Chapter 1054: Sacrificial Ground

"Your Majesty, there's an urgent report from the Kingdom of Dawn!" The guard entered the office and placed a thick sheepskin bag on Roland's mahogany table. "The messenger said that this was sent by Sean."

"Oh?" Roland suddenly became energetic. He put down his biplane design and stood up. "Let's open it and see."

It had been almost two months since the exploration team left Neverwinter. The most recent news from them was when they crossed Graycastle's border. When he learned that the source was not in Graycastle, Roland had been little worried. After all, the mining and transportation of ore was a long-term process. The First Army had limited mobility and the farther away they were from Graycastle, the harder it was to carry out a mission.

Now that he'd finally received some news after such a long time, he was very interested in what was in the package.

But he was also curious as to why the package was so big. This reminded him of mail order packages. Whether or not they were able to find the source, a letter would have been sufficient to convey the message. What did the exploration team encounter that would cause Sean send over such a big package?

"It's full of paper," Nightingale whispered in his ear as she probably saw the doubts in his eyes.

"Paper?" Roland tilted his head and whispered, "Are your capabilities so evolved that you can see through things?"

"I'd love it if that was the case, but unfortunately no." Nightingale said lazily, "I just slipped my hand into the sack when the guard came in."

"I see, so her level of alertness was still quite... Hang on." It suddenly dawned on Roland that when Evelyn came in with a new Chaos Drink, or when the chef came in with a snack cart, could she have also pinched a bit of the food and drink?

On the other hand, the amount delivered for afternoon tea had decreased a little.

"Your Majesty, it's all paper inside." The guard's words interrupted his thoughts. "And most of them are covered with ink."

"Is this a new reporting method?" Roland took a look in the bag and said, "Isn't there a letter that I could read?"

"Please wait..." After the guard had dumped out all the contents of the sheepskin bag, there was a new discovery. "There's a letter with a wax seal underneath."

"Bring it over."

"And those papers stained with ink—"

"Just spread them out on the floor," Roland ordered, "Sean couldn't have possibly spent so much energy to send a bunch of useless things."

"Yes!"

Roland sat back on his chair and opened the envelope.

Judging from the date, it should have been sent about a week and a half ago. Like the bag, the letter was also surprisingly large, with at least a dozen pages—it was hard to imagine why an exploration report would be such a lengthy document. This might also be the reason why Sean marked the report as urgent, but decided against using the usual animal messenger system.

"Your Majesty, Miss Azima has found the source that you want—It's located at the northeastern junction of the Kingdom of Dawn, near the Kingdom of Wolfheart. The locals call it Cage Mountain."

Sean's first sentence was enough to reassure Roland.

Fortunately, this trip was not a waste. The fact that the mining area was still within the Kingdom of Dawn meant that he could control the entire mining process through the Quinn family. Although the cost would be a lot more, it was still better than having to deal with the Kingdom of Wolfheart and the Kingdom of Everwinter.

Moreover, Sean's choice of words did not seem tedious, which made him even more curious about the package's contents.

"But the source wasn't in a cave, but a very old ruin. What's even more incredible was that it wasn't built by the underground civilization nor did it have anything to do with the Taquila survivors. We initially suspected that it might have come from the undersea monsters, but a discovery by the witches proved otherwise."

"Your Majesty, this ruin was left behind by a group previously unknown to us."

Roland immediately knitted his brows.

Did an unknown group of new aliens appear in the Four Kingdoms?

This was intelligence that had never been mentioned by the Witch Union.

Although this area was barren and backwards in the past, that did not mean that they would ignore their own territory. If there was alien activity, it would be impossible to escape the witches' investigation.

In other words, if Sean's conclusion was correct, then they most likely existed even before the underground civilization.

The key question was, why was this alien group interested in uranium ore?

He continued reading.

"They left behind a large number of murals on the walls at the bottom of the ruin. The various monsters displayed in the paintings were inconsistent with the images of the other races known to us. Through investigation of their contents, Ms. Rother and I think that the building was very likely used as a place of execution."

"It was not only located on the source of the vein, but they also shaped the uranium ore into bricks for the walls and floor—Azima saw the same element in every corner of the ruins and even on the murals. At the bottom, we found a lot of cages and bones, which was also reflected in the murals."

"They seem to have imprisoned a large number of enemies here—not just other races, but also their own kind. They were tortured using the power of the ore, and it seems as if doing so would please their gods."

"I've already tried to copy as much of the murals as possible and sent Tokat's messenger back to Neverwinter. Due to the limited number of protective suits and the size of the murals, the progress was slow. The murals you have copies of are only of a portion of them. It will likely take another month or two to send copies of the rest."

"In addition, I'm very worried about Ms. Rother who did not wear protective clothing when entering the ruins. I'm not sure if she would encounter the dangers you mentioned. The locals that initially discovered the ruins were infected with something. Many people became sick with strange diseases and many died from unknown causes. So the ruins also are called a cursed temple. Judging from the ruin's execution ground, this danger likely still exists."

"That's bad." Roland could not help but whisper.

"What's wrong?" Nightingale asked from the mist. "If the God's Punishment Witch is cursed, she could just change her body, so I don't think we have to worry about them."

"I wasn't worried about the Taquila witches, but about Sean and Azima." He shook his head solemnly. "According to the plan, they shouldn't have stayed in the mining area for so long."

Whether it was unrefined ore or highly compressed uranium, its radioactive decay mainly consisted of alpha particles, so it would be difficult to penetrate the skin or cause harm to the human body. But this didn't mean that it would be the same in the ruins. Given that these radioactive elements had existed for hundreds of millions of years and some of them had likely decayed into more dangerous elements such as radon, the situation had become different.

The half-life of radon was only 3.8 days, and it was a gas which could be easily inhaled into the body to cause radiation poisoning. The protective suits he prepared for the exploration team were designed for going into deep mining areas—The fully-sealed suit could effectively block out many kinds of highly toxic elements that could be found in a uranium mine. The gas mask could filter out radon and other toxic gases. As long as you didn't stay in the mining area for extended periods of time, you could basically guarantee your safety.

But once too much time had passed, the endurance and effectiveness of the suits would be limited. This meant that those who participated in copying the murals might have exceeded the safety limits and thus been exposed to harmful amounts of radiation.

"They must immediately withdraw from the ruins," said Roland, taking a pen and paper from the table. "Call Honey. This letter must be sent to them as soon as possible."