Chapter 287: Act 54 – The King of the Underground (5) (First Update)
Not long after the two entered the fourth layer, Brendel suddenly heard Xi whispering, “Lord.”
“What’s wrong?”
“Let me try going down.” The Maiden’s voice was barely audible.
Brendel looked down and saw that the divine being’s resilience was indeed remarkable; although she had lost her strength, her body’s recovery capability was still much stronger than that of an ordinary person. He noticed that the wound on Xi’s thigh had stopped bleeding and had formed a scab.
After hesitating for a moment, he asked, “Are you sure you’re alright?”
But under the Maiden’s insistence, Brendel eventually supported her down. When Xi’s feet touched the ground, she slightly furrowed her brow, but after a brief wobble, she managed to stand steadily. Although she was a bit slow, she could force herself to walk with the support of the Thunder Spear.
After realizing this, Xi seemed a bit pleased. She raised her head and smiled at Brendel, saying, “Lord—!” Brendel had seldom seen Xi smile so genuinely, and he couldn’t help but be taken aback.
But she quickly realized her own lapse and turned her head away.
Brendel thought that this red-haired Maiden actually looked quite lovely when she smiled, but he would never voice that thought. The two maintained silence as they passed through the low tunnels. After a short distance, Brendel suddenly noticed a faint white object in the darkness ahead, and he softly exclaimed, “Hmm?”
“What is it?” Xi asked from behind.
“It seems like there’s something.” Brendel quietly explained. He knew that Xi’s eyesight was no different from an ordinary person’s now, and given the environment, it was difficult to see far. Although there were illuminating crystals, their light was terribly inadequate.
He drew his sword with one hand and slowly approached with the girl, finally seeing that it was a person lying on the ground. It appeared to be a miner; he examined the individual carefully and found no obvious wounds.
“Not dead yet,” Xi glanced at the person and immediately made the judgment.
Brendel also noticed that the man’s chest was rising and falling slightly, indicating he was merely unconscious. He nodded, tried calling out to him, but received no response. Then he pulled the stopper from his water pouch and dribbled some water onto the man’s forehead.
Considering they didn’t know how long they would be stuck underground and that their supply of fresh water was limited, Brendel instinctively took care with his actions.
Fortunately, his method proved effective quickly. The miner, appearing to have no serious injuries, soon blinked his eyes and came to.
But as soon as he opened his eyes and saw the two, he instinctively shrank back, hitting the cold rock wall. Brendel noticed the man’s panicked expression and hurriedly said, “We’re also from here; you don’t need to worry.”
The miner paused for a moment before realizing. He took a breath, looked closely at the two, and then calmed down enough to ask, “Are you in charge? A foreman? Or someone from the security team…?” He had seen Brendel’s sword and Xi’s war spear—in this mining area, only the foremen and soldiers would carry weapons, but aside from their lack of security uniforms, the pair looked more like the latter.
“We’re from the security team.” Brendel replied, knowing that these miners were familiar with almost all the foremen.
The man visibly relaxed, but then he became tense again. “Did you two also encounter monsters?” He noticed the blood on Xi.
“Monsters?” Brendel turned to exchange glances with Xi.
In this context, the “monsters” he had summoned were probably the wind element spiders, but he frowned, “What kind of monsters?”
He had previously used the wind element spiders as scouts in the third layer, but he instinctively felt that things were not so simple.
“Statues, like monsters that are statues, oh Martha!”
“Statue-like monsters?” Xi knelt beside Brendel and asked softly.
Statues? Brendel thought that there were many types of stone monsters in Vaunte, with typical examples being the gargoyle sentinels and war puppets created by Bud’s craftsmen. However, given the environment here, stone elementals seemed more likely.
Brendel pondered for a moment and reassured the miner, “You don’t need to be afraid. We’re here; take your time to recall what those monsters looked like. Were they humanoid? Or beast-like?”
The miner took a deep breath, “They look like beasts but are made of rock, sir, I swear I wouldn’t mistake it!”
“Beast-like? Do they have wings?”
“No!” he answered emphatically.
Brendel was puzzled. He hadn’t heard of such rock-formed beasts before. Although there were all sorts of monsters and anomalies in Vaunte, most had traceable origins. Beasts resembling earth or stone forms were either magical puppets or related to the earth elemental world. However, apart from a few stone gargoyles, beast-like variants were exceedingly rare.
Creatures in the earth elemental world were mostly insect-like.
Noticing that the miner was growing more apprehensive, he quickly steadied his emotions, “Are there any others here besides you?” He knew miners usually entered the mining area in groups.
The miner swallowed hard, as if just remembering this fact, and nodded hurriedly, “Yes,” he said, “I came with my team, but we got scattered when the monsters showed up.”
