In a world where myths were mixed with reality, a world where demons, angels, dwarves, elves, and even dragons exist in the physical plane. It was understandable that most would have a misconception of the true nature of these mythical beings.

The most common misconception by humanity was the misguided notion that demons and devils were the same. However, that could

not be further from the truth. After all, there was a reason why demons lived in the physical plane while angels only exist in the astral plane.

Devil’s on the other hand were creatures that were purely Spiritual Lifeforms similar to Spirits or obvious, Angels. And just as angels were creatures of light that were considered or aligned with good, devil’s were the exact opposite and could be considered pure evil with no in-betweens.

Devils normally do not have a physical body, as they existed only in the Spirit world or spiritual plane where they mostly wander aimlessly around trying to maintain their existence. By default, most of the devils do not have any sort of sense of self and were mindless monsters like the red devils that had been used as pawns in the great war.

However, there were exceptions to this as the stronger a devil was the higher the chances it would develop a sense of self and ego when they were exposed to the physical plane for too long, either by a summoning spell or their abilities.

Within the Spirit World, the devil’s gain strength and prestige based on their age. The older a devil the stronger it is. However, it takes a long time to get truly strong and the spirit world was not a kind place for the weak.

Meaning, while new devils spawn every day, more dies the same way and only a few can survive the harsh conditions and against the beasts that roamed through the spiritual plane.

Devil’s would normally only exist in the physical world as spirit beings and could only gain a physical body when summoned with a summoning spell or by a ritual. Most summoning spells were temporary so they would only be able to remain in the physical plane for a limited time.

When summoned, one could enter a contract with a powerful devil although that never ends well given the devil’s devious nature, they would always try to kill their masters and cause devastation wherever they went.

Because of the few similarities between lesser demons and devil’s, they had been generally mistaken as part of the demon race and the entire premise of the great war had been mostly because of them although the demon king wasn’t exactly helping out.

So in general, the devils wouldn’t normally be in the physical world without being summoned except, they were high-level devils with the ability to cross through dimensions. Such a creature was certainly not to be trifled with even for Tyler.

••••••••••

••••••••••

“I see, so that’s what happened.”

As Kylyra explained herself to the others, Tyler got Nadine to tell him what had transpired with them instead. Nadine was a beastkin and had exceptional senses, along with Darkvision so what she had seen had been completely different from what Kylyra had seen.

In the depth of the dark cavern, Nadine’s vision could easily penetrate the darkness and everything looked like it had been illuminated by the sun to her. She could see the balled up Night Terrors dangling from the ceilings, there were a countless number of them so when Kylyra had chosen to go in, she had assumed the lesser demon had a way to handle that many monsters not realizing that the girl didn’t have Darkvision as they were currently moving in complete darkness.

So naturally, Nadine was shocked when she had seen Kylyra strike the rock with her battle ax even though there were monsters directly above them. They had quickly been overwhelmed and she was just about to use her escape tool even though it meant leaving Kylyra behind— when something instantly killed off more than five Night Terrors, leaving them enough room to escape.

Thanks to her Darkvision, she had clearly seen what it was as it was no longer using her various stealth skills. It was a shadowy figure with eerily glowing green eyes, greenish-black hair, deathly pale skin tone, and two short black swords in her hands.

Her body was enveloped in an aura of pure darkness that gave the feeling of death. This was as a result of the skill Darkness aura and her eerily glowing eyes seemed to add another layer to the effects.

‘So the so-called green-eyed devil was Zelda huh. Interesting… While I still don’t know what a devil is, this could work out well if I play my cards nicely.’

Even after she was done scouting the Coldfire Drake, who she had secretly placed a soul mark on, Tyler didn’t have Zelda return to him immediately. Instead, he asked her to search this labyrinth for any hidden treasures or secrets, including any powerful monsters she may have missed before.

Her presence gave him the confidence to move without fear as the only thing he would have to worry about were creatures she was unable to handle. However, his caution had turned out to be the right decision because, from the sound of this magic metal called Runite, this place was way more valuable than anyone would’ve guessed

It was a shame Kylyra had also discovered it but with them still thinking the Night Terrors were still alive. Not to mention the so-called green-eyed devil’s that haunts that place. They wouldn’t hold any hope of exploring that cavern that would surely give him an opportunity to do so himself.

