Walking inside the silver mine is both a novel experience and an old habit of mine.

As far as I know, this is the first time anyone has seen the entrance to this particular cave with their own eyes given that like the other entrances to the mines it is hidden from the outside of the HLZ. Even if I’m not the first stepping into it, the experience is a doozy as I follow the miner inside. They move around like rabbits wanting to explore everything at once, but I know each and every corner of the tiny space after having explored this particular mine a couple of times through the root network, including a few minutes ago.

Even after going around it, the miners simply cannot standstill. They are all nearly twitching at the chance to be the first explorers and mine the much needed silver with their bare hands. They are worse than mice on a pure sugar and cocaine concoction, not knowing what to focus on and instead of trying to do everything at once.

I simply let their nervous energy wash over me and remain a harbor amidst the storm as I walk the short corridors thinking of the logistics based on what I hear from them.

We have 390 meters of open ground to secure after inside the HLZ. Unless we just make just the mine a secure shelter and transport the ore through tunnels or some other method.

I can easily put on multiple thick layers of roots and tree trucks around the whole place and shape them into runes for some of the strongest shields possible.

The beasts can chew wood pretty much like humans chew raw cauliflower, but put enough of it for them to chomp down and even the HLZ beasts would quickly develop indigestion. Even if we overestimated their actual defensive capability, a few extra seconds can be the difference between throwing a party after narrowly escaping and a party wipe.

I start thinking more and more in practical terms listening in on their ideas trying to fit my frame of reference to a few of the prediscussed options.

For a full day of work, a single miner with good stats can occupy a mine like this and extract about 10 tons of ore. That is way more than the daily regen of the high quality ore that we were focused on before now. We could probably fit 5 such miners per cave without over drafting the maximum output the mine can sustain. At least assuming the silver mine is in the same neighborhood as a similarly sized copper or iron mine.

Heated debates inflame again informing my line of thought and I just let the proper arguments settle.

“Sure, with a five person team they could extract all the high quality ore in minutes, but leaving and returning so often just increases the chance that we will be discovered and give us headaches if we give Max’s and Walter’s people ideas. Also just moving from one mine to the next will take forever.”

“Transporting all that will also require a lot of trips, so it’s a moot point.”

“Maybe, but the situation has changed slightly and though extracting the lower quality ore would mean more work, the total output of silver will skyrocket.”

Even with a bunker, at least at first, we would need a few good fighters to hold off any attack and allow retreat. With a straight line back to the safety of the MLZ covered in roots people could relatively safely retreat.

All this however would be instantly visible to anyone passing by.

Could I perhaps use illusion runes to hide it all?

Probably, but only if skip the protection corridor. Allowing someone too close to what I'm trying to hide is a dead giveaway.

My mind whirls at the problem, taking the ideas around me and adding to them with my knowledge, but it is a combination of unrelated ideas that call my attention.

The baby of a flying craft with a cannon.

With well made defenses that could hold a few beasts off, someone could get into a ‘torpedo’ and be accelerated to top speed and beyond, and they would just need to stay inside for a couple of seconds to leave the HLZ.

The closest thing to an ejector seat, except this, would be mounted to a stationary position.

I prepare to start work without cementing this as the solution. Plans may change slightly, but this is the right path and the first step is to call out a certain rabbit in the inner world. They were the ones that actually used this rune extensively and effectively in the past.

I find him digging the dirt in the shape of another rune and I shake my head.

Without the help of the system that is just about useless, but at least you are having fun right?

A few meters off I not only see the dozen other formations, but I take them in for an instant and my eyes widen.

“What? You can…. I thought you needed the system… and it didn’t ask you to make this… no designs… but they are runes, properly engraved runes.”

I push my Qi through the most recent one and as expected, I see the small holes in the ground simply disappear, blending in with the surroundings seamlessly. A small improvement even when compared to the original designs.

Instantly, a furry little head, mostly brown with a white splotch over his right eye looks at what I did. I open a portal inside and press it against his skin and send with my telepathy skill.

