Supreme Monarch

Chapter 117: 117. Journey to the Fabelt Pass

Hearing Dohel’s words, Tyler narrowed his eyes under his hood. He knew a little about mines as he had heard about the ones in the Darkin mountain range that were currently being monopolized by the so-called Great Five.

He hadn’t bothered to find out more about them at the time because he didn’t think he would ever be in a position where that mattered to him. Yet here he was now regretting that decision and his lack of insight.

However, he was still well aware of how valuable an unexplored mine would be. Based on the information he had gotten from the red ogre settlement he knew the mines in the Darkin mountain range and even the ones in the Darknar forest were all Grade 1 mines.

Although he was not a hundred percent sure about it, Tyler believed that a Grade 1 mine should be the highest rank of any ore mine. Of course, there was also the issue of the metal that could be extracted from the mine like Orichalcum and adamantine, so a Grade 3 Adamantine mine would be more valuable than a Grade 1 Gold mine.

With the logic, this so-called unexplored Grade 3 Gold mine was not that valuable and perhaps the nobles would not put that much attention on it, but Tyler doubted that the moment he thought of it.

An unexplored mine no matter what rank it was would contain endless possibilities as it was unknown what would be found at the depts of the mine. There was a chance it was connected to another mine or lead to something of even more value. Perhaps there was even a legendary monster living there as well.

If the noble were to find out about this illegal exploration, then all the work that had gone into Tyler’s new identity as Lix Tetrax the VIP merchant would immediately go to waste. That thought made Tyler a little irritated but, he quickly used ‘placate’ to calm himself and focus.

There were only a few days left till the materials he had requested from Runic to be ready and he still owed him money. There was also a need for him to purchase skill books and materials that would be needed for his time in the magic institute.

As soon as he had made up his mind, Tyler promptly turned his gaze at Nadine who was still seated at the driver’s seat of the carriage. She nodded under his gaze and Tyler sighed.

Dohel was right, it was indeed very dangerous to conduct any further discussions within the city premises so they needed to leave.

Tyler had already discussed most of the details of his plan with Nadine and since she was a native of this continent and had been briefed by Albert on how to avoid the wrong kind of attention from the ruling classes. Tyler had given her the authority of calling off this mission if she thought it would be too complicated and dangerous.

However, since this was only a Grade 3 mine that should not be located anywhere close to a living settlement, there should not be any problems accompanying the group on this mission.

As Dohel saw the two of them make eye contact — although Tyler’s hood still hid the majority of his face — It would seem that he was under some sort of misconception and decided to address Nadine in an airy, light-hearted tone:

“It’ll be fine, don’t worry. Things won’t be too troublesome as long as we don’t get carried away and stick to the plan. And besides, nothing will escape the eyes and ears of Larut here. Plus, as long as I’m in charge everything will go smoothly. I’m quite awesome, don’t you think so, my dear Nadine?”

In response to Dohel’s proud and confident demeanor, Nadine slightly rolled her eyes and ignored him. Tyler wasn’t entirely sure why she was like this as he had always thought she enjoyed the attention she constantly received from the men around her.

Then again, she did seem to have a superiority complex. So perhaps she just felt that someone like Dohel did not qualify to speak directly to her but only admire her from a distance, maybe, who’s to tell.

The four other members of Unrivaled chuckled at Dohel’s rejection as it seemed they all approved of Nadine’s action. Well, all except Kylyra who still stood behind Larut and was giving Tyler strange looks.

Larut didn’t seem to be fully amused and wanted to get back on topic so he interrupted Dohel from the side:

“It’ll be fine. We’ll only be traveling through the outskirts of the Sentro region and Darknar region. Therefore, we shouldn’t meet any overly strong monsters we can’t handle unless our luck is very bad.”

“The outskirts huh…”

Tyler recalled the map of the Darknar region he had seen in the red ogre settlement. Several regions were surrounding the Darknar region and although the details of the map were not clear, it still alighted some notable landmarks that Tyler remembered.

Dohel had mentioned the mine is somewhere in the Fabelt’s Pass, a place that was close to the Mounta region. It was supposedly an uneven plain with several large hills that had been the location of a massive battle several centuries ago.

The place once housed a large city that was now nothing more than ruins. It was quite a dangerous region and Hunters wouldn’t normally hunt deeper into the place. Logically speaking, there was a good chance there would be something rare hidden in such a place, and in this case, it was an unexplored Grade 3 Gold mine.

Being unable to resist the temptation anymore, Tyler sighed inwardly and nodded at the party as they promptly went to work loading the fifteen large barrels into the carriage without any further explanations.

