Chapter 718: Tomb Raiding in Another World

Henwell visits Miller while he is still recovering. "Feeling any better?"

Miller nods. "The monster wasn't venomous, so I should recover quickly."

"Most of my wounds came from being slammed into rocks while I was struggling with it."

Henwell takes out a drawing board. "Close your eyes."

"Recall every route you followed underwater, every turn you made, and the distance you swam. Tell me everything."

Half an hour later, Henwell shows Miller a three-dimensional map. "Are there any mistakes or omissions?"

Miller studies the map, then looks up in surprise. "No. It's very clear. Guildmaster, where did you learn to draw maps like this?"

Henwell does not answer. He merely tells Miller to rest and recover.

By the next morning, Henwell has built a cross-sectional model of the underground cave system from earth.

The tangled network of subterranean waterways makes everyone frown.

Solomon says, "This model will certainly save us a great deal of trouble."

"Only one obstacle remains. We have no idea how many monsters are in the water."

Henwell shakes his head. "The number doesn't matter. We only need to avoid them."

He points to a location on the model. "This is Air Pocket No. 7, roughly twenty-seven meters below the mountain's surface."

"If we sink a new shaft directly into it, we will emerge only twenty-one meters from the trapped survivors."

"That will let us bypass most of the flooded passages and avoid contact with the monsters."

"I studied the creature yesterday. For now, let's call the species blind serpents."

"It has no eyes and its other senses have deteriorated. After spending so much time underwater, its hearing cannot be very good either."

"It must hunt through smell and changes in the current."

"We can set traps in Air Pocket No. 7, kill the blind serpents there, and establish a safe zone."

Solomon wrestles with the decision, then agrees to try the plan.

A set of specialized tools used by the Peace Haven Geological Survey Team soon arrives from the foot of the mountain.

Newwood would recognize them immediately. They are blatant copies of a soil-sampling spade from their former world.

Once the approximate position is fixed, the team begins driving the soil-sampling spade downward.

Knights make excellent living excavators, and the work proceeds remarkably quickly.

To be safe, they need to dig at least thirty meters, which is not difficult for the Knights.

They occasionally strike rock, but the spade's head is made from a special extraordinary metal. Under the Knights' tremendous strength, it cuts through stone with ease.

They bore one test shaft after another, probing for the precise location of Air Pocket No. 7.

At last, that afternoon, one of the boreholes breaks through into the air pocket.

Full-scale excavation begins. Apart from the archaeologists and several women, all the remaining members roll up their sleeves and start digging.

While the shaft is being excavated, others install rockfall barriers around the site and dig two drainage channels to keep another storm from flooding it.

The test shaft is three meters square and more than thirty meters deep, a dangerous depth for such a narrow excavation.

To prevent a collapse, the people above use nearby trees to build rectangular frames fitted tightly against the shaft's walls.

As the shaft grows deeper, more timber shoring frames are lowered into place.

The excavators work in shifts without pausing for a moment.

By the afternoon of the second day, the shaft finally breaks through into Air Pocket No. 7.

Next comes fishing... or rather, baiting serpents.

Henwell can leave the rest to Solomon's two Grand Knights and many skilled Battle Knights.

Over the next two days, four blind serpents are killed in Air Pocket No. 7.

One is an adult specimen, and it is enormous. The thickest part of its body measures a full meter across, while its total length remains unknown.

Even after it is killed, they cannot pull its entire body from the waterway.

The adult blind serpent kills two of Solomon's Battle Knights and two Knights, while injuring another seven people.

Henwell suggests leaving the giant serpent's corpse in the waterway.

The carcass of an apex predator from the underwater caverns should deter many unknown subterranean creatures from approaching.

An elite team led by Dennis, captain of Solomon's guard, then follows Miller back into the underwater cavern.

This time, they encounter no danger and reach the area where the survivors were trapped without incident.

It is a bank beside an underground river. The few survivors have taken refuge in a dry channel above the waterline.

After the survivors are brought out one by one, supplies are sent in continuously and a temporary base is established on the bank.

On the seventh day, Henwell also reaches the underground riverbank.

By then, numerous lamps light the cavern. The air circulates freely, so there is no danger of oxygen deprivation in an enclosed space.

The cavern is more than forty meters long, six meters high, and thirty meters wide.

The quiet underground river beside them occupies half its width.

The camp stands on the broad bank to the left of the river. The strip of dry ground is nearly ten meters wide and can hold a substantial quantity of supplies.

The most important discovery is a stone door.

More precisely, it is a petrified door. No one can tell what material it was originally made from.

The archaeologists excitedly raise their oil lamps and crowd around the door, greedily studying every inch of its surface.

After every pattern and character has been recorded, the stone door is smashed open by force under the archaeologists' pained gazes.

A pitch-black corridor overgrown with moss appears before them.

Solomon's people gear up and begin exploring the unknown passage.

The sight of their reckless approach makes Henwell groan inwardly.

If it were up to him, he would first fill the corridor with smoke. Every venomous insect and dangerous creature inside would be forced to reveal itself.

However, the Lady of Calamity has said that enough souls and blood must be shed along this route to satisfy the ritual she requires.

None of the people risking their lives belong to Henwell, so he has no intention of interfering.

At least the advance team isn't wiped out this time. Some members are injured, but no one dies.

After half a day of exploration, they return with a rough map.

They have discovered that the place is a fortress, or perhaps a small settlement.

They also bring back numerous artifacts. Most are fragments, with only one or two objects remaining intact.

Even so, the finds are enough to send the archaeologists rushing over with cheers to begin their research.

For the next two days, Henwell's group has nothing to do.

Philir and the others grow so anxious that they can no longer sit still. At last, they approach Henwell. "Guildmaster, we should go inside and take a look too."

"Those people can't be trusted. None of our men went with them, so they have probably hidden plenty of treasure already."

"If we wait any longer, there may be nothing left for us at all."

Henwell glances at him. "Fine. You can lead a team on the next expedition."

Philir brightens and immediately goes to discuss the matter with the others, preparing to enter together.

Miller asks quietly, "Guildmaster, are you really going to let them go?"

Henwell replies, "It's far too early to worry. It isn't a bad thing to let them scout ahead for us."