You have grown, runes here and runes there, runes everywhere

Merlin is a good teacher

Yes

Why come to me?

Need help. Illusion to hide hut/defensive bunker

I try to convey not only the size which is a lot larger than the fist sized holes they usually hide but also the shape and purpose. He stares into the air thinking, something that I only get an undercurrent of through our bond, but even that is enough to tell is going to agree. The momentum builds and his excitement comes in a simple wave of agreement that cannot be encapsulated in words.

I send a trickle of my Qi to the inner world to accompany Aspen’s mana and start on the over structure that I will get for the mine. Before it gets too heavy it will be easier than trying to have it already in place given I don’t want to be planted in place. I travel the surroundings uprooting trees as needed not only a grow solid structure but put actual mass behind it to make it an effective defense.

You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

I rework and reshape it much faster than growing from scratch. Even after pulling it out of my inner world and dropping it on top of the entrance, I continue dragging more mass to it by the dozens of trees.

It takes me less than two hours to form the ten-meter wide covering that may look to be a single very wide and gnarly tree, but that is only for the superficial look that eyes provide. Dismissing the thin branches and leaves covering the top the mass of wood and runic defenses form a near dome, absorbing it all with my perception field.

Several layers of trunks, the thinnest of which is like my leg overlayed on each other, ignoring the pair of near-solid layers further inside.

Even the underground has some decent defenses as I shape the roots of the uprooted trees, but I had not seen anything too significant on that account so far, and I don’t overly concern myself with it.

Moving back and forth reaching for perfection, I grow thin branches and refine the foliage until it matches the surroundings. Finally, I turn on the illusion powered by a trickle of mana through the network.

“Now you look like a proper druid,” Alex teases me.

“I may be the world tree's guardian, Pando’s solid defender, but though I have grown to love it, connecting to nature is not exactly something that runs in my blood. If I hadn’t met Pando I would probably be an engineer or something like my grandfather.”

He looks at me. “I can see the crazy scientist hat on your head. You are almost as bad as Merlin.” He pauses and then asks: “Do you know if he made it….”

I shallow a dry lump and drop my next line of banter and instead say: “No, he died years before the system came.”

If only he had managed to hold on for another decade. He would absolutely love magic. Hell, even another couple of years may have been enough if I had noticed his health declining as I learned to use Vigor and Aether. That would definitely have lit a spark in his eyes.

The system may be a meat grinder, but entering it at an advanced age is not has little bearing on performance as far as I’m aware.

I crack the tension out of my neck.

Maybe…

No. It is not to be. There were a few things about the ‘respawning’ of enemy troops but the limitations seen quite fixed. The very system cast that magic and for all the advantages and protections we had, the system wasn’t casting it on us whenever we went to battle so it would have the option to bring us back afterward. Not that it is that much of a boon given that being respawned never brought the person fully back, there was always something missing. And the HLZ beasts seemed to get the worse of it.

I stop my wondering mind and prepare to leave when I hear a loud sound from one of the scouts, repeated over everyone’s comms.

“Enemy spotted approaching. Distance: 1700 meters. Heading: 350 degrees absolute direction.” My mind goes on full alert, I drop to the ground pull a few test runes from the inner world and become functionally invisible. I send out my perception field in that direction in a seamless transition, in part because I don’t try to keep two fields at the same time.

Four people. Lithe runners with light steps and a decent gate right on the edge of the HLZ.

“Approaching along the HLZ dividing line, three scouts bearing Max’s village flag in their chest and one that seems to be from Walter’s coalition,” I call out on the comms.

They come closer and closer and I hope everyone hiding behind the trees or in the bunker got to it in time, though they don’t seem to be looking straight at us.

A minute passes as their pace slows until they stop just a bare 500 meters from us.

With the same methodical approach we used to take when entering the HLZ, they put their hands across the line and I hold out the last bit of hope that they will miss us.

A minute passes, then two as their confidence soars until they take a step in to explore the anomaly.

