Chapter 196: Infiltrating to Rescue People

Argus remained silent for a moment, struggling to assemble whatever facts he retained.

"Thunder is still alive, too. I once caught sight of him being hauled toward the deeper recesses of the cavern alongside Sister Emma. The skeletal freaks refuse to let anyone approach. It seems they’re forcing the two of them to refine Golden Mithril."

Kei gave a subtle nod. So Thunder and Emma were still breathing, yet isolated in separate confinement to churn out the pure Golden Mithril demanded by that Boss.

Fortunately, this genuinely qualified as welcome tidings amidst an otherwise tense backdrop; at the very least, the individuals they sought were still among the living.

"Do you have any idea regarding the intelligence level of the skeletons guarding the mining sector?"

Argus pondered the question before answering honestly:

"Not particularly high. Probably just a notch smarter than small children."

Kei nodded. If their behavioral patterns restricted them to routine patrols, barking orders, and guarding prisoners, he could exploit that sheer stupidity to slip past them unnoticed.

"Stay right here. Don’t let anyone spot you," Kei instructed Argus. "Kai, come with me. We’ll disguise ourselves as miners to infiltrate the extraction zone."

Before Argus could process his intent, Kei raised his hand. A thin veil of mana cascaded over both of them.

[Transformation]

A D-rank magic spell capable of altering outward appearance and physical contours.

Kei’s physique shifted rapidly. His facial features, hair, and dirt-caked garments molded themselves to replicate Argus down to the last detail. As for Kai, he assumed the guise of an ordinary miner, his clothing coated in grime and dust, his facial features deliberately blurred.

Argus stared slack-jawed at Kei, blurting out in utter astonishment:

"You look identical to me!"

Kei offered a faint smile.

"Stay put and take precautions not to get captured again."

Signaling Kai, the two of them slipped out of hiding, rejoining the flowing stream of the mining crew.

The skeletal guards continued pacing back and forth across the corridors. They bellowed threats at the Goblins and human miners alike, occasionally lashing out with whips to accelerate anyone whose pace flagged. Yet the instant Kei and Kai merged into the crowd, not a single skeleton deigned to spare them a second glance.

The pair selected an open spot close to the rock face, hoisted up pickaxes, and pantomimed hacking at an ore vein. While pretending to labor away, Kei kept his eyes locked quietly on the prison guards.

True to Argus’s assertions, the skeletons lacked functional intellect. They mechanically repeated identical patrol routes, terrorized the nearest laborers, and resumed their rounds. Not a single creature registered the sudden appearance of two fresh faces within the mine.

Kei quietly appraised their combat potency, as well. These skeletons were merely low-rank monsters; measured against conventional power scaling, they topped out at B-rank at absolute best.

If they only had to contend with this tier of opposition, things wouldn’t prove overly complicated.

Yet Kei couldn’t brush aside Argus’s accounts concerning the Boss.

That entity posed a genuine threat. The creature likely wielded sufficient might to command absolute obedience from the golden skeletons lurking deeper within the cave system. Furthermore, its sudden manifestation potentially tied directly into the concurrent eruption of the three Dungeons located in Ji-pong City.

Kei drove his pickaxe against the stone one more time, maintaining an air of detached calm.

He needed to pinpoint the Boss’s exact whereabouts before it caught wind of unauthorized intruders breaching its private domain.

Kei already possessed a working hypothesis regarding the Boss, though he lacked sufficient data to confirm its validity just yet.

If that hypothesis held true... they would be forced to eliminate this Boss without delay. The sooner, the better.

He glanced sideways toward Kai, sidling closer to murmur his battle plan straight into his ear. Listening intently, Kai gave a firm nod. The habitual impatience etched across his features vanished, replaced by chilling, single-minded focus.

Kei drew in a measured breath.

Three.

Two.

One.

[Earthen Bastille] C-rank magic spell!

Mana surged from Kei’s palms, slamming directly into the stone flooring.

The ground across the mine violently shuddered. Massive blocks of earth and stone surged upward around the skeletal guards, snapping shut into sealed, airtight cages. The frantic clattering of bones and muffled shrieks of the skeletons were buried entirely within, prevented from leaking outward.

Kai bolted into motion instantly.

Vaulting across the gaps separating the human laborers, his fists hammered down relentlessly against each earthen mound in succession. Every single blow pulverized the cage alongside the skeletal prisoner locked inside. Stone and soil fragmented wildly, and the dry bones shattered into fine dust.

In less than a single minute, every last jailer stationed within the mining sector was beaten to smithereens.

Kei buckled at the knees, collapsing heavily onto the stone floor. His complexion turned deathly pale. Within that compressed window of time, he had expended a staggering five thousand points of mana to maintain the earth cages trapping the skeletons, depleting fully half of his current mana reserve.

"Ah... Agh!"

The miners stared around in bewilderment. Some hadn’t even processed what had just transpired, while others opened their mouths in preparation to scream.

Kai immediately flared an oppressive, suffocating aura, forcing absolute silence across the crowd. He raised a finger to his lips, signaling everyone to keep their voices down.

Kei braced his palms against the ground to push himself upright, struggling to regulate his erratic breathing. He and Kai hadn’t struck to liberate the captives this exact second; rather, their objective was to prevent the low-rank skeletons from sounding an alarm that could alert the giant skeleton.

If the Golden Skeleton discovered intruders prior to locating Thunder and Emma, complications would multiply exponentially.

Ideally, these miners needed to remain completely silent so Kei and Kai’s subsequent operations wouldn’t be exposed.

"Everyone, quickly follow me, let’s get out of here fast before the sun rises, otherwise everyone will be trapped by the monsters pouring out from the Dungeon Break!"

Kei spoke softly to the miners, quickly directing them to leave this place.

If these people stayed, they would only become targets for that skeleton to control and use as hostages.