"Oh-ho, these knights were really loaded.
Full mithril plate armor and mithril lances — no wonder they were such a pain to deal with."
After settling the miners and ordering them not to leave the camp, Hel began cleaning up the battlefield.
This was always her favorite part.
Especially this time — the quality of the materials was excellent. If she used all of them for synthesis, she could create seven more fourth-tier skeletal heavy cavalry, each complete with its own undead mount.
However, since there were still around 280 miners that needed supervision, Hell decided to make only six of them.
The remaining materials she used to create ten third-tier skeletal knights, and from the overseers' corpses, she assembled about 120 tier-zero skeletons to guard the camp.
It wasn't that Hel was afraid of rebellion — with her [Blood Servant] trait in effect, that was practically impossible.
What she worried about was some foolhardy miner sneaking back to the town because of homesickness, accidentally letting something slip and causing unnecessary trouble.
Once everything at the camp was under control, Hel led Arwin and the others toward Mine No. 3.
Ever since the "abnormal phenomenon" was discovered there, everyone involved — miners, overseers, guards, and even Viscount Gray himself — had entered the site to investigate.
That was a group of at least a hundred people.
But months had passed since then. Their provisions should've long been depleted, yet no word ever came back. Clearly, something had gone wrong down there.
Because of that, Hel decided not to go herself — nor would she send Arwin.
Instead, she assembled a scouting squad:
one fifth-tier Skeletal Berserker Captain,
one fourth-tier Skeletal Magus,
two fourth-tier Skeletal Greatswordsmen,
and five third-tier Skeleton Warriors.
This unit represented nearly all of Hel's ground combat power outside her cavalry forces. The Berserker Captain in particular was her strongest individual fighter.
The reason she was willing to risk such a powerful squad was simple — the "abnormality" might be connected to a lost ancient ruin.
From Aldon's memories, Hel learned that the miners had accidentally unearthed an old tunnel while digging Mine No. 3. Inside, someone had discovered the remains of a metallic construct, its body entirely forged from steel.
According to the high-ranking mage stationed there, this automaton might have originated from the lost Goblin Empire.
It was at the mage's insistence that Viscount Gray led his team into the depths of the abandoned shaft.
Yet even with a powerful mage among them, they had never returned — not even a single message.
That alone spoke volumes about how dangerous this place must be.
Still, Hel couldn't hide her curiosity.
Ruins of the Goblin Empire were rare and immensely valuable. She'd heard that in the Windmill Kingdom of Wyndham, a vassal of the Federation Empire, a similar goblin ruin had once been discovered. From it, they had recovered advanced agricultural technology far beyond their era.
Thanks to that, the Windmill Kingdom became one of the continent's leading exporters of food and livestock, rising from the Federation's lowest rank to the fourth position among its member states.
So yes — Hel had high hopes for this ruin.
But, of course, undead minions without guidance were useless. None of them had any intelligence to speak of.
So…
[Intermediate Spell: Possession – Undead]
…
At the far end of Mine No. 3, the possessed Skeletal Magus stood at the edge of a massive abandoned mineshaft, overlooking the dark pit below.
From this vantage, she could clearly see the rope ladder Viscount Gray's group had used to descend months ago.
After observing for a while and confirming that nothing seemed amiss, Hel ordered the undead below her to jump down one by one.
Once the last of them had descended, she followed suit.
The interior of the mine was pitch-black, but that meant nothing to the undead — creatures who had no need for light. In their hollow eyes, everything was visible, every detail clear.
The left wall of the mine was solid rock, with traces of unmined mithril still embedded in it. To the right stretched a long, straight tunnel.
The group followed the right path and soon reached what looked like a dead end — or rather, a T-shaped junction.
Straight ahead was another tunnel, and to the left, a steep downward slope.
There, they found the first evidence of what had happened to the previous explorers — several corpses and fragments of metal wreckage.
Judging from the scene, a battle had taken place here.
From the decay of the bodies, Hel deduced that the fight must have broken out soon after Gray's party entered the area.
As for their opponents — the cause of their deaths — Hel found the answer lying nearby: several spider-like automata, their bodies forged from brass.
[Name]: Mechanical Spider Miner
[Tier]: 1
[Strength]: 12
[Description]: The most basic of goblin mechanical units — labor drones used for mining. Don't expect much combat ability from them.
"Goblin machinery, huh?" Hel mused. "Looks like this really is part of a goblin ruin."
She withdrew her gaze, and her real body aboveground sent skeletons to recover the corpses and machine parts.
Meanwhile, the possessed undead continued their exploration.
The straight tunnel turned out to be a dead end, so they returned to the junction and began descending the slope.
The deeper they went, the more bodies and broken machinery they encountered. Judging by the carnage, half of Gray's team must have died here.
Past the corpses lay another cross-shaped intersection.
The left and right paths were long, straight mining shafts, while the front continued downward yet again.
"Hmm… a fishbone excavation pattern, huh?" Hel murmured, recognizing the layout from a game in her previous life.
If her guess was right, the left and right tunnels would just be ordinary mineshafts, while the real objective lay straight ahead.
Still, it was better to be cautious.
She decided to clear both side tunnels first — that way, if there was something truly dangerous deeper down, she'd at least have a clear path to retreat.
And, as it turned out, Hel's caution was justified — these two tunnels were anything but safe.