MTL - The Law of the Silent Gentleman-Chapter 25 underground tunnel
Giuliano leaned against the stone wall and slowly sat down on the ground. The captives in the corner stared at him suspiciously at first, but over time they lost interest in him. Giuliano didn't care much for them either. He hung Enzo's holy emblem around his neck, stuffed it into his clothes, and put it next to his body. The holy emblem seemed to contain some kind of wonderful power, and it would not be warmed by his body temperature. No matter how long it was left, the piece of metal was always cold, reminding Giuliano of Enzo. There were so many nights when Enzo hugged him and touched his fiery chest with his cold fingers, not only did he not cool him down, but made him even more unbearably hot. Wearing this holy emblem, it was as if Enzo was still with him.
Antoine sat beside Grimmer, greeted him with care, and took care of the merchant in every possible way. Originally, because of Enzo's attitude, Giuliano didn't have a good impression of Antoine, but along the way, he gradually felt the cuteness of the young swordsman. Besides, he really had no reason to be jealous of Antoine. Although this simple country youth comes from a humble background, his swordsmanship is better than the nobleman Giuliano. His swordsmanship is the kind of "steady and steady strike" that Enzo admired, without any flamboyance, and his moves are steady, precise and sharp. Antoine still maintained the habit of practicing sword every day during the trip. Once Enzo saw it, the assassin was fascinated by it, and finally said to himself: "Fortunately, he is on our side."
It should be night now. thought Giuliano. Most of the prisoners in the corner had gone to sleep (but it didn't make much difference whether they were asleep or not), Antoine was still sitting, but dozing off, his head nodding. Giuliano was sleepless. The holy emblem on his chest was too cold, almost making him suspect that it was not too cold, but too hot.
The stone door slammed.
Two men in gray strode in, each armed to the teeth. This extraordinary visit was like a stone thrown into a dead pond, and a murmur of fear rose in the quiet stone room.
One of the men in gray looked around and turned his head as if smelling something foul. Another gray-clothed man said arrogantly: "Is there anyone here who understands medicine?"
The prisoners looked at him blankly, as if they did not understand what he meant. The man in gray became impatient, raised his voice, and asked again: "Is there anyone who knows medicine?"
Giuliano's brain went into overdrive. The people in gray clothes are looking for a doctor, which means that someone is injured or sick and needs urgent treatment. The doctor has a chance to get out of this stone prison! Although he would definitely be under the surveillance of the man in gray, it was better than being trapped in a cage! He can't wait for Enzo to act in vain and pin all his hopes on him, he must seize this fleeting opportunity! As long as he can get out of trouble, he can do many things, and he can help Enzo!
"I know a little about herbal medicine." Giuliano secretly asked himself to calm down and stood up.
The man in gray who spoke looked him up and down, as if evaluating whether he was reliable. Finally, the man in gray waved his hand, "Come with us."
Giuliano touched his chest subconsciously, and as soon as he touched the hard shape of the holy emblem, his tense mind immediately relaxed a lot. He walked towards the man in gray, when there was a sudden rustling sound behind him.
"I, I understand too!" Antoine shouted, getting up in a hurry, "I can set bones, bandage, and have experience in delivering livestock!"
The first man in gray gave a "puchi" smile, and realized that he had lost his composure, so he quickly lowered his head and covered his mouth. The second man in gray pursed his lips in annoyance and held down the hilt of his sword. Even if he beat Antoine angrily, others would not be surprised. His companion stopped him: "Let this kid come together, maybe it will come in handy."
Antoine got permission and immediately stuck behind Giuliano like a happy little tail. The two followed the soldiers out of the stone room, and the guards outside took up shackles and blindfolds and approached them, but the soldier in gray who was carrying them waved his hands, saying no, and said, "Take them 'below'." Hearing this , the guard put down the thing in his hand, and watched them leave sympathetically.
"What's 'underneath'?" Giuliano asked. The silent soldier led the way, the grumpy soldier was in the rear, and the two prisoners were caught in the middle.
"Stop talking nonsense! Doctors don't need tongues!" said the soldier behind.
Giuliano stopped asking questions. His mouth was closed, but his eyes opened wider, greedily taking a panoramic view of everything around him, for fear of missing any details.
They were inside a stone building, or possibly a cave, with a wide passageway in front of a stone chamber serving as a prison cell, with alchemical lamps embedded in the walls on both sides. The channels were boxy and obviously not natural, but Giuliano could find no joints in the stone. The space they are in seems to have been carved out of a complete rock by a peerless craftsman. The possibility of "inside the cave" is a little more.
The passage is divided into two left and right passages in front of the stone chamber door, and the soldiers escorted the prisoners into the left one. At first glance, the passage looks straight and level, but Giuliano has been trained as a reticent to detect subtle changes in **** under his feet. The passage leads down. If someone puts a glass ball on the ground, the ball will roll to the front of the four.
