"Hey, are you asking about Miss Jenny? She is a nice person, and she is very kind to us. Although her bodyguards are sometimes a bit fierce, in order to protect Miss Jenny, everyone is not incomprehensible."
"The mining accident that happened last time... It was really terrible. When the mountain collapsed, the whole mountain was shaking violently. I also heard a whining sound from underneath the mine. Could it be that we were disturbing it? The evil god at the bottom of the mountain is so scary!"
"Those miners and their families who died? I remember there were three or four children and sixteen or seventeen adults, including a pregnant woman who was already four or five months pregnant at the time. If it hadn't been for this mining accident, she would be no more than 10 years old now. The day of delivery is probably not far away, what a pity!”
"What strange thing happened recently? I remember that after the mining disaster, several teams like yours came here, and then after they entered the cave, they never came out again. It's so unfortunate! Except In addition to this, the food and water in the dormitory have been missing for no reason recently. This has never happened before. Could it be that the evil spirits stole it?"
"Work in the mine? As you can see, sir, we men endure the stench of the mine and work hard to earn hard-earned money, isn't it just to make our wives and children live more comfortably? Besides, Emperor Gaudos looked down upon our low life, and specially stipulated in the imperial law that even if we die in an accident, the families of us miners can receive a large pension."
"The contract signed with Boss Jenny? One gold coin a year, until one day, the pigtails are raised. The contract says that after we die, we cannot be buried. Instead, our corpses will be summoned by the necromancer in the mine. The skeleton miners continue to work, and their souls cannot enter the gate of reincarnation and will wander in this mine forever. But after all, this is the Nikolas Empire, and who cares about what happens after death!"
…
The memories and testimonies of countless miners are almost exactly the same as the words of Miss Jenny, the gold mine owner, except for more accurate details.
At this time, not to mention George, even Uther was a little shaken. If it weren't for the fact that this visit and investigation was a plan proposed by him on a whim, Uther would definitely suspect that all the miners here have been bribed and dealt with. Suspicion of confession.
With a depressed mood, Uther took George to the entrance of the gold mine that needed to be investigated. After all, he didn't bring his men here, so Uther's idea was just to look outside the entrance of the mine, without any intention of Go in.
It is exactly the same as what a miner described before. Even now, long after the mining disaster has passed, you can still hear a whine like a ghost crying or a wolf howling at the entrance of the cave. It seems to be the wail of resentment from under the Nine Netherworld, and it is also like the bliss of hell. The invitation to the banquet made people tremble with fear.
Maybe this sound would frighten ordinary people, but George and Uther didn't accept this trick.
"Has this vein been dug through? I've never heard anyone mention this."
This was George's first judgment. Just like a flute with all the holes sealed, no air or sound can be blown out of a closed space. This is only possible in a space where air can convection.
"How strange that there is green crystal at the end of this vein!"
Uther picked out a green crystal the size of a fingernail at the entrance of the gold mine. With a little force, the crystal turned into beautiful fine powder and spread away from the hole.
"Green crystal? What is this?"
"Didn't you buy some poisonous potions used to spread poisonous gas from my shabby shop before? They are made of green crystal as the main material. Green crystal usually appears in poisonous swamps or people with strong poison. Near the residence of biological creatures, this kind of accompanying product appears in gold mines... Is there poisonous gas deep in the gold mine? By the way, you just said that the gold mine was drilled through, is it possible..."
"Is the gold mine connected to the wastewater pond next to it?"
The two of them came up with this answer in unison.
After all, the mine where the accident occurred is the one closest to the wastewater pool among all the gold mines. It is impossible for George and Uther not to think about this. Now that they have a preliminary judgment, George and Uther do not plan to search further into the cave, but instead go to the top of the gold mine to look for other clues.
…
The top of the gold mine is an artificially leveled flat land. There are vents at regular intervals that are connected to the mineral veins below. Of course, in addition to providing ventilation, these vents also have another more critical function. Function - personnel entry and exit.
The main entrance of the gold mine that George and Uther just investigated is the entrance and exit of the transportation channel for the raw stones of the gold mine. However, a gold mine vein can be hundreds of meters or even kilometers long. The channels inside are winding and there are many forks. Even if Even if you are an old miner, you may get lost.