‘My luck seems to be getting better after all.’

Tyler mused to himself as he thought about the issue silently as Kylyra finished telling the others her story. Having heard the reason for her frenzy, the group’s expression sank ad a bit of fear lingered in their eyes, and while they did not freak out as she had, they didn’t seem like they wanted anything to do with this mine anymore.

“Mr. Lix, what do you think we should do now?” Aine asked Tyler without a second thought to their leader who stood next to her in silence.

“It might be best for us to leave this place immediately. Our plan had been made with the idea that this place was only a Grade 3 Gold mine with one monster’s nest at most. We were already pushing it coming this far after learning there is more than one monster nest here.”

Hearing Aine’s question and Larut’s concerns, Tyler couldn’t blame them neither could be fault their mindset. If he was in their position, he might’ve already left the mine a long time ago. Well, if he had been as weak as he once was, he never would’ve gotten the courage to enter a mine in this world, to begin with.

However, he simply shook his head and pointed at something, drawing the attention of the group to the right end of the expanse.

“It’s fine if you want to leave but you should also be aware that you’ve already found what you’re looking for.”

Turning their heads to face the place Tyler was pointing at. The group saw countless gold veins that came out of almost all the tunnel entrances in the expanse gather at the edge of the wall.

“Wow!”

“We did it.”

“We really did it… We found enough gold.”

“Oh my!”

For a moment, the group had completely forgotten about their worries, and only the bliss of achieving the goal they had worked so hard for remained. The girls’ eyes watered and even Dohel was speechless, a sight that was even rarer than gold.

After a while of basking in their joy, the reality of their current situation began to sink in again. Their expression becoming heavier as time went on.

“You don’t have to worry about those monsters. I can’t sense them anywhere near here so I don’t think they’ll be back and even if they return, I can always use my spell to drive them back.”

“You may be right but what about the green-eyed devil. It would be bad if you get hurt because of us Mr. Lix.”

“There’s also no need to worry about that. We’ve been here for a while now so if it had chased after the girls it would’ve caught up to them by now so I think it cannot or will not leave the place Kylyra had spoken of.”

“I see, you make a good point Mr. Lix.”

“Indeed, as long as we don’t return that way, we should be fine.”

After coming to an agreement, the group decided to mine the gold of the concentrated gold veins before leaving the mine and returning to the city.

They took a break to prepare their mining tools and quickly went to work digging and storing their spoils in the small storage box in their possession. If everything had gone as planned they would’ve explored this mine thoroughly, searching for other possible rarer metals or hidden treasures but unfortunately, nothing had gone as planned at all.

In its simplest form, Murphy’s Law states: If anything can go wrong, it will, and boy, did that happen. Tyler sighed as he walked to one of the tunnel entrances to communicate with Zelda. They were connected telepathically so their communication was not restricted by distance as the communication School he had been using with the red ogre settlement.

He ordered her to mine the Runite from the place she had saved Nadine from the Night terrors although he wasn’t sure she would be able to actually mine the rocks properly. He thought it best to let her do it and then come back later to retrieve it before exploring the entirety of this labyrinth before the noble would be informed of this place and claim it for themselves.

Since the nobles were monopolizing the resources from the Darknar region, he would have to teach them a lesson by stripping this place dry. ‘Yeah that’ll show em. Why do my thoughts suddenly should so childish.’

The group spent several hours mining the gold. There were large chunks of gold so this was similar to hard rock gold mining and not like the fragments they had been finding in loose sediments.

After several hours of hard work with Tyler and Nadine serving as guards even though they just stood by and did nothing, the group was finally done with the extraction of as much gold as they could mine. Even accounting for Tyler’s.cut, they had more than enough.

After splitting the soils on the sport and Tyler storing his in his storage ring. The group was finally done with this expedition and be prepared to leave. They promptly equipped their gears and headed back the way they came, through the tunnel they themselves had dug after killing the Ant Giants that originally dug the tunnel.