Struggle in the Steam Age

After confirming that there were no other dangers around, Lawrence began to collect the loot at the gate of the mine. What makes him feel a little regretful is that undead creatures may have died once because there are not many souls left in their bodies, at least this is true for low-level undead creatures.

For example, the eight zombies he killed today plus one undead dog brought him far less soul gain than he imagined, only about 1/5 of the soul gained after defeating ordinary monsters.

After collecting the available materials from these monsters and putting them in the space bag on his waist, Lawrence walked along the path to the mine surrounded by a dilapidated wooden wall.

The entire mine is actually built in a small valley, and the gate of the mine is the only gap in this small valley. As he went deeper step by step, Lawrence found that there were more than a dozen mines, large and small, in a circle of hills around the valley, and the small ones could only allow one person to walk straight in. The big one is as big as a house, with a steam engine for pumping and ventilating at the entrance, and traces of simple tracks on the ground.

It's just that the owner of the mine back then was a kind of budget-conscious person, and he took all valuable things with him when he left. When Lawrence approached the boiler that looked like a long-dead monster corpse, he found that most of the metal parts on the boiler had been taken away, leaving only some brick-like furnaces and wooden mechanical structures that remained in place. .

[Detection Magic] Standing in the center of the flat ground in the mine, Lawrence released this magic again to detect the entire valley. Soon he discovered that there was a magical aura in the largest mine just opposite the gate.

"The situation is a bit wrong." Looking at the dark mine entrance, Lawrence frowned. As a spellcaster, even a warlock like himself has many ways to isolate the magic aura and hide the treasure, let alone those mages who have a lot of magic knowledge. If the mage's treasure is hidden in this place, it cannot be found so easily.

"It seems that the situation inside may be inconsistent with the content on the treasure map, but anyway, it's here, let's go in and have a look." Thinking of this, Lawrence re-checked his gun, and then held the gun in his left hand, empty With his right hand ready to cast a spell, he walked towards the mine. The closer he got to the mine, the colder the air around him felt.

When he came to the entrance of the mine, Lawrence found a row of sleepers neatly lined up toward the darkness deep in the mine. However, the original rails above have been taken away. In addition, there are messy dog ​​footprints on the ground. After careful observation, he could confirm that there was only the undead dog that he shot dead at the door just now.

That undead dog was an official-level monster. Although its weakness was the brain, its skull was much harder than that of a zombie, and it was difficult for ordinary bullets to break through. It's just that the strength of bones and muscles does not mean that there is no weakness, so it can be easily killed by Lawrence's enchanted bullet directly from the eye to the brain.

After vigilantly following the footprints on the ground and going deep into the mine for more than 30 meters, a foul smell faintly came from a branch tunnel on the side. However, this stench is very slight, at most similar to the smell one would smell when standing near the manhole cover of the sewer cellar in summer.

"What's over there?" Lawrence chose to go there first because he found that the place where the magical aura was displayed was divided into two places, and one was just in the tunnel that emitted the stench. Based on what happened just now, he had vaguely guessed what was inside this small tunnel.

Entering the small tunnel, Lawrence found that the narrow tunnel gave people an extremely depressing feeling, like walking in a tomb. He even felt that the sound of his clothes rubbing and footsteps became much louder in such an environment. Just as he was walking forward cautiously, he suddenly felt something padded under his feet, and then there was a clicking sound.

Gently lifting his foot, Lawrence saw that what he crushed was the mummified corpse of a mouse. Judging from the fact that the mummy was broken into pieces no larger than the knuckle of a little finger, it seemed that it had done too much. It doesn't look like it formed naturally in this humid environment at all.

This discovery made Lawrence even more vigilant, but when he came to the end of the tunnel, he found that the situation here was a little different from what he had imagined: there was no monster waiting for him at the end of the tunnel, but a living room-sized monster. The space, ground and surroundings are filled with all kinds of mummies. And there is an obvious groove in the middle of this pile of mummies. According to the size, it is easy to judge that the undead dog should lie here to rest.

Fortunately, this pile of mummies are mainly small animals similar to mice, with a dozen wild boars and deer scattered here and there. Lawrence did not find traces of humans inside, of course, this may also be the dead humans turned into zombies. Because one of the eight zombies that Lawrence just eliminated was not wearing the same miner's costume as the others.

In this pile of animal mummies emitting a faint smell, Lawrence took out a small shovel from the interspatial bag and dug up the place where the magical aura was released just now. After a while, a golden light was drawn from layer to layer by Lawrence. Dig out from under the dead mouse.

After simple cleaning, Lawrence found that this thing was a simple bracelet made of gold wire. It was inlaid with a fine yellow agate carved in the shape of a fat pig. If Lawrence is not mistaken, the carving style of this piece of yellow agate is very close to the oriental Aurora style.

"It should look like a good thing." Lawrence wiped the dirt on the bracelet on his trouser legs, took out a lead box and put it in, and then put it into the space bag. Because he knew that it was right to reserve magic power to prepare for casting spells in such dangerous places, and he could not waste magic power in these places that were not urgently needed.

After searching the zombie dog's lair, Lawrence returned to the main road and walked forward. When he came to the first place where the magic aura flashed on the main road, he was shocked to find that it was a magic trap that had been destroyed.

"Has anyone been here?" Lawrence felt that his worry just now had become a reality, because the locations of the next few magic auras were either destroyed traps or some magic consumables such as broken enchanted arrows. . After walking three or four hundred meters down the winding mine tunnel and the naturally formed underground cracks, a stone wall appeared in front of him.

"How could it be a dead end?" Lawrence thought about releasing [Detect Magic] to look for nearby magical auras, but was surprised to find that there were many magical auras hidden behind the stone wall.

"Huh?" Lawrence became vigilant, because this magic cannot penetrate too thick stone walls. After careful inspection, he found that this place has a magic hidden something here.

Soon, Lawrence discovered a manipulative magic circle on the stone wall. After a simple crack, a big hole appeared on the stone wall, and Lawrence immediately drilled into the big hole. The traces of extraordinary power on both sides of the tunnel here became denser. He found many traces of flames, acid corrosion, and axes on the walls of the cave.

This also made Lawrence's expectations keep dropping, because these traces showed that someone had already been to this place before he arrived. Obviously, it is impossible for those who enter here to leave anything good for those who come later.

Sure enough, when he walked to the exit of this small tunnel, a huge space appeared in front of Lawrence. In this space like a 100,000-person stadium, a five-story building that connects the roof and the bottom of the cave stands in the center of this empty space.

However, judging from the large number of large and small holes that have been blasted on the building, it is obvious that a fierce battle broke out in this place.

In this battle, the owner of the building should have lost the battle. Otherwise, it would definitely repair this building instead of letting it become dilapidated and dead like it is now, let alone letting those bones scattered on the ground in pieces.

After taking out the binoculars and looking around, Lawrence chose to walk towards the building. Because there is only that place in this space as the goal of progress.