Third Mine

Although this Assassin Squad belonged to the Second Mine Guard Team, they only obeyed Roy's orders.

The remaining Dark Moon Elf continued working in the mines of the Second Mine. Their daily tasks included not only monitoring the group of Gray Dwarf miners in the mines, but also extracting a certain amount of Spinel Mine.

Life in the mines has changed a lot lately, and the days are no longer so unbearable. Many Dark Moon Elf Prisoners are looking forward to serving their sentences and then enjoying the rest of their lives...

Almost every Dark Moon Elf had a glimmer of hope in their lives, so they became more settled in the mines.

Thus, the Gemstone Mine operations at the Second Mine were put on the right track.

The Half-Elf were expanding the Second Mine on the surface, while the Dark Moon Elf were watching the Gray Dwarf Bandit mining underground...

Roy led a squad of Dark Moon Elf Assassin Squad and sixty Half-Elf Warrior to the Third Mine.

Roy also knew that the Gray Dwarf in the mine wouldn't keep mining day and night just for rum. Moreover, in order to drink more rum, the Gray Dwarf traded a lot of Spinel Mine every day. Some of that Spinel Mine was mined by the dwarves that day, and the other part was taken from the Dwarf Treasury.

Once the spinel stored in the vault is depleted by the Gray Dwarf, new problems may arise.

Moreover, these Gray Dwarf are lazy and greedy by nature; unlike other dwarves, they are born to be a band of robbers...

In the past few days, the Gray Dwarf have not been as enthusiastic about mining as they were before.

Roy knew that sooner or later these Gray Dwarf would return to their old way of life.

Although this is the biggest hidden danger in the Second Mine, Roy has to put it aside. He needs to deal with the Third Mine before turning back to deal with the Gray Dwarf.

Commander Berkeley personally came over and brought a large amount of military supplies, which was clearly a signal from the Silver Pegasus Legion headquarters at the Valley Camp.

The military hopes he can take over the Third Mine as soon as possible so that the Guard Regiment stationed there can be extricated...

Before Commander Berkeley left, Roy told him about his plan to take in some Gray Dwarf prisoners of war.

Commander Berkeley thought Roy's suggestion was feasible, but he told Roy that such a thing had to be approved by Earl Swynborne. Only with the Earl's support could the matter proceed smoothly; otherwise, the military would absolutely not send the Gray Dwarf prisoners of war to Pattington Plane.

The Third Mine is located at the very end of this mountain ridge, about 100 kilometers away from the Second Mine.

If the First Mine is the starting point of the vein, the Second Mine can be considered the richest part of the vein, and the Third Mine is the end of the vein.

This Spinel Mine extends more than 200 kilometers northward along the mountain ridge. The entire vein is located in a shale interlayer 800 meters underground. Roy even had some doubts about how the exploration team discovered it in the first place.

These three mines occupy the entire Spinel Mine. Roy's acquisition of the Third Mine means that he has control of the Spinel Mine in the Pagisto Plateau.

Of course, the true owners of this mine are the Seventeenth Silver Pegasus Legion and Earl Swynborne.

The Mountain Road between the First Mine and Second Mine is easy to walk. You can reach it by walking along the ridge. Moreover, because caravans often travel on the ridge, a gravel path has even been carved out of it.

However, the Third Mine is located deep in the Pagisto Plateau.

The mountains are broken up by ravines here. It is said that many of these deep ravines, which are several kilometers long, are the claw marks left by ancient dragons tens of thousands of years ago.

From the moment we encountered these ravines, the Mountain Road became rugged and difficult to traverse. Moreover, this area was already in the heart of the Pagisto Plateau. Although there wasn't much vegetation covering the mountains, we often saw monstrous beasts like the Spiketail Lion in these mountains. It's worth noting that these animals are carnivorous.

When Roy led his Elf Warrior through the bush-covered ravines, they would always find some Spiketail Lion lying on conspicuous boulders.

Although the Highland Slavers had been entrenched here were driven back to their northern homeland by the Silver Pegasus Warrior, this mountain range did not become quiet as a result, and magical beasts often came to fight for this territory.

This area used to be the territory of the Highland Slavers, and the Half-Elf weren't very familiar with the roads here...

Roy walked for two whole days before finally reaching the location marked on the map— the Third Mine.