He couldn’t help but glance into the depths of the dark cave, uncertainty etched on his face as he said, “I don’t know where they went; I don’t know if they’re still alive. The monsters might have chased them…”
He seemed somewhat relieved but also filled with trepidation.
“By the way,” the miner suddenly remembered something. “Lord Mahan is also here.”
“Lord Mahan?”
“You don’t know him?” The miner looked surprised. “He’s the foreman for this area! I heard he was in the army before; his swordsmanship is impressive. When the tremors started, he said he would go ahead to take a look, and that’s when those monsters appeared.”
Brendel broke out in a cold sweat, thinking that his casual question almost slipped him into a trap. Thankfully, this worker had low vigilance upon seeing ‘his own people.’
However, he didn’t pick up on the problem, while Xi furrowed her brow slightly: “Wasn’t it supposed to collapse instantly at the start of the earthquake? Besides, what was he checking?”
Having been a mercenary since a very young age, the Maiden’s thought process was much more alert and shrewd than Brendel’s.
As Brendel heard this, he also caught on: “Indeed, shouldn’t he have been searching for a safe place to take cover at a time like this?”
“No, no, no,” the miner quickly waved his hands, “The tremors weren’t that strong at the very beginning, and this layer of rock is relatively solid; the collapse wasn’t severe. The key is that the tremors came from the south; didn’t you feel it?”
The tremors came from the south—
This unexpected information triggered a reaction in Brendel. It seemed his suspicions were not far from the truth; something incredible was indeed unearthed beneath the Schafflund mines. Though he didn’t know them well, he couldn’t help but worry about Kewen and the other youths; they were certainly in grave danger by now. Brendel couldn’t help but sigh.
“It doesn’t seem like an earthquake,” Xi quietly said, turning back to him. “My lord.”
Brendel had made up his mind to check ahead; while the silver heritage wasn’t as rare as the Golden Apple, it was still a valuable item. However, given the precious reward, the task likely wouldn’t be simple.
He suddenly interrupted Xi, placing a finger to his lips: “Shh—”
The tunnel fell silent, leaving only the miner’s heavy breathing. But soon, both Xi and the miner heard a rustling sound coming from the south, as if something was crawling close to the ground.
“They’re coming.”
The miner’s face turned ashen.
But Brendel lowered his sword, feeling somewhat puzzled; there were quite a few things approaching, but the heavy footsteps didn’t seem to indicate anything particularly dangerous.
However, it wasn’t long before the monsters the miner spoke of began to emerge from the darkness. The first was a grayish-white feline creature that gracefully stepped into the light of the illuminating crystals, fixing its gemstone-like gray eyes on Brendel.
No, it should be said that those were simply a pair of gray gemstones.
Because this slender feline creature was, in fact, a statue—an animated statue—its eyes made of gray crystal.
The moment Brendel laid eyes on it, he understood the situation: so this wasn’t a rock-formed monster at all. Instead, it was a summoned entity, specifically a creature formed by mimicking earth elements.
As for what shape it took, that depended solely on the summoner’s intention.
But Brendel was slightly taken aback, “Is there a spirit summoner down here?” This thought flashed through his mind. “Or is something subconsciously controlling these creatures?”
It seemed the latter possibility was far more apparent. However, if this were an autonomous piece of equipment, even without intelligence, it would at least rank as an above-level fantasy item.
Moreover, it might be of a very high-level fantasy rank.
Brendel’s heart swelled with emotion at this thought, feeling that he finally might witness an advanced piece of equipment since arriving in this world.
While he thought this, more and more of these feline creatures appeared from the darkness. A quick count revealed that there were already more than a dozen, and beyond the line of shadows, several pairs of faintly glowing eyes were also moving.
Over twenty stone black panthers had formed a semi-circle, surrounding them.
Yet Brendel showed no sign of panic. He stepped forward and lowered his sword: “You stay back a bit, Xi.”
Xi grabbed hold of the miner, who was so scared he was trembling and ready to flee, and then turned her head to Brendel, nodding obediently as she moved back a little. She knew she had no strength left now, relying merely on the divine being’s constitution, which was only slightly stronger than a normal person’s; remaining on the front line would only hinder Brendel’s actions.
However, although she had lost her strength, her keen sight remained, and she had already figured out that these stone big cats seemed to pose no threat—especially to Brendel.
…
(PS: I will make up for the updates from two days ago tomorrow; the 18th will have four updates. On the 19th, there is a family wedding, so I am unsure about the updates, but anything missed will be compensated.)(To be continued, for more chapters and to support the author, please log in and support legitimate reading!)
