Chapter 334: The Hidden Mine (1)

On the mysterious mountain range, Jacob cautiously walked toward the marked location in the poisonous mist. The deeper he goes, the deeper shade of green the mist becomes.

In his estimate, this poisonous mist was even potent for extraordinary rank living, and probably the dark beings could walk freely in it. This made him even more curious as to how Manson was able to dive this deep into the Wild Nation, not to mention he was crazy enough to enter this poisonous mist.

But one thing that Jacob was really content about was there were no dark beings around. On his way here, there were seldom one or two dark beings walking around aimlessly.

He knew the Lich King had most likely taken the majority of his forces toward the Dark City and left this place without much security since there was no one left to attack it anymore.

Furthermore, after experiencing the environment of these lands, Jacob was sure only idiots would want to live in this place as long as they didn't want to plague with stench and unknown illnesses.

He even wondered why in the world, the life faction was fighting for such lands in the first place. Couldn't they really just build solid defense instead of try fighting the Dark Beings? Or were they so prideful that they couldn't just simply hide and chip away their forces instead of headbutting them on the battlefield?

The Dark Beings would never stop attacking the living because they had a valid reason for it. But what about the living? What would they get by killing them except for some rare magic cores or their rotten corpses and bones?

Furthermore, with how the Dark Beings from the other plains could send reinforcement from the other plains, like the Life Faction, it was pretty clear they were as intelligent and advanced as the living beings.

Jacob was confused and curious at the same time about the Dark Beings, and he knew the secret was most likely to do with the Zodiac Plains being so strange.

Nevertheless, he was more inclined toward focusing on his present instead of worrying about the mysterious future.

Jacob's footsteps suddenly come to a halt when a cliff wall appears in front of him within the mist, and if not for his mask and sharp senses, he would've smashed right into it.

When he looked at the brightly lit scanner in his hand, it was showing a red marker in the center of it and kept on blinking.

"This is the place?" Jacob frowned as he looked around, and everything was the same except for the cliff in front, 'If I were him and found a lode of unknown materials, then I would do anything to hide it until I came back. Or if I knew where it was beforehand... In both cases, there is some hidden passage somewhere near here.'

Jacob stowed away the scanner since it was now useless, and from here, he was on his own. He didn't get the chance to fully interrogates Mason since he thought he had only discovered the lode by chance. So, it might be in a quite obvious location.

However, now that he had come here himself, he knew Mason was led here by something since this location was clearly not adventure-friendly, or that guy just had a knack for courting death.

Furthermore, the Wild Nation hadn't been opened for all this time, and it's only been a few years since Jacob had cleared the trial of the Rare Plains, lifting the barrier on both sides.

So, Mason couldn't be just wandering in this place by chance or again, and the Dark Beings were quite proactive right after the trials were over with their defeat.

It was hard to believe some adventurer would come adventuring in a war zone teeming with dark beings. But the thing was, there was nothing within Mason's belongings that could confirm this theory, and only this map scanner was the only proof that leads here.

Instead of searching aimlessly for clues, Jacob decided to take a rather direct approach which would save him quite a time.

His short sword appeared in his hand, and he slashed the cliff in front of him as this was the most obvious location where a doorway could be, and the map scanner stopped right at this point.

If it turns out to be a normal rock, then his sword would cut through it like a hot blade through butter, and if it wasn't, then he'll know right away by the difference in sound.

Luckily, the moment Jacob slashed the sword, it cut like a sheet of paper, and instead of a solid surface behind it, it was actually hollowed!

Jacob's lips curled up when he saw the darkness behind the fine slit, which was three inches deep in the cliff wall, and he knew it was the right decision to use this method.

Then Jacob didn't need to hold back as he directly slashed his sword two more times, opening a dark pathway and entering without needing any torch.

He found himself walking in a two-meter tunnel passage that was surprisingly sliding upward. But this tunnel was clearly dug recently as he could still find markings of some digging device used to create it.

This made Jacob's belief about Mason coming here with a clear purpose in mind even more reliable.

If not for plutonium, he won't waste even a second of his time to come here, but now it was getting somewhat interesting.

The tunnel was around quite deep as after climbing about a hundred meters, the tunnel became straight again, and after walking another twenty meters, a sharp left turn appeared, which was over a hundred meters long.

Jacob finally reached the end of this long tunnel and stood in front of something he didn't expect. It was an old mine elevator that was going down to who knows where.

Furthermore, this elevator was of extremely old design as it connected with an old pully with two rusty metal chains, and there was a hand wheel attached in the center.

Jacob knew this elevator was a type of hand elevator, and it looked in terrible shape.

But he knew he was now almost at the end of his destination. So, after he checked it thoroughly, he finally embarked on it and started to turn the old metal wheel which made ear-piercing sounds. The elevator trembled slightly before it finally started to descend while making eerie noises.

'Why is this place hidden inside a mountain?' Jacob's eyes shone with anticipation as he didn't mind the sounds at all and slowly made his way down!