Krafft's Notes on Anomalies

"Have you really never told anyone else about this?" Kraft said, holding his forehead. Cousin Ryan never expected that the secret would be accidentally leaked half a kingdom away. Sometimes fate is so wonderful.

But with the relationship between the two of them, it would not be good to expose him. I hope that Mr. Anderson can find the problem before he gathers a set of eyes, ears, nose, hands and feet.

"I understand, this does not mention the identity. There are many small nobles around Wendeng Port. Who knows which one you are referring to?" William stopped laughing. He had been holding this story in his stomach for a long time, and it was rare to have a suitable occasion to tell it. , the desire to talk is satisfied.

"We're all here. Let's take a look at the area where they usually move, and then go back to the village to find the old Goli who sounds like the leader of the pagans."

He has encountered many situations like this where he got cold feet. The key to persuasion is to make things simple, break them into clear small activities, and emphasize that it only takes a while. For example, he told the sailor to just hold on to the cable in place for a while, and he would arrange for someone to come up and change the guard as soon as possible.

And then...and then who can tell how long without a timer?

"Just walk down to the place they have walked hundreds of times, take a brief look, and then come back up. It takes about two beers in total, how about it?"

Kraft was still hesitating, and some intuition troubled him, pointing out that various factors were connected, that one overarching source tied many connections into a bundle, and that different representations pointed to a crux, which was the source of all scattered phenomena. .

Without understanding the rules behind the operation, it is impossible to make inferences. Just like it is difficult for ordinary people to connect diarrhea, myocarditis and convulsions, three unrelated things in the body, but in fact the three can indicate the possibility of infection by the same pathogen.

His problem was that he didn't know what the "pathogen" was. This key broke all kinds of clues that couldn't withstand investigation and couldn't be pieced together. Naturally, he couldn't take any targeted preventive measures, and he seemed a little nervous for a while. He briefly opened and closed his mental senses for a moment, but still found nothing.

"Oh, don't be like this. Could it be that if you find a pagan leader, you can change the purpose of our coming to the mine?"

"Okay, I'll go ahead and reach their daily activities." Kraft pulled out the torch, pushed aside the ashes on the surface of the fire pit to reveal the buried flame, and lit the oily fuel on the head of the stick. "Koop, you and Yi Feng, please stay outside, the cave is too dark and narrow to squeeze in together."

This is not the first time Kraft has entered the mine. In previous investigations, they have also visited many similar mines. The longest one lasted for almost three generations, and the shortest one was about the same. It was only opened a few days ago. Year. No trace of human activity, long or short, is inherently preserved on the way down.

On the one hand, this is because the rock structure itself is difficult to change, and on the other hand, the residents here have never realized that such a perfect cave may collapse.

Even after experiencing a terrible disaster, they did not provide any support structure for the new mine, or they did not know where artificial support was needed. These caves are like tunnels drilled by shield machines in rocky mountains. Their structures are far superior to mines built by humans. From an outsider's perspective, they look very safe and it is impossible to imagine how they collapsed.

Humans walk freely in it, as if it has always been a passage designed for them to guide the minerals buried deep in the rock formations.

The torch illuminates the longing figure on the earth-yellow cave wall. Rocks that provide the main material of the hills can be seen everywhere. It is not even easy to find another type of stone here. There are only yellow rocks and their weathered rocks. Thin soil layers of the same color.

Generally speaking, they have to walk for a long time in the seldom-changing yellow rock formations until the color of the minerals smudges on the cave walls. It is not obvious at first. Most of the time, it seems that the burning of the torch is about to end. The illuminated field of vision is reddish and has a gauze-like feeling, but the clothes and skin do not change color accordingly, as if they were left out when the canvas was painted.

Slow people will only discover it when the color gradually deepens, like the blood vessels in the rock formation being cut off, and the dark red color overflows, submerging the place where it came from and the way forward. Kraft would feel like he had penetrated the epidermis of a huge creature and entered the dermis, surrounded by blood-soaked tissue. These caves were pathological structures such as sinuses and fistulas and should not be classified as "natural formations." .

They are so red that it makes your eyes tired and your breathing viscous, like walking in a river of blood. To a certain extent, it's not entirely wrong. This is good-quality hematite. Where the sound of the pickaxe is heard, the iron content will be higher, and it will be darker and more depressing.

"The iron ore is no different from the previous ones, except that the quality is better." A slight disappointment, not serious.

The woman who had brought them here before was working here, swinging a pickaxe on the rock wall that had been thinned, and a little bit of broken ore fell. After the surface layer is peeled off, the rock layer is still stained red.

"I would like to ask, does anyone in the village know the situation in the old mine?"

"Everyone who knows what's going on inside has stayed inside, as have the two strangers and their belongings." The strong woman put down her mining pick and inserted the torch into the groove cut in the cave wall. A shallow layer of crushed ore, "He paid people to hire people and arranged for people to transport them away. The men were not allowed to talk outside."

"No one really mentioned it secretly?"

"Maybe, but I'll give him a lot of money for working. If I tell him who told others and got paid, everyone will be watching." She squinted her eyes and wiped away the mixture of sweat and mineral dust, and used her feet to remove the scattered mineral dust on the ground. He said, "My husband is an honest man. He only works and gets paid. Maybe some naughty guy secretly told the family."

"If you are interested in that, you'd better give up the idea as soon as possible, no one can dig through those rocks."

"Thanks."

"If you can add a few more copper coins, I can help you ask."

William was taking out his wallet, but what he took out were two black silver coins. He stopped listening after "no one can dig them out", and what he gave was obviously not a fee for running errands and information. For a moment without anyone noticing, the captain walked deeper, past the two people he was talking to, and came to the edge of the mining area.

"I have an idea." He held up the torch and looked forward. The light pushed further into the depths where few people had set foot. There was no obstruction, no markings, and no difference in the abundance of minerals.

"Both mines are in the same hill, so they are not much bigger."

He walked a few more steps, and the halo of the torch was almost separated from the people behind him. Only the outer ring of the halo was connected. The few insignificant steps seemed to be stretched in the darkness, brewing an uneasy sense of psychological distance. "Two silver coins, with Let’s go a little further inside. Maybe they are connected deeper?”

"no."

"no!"

Two voices spoke in unison, and Kraft looked at the strong woman who refused at the same time. He noticed the confusion and resistance flashing in each other's eyes, and they didn't know where they came from.