The Dark Cavern is located in the northwest of the Kronos Empire, deep in the Shadow Iron Mountain. Shadow Iron Mountain is more of a mountain than a mountain. Although it is still far from stretching for thousands of miles like the Hengduan Mountains, the entire mountainous area is not small. This is one of the most important sources of stone and iron ore in the Kronos Empire, the stone of the Shadow Iron Mountain is fine and has a low void rate, and most of the materials used in the walls and roads of the imperial capital are produced here, and even some high-quality stones are made into stone carvings. Iron ore in the eastern part of the mountains was an indispensable strategic resource for the empire, and its reserves were abundant enough to meet the iron needs of the small half of the empire.

Ever since they knew that iron ore was produced here, prospectors had traveled almost all over the mountainous area. It was also in the mountains, near the center, that a lucky prospector discovered that rare metal, Shadow Iron. The production of Shadow Iron on the entire continent is not high, as long as a small amount of Shadow Iron is mixed in when casting weapons, the strength of weapons can be greatly improved, you can imagine how ecstatic the Empire's high-level leaders were when they found out that Shadow Iron was produced here, hence the name of Shadow Iron Mountain.

A large number of absentees rushed to the Shadow Iron Mountain, they belonged to the imperial family, the great nobles, and the large merchant groups, and each faction wanted a piece of the pie here. However, just as mining was in full swing, a mine cave connected to an eerie underground cavern. When the matter was first reported to the higher-ups, it was not taken seriously, and it was not surprising that there was a naturally formed tunnel in a mountain. However, in the following period, the continuous disappearance of miners frightened these people who depended on mining to support their families.

The empire naturally will not sit idly by and ignore this matter, Shadow Iron Ore is an extremely rare strategic material, whether it is the royal family, nobles, or large business groups, it is impossible to give up the mining of Shadow Iron Ore because of the slightest difficulty. Not only did the merchant group hire a large number of mercenaries, the nobles arranged their own private army, and even the imperial family sent two teams of mages loyal to them.

What is the concept of the two teams of royal mages, and the members who can become members of the royal mage group are all middle-level mages with rich combat experience, a team of ten people, this is twenty. Thinking about the large mercenary group of more than 1,000 people registered by the mercenary union, there are only one or two middle-level spellcasters at most, and even most mercenary groups can't even find a mid-level, so they can only rely on three or five beginner-level mages to support the scene, which shows how powerful a combat force twenty middle-level mages are. Counting the exclusive guards of those mages, although the royal team's number is small, its combat power exceeds that of the nobles and merchants combined. Not to mention that there is also a high-level mage as the leader.

Unfortunately, the powerful coalition forces were met head-on as they entered those tunnels. In the face of the surging Shadow Beasts, these well-trained warriors and spellcasters were able to defeat more than one enemy, but their estimates of the number of Shadow Beasts were far from sufficient. Deep into a tunnel, in an underground cavern with open terrain, the team that fought for two days and one night was powerless in the face of these shadow beasts, whose numbers were still undiminished. The warriors dragged their tired bodies to meet the enemy in front of them, they had no reserves, and the long battle made despair rise in the hearts of every warrior involved. Even the noble spellcasters have run out of mana and have no time to recover.

The high-level mage who led the team still had enough magic, and he knew that this battle could not continue, so he decisively proposed to the commander to evacuate. It is naturally impossible for a person who can be the commander of the coalition forces to fail to distinguish the situation in the field, and although he is helpless, he can only give the order to withdraw the troops. The Shadow Beasts did not pursue the enemy closely, and retreated into the depths of the cavern when they saw the warriors evacuate.

The coalition forces have less than forty percent of their combat strength left, and although the death toll is not much, the fatigue of the long battle makes it difficult for many soldiers to even walk on their own, and the retreat of the shadow beast tide gives the soldiers a feeling of the aftermath.

The battle was a failure, but it could also be said to be a success, because several old miners who went deep into the cave with the warriors found that the Shadow Iron Vein did not extend into the depths of the cave, but only a few dozen meters after passing the cave dug by humans, and there was no trace of Shadow Iron on the stone wall. Since there is no Shadow Iron in the depths of the cave, there is naturally no need to go to the trouble of cleaning up those annoying demonic beasts, and they don't like to leave the cave anyway.

However, in the battle with the Shadow Beasts, the mages from the Royal Mage Regiment made a new discovery, that is, as they went deeper into the cave, the intensity of the black element gradually increased, and even in the place where they had just fought, its elemental concentration even exceeded that of the black swamp in the eastern part of the empire. There are even mages who have discovered a black stone in the cave, which can actually play a role in stabilizing the spiritual power of the mage in the process of casting spells.

However, these new discoveries did not arouse the interest of the nobles and large merchant groups, they did not have many mages under their hands, and the demand for this magical black stone was naturally not too great, and if they really needed, there were not those mercenaries who worked for money. There are quite a few mages in the Royal Mage Order, but the demand for this kind of blackstone is not too great. Now that there are mercenaries to help with this, the noble caster can't afford to dig up the humble stones in the dangerous caverns himself.

