[System: Stone Elemental Xo offers them an unlimited contract to inhabit the physical body they have provided. Do you want to accept this contract?]

"Yes, damn it." Magna yelled out. He had finally made it.

[A contract has been added to your bindings]

[System: Experience gained]

[System: Would you like to acquire the Summon skill?]

[System: Would you like to acquire the Contract skill?]

Of course, he immediately confirmed both, why shouldn't he. Each new skill could eventually grow and make things a little easier.

The elemental seemed to evaporate right before his eyes as it moved in the direction of the manastone body. At first the whole stone started to glow, only to calm down shortly afterwards. A moment later there was another message via the contract link, which was somewhat different from the thought link and a direct link. Ties were stronger and more solid than contracts.

"Name: Xo. Body, perfect. Gratitude,”Xo said without actually moving his mouth.

It gave him his name directly and a certain amount of gratitude, apparently there was another reason Elementals so willingly entered into contracts, but that information was not in the book.

Immediately he began teaching the Elemental a few concepts for the site, digging for ore, and other tasks like guarding the site. Xo was not long in coming, and he told him several times that he shouldn't tinker with his already formed rooms.

After spending a few hours in the center of the hill, occupied with the images it got from it, which arose from its memories of dwarf cities from various games or films, it seemed positively enthusiastic to watch these images dedicated. It was nice to have met a kindred spirit who was as passionate about sculpting stone as he could himself.

Eventually he made ten more of the bodies and added stone elementals to them to join the previous one in molding, but allowed the first to coordinate the ones that followed, making it his effective foreman. They also began patrolling the complex, guarding potential entrances and performing other beneficial tasks. The elementals always accepted the bodies directly. The book said that some elementals tended to reject the contracts, but the bodies apparently offered them a certain potential that they were very happy to accept.

After a while, Xo came running up to him while he was busy setting up his alchemy laboratory. He had already poured some of his potions into the glass vials that he looted from the ruins. The vials seemed to glow slightly as they were filled. The glass probably had its own charms to protect its contents.

Xo waited silently at the entrance to the laboratory without interrupting him. It was only after he finished whatever he was doing that the contract link lit up in his mind.

"Mine, found." sent Xo through the link.

Mine? Have you come across a mine below the ground? Presumably ore was once mined there or other metals?

“Entrance, spilled. Want to see? " Xo said without a hint of emotion.

Of course he was sent to Xo only to follow him to the former mine shortly afterwards. Instead of being near the main chamber, it was on one side of the plateau area, which he had never explored. Presumably the industrial complex he expected was there?

Right before his eyes was a completely preserved chamber, more like the vestibule of a mine complex. Two of the golems were still busy either compacting the stone or forcibly removing it.

Some of the remains are reminiscent of former blast furnaces that were believed to have been able to melt down extracted resources. In order to preserve these, he instructed the elementals not to remove them, instead he wanted to study their structure so that he could perhaps reproduce them.

In his opinion, various metals were mined in the mine complex, probably also from elemental golems or even the metal golems he had seen in town? He still had a disassembled one in his attic. He had seen it in the pyramid and taken it with him at the first opportunity.

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The size of the mine entrance was more reminiscent of modern mine complexes, one of which he had once visited as a tourist. How could you not? What if you had the opportunity to see something like that?

The entrance to the mine, however, overshadowed even that of its ancient world. How not? It turned out to be a portal into an almost different world. In this case only almost, because there wasn't really a portal like there was with the water. A slope on the 40t truck could have come through and turned a spiral into the deeper rock layers.

How did they solve the problem with the groundwater? Xo stayed by his side while the other golems were still busy cleaning up. Ores was clearly not the only thing that was mined there, but also stone. It slowly dawned on him where the plateau came from.

But to move such masses of stone? Somehow, this realization only increased his respect for the lost race!

How could one not admire such people? On the sides of this hallway were several varieties of golems that had collapsed. Some of them were as sticky as dwarves, but their size reminded him a lot more of giants than dwarfs.

Xo didn't seem to pay any attention to these "relatives". They were broken vessels that were inferior to his own. Ironically, Magna thought that the demise of this race brought up some of the best resources.

What he couldn't count on was the gorge at the end of the spiral, which was spanned by a wide bridge and led into a natural chamber of dimensions similar to those in the dungeon! Hopefully they didn't meet orcs down there, too, or something worse? This thought was quickly rejected by him.

Xo's footsteps made the classic sound of stone hitting stone as he walked, filling the cavern with a constant echo that was reflected back to them from the distant walls.