It seems that every Mine Owners likes to build their mine into a fortress, and the Mine Owners of the Third Mine is no exception.

The Third Mine was built on the very edge of this mountain ridge. Further ahead, there was a chasm nearly 100 meters deep, and the fortress was built right against the cliff...

If only infantry and cavalry are available, it would be difficult to breach the fortress by attacking the Third Mine along several rugged Mountain Road.

However, the Silver Pegasus Warrior are an exception.

Two thousand Silver Pegasus Warrior descended upon the city, obscuring the evening glow in the sky, and the Mine Owners of the Third Mine fled in the dead of night.

There was no way around it; the Silver Pegasus Warrior had absolute air superiority. Even if these Silver Pegasus Warrior organized several volleys in the sky, the Mine Private Army could not withstand them.

The hillside was rather steep. Roy, leading his horse, led a group of Elf Warrior to the main gate of the Third Mine.

Four Silvermoon Elven Guard were stationed at the mine gate. Seeing Roy and his party leading their horses up, their eyes lit up with excitement, and they immediately asked Roy:

"Where did you come from?"

"We are from the Second Mine, and we are here to take over the Third Mine. This is the certificate."

Upon seeing Roy present the letter granting the Third Mine, the Silvermoon Elven Guard dared not delay and quickly delivered the letter into the fortress.

"You've finally arrived! We've been stationed here for over a month!"

Another Silvermoon Elven Guard said to Roy with a smile.

He was clearly unaware that it was their regimental commander's complaint that led Roy to send Adjutant Wendell back to Padesto City.

"I've only just taken over these mines, and I'm not very familiar with handling various affairs..."

Roy smiled and said.

Seeing that Roy was so young and spoke so amiably, the Silvermoon Elven Guard casually remarked:

"Managing a mine is indeed a troublesome matter. Since we moved into this mine, the mine has been shut down. Not only have we not been able to get a single Gemstone Mine, but we also have to feed the mine every day... It's really troublesome!"

Hearing the Elven Guard say this, Roy realized that the situation at the Third Mine might be more complicated than the other two mines.

Before long, the commander of the Guard Regiment personally came out to greet Roy.

Cairns, the captain of the Mine Guard Regiment, had mixed feelings about the young Half-Elf who had caught the eye of Earl Swynborne.

Actually, he didn't want to hand over the letter accusing Roy of dereliction of duty to the military...

However, the Guard Regiment has been stationed at the Third Mine for so long. The handover should have been completed three weeks ago, but it has been delayed until now, and there has been no movement from Roy, nor has he made any contact with the Third Mine.

Last week, the military headquarters at Valley Camp sent a document stating that the front lines of the Empress Ivini Islands were in dire need of attention. Their Guard Regiment was originally stationed on Tami Island in the western reef archipelago of the Empress Ivini Islands. This time, they were ordered to launch an expedition to the Pattington Plane, and almost all of the defensive forces of the western reef islands were transferred here.

He wanted to complete the combat mission on the Pagisto Plateau as soon as possible and return to the Empress Ivini Islands quickly...

Many things always require incredibly difficult choices, Cairns knew that in order to get away from the Pagisto Plateau as soon as possible, he must have offended this favorite of the Earl Swynborne.

Therefore, when he saw Roy, he couldn't smile at all. His expression was stiff, and even his speech was a little unnatural.

However, Roy showed no hostility towards the Captain Cairns, greeting him naturally before explaining his purpose...

Captain Cairns immediately handed over the duties to Roy.

The handover of the mine was very simple. All the supplies in the warehouse were on the list, and all the supplies were left behind. As for the Spinel Ore in the mine, it had already been transported back to the Valley Camp. It can be said that when Captain Cairns handed over this Third Mine to Roy, it was a truly clean and tidy mine...

Captain Cairns seemed even more eager than Captain Kepler. After the handover of the mine was completed, he led the Guard Regiment to retreat back to the Valley Camp overnight.

That night, only the eighty Elf Warrior Roy had brought remained in the fortress of the Third Mine...

Although this fortress is the smallest of the three Gemstone Mine, it is still eerily quiet, housing eighty Elf Warrior.

