Walker Of The Worlds

Chapter 3334: A Rich Storage

The walls became smoother in some areas and sharper in others, showing where different mining techniques were used. Ancient pick marks, chisel cuts, and the occasional rune marked where workers, or perhaps even dwarven machines, had extracted ore.

They began relying on their immortal sense to detect lingering traces of energy. Although most spiritual traces had faded over time due to the intense volcanic fluctuations, a few faint signatures remained.

Lin Mu swept his senses across the passageways and felt delicate ripples of fire elemental energy. Daoist Chu followed up by scanning for metallic energy fluctuations. Together, their senses painted a rough map of where heavier activity had taken place recently.

"Leftward tunnels have faint metal Qi traces," Daoist Chu noted. "Someone passed through here with metallic tools or ingots recently."

Lin Mu nodded. "These should be dwarven paths."

The tunnels grew hotter and more humid the deeper they went.

Steam hissed through cracks in the walls. Pools of magma bubbled in hollowed pockets. Occasionally, a stray Flame Elemental darted across the tunnel like a fiery salamander, though none dared approach Little Shrubby.

Two hours passed.

Then three.

And then the tunnels grew so complicated that even Meng Bai looked dizzy. They reached a crossroads with four paths extending outward like the spokes of a wheel. The metal rails ran into all four paths, indicating that this was a central hub of the mine.

Elyon placed his hand on one of the stone pillars at the crossing and traced his fingers over faint patterns carved into the wall. "These are warding arrays. Each path has a barrier covering it."

Lin Mu’s eyes gleamed with interest.

He approached the nearest path and examined its shimmering veil of energy. The barrier was active, but subtle. It did not glow brightly and was not meant to prevent strong beings from entering. Instead, it was designed to restrict beasts, lava flows, or unexpected intrusions.

Daoist Chu let out a low whistle. "Still active after thousands of years. That is craftsmanship."

Lin Mu placed his palm on the barrier and spread a thin layer of Sword Intent along its surface. The barrier parted quietly without collapsing or breaking.

Meng Bai blinked in amazement. "You disabled it without affecting the array at all. Will the dwarfs notice?"

"No," Lin Mu replied. "This kind of barrier is designed to allow entry as long as the array is not stressed. They will not know unless they come here and check the runes manually."

Daoist Chu did the same with the next barrier, and now all four paths were open.

"So which one do we take?" Meng Bai asked.

Lin Mu considered the options with a thoughtful look. "Clockwise. We will explore all of them. But we should stay together. These tunnels are deep and the environment is unpredictable."

Everyone agreed quickly. Splitting up here would be foolish.

The first path led them into a wide cavern. The air was cooler here, though not by much. The cavern seemed to act as a natural pocket protected from the volcano’s heat through skillful placement of runes along the walls.

There were rooms carved into the cavern sides. Small, rectangular openings acted as doorways, with sturdy wooden frames holding them in place.

Inside these rooms, they found beds that were neatly laid out.

The mattresses were thick and durable, clearly crafted for someone heavy. The blankets were coarse but clean. There were tables cluttered with half carved metal pieces, rune stamps, and ink made from mineral compounds.

Lamps made of glowing stones illuminated the area in a steady, warm light.

Meng Bai walked around with astonishment. "This is a living area. They live here."

Lin Mu counted the beds. "Five of them. Which means at least five dwarfs are using this as their main residence."

Cattaleya picked up a rune hammer and inspected the handle. "Their craftsmanship is excellent. Even their common tools are more refined than what most human blacksmiths make."

Daoist Chu nodded. "Rune Dwarfs take pride in their tools. Even their everyday items are top quality."

They found scraps of half eaten dried meat, empty metal flasks, stone carvings, and pieces of ore embedded with runic notes.

"This is definitely active," Lin Mu concluded.

They returned to the crossroads and entered the second path.

This one opened into a much larger cavern. It stretched so far that their lamp stones barely made the edges visible. The air here was thick with metallic scent.

But what drew their attention most was the sheer mountain of stored materials.

Bars of immortal metal stacked in organized rows.

Piles of ore sorted by grade and purity.

Cases of crystals, gems, night pearls, flame stones, cold iron blocks, sky copper ingots, and even rarer metals that Lin Mu did not immediately recognize.

Meng Bai stared with his mouth open. "This is enough wealth to buy a kingdom."

Daoist Chu nodded slowly. "Or ten kingdoms."

Cattaleya picked up a gem the size of her fist and whistled. "These dwarfs are rich."

Lin Mu looked around carefully. "This is not random. These are materials collected from various worlds."

Daoist Chu narrowed his eyes and observed the materials. "Even if dwarfs can use a lot of materials and never complain about having more, this still seems a bit excessive." he stated.

"Indeed, from what I know of dwarfs, they do like abundance but this might be a bit too much. Some of these materials are not even what they usually use. Far too low quality for them." Cattaleya added.

"Looks like they might really be supplying these to other places... Maybe other dwarfs." Lin Mu muttered.

"It’s easily worth an entire empire’s yearly produce or even more." Daoist Chu agreed.

Elyon’s eyes sharpened. "Then we are close. Dwarfs who gather this much do not leave their storage far from their forge."

Lin Mu nodded. "The forge should be in one of the other tunnels."

"And the dwarfs will be with it."

They exchanged glances.

They had found the home and hoard.

Now they only needed to find the dwarves themselves.