A visit to the mines

Quite late after midnight, Jay left the mansion and went over the plaza towards the inn.

The notification that had appeared as he stated he would search for the duchess daughter had nearly made him space out in their talks. As he then had the time to do so, Jay checked it once again.

***

Quest:

The daughter

Object:

find Miss Arya of Millshire in the mines

***

After dismissing the screen Jay of course checked the skills he had previously integrated while he made his way back, even if there had not been much to gain.

Though the first skill he integrated was an entirely new one, [Etiquette LVL 3] only heightened his ability to speak and behave like a noble should if necessary and made it easy to know how to to call other nobles.

While [Persuasion LVL 2] and [Gossip LVL 2] integrated into his own skills, only the first one leveled his own up to LVL 4. But the real surprise was [Night Skills LVL 3] as it boosted his own (Horny LVL 1) to the next level.

As it was not much to check or new to learn, Jay had been done with checking long before he reached the entrance to the inn and walked the rest of the way with a light spring in his step.

Not only had he gotten two new quests and access to the mines, he also had been able to release a bit of stress this night.

Directly going up to his room after entering the inn, Jay got surprised as he seemingly had been already awaited. Agent Kearnen was back to wearing her normal clothes and leaning on the wall next to his door while smirking.

"So, how was the first time offering your body for the kingdom?" K.

"Ha-ha… that's not funny!" J.

Unlocking his door and passing her, Jay marched into his room and began unbuttoning his vest.

Behind him he heard the agents silent step coming a bit closer and the door falling shut.

"That bad? ...Calm down, we all had to do it at some point. It's withing the duties for most agents, or at least for the good ones." K.

"You as well?" J.

"Nothing I'm proud of or talk about normally, but yes, I also had to resort to it once…" K.

"Well, it wasn't that gruesome… but I honestly don't know how the duchess is involved or part in this. She asked me to find her abducted daughter in the mines and even warned me of it being a trap." J.

"You think she is a victim as well?" K.

"I'm not sure. Even though she said she got blackmailed, why is the city in its actual state? Something doesn't fit here…" J.

"Do you want me to come with you to the mines?" K.

"No, that would blow both of our covers for sure! We should keep our connection hidden and depending on what I encounter down there, at least one of us has to report our findings.

You need to report the kidnapping to sentinel as well." J.

"Damn, your probably the only adventurer that is more decent that any agent or soldier… Have a good nights rest as I guess you'll need all the power you can get tomorrow.

Sleep well…" K.

"Same to you. And thanks…" J.

The agent left with a smiling but somehow lonely looking face after their short conversation. Jay had by then managed to take off his vest and even opened all buttons on his shirt.

Stripping down after the door to his room got closed again, he finally went to bed.

He knew Kearnen would stay on lookout this night for him to get into the best condition for the next day.

That way he didn't need to stay alerted and had a deep and dreamless sleep until the following morning.

Jay even slept a bit in, at least for his habitual wake up time, and was the last one that day to enter the dining room. After his late breakfast, Jay went to the innkeeper and asked him if he had seen Kearnen but he agent seemingly had left some time ago.

The innkeeper agreed to him as he asked if it was all right for him to give Kearnen a note later.

He only wrote that she should relay her information and stay careful until he was back. Anything more explicit would have been dangerous, so he bet on the agent knowing what to do.

With this done, Jay went back to his room. He still had some time left until the appointed time and wanted to use that to check his gear. That though was done way faster than he had thought, so he sat back on the bed and took out the second book he got from Daphne Stillwell again.

__________

[Skill-book: Sense Undead]

[Sense Undead] is ready to be leaned.

Do you want to learn it or read the book for deeper understanding?

[Learn] [Read]

__________

The same notification as last time appeared, so Jay began to read again. The light magic based skill was astonishingly not that hard to understand for him.

That might have been due to his high INT status or knowledge of this magic school.

Either way he finished the not too thin book in about an hour and just in time to leave. Closing the book and picking it up again, a new screen appeared before him.

