Free Web NovelChapter 63: The Mine
The rest of the afternoon was spent trying to find somebody willing to guide us to the abandoned mine.
Which quickly proved far more difficult than I expected.
Every single villager we approached refused almost immediately.
Some became nervous the moment the mine got mentioned.
Others outright called us insane.
One older woman crossed herself repeatedly after hearing me ask about it.
"Young lord, nothing good lives in those tunnels."
Finn immediately pointed toward her.
"See? Finally somebody reasonable."
I ignored him and continued questioning another villager near one of the storage sheds.
"We only need somebody familiar with the route."
The middle-aged man shook his head firmly.
"Doesn’t matter."
His expression darkened slightly.
"People still disappear near those hills."
That only made me more interested.
If the mine truly held decades worth of nitrate-rich soil, then Blackwater Hollow instantly became one of the most valuable territories in the kingdom for gunpowder production.
No more waiting months for nitrate beds.
No more carefully rationing explosives.
Everything accelerated.
Finn meanwhile looked like he wanted to accelerate directly away from the entire situation.
After nearly an hour of increasingly uncomfortable conversations, one elderly villager finally sighed and pointed toward the western edge of the village.
"You should ask Garrick."
I immediately looked up.
"Who?"
"Hunter."
The old man scratched his beard slightly.
"Lives alone near the treeline."
Finn frowned.
"Why him?"
The villager shrugged.
"He’s one of the only fools who still goes near those hills."
That was good enough for me.
A while later Finn and I followed a narrow dirt trail leading away from the village toward the edge of the forest. The farther we walked, the quieter the surroundings became until eventually even the sounds of the village faded behind us.
Then finally—
A lone cabin appeared between the trees.
The structure looked old but sturdy. Animal pelts hung drying outside while stacks of chopped firewood sat neatly beside the walls. Several hunting traps rested near the porch along with what looked suspiciously like an oversized crossbow leaning against the entrance.
Finn slowed slightly.
"...Why does this place look like somebody prepares for monster attacks professionally?"
Before I could answer, the cabin door suddenly opened.
The man standing there immediately looked dangerous.
Tall.
Broad-shouldered.
Weathered.
A long scar stretched across the left side of his jaw while streaks of gray ran through his dark hair and beard. Thick furs covered most of his body while a heavy hunting knife rested visibly at his waist.
His eyes immediately moved toward the rifles strapped across mine and Finn’s backs.
Then toward the explosive satchels.
"...You two don’t look like merchants."
Finn pointed toward me immediately.
"This one’s the dangerous one."
I ignored him.
"Garrick?"
The man gave a slow nod.
"Who’s asking?"
"Leon Aldric."
That caused the hunter’s expression to shift slightly.
Recognition.
"...The new lord."
"Apparently."
Garrick studied me silently for several moments before stepping aside slightly.
"Come inside then."
The cabin interior smelled like smoke, leather, and dried meat. Animal bones decorated sections of the walls while hunting maps and old tools covered most surfaces.
I immediately noticed several unusually large skulls mounted near the fireplace.
They definitely did not belong to normal animals.
Finn noticed too.
"...Please tell me those aren’t rat skulls."
Garrick sat down heavily near the table.
"They are."
Silence.
Finn slowly looked toward me.
"...I hate this territory."
I sat across from the hunter while Finn remained standing like he was preparing to flee at any moment.
"We heard about the mine."
Garrick’s expression darkened immediately.
"...Then the villagers should’ve also told you to stay away from it."
"They did."
"And you came anyway."
"Yes."
The hunter sighed deeply before rubbing one hand across his beard.
"Figures."
For several moments the cabin remained quiet except for the crackling fireplace.
Then finally Garrick spoke again.
"The mine wasn’t always abandoned."
His voice sounded rougher now.
"Thirty years ago Blackwater Hollow actually mattered."
I listened carefully.
"The hills around the territory contained decent iron veins. Nothing special compared to the larger mines deeper inside the duchy, but enough to keep the villages alive."
Garrick glanced briefly toward the mounted skulls near the wall.
"Then the rats appeared."
Finn immediately frowned.
"How does an entire mine get overrun by rats?"
"At first nobody realized how bad it was."
The hunter leaned back slightly.
"Miners started disappearing occasionally. People blamed cave-ins, monsters, bandits..."
His expression hardened.
"Then they found bodies."
The cabin suddenly felt quieter.
Garrick continued speaking calmly, though I noticed the tension in his voice.
"The lower tunnels became nests. Thousands of them."
Finn already looked disturbed.
"And these things were the size of dogs?"
"Fully grown ones, yes."
Garrick pointed toward one of the skulls mounted near the wall.
"That one was small."
Finn physically recoiled slightly.
"...That is NOT helping."
The hunter’s eyes narrowed faintly while remembering.
"The worst part wasn’t even their size."
I frowned slightly.
"What was?"
"The numbers."
Garrick’s voice became colder.
