"Though I’ve found this place, at most it just puts me on the same starting line as Tepi. I still need to find more useful things."

He recalled that the intelligence brought by the spy mentioned a point: Tepi seemed intent on escaping while in the mine and didn’t explore deeply. 𝙛𝒓𝓮𝒆𝔀𝒆𝙗𝓷𝒐𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝓶

"Maybe if the knights and I dive deeper and find the treasures Tepi missed, we can surpass him!"

Thinking about this, he couldn’t help but feel exhilarated, just waiting for the knights to finish clearing out the monsters.

"However, I remember that the Sain Dungeon has a unique characteristic: even if it’s located in different countries, the areas will connect, allowing adventurers to move freely... what if people from the Yanor Kingdom come here? As the lord, I must handle these annoying matters."

The sounds of battle outside gradually quieted down. He was about to go out to commend the knights and evaluate the mine’s value when he suddenly heard a strange noise behind him, and turned his head.

A knight stood behind him, looking bewildered, their eyes meeting.

"Weren’t you outside just now?" Gerhard was startled.

"Ah, how did I get back?" The knight was as confused about why he appeared in the wooden cabin, suddenly remembered something, and shouted: "Oh right, the spikes! There are monsters here that release spikes everywhere!"

As he shouted, knights appeared one after another in the wooden cabin, their armor penetrated by numerous spikes, causing damage that could trigger a phobia of dense objects at first glance.

The rustling sound came from outside the cabin, caused by the friction of a vast number of insect limbs with the ground, and in the next moment, Corruption Favored peeked their heads out from the cabin door one after another.

At first glance, there seemed to be seven or eight of them, and more still not revealing themselves!

They unleashed insect silk in unison, forming a white ocean that surged violently towards them.

"Don’t come near!"

Death, rebirth, then review.

"So, at least ten of those insect-like monsters ambushed you, which is why you failed?"

Gerhard was stunned. Ten Corruption Favored of that sort—no matter how you put it, wasn’t that too many?

The power of the insect silk was astonishingly strong. These knights were skilled warriors, enduring three or four blasts of insect silk before dying, which attested to their strong physique.

But the Corruption Favored were positioned too widely, making it possible for issues to arise even when clearing them one by one, adding considerable uncertainty.

"Ha, looks like we’re in for a tough battle." He gritted his teeth.

"Sir, we’ve found the place, let’s think of a way to get out of here?" Some knights couldn’t stand the bug-like appearance of the Corruption Favored and just wanted to leave.

"Leave? No, we must go deeper!"

Under Gerhard’s command, the knights devised a tactic and charged forward.

But reality seemed somewhat different from the plan.

"The spikes fire too quickly, my shield can’t hold, and they bypass the shield!"

"Ah, these big bugs are so disgusting, I can’t take it anymore!"

"Don’t rush over!"

Cries of various kinds echoed through the mine.

Not only did the Corruption Favored increase in number and power due to dynamic balance, but even the Crystal Miners could be enhanced to the extent of splitting a knight’s helmet with one pickaxe.

Gerhard screamed out commands, but after they managed to resolve more than half of the monsters, the team faced another total wipeout.

"Again!"

His eyes tinged with urgency and he redrafted strategies. If they could now eliminate half the monsters, they could annihilate all—even if it had to be done!

Wipeout after wipeout, review after review, eventually the knights’ cries turned into:

"It’s too painful, too painful—"

After an unknown period, when they had completed their fourth death, they finally succeeded in clearing the monsters incubating in the mine, each wearing an expression of relief.

"We can’t rest yet!"

Gerhard circled the now relatively safe mine, the abundance of minerals making his breathing heavy.

If the initial mine resources were so plentiful, then what about the other places, perhaps even richer!

"Let’s keep going!"

The master’s decision left the remaining knights with no room to refuse, forcing them to choose a tunnel to walk through, neither knowing if it led out or deeper, but walk they did.

The mine was fraught with strong and lurking dangers, causing high alertness upon entering the tunnels; however, as they advanced, they found while dangerous, it was a little safer compared to the beginning of the mine.

At least, in the tunnel where you could see everything at a glance, they didn’t have to worry about insect silk coming out of nowhere to blow up their heads.

The difficulty decreased, but what about the rewards?

"The mineral deposits are decreasing." Gerhard frowned, the deeper they explored, the fewer minerals there were to find, leaving him quite disappointed.

But upon closer inspection, he realized that while there were fewer minerals, the quality was improving!

The most common in the mine were low-grade Forging Stones, followed by Bursting Luminous Stones.

Yet in the tunnel, there were higher quality Bursting Luminous Stones, and even rarer items appeared—Gravity Stones!

"Gravity stones are far more valuable."

Gerhard could only lament not having hundreds of miners to follow him, leaving those precious ores behind.

Following the trail of Gravity Stones, they wandered the winding, interconnected tunnels.

They might not sense it, but if an outsider were observing, they might find that these Gravity Stones... seemed to draw them intentionally?

[Gravity Stone]

[Discovered at meteor impact sites, they are special fragments imbued with Gravity Magic]

[Injecting magic power can trigger a gravity explosion]

"Sir, the path ahead is blocked by a wooden door."

Reaching the area richest in Gravity Stones, a rough, heavy wooden door suddenly appeared, with small fragments of Gravity Stone embedded, emitting faint purple Gravity Magic waves, appearing unstable.

"I can sense more ores inside." Gerhard showed delight.

"Sir, we sense a strong monster inside, best to proceed cautiously." The knights were sharp in sensing danger.

"What are you afraid of, this isn’t some inescapable Fog Gate, just a wooden door, let’s go inside, and if there’s a monster we can’t handle, we’ll retreat."

That made sense; as long it wasn’t a Fog Gate, there wasn’t much to fear.

The knights struggled to push open the heavy wooden door, revealing the scene inside, which left Gerhard’s eyes wide.

Ores, behind the door lay a large mine filled with various ores!

"A major discovery!"

He was the first to step inside, followed closely by the knights, but as he reveled in this wonderful find, a knight quietly reminded him:

"Sir, there is a monster over there."

Gerhard looked up, and in the richest ore area, a giant creature lay asleep.

"Fallen Star Beast?" Having experienced the Meteor Shower event, some knights recognized the monster’s true form immediately, and stood unsteadily in fright.

"Sir, we can’t defeat it!" A knight quietly and urgently implored: "Let’s leave here first, please!"

"Alright."

Seeing morale hit an unprecedented low, Gerhard reluctantly yielded to the knights’ adamant request; they had already found such a large mine, making the trip worthwhile, and whether to continue exploring or try exiting, he now had confidence.

Tepi, oh Tepi, you won’t win over me.

He turned to leave, but his footsteps halted, and the knights let out a cry of despair.

The wooden door they had just entered was now covered in fog, transforming into an inescapable Fog Gate!

"Wasn’t it promised not to become a Fog Gate!?" someone exclaimed in frustration.

And due to the cries, the once slumbering monster slowly rose.

The knights were actually mistaken; it wasn’t a Fallen Star Beast but a similar-looking entity.

[Fallen Star Beast]

Yet, in terms of torment, perhaps the slightly weaker, attack-wise, Fallen Star Beast could bring even greater surprises.

"Rumble——"

Like a roaring dump truck, the massive Fallen Star Beast charged fiercely at them.