The mine tunnel was almost unnaturally quiet, a few sighing sounds could barely be heard.

Kade’s Fear Resistance was quite high, so he passed every Fear Check, which was the only reason why he dared to enter the mine.

 

These huge, inhuman stone faces were a kind of wild creature, Earth Spirits. An Earth Spirit was usually a rare creature, they often appeared when miners died inside a mine and their soul got captured by a powerful Source.

 

The Earth Spirits were half Spirit, and half Earth Elemental. Their appearance was quite strange, but the strangest part was that they usually became even kinder after merging with the Source.

 

These odd sighing sounds were actually the sound they made as they moved through stone, and if the Earth Spirit was corrupted, the sound would cause a Fear Check.

 

Cowardly people would be terrified by them, but this clearly wasn’t the case for Kade.

 

Kade was quite interested in the source of Corruption.

 

Corruption was usually created by Wizard’s Magic Power. Due to the Magic leaking, Chaotic Mana would begin to spread.

 

During this Era, items crafted by Wizards, especially ones with enough power to cause Corruption, were quite rare and quite valuable.

 

***

What Kade took from his Void Ring, when the torch was snuffed out--was nothing more than a large firework.

 

Even if Earth Spirits weren’t afraid of fire, they still disliked strong lights.

 

Kade quickly lit the firework.

 

Even though it was the most simple kind of rough firework created by a basic-level alchemist, it still lit in an instant. However, it didn’t release enough light to reach even half that of the Flash Skill.

 

Under the strong light, the enraged Earth Spirits all spun towards Kade, their mouths open wide.

 

He stuck the firework into the ground and unsheathed his dagger--the strong light hindered the movement of the Earth Spirits, and made them become physical beings, ones that could be killed.

 

Using his dagger like he did his sword, Kade spun and almost danced through the Earth Spirits; every blow was aimed at a rocky neck--while it may look tough, this rock didn’t count as armour, so the Decapitate Skill functioned as it should.

 

Earth Spirits had an average level of 3, and Kade was level 5, so they were no threat to him.

 

In the end, in under thirty seconds, he killed 24 Earth Spirits, netting himself 600 Exp. This was quite a bit, and more than the zombies summoned by Grave-Robber Heiss.

 

Kade was satisfied.

 

***

After finishing off the Earth Spirit, Kade continued to follow the mine tunnel. He soon found some Gnoll bodies, Gnolls which had suffered quite a lot.

 

They had low Wisdom, and low Fear Resistance, and as such it was easy for them to fail Fear Checks and receive Paralysis; with no way to deal with the Earth Spirits in the darkness of the mine, they could only retreat and build their camp far outside.

 

Kade moved while crouching, trying to follow the tracks left by the Earth Spirits as much as possible. When Earth Spirits moved, they softened the soil, and could be tracked by following the looser dirt.

 

He killed another two groups of Earth Spirits, gaining an extra 400 Exp, before he finally arrived at the source of the corruption.

 

 

***

There was a cavern in the depths of the mine, in that cavern there was a plant with long vines and sharp barbs.

 

Kade focused on the vines, they belonged to a Plant-Monster called a Poisonous Vine. The poison from this Plant-Monster was very toxic--yet something like this wouldn’t effect the Earth Spirits.

 

But, of course, Kade wouldn’t just walk away after finding this. It was his territory, he couldn’t leave an unchecked, and dangerous Plant-Monster.

 

‘As far as I know, only a few Wizards would have this kind of poisonous plant. Which has obviously used for experiments. Also, the Shepherds…Could it be that group who are keeping an eye on White River Valley?’

 

Kade didn’t hesitate, quickly stuffing a rag into an oil pot; creating an improvised Molotov Cocktail, which he lit and threw at the Poisonous Vine.

 

Even if that Plant-Monster was incredibly dangerous, that was only after it grew up. Right now, its vines were small and it didn’t pose a problem.

 

The fire clearly burned it, incinerating the poison. The room filled with smoke by the time the Plant-Monster burned away; luckily, the poison wasn’t the sort that made it dangerous to burn it.

 

Kade quickly searched the room, carefully and thoroughly. But he didn’t expect to find a treasure chest under the ashes of the Poisonous Vines.

 

The chest, strangely, didn’t even have a lock.

 

There were a lot of things inside the chest, including the source of Corruption. Which was a bottle containing a liquid with a strange smell.

 

When Kade sniffed it, he began to uncontrollably cough.

 

‘Dammit, this is Magic Acid…’

 

Magic Acid, like the Poisonous Vine, was a special product of the Shepherds. It was highly volatile, spreading through the air as a gas that caused people’s lungs to disintegrate--after being weaponized, having Mana added to it.

 

The reason that it was the Source of Corruption, because it required powerful Magic placed on the chest to hide the bottle.

 

Kade looked again through the ashes and found some pieces of bone, which seemed to belong to an overly tall humanoid.

 

‘Shepherds! One really came to White River Valley. It seems that he died because of not being careful when handling the Poisonous Vine and the Magical Acid.’

 

The Shepherd was either weak, or he had been injured before coming here; They were a powerful species and there wasn’t anything in the White River Valley that should be able to threaten even a low-level Shepherd.

 

But, the main question was, why did he come to this mine?

 

Even Kade, with his large amount of knowledge of the game, wasn’t able to find an answer to this question. He quickly put the Magic Acid into his Void Ring, which was one of the few safe places to store Magic Acid.

 

***

There were still two other items in the chest: A green longsword, the edge of which seemed to shimmer slightly; and a thick envelope.