Azimuth: The Elden Throne

?I changed the previous chapter's name to The Drula Mines Part 1 in case anyone's confused.

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/Later… Somewhere further down the mineshafts…/

/Splatter!/

"Phew..."

[DING]

Dale pinned down another bug with his spear, ending their life as a notification played by his ears:

[Your current Level is 79 (12.92%)]

But he wasn't satisfied, his progress was too slow, and the casual bugs in his path just seemed to make it more of a drag.

'This is taking too long.'

As he checked his surroundings, he took out a small compass from his inventory making sure he was still moving East.

Although he didn't know where he was, he still remembered many key details of the mines, for as long as he found a familiar sight, the chances of him recognizing his location would greatly increase, and with it, the speed of his search.

Even if he failed in finding what he was looking for, as long as he followed the trails left behind by the Ant's movements, he would reach one of the Queen's chambers, achieving the same result regardless.

He would reach his objective, one way or another, but for the sake of simplicity, he had to find his way through these mines.

"We've been moving in the dark for a while, you sure we ain't lost?" David questioned as he looked around, his eyes shining weakly as he glared

"No, we aren't lost, I know the way back… But I don't know where we are either. I'm working on it." Dale replied as he looked at the wooden beams supporting the ceiling

He approached one of them, and hidden underneath a thick layer of dust and grime were numbers:

"F-4-172…" He whispered to himself as he thought deeply

"What does that mean?"

"It means we are in sector F, in the 4th tunnel, this is the 172nd pair of wooden beams since its start."

"If we turn back now and look at the numbers, this number will decrease until reaching 1, which will coincide with the entrance shaft we came from, as for the tunnel, they are numbered down based on discovery and creation."

"It's pretty simple to understand that this is the 4th tunnel as we entered it, but if we find any form of documentation mentioning another tunnel, we would need a guide to know where it leads since the tunnels aren't linear."

"Tunnel 1 won't lead to Tunnel 2, it depends on their rate of discovery and creation, don't ask me why they decided to make it like this, I don't know."

"I'm looking for any Tunnels I'm aware of since I never walked through here in the past… I used another entrance, if it still exists that is."

"What do you expect to find there?"

"A map of the mines."

'It's a shame that Hardcore players don't have access to the map function, I really hate this limitation.'

'But I have to work with what life gives me, can't make a lemonade out of air…'

/Stop…/

At that moment, they arrived at a fork, and Dale squinted his eyes as he looked for clues.

"There, look over there Dale." David said in a hurry as he looked at one of the Tunnels

Carved onto one of its support beams in very distorted and worn-out runes were the words: F-17-1.

Dale had difficulty reading it, as even though his proficiency with Resko's written language wasn't perfect, it was far from bad enough for him not to be able to read simple numbers and letters.

The carvings on these wooden poles were one of the few things the System didn't translate to him on sight, being treated as something like "background textures" rather than real text.

That was how other Hardcore players referred to such instances at the very least.

"Oho!"

"You look surprised, I imagine there is good news."

"Yes, I know this Tunnel, let's go."

'To think Tunnel 17 was this close to an exit shaft, it's quite the shortcut… It pisses me off a little that I was this close to it this whole time.'

'But I'm not surprised I don't remember, these tunnels are too extensive, no way I would spend time memorizing the map.'

'In any case…'

Dale touched the walls of the mine, underneath all that grime and dust, he saw faint shimmering gleaming from its walls.

"You know what this is?" David asked as he saw the glimmer as well

"If only. I have no idea… Some ore of iron? Maybe silver, I'm not too sure what this is either, only that it's here."

"We'll know more once we explore further."

Despite walking further down the corridor, the glimmering never stopped, showing just how untapped this entire shaft was.

Nonetheless, his Quest had yet to update, it likely required a specific item for it to update, and Dale knew what that was.

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/Step step step…/

"Aha! Here it is…"

At the end of the tunnel laid another intersection, and from there they entered another tunnel.

Upon repeating this process three more times, Dale finally arrived at a final intersection, but this one, different from the last ones, was bigger, containing a fully-fledged rail system that led deeper into the caverns.

This was a supply point, a place where minecarts were loaded with ores and unloaded with supplies for the miners of the past, it led to another entrance where a modern elevator system would then lift those materials to the surface.

There was only one of its kind in these mountains, however, it was far too broken and irreparable, otherwise, Dale wouldn't have been so violent with his swings before.

Without hesitation, Dale moved to the side where a wooden door had been installed onto the wall, pushing it open effortlessly.

/CREAEEK!/

The wood creaked loudly as it snapped under his forceful push, almost falling into pieces as its hinges twisted.

"Cough…"

The ancient air trapped inside the room came out with full force, hitting both Dale and David as it flooded their nostrils violently.

"This place needs some cleaning…" David said out loud as he squinted his eyes

Ignoring the thick air, Dale approached a table where a pile of documents could be seen resting, a thin layer of sandy dust covering it.

Upon further inspection, it seemed to be a report of some sort, full of numbers and diagrams, regardless, Dale was not proficient enough in the language to read it all, only a few fragments here and there.

Most important, however, was the series of parchments hanging on the wall.

A depiction of several long minecart systems throughout the Drula Mines, in other words, a map, and a very detailed and intricate one at that.

Proud of his discovery, Dale checked his location before taking the map out of the wall.

"With this, our mission can be deemed partially completed." He said as he carefully pocketed the documents and map

'As for the rest…'

The room wasn't very big, being around the size of his room back at Resko.

There was a large table, a few chairs, and a drawer, being a mix of an Office area and a recreational room.

There were several old items inside such as pickaxes and mining uniforms, but they held no value aside from a historical one, which Dale was very keen on preserving.

History was something Nobles loved to discuss about, so he wouldn't mind keeping those things intact…

Although he had no right talking about it, given what he just did to this 'historical site'...

He did grab one of the lantern helmets though as he felt they were... 'Niche'.

"What's that?" David asked as he stored the documents

"These?... A series of reports relating to all sorts of things inside the mines, from its overall production to other important research data such as how many miners were employed at any given time and how much of a given ore was expected to be extracted every year from within."

With each word he uttered, Dale continued to remember how things went when he first found these and what would happen in the following days.

"After these are studied, everyone will figure out that the mines are still mostly unexplored and that there's still a ton of ores left to be mined, the mountains themselves were hollowed out but the underground is mostly untapped."

"Resko still has a lot of mineral resources, enough to last a few more centuries… If we focus on our sole development that is, exporting ores is another issue altogether."

"This is… Quite the good news isn't it? I mean, this is only one of the many mining sights of the South, wouldn't things be similar in other places?" David asked out loud

"These are good news indeed, but there's still the issue of reactivating the mines. As for the other sites, some are indeed better left abandoned."

"The other ones can be reactivated over time as we deem fit, right now, we're best focusing our efforts and manpower in one area."

'I explored several of those sites and only a few are worth our time, the rest… Are better left for the players to explore.'

'One of my plans is to use their locations as rewards, players would love to get access to an unexplored Dungeon they can farm. They can have them as I do not need them.'

'For a high Quest completion rate, I need to secure rare resources, so I'll have to find a way to safely escort miners there, but that can be left for successive Quest steps...'

[DING]

[Your quest has been updated]

"..."

'Speak of the Devil... Right on time.'

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Notes