Cyber Era Witch
Chapter 754 - 627: Ancient Tunnel

Chapter 754: Chapter 627: Ancient Tunnel

Little Fool and Xu Yang sat on the metal benches next to each other, with soldiers and miners sharing their supplies. Thanks to the earlier environmental improvement, the fish population had recovered, so the miners brought out their frozen fish, crabs, eels, and oysters, along with their long-stored turnips, radishes, and potatoes.

The soldiers, on the other hand, offered their field rations, including stewed pork, beef stew, diced chicken, dried meat from bioengineered beasts, and the indispensable nutrient paste.

All these foods were dumped into a large copper pot, where the miners’ wives got busy, filling the pot with boiling water and then pouring in powdered saury soup mix, blending everything into the bubbling saury broth and emitting waves of deliciousness as all the ingredients bobbed in the steaming liquid.

Next, they opened up many cans, adding pre-made bamboo shoots, fish balls, and seaweed into the pot, making the assortment of food even more colorful and varied.

"I’m starting!"

The more forthright started first, and then everyone else eagerly picked up their chopsticks, surrounding the copper pot and munching away.

The Wolf Girl could maintain her beast form for a long time, and now she was curled up next to the heater, her tail sweeping back and forth on the ground, completely resembling a giant wolf creature. Little Fool picked up some food onto a plate and carefully brought it to the Wolf Girl, who opened one eye, extended her long tongue, and quickly rolled all the scalding food into her throat, swallowing it all at once before closing her eyes.

"Good... good..." Little Fool reached out to stroke Wolf Girl’s forehead.

Xu Yang saw that deeper into the mine, there were even more winding areas. Curious, he ate a bit and then left the dining table to find his way into the darkness.

Imitating Xu Yang, Little Fool ate a little and then followed him. She walked behind Xu Yang while Snowball and Wolf Girl exchanged glances and then rose to follow Little Fool.

"There are deeper... natural fissures here. I wonder where they lead," Xu Yang observed the pitch-black rock crevice before him, quite broad and connected to an unknown area.

"Wow... you can’t go there," a villager militiaman, who hadn’t joined the meal and was smoking, hurried over upon seeing them looking around.

"What’s inside?" Xu Yang asked, pointing to the dark natural tunnel from where a draft of cold air emerged, sending shivers down one’s spine.

"Ancient mining tunnels," the young militiaman explained, with an expression that suggested even he wasn’t sure of what was inside.

"Does anyone in the village know more about this?" Xu Yang inquired.

The militiaman fetched an old miner from the feast, someone with greater knowledge of this hidden mine. His expression kept changing; he knew Xu Yang’s presence could help them survive, so he didn’t want him to take the risk.

"That mine was only used by my great-grandfather’s generation. They went into the heart of the mountains... to extract a rarer kind of mineral," the old miner said cautiously.

"What kind of rare mineral?" Xu Yang asked curiously.

"I don’t know... its name was given in a very unusual sound; with that mineral, the village was once famous," the old miner explained.

If it has to be described with unusual sounds, it is likely a secret script. Xu Yang speculated. At the bottom of the mine lay a mysterious mineral described in secret script. Indeed, Yibei City has always been a land fraught with peril, harboring many secrets unknown to anyone.

"Does anyone still go in there?" Xu Yang asked.

"Many companies have sent people to investigate. Some small teams went into the tunnels and then... got killed. Some kind of monster lives in there. After we mined the outermost minerals, we dared not go any deeper, fearing to end up like those exploratory teams sent by the companies, dead inside the mine," the old miner explained.

The company had plans for many mystical projects, but they didn’t always work out. Xu Yang turned and looked into the distance, activating his helmet’s night vision. His gaze penetrated the darkness ahead, revealing the ancient mine with its branching paths, upwards with man-made rope ladders and downwards with long original stone steps. The pit was sparsely dotted with scattered rocks, corpses, and large chunks of ice and snow, surrounded by an abyss that seemed bottomless.

Xu Yang thought about the distribution of several surrounding pits; they were roughly arrayed along the edges of the mountain, likely all with secret passages and legends leading to this ancient mine — only their versions differed.

"Are there stone steps leading to the top? How high does it go?" Xu Yang turned to the old miner.

"You can see clearly? It’s said to reach the top of the mountain. But you can’t go in there; it’s too dangerous," the old miner frowned.

"I need to climb a path to the top; the signal is better there, and I can contact the company’s troops to come and clear out the enemy. Then we can evacuate you to a safer place," Xu Yang nodded. If this place could connect to an external signal, that would save a lot of trouble.

After much thought, the old miner, seeing the potential benefits of establishing communication with the larger force, decided to lend them the miners’ gear without further objections to their course of action.

Xu Yang moved through the crevice further inside, everywhere there were prohibitive signs and man-made barriers to prevent the ancient monsters of the mine from crawling out. He ventured into the darkness, and upon receiving the news, Ise Hanabi followed with her great sword, with Little Fool and her "zoo" closely behind.

They were all tense and silent, surrounded by utter darkness, with only the sounds of footsteps and the friction of armor faintly distinguishable, the air carrying bursts of chill.

Xu Yang reached the cliff below, grabbed the rope ladder — it was sturdy, made of steel cables and metal plates. He started climbing, slowly ascending higher. Cold winds poured down from the fissures at the top, the obscure white light shining on the snow-covered rocks, realizing that the ladder indeed could take him to the mountain’s peak, or at least to a place where he could access the outside air. Once he got from the mine to the surface, he could turn himself into a signal tower, guiding the Nestor Corporation’s bombing troops to clear out the Frost Giants.

