Chapter 384: The tunnels

“This place is very desolate, ha?” Victor asked as he leisurely passed through the wide empty tunnels with Zoe who wanted to pull back her hand from his grasp a few times, but each time she managed to pull back, he would find a sneaky way to grab it again!

“Usually you would be seeing all kinds of carts and workers transporting ores all through these tunnels, but due to the recent attacks, we issued a lockdown order, all miners shall stay in their villages temporarily, and all required mining quotas had been suspended,” Alto explained as he tried hard not to mind the romantic drama unfolding between his two companions. Not his business...

“Oh... How is this exactly managed?” Victor asked as he inspected the walls and noted that they were gradually moving deeper underground. He never went down to this place in the past.

“The mines are composed of three main large channels, with 3 to 5 side channels at the end of each. At the end of each of those 13 channels, a mining village was created as a central hub and a resting place for the miners... although most of those guys are family criminals they needed a place to sleep and live while they were not working!”

“So my brother is at one of those villages?” Victor asked.

“Ah.... Not exactly...” Alto hesitated.

“What do you mean?”

“The villages might get overpopulated at times, so we relegated some of the people there to minor outposts... Your brother is at the most desolate one,” Alto said slowly, strangely enough, Victor didn’t seem offended, making Zoe who was listening frown. She had met that guy Luke once when she first awakened, he seemed like a decent kid... Still, she had a feeling that Victor, who appeared completely stoic, was very glad.

“How long until we reach the nearest village?” Zoe asked.

“Ah... three hours, and to the place where young master Luke is at, we will need 6 more...”

“What?” Zoe was shocked. “This place is that big?”

“Ah... Yes...” Alto sighed. “Don’t worry, we will take a rest on the way there!”

“That’s not the problem!” Zoe sighed, “How many people work here?” she asked.

“About 70,000... I am not sure...” Alto said.

“WHAT?” Zoe was shocked. “Where did you get all those people?”

“Some of them are family members and servants who committed grave mistakes, others are slaves who the family gets from....” Alto didn’t explain further.

“The family has many enemies, and those enemies have families!” Victor said. “When killing someone we need to pull the roots to avoid future problems...”

“But that’s cruel!” Zoe, who understood what he meant, said. “What about the children?”

“Those of the first generation will be forced to work here for life, after that they are given a chance to work their way out and even redeem themselves and their parents once they are old enough...” Alto said. “Though many never leave this place...” he sighed.

“...” Zoe frowned, she didn’t like this.

Victor said nothing. This was the reality of their family... No, all the other powers. They all have dark cruel secrets that they inherited from their ancestors. Systems that they needed to keep their power.

They needed many servants and agents and although they got replacements from the outside every once in a while, the best way was to raise them by themselves.

He sighed.

The next few minutes were silent.

“Oh, by the way... Are those miners'' girls pretty?” Victor asked all of a sudden, making Zoe who was feeling a little down, quickly pinch his hand. PERVERT!

“All the pretty ones got selected young to work for the maids department...” Alto told the truth, “The ones left here are not bad though... Even the ugliest girls would look pretty in a certain light! And the illumination condition around here is not ideal...” he added. Speaking of experience.

“True...” Victor nodded, totally ignoring Zoe’s pinches as he looked up at and observed the magical gems that illuminated this place.

At first, he thought they were an artifact especially created for that purpose, but as they walked further inside, he began to notice many of those Gems naturally growing out of the walls.

; ;

TRI-LUMA GEM, F

(FRAGILE)

VITALITY ENERGY CONVERSION (WEAK)

He had never heard of these things before, but they seemed interesting, being able to work around Sacred Iron.

“Those light-emitting gems... Doesn’t the family mine them?” Victor asked after a few minutes of silence, changing the gloomy atmosphere.

“Ahh... We tried, but they are very hard to mine as they collapse very quickly and they don’t work outside... The family took some samples back in the day, but nothing really came out of it, so no one cares about them nowadays... The Villages below were created alongside veins containing them, so it is not only reasonably bright there, but those things seem to keep the miners healthy!”

Victor frowned... Could those GEMs be the reason why this palace was unearthed? This place is just too strange... All ruins are in a way though. Now, he really needed to know what the hell was going on!

