The underground lake was surrounded by several entrances, neither of which looked more enticing than the other.

Leonidas chose an entrance based not on gut, but rather the basic premise that they should head in deeper.

Thanks to the hole in the cavern’s ceiling, Leonidas was able to orient himself. He knew which direction the forest was in and which direction headed deeper into the valley.

From his previous guesses, this location was what Deacon Ezor wanted to find, it would help to explain all his odd actions. And, by extension, it was the mining tunnels connected with this place that he was trying to navigate his way through.

If Leonidas was correct, it was likely that the same Darkness Spell that had been cast over the hideout was cast here, or at least something similar.

In that case, it would have been nigh impossible for Deacon Ezor to find what he was looking for.

The situation now had changed, however. With the collapse of the hideout, it was possible that there were certain weaknesses the Lower Ogre Deacon could take advantage of.

Simply put, Leonidas felt that heading in a direction that pushed them deeper into the valley would point them toward Deacon Ezor’s starting point, and it would also be the location where the densest stores of Level 1, 2 and 3 missions could be found.

This way, they would be able to complete their task of finding Anabel as well.

Leonidas’ steps stopped at the entrance of his chosen pathway as he cast Scholar’s Eye.

He swept his senses over the path. It looked perfectly normal, but for this place to have stayed hidden all of this time, there was definitely nothing simple about it.

Leonidas kicked a rock down the corridor, watching it skip.

When nothing happened, he took a brave step forward, but his vision swam almost instantly.

What once was a brightly lit corridor became shrouded in darkness.

The moment Leonidas’ eyes adjusted, his head snapped backward, but all he found in its place was a stone wall. Lady Eve was nowhere to be seen and even after several seconds, she still hadn’t shown herself.

‘I was naive,’ Leonidas thought to himself.

For a place that had remained so well hidden for so long, how could petty tricks so easily fool it?

‘It seems the only one obvious flaw was left behind after the hideout was destroyed. It’s likely the spirit left this behind on purpose, only I would think to cut through the floor like that because only I would ever assume there would be anything left.

‘No, that’s not exactly right. The destruction of the hideout itself would be an oddity that any smart individual would check out. It wouldn’t be a coincidence to anyone that the very location of an odd dark entrance would suddenly implode days later.

‘The trouble is that Deacon Ezor didn’t know the layout of the hideout like Lady Eve and I did, and even if he had, he wouldn’t be able to pinpoint it due to the odd magic barriers without the help of something like Lady Eve’s Substitution Dolls.’

Despite taking a detour, the conclusion ended up being the same. The spirit had left this behind such that only Leonidas could take advantage of this place. That man had guessed that Lady Eve and Leonidas would end up working together like this.

Leonidas turned away from the stone wall after checking that it was, indeed, not a false wall.

With slow movements, he carefully unsheathed one of his sabers and took a breath.

Right now, he had no way of telling exactly where in these mines he was, his previous attempts at orientation were useless.

If he was deep into Lower Ogre territory, he would definitely have to fight his way out.

As for Lady Eve, that woman was resourceful and had already fought her way out of a gang of Lower Ogres once before. He wasn’t too worried about her.

‘I’ll have to make a map of where I’ve been in my head so that I don’t get lost. Leaving marks on the wall wouldn’t be a smart decision, just in case I really am in enemy territory.’

Leonidas moved forward, being greeted by three branching routes immediately.

He didn’t spend much time deliberating, taking the right-most one.

After his eyes had adjusted, Leonidas found that these tunnels weren’t as dark as they should have been. There seemed to be a soft light coming from the walls.

The Night Vision Potion he had taken made this soft light more obvious than it otherwise would be, making Leonidas curious.

‘These are ores, the walls are lined with Blessed Ores…’

Leonidas was baffled. This sort of density wasn’t normal. Just this amount alone was like having a treasure trove fall into your lap.

Unfortunately, Leonidas hadn’t read enough about Blessed Ores to understand what he was looking at or even how to evaluate their worth.

He rose his blade, pressing it against the wall of ores and pushing it down firmly. He even placed a hand on the dull edge for extra leverage.

This was a crude test Leonidas had thought of, but unrefined Level 1 Blessed Ore would definitely be sliced through by his current sabers.

‘It’s not working.’

Leonidas pulled back, not wanting to chip his blade. An unrefined Ore that could remain undamaged from a test like that was at least Level 2.

‘Hold on, there’s a better way to test this.’

Leonidas’ eyes lit up, kicking himself for not having thought of this earlier.

As a Fallen Disciple, he was basically a walking Shrine. This allowed him to exchange items for what the Fallen Apostles might have in their inventory.

The exchange system of the Shrine should be able to tell him exactly what was in front of him and what its worth was. Then, he could cross-reference the information he gained with the Knowledge Well.

If Leonidas used this method, there should theoretically be nothing he couldn’t identify!

Leonidas pressed his hand against the wall and tried to initiate the exchange.

<Failure. Target not specified.>

The prompt seemed to knock Leonidas back into reality.