Automatically his skill for the mana eyes lit, which let him see through the darkness. This skill was deactivated by him shortly afterwards and replaced by some lumens that began to illuminate the place.

When crossing the underground bridge, some stones crumbled on the edge of the crossing and fell resounding into the depths, where they ricocheted off other walls on the way.

The natural cavern showed some touch-up work, mining work, especially on the shiny areas that indicated some ore veins. Tunnels also probably ran away from the central hall to quarries or other material sources.

Somehow he didn't quite trust the peace down there, his gut feeling seldom let him down. He would rather have his employees check this through first. He directed Xo to search the tunnels and levels of this subterranean realm, but be careful and take as many of his kind with him as he needed. Xo just nodded silently. He also instructed him to report any special occurrences to him. To do this, he gave him some concepts about different situations, possible discoveries and other possible incidents.

Like the others, he should first erect a few pillars in the natural rock formation. How could he miss the trickling ceiling? Probably the rock masses were previously distributed in such a way that there was no pressure on this area, but with the collapse of the plateau they created new dangers again. Why hadn't he just moved on? Why not just look for a new mountain and then he remembered his stubborn head!

In fact, he didn't want to wait for the golem workers to start working on some supports, and instead of them he began to sculpt a pillar in the center of the chamber.

Xo seemed to be watching him the whole time. Magna had no idea whether the golem laughed at him or admired him. These creations urgently needed something like facial features, whereby he was sure that elementals, if they wanted, could also depict this themselves.

After the construction, his interest was to leave this place to the golems as soon as possible and to get back to his alchemy. Finally some potions were waiting for him. In the last few weeks he has finally been able to collect enough resources for a couple of reasonable runs. He also had some of the unknown herbs from the pyramid laboratories.

When he got to the bridge, some minor vibrations pulled through the ground, which became so strong that he took a few steps back from the bridge and surrounded his feet with a stone so that he was again in a stable position. But right in front of his eyes a stalactite the size of a small car seemed to cling to the ceiling like a spear in the middle of the crossing and bore into it. At first the bridge seemed to hold, only to be crossed by innumerable cracks shortly afterwards.

In the next instant the previous way back to the spiral disappeared to the surface into the unknown depths of the gorge! It was his goddamn happiness again. What else should it have been?

Magna shouted through the underground caves "Cursed, bastard shit" the words echoed through just to mock him further. Also, he had no idea if he could build a bridge of the same stability or if the golems would advance to them sooner or sooner, using their natural talent to cross the gorge safely. For now, however, he was trapped with Xo on the other side.

"Earthquake, unstable" With these words, Xo turned to him.

Magna was about to yell at the Elemental, but held back. No messenger deserved to be yelled at. Slowly he began to take a deep breath, to concentrate, to calm his thoughts and to look for solutions.

Of course, he did not doubt that he could build a bridge, but he did doubt the stability of his constructions. A few rooms, storerooms, and laboratories were much easier to create. A bridge over a seemingly endless abyss without any further knowledge of statistics was like a bet on your own life.

The work could also be left to his helpers, for which he had Xo send an order to the other forces. A nod from Xo confirmed receipt, but instead of just standing around, he decided to do the first few explorations himself.

Xo seemed to simply follow him again, which is why he could save his mana supply and let him work with formations. Back in the cavern, some of the cracks on the walls also seemed to have spread. One even seemed to have exposed something like a sealed tunnel. From this tunnel steps went down into the depths. It was also very close to the ravine and thus whatever was lurking down there.

Since the monstrous mana bomb, he somehow missed the palpitations, the adrenaline, the excitement that came with it and the potential for an addiction to danger. Involuntarily he decided to go down these stairs. The steps were flat, but unlike its spiral staircase, it was reminiscent of a stairwell. Contrary to the expected dangers, nothing moving happened at first, instead it seemed to him as if he were simply going down endless stairs. Somehow he felt uncomfortable at the thought of climbing all those steps back up. Stairs were one of the few things he never liked and who didn't know the experience? The elevator was out of order and the appointment took place on the ninth floor?

As soon as he stepped onto the hall floor from the last step, a familiar message appeared in his sight

[System: You have entered the Mithril Gorge dungeon.]

You sealed a dungeon? Was the whole canyon a single dungeon or did the dungeon only extend over certain areas?

It had been quite a while since he had entered a dungeon, and he also wondered about the location of the dungeon, because after all, the mines of another civilization lay over him. At the thought of it he remembered the winding corridor down, the great crossing, were these things really created by the serpent-beings? Or did they accidentally build their civilization on the ruins of another?

Why did they seal the dungeon? What was lurking down there?