【Welcome to: The Ash Wasteland】
The interior of the Abyss was a world of its own, roughly divided into four regions. The Ash Plains was the largest of them. True to its name, it was a vast, grayish-white plain where the ground beneath their feet was covered in a thick layer of ash. As far as the eye could see, there wasn't a single decent plant. There were only a few scattered pieces of gravel and withered bones half-buried in the soil. There was no sun in the sky, only a monotonous, dim yellow hue.
Isa let go of Erich's hand and pulled out a parchment map to check their orientation. "We're in luck. The Rusted Mine is in this direction."
Erich leaned in to take a look but said nothing. The map was drawn with symbols and lines he couldn't make heads or tails of; it might as well have been written in a foreign tongue.
The teleportation array used when entering the Abyss only guaranteed that people who were touching would land in the same region. As for which specific region they landed in, it was pure luck. Being dropped into the Ash Plains was already a decent outcome for the two of them; at least they weren't too far from their destination.
Having confirmed their destination, they both spread their transparent wings and flew toward the northwest.
Flight was a type of magic in this world, and magic was strictly controlled by the Empire's nobility. For commoners, spreading magic without authorization was a severe crime, punishable by exile to the mines for hard labor at best, and public execution at worst.
But the Abyss was an exception.
Within a certain area outside the Abyss, any flyer who ascended to a certain height would mysteriously lose power and plummet. The inside of the Abyss, however, was different. As long as you stayed inside, the Abyss would slowly grant you increasingly powerful flight capabilities. Some scholars in the outside world believed this was an extension of the Abyss's curse, while others believed the Abyss was selecting qualified candidates. Regardless, it was an incredibly helpful boon, whether for combat, travel, or ascending to higher floors.
After flying for about half a shichen, the grayish-white ash gradually disappeared, revealing the red rock layers beneath. A massive mining area appeared before them, with mine entrances of various sizes scattered across the ground. Most of them were abandoned, leaving only a few scattered shafts still in operation to maintain ore production.
"This way," Isa said, pointing toward a large mine shaft entrance.
Having found their direction, the two paused briefly at the entrance, lit their respective torches, and plunged headfirst into the underground darkness.
However, the mine shaft wasn't actually that dark. For the first stretch of the path, a functioning mana lamp hung at regular intervals, illuminating a small area. The light was dim and yellow, but in the dark underground, it was bright enough.
Isa walked in front, holding her torch and guiding the way using the map. Erich followed behind, his hand never leaving his sword hilt as he remained on high alert. The mine shaft was dead silent, save for the sound of their footsteps.
The further down they went, the narrower the mine shaft became. Cobwebs even began to appear on the rock walls on both sides. It started with just a few strands, but soon there were more and more. White spider silk spread from the walls to the ground, forming translucent curtains covered in the corpses of unidentified tiny bugs.
Spider cocoons also began to appear. Cocoons of various sizes were scattered along both sides of the shaft; the smallest only reached Isa's ankles, while the largest were taller than Isa herself.
Erich stared at one of the cocoons for a moment. Unable to resist, he poked it with his sword.
The cocoon's shell was far less sturdy than it looked. It broke with a gentle touch, and a viscous, foul-smelling liquid poured out. Immediately after, hundreds of baby spiders surged from the breach. Each was only the size of a fingernail, their grayish-white bodies covered in fine, dense fuzz. They scattered in all directions, crawling over Erich's boots before disappearing into the darkness.
Erich's scalp tingled with goosebumps. He hastily took two steps back and squashed a few spiders that hadn't managed to escape into two dimensions.
"Do you really have to touch everything?" Isa turned and glared at him.
"Couldn't help myself. My bad."
Although there were many baby spiders, they were all hatchlings and posed no threat. Isa sighed and continued forward, while Erich obediently kept watch from behind.
After that, Isa glanced back at him from time to time.
"What?" Erich asked.
"Nothing."
After walking for a while longer, the mine shaft plunged into total darkness. Not a single mana lamp remained. The darkness pressed down on them like a physical weight, with only the faint glow of their two torches barely illuminating a small area ahead.
Walking in front, Isa suddenly shuddered. She stopped in her tracks, turned around, and asked:
"Did you hear that?"
"Hear what?"
"Someone is crying."
The mine shaft was already eerie, damp, and cold. Erich, heavily influenced by modern horror movies, knew all too well that this kind of environment was perfect for bad things to happen. To make matters worse, he wasn't particularly brave either. When Isa said that, goosebumps instantly broke out all over his body.
"Don't scare me," Erich said. "I scare easily."
Isa didn't reply. She held up her torch, staring straight into the depths of the darkness ahead, and then abruptly took a step forward, continuing to walk as if possessed.
Erich stood where he was, unsure whether to go or stay. Gritting his teeth, he braced himself and followed.
After a few steps, he heard the sound too.
A faint, indistinct sobbing came from ahead. It was a mournful, wretched sound that echoed through the dark mine shaft. Fragmented and disoriented, it was impossible to tell which direction it was coming from, yet it refused to fade.
Feeling cold all over, Erich hurried forward to stand beside Isa. "Aren't you scared?" he whispered.
Isa didn't answer. She just stared straight ahead.
Erich followed her gaze. The edge of the torchlight barely illuminated a giant cocoon.
A human-sized cocoon stood upright in the very center of the mine shaft. Through its grayish-white shell, something could be seen slowly writhing inside.
The crying was coming from inside that cocoon.
As if sensing the torchlight, the giant cocoon suddenly shuddered violently. The creature inside lunged toward Erich and Isa, stretching the shell outward and faintly outlining the contours of a human face. It was accompanied by a heart-wrenching cry: "Save me! Save me!!!"
Isa's reaction was much faster than Erich's. She instinctively took a step back, positioning Erich in front of her, and pressed a small hand against his lower back, giving him a gentle push forward.
Erich: "..."
"Go check it out."
"Why don't you go?"
"I'm on guard duty."
Pushed by Isa and unable to retreat, Erich could only resign himself to his fate. Drawing his sword, he held it in one hand and his torch in the other, taking slow steps toward the giant cocoon.
Three paces away from the giant cocoon, Erich stopped. The human face was still pressed against the shell, its mouth opening and closing, repeatedly crying, "Save me."
"What the hell are you!" Erich shouted at the face, his voice booming.
The creature inside the cocoon didn't answer his question. She simply kept crying those two words: "Save me, save me, save me, save me."
Erich's palms were slick with sweat. He had a million reasons not to slash at it: it could be a trap, or some kind of mimicking monster. But he couldn't bring himself to ignore that desperate, raw cry.
His longsword drew an arc through the air, slicing a half-human-sized slit into the grayish-white shell. A foul-smelling, grayish-white liquid poured out from the breach, and a young girl tumbled out of the giant cocoon along with the fluid.
She collapsed onto the ground, her wet, short blonde hair clinging to her cheeks. She wore tattered clothes whose original color was long gone. Tiny spiders, pouring out along with her, covered her entire body, crawling through her hair and wriggling in and out of her clothes. Her body trembled uncontrollably, though it was impossible to tell whether she was sobbing or convulsing.
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