A somber discovery

After Jay made his decision to secure an escape route, he walked up the passage around the pit and to the last forking in the way.

There he went up into the wide tunnel where they came form, the one with the wide turn. This time he checked the small and not illuminated passage opposite to the campsite.

Like he had bet, there was nothing inside other than some broken tools and loose stones. It really was only a dried out vein and a dead end like the noble had said.

Further up the slope he came along the smaller passage in which they had met the first mine workers. But at that moment there were no noises coming from that tunnel, so Jay guessed they had either left because of their shifts end or, and that was more probable to him, because it had been planned out this way in the beginning.

They had seemed way too friendly for any worker Jay had come to know.

As looking into the passage proved him right with not a single soul to be spotted, Jay turned towards the end of the slope where he could already see the tunnel widening.

The cave he entered then was huge.

Though only close to half as big as the one with the pit, it was completely vacant.

Either it had been the same as with the miners in the short-cut, or it had been deserted since the beginning, but it didn't matter to Jay.

Looking around in the more natural looking, but equally supported by wooden stands cave, like the one further down and the tunnels, Jay found two options to proceed.

One was to travel straight ahead where the path went downwards again, and the other one leading up to his left.

While the first passage was also illuminated further down and rails for the lores also led there, Jay had already decided to go back to the entrance first.

Because of that he took the left path and went into the same wide tunnel he found himself in first after he went into the mine.

To his surprise he learned the mine workers had closed of the mine and as the shut gates to the main building kept reinforcements and other miners out, Jay turned around and went down the stairs again.

Back to were he was quite some time ago, Jay looked around now that there was no one there with him and urging him to travel on.

Aside of two lamps to both sides of the small arch between the wide tunnel and the hole leading up towards the main entrance, no illumination was to be found.

The other laps had been placed in pretty big distances down the passage to barely light out the way.

Other than that he saw nothing to noteworthy, only a few planks placed next to the lore rails for easier waling while handling them. And though only one of the railways on the ground forked and went to where he came from, both of them led to the side of where he stood and up a dark slope.

This was where Jay went along next.

If at least something of what the noble told was true, then those rails would lead towards the warehouse and the second entrance.

Over the turning slope that was not as steep as he had thought, Jay came to the wooden bridge he had seen from below. What followed was another dark passage that could hold no more than two lores next to each other. And at the end of it, Jay saw daylight again.

To his fortune there was no gate to the warehouse, so Jay could sneak inside and have a look at it.

While there were countless crates and bags in there, most of the goods seemed to be crops, fruits and flour instead of the expected ores.

Climbing on top of some crates, Jay could look at the middle section where the both entrances lay.

Like he had anticipated, seven bandits in total had been stationed there and were watching over the stock.

Taking out a simple bow from his inventory, Jay took aim.

The first Defier to die was the one at the front gate. An arrow through his left eye after a bit of aiming was all it took.

Then followed the one at the back door. This one was not that lucky as Jay pinned his neck on the wall with an aimed shot so he would at the same time seal that exit.

Simply dropping the bow, Jay jumped down from the crates while equipping a sword. That was not that what got in contact with the three bandits waiting for him down there, but a chain lightning from his quick slot though.

As fire was a no go and even arcane missiles tended to utterly destroy anything if he missed, Jay went for lightning as earth magic would have been relatively weak in a building with wooden flooring.

Slashing the one who didn't get stunned and diagonally cleaving him open, Jay was already sliching the second man's neck as the fist man of the group fell.

With one more chain lightning he stunned two more bandits and charred the last one that had gotten the first lightning already.

The two stunned men fell in one swift motion and Jay was the only one breathing in the warehouse.

All that was left was to plunder them and pull the corpses to the side and so he did.

Jay not only plundered the bandits of their few worthless things, but also looked at some promising crates and chests. The loot was not that big, but in a separately locked cage he found a big pile of ores, mostly gold like he learned with appraisal, and had to use his lock-picking to reach them.

