With that Nicola decided to go ahead with the trip, there were only a few weeks of travel to reach the fairyland.
He got out of his space artifact and looked around the forest, he had retreated into it for some time to improve his concocting skills and give some rest to his people, and now he was back in business.
He had recently discovered an abandoned village within the forest, but unlike the others, this village had been emptied in a very strange way, normally none of the previous ones had belongings or personal items, whoever left made sure to take everything. However, in these houses they still found dishes on tables, furniture in the rooms and clothes in the bedrooms, as if the population that inhabited that place had left in a hurry and not even their belongings they were able to take.
There was nothing left in that village but a well and an abandoned mine. The well was dry, but the mine caught Nicola's attention. Normally, mines would be made where precious metals could be found and from the way the population here had fled, Nicola doubted they would have exploited the mine to exhaustion. It was still daylight when they entered the mine, only Nicola, Kin, Gin and Tuatha ventured there. As Nicola suspected, the mine had not been fully explored, and as they descended lower and lower, it was possible to see the veins of precious metal there.
What was seen on the walls of the cave, Nicola was able to identify as Thrillium ore, a light metal that made it possible to forge light and resistant pieces, the metal was greenish and the final product could be well elaborated with various decorations. But still a silver level metal very valuable for its rarity.
Nicola then decided that he would not miss the opportunity and would collect the found metal. He summoned from his space artifact the lesser undead he collected during that time, armed with mining tools, and made them work for him.
Kin and Gin became responsible for managing the mining and security of the mine, storing the metal they collected inside their space bracelets and later taking it to Nicola. The work would take a few days, so Nicola continued down the mine with Tuatha, it hadn't taken them long to realize that the mine had gone down a lot and they were surprised by the fact. Normally an abandoned mine like this wouldn't be that big.
Tuatha was the first to notice. "Nicola, the cave walls here are different, look. They don't look like they've been excavated by tools, but they look like they've been molded naturally into the shape of tunnels." He approached the cave walls talking. Nicola cast a spell that created spheres of light and illuminated the entire tunnel, allowing Nicola to observe the same thing.
"True, maybe the miners discovered the same thing. Let's go! We have to make it to the end, maybe something in these mines doesn't explain the situation in the village up there." Nicola said as she continued walking beside the willow fire.
After another half hour they found a change in the way, that tunnel had taken the miners to a hidden underground temple, maybe cultivators had killed them all when they discovered the temple or something in the temple had made them run away.
The tunnel opened into a wide chamber at least ten meters wide.
"Look Nicola, a door, let's take a look." The gray flame sphere spoke and darted towards the door, but before getting close it was stopped by three of Nicola's tails that rushed in and locked him in place.