Chapter 398: Chapter 25: Soul Forger—Moradin! The tunnel ahead has completely collapsed.
Since Bert, the Esoteric Practitioner, is here, the other injured individuals are not in much trouble. However, all the machines are damaged, and with so many casualties, it’s impossible to continue digging for now.
"There should be a large underground cavity below."
Tassia was dismantling the dwarf mechanized body in front of her. She gathered the silver-white metal fragments and handed them to Bert beside her, saying, "Is it the legendary Mithril?"
"Magic metal from the Mysterious Era?"
This Esoteric Practitioner reached out, inspected it, and nodded affirmatively, "It is Mithril."
"Legend has it that dwarves are very adept at using Mithril."
The hired relic scholar is now dead, leaving only Bert, the Esoteric Practitioner, to make judgments. He had joined the group voluntarily some time ago, and they quickly found common ground due to his healing abilities.
Tassia glanced at the silent Duncan beside her and slowly said, "Then there must be a buried dwarven city down there."
At this point,
She motioned for the other survivors to gather around and then looked around, inquiring, "Let’s hear everyone’s opinion."
"Should we report this ancient ruin to the Mechanical Divine Sect?"
"Or should we excavate it ourselves?"
When mentioning the Mechanical Divine Sect, Tassia’s gaze fell on Duncan, as if observing his expression for any changes.
After all, he’s the only official Mechanical Cultivator here.
She herself was almost removed from the sect.
Bert also observed the expressions of others. Previously, when Tassia was dismantling the dwarf mechanized body, he was meticulously studying the engraved enchantment patterns, looking hungry for knowledge. He seemed very interested in the mysterious knowledge of the ancient times.
He definitely didn’t want to hand this place over to the Mechanical Divine Sect.
At this time, a bearded mercenary was the first to speak, "I disagree with reporting it to the Mechanical Divine Sect."
"We lost so many people just to dig this much."
"Reporting it to the church will at best get us some leftovers."
As his words fell, others nodded in agreement, having bled on the knife’s edge. They wanted to gamble big since their lives were on the line. Who knows, they might just get a chance to reach the upper zone and bask in the sun of Nest City’s upper levels.
Soon, everyone’s gaze fell on Duncan.
Duncan knew he had to make a statement. He slowly said, "I also don’t think we should report it to the church."
He’s also very intrigued by the secrets below.
Mythical Era ruins might just yield something valuable if uncovered.
Hearing this, Tassia breathed a sigh of relief and said in a deep voice, "If we continue digging on our own, we don’t have enough manpower now."
"Moreover, such a large ancient ruin requires more excavation equipment."
"We need to find some allies."
From her tone, it seemed likely that they could call in more help, probably from other rebellion members in the lower levels of Nest City.
At this moment, Bert also spoke softly, "There might be a Divine Hall from the ancient era below. I can find a way to inform others from my sect to come and assist."
"If we don’t report to the Mechanical Church, the more help we have, the better."
The area they were in seemed to be a large dwarf ruin. Nobody knew when it was buried. Duncan couldn’t observe it in detail through his god-like perspective, relying only on strategy maps to discover some dark underground caverns.
At this point, the strategy map had marked out a rough area range.
—— Dwarven Pantheon (Ancient Ruins).
They had likely dug into the dwarven Divine Hall area, but other areas weren’t yet accessible. Excavating such a vast ancient ruin requires a significant amount of manpower and resources.
Tassia looked deeply at the esoteric practitioner Bert beside her and said solemnly, "Then leave some people to guard the ruins for now."
"Meanwhile, we’ll find a way to recruit more people."
No one knows what’s underneath.
But there’s no doubt that the risks and rewards are proportional. This underground ruin has been buried for at least three epochs, and discovering even a little could yield abundant rewards. The existence of dwarves was already legendary in the Mysterious Era. Afterward, with the first industrial and magical revolutions, almost all mythical creatures became history.
With consensus reached, Tassia quickly left with two others, while Bert returned alone to the lower levels of Nest City to recruit more esoteric practitioners from his sect to help.
Duncan chose to stay put, continuing with small-scale underground excavation.
"What caused it, really?"
"For such a large dwarven city to be reduced to ruin?"
Duncan manipulated the mechanical arm behind him, carefully moving aside the collapsed giant stone. The wall’s damaged patterns were visible here, with what seemed like some carvings on the surface. However, due to the passage of ages and tectonic movements, a significant portion had been destroyed.
Excavating below requires large machinery.
Duncan dug for a while and managed to retrieve a bronze goblet from the corner, which seemed to be a ritual artifact. From a collapsed edge, a section of a statue’s broken finger was exposed, about one and a half meters in diameter. The statue must have been enormous.
"This place should also be a geonode."
"Dwarven civilization was highly advanced."
Through his god-like perspective, Duncan judged the buried range of the ancient ruins. Based on his calculations, just the Divine Hall area covered the size of a large town.