The entrance of the mines.
The Cyrene Mines are located 8 kilometers northwest of Alterna. The mines were once managed by the Arabakia Kingdom, but are now occupied by kobolds and have developed a unique ecology. They are stratified into levels, and it is said there are more than ten of them in total. The highest levels have the weakest kobolds with the level of danger increasing the deeper the mines went. The first and second levels are inhabited by lower class kobolds and are not very dangerous, but caution becomes necessary from the third level down.
Merry once faced a particularly vicious kobold on the fifth level with her comrades: Hayashi; Michiki; Mutsumi; and Ogu. She lost three of her comrades in that battle.