The friars' reserve did not last long, and no one refused to find a little gustatory comfort in an oppressive environment at the gracious invitation.

When Father Green returned, he was bewildered to find the camp in a morning tea atmosphere. Cloths were laid on the lid of the coffin, bags of biscuits had bottomed out, and the sound of chewing was incessant.

And the initiator also waved his hand generously, beckoning him to sit down and rest and eat together.

"I thought you knew what this place was."

"The outpost?" Kraft picked up the biscuit bag and shook it, shook out the last few pieces, ate one himself, and handed the rest to Green, "But it's safe for now, isn't it?" ”

"Heretics and things that no one knows what are wandering down there, and I hope you didn't come here for that." The priest took the biscuit and took a bite.

The taste is not bad, although it is on the hard side, but the cereal aroma and sweetness are well combined, which is just right for those who need sugar after the activity.

"That's part of the purpose, but it's mostly to go down and see it for yourself, and bring my students along the way."

"If I'm not mistaken, you told me before that this is the heir to Ling's medical career." Green glanced at the girl who was looking at the crevice in a daze, she was not frightened by the previous part of the road, and was looking forward to the next journey.

"Well, don't say it, don't say it." Kraft let out a heartfelt sigh and began to prepare, "I hope she doesn't find this place interesting." ”

While they waited for Green to recuperate, they unloaded the excess weight, checked their belongings, and made sure they were where they belonged. It didn't take long, after all, the former desperately wanted to end it all before the next rainy day.

The current exploration team has shrunk a lot compared to before, including only Grimm himself, and the five monks who dared to step into the waterway after the rainy night accident, not even Vardin, but as a backup force just in case.

The priest took a deep breath and leaned sideways into the crevasse first, followed by several monks and Kraft, with Yvonne at the end.

After entering, the order of the team was adjusted, and Green still led the team, but put Yvonne in the middle. Kraft automatically retreated to the back of the line, keeping a distance from Green.

A damp and dark breeze surged through the underground space, and they re-entered the shadow of Dunling.

Still following the waterway downward, gradually approaching the roaring space.

Knowing the nature of sound does not make people habitual. The sound of falling water processed through the deep well and hall is similar to the snoring of some kind of creature, and the first time you enter it, it feels like it is passing by its mouthparts.

Green pulled out a small iron kettle and shook it in his ear, and continued forward after hearing the familiar scraping sound of particles.

When the resonant noise reached its peak, they came to the hall.

The darkness widened before their eyes, turning into an endless open unknown, and the procession walked its edges, passing through similar openings, avoiding slippery moss and sharp-edged ravines.

It is not difficult to notice some of the particularly bright fissures, with no moss growing inside, and the shiny sections reflecting the undulating human form under the water layer.

Those who have a slight idea of the hardness of stone will realize that these things are not part of the original ruins, but the creation of some kind of cognitive external force, which transcends the cutting of the material plane.

Yvonne heard a shrill whisper behind his ear, and even the loud sound of water couldn't stop it from expressing its meaning—fear.

It is not an acquired emotion, but a feeling of primordial horror that reaches the depths of the soul of a wingless creature on the edge of a cliff, which reminds the synaesthete of witnessing the approach of a storm cloud by the sea, from a sense of powerlessness over irresistible destruction, which is permeable to any form of consciousness and can therefore be clearly perceived.

[What's that?] 】

The question was rightfully unanswered, only an echo of pure fear vibrating in the chest.

She jumped over the chasm quickly, trying to forcibly contain the synaesthesia, but to no avail, just as one could not stop a part of the body from transmitting sensations.

Looking back at the back of the line, he looked at Kraft's gaze, which seemed to be paying attention to this side, or all the time, nodding slightly at Yvonne, and then shaking his head and pointing to his feet, signaling to concentrate on the road.

During the difficult journey, after passing two corners, Green accurately stopped in front of a tunnel, took out a small iron bottle and shook it to listen while confirming that the team was in place, and then entered.

The loud sound of the falling waterfall shifted from everywhere behind them, and as they went deeper, until only a little damp cloth was left against their backs, reminding them of something on their way.

Entering the new corridor did not let the monks relax, they visibly became more nervous, their hands swinging not far from their weapons and fuel bottles, their eyes glued to the featureless walls of the tunnel.

[It's like something popping up on the bricks at any time]

Even if nothing happens from the beginning, this small act creates a build-up of tension and is contagious from person to person.

The slope of the waterway slowed down to the point where it was close to level and split in two directions ahead, and Green silently chose the left side, using the hilt weight ball to mark a faint white mark at waist-height that was not easy to notice.