He ascended, and suddenly from the bottomless darkness below, there came a sharp shriek, followed by the sound of some monster rapidly climbing.

Xu Yang continued to climb upward, while those below, including Ise Hanabi, remained on guard, ready to defend against any possible attacking monsters.

Whoosh!

A pale spear shot out of the darkness, rapidly aiming for Xu Yang’s back.

The people below were startled, but Xu Yang didn’t change his movement. The ebony ring given to him by Mond flashed, and a translucent shield lit up around him. The spear shattered against the shield into countless fragments that fell to the ground.

More intense roars erupted from the abyss, as if the creature were angered by its own failing. Wolf Girl pinpointed its location from the sound and charged down with a growl.

"Be careful!" Ise Hanabi followed with her greatsword, but not as quickly as Wolf Girl.

Sounds of a huge beast entangling and ripping at another came from the darkness, terribly disturbing. Xu Yang reached the cliff top first, scanned the situation below, then fired a red warning beacon from the weapon slot of his Nanometer Armor. It struck the creature in the darkness, sticking to its shoulder.

With an intense roar, red light flashed and smoke billowed. Now they could see clearly what kind of monster it was—it was covered in pale scales, with a head protruding like a lizard’s and gray-white eyes, swollen like a pair of blisters, indicating that it was likely a blind creature.

It had an almost humanoid stance, slightly smaller than Wolf Girl, with a powerful tail and claws, stronger at least than Wolf Girl. When it swung its claws with force, Wolf Girl was also sent reeling back with a roar.

Wolf Girl retreated, and the blind scaled creature jumped back too. Its snout swelled rapidly, with orange flames lighting up quickly in its throat, before it spewed fire at Wolf Girl.

"Quack!" Little Fool swiftly extended both hands.

As Wolf Girl was about to raise her claws to block the explosive flames, an invisible wall of air appeared in front of her, absorbing much of the fire and reducing her risk of being ignited.

Little Fool couldn’t hold on for long. Xu Yang grabbed his gun and fired a burst at the blind creature’s neck. The bullets pierced its scales; instead of blood, flames emerged, and its bright throat exploded violently. Its head promptly burst into flames, turning into a fiery ball, and its entire upper body instantly exploded!

Blood and hot crimson flames flew towards Wolf Girl, with the blast wave hitting her. Her body shook, but fortunately, she was heavy enough and Ise Hanabi came to her aid. Otherwise, Wolf Girl would certainly have been blasted off the cliff by the explosion.

"Are you alright!" Xu Yang called out.

"Ao..." Wolf Girl indicated she was fine.

They looked down and saw even deeper and more winding man-made traces at the bottom of the tunnel, leading who knows where.

"Let’s deal with the ones above first." Xu Yang climbed upwards, seeing some old wooden structures, remarkably sturdy, at least two hundred years old, seemingly built by the ancient miners out of necessity.

At the end of the path, he saw an "ore field" embedded in the rock wall; only then did he notice more complete mining traces snug against the mountainside. Here, there appeared to be indentations resembling some kind of creature’s "hind legs."

From those marks, Xu Yang could clearly discern the shapes of thighs, calves, and joints, as if a fossil about 8 to 10 meters long had been excavated, like ancient bones entombed in ice. Could these mysterious minerals that the ancient miners worked so hard to dig up be these frozen remains?

He looked around; there were more minor mining traces, and the upper space appeared to be the last bit of ore field they dared to use, avoiding going down to face those blind scaled beasts.

Xu Yang carefully recorded the images he captured and then walked to the snowy corridor connecting to the outside. What they referred to as "connecting to the mountain top" turned out to be a narrow round pit above their heads, from which cold wind and snow continuously blew down, piling up a conical mound of snow on the ground.

Xu Yang climbed atop the pile of ice and snow, looking towards the sky, almost as if the top was connected to another world, cold and frozen. The mine pit’s relatively enclosed structure was, in fact, somewhat warmer than the surface.

At the very top of the snow pile, directly above the cavity, Xu Yang aimed for the light above and finally connected to the precious satellite signal.

Through this, he sent a message to Nestor Headquarters, requesting their air force to clear the Frost Giant clusters rampaging outside of Yibei City and to challenge the mysterious giant creature in the sky. He then organized a larger scale search and rescue and city recovery operations, as the situation here was worse than anyone had imagined.

Due to the severe weather, it would likely take another day before any action was taken. Xu Yang then made his way back, walking to the pitch-black cliff edge, then descending the metal rope ladder, taking the others back to rest. Meanwhile, they cleared the site, disposing of the Scaled Monster’s corpse and blood, and then brought it back to the miners, allowing them to understand the existence of such creatures. They marveled at Xu Yang’s party coming back unscathed.

After securing everything, Xu Yang and his team also rested. Little Fool and Xu Yang crawled into their respective sleeping bags.

"That was so scary." Only her little head sticking out of the sleeping bag, she was astonished by the day’s exploration. The outside world was so different from the city, and Little Fool learned a lot from the adults’ reactions.

"You were very brave. Get some rest now... There are many secrets here—what we’ve seen is just the tip of the iceberg. We must go to Yibei City, find the local records, to understand what this place used to be," Xu Yang closed his eyes, pondering how to resolve all these creatures and ensure stability.

"Oh!" Little Fool closed her eyes and obediently went to sleep.