13: Chapter 13 The First Kill in the Mines

Fine dust at the entrance of the shallow cave drifted down in layers.

"The heat is getting heavier; the cave is turning downward."

"That nest of rats is right inside."

The female voice was cold, pressing down against the soil layer like a thin blade scraping lightly against the stone wall.

Lu Jin stood before the thermal fissure and looked up.

In the excavated narrow tunnel, the light was weak. Only the clusters of grey fire fungus occasionally swelled with a faint, dark red glow, illuminating the cave walls like a layer of semi-molten iron shell. The rat swarm had gone completely silent; even the sound of them gnawing on fungus had ceased. All that remained was the rhythmic exhalation deep within the thermal pulse.

The bone clacker spun lightly between Lu Jin's fingers.

Thud.

The Digging Squad scattered to both sides.

Thud, thud.

The Transport Team dragged the tawan iron sand piled in the middle cave chamber to the area above the main passage, stacking the sandbags three layers deep, positioning them right over the already brittle fault line.

As the last sound fell, a Red-Eyed Rat darted into the shadows first.

It stopped at the end of the shallow cave, ears perked, sniffing twice toward the outside. With a flick of its tail in the dust, a dozen Ambush Rats immediately pressed themselves against the cave walls and sank low.

Lu Jin said nothing more.

The team above arrived quickly.

First to descend was a group of palm-sized grey-black moths. Their wings bore fire patterns, their abdomens were plump, and as they flew, they shed extremely fine crimson fire powder. They followed the tunnel downwards, fluttering against the walls and ground as if searching for the scent of living creatures.

Following closely behind, a small flag, less than half a person's height, poked inside.

A corner of the flag was torn, and the edges were charred black, but the fire patterns were still glowing. A red stone embedded at the tip of the flagpole was emitting wisps of fire.

A tattered fire-starting flag.

Lu Jin's gaze darkened slightly.

As expected, they were here to burn the cave.

The entrance was pushed aside, and three figures filed in.

The short-haired girl in the lead wore ink-blue light armor, holding a narrow-bladed spear. Her brows and eyes were sharp, and her movements were steady as she landed. Behind her followed the boy who had laughed at Lu Jin outside the Divine Gate, carrying the fire-starting flag, with two Fire-pattern Moths perched on his shoulder. The last person was stocky, carrying a short pickaxe, with an Armor-Splitting Rock Badger lying at his feet; its claws were black and glossy, and its nose twitched incessantly.

"Luan Qing, there really is something in the cave." The boy carrying the flag suppressed his excitement. "Thermal pulse, fungus clusters, and the smell of ore."

The short-haired girl raised her hand, signaling him to shut up.

She crouched down, touched the dust on the ground, and rubbed it lightly between her fingertips.

"Freshly turned."

"There's a significant number of rats, and they've built the tunnels quickly."

She looked up toward that faint, elusive dark red in the deeper recesses, and the corners of her mouth finally curled up.

"In that incident at No. 9 Abandoned Well, Lu Jingyao said he relied on tunnels and rats."

"Looks like he wasn't exaggerating."

The flag-carrying boy, Cheng Fang, laughed.

"The better they are at digging, the better."

"The deeper they're buried, the more valuable it is to rob them."

Han He, at the very back, kicked the cave wall with his toe and said in a low voice, "Luan Qing, are we really pushing in? The Abandoned Zone has many collapsing layers; if we get buried here, even the Mirror Platform might not be able to fish us out in time."

Luan Qing looked back at him, her eyes devoid of emotion.

"Are there few people who fall in the Unified Exam?"

"If he dares to tunnel, we dare to harvest."

Cheng Fang thrust the tattered fire-starting flag forward. The red stone flared, and the group of moths immediately flapped their wings and dove into the cave, scattering fire powder everywhere.

"I'll smoke him out first."

Lu Jin stood by the thermal fissure, watching the firelight approaching inch by inch, his fingertips tightening slightly.

This team was more like real hunters than the sycophants at No. 9 Abandoned Well.

They weren't here to humiliate anyone.

They were here to seize resources, grab points, snatch quotas, and incidentally bury a zero-point loser.

Then there was no need to hold back.

Thud.

The first sound of the bone clacker fell.

The Transport Rats hidden in the upper interlayer released their claws in unison. Three bags of tawan iron sand slid silently along the slope, stopping at the thinnest part of the fault line.

Thud, thud.

In the right cave chamber, a dozen Tunneling Rats began back-digging, hollowing out the middle section of the main passage into a cavity with only a thin shell remaining.

The third sound of the bone clacker was very light.

The Red-Eyed Rat suddenly darted out from the darkness ahead.

It had half a piece of grey fire fungus in its mouth, its body pressed extremely low, yet it ran as fast as a flash of grey shadow. The two fire-starting moths spotted it first and dove to drop fire powder, but the Red-Eyed Rat didn't even stop; it flicked its tail and dove straight into a deeper side tunnel.

Cheng Fang's eyes lit up.

"There!"

"Chase it! The fungus clusters are inside!"

