The land around the mine is really different, the forest floor is very humid and common but the mine is extremely dry and sandy and that is something that is quite good for us. Volkan has to spend a lot less mana and elemental energy to shape this type of soil, but the biggest problem lies in the fragility of the tunnel.
Running out of air so far from the surface is one of the fears that makes me very uncomfortable, even though the three of us have a magic tool that holds at least an hour of air so we don't end up suffocating underground if we're attacked.
As all the work was being done by Volkan, I had a lot of time to analyze what's in front of us and what I believe is going to happen. The excuse that Raven has given Mia for being here is a good one, but I'm sure it's a lie, she's here because she has the necessary authority to successfully negotiate with the swordsman who's been leading these rebel slaves.
As her authority is second only to Raven, Mia has all the freedom she needs to pledge resources and concessions that the swordsman might be interested in, the swordsman will obviously be very skeptical when someone invades her base saying they want to be her ally.
So, since we only have one chance for this to work out Raven decided to go all in by sending Mia, and I say this because she is carrying some interesting things about her robe. Hidden by her cloak to a pouch strapped to Mia's back and it clearly contains a handsome bribe for the swordsman, from the mana and elemental energy inside that pouch I can speculate on its contents.
At some high-quality mana stones, it should be level four pears and maybe even a level five in mine, but the part that surprises me is the magic tools. Where Raven was hiding it, when we came to this realm, I'm pretty sure the contents of that backpack shouldn't be with us.
So, this is something she got already within the slave kingdom, but she got it from the army base where we stayed after we arrived or did, she get these items from the bases we passed. I guess Volkan and I weren't the only ones picking up some souvenirs during this trip.
I wonder what other items Raven and Mia retrieved, because I doubt that bag doesn't have a good amount of gold in card form. It's really hard to judge how much money can be hidden in a bag like this since money doesn't release any kind of energy.
Volkan took almost a full hour to get close to the mine, our route was quite long as we didn't want to risk being detected. The tunnel starts out of the valley around the mine and branches off into two emergency exits, Volkan has done a very thorough job of strengthening the tunnel infrastructure well.
It would be pretty embarrassing if the tunnel caved in because of some aura and mana released by two people with strong cores getting to know each other.
Upon finally entering the mine area, I focused on looking for our target. I doubt the core and aura that pervades our target's body are 'normal', I've never seen the power of destruction inside someone's cup, but I believe it must be a color that stands out in the sea of blue and brown that mine should be.
"I don't think I have to say it out loud, but I hope neither one of you does anything stupid if we find the target. We have to convince at the very least that he has to stay away from the cultists for a while, lest the bishop's templars find him when they arrive in the realm for the next week."
"Not that I have any intentions of doing something stupid, but it would be something like: Three people coming out of the wall and saying we are future allies and that is using the slaves to weaken the military might of this shitty slave kingdom?"
Even though I couldn't see Mia's face I could feel her disapproval during her next comment.
"Try not to look like a threat, so don't circle your aura like you're preparing to flee, as the idea of you attacking him is ridiculous, and don't say anything. Negotiations will be done by me, but if they ask you anything, be honest without saying more than necessary, and don't let him see that you look down on slaves."
"I think this will be easy since I don't despise slaves, but what should we reveal about the church's moves against the cultists or the bishop's interest in the sword he has?"
"Actually, he's screwed and needs our help to make his rebellion more successful, but don't talk about the part where he'd be better off fleeing the realm so he can have time to strengthen himself while his followers die. Depending on what kind of personality he has, it could cause problems."
"So, the strategy is simply, don't be an idiot?"
"Exactly, which is an unusual strategy in negotiations involving politics. Usually both sides try to annoy and deceive the other, basically one side tries to screw the other, but our goal is the swordsman's success. Since the greater your success, the more this kingdom will be screwed."
"We're pretty close already, Wolf, can you detect the number and strength of those inside the mine?"
Well, I guess I was already doing that during the conversation.
"Not many warriors and even less mage in this mine."
"Really? There should be a good number of rebel slaves here."
"Maybe he's out organizing the other rebel bases, on our way here we ended up destroying some of them. This rebellion is relatively new, even if they can recruit a large number of slaves quickly their number should not be that large."
"That's a good point, Earth, but there should still be more slaves here. What is their strength level."
"Most have gray colors; few have black or green cores. But the problem is the mages, I understand that unless mages slaves must have been 'rescued' by the rebels, but on that basis there's only one wind mage, two fire mages and one water mag, and only two of them have a core green."
"Not even one, earth elemental mage among them?"
"Yes, very dangerous to be in a mine without an earth elemental mage, and they only have three earth elemental warriors here. Burying these slaves would be a very effective and easy strategy to carry out."
"That is not our objective. And comments like that can offend our target."
"I didn't pitch this idea with that kind of intent, I think this can be a bargaining chip to gain the target's trust."
"Do you want us to borrow it, Earth, to strengthen your base and make a secret exit from it? It's not a bad idea, it wouldn't take long, and it would be very effective since the cultists know they don't have earth mages."
"But is he inside the mine, Wolf?"
"Yes, he is inside the mine."
I'm sure of this because as I expected his core really stands out from all the others, and I say this not only by the divine power he is holding that and like a lantern in me from the darkness of the darkest night of the year.
He's in the final stage of the green core, the intelligence we've collected has already said that, but it's still shocking to confirm. The havoc this guy caused was no small feat, and he's not even an intermediate warrior like Raven.
But what is strangest about his core is not his stage and color but his elemental energy, after seeing his body I think I understood why the light of destruction he used was red and not white. The light element that should carry his doom nature is white and normal, maybe a little brighter than it should be, but I think this is caused by the exposure he had to a high-level elemental energy source.
The power within the sword he carries is the divine power of destruction, but it is still a very strong light element compatible with his cup. At least I believe so since the sword's energy doesn't seem to try to take control or infect the swordsman's body, it seems that he actually is able to use the divine artifact because of its affinity with the light element's property of destruction.
The swordsman has a second element and he is not common either, his life element circulates through his body all the time while most of the light element stays inside his core. It looks like the swordsman is training in a secluded room in the mine, which is very good for us, its location makes a silent approach much easier.
Although I don't know much about the life element, I can clearly see that the method he is using in this training is not common. His focus is on his blood and not flesh, I think he's a warrior who uses his life element to push his body through the edge rather than focusing on healing him.
This reminds me a lot of the descriptions of cultists who use blood as their weapon, but as far as I know only mages can be real blood users as their mana allows them to manipulate blood that doesn't come from their body, but as far as I know the blood also has to be modified through processes, I don't know about, in order to be used in this way.
It's really fascinating to try to speculate how the life element that tends to have a light green color, managed to change the color of the light of destruction to red.
"So, Wolf? Did you find the target?"
"Yes, he's far from the rest of the slaves, maybe he's training. We won't have much trouble getting close to him."
"Fine, point the direction towards, Earth. We don't have time to waste as negotiations can be lengthy."
"The last thing we want is for Little Flame to be suspicious."