In order to improve the efficiency of entry and exit, these vents also serve as secondary entrances and exits. Therefore, in order to ensure safety, mages are generally hired to strengthen the soil near these vents all year round.
However, at the collapsed vent, all George could see were countless cracks in the ground and a huge, bottomless hole. The soil around the cave was severely corroded and very loose, without the hardness that a mine should have. The original vents had also been severely damaged. The miner's dormitory that was unfortunately involved in the collapse had been completely swallowed up by the cave, and no trace could be found. trace.
In addition, George also noticed that after the collapse, all the miners' dormitories were moved away from the ventilation channels, and after this incident, all the ventilation openings of the gold mine veins were protected with spells. It was strengthened for the second time, but strangely, according to George's observation, except for the magical reinforcement of the vents of this mine, which is more or less unstable, the soil near the vents of other veins is very hard, and the vents are not Any traces or signs of damage or possible damage.
Since it is an old gold mine in the empire, the prevention and treatment of mine disasters must be professional. Logically speaking, there should not be such low-level mistakes as ventilation duct collapse, but now...
"It's green crystal again. The green crystal here is more pure and can be used to make medicine."
Uther picked out a fist-sized piece of green crystal from somewhere. After shaking it in his hand, he happily put it into his space bag.
"Does that mean that this hole is more toxic than other vents?"
George was already used to Uther's stingy character.
"How about it? Are you going to go treasure hunting now?"
After quickly collecting all the green crystals nearby, Uther encouraged George with a smirk on his face.
"Forget it, let's wait until tomorrow."
There was a sound like a banshee crying from under the cave, and the still strong stench all irritated George's nerves. George poked his head into the depths of the cave. The bottomless darkness was like an abyss leading to hell.
After thinking about it, George decided to wait until he gathered his men before exploring again.
…
In order to speed up the progress of the mission, early the next morning, George led half of the vampire men and Uther to enter the mine from the main entrance of the mine, while Miss Sirna, the big demon, stayed behind at Uther's suggestion. Sit in the camp.
In a sense, this task can be said to be the most difficult task for George and the second generation ancestors of the Blood Clan. Although Miss Jenny specially provided countless veils blessed with purification spells yesterday to filter the stench from the wastewater pool, for vampires with an overly keen sense of smell, this stench is far beyond what one or several gauze pieces can filter out.
"Wouldn't it be better to just use the blood control technique to seal off the sense of smell?"
In the end, Uther, who had lost his sense of smell and taste, made a proposal that freed everyone from holding their noses.
Led by Uther and followed by George, a group of people walked in the dark gold mine passage.
Since the gold mine has been abandoned for a long time, the magic lamps on both sides of the gold mine passage have long lost their former light. Their energy is almost exhausted and they are shining with a weak blue light, like fireflies swaying in the wind. They may be destroyed by this at any time. Devoured by darkness.
step,
two steps,
Walking in such a dark and silent environment, with the sound of the wind blowing in and out of my ears, the sound of everyone's footsteps seemed particularly harsh.
Suddenly, Uther, who was at the front of the team, made a pause gesture.
"What's wrong?"
Through his telepathic talent, George, who was at the back of the team, asked Uther. The sound in the cave is easily amplified. In order to avoid alerting the snake as much as possible, the entire team remained silent, and all instructions were conveyed by the gestures of Uther at the front and the Lucifers at various positions in the team.
"There is a cave in the middle of the road leading to the gold mine ahead. What should I do now? Jump over and move forward, or go explore in the cave?"
After hearing Uther's message from thousands of miles away, George immediately rushed over from behind the team. He poked his head down the cave. Even with the powerful infrared vision of the vampires, he still couldn't see the scene deep in the cave. He could only judge that it was a quite deep cave, and directly above the cave, it was George and The cave on the top of the mountain that Uther explored yesterday.
Among them, the thing that concerned George the most was that there were multiple signs of climbing on the edge of the cave. It was obvious that the mercenary groups who came to the gold mine to exorcise spirits chose to go deep into the cave to investigate.
"Go down to the burrow!"
George tightened the giant sword in his hand and took the lead and flew into the hole.
…
