Chapter 43: Here They Come, Here They Come
Lynn flipped the manuscript to the last page.
After confirming that there was no information on the back, he handed it to Geralt.
While Geralt was flipping through the manuscript, Lynn took over the guard duty this time.
A few minutes later, Geralt, who had finally finished reading all the manuscripts, frowned.
"897? That was more than three hundred years ago."
"No wonder Brouver didn't know that Mahakam had a big plague before. It seems that it was Elder Otto, who was in office before Brouver, who destroyed all the relevant records."
Lynn couldn't help but sigh.
The sorcerers in this world were very powerful.
Alzur, Raffold... were all legendary sorcerers who could suppress a country with their own power.
For example, when Prince Maribor and Prince Erland fought for the throne of Temeria, a protracted war broke out.
This war spanned several generations and continued into the eleventh century.
It brought endless pain to the people.
Because this war was so long that it seemed to have no end, this war was also called the Endless War.
Alzur tried to persuade Prince Erland to hand over the throne to the rightful heir, Prince Maribor.
But Prince Erland refused, relying on his huge army.
There was no way, Alzur had to summon a huge Glustyworp on the battlefield where the two armies fought a decisive battle, sweeping away Prince Erland's army.
Prince Erland had no choice but to surrender, and this protracted war finally came to an end.
But at the same time, the sorcerers in this world were also very weak.
Because the era of shining stars when Alzur and Raffold were active had passed.
Now was the twilight era of Ragnarok.
Even the most powerful sorcerers of this era could not touch the realm of Alzur back then.
Who would have thought that dimeritium, which was like a turtle stone in front of Alzur, had become the nemesis of sorcerers.
People always assumed that the times should be rolling forward.
But the result was...
Geralt folded the manuscript and carefully put it away.
"According to the content of the manuscript, we only have one day at most in the abandoned mine. The 'disease' that can infect sorceresses may also bypass our Witcher's immune system."
"Let's go, let's end this as soon as possible."
...
There was a wooden door at the end of the camp.
Lynn pushed open the wooden door.
The door was not locked.
It opened with just a light push.
The empty darkness unfolded before their eyes.
An even more bone-chilling cold wind blew out from the depths of the mine.
Walking in the mine, Lynn couldn't help but have an illusion.
It was as if they were not walking in the mines of Mahakam, but in the esophagus of some huge monster.
As they continued to go deeper into the mine, the traces of artificial excavation began to gradually decrease.
The remaining traces were clearly left three centuries ago.
Now it had become rotten under the erosion of the long river of time.
However, there were screams and scratching sounds coming from behind a brick wall that was sealed.
"Are there still living people?"
Lynn used the Aard sign to blast open the sealed brick wall.
Behind the collapsed wall, it was empty.
Only a pile of bones remained.
Many phenomena in the Witcher world could not be explained by science, and could not even be explained by magic.
Geralt squatted on the ground and used his Witcher senses to check.
He quickly came to a conclusion.
"Bones, blood, dried mucus... must be the victims infected hundreds of years ago."
"They were all sealed behind this wall. It seems that Brouver's predecessor was much more hard-hearted than Brouver."
Brouver at least just gathered the patients together for isolation.
Brouver's predecessor directly sealed the patients in the mine.
"I hope they were already dead when they were abandoned here."
Lynn hoped so.
But the cruel reality before his eyes was:
The wall was full of marks, undoubtedly scratched out by the patients' fingernails.
They were not dead when they were sealed here.
And until they died, they wanted to escape.
At this moment, a sharp and piercing cry suddenly came from the depths of the mine at the other end.
"Gua... gu gu... woo..."
In a burst of ambiguous strange cries, a deformed figure emerged from the direction of the mine at the other end.
Before the two could see the figure clearly, the thing turned into a gust of wind and rushed towards the two of them.
Lynn didn't even think about it and raised his arm.
The air waves spewed out by the Aard sign even stirred up the dust on the ground.
As for the deformed figure that rushed over, it flew backwards at an extremely fast speed, hitting the wall of the mine and making a sound as if its bones were broken into a ball.
Then Geralt appeared beside the figure like a ghost.
A cold light flashed.
The silver sword cut off the other person's head.
The thing stopped struggling.
Lynn stepped forward, squatted down, and carefully looked at the true face of the attacker.
"Not human, but a dwarf... Judging from the rotten clothes on him, he was a dwarven miner hundreds of years ago."
"But the strange thing is that hundreds of years was enough for the body to turn into bones, but he was alive and kicking."
Geralt put away the silver sword, took out a hunting knife, and skillfully cut open the attacker's stomach.
"Most of the organs have been severely damaged, and there are symptoms of hemorrhagic fever..."
"This is probably what the manuscript said, the patient who attacked the Healers Guild."
"It seems that as long as you are possessed by the Crimson Plague Ghost, you will become like this, neither human nor ghost. No wonder she told future generations that they must not stay in the mine for too long."
The two continued to move deeper into the mine.
This time they didn't go far, and Lynn faintly heard a voice coming from the front.
He and Geralt looked at each other, slowed down, and slowly approached.
Then they found a busy figure in a slightly empty cave not far ahead.
She was not a dwarf, but a human, petite and thin, wearing a blue doctor's robe—although the doctor's robe had become tattered due to the long time.
She turned her back to the two of them, muttering to herself.
"Don't call the leader yet, I have potions, suturing tools... I know I can do it..."
On a table that had also rotted in front of her, lay the body of a dead aberrant.
Perhaps because she was concentrating all her attention on the body of the aberrant, she didn't notice the two people approaching from behind.
Geralt looked at Lynn.
He used his eyes to ask Lynn.
Even a long-lived species could not survive for three centuries in an abandoned mine without food and water.
As long as Lynn nodded, Geralt could cut off the head of this person or ghost with lightning speed.
But Lynn shook his head gently.
Then he took the initiative to expose himself.
"Hello."
The female doctor was startled.
She turned around quickly.
When she turned around, Lynn saw clearly that the upper half of her face was tightly wrapped with several layers of bandages.
As for the skin exposed outside the bandages, it was obviously rotten.
And in her throat, there was a scalpel deeply inserted.
This was very similar to the ending of someone in the manuscript left by Casti.
But contrary to this scary face, the female doctor's voice sounded very gentle and soft.
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