You don't need to think too hard on the ring, every level up will increase the value of the ring's enchantment and allow you to reselect should you wish to do so.<br/><br/>While you will be able to start clearing out the entrance, you will need to seek out a mining engineer in order to make any real headway in getting the mine operational once again.<br/><br/>And just to clarify, the shard has not yet been stolen from its bastion, but evidence supports that somebody is putting forth the effort to break through and claim it wherever it is.<br/><br/><strong>Edit:</strong><br/>Oh yes, and I almost forgot to mention. Once you undergo the timeskip, everybody advances a level! So go ahead and start updating your character sheets accordingly.