NOVEL NEXT Chapter 17: The Mining Village
Chapter 17: The Mining Village
Several people turned their eyes towards Wu Heng, leaving him momentarily stunned.
He then realized that someone had just spoken to him.
Looking at the miner behaving like a zombie, Wu Heng felt a bit at a loss.
Although he was a necromancer, his knowledge was limited to casting spells.
He wasn't a true scholar, and had no expertise in diagnosing such situations.
However, since the command had been given, he had no choice but to step forward and examine the miner.
The miner appeared to be in a state of frenzy, with drool dripping from the corner of his mouth.
He seemed completely deranged, eager to attack those around him.
His pupils were still focused, and his skin didn’t show the typical signs of zombification.
Wu Heng removed his glove and placed his hand on the miner’s neck.
He could feel the warmth of human skin and detected no necromantic aura.
Rather than a zombie, the miner seemed more like someone afflicted with rabies.
Aggressive, frenzied, and behaving like a wild animal.
The key difference from a zombie was that the miner still displayed signs of life.
"Not a zombie; more like someone who’s gone mad," Wu Heng said, adding, "But we can't rule out other necromantic methods."
Even though he hadn’t seen many undead creatures, he was certain that this miner hadn’t been turned by necromancy.
The curly-haired investigator then stepped forward to conduct his own examination.
He reached a similar conclusion.
Plamon nodded, casually tossing the frenzied miner aside, and ordered, "Tie up all the survivors. Don't let them interfere with the investigation."
"Yes, sir!" the soldiers responded, gathering ropes and rags from the village to bind the miners.
Nearly half of the twenty or so crazed miners had died during the initial confrontation, and the rest were injured.
Given their injuries and frenzied, self-destructive behavior, even if they regained their senses, they would likely be left disabled.
But that was still better than being killed outright by the soldiers.
Soon, the remaining miners were tightly bound and thrown into a wooden house.
The investigation team, having confirmed there were no further immediate dangers, continued deeper into the village.
The entire village felt empty.
It was desolate and eerie.
Along the way, they saw wooden barrels, mining picks, and clothes left hanging out to dry.
The soldiers formed a formation, moving forward cautiously while talking in low voices.
The team of professionals followed behind them.
Karvina whispered, "This is more than just a case of missing people."
The information from Blackstone Town and the mining owner indicated that the villagers had disappeared.
There was no sign of them, dead or alive.
But what they encountered was an entirely different scenario.
The crazed miners had come out of hiding, which was completely different from what was reported.
"There are two possibilities: either the situation changed over time, and the missing people returned to the village and went mad for some reason, or someone providing the information concealed the truth," Wu Heng analyzed.
"No kidding!" Karvina retorted.
"What I mean is, if it’s the second scenario, we might be in danger."
His voice was low, but in the eerie silence, everyone heard it clearly.
The others exchanged worried glances.
If it was the second scenario, it would mean the mission was a trap, and their investigation team had likely fallen into an enemy’s snare.
Considering the fate of the first missing investigation team, it was even more concerning.
Both scenarios were easy to understand.
With just a brief explanation, everyone could grasp the potential danger.
After reflecting on the situation, unease began to spread among the group.
After a moment of silence, the curly-haired investigator spoke up, "The mine owner has no reason to lie. The mine is his livelihood; he’d be more worried than anyone else if something happened here. Lying to us would bring severe consequences."
That made sense.
It did seem logical.
Wu Heng nodded in agreement with the investigator’s reasoning.
Jumping to conclusions now would only complicate matters.
……
The group continued along the path.
The village was larger than they had expected, with houses crisscrossing to form a network of narrow alleys.
The debris along the road began to pile up.
Mine carts, picks, and heaps of stones and debris created small mountains.
Several trees, thick as thighs, had ropes and strips of cloth hanging from them, like curtains swaying in the breeze.
The atmosphere was quiet yet eerie.
Soon, the team reached the end of the village, where a large mountain loomed before them.
The mining village had been built around this mountain.
Years of excavation had left the mountain riddled with countless mine tunnels.
"There’s someone over there," a soldier said.
Looking ahead, they saw three bodies lying near a heap of rubble and debris.
The team quickly approached, their expressions darkening.
Judging by their clothing, the bodies belonged to the first investigation team that had gone missing.
Someone had dared to attack an investigation team.
This situation was more serious than they had imagined.
The curly-haired investigator began examining the bodies and found a notebook in one of the corpses’ pockets, which he opened to read.
Wu Heng and the others immediately crowded around, using the fading light of dusk to read the contents.
[The village is empty. The villagers left behind their belongings and tools, leaving traces of their daily lives...]
The first few pages detailed the village’s condition.
Unlike Wu Heng’s group, the first investigation team hadn’t encountered the crazed villagers at the entrance and had only noted the village's emptiness.
This aligned with the intelligence from Blackstone Town.
Both sources described the village as deserted, with the villagers missing.
However, the first team had more time to investigate and had even searched the houses, but found no useful clues.
The curly-haired investigator turned to the second page.
[Late at night, we saw lights and heard noises coming from the village center. Following the lights, we arrived at the central square and saw the missing villagers gathered there, as if they were holding a dance. Some were singing with blood streaming from their mouths, others were dancing until their feet were bloody. These people seemed insane, their behavior completely abnormal.]
[We waited until dawn, and the crazed villagers began heading towards the mountain behind the village. We decided to follow them, hoping to discover where they were hiding and what had caused them to become like this.]
The entry ended there.
The latter part provided valuable clues.
At night, the crazed villagers would gather to sing and dance, indicating that their mental state was already deteriorating by then.
By the time Wu Heng’s group arrived, the villagers' condition had worsened, and they were completely out of control.
At dawn, the villagers would head towards the mountain.
And that’s where the first investigation team had met their end.
Were they discovered?
It didn’t seem likely; they had managed to track the villagers all the way to the mountain.
Wu Heng analyzed the situation, about to speak.
But he noticed that everyone was staring at him.
"What?"
Wu Heng instinctively took a step forward, only for the others to simultaneously take a step back, their eyes filled with alarm as they looked past him.
What the hell!
In an instant, Wu Heng felt his hair stand on end and a chill run down his spine.