Ever since Amon's departure, the disaster of Duc had begun. On the third day after Amon left, the first boy died. He was the son of the missing warrior, Maqi. Just like Amon, he was only fourteen years old. Within a month, three more children died. The youngest was only 12 years old, and the oldest was no more than 15 years old. They were all boys.
Shog, the priest and doctor, could do nothing about it. All the children died of sudden illness. When he examined them with healing magic, he could only find that their blood seemed to have been hit by an unbearable force. Shog speculated that it might be because they were still underage and had secretly learned the mining skills of Duc.
The mining skills of Duc seemed simple, as if anyone could learn them. However, the consumption of energy was almost unbearable for underage children. When the accumulation reached a certain level, the hidden danger would suddenly erupt, and it would be too late. Aristotle had explained to Amon that the spiritual source of the ancient oracle was indeed protecting the inhabitants of this place, but Aristotle did not understand the subtleties of the miner's skill.
Shog and Dusti could not punish the townspeople. For one thing, the children were dead, so it was pointless to punish them for not receiving the blessing of the Patron. For another, the families who suffered the tragedy would not admit it, so no one had any evidence. Of course, there were more than a few families who let their children learn the skills of mining. Everyone seemed to know about it, but no one said anything.
The reason for this was probably due to Amon.
At the age of fourteen, Amon had not only mastered the technique of mining that had been passed down from generation to generation, but he was also lucky enough to obtain so many parangons, including a blue parangon that even Lord Shog envied. Since Amon could do it, why couldn't their children?
The boys of Duc had been helping the adults in their families pull bellows and carry ores since they were young. They were much stronger than the children of the same age outside. Amon did not look the strongest among them. He was just the son of an old drunkard, forced to take on the heavy burden in advance. But what people did not know was that Crazy 'Ole had made Amon bathe in the strange cold spring for more than two years.
Of course, there were also those who were lucky. Not all children would die young. Some could not learn, and a few were lucky enough to learn the mining skills of Duc in advance. Families like this would naturally not say anything, nor would they publicly announce that the God's Stones were mined by their children.
There was often only a fine line between ignorance and stupidity. Many people even inexplicably hoped that their children would be able to mine special parangons like Amon. The townspeople were still discussing in private that Amon might have mined a parangon called the Gods' Tear, which was extremely precious.
The Lord from the King's City had publicly announced that the miners who mined the Tear of God would be rewarded handsomely by the Kingdom, but those who dealt with it privately would receive the harshest punishment.
Except for Crazy 'Ole, Dusti and Shog, no one else in Duc had ever heard of the Gods' Tear, let alone know what it was. No one knew who was the first to suspect that only children could mine such a parangon. Otherwise, why would Amon be the only one who found it after so many years of mining?
The rumor gradually spread like a plague in Duc. People only talked about it in private but never in public. Finally, it led to continuous tragedies.
It was said that the oracle of the goddess Mourrin, the protector of this place, had become nonexistent, but people seemed to respect the goddess more than ever. They respected Shog the priest more than ever, not daring to look up at him and speak.
Crazy 'Ole became crazier than ever. He often waved his staff in front of the Shrine of Mourin and shouted to himself, "This is a place detested by the god. It will be punished by the god. … That God was so cruel! But the people here, what are you doing? "
No one paid attention to Crazy 'Ole's nonsense. They took a detour when they saw him. Dusti and Shog didn't pay attention to him either. They all thought he was crazy. But the tragedy in Duc did not stop. Several more boys died of sudden illnesses without warning.
Didn't people know that the skills of miners were not suitable for children? Everyone was more or less aware of this, but there were other children who were lucky enough to succeed, not just Amon. So the tragedy of others was only seen as a kind of bad luck. Cautious people would remind their children to be careful and pay attention to their body at all times. But they didn't give up the idea of letting their children learn the skills.
How many children in Duc learned the skills of miners in private? The answer was all boys over ten years old! Everyone did it. No one had any reason not to do it. It was already a semi-public secret. People just tried to be careful not to let others get hold of any evidence, especially Mayor Dusti and Lord Shog.
It was difficult to stop the spread of the disaster. Duc was not a small town, but only two thousand residents. The skills of miners were passed down from generation to generation in a closed environment.
The hot summer came. It was especially hot this year. Many people didn't sleep indoors at night. Instead, they slept in the yard or in the square, sleeping on straw mats or wooden planks until dawn. One night, people sleeping outdoors suddenly felt a slight chill. They opened their eyes and touched their bodies. To their surprise, they found that it was drizzling.
Duc didn't have much rain in a year. Summer was the dry season. It almost never rained. Everyone cheered happily.
The rain didn't stop after dawn. It grew heavier and heavier. The raindrops fell on the dry land like a curtain of water. The clouds in the sky stretched as far as the eye could see, covering the Charcoal Forest in the west and the Syah Desert in the south. People became more and more excited. They gathered in the Shrine of Mourrin to thank the gods. Cheers could be heard all the time. The rain was heavy. It didn't stop for a day and a night.
A rain like this could wet the barren land and desert. After the rain, a sea of grass would grow in the desert. This year, it would be a good time for sheep to graze. There had been such a situation in the past. But such a heavy rain only happened every few years. It had always been regarded as a gift from the gods.
As if the gods had heard the prayers of the townspeople, the rain didn't stop for three days and three nights. Some people began to feel uneasy. This was something that had never happened before.
The ravines in the Charcoal Forest were full of water. The low-lying areas of the post roads were flooded. More torrents flowed down from the Syah Plateau in the north, crossing the Charcoal Forest and approaching Duc. The whole town was surrounded by the muddy desert, the swampy jungle, and the flowing plateau.
When people finally realized that something was wrong, they heard the rumbling of thunder in the sky. In the distance, the towering mountains of the Syah Plateau were shrouded in thick clouds. Lightning flashed between the rolling clouds. The people here had never heard of thunder before. They felt an indescribable fear.
No one in Duc cheered. They hid in their houses and prayed to the gods, hoping that the rain would stop soon. However, the rain did not stop as people had hoped. After the thunder, the heavy rain that had been falling for three days and three nights suddenly turned into a torrential downpour. It was as if a huge hole had been torn in the sky.
… …
When the thunder sounded, the chief priest of the Syah Shrine, the eighth-level supreme mage Goliath, stood on the high city wall. Looking at the low clouds and raging lightning, he murmured, "Nietzsche, is this the catastrophe you prophesied? Is it really coming? But why are you still in Duc? "
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