Except this time there was a mutiny. And even the allocation of any amount of money could not help. They don't reinforce mine shafts with copper and silver coins. You need wooden beams, and you can only get them in Zalon.
I had to sit down with an engineer and solve the problem. Once in his native element, the man was not as tongue-tied and shy as he seemed at first. Having finished talking about the affairs of the mine, they quietly chatted about the affairs of other mines and Zalon itself.
The visitor proved to be an invaluable source of information. It quickly became clear that the engineers of all the mines were in the habit of meeting twice a year and discussing the state of affairs at all the mines. The vampire learned a lot of interesting things without even tasting the blood of his interlocutor, the theft here was not even outrageous, but fantastic.
Archimagus Elos, having taken his post, was fully focused on his research and he was only concerned about one thing. He was not to be disturbed by trivial matters, and in return he would not pry into the affairs of the mines. The managers of numerous mines quickly realized the benefits of such relationships and over the past decades, significantly increased mine output, but on paper everything remained the same.
And only engineers knew the real volume of production. And at some mines it was twice as much as declared. Of course, such a thing was almost impossible in the mining of gold or lunar silver, but even there were their own ways to make money, sometimes quite original.
But usually the simplest ones were enough, such as an unrecorded gold mine, or quickly excavated deposits of valuable ores not far from Dragon Mountain, where just in recent years began to carry out geological exploration, having had time to clear the area of the original inhabitants, but not yet had time to put forts and thoroughly buried in the ground.
- What about Dragon Mountain itself? Do they go there quietly? - The vampire asked.
- No, Your Grace. They haven't even gotten to the mountain yet. There was a road there in the olden times. And even the dwarves themselves paved the road. But even prospectors try not to go there.
The stone-paved road was indeed laid from Zalon to Dragon Mountain by dwarves, and even in the times of the common state. Alexander knew that for sure, but he had heard for the first time that even prospectors did not go to the mountain.
- Why so? A cursed forest?
- It's a forest too. But the places there are bad. Not good. It's not for nothing that no one has lived in the mountain for years.
- So what if it's a bad place. But they're rich. Doesn't anyone try to mine there at all?
- It's a rich place. They say there's gold on the ground there, and in the streams all the sand is gold, but life is more precious, Your Grace! Nobody wants to end up like the dwarves.
- And what's that?
- Well, to die suddenly, in a moment!
The vampire had heard about the sad fate of the dwarf town in Dragon Mountain many times. For unknown reasons, the entire town had died out more than once and even more than twice. But this was the first time the word "instantaneously" had been used to describe it. After a series of clarifying questions, it was learned that this was exactly the case.
There were no exoduses or relocations or external attacks. It was simply that all the inhabitants went to sleep and never woke up again. And when the last communication with the city was cut off, there were no more people willing not only to settle there, but even to explore.
- So there's a whole city there, with all its riches untouched?
- That's the way it is, Your Grace. No one wants to die, not even convicts can be sent there. They won't go if you kill them! And the dragons are breeding there in great numbers now. That's why they're still digging near the mountain, but no one goes to the mountain or into it!
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