Chapter 623: Deeper into the Ndipaya tribe’s inner reaches
Translator: Translation Nation Editor: Translation Nation
The duo simultaneously charged up to inspect the cocoon after noticing that golden AK.
Instantly, they discovered those white cocoons were spun with incredibly tough and pliable silk. Upon touching the silk threads, they realized their skin had turned slightly numb. Evidently, it was infused with potent toxins and strong anaesthetic chemicals.
As Sheyan and Reef deliberated over their rescue plan, they suddenly heard they similar and queer sharp scraping sound. Moreover, that scraping sound was shockingly coming from those black holes by the underground cavern walls!
Facing such a situation, the two immediately flew into formation!
Yet at this instance, Mbenga and the other 4 servants unanimously lifted their heads and released a sonorous tribal cry. Their cries reverberated incessantly throughout the narrow and airtight underground cave, causing one’s eardrum to shudder with ringing. Instantaneously, that scraping sound gradually distanced away and finally faded away.
However, when Sheyan questioned them about their conduct, those natives could only cast a vacant look at him. They were completely ignorant and merely replied that it was a practice inherited from their tribes.
Following that, Sheyan and Reef attempted to free Brother Black from the white cocoon, but realized that neither tearing nor slashing yielded any results.
As time trickled away, for fear that the night would don more nightmares, they eventually resorted to using fire.
To their surprise, the cocoon threads were indeed easily combustible, and a simple flame instantly caused a booming crackle; mild bluish flames licked up those hairs of silk while emitting a pungent charred stench.
Soon after, a dazed Mogensha finally surfaced from within before limpidly slumping to the ground!
Though Mogensha had reappeared, regardless of the various medicines of methods Reef and Sheyan employed, they still failed to wake him up.
To their horror, when they inspected him, they realized that his bones and flesh had seemingly been dissolved. It was as though they were stroking a plastic bag filled with water, where Mogensha had sunk into deep unconsciousness.
It seemed like after being captured by those Ndipaya barbarians, Mogensha had suffered such ruthless and cruel torture to fall into such a perilous state. Furthermore, his condition was clearly worsening.
If Sheyan and Reef hadn’t rescued Brother Black, then roughly 3-4 hours later, all of Brother Black’s flesh and bones would’ve been dissolved into liquid!
Such a method of numbing before killing was incomparably malicious, which stripped away all chances of escaping for the victim.
After using his helmet to probe out Mogensha, Sheyan realized that he had fallen into a state known as deep paralysis. Moreover, this state had authoritative precedence. This meant that ordinary medicines were incapable of waking him up.
This current situation was undoubtedly like being thrown into a pit of fire. Furthermore, not only was Mogensha’s health points slowly plunging, his maximum HP limit was also declining. Under such circumstances, the only solution was to send him back to the nightmare realm.
Of course, Sheyan and Reef didn’t forget to burn down the other cocoons as well. Those few other cocoons varied in size and produced victims such as wild beasts and even native aborigines.
Sadly, they didn’t possess the formidable might of a contestant and had all dissolved into a pile of mucus.
Their only consolation was a single golden brick they found from one of the liquified aborigine; a valuable object that could fetch a good price.
Without other alternatives, the two contestants backtracked from the Kijuju Marshland and returned to the 5-kilometre boundary of the outer reaches; before sending Mogensha back to the nightmare realm.
After selling off their various loots, Party Ace had already acquired over 100,000 utility points. They then transferred half of it to Mogensha, which should be sufficient for his treatment. If he couldn’t be completely healed, preserving his life would still suffice, as long as he could persist until Sheyan and Reef returned.
Before even entering the core reaches, they suffered the tragic loss of their most essential comrade. Such a situation caused the duo to become supremely dejected.
Upon returning to that underground stone gate, the two contestants received an immense shock; because the corpses they had rescued out from the cocoons had vanished!
Yet from the trail of mucus on the ground, they could deduce the corpses had been shockingly hauled into those tiny black holes along the cavern walls.
When they finally arrived before the massive stone gate of this underground passageway, the duo could clearly observe 4 cavities along the stone gate. Evidently, each concavity would fit a single stone slab.
Sheyan first ordered one of Reef’s servant to lead and inserted the first stone slab into a concavity. Instead, they realized that the stone slab had to be constantly supported, otherwise, it would simply drop. Furthermore, each concavity was widely distributed, which signified that a minimum of 4 persons was required to activate this stone gate.
Upon witnessing this scene, Sheyan flushed with an intensified sensation of seemingly overlooking something. As though he could nearly grasp the crux of a matter, but was simply missing that final step.
