Kraft met Peter, if nothing else, but at least he was in good spirits, and had a different temperament from the other residents of the place.

It was evident that he had at least wiped his face before coming to church, removing the feeling of dust and covering his face, and looking more like an outsider than a local, and his eyes did not have the low-walled alienation of locals - not in the way of communication, but also not in the mood for contact.

Frankly speaking, this attitude is okay, after all, in a place where the outside church is dominant, it is not happy to have a pagan religion appear openly. If it is a matter of religious differences, then they are at least kinder than the church.

He greeted the priest first, and when he learned that Kraft and his party were believers from outside, he became enthusiastic and came up to hug William, who was on the head. It seems that he has suddenly become a close friend, relatives and friends, which makes the captain who has never known him a little embarrassed.

"I didn't expect to meet my fellow believers here." Peter smiled and let go of William. It was the first time I had been so popular as a believer, and I had found a slight sense of identity in a foreign land.

"Please get in the car. The priest said that we should be brothers and sisters and help each other. ”

Being able to find a devout believer in Gravel Town, the priest's situation is probably not as bad as he thought before. Although he didn't ask for it, Kraft took his hand as he passed by and shoved a few coins into his hand, "Brothers in the church should not treat each other badly, and the rest of the journey is up to you." ”

Koop tightened his burqa, non-critical, and sat down in the back of the car. He couldn't say the words "church brothers", but the atmosphere was here, and from the perspective of his simple emotional intelligence, it was better to reduce communication.

"It doesn't have to be this way." At Kraft's push, Peter pocketed the money and untied the leash that bound the mule and horse, "I heard you're going to see the mines?" ”

"It's best to stop work within two years, because there is a kind of building materials in the church that can't be bought in recent years, and I heard that only this is the output, and it will be troublesome to replace it in the future."

Truth be told, Coop thought about it for a while and realized that nothing seemed wrong, and it was not the same thing at all.

"It's not easy, the mine stays there, no one is watching, no one knows if anyone has been in it. What exactly are you looking for? Sitting in the driver's seat, Peter whipped his whip, and the carriage trembled to the other side of town.

"It may be a newly discovered ore, I don't know what it looks like, how much do you know of a mining place?"

"It's all over the place, including the town that used to be a mine, and then it became what it is now." The carriage drove out of the town, turning the corner, and Peter pointed to the low flora growing on the right-hand side, "Over there is the original mine, but I abandoned it before I came, and now I live by changing grain and minerals." ”

The passengers turned their heads to look where he was pointing, and under the cover of the vegetation, a hollow mountain that was not easy to notice had almost slipped out from under their noses.

It was no more than a man tall, and the new shrubs grew on the mound of earth and rocks at the entrance of the cave, blocking most of it, and the lodging stems and leaves on the upper edge obscured the other half, and the path leading from the main road to the entrance of the cave could be faintly discernible.

The plants are almost eroded away from the traces of human access, and the near-circular hole is returned to nature, as if it belonged here. Under the visual fatigue caused by the large blue and yellow background, if someone does not point it out, it will not be noticed after passing by here a few times.

The surrounding ground is intact and there are no signs of construction to be seen, and the seamless transition from the living area to the mining area also makes it even more difficult to notice.

William, who knew a little about minerals, was a little puzzled, "How did you know that there was a mine down there?" ”

Most of the minerals on the other side of the ice sheet are exposed to the surface, and the ore can be obtained at the tribe's primitive mining level. This is not the case in the Norse Kingdom, where once a mineral deposit is discovered, it will gnaw out a pit on the surface of the earth, develop and explore in all directions, expand the mining area and pursue open-pit mining as much as possible.

The mining method of a direct mine must know in advance that there are minerals underneath, and it is difficult to achieve it at one time with complete knowledge and rich experience.

Even if there really were people who had reached this level, living the size of a gravel town, would they be willing to be obscure in the southern hills?

