Destiny Thief

Chapter 103 Exploration of the Mine II
If a high-ranking mage flies in the sky and looks at the ground, the lush scenery of the Nogo mountains can be seen in this place with a touch of gray and white that is very different from the surrounding area.This is the Umpton Mine. Due to years of mining work, a large circle of mountains has long lost its original appearance.In the center is a flat land that was originally used to accumulate ore. On the nearby hillside with sparse vegetation, some scattered buildings are dotted. If you look carefully, the winding roads on the hillside lead to dark and invisible A mine of light, and at the entrance of the cave, some thick wooden sticks can be found here and there.

These are the ties of the minecart tracks.The mine cart full of ore is extremely heavy, and the work efficiency is undoubtedly very low relying on the strength of the miners alone. Using cables and slide rails, the ore can be transported out of the mine relatively easily.However, since the outbreak of the Sixth ETA War, the miners of the Umpton Mine have fled, and these things have been lost to maintenance and completely abandoned-until a group of bandits composed of farmers, rout soldiers and vagrant civilians took over. this place.

But they did not mine, they just did some improvement work in the mine and settled here.

A pipeline stuck to the mountain wall and extended into a certain mine. Before the entrance of this mine, three figures appeared at the moment when the sun was rising.

Oliver took the lead and walked into the mine with a torch. Behind him, veteran Scott and Miss Radia followed in his footsteps.Veteran Scott observed the rock wall of the mine in the light of the torch. There were obvious marks of chiseling and chiseling on the top, and thick wooden planks nailed together in an "X" shape could be seen on the top, like a long snake. , extending from the entrance to the depths of the mine - in order to protect the safety of the miners, the nobles who first developed this mine built good support facilities for the mine.

"I haven't been to this place for a long time. Since I went down with Glo to replace a part of the water supply system last year."

Oliver stepped on the steel bars of the minecart track. The rusty and uneven surface had lost its original color and was buried in gravel and soil.With his other hand, he used his big sword to sweep away these coverings, revealing a section of pipe in the corner of the tunnel.

The three continued to walk forward, and soon came to a crossing with many branches.A dilapidated wooden sign was hung on the nearby rock wall, on which was written a line of standard Elante cursive script in black ink.

Radiya looked at it, and immediately recognized it. It was the handwriting of the bandit leader. She whispered: "The second one from the left."

"I know."

Oliver replied.Although most of the bandits were illiterate in terms of reading and writing skills, under the demonstration and teaching of Glo, Oliver barely had a certain cultural foundation.He easily recognized the sentences made up of a few simple words.What's more, when the water supply system was built, he was still very impressed.

They once wiped out a bat nest in this mine—there were countless bats hanging upside down on the top of the mine. Even the sound of howling wind echoed.A dense network of arrows, flames and wire, after two days of fighting, the ground was covered with stinky flesh and blood.

When the boots stepped on it, there were bursts of "squeak, squeak, squeak" sounds as bones were broken, and the pulpy flesh made the ground wet and slippery. He still remembered that a guy fell among these disgusting things. After the fall, everyone booed and gloated - even now, some fragmented bat bones can still be found in the dust.

The three of them gradually came to the depths of the mine.

Scott and Oliver walked ahead, and Miss Mage Radia cast [Illumination], which is a 0-level applied spell and does not belong to the occupational skills of inaugural mages. Of course, other occupations want to use it. The premise is to have a mana pool - after the two men discovered that Radia had the function of a humanoid walking oil lamp, they laughed and decisively extinguished the torches in their hands.

The sound of running water could already be faintly heard.

"That's it?"

asked Miss Radia.

Oliver nodded.In front of the three of them was a long section of winding stairs, and a large puddle of water reflecting light could be seen in the distance.The space here is very open, almost the size of the flat land in the middle of the mine. At the end of the stairs, in a corner against the slippery rock, a vertical, metallic pipe is buried straight into the water.

"This is the sump."

Oliver stopped and introduced.Walking near the pipe requires water, and he has no intention of doing so now—Miss Radia took out a small notebook from her pocket, glanced at the pipe, and bent down on her knees to write it down.

"Is that where the water goes to the mine?"

"Yes."

Scott also recalled the original impression.

"Glo seems to have said that this uses a principle called siphon."

Oliver added.After the water supply system was built, no one in the bandit group was curious. When those people gathered around the bandit leader Glo and asked this question, he answered this way.As for what kind of thing the "siphon" is, Oliver is not clear.

The mage buried her head and began to calculate, but after a while, she suddenly raised her head again: "But I think this puddle should have dried up long ago if there was no water source to replenish it."

"I thought so too at the time, but the facts refuted me."

Veteran Scott said.Under the influence of Radiya, he regained the curiosity he once had—this water supply system completely violated his common sense and cognition, and he almost thought that it was a miracle that only mages who were proficient in engineering and alchemy could create.

But the bandit leader who presided over the construction of this project was not a mage.Everyone knows it.

"There's definitely something weird going on here."

The mage, who is obsessed with textual research, was still not satisfied. She walked towards the stairs, wanting to take a closer look.

She began to take off her boots, revealing her tender feet.

"Wait a minute! Radia."

cried Oliver.He finally remembered that there was another important part of this project, the place where he and Glo went to replace parts, and it was connected to this puddle through a pipe through the rock wall.

"There is also a place called the lifting room. According to Glo, using water hammer to maintain a sufficient water level in the sump is the key to the stable operation of this system."

When he mentioned some awkward professional terms that he didn't understand, Scott looked at him with a look of contempt, but this attracted Miss Mage's attention.

She put her boots back on and let down her tied trouser legs.

Under the leadership of Oliver, the three of them returned along a section of the original road...

(End of this chapter)