Cleaning the mine
"...Elevator?"
Morina whispered to herself in surprise.
Although it is a question, the answer is obvious.
Ximu nodded, glanced around, and after confirming that there were no traps targeting passengers near or above the elevator, he slowly led his teammates to the more open area in front of the elevator.
Sure enough, the place they came down from before was just a cargo channel leading to the workshop. The real mining area should be even deeper.
"Let's go. Just in case, please set up the barrier."
As usual, Ximu was the first to step onto the elevator platform - and the last sentence was naturally directed to Sorens.
People who have experienced a crisis together will naturally build up a certain level of trust. This is true for her, Ruisha, and Morina. It is also true for Sorens, who did not choose to save himself in the critical moment, but risked his life to cooperate with Morina.
Perhaps because he was used to Ximu's coldness, Sorens was flattered when he suddenly spoke to him so kindly. He quickly responded and as soon as he stood firm, he waved his staff and cast a spell, covering everyone on the elevator in a circular defensive magic.
"Let me step on the mechanism?"
Apparently, she hadn't had enough fun playing on the elevator in the teaching building, so Morina volunteered and raised her hand excitedly.
Ximu was puzzled, but because Ximu doted on her, she moved aside a little and motioned her to come over.
The circular mechanism in the center was stepped on, and the magic circle engraved on the stone plate quickly lit up, carrying them down quickly.
With nothing to do in his spare time, Ximu looked at the elevator platform under his feet, estimated the approximate depth of the mine, and finally gradually noticed the completeness and durability of the defensive magic.
"Are you good at defensive magic?" Xi Mu asked suddenly.
Realizing that this was a question to him, Sorens came back to his senses from his alert state. He didn't know whether the other party was angry because he had not explained this matter in detail before, and he felt a little uneasy for a moment.
"Not really. My skills aren't very good, actually... but I'm a bit better at attacking magic."
Faced with the boy's modesty, Ximu glanced at him and did not speak immediately.
When Molina was busy treating him, Ximu also noticed his injuries.
Although the injuries were indeed serious, the damage to the vital parts was within a controllable range, and it was the level that could be saved as long as the priests gave some help.
Knowing that one cannot build a complete defense, it is not easy for everyone to micro-manipulate the magic power used to protect vital points in such a short time.
After all, to be able to enter the magic academy, he must have some talent.
Although the defensive magic he cast had a small range, the magic power fluctuations were very even. Even Xi Mu couldn't find a very obvious loophole that could be broken for a while.
"This barrier isn't instant."
"Ah, yes."
For some reason, facing Ximu's various professional questions, Sorens always felt nervous as if he was answering a professor's random questions in class.
He subconsciously clenched his staff and explained as clearly and comprehensively as possible, "Immediate defense requires constant mana maintenance. We don't know how deep the mine is, so I'm using a self-forming one. This saves more mana... Ah, if we're attacked along the way, as long as it's not completely broken, I can quickly fill the gap and make some strength adjustments. Don't worry."
If there really were a concentrated attack like the one in the courtyard before, causing his magic power to run out quickly, he would at least have two scrolls to replenish his magic power - but these were generous assistance from Ruixia, and he felt that he could not openly include them in his own abilities.
Xi Mu did not ask any further questions and just nodded slightly.
Although she is not a professional magician, from the assassin's perspective, if she is not inside the barrier at this time and both sides are in opposition, it may be better to attack the elevator to create chaos to interfere with the caster than to directly confront the barrier.
This shouldn't be the case... If he can control limited magic power so delicately, why is his performance in offensive magic so mediocre?
Is it a matter of mentality?
Just as I was wondering, I heard Morina beside me suddenly say "Huh", and then suddenly stopped the lift without any warning.
Fortunately, the lift itself had some magical protection, so the people on the platform were not affected by the sudden stop.
Before Ximu could ask, Molina suddenly pointed to an inconspicuous spot on the mountain wall, squinted her eyes, and asked uncertainly, "Is there light coming out of that place?"
The other two looked closely and saw a few pieces of dilapidated building fragments embedded in the mud and stone mountain wall, as if some ancient ruins had been buried under this deep mine by time.
And among the crooked arches and pillar fragments that should have been buried tightly and were obviously older than the magic academy on the ground, there was a very inconspicuous hole, just the height of a person, with a faint purple light peeking out from the depths.
"Maybe... there are some rare minerals in it?" Sorens guessed.
