11 Deep in The Mining Area

[Why don't you kill them? They might cause problems for you in the future.]

"There were a lot of monsters out there. Did I have enemies more than enough?" Heiner shrugged while walking into the deeper area. "If they did not want to kill me, just protecting myself was fine. Greedy people do not mean to be bad. If there was a chance, they might able to change. Otherwise, those guys might have a family or children. I know how people feel when they lose their father."

[...]

The system was speechless. Although he neither had a family nor was able to have a family. He still understood how people feel when they lost something precious. He might be a system, but he inherited the will of the smithing god and his memory. By upgrading, the system had gained a portion of God's consciousness. The smithing god had lost everything including his life. This part of the memory was vivid. Thus, it was not strange if the system could understand this suffering.

"System, what's your name? I am bored to call you System." Heiner broke the silence. The system had not spoken anything since Heiner spoke his last word. He did not know that his speech influenced the emotion of the system and kept extract materials along the way he walked. To save his stamina and storage in the spatial bracelet, he did not extract materials that lower than level 5.

[Hephaestus]

"Hephaestus? Huh? I thought I heard it before but I cannot remember. Oh! What is that?"

Heiner finally reached the end of the tunnel. It took days to be here as he kept collecting materials The sunray was warming this place. The ceiling was similar to the hall of the mining area. It was not the lake that was bathing with this sunshine, it grave. A lot of graves, that's it.

"Why there were graves in the place like this? Who buried them here?"

[Why you ask me? How can I answer these questions? But it's okay too.]

"What's the meaning of your 'okay' ?"

[You will know when the time comes. Right now you should check the other tunnel if there are more graves. It will save a lot of time for your next visit.]

"Alright, I will go back to the entrance and check other tunnels. I will believe your riddle since you have never lied to me."

This time was fast as Heiner did not collect material. Yeah, he already got all he wanted and left behind the low-level materials. He arrived at the feces pit. His sighed as there was nothing but dried feces in the bottom of the hole. 'So, they left.' He relieved.

Heiner walked from the end of the tunnel to reach the entrance in an hour. He was going to start from the first tunnel on the left, extract what he wanted and look for graves as Hephaestus suggested.

"Is it a holiday? I see no one since last time."

[I don't know either. If you can't fly through the ceiling, you have to prepare for the worst case. Those guys you encountered last time were also a part of Titan company. If they were plotting something behind your back, someone might try to kill you as soon as you step out of this cavern.]

"What the meaning of your 'if', I cannot fly!"

[It's just the current you can't fly. That's what I mean. You have to get out alive if you want to know how you can fly. Put this issue asides. Let's finish checking all tunnels first.]

"Hmm." Heiner looked more solemn. A life and death battle might become unavoidable. He had the confidence to fight those two guards, but if Raphael joined hand, there was no chance to win. The best he could do for such a case was an escape, but it was nearly impossible in front of the powerful existence like Raphael. 'I have to think of the solution.'

[So, my expectation was correct.]

By sharing the eyes of Heiner, Hephaestus was cleared when they arrived at the end of the twenty-third tunnel. There was a similar scene to other's tunnels, but this one had a prominent tomb in the center.

'This was warriors' graves.' Heiner could tell by seeing swords pinning to each tomb. That might be swords they used in their lifetime. 'Let see who was in the middle of these warriors' tomb.'

[Ding! The <God's eyes> detected <General Jannik Pilzer's diary>. Do you want to extract it from his tomb?]

"Sure." Heiner was not surprised if something was remaining in the tomb, but the detail in the diary was another story. The dirty diary appeared in his hand instantly. Its cover was somehow damaged and covered with dried blood. It was a bit creepy, but it was within the expectation as a deadman's belonging. He opened it and started to read.

"I am general Jannik Pilzer, the vice commander of Bressan Kingdom. When you were reading this diary, I might be dead, and my royal subordinates should meet the same fate. Everything happened so fast. We could not imagine THEY would make a move on us. It was me who caused my subordinates to die. I had heard what I should not. It was the secret of the royal family..."

Heiner closed the diary immediately once he saw the sentence, 'It was the secret of the royal family.' The shiver ran through his spine. He kept that creepy thing and tried to calm his shaking hands.

[What's wrong with you?]

"Didn't you read the reason why he was buried here? He was killed because he knew the royal family's secret. If I read further, I will know it, and my life will be in the most dangerous situation. Jannik Pilzer was the vice commander of Bressan Kingdom once, comparing to him, I was just an ant who can die with just a stomp. I cannot pretend to be innocence if I read it. Thus, I stop reading." Heiner took a long breath several times and continued. "By observing, they were buried here not too long. If the Titan company took over this mining area recently by permission of the city lord, they might relate to this incident as well. Ah...this is complicated."