It took him quite some time but he finally managed after he ruined two needles. Glad to have found some of those on one of the dead bandits, Jay went for the last part of his plan.

Knocking on the back door he waited until someone outside asked what he wanted. In a single and swift motion, Jay opened the door and stabbed the surprised man right through the heart.

While he looked out for other guards he pulled the man in and closed the door again.

After this, Jay pulled some of the crates towards the doors and barricaded them after he locked each one. With all taken care of and the most valuable things looted, Jay of course left the food and tools untouched, he went back to the small tunnel and down into the mines.

He no longer had to fear someone coming after him into the mines and could concentrate on exploring them thoroughly.

There really was something off or else he would have found way more gold in the warehouse.

His only explanation was they prepared for him visiting and hid it somewhere else, but then they shouldn't have stationed bandits there...

Going down the same way he came from, Jay was soon back in the huge cave with still no one inside. Diagonally crossing the not to small space he went towards the passage he still hadn't explored.

It looked different to the other ones, with the main variation being torches placed on the walls instead of lamps and it being way more narrow.

Walking down the steeper getting slope, Jay soon heard noises from the direction he was heading to.

It was the clanking sound of pick-axes hitting the hard and rocky surface.

A bit irritated and with more caution, Jay proceeded down the rest of the passage. He had previously thought all workers had left he mine and didn't know what would await him.

Stepping into the wide cave where the passage led to, he was proven right in multiple ways.

There really were no normal workers down there in the cave.

Even from still inside the passage Jay managed to analyze the first man he saw and learned it was a bandit.

The same applied to all the men inside the cave. They either were bandits, overseers or Defiers workers and all of them were overly aggressive.

After setting his first foot into the mine they rushed in on Jay from all sides. It wasn't like they posed a real threat for Jay but he still had to be careful as there had been others people in close proximity.

Mixed within the miners who were made working were older women that got made carrying the heavy buckets and even children had to fill those with the stones from the ground.

It was a horrendous sight to Jay, but he not really had time to shake it off.

Ducking down to the fist coming from the right, Jay threw the man over his back and hurled him towards the one coming from the left with his pick-axe. To both their misfortunes Jay hit the right angle and the one hurled got pinned onto the tool.

With the inertia of them both, the one holding the pick-axe got impaled by the other side pinning them both together.

At the same time, Jay kicked another miner who came running so that he flew back and crashed into the one behind him.

Picking up the dropped tool the man had, Jay hurled it towards the closest overseer and right into his heart.

By then even the bandits further back had noticed his intrusion and came running while Jay stomped down on the two miners rolling on the ground.

The other miners had become careful by then and kept a bit of distance. Looking trough their rows, Jay found himself surrounded by four bandits, three more miners and another overseer.

Thinking about taking out a weapon himself as those level fifteen and up opponents wouldn't get his martial arts anything, Jay didn't even got the chance to so.

The first bandit jumped towards him with his dagger and was followed by his companion. Jay grabbed the mans wrist as it was within reach and hurled him around once. That led to him crashing into his companion that came rushing in with his axe at the ready and knocked them out.

The dagger Jay just got ended in the furthest miners forehead while the closest one got already received from him. That one got again thrown over Jay's back and onto the ground, through he never touched it.

While he had been fighting, Jay had formed a stone spike reaching up from the ground to about his waist height.

The miner got impaled on it and slid down to half of it.

That was only five opponent left for him to handle.

Four, after Jay shoved one of the bandits close to him in the path of an arrow that came flying from the furthest bandit.

He simply held the man by his neck and waited for the next arrow to hit him while kicking the last miner so hard that he rolled sideways over to the overseer.

Letting go of the dead miner with three arrows in his back, Jay waited for the overseer to arrive as she stumbled over the knocked out miner.

