CHAPTER 39: REFURBISHED MINING GROUND.

"You summoned a female?" Maria raised her eyebrows at Dorian as she walked by his side.

They were both strolling along the streets, where people were repairing the roads and constructing homes alongside them.

Dorian folded his arms and cocked his head sideways. "No, I summoned a bat; she just so happens to have a human form."

"Uhn-ahn, and now she is sleeping inside of you?"

"Yes, since her human form zaps a lot of mana, she is best kept hidden until I have enough to maintain her. In the meantime, she stays where she is."

Maria sighed, "It’s always one thing or the other with you, my lord."

"Yeah, well, get used to it."

After walking for a while, the two finally arrived at the mining ground.

Dorian could already see the enormous walls that had been erected around the entire area from a distance, enclosing it and making it a safe and isolated area of the barony that was closed off from the outside world.

The walls looked to be at most 10 ft tall, with two window spots at the front where a single guard was stationed as a guard.

Reaching the locked gate, Dorian announced,

"Open the gate."

Immediately after he said this, two red eyes looked through the iron bars of the window.

The red eyes soon drifted to Dorian’s position, where he was waving back at them. Seeing this, the eyes widened in joy.

Then came a voice...

"Master! You’re here!"

The creak of the gate opening reverberated, and then a short, muscular figure with a tail and two curled horns at the side of his head emerged, glowing red.

Yes, this was Diggy in his evolved form.

He stopped right in front of Dorian and gripped a shovel while looking up with excitement.

"Master, I haven’t seen you here in so long. Diggy thought you forgot about him."

Dorian smiled, petting Diggy on the head.

"Of course not, how could I forget about my lovely summon? I was only busy; that is all," he assured with a smile.

Like a child, Diggy’s smile stretched even more as Dorian continued to pet his head.

Then after that was over...

"I’ll be going in. Good job keeping this place safe; I’ll give you a reward later."

"Yes!"

As Dorian walked away, Diggy waved with a giant smile on his face.

Now inside the mining ground, Dorian felt as though he had entered another world entirely.

Scattered all around the place were different Diggies, each one taking care of different tasks. They were so motivated that they paid little attention to their master, who had walked in.

How was this possible?

Well, that was mainly because after getting to a tier 5, Diggy gained a few skills, and one of them was self-duplication.

All the Diggys working inside the mining ground were also dressed in yellow uniforms and wore yellow helmets, something Seraphina must have introduced to the workforce, seeing as the rest of the human workers wore the same thing.

So anytime a Diggy spotted Dorian, they would tip their hat with a smug smile and carry on with their duty.

Dorian could not be any prouder if he wanted to.

Moving on, the pit that led to the soul of the dragon iron ore was only several feet away.

When Dorian handed Seraphina the duty of looking after the mining ground, he also gave her multiple blueprints of the infrastructure he wanted.

And from what he could see, she did a perfect job.

The road was made and cemented, the pit had a trolley and everything anyone would need to go in and out of the mine, and there were even small houses for workers to sleep and also store their materials.

It was perfect.

Staring at the side, Dorian’s cheeks were red with excitement, breathing heavily as though he was getting turned on by everything.

This was noticed by Maria, who naturally just sighed.

She, however, was equally astounded by the sight. The idea that Seraphina led the workers and accomplished all of this is astounding.

A smile hinted at her face.

Abruptly, a distant voice resounded.

"Lord Dorian! Haah!"

Both of them looked to the left, where Seraphina was now running in their direction.

This caused Dorian to awaken from his reverie.

’Ah, there she is. I was wondering where...’

Seraphina had hastily covered the distance and was now standing right in front of him, holding one of his hands.

"My Lord, you came!" she voiced joyfully, then she glanced at Maria, her excitement dialing down a bit. "Oh, and you’re here too."

Maria replied, "I see you’re taking care of this place. If anything, you should be proud of that."

They both made eye contact for a while. Although the tension wasn’t particularly high, Dorian was interested in what was going on.

However, before he could ask, Seraphina pulled him forward.

"Lord Dorian, come, let me show you the mining hole!" she bloomed with joy as she pulled him away.

Getting to the mining hole, Dorian noticed small brick walls had been placed at the edge of the hole to avoid anyone falling in and tripping by accident.

On the walls inside the pit were burning firefly lanterns, making it easier for him to see all the way down. Though the further it got, the darker it became.

Gripping the note close to her chest, Seraphina kept her eyes on Dorian while he was looking inside the pit, studying it.

"So far, we can send four people in at once; that is a full team. Though due to the unknown dangers ahead, most of them can only go as far as 9 ft before they are choked by the thick mist." She glanced at the pit. "We’ve been able to gather dragon ores from within this 9 ft, but we are running out; if we want more, we need to explore further."

Dorian examined the pit for a while longer.

’I thought it would be absent since the mining hole is practically made of mana. Guess I was wrong,’ he squinted his eyes. ’Looks like the air is polluted.’

..

[A/N:]

I am not particularly proud of this Chapter, but I promise the next Chapter will be better; we’ll finally see Dorian in action in this arc.