"Your Majesty, there's an urgent report from the Kingdom of Dawn!" The guard walked into the office and placed a thick sheepskin bag beside Roland's mahogany desk. "According to the messenger, Sean asked them to send it here."
"Oh?" Roland could not help feeling excited. He put down the biplane blueprint in his hand, stood up and said, "Take it apart and have a look."
It had been almost two months since the exploration team left Neverwinter. The last time he received news from them was when they crossed the border of Graycastle. Roland was quite worried when he learned that the source was not in Neverwinter. After all, mining and transporting ores was a long-term process, and the First Army's mobility was limited. The farther away from his sphere of influence, the more difficult it would be to control the plan.
Now that he finally got a reply, he naturally cared about it.
But what made him feel strange was that the parcel was so big that it almost reminded him of the express mail in the modern world. Whether it was found or not, a piece of paper could explain the situation. What kind of situation did the exploration team encounter to make Sean send such a big parcel back?
"It's full of paper," Nightingale probably saw his confusion and whispered in his ear.
"Paper?" Roland tilted his head and asked in a low voice, "Has your ability evolved to see through objects?"
"I wish so, but unfortunately, I haven't." Nightingale said lazily, "I just put my hand into the bag when they came in."
"So that's why. Her alertness is really... Wait," Roland suddenly felt that something was wrong. When Evelyn came in with new Chaos Drinks, or when the chef came in with a snack cart, would she also "touch" them like this?
By the way, the amount of afternoon tea seemed to be a little less recently.
"Your Majesty, it's full of paper." The guard's words interrupted his thoughts. "And most of it is covered with ink."
"What kind of new report is this?" Roland looked inside and asked, "Is there no letter that can be read?"
"Please wait a moment..." The guard poured out all the things in the sheepskin bag and finally found something new. "There's a letter sealed with wax at the bottom."
"Give it to me."
"Then these blackened papers —"
"Spread them out on the floor," he ordered. "Sean can't go to the trouble of bringing back a bunch of useless things."
"Yes!"
Roland returned to his chair and opened the envelope.
Judging from the date, it should have been sent a week and a half ago. Just like the bag, the letter was unusually long, at least ten pages long. It was hard to imagine that a prospecting result would require such a lengthy description. Perhaps this was also the reason why the other party used the emergency method but did not use animal messengers after entering the northern region of Graycastle.
"Your Majesty, Miss Azima has found the source you're looking for. It's at the northeastern junction of the Kingdom of Dawn and the Kingdom of Wolfheart. The locals call it the Cage Mountain. "
Sean's first words put Roland at ease.
Fortunately, this trip was not in vain. The mine was still in the Kingdom of Dawn, which meant that he could control the entire mining process through the Quinn Family. Although it would cost him a lot more, it was better than being restricted by the Kingdom of Wolfheart and the Kingdom of Everwinter.
Moreover, Sean's wording was not complicated, which made Roland even more curious about the contents of the letter.
"But the source is not in the mine, but in a very ancient ruin. What's more incredible is that it doesn't belong to the underground civilization, nor does it have anything to do with the Taquila fugitives. We once suspected that it might be the work of the undersea demons, but Miss Witch's discovery has denied this speculation. "
"Your Majesty, this is definitely a ruin left by a race that we don't know about. "
Roland's brows immediately furrowed.
An unknown new alien race had appeared in the Four Great Kingdoms?
This was information that even the Witch Union had not mentioned.
Although this territory was barren and backward in the past, it did not mean that they would ignore their own territory. If there were foreign activities, it was unlikely that they could escape the witches' detection.
In other words, if Sean's conclusion was correct, they probably existed even earlier than the underground civilization.
The key question was, why would this race be so interested in uranium ore?
He continued to read.
"The builders left a large number of murals on the stone walls at the bottom of the ruin. The various monsters shown in the murals do not match the images of the foreign races that we know. Based on our speculations, Miss Rother and I believe that this building is very likely to be a place of execution. "
"Not only is it located on the source of the mine, but the builders also baked the ore into bricks, which were used to pave the walls and floor. Azima found the same element in every corner of the ruin. Even the murals used a large number of mineral materials. Around the bottom, we found a large number of cages and bones, which are also reflected in the murals. "
"They seem to have imprisoned a large number of enemies here, including not only the foreign races, but also their own kind that looked like the executioners. They then used the power of the source to torture their enemies, as if doing so could please their god. "
"I have copied as many of the murals as I can and sent a messenger from the Tokat family to Neverwinter. However, due to the limited number of protective suits and the large size of the murals, the progress is relatively slow. The murals you see are only a part of it. It is estimated that it will take another one to two months to complete. "
"In addition, I am very worried about Miss Rother. She went underground without a protective suit. I do not know if she will encounter the danger you mentioned. The local people had discovered the ruin earlier, but in the process of plundering, they contracted a strange disease. Many people died, so it is also known as the Temple of the Cursed. Moreover, judging from the purpose of the ruin's execution, this kind of danger should exist. "
"Oh no," Roland could not help but whisper when he read this.
"What's wrong?" Nightingale asked in the mist. "Even if the God's Punishment Witches are cursed, they can solve all the problems by changing their bodies. There is no need to worry about them, right?"
"I am not worried about the God's Punishment Witches, but Sean and Azima." He shook his head with a grave expression. "According to the plan, they should not have stayed in the mining area for so long."
Whether it was uranium ore or highly enriched uranium, the decay radiation was mainly alpha particles, which were difficult to penetrate the skin and cause harm to the human body. However, this did not mean that it was the same in the mining area. Considering that these radioactive elements had existed for hundreds of millions of years, some of them had decayed into more dangerous elements, such as radon, the situation became different.
The half-life of radon was only 3.8 days. Radon itself was a gas, so it was very easy to be inhaled into the body and cause internal irradiation. Therefore, it had to be shielded. The protective suits he prepared for the exploration team were designed for going deep into the mining area. The full protective suit could effectively isolate a variety of highly toxic elements from the decay of uranium ore, and the activated carbon mask could absorb radon and other toxic gases. As long as they did not stay in the mining area for a long time, they could basically guarantee their safety.
However, it would be different after a long time. The adsorption of carbon particles was limited, which meant that those who participated in the copying of the murals might inhale radon gas that exceeded the safety standard and receive excessive ionizing radiation.
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