That was right, he had just pressed his hand against a wall. What did he expect, for the system to suddenly suck up the entire cave network? There was definitely a limit.

Leonidas brandished his claws once more, allowing them to be coated in a bright blue glow.

With a scooping motion, he slowly dug into the wall, pulling out a palm-sized piece.

A concentrated Mana Blade like this was the equivalent of a Level 3 weapon, so the process was fairly smooth.

<1.47 kg of Unrefined Level 2 Blessed Iron>

<Less than 1 Blessing Unit>

Leonidas closed his eyes, focusing on the Knowledge Well and finding the information he needed.

‘Okay, so according to this, I would need two kilograms to earn a single Blessing Unit.’

Just looking at the size of the wall, it was tempting. There was wealth all around him.

Leonidas took a breath and carefully slotted the Blessed Ore back into the piece of the wall he had taken out.

If he was going to take the risk of exposing himself and leaving a trail behind, it had to be for more than this. He still had hundreds of Blessing Units he had yet to use, he couldn’t let greed get the best of him while his life was on the line.

Leonidas moved forward, his Scholar’s Eye helping him to scan for changes in the walls. Whenever he spotted a different Ore, he would take a sample and test it, only to place it back.

<1.23 kg of Unrefined Level 1 Blessed Copper>

<1.38 kg of Unrefined Level 2 Blessed Zinc>

<1.92 kg of Unrefined Level 1 Blessed Titanium>

Leonidas paused.

<2 Blessing Units>

This Blessed Titanium was worth four times that of Unrefined Level 1 Blessed Iron.

Leonidas had heard of iron before, in fact it was a pretty commonly used metal amongst nobles, especially for Knights and their weapons.

But, titanium wasn’t a name he had ever heard of before. It sounded powerful and robust, and he liked the ring it had to it. Despite being only Level 1, its price was equivalent to a high-class Level 3 Blessed Ore.

According to the Knowledge Well, normal titanium was always found bound with another element, but that truth seemed to change when it became Blessed.

‘This looks like a very good material to make heavy sabers out of… I’ll look into it once I’ve completed [Twin Saber Foundations].’

Leonidas was close to mastering the foundations of dual wielding. In truth, he felt that he already had, but the spirit’s book spoke of an odd unconscious state he called ‘Mana Sense’.

Mana Sense was described in the book as a sphere of influence that extended beyond one’s skin. Touching its barrier meant being able to feel the movement of his sabers in space beyond the boundaries of normal proprioception.

Leonidas, even with all his intelligence, had no idea what that meant. But, according to the spirit, he wasn’t allowed to use the twin saber modification until he met that standard.

While the spirit had shoehorned Leonidas into using sabers, Leonidas actually wasn’t using the exact weapon the former was so famous for just yet.

According to the tome, once Leonidas learned Mana Sense, he should link his sabers with a spear and move on to a technique called [Twin Saber Style: War God]. He would also have to claim a Mage Blessing known as Mana Hands.

Leonidas’ footsteps came to a pause, his long ears twitching.

‘That should be… The sound of mining.’

He inched forward, his steps controlled and quiet.

Lower Ogres had poor sight so they were already at a disadvantage in this dim light. But, they also had excellent hearing. It was thanks to this stacking of sorts that one of the few benefits Leonidas had gained from his parents was exactly that.

Leonidas dug into a pouch, pulling out a small crystal ball. This Blessed Device was the very same one he had used to record his battle with the Rardin family Paladin he had killed. But, it had another useful feature.

Leonidas placed it on the ground and gently rolled it around the corner, just enough for it to peek through.

Bending down to a knee, his eyes squinted, trying to make out the images without projecting them to their full size.

While this Blessed Device recorded, it replayed the images it was capturing within its transparent body. Due to an odd sort of mechanic Leonidas didn’t quite understand, it was perfectly viewable at all angles.

When Leonidas’ vision focused, he nodded lightly.

Around the corner, there was a long corridor without any cover. However, there was a single opening perpendicular to the pathway which revealed a fairly bright light compared to everywhere else.

At either side of this opening, two guards stood. However, they were both human!

Leonidas hadn’t run into the Lower Ogres, he had lucked into stumbling onto the humans first.

This meant two things. First, he shouldn’t be as deep into Lower Ogre territory as he thought, something that was very good.

Secondly, there was a chance Anabel would be here.

Leonidas’ mind kicked into overdrive for a moment as he thought of several possibilities.

‘There are two guards. From the sounds, I can make out a total of five miners. If there are others being held against their will like Anabel, there’s potentially another guard overseeing them.

‘In the worst-case scenario, I’ll have to fight upwards of ten people. In the best, none of the miners would fight me at all and I’d only have to deal with these two guards.’

Leonidas didn’t recognize these two guards, so they definitely weren’t Apostles. They also shouldn’t be Paladins because he couldn’t feel strong Blessings coming from them.

Leonidas didn’t believe that there wouldn’t be at least one Apostle overseeing things, or else these few miners would be easy pickings. That meant the Apostle was either the one inside making sure the miners continued, or they were in a nearby split path and would get caught off guard.

‘Alright, let’s do this.’