Chapter 116: The Abandoned Mine Was Suppressing My Skills

North Shaft Seven was closed.

Officially.

That was what the rusted sign across the old mining road claimed.

NO ENTRY — COLLAPSE RISK.

Two chains blocked the main path. Weeds had been allowed to grow around the posts, and a small guard shack stood empty beside the road, part of its roof collapsed and enough dust covering the windows to sell the lie.

Raven watched the area from the forest for nearly twenty minutes before pointing toward a fresh wheel track.

"They’ve been abandoned for months with admirable discipline."

Roland, crouched several yards behind him, studied the marks. "Could be a patrol."

"Four different wagons. One passed this morning."

Valeria looked toward the mountains, where the official mine entrance sat between two walls of gray rock. From this distance, it looked dark and dead.

She closed her eyes and extended her mana briefly.

"There are people inside."

"How many?"

"I can’t distinguish them accurately from here. The Black Mithril is interfering even at this distance."

That interested Raven.

They were still hundreds of yards from the main vein. If the metal was already affecting Valeria’s senses from here, FORGE’s warning about isolation architecture was beginning to make considerably more sense.

Raven spread the official map across a rock.

"Roland stays outside."

The archer looked up. "I thought all three of us were going in."

"I need someone who won’t be trapped underground if they seal the shaft."

"I can still help inside."

"You’ll help more from here if no one knows you exist."

Roland studied the map for a few seconds, then nodded.

He didn’t argue.

That was part of why Raven continued bringing him along.

"Signal?"

"Two fire arrows over the entrance if you see reinforcements. Three if enough arrive that using the main route stops being reasonable."

Valeria pointed toward the western edge of the map. "And if they close both exits?"

Raven looked at the ventilation shaft Mara had marked.

"Then we improvise."

"I love it when your plans end with that word."

"It means they’re still plans."

"That isn’t reassuring."

"It wasn’t meant to be."

Raven folded the map.

The western ventilation shaft existed.

Naturally, it was sealed.

Not with stone, but with a metal hatch installed from the inside.

Raven spent ten minutes examining the perimeter before touching it. Fresh marks surrounded the bolts, and a thin stream of cold air escaped through the lower edge.

The mine was breathing.

Which meant the mine was active.

Stonehide spread across his hand when he touched the hatch.

Slower than usual.

Not dramatically, but enough for him to feel the delay between intent and transformation.

The interface appeared.

[Ambient Black Mithril Concentration: ELEVATED.]

[Biological Mana Interference Detected.]

[Mana Circulation Efficiency: 91%.]

[Trait Activation Latency: MINOR.]

Valeria watched the skin of his hand darken.

"It’s already starting."

"Yes."

"We could go back and find another entrance."

"We could."

Raven slid his fingers beneath the edge of the hatch.

"We’re not going to."

Valeria smiled. "I only wanted to check."

Raven applied force.

The metal groaned but refused to move.

He triggered Kinetic Acceleration.

The Skill responded a fraction slower than normal.

Raven stopped immediately.

"No."

Valeria raised an eyebrow. "No what?"

"I’m not wasting mana opening a door inside a place designed to interfere with mana."

He pulled a tool from his belt instead.

Three minutes later, he had partially dismantled the locking plate.

Valeria watched him work.

"Sometimes I forget that before coming here, you didn’t have any Skills."

Raven removed the final pin.

"Most doors didn’t either."

He opened the hatch.

The shaft descended through rough stone before transitioning into reinforced timber. Farther down, newer support beams replaced the older ones.

Not rotten.

Not abandoned.

Fresh oil coated the joints of a secondary gate, and boot prints crossed the dust.

Valeria ran her fingers along one of the beams.

"Helmont is going to enjoy this."

"Helmont is going to enjoy taking the mine."

"That too."

They descended twenty yards, then thirty.

The air grew colder as the pressure around Raven’s mana channels increased. It wasn’t painful. It felt more like trying to move a joint through thick water—everything still worked, but resistance appeared where there normally was none.

[Ambient Black Mithril Concentration Increasing.]

[Mana Circulation Efficiency: 84%.]

[Ember Spark Output Reduced.]

[Burst Step Acceleration Efficiency Reduced.]

