The Boss King actually disguised himself as a novice village chief?!
Chapter 152 - 140: Starlet Mine

Chapter 152: Chapter 140: Starlet Mine

On the wilderness, warhorses galloped.

The Undead, who was trying to climb to the top of a small hill, suddenly heard noises from behind and was frightened into falling down.

In the distance, a cavalry unit surged forward, breaking through the frozen soil.

"A campaign boss?"

It wasn’t that he was particularly sensitive, but rather since the version 1.03 update, no campaign boss had appeared, and now encountering such a significant stir in the wild, one couldn’t help but associate it with the above.

"Damn, you scared me; it’s just the Lord."

The Undead got up, and as the cavalry approached, he raised his hand to greet them, "Good morning, Lord~"

The cavalry did not stop, but the burly figure in golden armor at the forefront heard him and nodded in response.

The deafening sound of hooves receded; the Undead also collected his astonishment, turned around to continue climbing, for he had to reach the highest point of the hill today, and then leap down!

There was no particular reason; he just felt like playing this way.

From the Trident intersection to the Crossroads of Faith was a several-day walk for a normal person, and turning to the mine would take a few more days, but after Lind rode the Catastrophe Warhorse, traveling no longer wasted so much time.

They galloped all the way to the Crossroads of Faith, then headed north along the small road.

The nearby Calamity had been mostly cleared by the Undead; 180 Undead were intensively hunting the surrounding Calamity, and when Calamity met the Fourth Disaster, they truly met their nemesis.

Piles of stones formed leaky low walls everywhere.

One could see patrolling figures everywhere.

At the mine entrance, when Lind and others arrived, they immediately caught the attention of the mining force.

The bell was pulled by a rope and swayed to sound an alarm, and a large number of miners rushed out of the mine, dressed thinly, with sturdy bodies, surrounding Lind and his group in a semicircle.

The leader was a man with a bare chest, about the same size as Lind but with arms that looked a whole circle thicker.

In his hand, he held a pickaxe, radiating an Upper Rank presence.

The Catastrophe Warhorse snorted restlessly, its swollen, twisted hooves stomping the ground, digging small pits.

Lind pulled the chains, his gaze fixed on the man.

In such a huge piece of land, Lind had seen only a few Upper Ranks, fewer than ten when counted on fingers.

In the eyes of the Undead, the so-called Upper Rank, which referred to a level between 21-30, was considered only a mid-to-early enemy.

"My people have been here before," Lind emphasized, "Harbor Village is part of my territory."

"Ge Nan!" the leader of the miners thumped his chest, "Miner Foreman of the Starlet Ore Mine!"

His voice was rough, perhaps due to living in the mines for years, his chest had an "Echo" when he spoke, his voice deep and resonant, as if a pickaxe was tapping directly on one’s ears.

"Lord, we do not wish to be involved in any forces!"

"Has someone been looking for you?" Lind had previously guessed it involved the village chief of Harbor Village, but now it seemed not so "official," which was good news.

Currently, aside from the village chief of Newbie Village who inexplicably remained upright, most people seemed quite normal.

"Leon Territory?" Lind observed Ge Nan’s expression. "We can offer a large amount of food in exchange."

Leon Territory’s outreach could not have extended here. Although Lind was unclear about Leon Territory’s development speed and direction, he was sure of one thing: everything had something to do with last year’s Undead beta testing.

That day was the beginning of it all.

Seeing Ge Nan with a tense face, and that the surrounding miners had no intention of backing down, Lind said, "I hope you will reconsider cooperating with us when you hear that the Leon Territory has been breached."

The Catastrophe Warhorse turned its head and carried Lind away.

"Let’s head back!" Ge Nan turned around, yelling, "Keep working, keep working!"

"Awooo!" The miners burst into enthusiasm, screaming at the top of their lungs.

The mine was busy, and the temperature, in contrast to the bone-chilling cold outside, felt quite mild. The miners returned to their positions and resumed mining, their picks striking the rock walls.

Ge Nan spat into his palm and rubbed his hands together before picking up his pickaxe to continue striking.

As he mined, his strikes grew stronger and his demeanor fiercer.

After a good while, Ge Nan put down his pickaxe and walked deeper into the mine.

The outer mine shafts were illuminated by torches, but the deeper he went, the less light there was until there was almost none at all, forcing him to grope his way forward.

Ge Nan muttered a few words.

"Fire conceals the glory of the stars," a raspy voice came out of the darkness.

"Ah, Shek," Ge Nan turned toward the direction of the sound, "that lord who extinguished Harbor Village has arrived."

"We do not get involved in any disputes. We belong only to the world of the stars," Shek said from the darkness, "We remain here, guarding the slumbering Starlet."

"That’s you. I’m just a mining foreman." Ge Nan wasn’t fond of the other’s style of speaking, "I don’t want to think about anything day by day. I just want to keep mining!"

Ge Nan turned and groped along the rock wall, "When will this area be handed over to us for mining? Such a waste to just leave it."

"Do not disturb the slumber of the Starlet."

"Fine, fine, you have the final say," Ge Nan said indifferently, then added a reminder, "The man who came today is no ordinary person. He might be a bit less substantial than me physically, but it’s been a long time since I’ve seen anyone nearly my match. And he has even tamed those Catastrophe horses outside. You know we need food; without it, we don’t have the strength to mine."

Shek’s voice faintly reached him, "Only cooperate with the victor; that is the wisdom of survival."

...

"Should we just storm in?"

Having left the domain of the mine, Lind was still pondering. It was clear that the other party wanted to remain neutral and wouldn’t take sides.

The mining leader, Ge Nan, seemed to be quite strong, but that was mostly just in terms of his physical robustness.

Until now, Lind had seen no one at his rank who was physically stronger than himself. Yet, the other party was only physically robust. Among Lind’s many abilities, physical strength was the least notable.

A group of sturdy men mining furiously was quite an odd sight.

The output of ore needs a blacksmith to transform it into armor, tools, weapons, etc. However, observing the mining faction, there was neither a furnace nor a blacksmith. A large amount of mined ore was piled up like small hills, guarded by a few, just stacked there like ordinary stones.

This indicated that their goal was mining, not the ore itself.

"Let’s deal with the Leon Territory first."

Since the other party had expressed a neutral stance, Lind was glad to have one less problem to deal with, although it was somewhat troublesome that they would not be selling ore for a while.

The ore reserves were running low indeed.

The struggle for resources is one of the primary drivers of war. Currently, whether it’s due to the conflict between the Old and New Nobility or for development, the conflict with the Leon Territory was imminent.

"Leon, what level of strength?"

He guessed that the other party must at least be a Hero, perhaps even stronger; otherwise, how could he manage to be the Lord of the Main City?