The inner courtyard of the fortress was small. After a vertical shaft was built in the courtyard, there were some flower beds and lawns around it. There was no crane next to the mine shaft. Instead, a large scaffold was built on the skylight of the fortress.

The fortress's courtyard is adorned with thick wooden beams arranged in a grid pattern, upon which the scaffolding is erected, almost becoming an integral part of the fortress itself.

The fortress has only four floors: the first floor is a warehouse, the second floor is a dormitory and canteen, the third floor is the mine owner's private residence, and the fourth floor is filled with defensive supplies.

A spiral staircase runs through the entire fortress. The Guard Regiment evacuated in haste, and large crates and some food are still placed on the hanging platform.

There has been no production in the mine recently, and the hoisting platform has been cleaned very thoroughly.

The Guard Regiment was only responsible for dropping some food into the mine each day...

Clearly, the Guard Regiment hadn't had time to put food into the mine before the Silver Moon Elven Guard stationed at the mine entrance hurriedly left.

Roy, leading a squad of Half-Elf, stood on the platform of the hoist, gazing thoughtfully at the deep mine shaft.

Clearly, only Gray Dwarf can be so tough in the mines. Their diet is very diverse. As long as they can cultivate mushrooms in the mines, Gray Dwarf can survive well even if they are cut off from the surface mines.

That's why they refused to supply Gemstone Mine to the mines; they were completely fearless.

The area of the fortress's top City Wall is very small, and the four Arrow Tower are built very close together. Each Arrow Tower is equipped with Cloud Piercing Ballista. When inspecting the city's military supplies, the Half-Elf Vitas also found two ballistae.

Captain Cairns led his Guard Regiment into the twilight, while Roy summoned his Assassin Squad to the gantry platform.

Two Half-Elf Warrior are loading food into a hanging container.

Roy stood on the platform and addressed the group of Dark Moon Elf Warrior: "So far, we haven't been able to gather any information about the mine, so I need you to go in and do some reconnaissance. You'll need to hide on top of the gondolas and sneak into the mine. Who wants to risk completing this mission?"

The two captains, Timothy and Tennyson, exchanged a glance. Timothy was about to step forward when Tennyson beat him to it.

"Let me do it. I'm better at this than you are."

Tennyson put his hand on Captain Timothy's shoulder and said.

Timothy turned and gave Tennyson a hug. "Be careful, come up as soon as you get the information!"

Tennyson nodded, nimbly jumped onto the gondola, gripped the rope with one hand, and his body gradually blurred...

Two Half-Elf maneuvered the scaffolding to lower the caisson into the mine shaft.

Tennyson's body also disappeared silently the moment the gondola entered the well.

The scaffolding on the platform was much more useful than the crane, and the hopper was quickly lowered to the bottom of the mine. However, this time the wait was a bit long. It wasn't until Roy felt that the investigation was about over that the two Half-Elf hauled the hopper up.

Apart from Vice Captain Tennyson, who came up with the gondola, there was nothing inside.

Seeing Tennyson slowly emerge from the shadows, Roy quickly asked:

"Tennyson, what's the situation inside the mine?"

Tennyson immediately jumped in front of Roy, lay on the gondola, and used a piece of charcoal to draw a simple map of the interior.

"There are eight gray Dwarf Warrior guarding the entrance to the shaft. It's safe to say the entrance is heavily guarded. In addition, these Gray Dwarf are armed with shields and weapons, and they are wearing simple armor," Tennyson said in a low voice.

Roy was startled; this meant the Elf Warrior would have no advantage in terms of equipment.

However, Tennyson then added, "Their shields are of very poor quality, probably made of planks. Their weapons are modified pickaxes, one side being a pickaxe and the other an axe blade. Their armor is just a thin layer of iron protecting their chest, but... it should be able to stop Fletched Arrow!"

"I couldn't get past those Gray Dwarf, so I came back in a gondola!"

As expected, the Gray Dwarf took control of the situation in the mine.

Timothy, looking at the thick wooden beams overhead, said to Roy, "Boss, I have an idea. You see, this gantry can support the weight of at least three gondolas, so we can try putting three gondolas in at the same time. That way, we can send in at least thirty soldiers at a time."

"As long as we can withstand the dwarves' first wave of attack, we can quickly seize the initiative once the second wave of warriors enters the well..."