Chapter 118: The Mine Took Away My Skills… So I Went Back to Black Hound

Valeria remained silent.

Raven pushed the door open.

"They weren’t thinking the same way."

The next level didn’t look like a mine.

That was the first thing that changed.

There was still stone, timber, and rail.

But there were also rooms.

Built walls.

Alchemical tables.

Cages.

And test marks scorched across metal plates.

Raven picked one up.

Black Mithril.

Purer.

FORGE reacted.

[BLACK MITHRIL SAMPLE]

[Purity: 63.1%]

[Mana Interference: HIGH]

[Bloodline Suppression Potential: HIGH]

[Structural Suitability for Prototype Rifle: PARTIAL.]

Still insufficient.

But close.

Valeria studied a metal structure mounted against one wall.

It looked like a frame built for a human body.

Bracers.

Collar.

Waist restraint.

All black.

"They tested them here."

Raven approached.

There were stains on the stone in front of the device.

Dried blood.

Predation analyzed the residue.

[Human Biological Traces Detected.]

[Multiple Hereditary Mana Signatures Present.]

[Evidence Consistent with Repeated Bloodline Suppression Testing.]

Valeria moved her fingers near the collar without touching it.

"They used people with Bloodlines."

"Yes."

"Humans."

"At least some of them."

They found technical records on a nearby table.

No names.

Only numbers.

Subject H-17.

Bloodline activation reduced: 42%.

Subject H-21.

Cardiovascular failure after 11 minutes.

Subject B-04.

Suppression successful. Regeneration reduced below 20%. Transfer approved.

Valeria stopped at that line.

"B."

Raven had noticed it too.

"Bloodborn."

"Probably."

That connected directly to Nyxara.

And to the transfer station.

The operation hadn’t merely used metal from the mine.

This place had helped develop the tools themselves.

Raven took the papers.

"Helmont will like this."

"Nyxara will like it much more."

"I don’t need to increase her enthusiasm."

Valeria looked at him.

"I’m still glad she left."

Raven decided not to answer.

They heard the shot several minutes later.

Not a bow.

Not magic.

An alchemical discharge.

Then shouting.

Deeper inside.

Raven and Valeria moved toward the sound.

The gallery split three ways.

They chose the passage with fresh blood.

A man lay against one of the support beams.

Miner.

Not a guard.

A wound in his abdomen.

Still alive.

Raven crouched beside him.

"Who shot you?"

The man tried to pull away.

"I’m not Keller."

"I didn’t ask."

"Guards?"

"No."

Valeria appeared behind Raven.

The miner saw her clothes.

"Noble."

Fear.

Raven noticed it immediately.

"Not Helmont either."

"They all say that."

Raven pressed cloth against the wound.

Predatory Regeneration couldn’t help someone else.

"Who shot you?"

"The shaft guards."

"Why?"

The man struggled to breathe.

"Because we left."

Raven looked toward the passage.

"How many of you escaped?"

"Ten others... I think. Two were already hurt."

"Workers?"

"Yes."

"Armed?"

"Now we are."

Valeria understood.

"The missing workers."

The miner looked at her.

"We didn’t disappear."

Blood filled his mouth.

"We escaped."

They found the rest of the fugitives inside an abandoned extraction chamber.

Ten had made it this far with the wounded miner.

Eight were still alive.

Two bodies lay near the rear wall.

One woman held a mining pike. Another man carried a guard’s sword. The rest had tools.

Raven counted injuries.

Hunger.

Fatigue.

They weren’t trained fighters.

But they were desperate enough to compensate for a great deal.

The woman raised the pike.

"Take another step and I’ll put this through you."

Raven looked at the point.

"That would complicate the conversation."

"There is no conversation."

"Then you have two choices. Attack me or listen."

"Do you work for Helmont?"

"Temporarily."

That made things worse.

Valeria murmured,

"Excellent choice of words."

"I’m not going to lie to them."

The woman tightened her grip.

"Then you came to kill us."

Raven looked at her.

"Why would I?"

That caught her off guard.

"We took records."

There it was.

Raven tilted his head slightly.

"What records?"

The woman didn’t answer.

Raven asked again.

"What do you have?"

A man behind her spoke.

"Don’t tell him anything, Lina."

Raven looked at him.

"If I wanted to take them from you, I would have started this conversation differently."

Lina studied the blood covering Raven’s coat.

Not all of it belonged to him.

That either helped.

Or made things worse.

Hard to tell.

"Extraction records," she finally said.

Raven stopped paying attention to their weapons.

"Now you have my attention."

