Duncan rushed from Elland’s place to the barracks when he remembered he had not checked out the loot he got from Rathan at all. With the shock of him killing a person and not feeling any guilt he completely forgot about it after dumping it into his inventory.

He was not far away from Elland’s as he remembered that so he returned.

The chimes sounded and Elland came from the workshop.

“What did you forget?” Elland asked with a smile on his face.

“This!” Duncan said and dumped everything in front of Elland who was frowning more and more every second.

“You know you could have brought that to the preparatory room instead of dumping it here?” Elland said with a raised voice.

“I know. Please use your cleaning agent on this. There are things covered in blood in the pile. I don’t have time and it would not have annoyed you as much,” Duncan replied before turning and leaving.

“I guess I deserve that,” Elland sighed as he moved the pile of stuff into his inventory.

Duncan walked briskly towards the barracks and made mental notes of things he needed for the expedition and checked his inventory.

“Water, check, food, check, rope, check, torches, check, swords, check, pickaxe, check, dagger, check, armor and helmet, check, antidotes, check, healing potions, check. I think I have everything,” he thought as he passed Bolgars.

“I wonder who will come with me and Fenris? I hope it’s not Demira,” were his next thoughts.

As he came to the barracks Petris appeared in front of him.

“Psst. Come with me,” Petris said and made for the training facility.

As Duncan came closer he could see Fenris and Tenris talking. They were both dressed in armor and had longswords in their scabbards.

“Unfortunately I can’t get more of us to come without compromising the security of the gates,” Fenris immediately said as Duncan came close.

Duncan nodded before saying, “Hello Tenris. It has been a while.”

“Yeah, it has and I almost didn’t make it. Rosen was adamant in coming but he lost the duel,” Tenris replied with a smile.

“I see. All of you take these. Elland and I expect these to work on Ghoul poison should you get slashed by their claws,” Duncan said and distributed the potions.

“What would happen if we don’t?” Tenris asked, looking at the flask suspiciously.

“Elland said your flesh would rot and you would die and then turn into a Ghoul yourself, probably,” Duncan said and shrugged his shoulders.

“Ugh. I guess I will drink it if I get slashed,” Tenris replied.

“Well, Elland has proven himself as reliable as they get so I am sure there is nothing wrong with it,” Fenris said and gestured ahead, “Let’s get on with it. Everyone, accept the party invite.”

After that, they all accepted the party invite and walked toward the mine tension building in them as they thought about what they might encounter today.

They soon entered the mine where Petris finally could not hold himself back and asked, “You killed Rathan?”

Duncan eyed Fenris who shrugged before replying, “Yes.”

“I heard the bastard deserved it. He was a spy for the Mayor. Sneaking around town looking at naked women bathing was his preferred activity though,” Petris said as he laughed.

“They were rivals. I mean they have or should I say had similar skills,” Tenris cut in the conversation.

“Which ones?” Duncan asked after nodding.

“Stealth, traps, daggers, the usual rogue or scout ones,” Fenris replied.

“He used a longsword on me though,” Duncan replied.

“Unsuccessfully it seems,” Tenris said laughing as they walked through the narrow mine shaft side by side.

Duncan sighed before saying, “I surprised him so he must have taken out the first thing he saw in his inventory.”

“I guess so. Good riddance of that pest. At least rats are good for eating,” Tenris replied.

They soon came to the first crypt and lowered themselves down using the rope.

Fenris brought everyone to a halt.

“From now on I expect you to quit the unnecessary chatter and pay attention,” Fenris said and waited for nodding heads.

“Petris you go stealth as far as you can and return, we slowly follow,” Fenris commanded.

Petris walked down the corridor and disappeared. The three of them walked slowly after him. There were no surprises and they came to the first fork.

“Duncan, do you want to go left or right?” Fenris asked.

The right path led to the outside which Duncan considered even more dangerous than the death magic monsters in the crypts so he gestured left.

Fenris nodded and sent Petris to scout ahead.

They soon came to the fork that split the way forward into three directions. The left one was a dead end and had already been explored in their last expedition.

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“Let’s take a short pause here,” Fenris stated.

Duncan nodded and looked at the copper deposits on one of the walls that were not covered with bricks.

“Can I mine that now?” Duncan asked Fenris.

“Yeah sure. We made plenty of noise last time we were here and nothing came from the other two forks. There are also more of us here now,” Fenris replied while nodding.

Duncan took out a pickaxe from his inventory and concentrated on the rock wall. As soon as the option [Mine] appeared he activated it. In what seemed like seconds to him the first clump of copper ore was mined.

“How long did this take?” Duncan asked.

“Around 5 minutes. I will give you half an hour to mine as much as you can then we are going forward,” Fenris replied as he drew a map of the dungeon on a piece of paper.

Duncan nodded and quickly got to work again after checking his time on the display. He ignored the [ LOG ] messages and activated his Mining skill until he was just over the half-hour mark.

Altogether he mined 8 pieces of copper ore who were all of the good or superior quality.

“You are like a madman when you do things,” Fenris said with a laugh with both Petris and Tenris nodding along.

Duncan was a bit embarrassed and just nodded before saying, “I just get very focused on the work I am doing and ignore everything else.”

“So, which way do we take from here?” Fenris asked.