The Armor-Splitting Rock Badger charged forward first.

It was large, its back covered in grey-black bone armor, and as it rammed through the loose soil, it was like a rolling hard rock. Cheng Fang followed, raising the flag as he pressed forward. The swarm of Fire-pattern Moths clung to the cave ceiling, scattering powder along the way, illuminating the entire tunnel with flickering light.

Luan Qing didn't rush. She looked back at the markings on the cave walls and the claw prints that had been deliberately wiped away, her brows furrowing imperceptibly.

"Slow down."

The moment the words left her mouth, the Armor-Splitting Rock Badger had already stepped over the thin-shelled cavity.

Crack.

An extremely light sound.

Han He's expression changed: "Stop!"

Too late.

The floor of the cave suddenly collapsed.

The front half of the Armor-Splitting Rock Badger fell into empty space, and the whole badger tumbled into the pit. The bottom of the pit wasn't spiked with bone; it was packed densely with tawan iron sand. The sand was fine and heavy, and as it collapsed, it acted like a black wave, pouring into the pit and burying half of the rock badger alive.

At the same instant, three bags of iron sand from above crashed down.

Cheng Fang was struck squarely in the shoulder and neck by one bag; he let out a muffled groan, his knees hitting the dust instantly. The fire-starting flag flew from his hand and stuck into the ground nearby, the red stone still glowing, but the moth swarm was thrown into chaos by the iron sand.

It was then that the grey shadows pounced.

From the left fissure, the right cave floor, the thin layer above, and the sand pit beneath their feet.

From all directions, it was nothing but rats.

The first wave of Ambush Rats didn't go for their faces; they bit at Cheng Fang and Han He's calves, wrists, and armor seams. The rat swarm, having recently eaten grey fire fungus, had even fiercer teeth. With one snap of their incisors, wear-resistant leather boots and thin armor straps split open. Cheng Fang screamed, raising the flag to swat them away, but an Ambush Rat had already crawled up the flagpole, clamped onto the back of his hand, and tugged hard, tearing off a chunk of flesh and skin.

Han He fared even worse.

The Armor-Splitting Rock Badger was stuck in the iron sand pit and couldn't climb out, and he himself had been numbed by the falling sandbags. Just as he tried to draw his pickaxe, three Tunneling Rats popped out from a newly opened tunnel by his feet and pounced directly onto the back of his knees.

"Get off!"

Han He swung his pickaxe, crushing one, but the second had already bitten into his flesh.

Luan Qing's eyes darkened. She flicked her narrow-bladed spear violently, the tip creating a string of cold, bright arcs. She thrust four times in rapid succession, forcibly knocking away the swarm of rats that had pounced in front of her.

"Cheng Fang, light the flag!"

"Burn the cave open!"

Cheng Fang's face was twisted in pain, but he still grabbed the fire-starting flag and slammed the red stone hard against the ground.

Whoosh!

A line of fire instantly shot out.

It didn't spread forward; instead, it licked along the cave walls on both sides and the layer of grey shell on the ceiling. The residual powder of the grey fire fungus was ignited, and the entire tunnel instantly lit up with a low-burning fire.

Luan Qing was just about to use the firelight to see her surroundings clearly, but her expression suddenly changed.

This fire was wrong.

The fire wasn't pressing in the direction she wanted; instead, it was being drawn away section by section by narrow slits and dark channels hidden in the cave walls, as if someone had prepared fire-conducting trenches in advance. As soon as the fire lit, the wind from the thermal pulse surged backward, carrying the smoke of the grey fire fungus straight into their faces.

The smoke wasn't thick, but it was intensely stinging.

Cheng Fang inhaled a mouthful; his throat felt as if it had been pierced by fire needles, tears and snot streaming down his face, and the fire-starting flag in his hand wavered.

It was this waver.

The Red-Eyed Rat pounced out of the smoke.

This time it didn't bite his hand or leg; it bit directly into the tear in the flag, using the momentum of Cheng Fang's arm swing to swing backward.

Rip!

The already tattered fire-starting flag tore open by another half.

The fire patterns were thrown into disarray on the spot.

"Beast!"

Cheng Fang roared wildly, grabbing with his other hand, but the Red-Eyed Rat had already stepped off his shoulder and jumped away, taking the opportunity to tear off another section of the flag's tail.

Lu Jin stood at the end of the thermal fissure and finally spoke.

"Bury them."

The bone clacker exploded into the cave.

The layer of the fault line above, which had already been hollowed out, collapsed with a roar.

Iron sand, grey shells, and black stone rings crashed down all at once, sealing off the path back. Han He had just turned to look when he was struck in the back by the collapsing black stones, throwing him into the iron sand pit; he couldn't even finish a scream.

The Armor-Splitting Rock Badger struggled frantically, its claws digging up sparks, but the more it dug, the deeper it sank. A dozen Ambush Rats crawled into the gap under its belly, gnawing fiercely at the soft flesh and eye sockets, and in the blink of an eye, tore it into a bloody mess.

Cheng Fang finally panicked.

"Luan Qing! Retreat!"