Nevertheless, time was tight. Besides, there wasn’t anywhere else left for them to advance. Hence, Sheyan couldn’t think of any other alternatives at the moment. Brother Black’s miserable condition was still vivid in his mind, and even amidst such an environment where danger lurked in every corner, he couldn’t help feeling distracted. This was simply extremely infuriating!
After uniformly inserting the 4 stone slabs into the stone gate, the gate released slight trembles before heavily and slowly withdrawing backwards. Loose fragments of rocks above rustled down, as a moisty downwards passageway was revealed; a piercing mouldy odour assailed their nostrils.
Sheyan wasn’t in a rush to enter, instead, he squatted to examine the grooves left behind after the stone gate had opened. After carefully feeling around with his fingers, he mumbled.
"Seems like this underground passageway isn’t obsolete. At least, it opens once every year."
Reef nodded and trudged forward. Sheyan was in charge of the security to his left and right, while his remaining pike-wielding servants protected Mbenga at the centre.
Although there wasn’t any distinct scenery to reference their journey, as a navigator previously, Sheyan naturally possessed a superior sense of direction. He could sense that they had gradually advanced deeper underground, and were currently on a straight path upon reaching a definite depth.
After the gradient of stairs had reached a fixed depth, the path ahead became straight and parallel. Clear vestiges of erosion could be seen along the cavern walls, which didn’t appear to be the work of man, but instead, resembled a dried underground river course.
Though this cave was serene, hidden in the depths and abstrusely dark, not a single odd thing happened.
After proceeding for roughly a kilometre, a flight of stairs upwards greeted Sheyan. At this point, the work of artificial constructions became exceedingly clear once again.
Evidently, beneath the swamp bed of the Kijuju Marshland, was a dried up underground river.
Based on the current era of aqueduct construction technology, it was impossible for the Ndipaya tribe to construct a direct tunnel into their core inner reaches. Instead, they had ingeniously cut a link into this dried underground river, and subsequently morphing it into a passageway. Moreover, with this method, they had substantially saved on manpower and resources.
At the region approaching the cavern exit, it became increasingly damp and muddy. At the latter periods, even Sheyan and Reef had to use their hands to assist their advance.
Only after ascending till the cavern exit, did they realize this was a semi-concealed exit leading to a karst cave.
Reflecting on the recent developments, the Kijuju Marshland inner core reaches should be on a comparatively elevated upper ground. However, due to the lingering mist and low visibility of the marshland, the true colours of its topography wasn’t exhibited to the primitive outer reaches.
After strolling out, Sheyan immediately breathed in a foul piercing stench, like a biowaste dump of a chemical factory back in the real world.
To his horror, he directly contracted a calamitous and negative buff – [ HP regeneration speed additionally declines by 500%! ]
Most importantly, this negative effect would influence any kind of HP regeneration of Sheyan’s body! This included his party ability, ‘Gloryheal’!
For example, after equipping his ‘Sacred Cow-Horn Cup’ accessory, the regeneration statistics of ‘Gloryheal’ would be restoring 75% HP within 12 seconds. Yet after this negative buff, it became 75% HP within 60 seconds!
One could simply imagine how vast this disparity was. As for a food that can restore 100 HP within 30 seconds, it would now be forcefully dragged to restoring 100 HP within 150 seconds. By these two analogies, one could determine the vast difference this buff made.
Following the river passage for a while, they finally exited the karst cave.
At present, the skies remained dark ashen grey. Instead, noticeable changes could be seen in the surrounding swampy vegetation.
Myriads of bracken type vegetation replicated those of the prehistoric era, where the vegetation had transformed gigantuous in appearance. Even tiny moss weeds that grew on the ground were as large as a palm. Even a single tendril of floral varieties like the sisal hemp and wooden bracken were as thick as a human arm.
All of a sudden, Sheyan raised his hand; a signal to halt due to the possibility of danger ahead.
Indeed so, not long after creeping forward, buildings came into their view.
After prudently encroaching further, they realized it was a ring of village constructions. The style of these constructions was seemingly identical to the huts of the outer Ndipaya tribe.
Sharpened wooden stakes were erected and arranged as fencing, looking like totems that were coated in monotonous oil paint. The huts inside appeared undulated in height, displaying a picturesque disorder. Their only common ground was their sturdy appearance, seemingly constructed for the purpose of defence.
Yet as the single file of humans cautiously crawled forward, Sheyan quickly discovered that this cluster of huts had already been abandoned.
Moreover, numerous huts were half-collapsed, while the wooden fencing had decayed by the beatings of rain and wind; as though a light tap would topple them.