In the meantime, Abium found himself in complete darkness and soon felt dizziness.
Still, he tried his best to remain steady and asked.
"Nicolaus, are you there?"
"Y-Yes. Where are we?" Nicolaus's voice echoed from his right side, and soon a hand touched his shoulder.
Meanwhile, Abium shook his head and responded while taking out the magic lamp from his space ring.
"I don't know. But I have a terrible feeling about it." He recalled the moment when the sealed glass box got broken and got strange goosebumps.
Shaking his head, he switched on the magic lamp, lightened the surroundings, and looked around. Instead of sealed glass boxes and walls, he saw rocky walls and cavern-like structures. Additionally, he noticed broken stones, coals, gravel, limestone, and many other rocky materials everywhere, indicating that they were in a mine-like environment.
Abium soon released his spirit power, quietly inspected the mining cave, and soon breathed a sigh of relief.
"There are no enemies nearby." While speaking, he looked down and soon saw two figures lying on the rough ground.
"Are they okay?" He asked while brushing off the dirt from his clothes and squatting down before checking their pulses.
Meanwhile, Nicolaus approached him, took the lamp from his hand, and muttered.
"I feel that we are still not in a safe place."
"Hero's Intuition?" Abium glanced at him and asked sarcastically.
On the other hand, Nicolaus grumbled a bit and spoke while sighing.
"Just say it as 'Intuition.' But this skill is awesome."
Abium nodded in agreement, took out a water pouch from his space ring, and splashed some water on Fennelis's and Umi's faces.
As the water splashed on Fennelis's face, she wrinkled her face and groaned.
She soon opened her bluish eyes and looked at Abium's face. Meanwhile, he helped her sit up and asked.
"Are you alright, My Lady?"
On the other hand, Fennelis quietly nodded her head and hurriedly glanced around to check for Umi. Once she saw her lying next to her, she breathed a sigh of relief.
"Where are we? Are we on the 11th island?" she asked while checking on Umi and trying to stand up.
At that moment, Umi also opened her eyes and hugged her mother's hand.
Abium also gave a light pat on Umi's head and answered.
"Some accident happened, Lady Fennelis. We don't know if we are in Pocket Dimension or somewhere else." He deliberated and then explained what had happened in the Core Chamber after both got blanked out.
While listening to Abium's words, Fennelis finally stood up and nodded.
"Let's check where we are right now. I doubt that Ancient Mage's Incarnation would play a prank on us." While speaking, she clenched her fist and checked her current strength.
"It seems the 'Bloodline Strengthening Potion' worked without any problem. I feel like my strength has doubled "
Meanwhile, Abium scanned her body and realized that her physical attributes had increased above 5!
'Her strength, agility and vitality attributes are 5.8, 6 and 6.2. Moreover, her rank also changed from Elite to Noble.'
'Currently, I'm the weakest in terms of Physical Strength. Even Nicolaus's physical attributes are around 4 to 4.4.' He sighed helplessly and checked her spirit power.
'Hmm? It improved two more points?' He soon shifted his gaze towards Umi and checked her status.
Although her Physical Attributes only appeared around 4 to 4.5 points, Abium sensed a drastic change in her spirit power.
'15?!' His face stiffened.
He also noticed that all her Tier-0 bloodline Ice spells had already been unlocked and were ready to use!
'Ice Needle, Cold Breath, Snow Wings, Ice Prism, Freezing Ray, and Ice Web. All spells are different from her mother's except Ice Needle and Ice Web. What kind of progression speed is this?! She might become a powerful Beast Warlock in no time.'
'Damn, I need to speed up.'
Abium turned around, took a deep look at the surroundings, and added.
"Let's go and take a look outside."
Then, he chose a random pathway and started walking deep into the underground mining cave. On the other hand, Fennelis took Umi with both hands, put her on her shoulder, and followed after him.
Nikolaus also followed after him, pointed his finger at the foot tracks, and asked.
"Are these Humans' work?"
"I guess so." Abium could guess those who dug these mines used block cave mining techniques to extract ores from the layouts. Furthermore, he noticed that minerals were flowing out from a draw-point via a funnel-shaped structure. The ores were collected in mine carts and appeared to be transferred to the surface. Indeed, he saw carts and broken tracks along the way.
As they walked towards a random path in the darkness, suddenly they heard a metal hitting noise and got startled.
"Somebody is there. Let's go."
As Nicolaus tried to walk ahead, Abium grabbed his right shoulder and covered his mouth so he couldn't make any noise. Similarly, Fennelis put Umi's on the ground and slowly unsheathed the black scimitar. The next instant, the black scimitar gave off a chilling aura as she covered it with the [Chill Touch] spell and froze the edges with sharp ice.
