Chapter 126 - What Exactly Is Buried and Hidden in This Land (2/2)
“I am more curious about how he was able to determine the location so accurately,” Pittman sneaked a glance at Gawain while muttering.
Amber’s ears pricked up, and she immediately opened her mouth. “Do you need to ask? He has been buried for over seven hundred years. He is already a professional… Hey, pain pain pain!”
Gawain pinched Amber’s ear and ignored her afterwards, while gesturing for Sir Byron to continue leading the way.
When Gawain looked at the team composition he had brought along, his heart suddenly felt a chill…
A half-elf thief who was the shame of all living things, a druid who was adept at simmering and selling fake medicine, a slick old knight who could sound righteous while on the run. Among the five, there were three individuals that didn’t quite fit in. It seemed like apart from Gawain who could use his square face to stabilize morale, the solemn and silent Sir Philip, who had been opening the path, was the only person with a clear conscience in this Cecil Clan’s expeditionary group…
While Gawain was pondering, Sir Philip suddenly turned around and asked Byron in an especially serious tone, “That’s right, Byron. You previously mentioned the ‘Righteous Retreat’. Is it a knight skill that I do not know?”
Everyone: “…”
Gawain sighed in his heart. ‘He is a rare nice fellow, but he ends up as a passive support role…’
As they got closer to Tanzan Town, everyone gradually stopped their conversations.
According to Gawain’s cheat-like mental map and his ability to analyze terrains, Gawain was able to make a rough judgment of his current position at any moment. He found out that this long underground tunnel wasn’t actually straight. There were plenty of bends and forks during the journey. After ignoring those collapsed and wrong routes, he realized they had detoured a little to the eastern part of Tanzan Town.
This place just happened to be right under the Tanzan Mine.
The terrain of Tanzan Town had been mentioned before. On the eastern side, there was the giant Tanzan mine. On the western side were two tributaries of the White River. The entire town was almost triangle-shaped, and Viscount Andrew’s castle was situated in the eastern part of the town and was connected to the Tanzan Mine by a basically flat piece of land. In fact, the castle’s main construction materials basically came from the mine. The Tanzan Mine didn’t just produce iron ores and many types of crystal ores, it also produced superior stone materials. There was a reason why everyone was so envious of Leslie Clan’s wealth.
At this moment, Gawain and the team were walking in an ancient tunnel right under the mine. His mind appeared with an immediate thought: ‘Does Viscount Andrew know the existence of the ancient tunnel?’
…He probably didn’t know. The iron and crystal ores from the Tanzan Mine weren’t mined from deep ore veins and were within the mountain itself. When excavating an ore tunnel, there wasn’t a need to dig downward. With this era’s productivity, it wasn’t a joke when they said it wasn’t ‘necessary’ to dig deep into the underground. No one would do such a strenuous and unrewarding task. Furthermore, if Viscount Andrew had dug into this ancient tunnel… it wasn’t possible for there to be no information on the outside.
As the place with the largest population center and the center of trade of the nearby vicinity, Tanzan Town wasn’t a place that was suited for keeping a secret. It was different from the Dark Range where even birds didn’t wish to defecate there.
The terrain ahead had started to go upward.
The air got moist; his skin could feel the obvious airflow; there were faint sounds that echoed from the front. These were all tell-tale signs that an exit was very near.
Soon enough, they walked out of the tunnel and saw the location where Sir Byron fell down. It was a wide and precipitous cave; the bottom of the cave had accumulated groundwater and turned into a pool. The exit of the tunnel was beside the pool. It might be called an exit, but it was actually a crevice in the rock. It was obvious that this wasn’t a normal entrance either and that it had cracked open due to the changes in the geology or some other reason.
It was unknown where the actual entrances of the tunnel were as they had probably collapsed.
After seeing there wasn’t any serious water and wind corrosion at the rock crevice by the side of the pool, Gawain couldn’t help but turn to question Philip, “Has there been any earthquake in the recent years?”
“No.” Sir Philip shook his head but immediately frowned and then pondered. “But I heard from residents of Tanzan Town that they would occasionally hear strange wailing sounds from under the mine. The townsfolk said that those were the spirits of the slave workers who died in the mine haunting the place. But Viscount Andrew had sent spirit mediums and warlocks here multiple times and didn’t discover the source of the strange sounds.”
“Is that so…” Gawain declined to comment and looked up at the top of the cave.
There were overgrown vines and there were giant tree roots that extended from the side. The entrance of the cave must have been covered and concealed previously, and a large hole had been opened up. Sir Byron’s luck was truly great, and he should really thank the goddess of fate for his survival.
If this world had such a goddess…
“After going up from here, we will see the eastern walls of the castle,” Byron said. “The cave entrance is nearly vertical, and it is all loose soil. It won’t be easy to climb up.”
“It is up to the professional now!” Pittman walked over. The little old man laughed mischievously while he took out a tender green branch from his belongings and brandished the tree branch like a magic wand. Runes were constantly drawn in the air, and the tree branch rapidly lost all life energy. It had turned from a tender green branch that was full of vitality into a withered branch.
Rustling sounds echoed from the top. The vines at the entrance of the cave had reacted to the druid spell and rapidly extended down!