"There seems to be a light ahead, shall we go over and take a look?"

Through the bubbles and the water, Carl tried to communicate with Hope.

But the two different media made Carl's voice a little out of tune, and it took Hope a long time to react to what Carl said.

"Can!"

Nodding, the two walked towards a cave at the bottom of the pool.

The entrance of the cave looks like the spring of the pond. It is roughly circular in shape, and its diameter is slightly shorter than Carl's power armor.

The inside of the cave glowed faintly with an orange-yellow fluorescence, as if fluorescent moss and mushrooms had actually grown there.

Against the current, Carl and Hope struggled to move forward inside the cave.

At the beginning, the cave was a little narrow, but when Carl and Hope walked forward for a distance, the space began to gradually expand.

Continuing forward, after turning a corner, Carl and Hope came to a new world.

Inside the cave entrance is actually a rather large karst cave. Countless fluorescent mosses grow on the walls of the cave, illuminating the underwater area with "bright lights".

'If we can build a place to live here, we won't have to worry about the mind flayers and goblins.'

Looking at the unique underwater beauty in front of him, Carl thought regretfully in his heart.

The entire cave is about the size of a football field. If he can use this area effectively, Carl feels that he can stay here for a long time.

However, the underwater environment limits the value of this place, so Carl can only sigh at this precious land.

"Okay, let's get ready to go back. It's almost time for those brain-eating monsters to leave."

Turning around, Carl was about to take Hope away from here and return to the ground, but he found that Hope was washed away by the undercurrent.

Poor Hope was a terrible swimmer and no matter how she moved her limbs, she couldn't swim over.

Seeing Hope's funny look, Carl laughed twice in a very unkind way.

"Okay, okay, I'm coming, grab my arm."

Seeing Hope staring at him with anger, Carl stopped watching the show and drove his power armor towards Hope.

"Why don't you remind me? If I hadn't noticed, you might have been swept away by the undercurrent by now."

Coming to Hope's side, Carl teased and dragged him, intending to walk towards the cave they came from.

At this moment, a strong undercurrent hit.

Even though Carl was wearing power armor, he was pushed several meters away by this undercurrent.

The entire power armor flew out in a spin in the water, while Hope floated upside down in the water, paddling the water randomly with his limbs.

"Ah! Damn it! Where does such a strong undercurrent come from? Is this the gathering place of the underground rivers in the underground city?"

Waving his arms, Carl finally regained his balance in the water, but he felt a burst of pain between his eyebrows, as if he was seasick.

As a student of Akanix, it is impossible to get seasick.

After all, Arkanix is ​​located in the largest freshwater lake in the continent of Khorvaire, and travel there requires a boat.

Carl had long since gotten used to the feeling of being on the boat and had even developed some good swimming skills.

"Uh~"

Although he didn't believe that he was seasick, Carl's body honestly started to retch.

In order to prevent himself from vomiting in the power armor, Carl immediately took a deep breath and then took off the power armor.

“Hurulu~”

The warm water stream hitting his face made Carl feel much better, and the dizziness he had just felt seemed to have been relieved.

Carl put his palm back on the power armor. Just as he was about to put it on again, he felt a sudden pain in the dragon pattern on the back of his shoulder.

At the same time, an inexplicable feeling made Carl look towards the center of the cave.

'Dress!'

With a thought, the power armor was put on Carl again, the magic pattern inside the helmet was activated again, and the liquid inside the power armor was drained out.

"Hope! There seems to be something over there! Come with me!"

Swimming to Hope, Carl pulled him and headed towards the center of the cave.

The center of the cave doesn't look like anything special. Thick silt accumulates at the bottom, and even a turbulent undercurrent can hardly wash it away.

However, the exploration of the dragon patterns produced a sensation in such a place. Not only that, this time the sensation was much stronger than before, as if there was a huge dragon crystal hidden under the mud.

Such a strong feeling made Carl unable to give up.

There was no other way, so he had to bend down and dig.

The sticky silt was dug up, and the water flow carried the silt and muddied the surrounding waters.

Hope even took out her beloved hand axe to help dig, but the two of them worked hard for a long time but did not find anything valuable.

Just when Carl was thinking about whether to give up digging.

A crackling sound of metal friction was heard.

As the water flow slowly carried away the surrounding mud and water, a metal plate hidden under the mud was exposed.

After looking at each other, Carl and Hope seemed to be motivated and began to clean up the mud more vigorously.

Hope's side was fine, but the amplitude of his movements became a little bigger.

But Carl even activated the Thunder Fist of the Guardian Power Armor, trying to use thunder damage (sound waves) to shake away the mud.

"Bang!"

Because he failed to control the strength, Carl directly attacked the huge metal object below.

An interference pulse formed by magic power was released, and the metal object hidden under the mud suddenly began to vibrate on its own.

The mud and sand covering it were blown up by the vibration, and the surrounding water became extremely turbid for a while.

Carl only had time to hug Hope, and then he could only let the metal object move on its own.

Time passed minute by minute, and the muddy water was carried away by the undercurrent.

As the nearby waters became clearer, Carl and Hope saw the general shape of the metal object under their feet.

It was a huge machine with a huge drill on the front, and its length was almost as big as the entire cave.

Looking at this strange machine, Carl suddenly remembered an episode of "Ultraman Tiga" that he had watched in his previous life.

That was the story of the second time Tiga fought against the monster Golzaan that tore the earth apart. In order to find the monster, the victorious team used a special vehicle that could go deep underground.

That vehicle is similar to the machine in front of us.

“It looks like a machine for mining underground minerals, but who would use a machine of this size? A giant? But the giants have lost their civilization and only exist in the form of tribes.”

In terms of size, this thing does look like something belonging to a giant, but Carl really finds it hard to believe that the thing under his feet may have been lying here for tens of thousands of years.

Through the power armor, Carl touched the material of the drill under his feet.

The hardness of this thing is visibly stronger than Carl's power armor. Based on Carl's understanding of metal materials, it is mixed with at least several kinds of magical metals.

It's hard to imagine what kind of person would spend so much precious metal just to make something like this.

As he was thinking, Carl looked up and saw the hieroglyphic runes gradually lighting up on the metal plate in the distance.

"Wait! This is indeed a giant rune. Could it be that this thing is really the [mine cart] that the ancient giants used to mine Khyber Dragon Crystal underground?"

(End of this chapter)