__________

[Skill-book: Sense Undead]

[Sense Undead] is ready to be leaned.

[Learn]

__________

On his, by then third attempt to open the book, the notification had finally changed. Choosing to learn the skill, Jay integrated yet another skill into his abundant repertoire.

What surprised him a bit was that skill was a passive one. It enabled him to sense undead creatures and reading the book had enabled the skill to combine with other, at least the description stated that.

Closing the notifications and skill description as he had reached the inn's door, Jay left the building and strolled towards the mines. It was close to high noon and finally time to explore them and find out what was going on in this region.

He hadn't even entered the closer vicinity of the mines when two of the guards received him and guided him to the mines entrance.

Jay would enter the mines through the main building like he had guessed and not through the warehouse. At least he got guided there first.

While the big gate in the middle was still closed off, Jay was led to the right where the personell entrance was located. Just as he stepped through the door he was greeted by a man in his fifties wearing a dark purple suit and a monocle.

Without further introducing himself other than being his guide for that day, the man turned around and walked further along the corridor they stood in. Turning around the corner to the left at the end, Jay was surprised by the buildings interior.

Though it looked big from outside, he would have never guessed it would be a single high room up to the roof inside. Some mine workers were rummaging about in the room preparing lores and tools, while others who had just exited the mine went to the opposite side and began taking off their equipment.

In the back of the room was another double gate and behind the open doors, Jay looked into the real mine for the first time.

But he couldn't look far as all he saw behind the doors was a small room.

That changed when his guide led him there and together they walked down the stony stairs with wooden framework in between that led circular around and down a hole in the ground.

A lore dangling midair on their descent showed Jay this was the entrance where tools and workers the likes were brought to the mines.

He knew there had to be another entrance as the mined ores had to be transported, but that one was most certainly connected to the warehouse. And just like he had guessed, it got confirmed as the noble began his explanation about what he knew of the mines.

"The mines are accessible by two entrances, though this one is the more comfortable one, as hard to believe as it is…"

That was all information Jay got from him, but it was enough. As they arrived at the ground and left that first cave with the stairs, Jay found himself in a long and wide tunnel. The dimensions were far off from what he had anticipated.

While old mines in his original world had been narrow, the ones he had seen in this world were a lot bigger and wider, probably due to the support from magic, levels and stats.

But none of them had been this big.

"This is the oldest part of the mines and where it all began. But the veins here had dried long ago when even I was still young…"

The noble then took the lead and as they passed under a wooden bridge he explained it was the other entrance he had previously mentioned.

Due to lamps hanging on the walls they had no trouble with stumbling and after some few dozens of steps, the noble took to the right even though the tunnel went on straight for a bit and Jay could already see the following section.

"I was thinking you might want to see the mines in action, right? This is a shortcut to the actual mining site. If you would follow me…"

Doing as he was asked, Jay went after the noble and into the adjoining passage.

There were a few miners there but each of them halted their work the moment they saw the noble man and greeted them both friendly. As the passage was a lot smaller than the wide tunnel and shorter as well, they soon reached another tunnel.

This one was a wide one again and to his left Jay thought he saw the next section up the slope again.

They turned to the right though and the noble began to walk down the relatively steep slope. Jay halted after some steps as something felt fishy.

Of course he was sure this was all nothing but a trap, but there had to be a reason to take side passages and his orientation was slightly off underground.

"Sir, would you mind explaining why we are taking this route? I see no more workers here…" J.

"Oh, of course! I was asked to guide you to the deepest part of the mine and along the biggest mining spots.

I myself took the liberty to pick the shortest route."

Playing to accept his answer, Jay followed the noble and they went down the slope until it took a wide turn to the left. At about half of the turn they came along a small crossing and while a dark passage lead to the right, on the left it was only a few yards deep and a small camp was set up in there.

The noble explained that some of the workers stay in the mines for quite some time and had set up sport for resting here and there.

After a bit more of walking down the slope they finally arrived at a really big cave. The ceiling was supported by big wooden stands and from the clanking noises Jay knew this was the first real mining site for him to see.