Peter didn't quite understand his question, "Go down with a torch and see." ”

"Natural mines, O gift from the Lord. What about the rest of the world? "That kind of round hole really doesn't look like it was built artificially, it is not easy to chise, and it is not suitable for placing supports.

"It's the same, it's everywhere, as long as you can find a regular water source to live in, you don't have to worry about nothing to dig in."

William glanced back at the hole and repeated his words in a questioning tone, a little incredulous, "Everywhere? ”

"Yes, but those people don't think it's a gift from the Lord." Dividing himself from the rest of the natives, Peter spat out, "I talk all day long, but I can't name it." ”

"There's another one on the hill over there, but it's too deep to be used near the top of the mountain." He pointed again, an ordinary hill, and this time no one could see the entrance to the cave, and it was too difficult to tell the difference between the bare rock and the half-covered hole after a certain distance.

Listening to him, there are too many natural mines of the same kind here to count, no less than the number of mountains.

"And this kind of terrain?" There is no term in Kraft's impression that a large number of natural deep holes have been formed in water-scarce hilly areas, just as many small holes have grown in dried and preserved cheese for no reason, and it is suspected that maggots have been born.

"Are they deep?"

"Yes, I have been in the mines before, and I can walk in it for a long time, and I have to endure the chatter of those people who don't believe in the Father for a long time, so it's better to come and catch the carriage." He was quite resentful of this, and he rarely had the opportunity to talk to him, and he was afraid that the priest would get tired of listening to it and repeat it.

"They are lazy to take the part that is closer to the exit, and then change places, squandering the gifts of the Lord, and sooner or later they will be punished."

Kraft and William covered their heads and sighed at the same time, the former was not so devastated, he was mentally prepared when he came, and the frustration was expected, "Alas. ”

According to the wrong idea of mine investigation, they can at least check by person, and the settlement that can produce a large amount of raw materials and trade with the outside world cannot be covered by weeds and shrubs like a mine cave.

Peter misunderstood the meaning of their sighs and continued to complain about his dislike of them: "They will not listen to me, nor to the priests, and they are stuck to a set of rules that they will never know how many more they have, and they cannot tell who made them." ”

"You can't go deeper, don't go out too late, and always remind which side is facing outward...... There are so many that I honestly never used them. Those who came after them stayed for a long time and got the bad habits of the gods, and I don't want to be like that. ”

Amid the grumbling, the carriage turned around the next bend, the sense of direction blurred, the zigzag road did not know whether it was going in or out, and Kraft had to remember a little to conclude that they were moving away from the canal.

In other words, they were deep into the southern hills, and another cave appeared on the other side of the mountain. Intuitively enough to fit into a gravel-town hut, it stretched diagonally down the mountainside, the light stopping not far from the entrance to the cave.

The rounded outline of the cave wall is not the smooth, gentle style of a cave, and the rock wall retains corners and small straight edges, and there are not many traces of erosion, at least at Kraft's geographical level, it is not thought to be formed by the dissolution of flowing water.

It cannot be seen at any depth, and as far as the illuminated section is concerned, the width does not change much, and it resembles a crude tunnel prototype.

"Hey, what do you think the end of these holes is?" A certain sailor, unable to bear the loneliness, opened his mouth to talk to Peter, and it was quite difficult to see a hole elsewhere, and he could not help but be curious.

"I don't know, I haven't heard anyone mention it."

"Really? That's weird, haven't you tried to go down and see it? ”

Peter pondered for a moment, as if rummaging through memories of his past days working in the mines, "It's too deep to go on." ”

After the topic was over, the carriage fell silent, Yvonne took out a small notebook and read it for a while, but was blocked back by Kraft, "Don't read books on the car, it hurts your eyes." ”

It's still a long time, Yvonne doesn't need to catch a few more words, and he doesn't need to rush it. The mine will not run in place, and it is acceptable to find it for a few weeks or months.

(End of chapter)