"You kill ten and twenty more crawl out of the dark. You kill twenty and forty more crawl out after them."
The mine tunnels apparently turned into slaughterhouses within months. Entire mining teams vanished underground while rescue groups either returned bloodied or failed to return at all.
Eventually even armed guards stopped entering the deeper tunnels.
After enough deaths, the mine was abandoned completely.
Then Garrick grew quiet for several seconds before speaking again.
"My father worked there."
I looked up slightly.
"He died during the first major attack."
The hunter’s expression remained calm, though something colder sat beneath it.
"The miners thought they’d cornered the nests deeper underground."
He stared toward the fire.
"They broke into one of the lower tunnels instead."
Finn slowly lowered his arms.
"What happened?"
Garrick laughed once.
A bitter sound.
"Only three people came back out."
Silence filled the cabin.
"My father wasn’t one of them."
The hunter leaned back slightly afterward.
"For years I tried finding ways to wipe them out."
His eyes shifted toward the oversized crossbow near the wall.
"Fire."
Then toward several bottles sitting on a nearby shelf.
"Poison."
Then toward the mounted skulls again.
"Traps."
He shook his head slowly.
"Didn’t matter."
I frowned slightly.
"Why not?"
"Because the tunnels go too deep."
Garrick’s expression darkened.
"You kill a few nests and more crawl up from below."
Finn looked disturbed.
"...How many of these things are there?"
The hunter answered immediately.
"Too many."
I folded my arms slightly.
"You never received support from the duchy?"
At that—
Garrick laughed again.
Another bitter sound.
"We asked."
His expression darkened immediately afterward.
"Again and again."
"Then what happened?"
"We got ignored."
Silence settled across the cabin.
Garrick leaned back while staring toward the fire.
"To the Nightbanes, Blackwater Hollow was just another tiny territory among hundreds."
There was no anger in his voice anymore.
Just tired acceptance.
"The mine wasn’t valuable enough."
He gestured vaguely northward.
"The duchy already owns richer mines deeper inside their lands. Better ore. Larger production."
"So they didn’t care."
Garrick nodded once.
"A few villages and one small mine meant nothing to them."
I remained silent.
Objectively—
The duchy’s decision made sense.
Deploying powerful mages and military forces to reclaim a relatively unimportant mine would’ve been expensive compared to simply extracting resources elsewhere.
But for the people living here—
It clearly left scars.
Garrick eventually looked back toward me.
"So why exactly are you interested in a death pit full of giant rats?"
I hesitated briefly.
I definitely could not explain nitrates properly.
So instead I answered carefully.
"I think the mine may contain resources I need."
The hunter stared at me silently for several moments.
Then finally sighed heavily.
"...Of course it does."
Finn immediately pointed toward me again.
"I told you he was the dangerous one."
Garrick stood afterward before walking toward a shelf near the wall. After digging through several old maps and papers, he finally pulled out a worn parchment.
"The entrance is here."
He spread the map across the table.
"But I’m warning you now."
His finger tapped against the marked tunnel system.
"The deeper sections are still alive."
The next morning Garrick, Finn, and I departed toward the abandoned mine shortly after sunrise.
The atmosphere already felt wrong long before we actually reached it.
The forests surrounding the northwestern hills grew quieter the farther we traveled. Fewer birds. Fewer animals. Even the wind moving through the trees somehow sounded muted.
Garrick walked slightly ahead of us while carrying the oversized crossbow across his back.
"You smell that?" he suddenly asked.
Finn sniffed the air cautiously.
"...Rot."
Garrick nodded once.
"The closer we get, the worse it becomes."
Eventually the trees began thinning enough for the mine entrance to finally come into view.
I stopped immediately.
The place looked terrible.
The outer structures had almost completely collapsed after decades of abandonment. Rotting support beams leaned dangerously while broken mining carts sat half-buried beneath dirt and moss. Sections of the hillside itself had partially caved inward around the entrance.
And surrounding all of it—
Bones.
Animal remains littered parts of the area alongside older human skeletons barely visible beneath years of dirt and overgrowth.
Finn stared at one particularly large skeleton near the entrance.
"...That’s human right?"
Garrick glanced toward it briefly.
"Probably."
"That answer somehow made it worse."
My eyes slowly moved toward the darkness inside the mine entrance.
Even from outside, the tunnel looked unnaturally black.
The smell pouring out from inside was awful.
Rot.
Filth.
Wet earth.
Something animalistic.
I adjusted the rifle strapped along my back before looking toward Garrick.
"How deep does it go?"
"Nobody knows anymore."
That was not reassuring.
The three of us eventually lit lanterns before cautiously entering the mine.
Almost immediately the temperature dropped.
Water dripped faintly somewhere deeper inside while old wooden supports groaned softly around us. The tunnels themselves were surprisingly large, likely built originally to allow ore carts to pass through more easily.
I studied the walls carefully while walking.
Mineral deposits.