Abium narrowed his eyes as she saw her action, unsheathed his sword, and walked ahead.
Upon walking in the cave for a while, Abium and others soon noticed a light on the other side and continued walking. Within a minute, the group reached the end of the opposite side and soon found a humanoid figure!
To be precise, it was a white human skeleton. It held a pickaxe in its bony hand and appeared to be digging the cave. Abium guessed that the undead skeleton was mining alone in this cave based on its current behavior.
His attention was soon drawn to the unique stone glistening in yellowish light and illuminating the cavern.
'An artifact?' He raised his eyebrows in suspicion.
He gripped his weapon tighter and crept towards the white skeleton.
As soon as Abium walked nearby, the white skeleton sensed that someone was standing behind it and turned around. A pair of blue flames glowed in those hollow eyes and seemed to be burning inside. It wore a ragged cloth made of wooden fibers and appeared to be around 160 cm high.
Noticing their arrival, it raised its pickaxe in alarm, opened its jaws, and uttered something in a foreign language.
"****** **** *****"
It was trying to interact with them!
Meanwhile, Abium got confused and tried to listen to its words.
'A talking skeleton-'
As he was in deep thoughts, Nicolaus activated his [Lightning Steps] and arrived in front of the skeleton in a flash. He swiftly moved his sword and thrust the tip towards its skull.
A shrieking voice reverberated inside that underground mine and then gradually died down.
'Tsk, what a reckless fellow.' Abium clicked his tongue and shook his head.
"Something is not right, Nicolaus. This skeleton doesn't even attempt to attack us." He said solemnly.
"Maybe it got scared and tried to talk to us? Who cares. Once we kill these skeletons, we'll get new artifacts or those unique stones, right? Why do you care about other things?"
Nicolaus spoke as he sheathed his sword and placed it on his waist.
On the other hand, Abium moved closer to the fallen skeleton and noticed a chain hanging around its neck. Additionally, he found a silver box-like pendant attached to the chain and was intrigued.
He quickly snatched the chain, opened the tiny silver box, and looked at it.
Soon enough, Abium saw a thumb-sized silvery metal with azure dots placed inside and widened his eyes in surprise.
He soon muttered slowly.
"It's Mithril!"
It was one of the rare and most durable metals used for making legendary and high-tier artifacts!
'How did a random skeleton have such precious metal? Further, how does this skeleton speak like a human?' He also confirmed that these skeletons were real living beings like humans, not some creations of a necromancer, and felt conflicted inside!
'Haa, where in the hell are we?'
"What is that?" Nicolaus also noticed his strange action and asked in puzzlement.
Meanwhile, Abium stared at the Mithril metal closely and thought to himself.
'If I auction this metal, several apprentice mages and blacksmiths will come and bid for a high price.'
While Abium was in deep thoughts, Fennelis gave Nicolaus a short explanation.
"It's a very precious metal used by mages and is suitable for making artifacts. Also, it has some mystical properties that could let even mortals cast spells."
Nicolaus was shocked when he heard this and tried to scrutinize the small metal.
At that moment, Umi, who had been silent all along, suddenly pointed her forefinger towards their left side and opened her mouth.
"Mama! I saw that big sister again. She waved her hands at me from that place a while ago and disappeared."
As soon as they heard her words, they froze and looked toward where she was pointing her finger.
A narrow dark path appeared in that direction, but Abium didn't see anyone.
If it were before, Abium would've brushed it off and thought that she was hallucinating. But after what he had seen in the Core Chamber, he decided to act more cautiously.
Nicolaus made a solemn face and asked.
"Girl? Do you think it is her?"
Meanwhile, Abium furrowed his brows, stored the Mithril in his pocket, and spoke.
"Follow me."
He then stepped forward and started walking in that direction while observing the surroundings.
After a few steps, he suddenly noticed a big difference in the air.
As compared to the Easica World, the density of mana was much lower in this place.
'Furthermore, I feel uncomfortable whenever I breathe in.' He noticed the atmosphere was so impure and polluted with some strange energy.
Shaking his head, he searched for anything unusual on the dark path but found nothing.
Abium and the others soon entered the dark passage and began exploring.
But even after a half-hour of searching, they could not locate any girl in the underground mine and got confused.
After reaching the end of a passage, Abium let out a deep sigh and spoke.
"Let's take a rest here. After 30 minutes, we will continue our search and think of a way to get out of this cave."
In no time, they found a safe and secure place in the underground cave and started to take some rest.