… predatory exploitation of natural resources. Third to step through the gate was Jonah, who agreed to accompany her, despite being a team leader himself.

After the three main actors got a good look at the cave, they were followed by a small group of Oathguards and other members of Minas Mar, primarily members of the administration, plus some alchemists and a few enchanters from the crafting teams. They all volunteered for this first off-world mission, to help assess and explore the potential of this place.

While Seth and Al'Zalsar had prospected the caves for the most part, this team was meant to follow Monique, Jane, and Jonah to the surface and check the quality of potential trade goods. When choosing the members for this expedition, Jane had paid special attention to language skills, apart from the system as well as given by the system, to hopefully allow them to properly communicate with the natives of this world.

Since the Abyss Alliance was not part of the system worlds, the likelihood that these people spoke a language saved in the system's database was there. Love what you're reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on. One of the administrative staff schooled in using the golem eyes took the lead with a tablet in hand. They still weren't able to upload the map data of the golems to the <Map> skill of a user.

After becoming a craftsman-tier enchanter, Grant was currently working on developing this technology with the system material <Arpegium> Seth received after creating a saint for the System god, but they had yet to succeed. Following the man with the tablet and several golem eyes as guides for good measure, they were traversing the cave system that was quickly turning into a massive mining operation with many straight, parallel tunnels drilling through the hard rock in the search of raw materials.

"I didn't think we could do this much in a day…" Jonah mumbled in his beautiful, soft voice from behind the mask. Sometimes they tended to forget what kind of behemoth their guild had turned into in the past year or two. But not every part of the caves had turned into an excavation site. Many places needed to be left as natural as possible to allow the continued growth of natural resources for alchemy and enchantment.

This way, they also came past the dark caves Monique had been looking forward to but didn't enter them. However, her wish came true as they ascended. The further up they went; the fewer signs of mining activity could be found. Her mood rose with their altitude, as things looked more and more like natural caves. They even came across some misguided monsters that had the gall to attack them. This finally felt like a mission in a foreign world.

"We should rest here before we go outside," Jane, sweating and panting like a dog, suggested several hours later, when they finally saw light at the end of the tunnel. Apart from her, they were all high-level players, so they fatigued much slower than normal people, but even they needed a break after this footslog. The chosen of Athena checked the time. They had set off from Minas Mar at noon, to time their arrival at the surface properly.

They didn't know the day-night-cycle of this place, but they had estimated it based on Seth and Al'Zalsar's experience on the previous trip.

"Alright, then let's all rest here for an hour and eat something. It's the last chance we get to proper rest without putting up a guard," Monique agreed as the leader. Although she and Jonah were still fresh, what she said was true. They were still a few bends in the tunnel away from the massive, collapsed cave that was the entrance to the system, so this was the best place to rest before they went to the surface.

Right now, the cave was still sealed by Al'Zalsar's magic seal, which didn't allow anyone to pass through the entrance, from either side. To get outside, they would have to break it on their way out. Once outside, they only had a long dark way home in their back and a world full of potential dangers in front of them. They would have to stay vigilant and choose guards when resting on the surface. Although they didn't expect to face any great danger in the world above, they could never be sure.

As such it was not just Monique who was cautious of the next step of their journey, but most of the Oathguards, too. After eating some of the rations prepared by Link's team of chefs, everyone checked their equipment once again. Jane and the people she brought were a little calmer, after all, they had the Oathguards, Monique and Jonah as backup, while all of them were at minimum lv. 40. They expected this to range among the higher level of power in this world. Even if most of them were non-combat classes.

Since the people of this world saw the need to build a fortification to deal with monsters that left the cave while the beast in the cave ranged in the 50s, level-wise, they didn't expect any great dangers. Having a team of 20 lv. 80+ Oathguards and two chosen above lv. 140 with them almost seemed like overkill, even as a precautionary measure. After an hour, Monique checked with the golem eye operator about the daytime outside the cave entrance.

Their estimations seemed to be somewhat correct, as the light outside looked to be around late noon, meaning their day-night-cycle had about 6 hours offset.

"Is everyone ready to continue?" Monique asked, paying special attention to Jane, who had the worst stamina in the group. Unexpectedly, the merchant nodded at her with a bright smile. It seemed like she had already recovered. Probably with a potion.

"Good, then let's go. We should approach them while the sun is still up." She and Jonah took the lead, with everyone else following in formation, taking the noncombatants into the middle. There were no more monsters or surprises on the short path to the entrance. About 3 meters away from the exit to the collapsed cavern, they were stopped by an invisible barrier. Expectant, Monique raised the stone, covered in runes and sigils, Al had given her.

A simple touch of the stone against the invisible wall and both crumbled to dust. Well, at least the stone did, the barrier just dissipated. Rubbing dust off her hand, Monique got ready to enter a whole new world.