The junction of the caverns and the natural tunnels formed an underground stronghold, but this stronghold was only in existence for less than a year before it was dismantled, and even the connecting passage was blocked. As for the reason, it is natural that these naturally formed tunnels have been discovered, and in addition to the part that connects with the mine, there are other entrances to the ground, and these entrances are distributed in the central area of the Shadow Iron Mountains.

The Dark Caverns contain a large number of black elements, but unlike those found in the eastern swamps, they do not disperse to form a fog that obscures the sky, but instead lurks deep underground. Shadow beasts prefer this environment rich in black elements, they hate sunlight and rarely stick out of the ground, only those who have been exiled by the tribe will leave the cave alone and go to the surface to fend for themselves.

Over time, a human colony has emerged in the Shadow Iron Mountains. The original stronghold was formed only because the mercenaries hired by the upper echelons of the empire needed a place to rest. But more and more mercenaries gathered here, not only those hired by the Empire, but also some small teams who spontaneously came here to beg for a living, and finally formed this town, which is also named after Shadow Iron.

Shadow Beast is a kind of "valuable" Demonic Beast, although most of the Shadow Beast's combat power is only at the first level, but the probability of them producing a magic core is miraculously close to 100%, and the quality of the magic core is also higher than that of the same level of Demonic Beasts. With such a large stake, it is only natural that the mercenaries of the empire will gather like sharks that smell blood.

It's been two months since I saw Eve again. The speed of the journey was not slow, and the basic black materials provided by Landolia were more than enough to load in a carriage. If it weren't for the fact that Toru came here mainly to ask for help, and considering that the caster would join him on the return trip, Toru would have considered not having a carriage and only returning to Shadow Iron Town as a rider with luggage, in fact, they had done this several times before when transporting materials.

"Huh, didn't Landuo come over in person......" Liu Li heard the disappointment in Eve's tone, but she didn't know why. Eve doesn't need to go to the depths of the dark caverns with the mercenaries of Greyhorn, her caravan is only hired to transport some materials. And she herself has the strength of a martial artist, and there are not too many things that can threaten her in simple transportation tasks. But seeing her frowning now, it was obvious that she had encountered something difficult.

"Sister Eve, what's wrong with you?" Seeing Eve, the happiest thing was the squirrel, at that time she had not yet mastered the language of this world well, and she encountered many inconveniences in life. At that time, it was Eve who helped her the most.

"Are you...... Squirrel?" Eve naturally did not forget this cute little girl, but she did not recognize it for a moment because of the cat ears on her head.

"yes, yes, what happened to Sister Eve...... Meow!" The squirrel who turned his head saw the sinful hand that was tugging at his tail, and blew his fur again.

Liu Li's thought process is as follows: "William is the son of Ex and Eve's lover, and Wells and Landolia are Aix's students and Liu Li's teacher. Now the squirrel calls Eve sister, who is a generation older than herself...... and stretches out her sinful paws as a sign of punishment.

Seeing the two children playing in front of her, Eve's mood was also slightly better. In fact, she had long wanted to leave the dark cave, her caravan was not small, and there were still many things she needed to deal with. It's just that the death element in the "Bones of Secret Words" is consumed much faster than she expected, and the survival of the Heroic Spirit Blueman is inseparable from the support of that strange black element, and she has no choice but to stay in this area where the black element is relatively strong. After all, there are at least fewer dangers here than the swamps to the east.

Eve needs a powerful mage to help her solve this problem, but unfortunately it is not easy to find such a spellcaster, as her caravan steward. It's not that she didn't think of going to Erenor City to seek Landolia's help in person, but the news brought by the caravan said that Landoria hadn't stayed in the academy for a long time recently, and at least many times the material transactions were done through Liu Li. Her brother caused William to disappear, which made her embarrassed to trouble Dean Ackes. Moreover, the only remaining death element in the "Bones of Secret Words", if it were not for this black element-rich environment, it would probably take less than three months to dissipate, she didn't know if Landoria had a solution, and naturally she couldn't let Bluman take this risk.

Hearing Eve tell the reason, Liu Li's heart was relieved. This matter is not a problem for him who has stabilized the black rune. Taking the "Bone of Secret Words" handed over by Eve, Liu Li transformed the black element into the characteristics of the death element, and poured it into it, and the whole process only took about two hours. When the spell ends, the Whispering Bone is once again filled with Death Elemental, and is far more stable than before, reducing the elemental dissipation rate to 10% of its original rate. In its current state, even in an environment with a normal concentration of black elements, the elements inside can last for at least four or five years.

"Alright, now let's talk about the situation in the cave. Returning the "Bones of Secret Words" to Eve, Liu Li began to ask for the details of the mission, and he did not intend to spend too much time on this mission.