Where the two of them were standing was a fork above a pretty high cliff with one relatively wide way leading left and another a bit smaller one leading right.

Again they went to the right side and along the pit with numerous miners doing their work down there to their left.

The noble explained what Jay already guessed and stated this to be one of the most profitable sites.

At the end of that passage they reached yet another forking, to the right down a slope with nothing but sparse lights and to the left the slight slope down into the pit where the lores got pulled along.

Only a few miners were working there as well, but none of them were swinging a pickaxe but pushing a lore filled with ore up the slope or only overseeing the rest of the workers.

About to turn right again, Jay stopped the noble and stated he wants to go down to the left.

It was then the facade of the man broke like some twitching here and there had indicated before. Without warning he yelled out for the miners pushing the lore and the overseers to attack the intruder.

It was as if this had been planned from the beginning, the miners rushed up the last few steps after pulling the break of the lore and as the overseers were even armed, they unsheathed their swords.

Without hesitation Jay disposed of the miner that arrived first.

The right hook he got in had the burly man crash to the side head first and even bump on. As if that hadn't been enough, he even fell down into the pit as they stood pretty close to the cliff.

While the next one got only grazed by a kick, he still stumbled backwards a few yards and decided to take off for a run down into the pit. The noble had all the while taken cover in the tunnel to the other side when the two overseers joined the fray.

Dodging the slow swing of the first mans sword, Jay grabbed his lower arm, pulled it over his shoulder and launched the pretty muscular man towards two more miners that were about to arrive.

This was not enough to kill them, but it got him some time.

The other overseer was not that lucky as Jay easily disarmed him and stabbed the man's own sword through his chest and into the wall behind him.

The moment he turned around, Jay saw the hurt miner running up the slope with two more as support.

Checking for a second if there were more aggressors close to him, he pulled up the last overseer from the ground and threw him on the lore.

But it didn't move.

With an evil grin appearing on his face, Jay stepped back and then kicked one of the two miners with all his might towards the lore. This had been too much for the rusty brake and the lore got pushed down the slope.

The three miners running up had noticed it, but due to the slope taking a turn and it being out of view for a short time, they were to late. Hearing a screeching sound mixed with mashing one, Jay didn't even want to look at the outcome.

His log told him all he needed to know and that was four miners and one overseer dead.

Picking the last miner by his leg, Jay hurled him down the cliff and to where the first one landed. He had wondered that the rest of the miners hadn't come rushing after the first fell down, but all the other ones simply ignored the fight.

Then he remembered of being told there were crime slaves as miners there and it dawned him why they wouldn't react.

It was not their problem as they only worked their time off and had nothing really to do with the mine and it's owners. That way they would never risk their lives for it.

As all miners were down, the noble finally showed himself again. He came running with two more miners that rushed in on Jay without wait.

Their end was similar to the other miners as Jay crashed one of them into the rocky walls, caving in his ugly face.

The other one ended with a broken rib cage as Jay thought it fair fighting him with fists if the man was coming for him barehanded. The difference in strength and skill showed in a single attack there.

But those two hadn't been meant to defeat Jay by the noble. He had only brought them to gain some time.

A weak arcane missile flew from the man towards Jay who wasn't showing any reaction. The facial expression from the noble showing that his plan succeeded twisted the next second though.

The good old magic reflection did it's job again.

With a mixture of panic and surprise, the noble tried to defend his own magic attack but didn't come out unscathed. The walking stick he was holding, as well as most of the fabric on his right arm got shredded.

Stumbling backwards and leaning on the wall he saw Jay look at him with a questioning look.

"You call that an arcane missile?" J.

Not even using his quick slot, Jay silently casted an arcane missile himself and fired it. It was a relatively fast casted and weak one, but it still bore a deep hole not only into the noble but the stone behind him as well.

As there still was no reaction from either down in the pit or any other direction, Jay pondered about what to do and where to go next.

Deciding to go with the safer option, he went back towards the entrance to first secure an escape route should it become necessary.