To his surprise the burly woman tried a kick on him that he gladly received. Grabbing her ankle tight, Jay simply used his abundant strength to hurl her over him, nearly hitting the ceiling with her head and as she descended, the impaled miner finally touched the ground.

Jay had the overseer land on the spike as well and the inertia was enough to ram them both on the ground.

The last one to get knocked out was the female bandit who had been shooting at Jay. A simple slap was all she needed to get knocked out after he dashed towards her with his skills for speeding up.

Grabbing the skinny middle aged bandit by her leg, Jay dragged her to the others and even picked up the knocked out miner on his way. Looking over his shoulder towards the closest granny that was watching him proceeding pretty stupefied, he gave her a soothing smile.

"You should probably keep the kids from looking at what comes next…" J.

Opening her eyes wide, the old woman hurriedly got up and took the two closest children to the next group of three. Jay waited until they cowered together and had the children look the other way.

Simply letting go of the female bandit, Jay lifted the miner up and dropped him on the pike as well. The notification of a kill signaled him to go on.

The two by then rolling around bandits came next.

While the second hit perfectly, killing him instantly, the first slipped a bit and got impaled though his belly instead of his chest. Glad it was the first one and the other one on top pressed out the air from the dying man's lungs, Jay heard not too much wailing.

Last but not least came the topping.

Picking the light woman up by the sides, Jay lifted her up.

Just at that moment she woke back up but couldn't even scream anymore as she got launched downwards.

After a cracking sound another notification for a kill appeared for Jay, so he took a step back to look at his work.

It was a bandit kebab with a thoroughly impaled woman sitting on top.

Tearing his eyes from the creepy piece of art, Jay searched the overseer not in the pile for a key and went towards the old women and children. He wanted to inquire how they were faring and free them from their shackles but barely managed to do so when he heard an explosion coming from the next adjoining passage.

Ordering the two older women to gather the other ones in the cave and keep the children from looking to the not that bloody pile of corpses, he left them alone and went in the direction where the sound came from.

What Jay saw after he went through the curved passage was three men with a mixture of robes and bandit armor that were practicing casting. The explosion he had heard was one of those fireballs they kept shooting at a target located in the back of the cave.

And that was where it again became even more gruesome.

The target was nothing but one of the slaves they had at their disposal.

Instantly rushing towards them, Jay could only grin as he saw two of them start to cast their spells at him. The last one was still trying to comprehend the situation and only stood behind them.

That had been his luck as the spells naturally got reflected and the two casting Defiers got the brunt of their own attacks

Glad his reflection still sent the spells in the direction they came from and no where else, Jay crossed the distance of the wide cave.

It was about as big as the previous, just the shape differed. While the other one had been close to circular, this cave had more of an oval shape with an additional bulge to the back where the floor was a few yards deeper.

It was there where the group of men had placed their target and they stood on the slope leading down there.

The moment Jay got close, one of them was rolling on the ground and still burning a bit while the other one already casted another spell.

The last one though was running away towards the next tunnel. Taking aim with the bow Jay had pulled out of his inventory previously, he shot the man in the back of his knee.

While leisurely walking after the man he took care of his other knee as well.

Jay had all the time he wanted at this moment.

While he had picked the bow initially to release the poor soul that was their practice target should it be still alive, it had come in handy. The other two idiots had taken care of them themselves and lay burning at the same place Jay had found them first.

A quick additional fireball from his quick slots had sped up their deaths a bit.

Other then that there had been no aggressors in the cave. Only two frightened grannies and four totally worn out old men had been there to be precise. Ignoring them for a moment, Jay arrived behind the last Defier who still kept crawling forward in hopes to reach the adjoining passage.

Jay might even have overlooked that one if the man hadn't tried to run there.

It was a dark tunnel in a not illuminated corner of the cave.

The moment Jay reached the man he casted an arcane missile in short distance and made his head vanish.

Checking him for keys or anything of worth, Jay found both on the man. Other than a key ring holding multiple keys, some silvers and a small wand was Jay's booty.