The torches were held as high as possible to illuminate longer distances, as if guarding against something ahead.

Yvonne understood it as an omen, grabbing his dagger in advance and waiting for the unexpected to come.

But the team moved forward in silence, the vague silhouette of the piles blocking the way, and it was clear that it was not an enemy or something strange.

The tunnel collapsed here, blocking the road with large pieces of broken masonry and sediment, and gurgling streams flowing out of the gaps.

【Dead End】

Green led Kraft to the rubble, dug up a part of the silt, and explained to the fracture of the rock, how the toothed marks were formed, and how they were connected to a certain age long ago.

A monk joined the discussion, and his words contained much of what Yvonne didn't understand, and his long words were preceded by the names of some architectural structures and tools, turning them into strange ones, and succeeding in creating more confusion.

They came to an agreement in person, presumably that the place was destroyed at some point, and that there were many more similar dead ends.

Then the team starts to return, turning back to the fork in the road, marking the other side to explore forward, finding a new fork, picking a side to continue, and then encountering a dead end.

The whole process was only a march and very little verbal communication, and most of these exchanges were not well understood.

A few episodes were niches that appeared at the edge of the passages, and the monotonous spaces that looked like transit stations, which then proved to be meaningless.

The utter boredom was even worse than the horror of passing through the hall before, she felt tired and sleepy and a little irritability with it, her slightly dripping boots not heavy but not so comfortable with each step.

The novelty had been exhausted a long time ago, and it was all maintained by patience and a certain spirit of unyielding confrontation, not to bother. This is the first time, and at least it shouldn't be disappointing for the first time.

She was more or less aware of what her mentor had said and had not said. It's really hard to feel that things are not as imagined before experiencing it yourself, for example, sometimes repetitive and boring searching and thinking may be the background color of most of the time.

Finally, after the final fork proved dead-end, the team decided to return to repair and continue their exploration, tredging back through the halls and back to the makeshift camp.

"It's another trip that doesn't pay off, does it?" Father Green sat down by the fire.

Due to ventilation problems, the size of the fire needs to be controlled, and it is purely psychological comfort to dry the water stains on your body. The semi-wet feeling of not drying will always accompany the exploration until the next time you return to the ground for trimming.

There is reason to believe that the professor brought his students here in part to dissuade them from the study rather than to actually do the apprenticeship, just as a child in a convent who could not read the scriptures might be sent to do chores.

"Not exactly." Kraft ripped through Green's map and found the hole he had just entered, drawing a route.

Unlike other symbolic paintings, the priest noticed that his drawings had a certain degree of finesse in the length of the path.

"You counted your steps?"

"And the angle." As he spoke, the professor had already marked the approximate location of the dead end, and used a wooden ruler to compare the distance, "I can't estimate the height difference between the top and bottom, but the length can still be roughly judged." ”

"A few of the collapses seem to be about the same distance away from the hall in a straight line, I have a guess, but it may take more to tell."

"What?"

"It's not just a random seal, there is a fixed distance, and someone deliberately wants to seal the passage within a specific range around the hexagonal well to isolate a roughly circular area." Kraft closes his eyes and sketches his conjectures from memory and spatial imagination.

The waterway is a three-dimensional system, and its ability is far from guaranteeing correctness.

"Actually, it can be proved from another angle, why don't they block the entrance to this end of the hall? Obviously, it's easier to do this. Explain that this range exists, and what is the significance or use of it. ”

"Not just to isolate this place, but what might it be for?" Green gave up drying himself and leaned closer, "But how do you remember, even if the length is counted, there is also the angle direction?" ”

"You can understand it as a gift."

"You're quite talented."

"Thank you for the compliment, but it's not as precise as you think, so it's just a possibility for the time being." Kraft put down the map.

"As you say, then there's a chance they'll leave an entrance, a formal entrance, instead of a chasm like the one that was accidentally dug through the quarry here." Following his conjecture, Green speculated further.

"Interesting, I'm starting to wonder where this entrance came from."

Speculation based entirely on unreliable conjectures lifted the spirits a little, so much so that an urge arose to set out immediately to confirm it.

But the numbers quickly cooled the impulse: "In the worst case, we would have to search thirty waterways and their branches to find this entrance." ”

Yvonne understood this, and she now felt a little regretful.

I recently saw a new book of Western Fantasy, called "Necromancer's Experimental Notes", with a DND background, which is quite interesting.

∠(」∠)＿

(End of chapter)