The Cornflower Witch

Book 2: Chapter 122: The Mine Ravaged by the Corpse Dragon, (6)

Vol 2 Chapter 122: The Mine Ravaged by the Corpse Dragon, Part 6

"Eh, Tia, is that you?" Mareen sounded astonished when she saw the girl.

She stood up, glanced around, found a familiar colleague to cover her shift for a moment, then led Sylutia to a room behind the guild.

"Tia, why are you back?" Although she didn't know the full situation with the Hidden Grove, from what Mareen knew, apprentices who went to the Hidden Grove rarely returned to Scorchstone City soon. Even if they did, it was usually more than ten years later.

"Well, I recently took a leave of absence, so I came back to have a look." Sylutia thought for a moment, and decided not to mention that she had reached Third Tier; that would be too surprising and would require explaining a lot.

"Can you even take leave from the Hidden Grove? Never mind, let's not talk about that." Mareen shook her head.

"Scorchstone City isn't exactly safe right now. It's fine for me to stay in the Adventurers' Guild, but others..." Mareen hesitated.

"The lords of Anty are very brutal. They like picking on wealthy people and using it to extort them. Also, if a girl is very beautiful, she can be in danger."

Local guards might have family and relatives here and be more restrained, but for these Anty soldiers, since this isn't their homeland, they feel less guilt committing crimes. Besides, the whole army's culture is like that, and people have grown used to it.

"I understand." Sylutia nodded and thanked Mareen for the warning.They chatted a bit more about recent events. Sylutia learned that Ray had gone to Regas to study and wasn't in the area, and that Komea's parents had recently moved away from Scorchstone City to another town to seek refuge.

In other words, many of her old friends were no longer in Scorchstone City, which made the girl feel regretful.

But they had agreed back then to reunite five years later. Only three years had passed so far, so there were still two years left. Thinking of that, Sylutia's heart felt much lighter.

Sylutia then asked about the mine.

"How did you know they reopened the mine behind the mountain?" Mareen was a little surprised.

"Well, a lot of residents have been talking about it." She thought for a moment and continued to tell Sylutia the related details.

"That mine actually dates back several hundred years."

"Most people had forgotten, but when I was organizing the guild's records, I found the old documents."

"The place was originally called Blackstone City, because the nearby mountains produced a kind of black stone. It didn't have any special power, but its color was rare, so some people liked it and used it for building materials or furniture."

"Then, one year during excavation, a hidden vein was discovered. The lord sent people to survey it and they continued digging down, extracting the minerals inside."

"Some of it was metal, and there were also small quantities of special gems that were very valuable, so Viscount Xuefeng's ancestors made a lot of money from it."

"However, in the later stages of extraction, the miners unearthed a dangerous corpse dragon. It caused an enormous crisis. That corpse dragon was unbelievably powerful, roughly Fifth Tier. Its spewed Dead Embers black fire set the city ablaze, killing many residents and collapsing buildings. Even the bricks used to build the city walls were charred completely black."

"To deal with the disaster, the Grand Duke of Regas asked the Hidden Grove association for help. They dispatched a powerful extermination force. After about a month of probing, fighting, arranging formations, and fierce battles, they finally took down that corpse dragon."

"Although the corpse dragon was killed again, its remains and the shattered dragon soul still filled the mine. The strange influences made it impossible for ordinary people to approach."

"Later, for safety and to save the family's reputation, Viscount Xuefeng's ancestor sealed the mine and forbade local people from discussing it."

"Two hundred years passed, and nobody remembered what had happened in the mine. Blackstone City became Scorchstone City, and that name stuck."

A dragon, Sylutia thought in surprise after Mareen finished telling the history.

True Dragons normally possess the Dragon Eye Aspect, a top-tier Aspect that requires Sixth Tier to condense. Anything related to dragons is never weak.

Although a living creature needs Sixth Tier to condense Dragon Eye, that doesn't mean lower-tier dragon products or spawn don't exist. As Aspects can degenerate and regress, a mighty dragon that was Sixth Tier in life might become a corpse bone dragon or a dragon-soul specter after death, with greatly reduced power. In such cases, a Dragon Eye Aspect of Fifth Tier might appear.

Dragon materials like hearts, eyeballs, or scales may also weaken over time, so their tiers can fall to Third or Fourth Tier.

Sylutia hadn't expected Scorchstone City to have that history. No wonder some of the old bricks near the city walls were especially charred; she'd once thought some special technique had been used to make them like that.

"Now that they're mining the cave again, isn't it dangerous?" Sylutia thought of the people she had rescued earlier.

"Of course it's dangerous."

"Although two hundred years have passed and the residual Aspect influence in the mine has gradually dissipated, it still heavily corrupts ordinary people. Spending too much time there will definitely shorten your life." Mareen said sadly.

"These past months, many residents have heard about the mine's high death rate, so everyone is afraid of being forced to dig there."

"I don't know when it will end. If it continues like this, I have to consider moving away, too." Mareen said miserably.

"I understand. Thank you, Mareen, for telling me."

"Mm-hmm. For now, just stay in Scorchstone City and keep an eye on things. Try not to stay too long." Mareen admonished Sylutia again before letting the girl go.

Back on the main street, Sylutia glanced at the familiar shops, then paused, looking toward the castle at the end of the road. It was on the northern side of the city. Behind the castle were rolling mountains and a winding path that led into them.

That should be the direction of the mine, Sylutia thought.

Night gradually fell, but tonight Sylutia did not look for a place to sleep. She changed into a drab gray cloak that concealed her silhouette and covered her face with a thin veil, moving lightly through the city's shadows.

After a day of practice, she was getting more and more proficient with the Concealment Method, showing signs of reaching Lv.3. If she had the chance to learn the Sound Suppression Method later, she could combine the two into a true Stealth Method.

She hadn't learned Sound Suppression yet, but she was light and wore light clothing, so her steps made very little noise; ordinary soldiers wouldn't notice her.

Slowly, Sylutia crossed past the barriers and jumped down from the edge of the city wall. Her toes tapped the wall repeatedly to disperse the impact, and she finally landed lightly on the grass.

She lifted her head in the night, looked toward the path to the rear mountain, and began to move toward the legendary mine.