Chapter 1270 - 643: Rescue
A group of people stopped in their tracks, panting heavily for a while before focusing their attention to listen. Sure enough, the sound of water was coming from nearby, but it was not the sound of a rushing river. Instead, it was a ticking, dripping noise from an unknown source. Boss Kun gave "Fourth" a glance, and the two tightened the grips on their weapons, leading the group quietly towards the direction of the water sound.
After witnessing the tank-sized Mutated Lizard, Boss Kun was somewhat discouraged. If there was a stream here to take everyone away, he might want to leave too.
This was actually a side road departing from the Bronze Avenue. The further they walked, the narrower the road became, and the surface grew increasingly uneven. Stalactites started to appear both overhead and underfoot. The group walked ten steps or so and found a stone cave ahead. The cave walls were covered with countless large pale yellow crystals, and groundwater seeped from the cave ceiling, dripping off the stalactites, producing the dripping sound everyone heard earlier.
It turns out it wasn’t flowing water. Everyone was greatly disappointed; it seemed the idea of escaping through the waterway was unrealistic.
Boss Kun stepped forward, using his Longsword to extract a piece of crystal from the wall, easily took a small piece down, and sniffed it at his nose, saying: "It’s some kind of ore, very soft, unsure what use it has. Hmm, this is a mineral vein."
The stone cave area was just over a hundred square meters. Someone went to check ahead and reported, "There’s no road ahead."
Boss Kun frowned and said, "Let’s get out quickly."
"Boss, can we rest here for a bit?" someone showed discontent on their face. This journey had been full of fright, and they wanted to find a safe place to rest a little. The cave entrance was small for the Mutated Lizard; given the size of such monsters, it should not be able to enter.
"Fool!" Boss Kun cursed vehemently before saying, "This is a dead end. Later, when those lizards realize, they only need to block the cave entrance, and we’ll become trapped turtles, unable to go anywhere! Better to find a more open space, easier to run! Those monsters may not necessarily outrun us."
What he said made perfect sense. But everyone who arrived here was utterly weary. People could continue running for a long time, but once they slackened, they felt severe pain all over and had no strength to take another step. Boss Kun saw this and knew it was difficult to force them anymore, so he had to say, "Rest for 15 minutes, then we keep going."
With his words, everyone let out a long sigh and sat down on the ground.
Boss Kun went to his nephew’s side, squatted down to help him remove his boots. Just now in the corridor under time pressure, they could only hastily bandage the wound; now it needed careful treatment. But after looking for just a while, Boss Kun’s expression changed.
The wound was no longer bleeding, but it was severely swollen, the nearby skin had turned black and shiny, resembling a pig bladder, as if pressing hard could make it burst open. Looking at his nephew, cold sweat was streaming down his forehead, his consciousness somewhat unclear, with black lips and bloody red lower eyelids, looking terribly frightening.
"Fourth" whispered, "He is poisoned! The teeth of that ant-like creature must carry poison."
Boss Kun again gave the young man an antidote pill, but after a long time, there was still no sign of improvement, the swelling on the foot worsened, and blackness spread up the calf. The young man probably knew his life was in danger, stared helplessly at his uncle, and pleaded softly, "Save me, I don’t want to die!"
"Hmm, I will save you." Boss Kun responded verbally, but inside, he sighed deeply; could he ultimately not save this lad’s life? He had become a team burden, with unknown dangers ahead, taking him along was impossible. Either leave him here to fend for himself, or...
He lowered his eyes, not letting his nephew see the flash in his eyes.
At this moment, someone quietly called, "Boss, this mineral looks like it has been gnawed."
Upon hearing this, Boss Kun went close to observe, sure enough, many exposed minerals appeared as if chewed and torn apart, with sharp scrape marks. The more he looked, the tighter his brows knitted, finally speaking in a deep voice: "These marks were left by those ant-like creatures!"
Others got up to inspect, soon reporting: "This part was gnawed too!"
"Here too!"
"The entire wall is full of bite marks, even the stone wall was bitten!"
...
Everyone looked at each other, witnessing the doubt and uncertainty in each other’s eyes. Just now, the bronze hall seemed to be guarded by Mutated Lizards, the ant-like creatures were no match for them, yet they risked crossing the hall just to gnaw at these stones? Looking around, almost all the walls were covered in bite marks, scrape marks, not only on minerals but also on stone walls got affected.