"Huff!" Alfred fiercely struck the giant rat's head with his square shield. The giant rat tried its best to dodge but was still hit by the massive Paladin shield, leaving its face covered in blood from the Paladin's blow.
"Whoosh!" Seizing the moment while the giant rat was dazed, Estelle fired another arrow straight at its face. The giant rat fell to the ground with a thud, immediately losing all movement.
On the other side, two giant rats rushed towards Laine together. Laine raised the Griffin Warhammer, and with one swing, he smashed the head of one rat. The other rat, sensing danger, instinctively turned to flee.
"Finish it off!" The group wanted to give chase, but the ice surface of the underground lake was slippery, so Weasley quickly called out to the Half-Elf.
"You don't have to tell me twice!" Estelle replied impatiently. The Half-Elf bent his bow and strung an arrow, squinting as he calculated the distance, then lifted the longbow and fired an arrow upwards.
How does this Half-Elf shoot? The association director, Weasley, frowned, but what happened next made him open his eyes wide.
The giant rat slid across the ice at a rapid pace. When it reached the edge of the ice and leaped onto the ground to escape, the airborne feathered arrow changed direction, descended, and pierced the rat's cranium, delivering the final judgment.
"That's a parabolic shot," Laine nodded approvingly. "To calculate the distance so precisely, you truly are a child of the forest."
"Every child of the forest can perform parabolic shots; it's just a trivial skill." Estelle was indifferent to the compliment, leaving the others with nothing to add. Only Laine shrugged: "Alright, alright, a trivial skill is still a skill. Let's see what they were eating."
The group cautiously approached the ice, looking at the corpse being gnawed by the giant rats.
"Is it... a Kobold?" Relying on the faint candlelight and the light from Laine's hand, they realized it was a Kobold's corpse, already chewed beyond recognition.
"Are Kobolds active inside the mine?" Laine asked Weasley.
Kobolds are annoying creatures that like to live in damp underground environments, but they are also excellent miners and cunning slavers.
Weasley signaled the guide to answer, who did so without hesitation: "Yes, ever since we started digging this vein, Kobolds have never stopped appearing. However, they usually fear humans; after several purges, they tend to hide whenever humans show up."
A muscle twitched on Laine's face as he thought there was always a reason for everything unusual that happened.
So, why did the miner go mad?
"Have you drunk the underground water here directly?" Laine pondered another explanation as he looked at the thick underground lake ice layer.
"No, we used to. After some miners went crazy, we suspected it was because of the water, so we let the miners bring their own water." The guide still shook his head.
"... Alright, anyway, the first mine doesn't seem to contain anything." Seeing that the Ice Lake was a dead end, with no road ahead, just rat holes and the dark rocks above, Laine suggested, "Let's head to the next mine!"
"The place where everything begins is also the place where everything ends."
"What?" Laine frowned and turned to ask Estelle: "Estelle? When did you start learning to make prophecies ?"
"Hey! Laine, what are you talking about? I didn't say anything like that." Estelle looked at Laine in confusion: "What prophecy?"
"Ah? It wasn't you speaking?" Laine found it odd.
"I really didn't say anything." Estelle seemed a bit annoyed: "None of us spoke. Are you hallucinating?"
"Yes, my friend, none of us spoke just now," Alfred also confirmed.
The group looked at each other, quickly realizing something was wrong. Laine immediately asked: "Wait! Mr. Weasley, you mentioned before that many miners heard deep and murky voices?"
"Yes... yes, did you hear it too, Mr. Laine?" Weasley's eyes lit up. Bringing Laine to investigate was indeed fruitful.
"Did any miners figure out what the voices were saying?" Laine's brow furrowed further as he asked sternly.
"No, according to them, it was a language they couldn't understand." The association director replied helplessly: "We once tried to have miners record these languages to consult linguists, but each miner described it differently."
"..." Laine had an inkling of the answer and signaled the group to explore the second mine together.
The second mine was much like the first, though the Mithril ore was purer, and the path narrower. In some places, the group had to crawl forward. The damp underground environment was uncomfortable, and as time passed, their concept of time began to blur due to the lack of sunlight. Some felt they had been underground for three to four hours, while others thought it had been most of the day.
The ceiling of the second mine was even higher, and it was hard to imagine the cave layer was fifty or sixty meters from the surface. The group cautiously advanced into the mine's depths, Laine extending a pale blue Spiritual Blade from his right wrist, illuminating the path ahead, while the others held candles to examine the rock walls.
As the group advanced, the passage narrowed until only one person could pass at a time. The walls pressed in, accompanied by intense psychological pressure: darkness, oppression, and dampness. While Laine and his group fared better, the accompanying guide and Weasley were beginning to falter. The association director cleared his throat: "Ahem, Mr. Laine, we've been in the mine for quite a while. Shouldn't we go up and rest, then come back tomorrow?"
Laine thought for a moment before shaking his head: "Let's finish checking the second mine. If there's nothing unusual, then we'll return to the surface."
After walking a bit further, the Half-Elf Estelle felt water droplets on his face. Looking up at the dome, he noticed something swaying back and forth at the highest point: "Laine? There seems to be something up top."
"What is it? Estelle, can you see it clearly?"
"It looks like... something is hanging and swinging back and forth." Estelle squinted for a while but couldn't determine what it was: "Sorry, Laine, my Dark Vision isn't as good as a true Wood Elf, and it's too far for me to see clearly."
"Where is it?" Laine and the others looked up but saw only darkness: "Is something hanging? Can you shoot it down?"
"I think so, let me try!" The Half-Elf bent his bow and strung an arrow, while the others watched.
"Whoosh~" The first feathered arrow shot into the sky, disappearing into the darkness.
After ten seconds without a response, Estelle took another arrow: "This one will hit for sure!"
Sure enough, five seconds later, there was the sound of a blade scraping against something hard: "Hit!"
The sound of a heavy object falling echoed as something very heavy landed about fifty meters ahead, making an unexpectedly loud noise. Laine and the others rushed forward.
It was a skeleton, a human skeleton, covered in dust and cobwebs.
"What's this? Did someone die here?"
"That's not surprising. Where in the underground tunnels isn't there a body?"
"This one seems different. This skeleton seems to have been here for a very long time. Look, there's no flesh on the bones, so this person must have died many years ago."
Laine, Estelle, and Alfred discussed, bewildered by the skeleton's appearance.
Laine stroked his chin: "Under normal conditions, bodies in the open typically become skeletons after about a year and a half. In this underground and cold environment, it would take even longer."
"In a setting , it would take several years," Estelle flipped the skeleton over. This skeleton was unusually tall, about two meters tall, completely turned to bones, with many broken parts, leaving only the general outline visible.
"Wait, this is..." Laine noticed something unusual about the skeleton. He immediately reached out and opened its jaws.
Under the candlelight, they noticed the skeleton's teeth were different from a human's, being more pointed. ɴᴇᴡ ɴᴏᴠᴇʟ ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀs ᴀʀᴇ ᴘᴜʙʟɪsʜᴇᴅ ᴏɴ noⅴelfire.net
They were like wolf teeth.
Laine's eyes widened as he reached for a silver wolf pendant on his person, the Genetic Primarch subconsciously pulling it out. Under watchful eyes, the silver wolf pendant glowed faintly.
"Impossible!" Laine was shocked: "Impossible! This can't be!"