The city of Hogel is quite peaceful in the middle of the night.

The banquet of the nobles was over, and the noisy streets during the day were now only a few city guards stationed there, and even the lights on the second floor of Villa Sean were quietly extinguished behind the delicate curtains.

Perhaps, the only lively place in the vicinity is the mining area outside the city.

……

In the veins, countless miners wielded iron pickaxes in the flickering light of the fire, and dwarven slaves numbly surveyed the direction of the veins, with no look on their faces other than exhaustion.

Large chunks of rock were smashed and loaded onto minecarts, dragged by cryptbeasts towards the mine's entrance, and perhaps the only thing that was more leisurely was the roaming overseers and guards, who had supreme authority here.

The deeper you go into the veins, the fewer miners you can see, and the passages here are so intricate that if outsiders accidentally go the wrong way, they will probably never see the light of day again.

In the depths of the mines, Barriel walked with ease, carrying a pickaxe and an oil lamp.

He has been working in the mines since he was a teenager and has been involved in the first mining of this vein for more than thirty years, so Barrier knows the labyrinthine passage very well.

Thanks to the various prospecting techniques he has mastered over the years, he has been given a good job when assigning the task, which is to go deep into the mines to explore the hidden veins and find the way for the miners who will follow, like those dwarven slaves.

Most miners work in two shifts, and Baril is no exception.

The work he is doing is even more dangerous than being as long as anyone else.

But the reason why it is a good errand is naturally because it is relatively easy and has a fairly high income.

Three silver coins a day, which is three times that of most other miners and six times the average daily wage of the average worker.

The shiny silver coin can completely hide all discord, making it a sweet spot in the eyes of countless seasoned miners.

On top of that, if there are some additional discoveries, such as finding some treasure buried deep underground, or detecting new mineable veins, they can also get additional rewards, and even if they are lucky, they can get a large amount of gold coins at once, enough to eat and drink for the rest of their lives.

Barrier considers himself one of those lucky people, because just yesterday he was digging deep into the mine when he accidentally discovered a strange place.

It was a vault buried deep underground, made entirely of a strange metal Barrier had never seen before, so strong that it left little trace even if Baryl chiseled with all his miner's pickaxe.

He had wanted to explore the surroundings carefully, but it was almost time for a shift change, and if he continued to study, someone might follow his tracks.

Barrier didn't want to share the credit with anyone else, so he covered the place again with earth and rock, intending to explore it again today.

……

After walking some more distance, Barrier glanced warily behind him with an oil lamp in his hand.

After confirming that he was not being followed, he flashed and turned to a hidden abandoned mine.

There are countless such places in the underground of the world of Faerun, which are basically left behind by people mining in the not-so-distant past.

The reason why it is said that it is not too distant is of course because the mine tunnels that are too old have long since disappeared in geological movements, and after a few years, all traces of nature have been annihilated by nature, and no one can find them again.

In a place like this where people can still walk and there are many traces of artificiality, Barrier guesses that the date of its abandonment should be no more than 1,000 years ago.

Although the minerals of the Faeron plane will slowly and automatically multiply under the nourishment of the ether, this is not a place where the natural elements gather, and in such a short period of time, there will certainly not be many ores that can be used.

No one had explored this area since they discovered it, and if it weren't for Barrier's desire to find a place where no one was there yesterday to be lazy, he wouldn't have come here alone.

Taking a deep breath, Barrier held the oil lamp in front of him and continued walking.

The cave is littered with large and small rocks and dilapidated artifacts, and you have to be careful with every step.

As he went deeper and narrower, the place where he could walk became narrower, and Barriel kept his head down and walked slowly, until it was more than ten minutes before he reached the end of the passage.

"The guys who mined here in the first place must not have checked carefully, otherwise they wouldn't have found that the back of this stone was empty."

After observing the rocks in front of him, Barrier stopped.

He muttered a few words, and after digging through the dirt he had filled around the stone with his pickaxe, he placed one end of the pickaxe under the stone, leaned slightly and pressed it down.

Under the effect of the lever principle, the stone is easily warped to the side, revealing a narrow hole.

Barrier suppressed the excitement in his heart, and hurriedly lowered his head and dived into it, and suddenly, the space in front of him was open.

Two walls of strange metal appear in front of Baril, a corner of a chamber of shadows scattered around it, large and small, with broken stones scattered around it, obscuring most of it.

"It's really airy, it's weird."

Barir couldn't move on for a moment because of a piece of rubble farther away, so he felt his chin and walked around the two metal walls a few times, then raised his pickaxe and slammed it hard.

A dull voice rang out, and as he had tried yesterday, a normal pickaxe could not do any damage to it.

"Then the only way to do this is to keep moving stones, legend bless, make sure I find something good."

Barriel swore and walked forward, using his hands and pickaxe to move the rubble away from his eyes, but fortunately he had gloves on his hands, otherwise he would have suffered.

……

There was a lot of space in the place, so Barir didn't have to waste time moving the stones outside, but even then, it took a lot of effort to move a gap large enough for him to enter.

"This ...... What is this thing......"

After exiting the gravel area, Barriellton was startled by what he saw, and he let out a strange rattle in his throat before rolling backwards.

In the glimpse just now, he saw a huge black shadow, but due to the lack of brightness of the oil lamp, he couldn't see the specific appearance clearly.

But judging from the part it exposed, it had to be at least two or three meters tall, and it was obviously not an ordinary underground creature.

"Hey, something is wrong......"

After desperately escaping the gravel area, Barriel froze for a moment, apparently aware of the problem.