None of the three of them knew much about minerals, but now that they were in a mine, the only natural light sources they could access were luminous minerals, so it was normal for them to have such a guess.
"How's it going? Do you want to go in and take a look?"
It was obvious that Morina was curious, but since it was a group action after all, she naturally had to seek the opinions of her companions.
If it was in a place that had been explored halfway and all the routes were almost known, Ximu might agree.
But after experiencing the life-or-death chase, she still felt a bit scared.
If she encounters any difficult monster again, there will be no mechanical doll to buy her time. She won’t know where to run and can only go on.
It's not that she's afraid of fighting, but...
As a nimble athlete, she always has to be at the forefront to carry those strange and bizarre things, which is quite difficult.
"Let's see when we get back."
After thinking for a moment, Ximu said, "Our primary mission here is to collect the minerals Ruixia listed for us, and to understand the terrain here. For unexpected discoveries like this, it would be more appropriate to explore them on our return trip."
Then we'll stop the elevator here. Once there's an enemy we can't deal with, we'll just rush out and go all the way back to the workshop. It can be considered a repeat of the old trick.
As for whether the centipede monster chasing them is still waiting there... let's not think about it, we'll find out when the time comes.
After thinking about it, Moli Na felt that it made sense, so she didn't insist anymore. Then the three of them went down all the way, and after an unknown amount of time, they finally reached the bottom of the mine.
Although there were no very accurate measuring tools, according to Ximu's estimation, their current location was probably close to, or even exceeded, the depth of the lake bottom outside.
As expected of a private academy backed by the royal family, the resources of this mine alone are enough to cover most of the academy's expenses in all aspects.
"Let me see where Ni Xijin is..."
They did not rush to leave the lift. Morina took out a copy of the mineral distribution map from her small bag and began to look for the corresponding location.
Ximu looked around and found that the miner monsters were not distributed densely. Most of them were scattered in the large space on the bottom floor and the large and small mines around.
"Are there any blasting scrolls left?" Xi Mu suddenly asked.
"Yes, Ruixia was worried that there might be some restrictions at the mine entrance. She was afraid that she wouldn't be able to blow it open immediately, so she asked me to get a few more. They're all here."
Having said that, there were only three scrolls that Morina handed over.
"How powerful is it?"
Ximu was not there when the door was blown up, and the noise was muffled by the iron door and the self-explosion of the puppet on his side, so he could only ask the two parties present.
Molina and Sorens looked at each other, not understanding Ximu's meaning, so Molina asked, "Why are you asking this? What are you going to do?"
"I want to get rid of all these monsters in front of me at once."
Xi Muyao pointed at the scattered miner monsters, then pointed to the relatively open space in the distance. Molina suddenly realized and uttered a long "Oh".
"Oh—you want to gather all these monsters together and blow them all up at once?"
After receiving Ximu's affirmative nod, Molina pulled the boy next to her over, and the two of them quickly discussed it.
The explosion occurred inside the entrance, and its power was enough to directly lift open an unlocked, thick iron door with a person on it. After they went in, there were obvious signs of damage on the mountain walls on both sides. The monster that was directly hit was left with no trace at all. It seems that their own strength may not be too outrageous.
"Based on the quantity we see right now, if we use all three scrolls together... it should be enough."
Sorens often helps out in the workshop, and his words are obviously more convincing when it comes to estimating various expenses and measurements.
"good."
Xi Mu said no more and asked them to stay in the barrier and not come out. He went out first to deal with some miners nearby to get familiar with the feel.
Although the eyes of these mining monsters have been replaced by ores, as long as someone passes by nearby ores of the same material, they will sense the location of the intruder, and will take the initiative to attack when the person enters their attack range.
Their main weapons are the tools in their hands, such as chisels and hammers. Although their limbs look strangely slender, they are incredibly strong.
It’s a pity… they are in human form.
For an assassin who has been practicing assassination skills since childhood and can trigger various passive executions on human targets once he has the intention to kill, killing enemies with obvious weak points is more natural and casual than breathing or blinking.
After killing about five monsters, Ximu ignored the other guys who were still rushing towards her in the distance, and swung her sword horizontally and vertically, using the sharp sword energy to draw a huge fork on the ground.
Although she didn't say anything, Morina in the distance could already read her meaning from her eyes.
——It’s right there, I see.
Seeing Molina making an "understood" gesture from afar, Ximu turned his attention back to the miners. With a thought, the moment he stood up, he instantly transformed into dozens of identical versions of himself and quickly rushed in all directions!
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