Sebastian unexpectedly glanced at the young werewolf:
"I thought he would say if he were me, he wouldn’t let his sister come along."
Charlotte then sighed:
"It seems that everyone here has a story."
"Hey, in this world, who doesn’t have their own story?"
Sebastian seemed to be stirred by Charlotte’s words and shook his head with a smile.
The old werewolf’s voice of dissatisfaction came from the front of the group.
Glancing at the now quiet Charlotte, Sebastian immediately shut his mouth.
Crossing the open-air mine on the periphery of the mining area, the group soon entered the real mine shaft under the guidance of the old werewolf.
Of course, though it was called a mine shaft, to Charlotte, it resembled an underground city with a touch of steampunk style.
After centuries of mining, the Castel mine’s tunnels were intricate and sprawling, forming a vast network underground. The mine was brightly lit, with hundreds of miners busily at work. Some were pushing mine carts on tracks, others were wielding hammers and chisels made of unknown materials to laboriously extract ore, and there were also some dwarf craftsmen operating huge, clunky, steaming alchemy devices...
However, Charlotte unexpectedly did not find any magic devices.
After all, in a world of magic, she thought she would see some magical apparatuses as she considered magic to be the primary productive force.
But after pondering for a bit, she realized why: in Mireya’s world, the power of the Transcendent was monopolized by the nobles. Operating magical devices was impossible without magicians, and there were no magic tools that ordinary people could use.
Developing magical tools for common people was considered taboo by the Mage Association, seen as a desecration of magic and the Elemental Gods!
Many magicians were nobles, and even if they were not, they were often heavily recruited by nobles or became well-known mercenaries with very high fees.
In such a case, a place like the mine would definitely not hire magicians, as they were simply too expensive.
As for the Secret Silver Mine, employing magicians was akin to asking a mouse to watch the granary as it was too common for magicians to sneak away with precious mithril materials.
Thus... in the end, the ones who worked in the mine were mortals and power series Transcendents who hadn’t mastered magic yet.
Charlotte curiously surveyed everything in the mine, inspecting this "underground city" that nominally belonged to her. However, she didn’t stay long and soon followed the main force deeper into a mine tunnel.
Ahead of the mine tunnel was a mining cave, where specks of silver shimmered under the dim oil lamps. Some sub-human miners were already working there.
The old werewolf stopped and said to the three of them:
"Luf, Barce, and Resa, you guys work here too. The tools are ready. Do as much as you can; the pay will be settled after dawn and matched with the amount of ore, but don’t overexert yourselves. After all, your health is most important."
"And don’t try to hide any ore to take back. The mine will have special magic devices for inspection when the time comes."
After he finished speaking, the old werewolf then turned to the young werewolf:
"Noah, you stay here and work too."
"Why? I want to go to the Inner Mining Area! I’ve been there many times before and it was fine!"
The young werewolf said discontentedly.
Old Logan immediately glared at him:
"It was fine, you whelp! Don’t think I don’t know what you really want to do by going in there. You say it’s to mine, but you actually want to look for the dragon in the mine. Have you lost your mind?"
"But there really is a dragon in the mine!"
"Then all the more reason not to let you follow along. If you anger it, do you want everyone to die with you?"
Old Logan glared at him again.
"No... it won’t, I’m sure it won’t!"
The young werewolf shook his head desperately.