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The existence of caves has been closely related to various adventure legends in both Rigal and Crescent Continent throughout the ages. In heroic biographies, they are places where dragons and monsters live, and various major events in mythology are often inseparable from this landform.
The longing for the unknown and the fear of danger that follows, the complex emotions blend together to make such an area inherently mysterious - but that is actually only for people in the city who know nothing about it. .
The cave is an annoying place. If you ask adventurers who have actually had much contact with it, probably 11 out of 10 will tell you this.
Even if they are located on high mountains, most caves are not dry. When the weather is hot, the evaporating water vapor and the water seeping in from the surface condense on the roof and walls of the cave. A layer of rich moisture will appear when you touch it with your hands. The dripping water droplets condensed into small puddles on the ground. Even if they are not deep, once you step on them, your shoes and socks, which were dry before, will become completely soaked.
Because of the narrowness, a detour is basically impossible. The people of Rigar would wear elevated wooden shoe covers over their leather shoes in bad weather. If you dare to use them in slippery caves, you will break your hands and feet - and the moisture will not only corrode the soles of the feet, but also the trouser legs and clothing will get damp. Your hair becomes salty and wet and clings to your scalp as if someone poured a bucket of glue over your head. The discomfort will be even worse in the summer because there is no lighting in the cave.
Henry and his party went back and quickly re-prepared themselves, lighting lanterns instead of torches, although the latter burned brighter and with greater fire. But in the middle of summer, holding such a blazing thing next to you, you will constantly repeat the pain of sweating due to the sweltering heat, and then the sweat will be dried and turned into a layer of sticky stuff covering the body surface, itching and unbearable. process.
Using a torch on the windswept forest floor with a vast view was a helpless move, but when entering a narrow cave, a lantern was more practical. Although the light is not that strong, it is enough. Moreover, the relatively weak candlelight can also be used as an early warning measure - not all caves have sufficient air, especially in Zhangzhou. If the candlelight becomes unstable or changes color, it proves that the air inside is turbid and toxic, which can also make the group aware of this. To avoid an unexpected death.
Of course, no one knew what kind of space it was inside, and there might be a big scene there, so they brought some torches even though they didn't light them.
In addition to replacing the light with candles, the group also brought ropes and some auxiliary props such as forged hooks to prevent accidents. Thick hemp rope has many uses, whether for rescue or escape.
Several other young samurai from Pingshan Prefecture who were traveling with Torataro stayed at the foot of the mountain. Except for Ogami and the three Ayong who were in a state of illness, Narumi also followed him back this time. And despite Torataro's efforts to plead, only Joshua, an outsider on Ryunosuke's side, was willing to help.
The view inside the cave is not as important as hearing. The old friend of Henry and Mira, who is blind but has excellent hearing, may play a higher role in this environment than a person with bright eyes.
In addition, unexpectedly, the old pharmacist also decided to go together. However, his behavior is not purely helpful. Torataro is obviously a wealthy Chinese son, and his behavior of caring about his missing followers, especially the maid named Hui, is not concealed at all. It is obvious that the pharmacist intends to pass You can make a fortune by treating illnesses and saving people and gaining their gratitude.
For the sage who has subtly become the commander of the search and rescue team, this kind of helper who comes only for profit is his most trusted role.
There is a saying in Rigal that "nothing in the world is more expensive than free", and Crescent Continent also has a similar concept of "being courteous for nothing, or committing adultery or stealing".
People who work hard for obvious benefits are often belittled by the so-called "gentlemen", but this kind of people are pure, straightforward, and easy to predict. On the contrary, it is the kind of guy who talks about benevolence and morality as if he was born to dedicate himself to a great goal. You can't guess when and for what reason he will betray, so he is the most dangerous existence.
This old country pharmacist is one of the non-combatants in the team, and the other is Miss Doctor, who we insist on keeping up with no matter what.
This is not unexpected. If she was a person who would give up her pursuit of knowledge when others persuade her, then the group would not have met Aya in the distant domain in the first place.
When they returned to the mountain, the lighting magic that Mira had previously released had disappeared. What was even more disturbing was that the corpses of the monsters they had killed on the ground had also disappeared. Judging from the dragging marks and the footprints on the ground, it seemed that they were some kind of meat. Sexual mammals do it, but due to time constraints, they didn't pay much attention to it.
The inner walls of the cave are mostly made of hard rock, and the stalactites at the top are not particularly large. Judging from the formation of this cave, it is obviously related to water. This kind of cave is generally more common along the coast. Considering the slowly seeping ground and cave walls, it is probably caused by the hidden springs in the mountains.
