When the cave-in occurred, Steinbeck had just rushed out of the cave entrance carrying the captive, with Lana following close on his heels.
Steinbeck handed the unconscious captive over to the Golden Falcon Group members who came to meet them. Wiping the dust from his face, he turned to look back at the cave entrance.
The depths of the passage were completely blocked by the collapse. His gaze swept back and forth between the pile of rubble and the cave entrance, and he couldn't help but click his tongue.
Knight Stine rushed over to Steinbeck's side, staring at the massive pile of rubble blocking the entrance tightly. “Why is it only the two of you?”
“Roger and Irene were bringing up the rear. We carried the captive out first. The cave-in started halfway through, and by the time we rushed out, the passage behind us had already collapsed.”
Over the next few minutes, Steinbeck briefly described what had happened inside the cave.
After listening, Knight Stine frowned deeply. He immediately summoned several scouts and ordered them to search the surrounding area for other entrances.
Then he turned to his retainer. “How many digging tools did we bring?”
The retainer quickly ran back to the temporary camp in the woods to take count, returning shortly after. “Only six or seven shovels, milord.”
“Use them for now. Find a few men with good stamina immediately and have them dig in shifts. Clear as much as possible. Don't wait for orders, start right now.”
After the retainer left to carry out the order, Knight Stine looked at Artley and Steinbeck.
“The collapse is too massive, and we don't have enough digging tools. We must call up more men and tools from the bottom of the mountain. Relying on just these few shovels, we won't clear it even by tomorrow.”
Artley shook her head. “Calling people up from the bottom of the mountain will take at least half a day for a round trip. Add the time to transport the tools, and it will be dark by the time they all arrive. If you ask me, we'd be better off taking turns using Life Energy to blast these large rocks apart.”
“If we don't control our strength properly, it might trigger another cave-in.” Knight Stine didn't reject her proposal outright.
“The excavation must be done step by step. First, have the soldiers clear the surface gravel and small loose rocks. Once we encounter large boulders that can't be moved by hand, we'll use Life Energy to shatter them. This will minimize the disturbance to the surrounding rock walls.”
Artley was silent for a moment, then nodded.
Knight Stine ordered his retainer to bring paper and a pen, drafting a battle report himself just as he had done before. Once finished, he folded the parchment, handed it to a messenger, and instructed him as he had before:
“Deliver this directly to Lord Raymond. Do not let it pass through anyone else's hands.”
Meanwhile, Artley called over a few Golden Falcon Group mercenaries and had them deliver the captive to Count Nigel.
Time ticked away. The soldiers worked in shifts, digging without pause. The cleared rocks and loose dirt piled up into several small mounds on both sides of the entrance.
Yet by the time the sun began to sink in the west, the entrance had only been cleared about ten meters deep.
Knight Stine stared at the heavy blockage inside the cave, then turned to find Artley, asking bluntly:
“Does your Golden Falcon Group have any magical devices that can amplify voices? Something that can project sound far away or penetrate obstacles.”
“If you do, lend it to me.”
...
Directly above the platform, a neat circular groove had been carved into the dome. Embedded in the center of the groove was a purple crystal core larger than all the surrounding crystals, pulsing at a slow rhythm like an upside-down heart.
The rock surface around the groove was carved with patterns identical to those on the platform. Extending from the dome all the way down the cave walls, they connected with the crystal arrays embedded in the walls, forming an energy grid that blanketed the entire chamber.
“There should be another exit here.” Roger withdrew his gaze from the dome. Maintaining his Scout's Eye, he began exploring along the edges of the chamber.
If this crystal array and liquid power supply system were maintained by the cultists over a long period, they must have other passages to enter and exit. It was impossible for them to go through that fork every single time.
A core facility in long-term use would definitely have its own independent passage.
Irene searched along the opposite wall. The two of them walked in silence through the purple glow.
Soon, Roger discovered a passage entrance half-hidden by a stone pillar at the back of the chamber.
The passage was only wide enough for one person to pass through. There were no chisel marks on the rock wall at the entrance; it looked like a natural fissure.
They entered the passage one after the other. After walking about twenty paces, a faint purple glow appeared ahead once more. The end of the fissure connected to another chamber.
This chamber was much smaller than the previous one, containing only two simple desks and a few empty wooden cabinets.
The passage on the other side of this chamber was also blocked by rubble. Roger scanned it with his Scout's Eye, but he still couldn't see the end of it.
“If this way is blocked too, we're going to be trapped to death here,” Irene said, lowering her head in deep thought.
Roger didn't reply and began rummaging through the cabinets and drawers. Most of them were empty, but in the deepest part of one drawer, he found a neatly folded piece of parchment.
He unfolded the paper under the dim purple light and found that it was a map.
The map covered the entire Kingdom of Arank, with the Cliffside Mountains being just a small marker in the southwest corner.
Several dotted lines extended outward from the mountain range, pointing to different regions of the kingdom. Along each dotted line, several place names were marked, with the twisted crest of the Purple Sun Sect drawn beside them.
The area with the highest concentration of crests surrounded a single city. Several dotted lines converged from all directions, with all arrows and annotations intersecting at the location of this city.
The name of the city was “Royal Capital - Parmenia.”
“Did you find something?” Irene's voice came from behind him.
“Nothing.” Roger put the map into his system inventory, then turned around and spread his hands to Irene, wearing the innocent expression he had long since perfected.
Seeing Roger empty-handed, Irene dropped the subject:
“Since this way is blocked too, we can only head back the way we came.”
Roger gave a noncommittal shrug. Since there were no signs of goblin activity in this area and the path ahead was blocked by the cave-in—which couldn't be cleared anytime soon—there was indeed no point in staying here.
Although many questions remained unanswered, he had raked in a lot of points this time and obtained crucial intelligence. It was already a worthwhile trip.
The return trip was much faster than the journey there.
When they returned to the previous ritual hall, Roger took advantage of Irene not paying attention to store the dissected fleshy lump and the creature's corpse into his system inventory, planning to deal with them after leaving the cave.
The pile of rubble from the cave-in was still there, looking exactly as it did when they left. Roger stopped in his tracks, just about to buy some handy tool from the system shop to get them out of the cave.
Just then, a faint sound drifted over from the other side.
It was the sound of human voices.
Irene quickly stepped forward, pressing her ear against a relatively flat rock on the surface of the rubble.
A few seconds later, she looked up and said in a lowered voice, “It's Knight Stine. He's calling your name.”
Roger activated his Scout's Eye again. At the edge of his field of vision, a group of people was digging away at the gravel of the rubble with shovels. Knight Stine was holding a trumpet-like object, shouting into the blockage from time to time.
Through the layers of stone and loose soil, that deep, booming voice reached Roger's ears:
“...Roger! Are you still in there? Give us a shout if you hear me!”
“Should we answer them?” Irene asked.
Roger thought for a moment, picked up two pickaxes from beside the corpses of the goblin grunts, and handed one to Irene.
“They won't hear us even if we shout. We might as well dig from our side too.”
Rate on N.U.
