016 The Adventure of Iron Bones

The Land of the Dead, Black-Iron Mine.

This mine had only recently been attacked by that otherworldly husky.

To be honest, the attack had not caused Karen much of a loss. A hundred or two low-tier undead had died, and part of the mine had collapsed, but none of that could be considered a major loss.

What truly enraged Karen was that Ironbone had disappeared after the otherworldly husky attacked the mine.

Although Ironbone was not particularly powerful—only an ordinary Tier Three undead at present—that did not stop Karen from placing great importance on him.

For one thing, Ironbone possessed a special talent for mining, allowing him to improve both the quality and efficiency of the ore he extracted. More importantly, Ironbone was one of the earliest special undead under Karen’s command.

Karen had few virtues. He was simply sentimental and fiercely protective of his own.

If that otherworldly husky had not attacked Ironbone and caused him to vanish, Karen would never have killed it.

Still, even after killing the husky, Karen had not abandoned the effort to rescue Ironbone.

He had converted the husky into an undead almost immediately after killing it. He had not done so for the sake of possessing a Tier Four undead’s combat strength. What he really wanted to see was whether a wolf transformed into an undead would retain any innate enhancement to its sense of smell.

If that was possible, he intended to use the husky’s sense of smell to find Ironbone. In that regard, the husky did not disappoint him.

…

Netherflame Wolf (Husky)

Species: Undead Creature

Power: Elite Tier Four

Intelligence: Low to Moderate (Prone to Chaos)

Skills:

Intermediate Search: Can track and search for objects by sensing their soul auras. {This skill cannot be upgraded through proficiency.}

Incarnate as Flame, Level 1: An active skill. Upon activation, the user transforms into a state of netherflame, allowing it to evade physical attacks of Tier Five and below and become immune to Tier Five and below fire-element spells.

Talent: Destruction

Housebreaker: Possesses an extremely strong urge to destroy its own possessions. The more precious the object, the more excited it becomes, and there is also a certain chance of entering a special state.

Description: An undead creature with an extraordinary talent. Raising it requires a substantial fortune and a gentle disposition.

…

To be honest, when Karen saw the husky’s attributes, he broke into a cold sweat. His first thought was to get rid of the beast as far away as possible—or simply destroy it humanely.

But then he remembered that Ironbone was relying on it to find him. Karen could only raise a hand and spare the idiot’s life for the time being.

He then had Deathwing take the fool to the mine where Ironbone had disappeared, instructing Little Green and the Ghost Shadow Wolf to work with it to locate Ironbone.

At the same time that Karen deployed three Tier Four undead to search for Ironbone, deep within the Black-Iron Mine, Ironbone was swinging the pickaxe in his hands and working hard.

When the mine had been attacked the previous day, Ironbone, being an undead, had naturally charged out to face the enemy without the slightest fear of death.

Unfortunately, the gap between an ordinary Tier Three and a world-class elite was simply too vast.

The moment Ironbone rushed forward, the husky clamped him in its jaws and dragged him all over the place.

After that, Ironbone knew nothing.

There was no way he could have known anything. The husky had sprinted off at full speed, and all Ironbone could see were the swaying tunnels and undead being sent flying in all directions.

Ironbone fought back desperately several times, but was ultimately flung away and fell into a shaft deep within the mine.

The shaft seemed to descend a great distance at an angle—perhaps one or two hundred meters. Ironbone slid all the way down as if riding a slide. Even so, by the time he reached the bottom, cracks covered half the bones in his body.

Of course, as an undead, Ironbone could feel no pain. The cracks covering his body did not concern him in the slightest.

He climbed to his feet, intending to go back up and continue fighting the husky. But when he turned around, preparing to climb, he discovered that the opening through which he had fallen was nowhere to be seen.

This was rather troublesome. Ironbone searched for a long time but could not find a path back up.

An ordinary person faced with such a situation would probably have panicked to death. But Ironbone was no ordinary person.

In fact, he was not even a person.

As an undead, Ironbone’s thought process was wonderfully uncomplicated. So what if he could not find the way back up?

How big a problem could that be?

He only needed to dig a new path upward.

And so Ironbone picked up the pickaxe he had refused to release even while the husky had been biting him and began working hard. Choosing a direction that led upward, he swung the pickaxe and started digging.

The instant Ironbone began to mine, the flames in his eye sockets brightened.

He had discovered that this section of the mine seemed to contain an extraordinarily rich supply of ore, and that every piece was of exceptionally high quality.

He had been digging for less than five minutes when he unearthed a piece of black iron ore.

If Karen had been there to examine it, he would certainly have noticed that this piece of black iron ore was vastly different in quality from the ore produced in the upper levels.

Ironbone’s piece was at least of Fine quality.

Ironbone could not identify the ore’s grade, but he differed from ordinary undead in another important way.

Ninety-nine percent of the undead under Karen’s command advanced through combat experience and the nourishment provided by the territory. Ironbone, however, advanced through mining.

Unearthing that piece of black iron ore caused many of the cracks across Ironbone’s body to heal, and the flames in his eye sockets grew much brighter.

Yet Ironbone did not notice any of these changes. From the moment he had begun mining, his concentration had become more intense than ever before.

At present, Ironbone had only one thought: to dig a passage leading back to the Black-Iron Mine so that he could return and continue fighting the husky.

Of course, after unearthing a piece of Fine-quality ore, his thoughts may have veered slightly from their original course. But his determination to keep digging remained unchanged.

While Ironbone buried himself in mining, above him, Little Green led the husky through the area several times in search of him. Yet they never found him.

The entire Black-Iron tribe had practically been turned upside down, but there was still no sign of Ironbone.

It was not that the husky’s skill was ineffective. Although the beast looked utterly unreliable, that particular skill was actually quite extraordinary.

In theory, finding Ironbone should have been effortless. After all, he was only one or two hundred meters beneath the mine.

A soul aura at that distance should have been well within the husky’s ability to detect.

However, the place where Ironbone was trapped seemed to be shielded by some special energy. It obstructed the husky’s perception and prevented it from sensing Ironbone’s existence.

In the end, there was nothing they could do. Karen checked the attribute panel of his territory and saw that Ironbone’s status was still there. His experience was even rising at a terrifying speed.

Seeing this, Karen hesitated for a moment before finally deciding to suspend the search for Ironbone for the time being…