Valeria closed her eyes for a moment.

"Naturally."

Lina kept the pike trained on him.

"They show how much ore was really being extracted."

"That alone would be useful."

"They also show where it went."

Better.

"Keep going."

"Company names. Buyer codes. Quantities. Dates. Proof that North Shaft Seven never actually closed."

Raven took one step forward.

The pike rose.

He stopped.

"What else?"

Lina stared at him.

"Evidence."

"You already said that."

"Evidence of the tests on people."

Valeria’s expression became serious.

Lina continued.

"They brought prisoners down here. Some lasted days. Others only hours. They tested collars, chains, plates. Then they moved them out in sealed wagons."

"Bloodborn?"

"I don’t know what all of them were. Some had horns. Others looked human."

Raven glanced at Valeria.

Nyxara needed to see this.

Not now.

Later.

"Orbrecht?" Raven asked.

Lina went pale.

That was enough.

"What do you have on Orbrecht?"

"I don’t know if it’s the entire House."

"I didn’t ask that."

The woman took a breath.

"Payments."

"From who?"

"An associated company. Orbrecht Industrial Holdings."

Valeria muttered a curse under her breath.

Raven looked at her.

"How direct?"

"Enough to justify questions. Not enough to accuse the House unless we can prove who authorized the payments."

"Then we need the documents."

Lina laughed without humor.

"Everyone needs the documents."

"Keller."

"Yes."

"Helmont."

"Probably."

"Orbrecht."

"Definitely."

Raven looked at the group.

"And you."

"They’re the only thing stopping Keller from killing us and claiming there was a collapse."

That made sense.

Raven had no interest in taking away their only leverage and wishing them luck afterward.

He also had no intention of adopting eight fugitives.

"I want copies."

Lina blinked.

"What?"

"Copies of everything."

"We don’t have a scribe."

"Valeria can read noble records."

She looked at him.

"That does not make me a scribe."

"You write better than I do."

"That is insultingly possible."

Raven turned back to Lina.

"You keep the originals. I take copies of the important material and enough evidence to negotiate."

"And what do we get?"

Raven pointed upward.

"Information on which routes are still open, when the guards change shifts, and an exit they don’t know about."

"Why would you help us?"

"Because those documents lose their value if Keller gets the originals back and burns them."

The answer was unheroic enough to sound believable.

Lina lowered the pike slightly.

"That’s all?"

Raven thought about it.

"I also want a sample from the deep vein."

"No."

"Then the deal ends."

Valeria looked at him.

"Raven."

He didn’t take his eyes off Lina.

"I didn’t come here to rescue miners. I came for Black Mithril and records. We can help each other or stop wasting time."

Silence.

Finally, Lina pointed toward a side gallery.

"The vein is behind Chamber Six."

Raven nodded.

"Then we have a deal."

"Not yet."

"What’s missing?"

"The guards took Chamber Six this morning."

Raven looked at the blood on his hands.

"How many?"

"Sixteen when we escaped."

Valeria slowly turned toward him.

"Don’t make that expression."

"What expression?"

"The one you made before walking into the room with five."

Raven checked his knife.

"Sixteen is different."

"I’m glad you recognize that."

"I’ll need another knife."

Valeria stared at him for a second.

Then she started smiling.

"There it is."

Lina looked confused.

"What?"

Valeria watched Raven pick up a short sword from one of the dead fugitives.

"The reason six people who had fought beside him for years still failed to kill him."

Raven tested the weapon’s balance.

Too heavy.

Usable.

"Don’t exaggerate."

Valeria glanced toward the bodies of the guards they had left behind.

"I’m starting to think the system is what made things more complicated for you."

Raven looked at her.

"How did you reach that conclusion?"

She pointed toward the black veins running through the rock.

"Because down here, it’s taking almost everything it gave you away."

The blood floating around Valeria’s fingers trembled under the interference.

Raven held a knife in one hand and a sword he disliked in the other.

Nothing glowed.

No Stonehide.

No Burst Step.

No fire.

Just a man covered in someone else’s blood, staring into a tunnel occupied by sixteen enemies.

Valeria smiled slowly.

"And you look much more comfortable."

Raven turned toward the darkness.

That was familiar.

Narrow corridors.

Human enemies.

Limited resources.

Incomplete information.

No reliable magic.

No free advantages.

Only what you could do before the other man did his.

Black Hound.

For the first time since arriving in Veyr, the world had stripped away enough of Raven’s tools to bring him almost back to where he had started.

Raven adjusted his grip on the knife.

"Because this, I already know how to do."