I had been making a sound for so long before, why hadn't that monster moved?

You must know that creatures living underground are usually more sensitive to sound, especially those large monsters, almost all of them have a trick of listening to sounds with one hand.

Could it be ......

Baryl's eyes lit up, and he cautiously turned around and quietly walked back to the rubble.

Stooping down to pick up a few small stones, he slowly took a few steps forward.

"Bang."

The stone flew forward and slammed into the monster with no small amount of force, and Barriel stepped back nervously, hiding from a distance to watch.

"It's good that he's dead."

After a few repeated attempts like this, Barryl's high heart finally let go, and he breathed a sigh of relief, and approached the corpse of the terrible beast step by step with the oil lamp in his hand.

Hideous claws, sturdy body, sturdy scales, and a pair of strange sharp horns on his head, Baril's legs and feet trembled slightly under the flickering light.

Could it be the legendary Earthwalking Dragon?

The thought popped into Baryl's mind.

Although he was not a well-informed adventurer, he had heard the bunch brag in the tavern, and the large underground creatures of the Earth Dragons were naturally of interest to Barriel, a miner-turned-miner.

It is said that the earthly dragon is a type of dragon that lives underground for a long time and has extremely strong physical strength.

They are huge, capable of cracking rocks with every move, and are sensitive to metals and minerals, making it easy to pinpoint the location of gemstones buried deep underground.

Like other dragons, they have a fanatical love for treasure, a hobby that has not been lost with the loss of their intelligence, but rather a clumsy brain that makes them more patient and able to persevere in their search for gems.

"No, how can there be such a small dragon, this may be a hybrid born from dragons and other creatures."

"Well, even bastards should have treasures."

Barriel muttered the words and shuddered as he circled around before finally moving his gaze to the bottom of the corpse.

Something was obviously wrong there, and although this drake beast was huge, it wasn't that much taller in the middle than it was around, maybe the treasure was down there?

Baril's eyes lit up, and he hurriedly came to the corpse, this guy seemed to have just died, and basically did not decompose.

It's no wonder that the mining guys didn't find this place, maybe this big hole was dug by this monster later, and it is precisely because of this that there are vents here.

"Damn, it's heavy......"

Finding a suitable position, Barriel panted and moved the corpse until the oil in the lamp was almost half burned off, and he finally moved it aside.

"Gold, so much gold! And gems! ”

Baril's eyes almost lit up at the sight of the large pile of gold coins and gems on the ground, and he threw himself on the treasures, counting them one by one with ecstatic expression.

"Ten...... Twenty ...... Thirty ......"

Baril became more and more excited, and it was not until he had counted all the treasures that he finally stood up.

In addition to the worthless glass and artifacts, there are more than 500 gold coins and more than a dozen gems of the utmost beauty!

This money is a huge amount of money for him, a terrifying treasure that he will not be able to save in ten lifetimes, and as long as he can safely pocket it, he can immediately leave the city with his daughter and go to a prosperous place to start a new life.

But how could you avoid the overseer taking such a large amount of things with them?

Barrier couldn't help but feel a little troubled in his heart, and he rubbed his hands together in annoyance, and thoughts crossed his mind.

Those damned aristocratic lackeys will keep an eye on every miner who walks out of the mine, and it's fine for him to go out with a gold coin or two at a time, but if this goes on like this, what if someone else finds out about this place?

But if he just took a small sum and stopped, he was a little unwilling in his heart, could it be that he would give out a large sum of money to bribe those overseers?

"No, those guys are very cunning, and they are not good people at all, but they must not be let know."

Barriel muttered indignantly, he wasn't reluctant to give away a little gold, but who knows if the guys would keep it a secret, and if the overseers took his gold and then told someone else, he wouldn't be pleased.

"That's right, vents!"

Baril's eyes lit up, and he suddenly thought of this stubble.

If there was another way back to the surface, he wouldn't need to walk past the overseer with the gold coins at all, as long as he could get them to the top and hide them in advance, and then pick them up when he was done.

"Legend Bless, Legend Bless ......"

Barriel prayed, and then resolutely walked towards the depths of the "Dragon's Lair".

Even if there is danger, he is not afraid, so many gold coins can completely buy his life.

"I, Barrier, a miner, want to be an adventurer today!"

Barriel gritted his teeth, carrying an oil lamp in one hand and a mining pickaxe in the other, and cautiously advanced.

……

"Great, this hole is big enough! The inclination is not high, and it is completely possible to climb up. ”

"That's right, that dragon beast is so big, it can't get out if the hole is small."

Barir's face was full of joy when he saw the big hole with a faint cool breeze in front of him, and he quickly climbed in and groped for it, and sure enough, he found that it could reach the surface.

"But what the hell is this......"

Climbing back into the Dragon's Lair, Barrier hesitantly looked at the cracked metal wall to the side.

For some reason, the hard wall had been torn open with a large opening, and it was so dark that nothing could be seen.

It had been seen in the same place where Baril had entered, and by reckoning, the buried house seemed to be quite large.

"With such a hard metal, that beast must not be able to scratch it, strange, how did this crack appear."

Barriel scratched his head, and his heart couldn't help but beat a little drum, but the wealth he had acquired and his uncontrollable curiosity made him want to go into it very much, and it was so tangled.

"Let's take a look from the outside."

He muttered, holding the oil lamp and drawing closer to the black mouth.

As the light of the oil lamp barely illuminated the scene inside the metal walls, Baril gasped and almost screamed.