Moisture.
Decay.
The deeper sections probably really did contain nitrate-rich earth.
If we could clear this place—
Then suddenly—
SCRATCH.
All three of us immediately froze.
The sound echoed faintly somewhere ahead.
Finn slowly raised his rifle.
"...Please tell me that was a normal rat."
Garrick quietly reached for the knife at his waist.
"That was not a normal rat."
Then came another sound.
SCRATCH.
SCRATCH.
More movement now.
I slowly lifted the lantern higher.
That was when several shapes emerged from the darkness ahead.
Finn physically recoiled slightly.
"...Oh."
The rats really were the size of dogs.
Long filthy bodies crawled across the tunnel floor while yellow eyes reflected within the lantern light. Their fur looked patchy and diseased while long claws scraped against the stone beneath them.
One opened its mouth.
Rows of jagged teeth immediately became visible.
"...Why are the teeth that large?" Finn whispered.
Then one of the rats suddenly shrieked.
The sound echoed horribly through the tunnels.
Finn immediately panicked and fired.
BANG.
The rifle shot exploded through the mine like thunder.
One of the rats instantly collapsed backward with part of its skull missing.
But the sound—
The sound kept echoing.
Garrick physically flinched backward in shock.
"What have you DONE?!"
Finn stared at him wildly.
"It was attacking us!"
Then suddenly—
More shrieks answered from deeper inside the mine.
Dozens of them.
The sound echoed endlessly through the tunnels.
My expression immediately changed.
"...Run."
The remaining rats surged forward instantly.
The three of us turned and sprinted back through the tunnels as shrieking rapidly erupted behind us.
Then more shapes appeared deeper in the darkness.
And more.
And more.
The horde behind us visibly grew while claws scraped violently across stone.
Finn looked back once before immediately regretting it.
"WHY ARE THERE SO MANY?!"
"KEEP MOVING!" Garrick roared.
The mine tunnels echoed with endless shrieking now.
I could hear hundreds of claws behind us.
Maybe more.
The rats poured through side tunnels and cracks in the walls like a flood.
Finn desperately reached toward the explosive satchel strapped to his side.
I immediately noticed.
"DON’T!"
Finn looked panicked.
"WHY NOT?!"
"YOU’LL BURY ALL OF US!"
The tunnels were far too unstable. frёewebηovel.cѳm
One explosive inside here could collapse entire sections of the mine.
Including the section we were standing inside.
Behind us the shrieking grew even louder.
The rats were gaining.
Finn swore loudly before ripping one of the smoke bombs from his bag instead.
"THEN TAKE THIS!"
He threw it behind us.
The device burst open moments later with a loud POP before thick smoke rapidly filled the tunnel.
For several seconds I thought it worked.
Then the rats burst straight through the smoke anyway.
Finn looked horrified.
"WHY DID THAT NOT WORK?!"
"BECAUSE THEY HAVE NO IDEA WHAT FEAR IS!"
My prosthetic leg suddenly slipped awkwardly against loose stone.
My speed immediately dropped.
Damn it.
The others were pulling ahead now while the shrieking horde rapidly closed the distance behind me.
I forced myself forward harder, but the uneven terrain kept catching against the prosthetic.
I simply couldn’t run as fast.
Then suddenly—
A massive hand grabbed me.
I barely had time to react before Garrick physically lifted me over one shoulder while still running.
"You owe me for this!" the hunter barked.
I awkwardly bounced against Garrick’s shoulder while the man sprinted through the tunnel with terrifying speed.
Finn glanced backward again.
"...WHY ARE THEY STILL COMING?!"
"BECAUSE YOU SHOT ONE!"
The tunnel entrance finally became visible ahead.
Light.
Fresh air.
The three of us practically exploded out from the mine entrance moments later before continuing to sprint downhill away from the tunnels entirely.
Behind us the shrieking still echoed from inside the mine.
But thankfully—
The rats stopped emerging after the entrance.
At least for now.
We didn’t stop running until we reached deeper sections of the forest several minutes later.
Only then did Garrick finally drop me back onto the ground.
All three of us stood there breathing heavily.
Finn looked traumatized.
"...There are too many."
Garrick wiped sweat from his forehead while glaring toward the distant hills.
"I warned you."
I meanwhile remained completely silent while staring back toward the direction of the mine.
Because despite nearly dying—
I had confirmed it.
The colony was massive.
Which meant the deeper tunnels had likely remained occupied continuously for decades.
And if that was true—
Then the nitrate deposits below were probably even larger than I originally imagined.
Finn slowly noticed the look forming in my eyes again.
"...No."
I ignored him while thinking rapidly.
Smoke.
Tunnel collapses.
Kill zones.
Controlled extermination.
The rats had numbers.
But I had rifles.
Explosives.
And engineering.
Finn pointed at me accusingly.
"You’re planning something horrifying again."
I slowly looked back toward the mine.
"...Probably."
