I needed to confirm what was happening.
I had to know what was going on inside that mine.

However, my steps toward the mine were blocked by several figures.

"Miss Louis, where are you going?"

It was the miners.

"…To the mine. I need to find out what’s happening."

"You can’t."

They shook their heads, completely blocking my path.

"It’s too dangerous."

"That’s exactly why I have to go."

No matter who the enemy was, at least I wouldn’t die right away.
And to solve this situation, which had veered so far from the original story, I had to act quickly.

But despite my reasoning, they refused to step aside.

"Let’s gather more people from the city instead. We’re too worried to send you alone, Miss Louis!"

There wasn’t time for that.

"Move."

I spoke to them, holding the master key in my hand.
The spell for investigating the mine was already engraved in the master key.

"I need to go so that others can properly prepare. If we wait until they arrive, it could already be too late."

Whether it’s Rastok or something else.

"…In that case, we’ll guide you."

"No. It’s fine. I’ll go alone…"

"A colleague of ours died. At our workplace. Please… at least let us do this."

"…Alright."

Seeing their determination, I allowed them to accompany me.
We headed to the clearing in front of the mine, where I approached Knight Lux.

"Lux. Calm down. It’s okay."

Snort.

Lux didn’t seem startled.
He wasn’t frightened, more like he was on alert.

I patted his mane lightly and whispered.

"If you understand me, can you do me a favor?"

Snort.

"Please… bring the Hero to me as fast as possible."

It was almost a plea, asking Lux to find the Hero, even though I didn’t know exactly which village he was in.

Because right now, I felt like I needed to see him to calm my racing heart.

I waved to Lux as he looked at me, and then returned to the miners.

From now on, it was a race against time.

"The place where our colleagues were found is in this mine."

After about 30 minutes of trekking up the mountain, we arrived at a mine.
Compared to the others, its entrance looked rather humble.

"It’s a mine we only recently started developing. The guy who got caught in the accident was in charge of opening it."

So, he must have been deep inside when the incident occurred.

‘Could they have really encountered Rastok?’

If so, where did the variables start changing?

Before entering the mine with the miners, I took out a magical tool.

"This will check ahead of us."

It was an upgraded version of the spatial detection magic tool we used at the Twilight Fortress.
With this, we could buy some time to react to any ambushes or unknown variables.

Tap!

Wooooong…

The small round device emitted a blue light and rolled down into the mine.
It smoothly avoided mine carts, rails, and various structures as it ventured deeper into the mine, and information began flowing to the master key.

"Let’s go."

The five miners, armed with pickaxes and axes, walked with tense expressions.

"Were there any unusual signs inside the mine recently?"

"…No, nothing."

The miners exchanged glances before shaking their heads.
Then one of them raised his hand and spoke.

"Now that I think about it, there have been more earthquakes lately."

"Earthquakes?"

"Yes, though calling them earthquakes might be an exaggeration. Just tremors, really."

Tremors deep in the mine.

Normally, one might call it an earthquake, but in this situation, it was more likely that the tremors were caused by Rastok’s monsters moving underground.

‘…It really must be Rastok’s monsters.’

In the original story, Rastok’s creatures were described as being large enough to collapse an entire mine.
So, it was a strong possibility.

Could Rastok’s actions have changed?

Maybe an epidemic was already spreading somewhere in the city.

‘…Sigh.’

I don’t know.

There were too many thoughts swirling in my mind, making it hard to focus.
But I couldn’t afford to stop, so I continued deeper into the mine with the miners.

"Huff… Huff…"

"The air is so thick and hot, it’s hard to breathe."

"It’s amazing that you work in places like this every day…"

Truly impressive.
Especially considering the conditions here were even worse than on modern Earth in my past life.

And yet, they worked diligently to support their families and the city. I couldn’t help but admire them.

Then, one of the miners stopped walking.

"…Something’s wrong."

"What do you—? Huh?"

Not just him, but the other four miners as well.
They started doing strange things like licking their fingers or checking the branching paths.

"What’s wrong?"

"…I can feel a breeze. A cold breeze."

A cold breeze?

His words made me think back to what they had said earlier.

Thick, hot air.

"Which way?"

"The breeze is coming from over here."

"Let’s go."

That meant a new space had opened up.
As I hurried, I began to feel the air getting colder, just as the miner had said.

And as the path grew wider, I found myself moving ahead of the five miners.

After about 10 minutes of walking, we finally reached the end of the path.

"Gasp!"

"W-What is this…?"

And we discovered a massive hollow.

The space was so vast that I couldn’t even see how wide it stretched or how high the ceiling was.
It felt like a whole underground world.

"Is this part of the mine?"

"No… It’s not."

Then it must have been made by a monster.
More precisely, it was either a lair or a passage the creature created as it moved.

But the size was far beyond what I had imagined.

‘It’s huge.’

Far too big to just collapse one mine… it was massive enough that it could destroy an entire mining town.

Wooooong.

At that moment, more information came through to the master key.

"It seems there’s a similar space down below as well."

The magical tool couldn’t even get proper measurements because the space was too large.

That raised a question.

‘Where’s the owner of this space?’

Could the tremors the miners felt have been caused by this creature moving around?
If so, where was it now?

"…Let’s head back."

We had to leave the mine.
My heart was pounding harder, and the feeling that I was missing something critical wouldn’t go away.

The miners must have sensed the seriousness from my expression because they immediately turned to head back.

"Aah! What the—!"

Suddenly, one of the miners screamed.
Looking ahead, I saw something rising from the entrance we had come through.

"It’s a monster."

It looked like a giant caterpillar.
It didn’t have a typical face—just a round mouth, which made it even more grotesque.

Slash!

The miner struck it with his enchanted pickaxe, and the creature was swiftly killed.

"Whew…"

"Could monsters be appearing because of whatever’s happening?"

"Or maybe these creatures killed our comrades…?"

As the miners murmured among themselves, I carefully examined the dead monster.

Had a monster like this ever been reported before?

The only mouth-like creature I knew of was the one controlled by one of the demonic dukes in the demon realm…

"…It’s dangerous."

It was dangerous.

"We need to get out of here quickly!"

"Huh?"

"Move!"

I used the master key to cast various support spells on the six of us.
Just as we were about to rush out, the entire mine began to shake.

But it wasn’t just an ordinary tremor.

Rumble…

"The mine’s collapsing!"

"Miss Louis, get on my back!"

Slowed by my running speed, I ended up being carried by one of the miners as I kept my eyes on the ceiling of the mine.

"Shield!"

Boom!

"Gasp!"

"Leave the falling rocks to me!"

"Got it!"

Boom!

The master key’s shield was constantly in place, and I also used a pen to cast additional spells to protect the miners.

Wooooong.

‘The magic tool detected something?’

The magical tool I had sent earlier was destroyed after registering a massive shock.
Its last transmission contained data about a material with a hardness that didn’t exist in this world.

‘What’s going on?’

Where did it all go wrong?

In the original story, Rastok was supposed to appear in Rakru.
But this creature wasn’t Rastok.

If my guess was correct, this was someone whom Rastok served.

Rumble…

A being with powers far beyond an ordinary demon.

"We’re almost there!"

A demon whose flesh and bones were harder and stronger than any metal.

"What in the world is happening…!"

A woman who raised gigantic worm-like creatures that devoured mountains.

"We’re at the entrance!!"

"We’ve made it—! What…?"

"What is that…?"

Bloodsteel Duke Mercadia Karacioni.

And.

----!!!

The God of Thousand Worms, Behirastok.

She and it revealed themselves above the mine.