Roland's party had to squeeze through a small opening that the miners made. This opening was then covered up and only a small head-sized hole remained. When the party returned they were supposed to communicate with the people on the other side through it. They were also told to knock on the wall in a sort of morse code so that the workers knew it was them.

On the other side, guards were stationed to keep the miners safe from harm. The adventurers were supposed to follow the map and slowly clear out the tunnels from any monsters. Along with the other adventurer teams, they would slowly get rid of the monster infestation. It was unsure on how long this would take but they were given simple clocks so that they could tell the time spent there and go out within five hours of going in.

A blue sphere of light illuminated the tunnel. This tunnel was wide enough for three people to fit in side by side, small railroad tracks were lined up on the hard rocky floor. There was also an empty minecart standing there on those tracks. It was probably used by the miners to carry iron ore and minerals to and from the exit.

“Handy tae hae a mage aroond.” ( Handy to have a mage around. )

Dalrak said while moving forward, the magic light hovered above his head, Roland could position it there as it had a targeting function. This spell didn’t take much mana to sustain and Roland's mana regeneration outperformed it. Thanks to this, the party could enjoy a well-lit tunnel while having their hands free of torches.

They spotted some of those torches on the walls but they were all unlit. They probably burned out after the tunnels were sealed.

Selanar was holding onto the map, he was a tracker but his strengths lay in the wilderness and forests. He wasn’t that good at distinguishing rocky mine walls and remembering the tunnel layouts. He stopped and so did the others with him as he frowned.

“Can I take a look? I’m good with maps.”

Roland called out to the elf as he saw him narrowing his eyes while looking at the parchment. Selanar didn’t mind and just handed it over to Roland as he was more than willing to shift responsibility. The scribe class and his high intelligence helped him with maps, it was as if he had an internal GPS. He had also gained a map reading skill that probably made everything possible.

“Okay, we are here…”

He had looked through the map before but was still surprised that someone could dig in so many tunnels without modern drilling equipment. Supposedly a miner was also a class and their skills made tunneling and digging a breeze.

“If we follow this path we’ll come to a fork, the right path will lead to more tunnels that are a dead-end…”

Roland proposed to check out the tunnels that were a dead-end first before moving on to the other ones. This way they could see if the monsters were tunneling any further and would also let them cut off the monster’s escape route. This would also help them cross out already searched sections from the map easier.

The others didn’t really care that much, the faster they got through this the faster they could get their rewards. So they all nodded and followed the directions that Roland proposed. While going past the first fork in the road Selanar noted that no monsters had gone through here as he could only spot the miner’s footprints going this way.

Without making any shocking discoveries they marched through these tunnels. Just as the elf said there were no monsters found in these unfinished tunnels. Helci made sure to observe the beautiful looking male elf as he examined the path, she was also someone that was aiming for a tracker role as him.

Roland marked the dead ends on the map a bit disgruntled that he didn’t find any type of loot to take with him. He wanted to nab some metal ore samples for himself as he was going to be working with metals in the future.

They backtracked to the fork and went further each time taking the path that placed them at a dead end. This trudge continued for an hour until they finally spotted their first enemy, revealing the true appearance of the insect monsters to them.

‘Ugh, it just had to be those…’

What stood before them was a troublesome foe. It wasn’t troublesome due to its strength, it wasn’t even a particular hard enemy to kill. The troubling part was that it rarely was seen alone. It was a giant ant monster and they were now looking at a worker type.

This ant was the size of a large dog breed. When it spotted the party its feelers started wiggling about and its mandibles started gnashing in their direction. Before it could act an arrow buried itself into its eye. The monster was stunned and practically dead which allowed Selanar to finish the job with another well-aimed arrow to the head.

“Fucking Myrmekes!”

Orson called out after the Myrmeke worker drew its last breath. Everyone from the adventurers knew that this type of monster was tricky. They came in droves, there were always more giant ants around if you spotted one.

“They must have burrowed from their nest here, might be even in the process of making this mine their new lair…”

Roland said while looking at the dead monster. Depending on the level of the ant queen this could be dangerous. Though if she wasn’t above a certain level then the ant monsters would be quite weak and they would be fine. The worker ants weren’t that strong but if they piled upon you, it was certain death.

“What’s so scary about these ants? They