[Predatory Regeneration Response Delay: MINOR.]

[Warning: Trait Activation Latency Increasing.]

Valeria pulled a small vial from her belt and raised one hand. A drop of blood emerged from the container.

Normally it would have floated instantly.

This time, it trembled before responding.

She frowned.

"That actually annoys me."

"How much?"

"I can still control blood. I just need more mana for less response."

"Then only use it when necessary."

"I know how to manage my resources."

"I know."

Valeria looked at him, apparently expecting some kind of provocation.

None came.

"That almost sounded like trust."

"We’ve fought together long enough."

She guided the blood back into the vial.

Valeria didn’t answer, but Raven caught the small smile before it disappeared.

The first guard was forty yards farther down.

Raven heard him before he saw him: boots against stone, the scrape of metal, controlled breathing.

Then a voice.

"...shift change in twenty minutes. I’m not staying again when those bastards start screaming."

Another voice answered from farther away.

"Then don’t lose your token."

Two guards.

Raven raised two fingers.

Valeria nodded.

They moved toward the junction.

The first guard appeared around the bend wearing light armor, a short sword at his side and a compact crossbow on his hip.

[Level 16 — Awakened.]

Raven could have used Burst Step.

He didn’t.

He waited beside the curve until the man came within reach, then covered his mouth with one hand while the other caught the wrist reaching for the sword. Raven pulled backward, dropped his center of gravity, and drove a knee behind the guard’s leg.

The man collapsed.

Raven locked pressure against the side of his neck.

The guard tried to channel mana, likely attempting some form of physical reinforcement, but the interference inside the mine slowed him enough for Raven to adjust the angle before the Skill mattered.

Eight seconds later, the resistance stopped.

Unconscious.

Alive.

Valeria glanced down the corridor.

"The second one is coming."

Raven dragged the body into a shallow recess and removed the crossbow. He checked its weight and the two bolts loaded with it, then set it aside.

"I thought you were going to use that," Valeria whispered.

"Too much noise if the bolt hits metal."

"It’s a crossbow."

"Exactly."

The second guard appeared.

He saw Valeria first.

That was deliberate.

She stood in the middle of the corridor as though she had simply taken a wrong turn on the way to dinner.

"Excuse me," she said. "I think we took the wrong tunnel."

The guard needed a full second to process the sight of an elegantly dressed noblewoman standing inside a secret mine.

Raven used it.

He closed from behind, but the man reacted before Raven could secure him completely.

Well trained.

An elbow drove toward Raven’s ribs.

Raven blocked it.

The guard drew a knife with his free hand.

Raven trapped the forearm and drove his forehead into the man’s face.

CRACK.

The guard staggered as blood ran from his broken nose. His knife slipped loose.

Raven caught it before it struck the floor.

The man opened his mouth to shout.

The pommel hit his throat.

No sound came out.

Raven moved behind him, wrapped an arm around his neck, and tightened the hold. The guard clawed backward for Raven’s eyes, but Raven shifted his head away and maintained pressure.

Three seconds.

Five.

The body went limp.

Raven lowered him beside the first guard.

Valeria was watching him.

"You didn’t use anything."

"It wasn’t necessary."

"They were Awakened."

"They still had necks."

She looked at the two unconscious men.

"I’m beginning to understand why your old squad had problems with you."

Raven checked their identification plates.

Private Keller security.

"My squad was better."

"That wasn’t modesty."

"I know. It was information."

Valeria kept watching him.

"And they still couldn’t kill you."

Raven pocketed one of the plates.

"They weren’t prepared to fight me."

"They were your own unit."

"Exactly."

Valeria frowned.

"They knew how I fired, how I entered rooms, which weapons I preferred, and which protocols I followed. I knew the same about them."

"Then you were evenly matched."

"No."

Raven started down the next tunnel.

"They expected me to keep being Raven from Black Hound."

Valeria followed.

"And what were you?"

Raven didn’t slow.

"The man Black Hound was trying to execute."

He glanced once toward the darkness ahead.

"They prepared for the teammate they knew. They weren’t prepared for a scenario where that teammate knew they were coming to kill him."

Valeria stayed quiet after that.

There wasn’t much to add.