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Tannis, the adopted daughter of the Baron of Ratchet, is currently his best partner.

So Viscount Mathilde sent his steward to convey his desire to cooperate to Miss Tanis's steward, and subtly revealed his idea of ​​using the mine as collateral—as for the fact that his mine had been occupied by the kobolds—well, is that the point?

He followed him to his home, eagerly awaiting Tennys's impatient arrival to discuss cooperation—he knew perfectly well that goblins could hardly refuse the income from a fixed asset like a mine.

Another day has passed...

Two days have passed...

Tanis vanished without a trace in Stormwind, as if she had evaporated into thin air. The goblin butler did come by once, but what he said was utterly pointless. Moreover, the goblin butler even vaguely revealed the fact that 'they knew there was something wrong with the mine'!

Just when Viscount Mathilde thought his attempt was about to fail, Tennys's invitation arrived at his mansion.

Overjoyed, Viscount Mathieu welcomed Tennys and they had a heated discussion about their collaboration. After nearly three hours of heated debate, Tennys reluctantly agreed to sell a portion of her jewels—at least one-tenth of which were black—to Viscount Mathieu at cost price. In return, Viscount Mathieu would first hand over one of his mines to Tennys as an initial consideration.

With ulterior motives in mind, the two parties signed a contract, pressed their fingerprints on it, and then each looked at the other with the eyes of someone looking at a sucker.

A friendly farewell.

———————————————Ratchet's Stormwind Office——————————————————

"Miss Tanya, have you figured out the situation in that mine?"

Knowing that Tennys dared to sign the agreement meant she must have figured out how to clear the burst bolts in the mine, there was no need to panic—even if Tennys really lost money, it wouldn't affect its income.

"..reluctantly......"

Having reached a preliminary agreement with Viscount Mathilde, Tannis placed a drawing on the table, which detailed the direction and depth of a series of mine shafts.

"It seems there are more kobolds than rumored."

When Bao Shuan looked at the map, he realized that the number of kobolds in the cave was already astonishing.

"Not only that, they're also digging into the adjacent area. If left unchecked, within three years at most, the entire jade mining area will become their domain..."

Tanis spread her hands, her expression a half-smile.

"This number exceeds our capacity to handle, Miss Tannis. Fighting so many kobolds in a mine is unlikely to be a victory."

"Well... beheading will do. I remember that the leader of these kobolds doesn't necessarily have to be a kobold, right?"

Tannis's casual words startled Bolt.

"The kobold chieftain? You found it?"

"I suppose so. After all, my dad and I have upgraded some gadgets over the years... finding a kobold chieftain shouldn't be a big problem."

After saying that, Tennys yawned.

"Have the bodyguards prepare the equipment, I'm going to rest for a bit... Haha..."

IV. The Battle to Recapture the Mine (Part 1)

The next day, Tani, leading a small squad of goblins dressed in the latest individual combat gear from Ratchet, arrived at the entrance to the Matilda family's mine in the mining area. After showing the transfer agreement to the still dutiful guards, she entered the cave, which was roughly blocked off with several roadblocks. She then proceeded downwards into the spacious main mine tunnel.

"Look at this! These humans are so wasteful! There's so much ore left uncollected even in the main mine tunnel!"

Bao Shuan used a multi-tool to pry a piece of ore off the mine wall and examined it carefully with a magnifying glass.

"You can't expect the Stormwind Kingdom to be as good at mining as the Steamwheedle Consortium, just like the Stormwind Kingdom is miles behind the Steamwheedle Consortium in farming skills. Not to mention, their smelting technology is also inferior to ours."

"We can recover about 80% of the cost just from these surface mining areas that they haven't fully exploited."

After discovering several more small ore zones that had not been fully mined, Explosive Bolt concluded that 'even if they couldn't drive away the kobolds, it wouldn't be a loss.'

"So even in the worst-case scenario, this deal will barely break even... Note..."

Tannis raised her right hand, signaling the group to stop and turn off the lights. About two hundred meters ahead, around a corner in the cave, there was a faint flicker of candlelight.

Then, she made a few sign language gestures to a goblin. Upon receiving the gestures, the goblin turned off all the light sources on his body and quietly blended into the darkness.

About ten minutes later, the goblin dragged an unconscious kobold back to the group. Tanis gestured for one of the goblins to put a knife to the kobold's neck and then wake it up.

"Candle! Candle!"

As soon as the kobold awoke, it began searching for its candle, and then it felt a chill on its neck.

"...Don't...kill..."

Realizing its life was in someone else's hands, the kobold panicked and quickly chose the most effective way to save itself—begging for mercy.

"Answer: Immortal."

The kobold nodded frantically.

"Upwards, dig, why?"

Tanis stared into its eyes and asked the first question.

"The sparkling below, the king's; the sparkling above, mine."

Despite the kobold's rambling reply, Tennys understood what it meant.

"A lot of people are up there?"

The kobold shook its head frantically, pointed down with its movable finger, then to the right, and then looked to the left.