Tyler didn’t need them to tell him what was inside those barrels as he could clearly sense signs of life within them. Whatever was sealed upon those barrels was clearly alive and therefore could not be stored in any spatial storage box or ring making their need for a qualified merchant justified.

Tyler knew he couldn’t get any more information out of Dohel until they were clear of the city so he kept quiet and boarded the carriage with the party as they headed for the gate to leave the city.

Entrance to Winged city was free although one would be subjected to a rigorous string of inspections and could only stay in the city for seven days unless they applied to become citizens of the city.

Tyler and Nadine had originally entered the city on a trade pass that gave them a ten-day stay in the city due to the quality materials they had brought along. Naturally, they had hidden the more troublesome materials in Tyler’s spatial storage ring.

While leaving the city was not as troublesome as entering. There was still a strict and time-consuming process attached to it for those that did not possess any form of identification from the city.

However, Tyler now possessed a VIP merchant license and would be considered a high-class citizen so he no longer had to be subjected to such time-consuming treatments. With this, he would be able to enter any city in the demon continent with no inspection, which was also one of the reasons he had chosen to become a merchant as only high ranking Hunters had such privileges, and the process to become a high ranking Hunter was just too long.

He simply showed the guard his license and the guard’s brows twitched slightly before promptly signaling for his carriage to be allowed through.

With Nadine at the driver’s seat, the carriage sped through the gates as it headed south in the direction of the Mounta region. They traveled for about two hours inside the carriage Before signaling for Nadine to stop and explaining their formation to Tyler who could understand their thought process quite easily as a former adventurer himself.

However, before they could make any further movements, Tyler needed to be informed about the rest of the situation at hand and Dohel understood that as he immediately approached him and spoke:

“We should be a considerable distance away from any prying eyes and the twins should be able to stop most people from listening to us remotely so this should be fine.”

He turned his gaze at Larut and he nodded with understanding and brought out a brown parchment from his pouch. As the only rogue type ranger in the group, he was naturally tasked with navigation and held their only map of the area.

Maps weren’t exactly easy to come by as they were usually very expensive and most of those sold on the market did not contain anything of importance. Hunters generally had to fill in their maps as they explored further and would usually only exchange information amongst each other.

It was natural for a party of their ranks to own only a single map. This map was the usual one sold at the store but the group had spent years adding more details and information based on their exploration and the information they bought off other hunting parties.

Larut walked closer to Lix and spread the map on the large rock next to him. He proceeded to describe the nature of their trip by outlining the routes they had chosen and what they were expecting on the way.

The route they had decided on was a bit of a mystery to them and they weren’t sure of the monsters that roamed the areas. Their party hadn’t been confident enough to take the route on their first journey to the Fabelt’s Pass as the information they had now was bought off a party of Adamantine ranked Hunters called, Red Ruby.

According to the information, they shouldn’t meet any crazy strong monsters as long as they don’t stray too far from the route. Larut proceeded to explain several more things to Tyler but his mind was still fixated on something else.

Although Dohel couldn’t see his face, he could faintly sense his unease at the whole situation and a slight feeling of anxiousness overwhelmed him as he approached Tyler the moment Larut was done and added:

“I’ll be honest with you, while the journey to the Fabelt’s Pass isn’t too dangerous as long as we stay true to the route, the Fabelt’s Pass itself is another story. We had barely made it back alive and us fleeing in desperation was what led us to the Gold mine.”

He had an unusually serious expression on his face as he continued.

“Not only is returning there dangerous, but it is also illegal and we are still unaware of what we would encounter in the mine itself as we didn’t have the courage of proceeding further at the time.”

Tyler’s eyes scanned around as he saw similar expressions on the other four faces. Larut returned the map to his pouch and added. “We understand how reckless this might seem to you but like we told you earlier, we found ourselves in a desperate situation and this was our only way out of it.”

The twins nodded and spoke in unison. “Yes, we hope you won’t change your mind about helping us.”

Tyler thought for a bit. There was a lot he didn’t understand about the situation as something about it just irked him a bit. However, he was in no position to be complaining and he also had plans of his own as he would no longer put his life in the hands of another.

The last time he did that he ended up sleeping for a millennium so no thanks. He nooded in approval and a bright smile bloomed on Dohel’s face along with the twins.

Tyler then watched Dohel explain his formation to him as he secretly issued an order to someone in his mind.

‘Zelda, do it.’

‘As you command.’

Under the peaking sun in the slightly less clouded sky, a shadow moved from under Tyler’s feet and disappeared in the direction the carriage was headed as a faint pressure was lifted off Kylyra who hadn’t spoken nor had she eaten anything the entire journey. She tilted her head slightly, wondering why she had felt so strange to begin with.