The cave was slowly formed over thousands of years, and it may have looked like this before Kazuto founded the country.
As soon as they entered a short distance, the group realized that they were not the first visitors. The rich rancid smell, fueled by the hot and humid environment, filled their mouths and noses, making them dizzy. Fortunately, during this season, the refreshing medicine applied to the nose, mouth and temples is one of the common items in Kazuto society. Coupled with a scarf to cover up, it can barely be reduced to an acceptable level.
There is obviously some kind of creature living here. Even if there are no remaining bones or excrement visible to the naked eye, the strong smell alone is enough to detect the fact that they are not alone.
Our Mr. Sage, the girl from Luoan, and Lulu, who was a hunter, were walking in front, holding a lantern. It was difficult to leave any traces on the hard rocky surface. Fortunately, their eyesight was excellent, even in dim light. There is still something to see.
Lulu squatted down and picked up something from the small puddle in front of her. After getting closer to the lantern for lighting, the group saw a slender black hair.
"It's human." This, combined with the luggage abandoned outside, finally confirmed the guess that the entourage was dragged into the cave.
"It seems that he fainted." There is only one hair and no other traces, which means that Torataro's followers should have been dragged in while unconscious. Otherwise, on such a narrow ground full of hard rocks, and wearing light clothing in summer, their struggles would most likely leave behind pieces of clothing or a little splattered blood and broken human skin.
"Is it true? He must be dead." Torataro seemed quite panicked. He fell into a hysterical state, fearful at the same time and urged forward because he cared very much.
"Don't be afraid. We have only been missing for such a short time. If you are eaten, the blood will not have time to solidify, but we can't smell the blood." Mira turned around to comfort her. She did not mention that death is not necessarily accompanied by a large amount of blood loss. In fact, because this young Chinese man is obviously on the verge of collapse, the right answer is to report the good news instead of the bad news at this moment.
"Hui, please don't let anything happen to you!!" Torataro was so anxious that he shouted at the empty cave for no reason.
But what frightened everyone was that in the next second, a faint female voice actually answered him in the darkness.
"Sir Torataro——"
The voice seemed to be transmitted directly into the mind, making people's hair stand on end, but the moment Torataro heard it, he pushed away the doctor lady in front of him and ran away.
Aya, who almost hit the stone, was supported by Galeva on one side. The latter looked angrily at Torataro, who quickly disappeared at the edge of the candlelight, while Henry and Joshua, the two fastest ones, were In an instant, he rushed forward, drew his sword, and reached out to grab the young warrior's collar.
"Hui, Hui!" Torataro, whose eyes were splitting, was shaking his hands and feet in front of him, trying to break away from Henry's strong hand, while Joshua, who had his eyes closed and only relied on his hearing to judge his position, was hurt by running. Under the dim flickering firelight, he pulled out the sword from his waist and slashed open something in the darkness.
"Bah!" The sound of air flow came from the incision, followed by a "bah!" and something soft fell into the puddle at the bottom of the cave.
"Hui! What are you doing? Hui is calling me!" Torataro was still struggling, but the sage lifted him up like a chicken, then put the lantern under his arm and gave it to him with his free hand. Remember the loud slap.
"Pa!" The burning pain in his cheek made Torataro stop struggling, and when the others followed, Henry also raised the lantern again and shone it on the thing that was still shaking slightly on the ground.
"Is this your Ah Hui? Look clearly." The surface of the thing on the ground was smooth and pale, like the tentacles of a squid, but with a crack. Mira squatted down and used a short knife to open the cracked lip, revealing several rows of canines that had no gums and were bent inward solely driven by muscles.
"Evil." The Luoan girl wiped the tip of the knife repeatedly in disgust and returned it to the sheath. After the doctor lady behind her followed her, she was attracted by a special structure at the place where Joshua cut it in two.
"It's the vocal cords." She used a lantern to illuminate it and saw the detail after approaching it: "It's very similar to a human's. It's probably the one that made the sound just now."
"Where does this come from -" "This way." Joshua, who had the sharpest hearing, stood on the right side of the cave. Ling went over and illuminated the area. It was a small hole as thick as a human head and bottomless.
"It comes out like a tree trunk and then shrinks back after I cut it off."
"What the hell is this?" Torataro, who finally woke up, turned pale. He had never heard of such a monster.