“Shit.” I hear from one of the fighters before Alex sums up my thoughts neatly.

“Well, at least now we got proof that their remote communications extend this far and that they pay close attention to their Map.”

“I just hoped that we would have managed to keep this hidden for a little longer.” I pout.

----------------------

Walter’s POV

I look across my desk in my simple office at the hulking barbarian that usually pretends to be a lot dumber than he actually is, but we both know what is up.

“We shouldn't have antagonized them.”

“Now you are getting squeamish?” I ask.

Max’s gaze sends a chill down my spine, a slight one that would have made a lesser man fall to his knees begging, but I remain seemingly at ease even under the sheer intensity and power of this person. He is way smarter than he looks, and he plays into it masterfully.

“No, not squeamish. We made a strategic mistake,” he says not bothering to even hide his keen mind as he might have done if there were other people around, but as he grew his influence, he became less reliant on the brute force and sheer intimidation that his large frame can induce in others and double down on his wits.

We still failed to produce a 100+ fighter that isn’t embedded in another village's military. And not only has Max already surpassed all of our highest levels warriors, my spies tell he has 5 more, maybe 6 already. Maybe their potential may be hampered by rushing ahead with suboptimal classes, but the power advantage in the short term is hard to beat.

I stop my mind and go back to actively listening to him as he opens his mouth:

“Why… are you arguing that our efforts were successful? The days pass and our tentative allies are driving into the arms of our competitor so they can get their own people to level 100 without having to rely on the mind-numbing tasks of killing off low level mobs. Which is only compounded by the lack of respawning on places with too much attrition already.”

“No….no. Our strategy failed. Nash doesn’t even botter to sabotage our mining efforts, and now this...” I shake my head until I hear the next sentence.

“Should we join them?”

I freeze before looking at him. He really hid more layers underneath than anyone knew. He is not just smart, he can swallow his pride on a turn of a dime, though after signing the last contract I shouldn’t expect anything less.

“Maybe, do you think they would even let us in?” I ask wanting to get his perspective on it.

“Charlie isn’t stupid. The very fact we are joining would limit our actions and he may even want to force a contract that will remain in effect after we return to Earth. If my sources are correct the couple of months we are spending here will be a short breeze compared to the decades we will have back on Earth before the invading forces.” Max says.

“Well, get your lawyers to create clauses that you can drive a truck through like you did last time around.” I guffaw.

“They are well aware of my tricks. I can probably include a few ‘impossible’ escape clauses and later make sure we fulfill at least one of them for when we are back on Earth, but I doubt outwardly antagonizing them will ever become a real option again. Not unless we come a lot closer to even footing. As foolish as their plans may be, protecting humanity and all that rainbow and sunshine bullshit attracts the fearful and they managed to pull so much ahead with their people…”

“The only advantage we had was our numbers, now even that is eroding with their breakneck expansion speed.”

“That is not even considering Nash’s contributions. The hidden space bags are his sole work, and I hear rumors that they will be able to take stuff back to the village. Something that is supposed to be impossible. The people we send back to prepare the way for our expansion were not that well prepared.”

“Nash… how are you dealing with your lap dog?”

“Brad? Nah, forget him, I will handle him. He may have learned to hide his intentions a little better, but his hatred of Nash still blinds all his actions. I shouldn’t…” He catches himself and just trails off unwilling to mouth off about the idiot even after all that he had done. The little piss ant was neck deep in this latest conflict pushing us into an impossible situation when he stole Charlie’s mines. I don’t have proof, but I didn’t need any to curse him.

I walk to the window and look out from the tallest building in the village. At an incredible height of 40 feet. So much lower and less grandiose than my own building back on Earth and to grow any further the path ahead was by playing nice with Charlie. But I had swallowed my pride before working with my competitors. The further I climbed the more essential that skill became.

I just need to keep my eye on the prize. Ruling earth or at least a good corner of it with this mutant by my side. A mutant that worked tirelessly and kept growing stronger and stronger at an unprecedented rate even without Charlie’s village resources.

Let the game begin.