While waiting for Fingel to reply, Lu Mingfei took a couple more glances at the industrial park. The cobwebs hanging in the windows deepened the sense of history here, though it was already unnoticeable due to the car exhaust fumes.
Bern stood silently beside him, seemingly having heard his previous question and waiting for his communication to conclude.
The employees who had been pulling the black cloth had already left, leaving only Bern and the Owl who had greeted him when he first got off the helicopter. They were likely all mixed-bloods.
It didn't look as dangerous as the divination had suggested. Perhaps Angers's arrangement for this trip was just to let him gain some experience?
Lu Mingfei analyzed in his heart. After all, the divination had helped him so many times and had never been wrong. He decided to observe a bit more.
A voice came through the earpiece again: "Junior Brother, you really have a lot of pull. I called those old men at the research institute, and they originally said there was a waiting list. But as soon as I mentioned it was for an S-class mission, a bunch of old men scrambled to take the job."
"Get to the point."
"From the photos alone, these broken bones were subjected to immense impact to become like this. The deceased was smashed to pieces and then directly buried in the soil. The old man I spoke with said he hopes S-class can bring back samples from the site. It's most likely dragon bones, which have research value."
"I understand." Lu Mingfei nodded, glancing at the potential footholds in the deep pit. "Do you need me to transmit the view from below simultaneously? The college staff brought equipment."
"Preferably," Fingel replied.
This was Lu Mingfei's first time on an outdoor assignment, so he naturally hoped to do it well. He took the equipment box from the college staff. Honestly, he was quite disdainful of the items provided by the Equipment Department. Who knew if these things would explode, or when they would explode?
After all the equipment was properly secured, Lu Mingfei dragged the "tail" he pulled out of the equipment box. He then pressed his earpiece to confirm if the wireless transmission of the image was clear.
"The image is excellent. The old man is very excited."
Lu Mingfei twitched his mouth, not wanting to complain about Fingel in this setting. After visually confirming that the slope allowed for a safe descent, he stepped into the edge of the pit.
"Please watch from above."
"Pleasure working with you," the college staff said in a muffled voice in Chinese.
At this moment, Bern, who was standing to the side, spoke, "Lu Mr., do you need me to send someone down to guide you? The mine is intricate, and there's a risk of getting lost."
Lu Mingfei looked down and could vaguely see three mining routes in the mine. The left, middle, and right entrances looked quite similar, indeed having a certain deceptive quality.
"Three pieces of bone were dug out from the leftmost route, which is also the safest route and mostly excavated;"
"Only one bone was found in the middle mining route. We dug another ten meters deeper but found nothing new. As for the rightmost one..." Bern paused, glancing at the right entrance.
"We sent someone to check the right path once before. They said there were often strange cries and walking sounds inside, and no one has gone in since."
Fingel's voice came through the earpiece, warning Lu Mingfei that the Owl's expression was off.
Lu Mingfei quietly watched Bern, responding to change with no change.
Bern's movements were very subtle, and Fingel, far above, couldn't see them clearly. He could only see the obviously moving Owl through the simultaneously transmitted footage.
If it had been a month ago, Lu Mingfei admitted he wouldn't have noticed anything, but after spending these days with Chu Zihang and Caesar, he had learned a thing or two.
Coupled with the divination's prompts, he had been vigilantly paying attention to his surroundings, fearing that Bern would smash a cup as a signal, summoning three hundred axemen.
On the surface, Bern's subtle gesture was to tell the Owl to stop making a sour face and quickly come over to smile for the adults from Kassel College, to leave a good impression.
However, if he truly admired Kassel College, Bern wouldn't have waited until this moment to remind the Owl. Considering that Fingel and the college staff were watching from above, the two of them couldn't cause much trouble, so there was no need to be deterred by such suspicion. Moreover, Angers had given him a heart-protecting armor beforehand.
Lu Mingfei read the divination and already knew that this outdoor assignment definitely carried risks. Since there was risk whether he went down the mine or not, he might as well complete the assignment well while bearing the risk.
Lu Mingfei rejected Bern's suggestion. No matter how big-hearted he was, he couldn't let someone who was clearly problematic guide him.
This kind of risk still needed to be avoided.
After giving a few more instructions to the college staff, Lu Mingfei entered the mine alone.
After careful consideration, he took the middle mining route.
Putting aside the potentially explosive functions, the basic functions provided by the Equipment Department were quite good. For example, the flashlight in Lu Mingfei's hand, even at its lowest power, could illuminate the entire mine as bright as day.
Moving cautiously, Lu Mingfei occasionally looked up, checking if he had missed any dragon runes or dragon bones.
Combined with Fingel's additions from the earpiece, the journey so far was quite complete, without missing anything.
The "tail" provided by the Equipment Department was 500 meters long, enough for him to traverse this mining route.
However, as Lu Mingfei delved deeper, he gradually began to sense something amiss.
What kind of mine was this? Why couldn't he see any mine slag?
Lu Mingfei immediately extended the half-meter-long ribbon from his sleeve. With this item, his sense of security would greatly increase.
Flashlight in his left hand, ribbon in his right, and a "tail" hanging behind his head, Lu Mingfei continued forward.
"Junior Brother, there's quite a temperature difference where you are. There's fog on the camera. Wipe it off," Fingel suddenly said.
Lu Mingfei was startled and reached out to touch the camera.
Indeed, there was a damp sensation. Something was wrong; he hadn't felt any noticeable temperature change.
Lu Mingfei slowly took two steps back. He couldn't stay here; he had to go back first.
And just then, he vaguely heard clear voices coming from the right.
They were jabbering in English, mixed with a series of unpublishable words like "fuck" and "bitch."
Fortunately, Lu Mingfei's IELTS score was good, and he could understand a bit of the content. One name appeared frequently in their conversation: Bern.
Lu Mingfei became interested.
It sounded like he wasn't Bern's first guest. Their words were full of complaints about Bern.
The general meaning was that this path had reached its end, and there were three other paths outside, with something neither human nor ghost lurking on each path. If they hadn't been tomb raiding so much, they would have had heart attacks from the fright.
Lu Mingfei was startled, then quickly realized that the path on the right wasn't too strange for no one to enter; rather, someone had already chosen it when he arrived, so they told a lie.
The walking sounds and strange cries were also a setup for the appearance of these two tomb robbers.
Regardless of these two tomb robbers for now, just listening to their description of that thing, neither human nor ghost, it sounded like a Death Servant mentioned in textbooks.
He looked back at the tail behind him.
According to their description, 500 meters wouldn't be enough to traverse this mining route.