"Many people are digging underground, left and right?"

“Many people dig, dig, the king wants it to be shiny, I want it to be shiny, the cave above, mine.”

The kobold quickly answered the second question.

"The mine is mine, not yours."

Tanis pointed to herself.

“The cave, my… um… the cave… your…”

The chill moved slightly forward, and the kobold quickly changed his tune.

“Very good, it seems that the kobold race has the potential to be true lackeys.”

Tanis nodded in satisfaction, ordered the kobold to be tied up, gagged, and half-buried in the ground, then 'kindly' placed its candle in front of it and lit it.

"Wait, live, run, die."

————————————————The team is in stealth mode————————————————、

After confirming that this was the only kobold that had run to the main mining area—a very rebellious and eccentric kobold unwilling to give all the ore it had mined to the kobold king—Tannis's special operations team continued to venture deeper into the mine according to the pre-arranged plan. About an hour later, the kobold reappeared in their sights.

"Blow up the left passage to slow down their reinforcements, then we'll take advantage of the chaos and go through the right passage."

After briefly recalling the general route she had scouted out with the reconnaissance robot two days ago, Tannis made up her mind.

Upon hearing Tannis's command, the goblins quickly took out round objects from their backpacks, pressed a switch, and placed them on the ground. In the blink of an eye, these objects grew four legs.

—Goblin Self-Propelled Mine—An improved version with significantly reduced costs, slightly reduced power, and reduced movement distance and accuracy, but its practical value as a weapon has been clearly improved.

Under the control of the goblins, these strange creatures, with their short legs, scurried into the target mine, amidst the kobolds' bewildered stares of "What is this thing?", and attached themselves to the cave walls or ceiling.

Some of the kobolds curiously ran into the mine tunnel, looked up at the strange, glittering things, and pondered how to catch them.

then.

"boom!!!!"

The violent explosion echoed inside the mine, the walls collapsed, and a bunch of kobolds who couldn't dodge in time were crushed by large chunks of rock before they even had a chance to scream. Several huge clouds of dust were rolled back out of the mine entrance by the shock wave, turning the entire fork in the road into a dim yellow.

"go!"

Having already put on her breathing mask, Tannis leaped up and led the charge into the right-hand mine tunnel, simultaneously pulling out her small pistol and firing a burst of shots at the kobolds blocking her way.

Behind her, the masked goblin squad, each armed with their own weapons, charged forward, attacking the dazed kobolds blocking their path. Soon, they reached the second fork in the road.

"quack!"

"Intruder! Die!"

Amidst a series of sharp cries, a large group of kobolds carrying a jumble of weapons surged out from below the cave. Clearly, the kobolds had discovered the intrusion.

Before the kobolds could even make contact with Tannis and her group, several specially made grenades rolled into their midst. In the blink of an eye, the kobolds who rushed out were rendered mostly ineffective by the irritating gas, bright light, and noise. Then, without hesitation, Tanni pulled a flamethrower from the stomach of her mechanical assistant and unleashed a barrage of fire at the front.

In less than a minute, most of the intersection was engulfed in flames, and a narrow passage was completely consumed by the fire! The winds brought by the thermal convection howled like the roar of a monster.

"Wow! Wow!"

The surviving kobolds screamed in panic, their bodies engulfed in flames, and rushed into another, relatively safe passage. They collided head-on with the third wave of kobolds emerging from inside to join the battle, sweeping them into the cave.

"Quick, keep up! We must take down their king before the kobolds can build their next fighting force!"

V. Mine Recapture Battle (Later, Boss)

"Is that a kobold?"

Looking at the thing that was fast asleep in the hall filled with various ores, the bolt made a sound that was hard to understand.

"Is it... a kobold?"

Tanis, who was observing the target through the binoculars, was also a little stunned. As far as she knew, kobold kings were generally stronger than ordinary kobolds, and some kobold kings could use some fire magic. But what was this thing in front of her that was about the size of an ogre, with a single horn on its head and black scales covering its vital parts?

However, the die was cast and the die had to be cast. Under Tannis's arrangement, dozens of goblin thunders scurried up to the kobold king with a large candle on his head and surrounded him.

At the same time, the bolt-action weapon completed its assembly. The long barrel, large caliber, and skull markings on the special bullets all hinted that the target it intended to engage was no ordinary prey.

"First, fire a marking round at it, then detonate the bolt."

"Yes, boss!"

Bolt pulled a pinkish-red round-nosed bullet from the magazine, loaded it into the magazine, aimed carefully, and pulled the trigger.

A cloud of bright red mist rose from the kobold king and lingered for a long time.

Is everyone ready?

Gently stroking the mechanical assistant beside her, whose eyes were already lit up and ready for battle, Tannis narrowed her eyes slightly. The horn of the kobold king and its scales involuntarily reminded her of a legendary creature, a behemoth that had originally lived outside the sight of humans until it returned to the sky during the last war.

"Ready! We can blow this guy's head off at any time!"

"So...ready..."