There is an alchemy lamp inlaid on the wall of this passage every five steps. When they approach, the lamp lights up automatically, and when they walk away, the cold light behind them will go out. It seems that there is an induction spell attached to the light ball. Giuliano could not have imagined that the Viscount de Ranchogu would bring so many alchemy lamp **** with him, let alone that the Viscount would ask a mystic to attach magic to the lamp balls. He could only infer that the lamp **** were originally embedded on the wall, they were made by ancient master craftsmen, and after thousands of years of refining, the spells on them have not yet expired.
This is really an ancient ruin. They are going down. What's "below"? The city of the ancient dwarves? Mountains of gold, silver and jewels? Or an unknown deadly danger?
Giuliano couldn't help touching the holy emblem on his chest again. For a moment—the young apprentice thought he was delusional because he was too nervous—the holy symbol shook.
His heart also jumped suddenly.
The soldiers leading the way stopped suddenly. Giuliano nearly bumped into his back.
There is no way ahead.
A smooth stone slab blocked the passage, blocking the way forward. Presumably the ancients would not be bored to build a magnificent dead end to pass the time, so someone should have activated some kind of mechanism, or performed witchcraft, and lowered this stone slab to cut off the passage. Lei Xi once talked about the history of the Era of the Ancient Gods. When the dragon clan's war destroyed the civilization above and below the ground, the survivors boarded the "black crane boat" sent by the gods to bid farewell to their homeland. Maybe this slate was what they put down when they evacuated.
Of course, how could a mere slab of stone block the way of Viscount de Ranchocourt's quest. A large hole was opened near the stone slab on the right side of the passage, and a narrow passage leading to the bottom was dug out, allowing only one person to pass through. Its workmanship is so rough, compared with the neat and exquisite relic passages, it is like the small mud room built by children to the Vanessa Great Temple. The soldier leading the way turned his head slightly, meaning to let Giuliano and Antoine go first. Giuliano remained calm on the surface, but sneered secretly in his heart. Count your caution. he thought. In that narrow passage, I walked behind you, a thousand chances to kill you.
Giuliano entered the tunnel dug by the viscount's party. Antoine followed behind him anxiously, not daring to vent his breath. Two soldiers came last. If there is a danger ahead, the two captives must be the first to suffer.
The tunnel was so low that Giuliano had to stoop forward. The more you get to the front, the narrower it becomes. In the end, the young apprentice had to use both hands and feet, almost crawling forward. There was no lighting in the tunnel, and Giuliano's eyes were pitch black, and he couldn't see his fingers. The soldiers behind kept urging sharply, so he could only move forward in the dark. Fortunately, there was no fork in the way. After climbing for an unknown amount of time, a little light appeared in front of him, and as he continued to move forward, his eyes suddenly opened up. At the end of the tunnel is a square stone room with a large alchemy lamp embedded in the ceiling. It is quite similar to the temporary cell where the captives are imprisoned, except that there is a staircase leading to the underground in the center of the stone room.
There was a ring of dead spiders lying around the stairs.
Each spider is about the size of a goat. Shaved, furry limbs can be seen here and there. A giant spider was disembowelled, the wound was turned outward, and a large amount of viscous yellow body fluid flowed out, accumulating on the ground. The other giant spider's dead eyeballs reflected the cold light of the alchemy lamp, as if it was still alive. A sickening stench filled the air.
Antoine leaned against the wall and vomited silently. Giuliano covered his mouth, his stomach was overwhelmed, if he hadn't been trained, he would have gone to be with Antoine a long time ago.
The two soldiers were used to the disgusting scene in front of them. "Go!" one person urged, "Don't look at those dead things!"
Antoine vomited up the previous meal and asked weakly, "What are these? How could the spider grow so big?"
"Who knows! They seem to be living 'underneath' all the time!" The soldier spat at one of the corpses, "Damn the plague! Don't touch them, these spiders are poisonous! If you bite them, you'll fester and die !"
No wonder the prison guards gave up the idea of blindfolding them as soon as they heard they were going "down there." There are venomous giant spiders "below", if you do encounter them, you have to give them a chance to fight (or escape).
"Are you afraid?" The soldier sneered, "Go back if you are afraid!"
Antoine looked at Giuliano, then at the dead spiders all over the ground, and leaned timidly towards his companion. "I... I'm not afraid..." He insisted, "It's just... disgusting."
"Then hurry up!" the soldier shouted.
Giuliano touched the holy emblem and mustered up the courage to walk through the dead spiders all over the floor and walk towards the stairs in the center of the stone room. He was actually scared to death. One hundred heavily armed enemies is fine, but one hundred giant weird poisonous spiders? He is not afraid of humans, but these monsters. Enzo never taught him how to deal with monsters. Having said that, even the silent ones with profound wisdom may not have seen such creatures.
There are still about five steps away from the stairs, and the stench in the air is getting stronger and stronger. Giuliano wished he could run over and get out of this nightmare scene as soon as possible. At this moment, something caught his foot.
