The group waited only a short while, and the chicken remained quite active.
Ethan couldn't help but frown, now finding himself somewhat at a loss.
"It seems the situation isn't as bad as we imagined," Henry said, letting out a sigh of relief. If the chicken had died the moment it was thrown in, that would have been a real cause for concern.
"Let's deal with these bodies first," Ethan waved his hand, signaling the group to handle the corpses on the ground.
After clearing the bodies near the mine, they discussed and decided they had to go down into the mine to investigate.
They couldn't abandon such a vast wealth as the Mana Crystal Vein without trying to understand what happened.
For safety, they all removed their metal armor before descending into the mine.
The mine was dark, with the flickering torchlight illuminating only a very limited distance.
Shortly after entering the mine, they saw several lifeless, dull-colored bodies scattered on the ground along the escape route.
Some of the more timid Heroes began to tremble involuntarily at the sight.
As they continued deeper into the mine, flickers of luminescence came from ahead.
Ethan and the others cautiously approached, finally making out the glowing object.
A fist-sized Magic Crystal was embedded in the cave wall, with black and white mist continually emanating from the Mana Crystal.
Beside it, the grotesque face of a monk lay still, having been dead for some time.
"This Mana Crystal..." Henry moved closer and gently knocked it off the wall. His face instantly turned incredibly grave.
Inside the Mana Crystal was an enclosed, ferocious-looking skull.
"Monster... Monster!" A few Heroes cried out in alarm as they recognized the face of the skull.
The skull had horns on its forehead and scales covering its face, with both eyes tightly closed, as if in a deep sleep.
Mist continued to pour from it, and Ethan pulled out an iron sword, slowly approaching the fog coming from the Mana Crystal.
A sizzling noise sounded, and the iron sword in his hand was corroded once again.
"This skull seems to be the source of the mist..."
"Wait, no, there's more fog coming out from deeper in the cave," one Hero pointed towards the deeper part of the cave, and indeed, a thin mist continued to waft from within.
"Could it be possible that there's more than one source of the fog?"
"Never mind what this ghastly head is, those Heroes who escaped mentioned a white ghostly figure, but we haven't seen that even once," Henry said gravely.
"Let's keep going. Even if there are ghosts or monsters in this world, they're still just a type of monster. We're not mere mortals powerless to fight back; if it dares to reveal its health bar, we can kill it!"
Holding torches, the group continued to approach the cave.
Soon, they discovered another source of mist, another Mana Crystal, sealing within it a claw covered with black scales and long, sharply gleaming black nails.
As they went further down, they discovered more and more sources of mist, some sealing bones, others various limbs...
Without exception, they were terrifying creatures unlike any human, emitting eerie mists from their dead bodies, leading to the massive changes within the mine.
"It seems they accidentally dug up these things while mining the Mana Crystals, and the fog that emanated from within caused those deaths."
"What should we do now, continue mining?"
"What are these bodies inside the Mana Crystals? Does anyone know what they are?"
The group of Heroes began to discuss quietly.
Ethan didn't respond.
He took out the Dragon Slayer Spear and ventured deeper into the mine alone.
The Dragon Slayer Spear burst with flashes of red light, collapsing a large part of the cave ahead.
Ethan used the Dragon Slayer Spear to pick out several giant Mana Crystals, taking them all out.
Without exception, these Mana Crystals also contained the flesh of unknown beings.
"Bring those previous remains here," Ethan ordered. Several Heroes quickly complied, using sticks to handle the Mana Crystals, not daring to touch them directly.
"Any of you studied medicine?" Ethan asked, pointing at the pile of Mana Crystals on the ground. No one answered.
Henry gave an embarrassed smile, saying helplessly, "It's a pity that everyone from Dark Core died; they would have come in handy at a time like this."
The group soon realized what Ethan wanted to do.
The remains sealed within these Mana Crystals were clearly all part of the same creature.
Ethan fumbled with the Dragon Slayer Spear for a while, trying to see if he could piece together the Mana Crystals.
"Could all these limbs be from the same creature?"
"Not sure; it's shattered so badly. This is just a part of it; if they're all from the same creature, there must be at least a hundred pieces, right?"
"Good heavens, using hundreds of Mana Crystals as its own coffin after death, that's quite a lavish creature, isn't it?"
The group of Heroes began to chatter, initially panicking upon entering the mine, but with Ethan as their anchor, and nothing ominous having happened so far, they quickly relaxed.
"Let me get a few medical experts down here; I want to see what this dead devil looked like when it was alive."
Henry instructed, and soon three terrified-looking Heroes were brought down into the mine.
Among the three Heroes, two were girls, and having seen the eerily dead bodies along the way, they were already pale with fright.
When they heard that Ethan's task was for them to piece together the remains of an unknown creature, one anxious female Hero broke down in tears.
The other two Heroes didn't look much better, especially after seeing the terrifying limbs sealed within the Mana Crystals. They didn't even dare to approach them.
"You don't need to be afraid. It's just a dead creature. You've done autopsies before, right? What you'll be doing here is similar; just piece together these Mana Crystals and reconstruct it."
"Don't worry; you'll be well compensated for this," Henry half-pressured, persuading the Heroes for a while, and finally promised substantial rewards.
Only then did the three Heroes begin their work.
For these professionals, piecing together the remains was not a difficult task; most of the parts had clues to follow.
After a tense start with no unexpected occurrences, the three became bolder, even starting to whisper amongst themselves.
"What kind of creature is this? It's so ugly..."
"I bought a field guide to continental creatures after coming to this world, and I can assure you, this thing wasn't in there."
"Scales all over, horns on its head, sharp teeth and claws... Doesn't it resemble one of those demons from hell?"
"Damn it, don't scare me like that."
With concerted effort, they soon managed to piece together an approximate form from the Mana Crystals.
Indeed, the remains all came from the same creature.
It was more than three times the size of an average person, standing over three meters tall, with four arms.
But some parts were clearly missing: one right arm was gone, and the Mana Crystal containing its heart was nowhere to be found.
"Keep searching; let's see if we can find the remaining Mana Crystals," Ethan directed.
He gathered a group of Heroes, took all the sealed remains in the Mana Crystals, and had them moved and stored above ground, then instructed them to continue digging.
After all the remains were brought above ground, the eerie fog indeed disappeared, and a new batch of miner Heroes were brought in to continue the mining of the Mana Crystal Vein.
Ethan stayed by the mine for several days without any strange incidents, but the missing right arm and heart were never found.
Confident that nothing ominous was happening in the mine, he left the underground city and returned to the surface.
However, not long after he left, more distressing news arrived.
"The white shadows, they have appeared again!"
"People are dead, so many are dead..."
"Ghosts, there are really ghosts!"
A group of Heroes wailed as they escaped from the portal. After calming down a bunch of terrified Heroes, Ethan received another piece of terrible news.
The three Heroes who had pieced together the unknown creature's body were all found dead in their homes under mysterious circumstances.
"Maybe we should close the mine..." Henry said, his face etched with worry.
The Mana Crystals mined during this period were enough to ensure his comfortable living for a lifetime, and frankly, he didn't think it was worth the risk.
"Henry, is that all the ambition you have?" Jonathan responded with strong opposition, pulling out a map and spreading it before Henry.
"See this? Our newly-established Hero Kingdom is right at the crossroads of several major kingdoms, surrounded by enemies. Now that word of our founding has spread, many Heroes have come to join us, and the number of Heroes within our borders has surpassed all neighboring countries..."
"But Heroes aren't civilians; it takes money to support them. The Mana Crystal Vein we've mined, aside from purchasing armaments, has mostly been used to pay out bounties."
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