"Changshan tiger." The old pharmacist behind him suddenly said this. Everyone turned to look at him, and the old man realized that what he blurted out attracted attention, so he briefly explained: "It is a local species that is said to live in the mountains. Monsters can imitate people’s voices and lure people to eat them.”
"There are many legends about gods and monsters in this place. It is said that the huge canyons and ravines outside were caused by the past wars between the Great Moon God and the Great King, the God of Heaven and the God of Earth."
"The corpses of the gods who died back then are still buried at the bottom of the abyss. The immortal resentment of the gods turned into miasma, which is why there are so many poisonous insects, ferocious beasts and demons in Zhangzhou."
"Of course, of course, this is just a legend. Our land is peaceful most of the time!" After realizing Torataro's identity and the worries he might have, the old pharmacist quickly added.
"Did it remind you of something?" Henry said as he noticed that Miss Doctor was staring at the severed section of the tentacle in a daze.
"The skin texture and some characteristics of this thing..."
"You said, if you hadn't killed that thing in the north." Ling didn't finish her sentence, but Henry and Mira next to her already understood what she wanted to express.
"Anyway, be careful. There are still many things we don't understand." With this conclusion, the group ignored the broken tentacle. Yajiro, Lao Qiao, Narumi and others who had gone to explore the road with Lulu earlier happened to ask the people here to follow them at this time.
"I didn't expect the space to be so big." Narumi said. They had extinguished the lanterns and replaced them with torches with a wider lighting range. However, even so, they could not illuminate the huge space in front of them.
This is a cliff, with sharp cross-sections as sharp as the edge of a guillotine under the firelight.
"The wind was very noisy and I couldn't hear the direction clearly. I'm sorry." Joshua shook his head helplessly, and Mira looked at the straight marks on the cave wall here and called Henry: "Teacher, look at this. "
"Man-made traces." The sage nodded, then picked up a torch, lit it, and threw it forward.
The spinning torch flew a considerable distance away, illuminating a rotten suspension bridge with only wooden piles and two planks left. Then it fell to the ground on the other side, and finally fell into a puddle and was destroyed. .
"The distance seems to be at least 8 meters. What's more terrible is that there is no anchor point where the hook can be fixed."
"They are all exposed rocks. It is too risky to just rope over them." The sage analyzed the possibilities of the past, and Torataro, who saw something when the firelight illuminated it, shouted again.
"Clogs! These are Ah Hui's clogs." He shouted loudly.
"Go down first and then go up again. It's a little more troublesome, but it's better than falling." Fortunately, he brought a rope with him before. Henry took out a stone and looked at Joshua next to him: "Can you help me measure the distance? "He raised it to a place about the same height as himself, and then let go while Joshua nodded.
"Crack-" The stone fell to the ground, and Joshua nodded again: "The distance of two meters is the time, I understand."
"Okay, then I threw it." Then the sage threw the stone down the deep valley, and the red-haired blind swordsman began to catch the falling stone with his superior hearing.
"Dong - click -" "Ten meters." The sound of falling stones came after a moment, and at the same time, Joshua also told the distance to the bottom of the valley.
"Ready." According to the distance he reported, Mira skillfully prepared a rope of corresponding length. When they walked over, they had already tied a knot on the thick hemp rope at intervals, such a raised point. The edge of the shoe can be stepped on, which is the simplest rope ladder structure.
She prepared a length of about 15 meters, and the sage took an ax and a tempered iron chisel from Galeva, then tilted the tip outward toward her head, and used a bevel to The chisel dug into the stone with three strokes and five strokes.
Then they tied a tight knot and threw the rope into the deep valley.
"Do you really want to go down?" At this point, Torataro became afraid again. Henry glanced at him and said, "You can also wait here. I will climb up from the opposite side and then drill a chisel and climb the rope from the air."
"But if you accidentally fall, there will be no rock wall for you to pick up, and you will fall directly to the bottom of the valley." The sage said, and at the same time, Mira put the unwanted clothes on the thick hemp rope near the edge of the cliff. place to prevent it from being broken by sharp edges. Then he told Galeva, hung the lantern on the armed belt around his waist and lowered it first.
"Okay, okay." The thin-skinned young samurai finally mustered up the courage, but what the group of people slowly falling down one by one did not notice was that in the darkness, the tips of the severed tentacles were hidden by no one. Later, he was dragged back again and again by something protruding from the cave as thick as a human head.
It was carefully recovered as if it were a precious resource that couldn't be lost.
