Chapter 298: Into the Green Unknown
=Hmmm. I guess you were right about our lord being surprisingly dense about being spied on.=
=Probably not. I’m not detecting any ill-intent from this observer. More like…curiosity?=
=Stop that.=
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“Milord, we have finished sweeping the area,” Nepherage reported while saluting, “we can safely conclude that there are no hostile insects and/or possible traps/spies in the vicinity. We are clear to advance whenever.”
“A lot of fucking skeletons though,” Hurricroak tacked on, “like it’s a mass grave up in here.”
“Bones…every…where…”
“Good to hear and I can see that,” Zhen Liu nodded.
Zhen Liu did not spend his time sitting around waiting for the kaijin to finish their patrol, instead he decided to be proactive and try to figure out the point of origin for some of these skeletons.
Granted most of his knowledge in regards to anatomy came in the form of butchering lessons, but he also had a pair of voices in his head to help point him in the right direction of figuring out the causes of death.
=Milord, I’ve been meaning to ask this, but why is there a stint of time here dedicated to nothing but murder mystery and crime investigation media? Half of these archives is just the same title with a colon attached to it specify the type of crimes.=
In total, he managed to find a total of twenty-eight and a half skeletons that could be divided into three types of death: nature, betrayal and prior.
The first was pretty self-explanatory, the denizens of Insect Hell got to them, with the bones showcasing bite marks and poisons ravaging them. That aforementioned half skeleton appeared to be the result of someone having half of their body consumed, with the other half left to rot away to bones.
=Think they got eaten after their death?=
Betrayal deaths were also self-explanatory, he just had to see the weapons sticking out of the bodies to determine that something went wrong and someone got murdered. From one of these bodies he pulled out what looked like a machete from the spine of one of these victims and what looked like to be the sheath of the machete from another skeleton that had it’s skull caved in by a hatchet. While scavenging from the dead was usually seen in the bad taste, Zhen Liu had a feeling he was going to be using this machete a lot.
‘I ain’t touching shit with my hands in this place,’ Zhen Liu thought as he holstered his new weapon.
As for the last cause of death…apparently Insect Hell served as a very convenient dumping ground for bodies…the kind produced from unsavory activities.
‘I guess it’s less suspicious than a pig farm…’
All of these skeletons shared very similar wounds, namely blunt force trauma as a result of plummeting from a great height, but the causes of their deaths varied greatly.
=That one died of blood loss prior to being tossed in, marks on that one suggests poison, that poor fellow was tossed down here alive…=
=Was about to.=
Disturbingly enough, several of these “prior’ skeletons showed signs of having only been recently deceased.
It appears that the journalist’s hopes for this place’s future were a tad too optimistic.
“Alright…if we’re in the clear, let’s move. The window of entry is getting shorter by the second and I’d rather not need to hang around here for longer than what’s necessary.”
“Yes, milord!”
“Cool…who wants to take the front?”
“Uhh…”
The three kaijin were unsure how to answer that question, so they defaulted to the great decider: rock, paper scissors.
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Date: Sixth day of the third month, Azure Kings Era – Year 56
The sponsor of our expedition is a name I wouldn’t have expected to hear in over a million life times.
Frederick Anterio.
The same Frederick Anterio that is the son of Solomon Anterio, the famed “Flying Cerulean Fang” general, the hero of the Siege of Jaguar’s Keep and the who single handle fought the Ten Eyed Warlords to a standstill, that Solomon Anterio.
And now his son is funding our excursion into Insect Hell.
Either I’m dreaming or the Professor is a smoother talker than he had let on, but regardless, holy hooves!
Now I’m really excited for this expedition, gah, why can’t three months go by quicker!
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Date: Eighth day of the third month, Azure Kings Era – Year 56
By the Professor’s insistence, members of our department were invited to meet with Frederick alongside members of the History Division at a small get-together.
Frederick proved himself to be a rather charismatic individual, who carried with him the pride and grace that is to be expecting with his standing.
He was also quite handsome.
If he wasn’t engaged, I might have gotten drunk enough to try and make a pass at him.
Hah!
On a side note, during the party I had overheard something rather strange being talked about between the History Division leader and the Professor.
Something about a “full moon gate”?
Was that a type of wine?
The only bottle I knew with a similar name was Moondrop Sake…gods I want more…
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Date: First day of the sixth month, Azure Kings Era – Year 56
Today’s the day!
After months of preparation, handpicking who will be joining to assist in the effort and finding the right equipment to bring, we are off to the Wasting Sands and heading straight into the maw of Insect Hell.
Man that sounds ominous…I should probably preface that statement with a clarification that we won’t be heading straight to Insect Hell, we’ll actually be stopping by a recent built pioneering town by the name of Stone Claw.
It’s a quaint little place, founded by a young up and comer by the name of Benedict Wolfe.
I haven’t met him personally, but I hear he’s a very generous man. A bit too fond of drink though if you believe the rumors…
Gah, I’m rambling in my own writings now…either way, we’re on our way now and I am excited for our future prospects
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Date: Tenth day of the Sixth Month, Azure Kings Era – Year 56
We have arrived to the perimeter of Insect Hell and it was…eventful to the say the least.
We had left Stone Claw early in the morning in order to get Insect Hell in time to set up camp before nightfall. Unfortunately, we weren’t the only ones who set out to the place early.
By the time we had arrived there, we became firsthand witnesses to a crime, or at least the cleaning of one.
Members of a local bandit group, the Red Sands Locusts I believe, had apparently raided a merchant caravan that had just left Stone Claw the day before we left and were now in the process of making sure no one was around to report their crimes…by throwing the survivors into Insect Hell.
Unfortunately for them, we had arrived in time to see them commit the act and appropriately punish them for it, but we were a touch too late to stop them from completing their grusome work.
After apprehending the bandits, there was talk to turn back and hand them over to the proper authorities for them to process…but our sponsor had another idea in mind.
Citing that it would be a waste of time to turn back and stating that these men would be put to death anyways, Frederick proceeded to do onto them what they had done to others just moments before.
Many of the bandits he threw over had become entangled in the myriad of spider web bridges and were quickly consumed, or had become prey to the airborne insects they shared the space with.
A few had somehow miraculous avoided all of that on their descent, but they were all now stuck at the very bottom layer of Insect Hell.
If the fall hadn’t killed them, the denizens below would do so in short order.
There are scant few firsthand accounts about what kind of beasts linger on that bottom layer, but if they were to be believed…it is a place of death that could only be matched by the darkest pits of the Umbral Spider continent.
With that said, our team will not be entering the pit in the same manner as those unfortunate bandits.
Thanks to the funding of sponsor, we have managed to secure the equipment necessary for a lift to be installed and set up.
The plan is to make a big enough hole off to the side of the pit and break through into Insect Hell’s bottom layer through the side. If we had gone through the obvious open entrance, through the Dead Air layer…I shudder at the thought.
It might take some time, but we do have several members who have Terraqi formulas, including myself.
With our powers combined, it will only take two days at most to dig through!
The bounties if Insect Hell will be laid bare, and we shall be the first to discover it.