Luan Qing wanted to retreat, but the path of retreat was gone.

She swept away the swarm of rats that had pounced before her face with her spear, but suddenly, her feet slipped. The layer of grey-bright glazed shell beside the thermal fissure had been hollowed out from underneath by the Tunneling Rats, leaving only a thin layer of skin. When she stepped on it, the entire ground split open, and a wave of scorching heat erupted upward.

Cheng Fang was even more unlucky.

He had been kneeling by the thermal fissure, and as an Ambush Rat bit his ankle and dragged him backward, he tumbled directly into the fissure. The moment his body was wedged halfway in, a crimson heat current surged up from below, first burning through his pant leg and flesh, then burrowing into his chest and abdomen.

The scream changed instantly.

Short, broken, as if his throat had been scorched and ruptured.

Cheng Fang scrambled upward desperately. Just as his hand gripped the edge of the fissure, two Gray-tailed Burrowing Rats pounced, biting his fingers from the left and right, forcibly dragging him back half an inch.

The wave of fire surged up.

A stench of scorched flesh filled the entire tunnel.

Cheng Fang's screaming stopped abruptly.

Luan Qing's face turned deathly pale.

She stared at the fissure that was still spewing heat, realizing for the first time that this was not an on-campus node, and no one would ring a bell to call a halt when she was about to die.

What one loses in the Mining Field is truly one's life.

She looked up sharply and saw Lu Jin standing in the depths of the thermal fissure.

He was not far away, half his face hidden in the shadows, his eyes so cold that even the firelight couldn't pierce them. The dark red firelight of that black furnace was slowly spilling out from behind him, like some creature lurking in the deepest part of the cavern.

Luan Qing felt a chill in her heart and crushed her trial badge with her backhand.

Pop.

A white light shone brightly.

A layer of teleportation shield immediately enveloped her.

The Unified Exam allowed for withdrawal, but only to save one's life once. Once the badge was broken, the quota was gone.

"Lu Jin!" She stared at him fixedly within the white light, her voice cracking, "You will be targeted!"

Lu Jin did not answer.

The shield swirled, and Luan Qing disappeared from the spot.

The cave finally fell silent.

Only the Armor-Splitting Rock Badger remained, twitching in the pit, blood bubbling in its throat. Han He was half-buried under the iron sand, his shoulder bone collapsed. His trial badge broke slower; by the time the white light swept him away, his face was already covered in dust and fear.

All that remained on the ground was Cheng Fang.

A charred half-arm still hung by the edge of the fissure.

The tattered fire-starting flag was under the claws of the Red-Eyed Rat; the flag surface was burnt through in three places, but the red stone was still faintly glowing.

Lu Jin stood where he was, watching the fissure for a few moments.

This was the first time.

The first time a fellow candidate had died at his hands.

He didn't blink, nor did his chest heave unnecessarily; he simply raised his hand and tapped the cave wall lightly with the bone clacker.

"Clean up the bodies."

The rat swarm moved immediately.

The Transport Team dragged over the fire-starting flag, the Armor-Splitting Rock Badger's corpse, the Fire-pattern Moth pouches scattered near Cheng Fang's remains, bone blades, pickaxes, and trial waist pouches. The Ambush Squad quickly filled in the collapsed opening and wiped away large patches of bloodstains, leaving only a few messy claw marks, as if the place had just collapsed on its own due to the heat current.

Soon, the first batch of spoils truly belonging to the Unified Exam trial piled up at Lu Jin's feet.

One tattered fire-starting flag.

Two bags of Fire-pattern Moth pouches.

One set of Armor-Splitting Rock Badger hard armor.

Five bone blades.

And three blue relic point tokens found in Cheng Fang's waist pouch.

The scoreboard in the sky jumped slightly.

[Lu Jin: 9]

The number wasn't high, but it was his first clear point gain in the Collapsed Star Mining Field.

Lu Jin didn't look up.

He picked up the tattered fire-starting flag and turned to walk toward the end of the thermal fissure.

The wanji ember furnace had already opened a crack on its own.

The black fire licked the edge of the furnace door quietly, as if it had long been waiting for this fresh meat.

Lu Jin threw Cheng Fang's body, the broken weapons, the fire-starting flag, and the moth pouches in one by one.

The furnace fire swirled, and the red stone exploded first.

Following that, the entire tattered flag shrank bit by bit in the black fire into a glowing lump of ash. The dark red characters on the furnace wall floated out line by line, faster than any time before.

[Sacrifice: Corpse of a peer competitor × 1]

[Sacrifice: Low-tier relic "Tattered Fire-starting Flag" × 1]

[Sacrifice: Fire-pattern Moth pouch × 2]

[Sacrifice: Broken weapons × several]

[Battlefield smelting in progress...]

The black fire retracted suddenly, and a very light pulse sound suddenly came from deep within the furnace chamber, as if something inside had opened its eyes.

Lu Jin's eyes narrowed slightly.

The next instant, new characters slowly burned brightly in the center of the furnace wall.

[Condition met]

[Can forge Hero Embryo]