“Oh, by the way, what about those golems? In what areas did they appear?” Victor finally asked after carefully taking a few samples from one of the gems and putting it in his ring. He would ask Lily and Hana about it later.

“Mostly in the lower tunnels, sometimes they crawl up, but we have sentries to take care of them,” Alto said.

“When did this all start?” Victor asked.

“Well... It was about three weeks ago, right before the red moon.” Alto pondered, “I was out on vacation and when I returned it was all hell...”

Victor frowned... A gate expanding? Impossible! A dungeon gate was a product of this world, it followed its rules!

The only thing he could think of with similar property was moving dungeons... But those only move around and never expand.

Not unless... SHIT.... He knew what this was...

He just needed to see it with his own eyes to make sure.

...

Abe, who was sitting in a park, shook in shock after he flipped through the phone he ‘found’ for 2 hours straight!

He couldn’t believe it! At first, he tried to turn off the phone, but after he couldn’t find the power button he decided to try to crack its pin code.

By carefully analyzing the smudges on the smartphone’s screen he was sure that the PIN was none other than 0000. And he was right!

After that, he started to look around and what he found was beyond his wildest imagination! He knew who the phone’s dead owner was! It belonged to a man called John Johns... And he was known by his pen name, CRIMSON PEARL!

Searching through the phone''s data, Abe not only found the guy''s ID info and data but also the full manuscript for a few novels which were some of his favorites! It had all the unreleased chapters and a few new novels that were a work in progress!

Those things were priceless! He had just heard on the news that Crimson Pearl was the writer in the new Dragon Princess movie... The script was here!

DAMN!

This thing would sell for a fortune. But the problem was he only had a few hours to sell these, where was he going to find a buyer!

Suddenly the phone in his hand began ringing with a very lewd voice ringtone, straddling him and the old lady who was sitting on the bench beside him. She looked at him with disgust then stood up and walked away while muttering something about moral decay!

He didn’t care.

Should he answer it?

He was tempted to just turn it off, but the second he read the caller''s name he hesitated...

THE MONEY BAGS was the name he read!

He decided to try his luck and answered the phone.

“Hi... Is this CRIMSON PEARL? “

He didn’t answer.

“We are from Horizons Media... We know that you don’t like to talk a lot and usually only communicate through text messages...But I couldn''t help myself wanting to hear your voice in person...” the woman who sounded young said in a flattery voice. “We need to tell you that the money for the contract is ready... Are you available to come sign it now?”

“Ah... How much was it again?”

“$100,000,000... Isn’t that the amount we agreed on? Didn’t you want it in cash?”

“Ahh... Yes...” Abe said as his mind began to turn.

“Then I will be waiting for you at the headquarters of Horizons media... “

“I will be there in an hour or two...” Abe said then hung up. He was hesitating on what to do.

If he were to be discovered he would be in big trouble...

Thinking for a moment he opened up the messenger program and began to look through Crimson Pearl''s conversations just to make sure.

He could see all the conversations he had and from them, he learned a few things...

Crimson Pearl was an orphan who had no one. Crimson Pearl was so ashamed of his hobby of writing porn stories that no one knew his real identity, not even the companies he worked for... He only accepted payments in cash! and Horizons Media was the first time he was planning to go public after their CEO convinced him to write the movie script. Crimson Pearl really believed in psychics and unnatural phenomena... He was a part of many groups that discussed such stupid things as future seeing and astral projections. Crimson Pearl was really into granny porn...

...

The shaking caused Yulian to open his eyes and look around.

He was in the back of an old truck that traveled through a mountainous dirt road.

Lily was sitting next to him talking with some traditionally dressed old woman who was holding a chicken in her hand. She was pointing at Yulian and giggling.

Lily was humoring her politely.

He couldn’t understand what they talked about though, it was a foreign language that he had never heard before.

“Where are we?” he asked.

“Oh...You are awake!” Lily said then smiled, making him notice for the first time that she was not wearing her mask...HOLY SHIT... Can someone be this pretty?

Just when he was about to make a comment, he felt something hit the back of his neck and heard the chuckling of the old woman.

“Sleep more, my dear brother... We are almost there!” Was the last thing he heard before he passed away.