“The right?” Duncan asked unconvinced he should be making that choice before he added, “What did Tenris and Petris say?”

“They want to save the middle for last also. So it’s settled. Petris, activate stealth and go ahead to scout. Duncan one side of the fork. Tenris the other. I will take the middle,” he commanded.

Duncan quickly checked the [ LOG ] as Petris left. He earned himself two levels in mining.

[ You have Learned Mining Level 11. ]

Strength +1.1

Dexterity +1.1

Perception +1.1

[ You have Learned Mining Level 12. ]

Strength +1.2

Dexterity +1.2

Perception +1.2

That was 6.9 stat points in a bit over half an hour and Duncan was ecstatic at the new gains especially since they were in physical stats.

He took out a sword and tested the weight of it in his hand. It was noticeably lighter. Then he took out another one just as he heard Petris yell.

“Incoming. Wraith. Get ready!” Duncan heard before Petris ran past him and slid to a stop like a soccer player. He jumped up and turned around.

“I need to learn that,” Duncan thought before he started preparing his lightning discharge holding both swords.

“-BLEEP-, -BLEEP-, -BLEEP-, -BLEEP-, -BLEEP-, -BLEEP- ”.

Duncan gritted his teeth as he tried to make the BLEEPS sound like Popcorn and the Wraith finally came. He stuck the two swords that already had sparks between them into the Wraith from below as it tried to pass him to get to Petris.

“-BLEEP-, -BLEEP-, -BLEEP-, -BLEEP-, -BLEEP-, -BLEEP- ”.

It got stuck with Duncan sticking his two swords up its indistinguishable lower part of the body made of fog paralyzing it with lightning. It wiggled frantically but it didn’t help. Duncan’s double swords transmitted double as much current as one. Soon the mournful wail followed and a shower of coins and items erupted which rained from above.

Stray items clanked on Duncan's helmet as he sat down on his behind.

Duncan let out a breath. His jaw and all his muscles hurt from being in a spasm caused by the electricity running through him.

The purified Wraith essence drifted down on him and he quickly stored it in his inventory.

“This path leads down,” Petris said.

“Alright. Do we try the middle one or go down this one?” Fenris asked Duncan.

Before Duncan could answer or pick up the loot they heard something heavy moving down the dark corridor.

“It’s a Skeleton Guardian probably,” Duncan yelled.

“Petris go stealth and make a tripwire at the exit if you can,” Fenris commanded.

Petris quickly moved and stuck a dagger attached to a rope on each side before he slammed another one on the opposite side and fastened it.

As they expected the Skeleton Guardian came in all its glory. A two-meter specimen with a shield and sword tripped on the trip wire and the glory was gone as a crescendo of noise replaced it.

Tenris and Fenris hacked at its arms making it lose balance as it tried to pick itself up while Duncan poured water all over it.

Duncan started BLEEPING while the Skeleton Guardian was still trying to pick itself off the ground with no success, as every time an arm tried to support his ascension it got whacked mercilessly. It kept bumping its head on the stone floor as it lost the support of its arms and looked pitiful.

Duncan finally thought he had enough power and stuck both swords into its eye sockets as it once again tried to raise itself. He forgot to tell Fenris and Tenris to get away and they were blasted a few feet away from the fight.

As they picked themselves up from the ground the fight was already over. The Skeleton Guardian crumbled into individual bones as Duncan once again sat on his ass and looked at the ceiling as he unclenched his jaw.

“That was fun,” Tenris said as he came closer.

“You have a funny idea of fun then,” Fenris replied as he checked on Duncan. Seeing him out of focus and with bloodshot eyes he commanded, “Alright, let’s take another break. Gather and count the loot as Duncan recovers.”

“I leveled,” Petris declared.

“I got a level too,” Tenris said, smiling from ear to ear.

“Same here,” Fenris replied, as he worriedly moved his hand in front of Duncan’s eyes.

Duncan shook his head before he uttered with fatigue, “I am alright. Let me just catch a breath.”

He took a big breath and looked at his health bar. It has hardly moved down in these two fights but he felt awful.

“We got 27 silver coins and 48 bronze ones. Then we have four potions I can’t identify. A ring of an unknown metal. Three books and some gaudy clothes are what we got from the Wraith,” Petris said as he did the inventory.

“The Guardian Skeleton left us with a Sword, Plated Armor, Plated Greaves, and a Tower Shield,” Tenris added.

Fenris took a book and frowned before saying, “I can’t read this.”

“Maybe Elland can translate it. He translated one we found here before. It will take some time though,” Duncan replied.

“Alright. Let us try Elland. Split the money evenly and give all the items to Duncan. His friends can identify them for us and he has proven himself that he can be trusted,” Fenris commanded.

“He has?” Tenris asked.

“Yeah. We gave him a Mithril armor and a Mithril Helmet to check for curses and he brought it back,” Petris whispered.

Tenris’ eyes bulged, “Is that what this new helmet of yours is made of?”

“Yeah. You can trust him with armor and weapons just fine. Don’t trust him with no jewelry though!” Petris said with a normal voice so Duncan could hear it.

Duncan got embarrassed as he remembered the rings and the tiara he forgot about and was going to get checked for curses and enchantments.

“Sorry. I forgot about those. I will have Elland check them as soon as I can,” Duncan replied.

“Sure,” Petris said, rolling his eyes.