Kapitel 65: Cave In
To borrow what Ian said earlier, such was the life of an adventurer. Arthur knowingly headed into danger for the sake of glory and of course, the valuable loot.
Nevertheless, Arthur was not one to charge into a dangerous situation blindly. The young man moved to the edge of the hole and stomped his feet several times on the cliff. He then stopped to listen.
Seeing this, Ian was quite confused. "Arthur, if you don't mind me asking, what is it that you're doing?"
After a while, Arthur nodded satisfactorily and turned to explain, "Brother Ian, I was testing the stability of the wall. If the rocks moved when I merely stomped on it, then it would have been too dangerous to descend here and we'll have to find another entrance somehow.
"For better or for worse, it does sound like the cliff-face is compact and solid. There was no audible movement of rocks. It should be able to support me as I scale down it but that is just a precaution, there's really no telling what will happen until I start the actual descent."
Ian nodded. "It should be relatively stable or else this tunnel would have already collapsed from the disturbance to the tectonic layers." Ian concurred with Arthur's observation.
After that, Arthur continued to do something else that was equally befuddling to Ian. The young man squatted down and leaned his head close to the gaping hole in the wall. It looked like he was putting his ears to the wind.
Ian was confused because it was his belief that a normal person would not be able to hear anything from so far up. He had no idea Arthur was specially-gifted.
In any case, the result came back negative for Arthur. Even with his special hearing, the young man could not pick up any auditory stimulus coming from the space beyond the hole. It felt as if the whole area below was completely devoid of life and activity.
'Could this have been a fake scare? We're worried for nothing? It's just an empty and harmless crypt down there?' Arthur thought to himself. 'Well, there is only one way to find out…'
Arthur picked up a pebble from the ground and dropped it down the hole. Moments later, the echo of the pebble hitting the floor came back to Arthur. 'Around 1.5 second. Not too high of a drop but not too short either.'
"Alright, I'm ready to go. Wish me luck." Arthur crawled towards the hole. His new adventure was about to start.
Before he could move forward however, Ian called after him, "Arthur, wait a minute. You have to bring these with you. Just in case." Ian handed him some items that he believed would be useful to Arthur.
There was a nylon rope that was around 10 metres long, as well as an oil lamp that was full. "The rope is to help you scale down the wall and the lamp is for lightning."
"Thank you." With Ian's help, they tied one end of the rope to the pillar that was close to the hole and curled the other end around Arthur's waist. This was a rudimentary hiking safety rope.
Since Arthur would be using all of his limbs on the descend, he also tied the oil lamp around his waist. He made sure to double check the lamp to make sure that the lid was close to prevent the oil from splashing out, wetting his pants or even worse, making the wall slippery in the middle of his descend.
Arthur lied down on the edge with his face facing the ground and slowly retreated down into the abyss leg first. His feet found purchase on the grooves in the wall and with that, he began his descend.
Little pebbles tumbled down the wall as he moved past them but there was no big movement that suggested the possibility of an rockslide.
After Arthur's head disappeared from the edge, Ian poked his head through the hole and warned Arthur, "Be careful down there, Arthur. Remember to watch your steps."
"Okay." Arthur called back. He understood why the miners had such respect for Ian. The man seemed to have a natural protectiveness towards the people around him. Even though he was there on the capacity of the adventurer's guild, Ian treated him as one of them and had already extended so many aids to the young man.
Ian had given him the helmet, jacket, oil lamp and rope. Arthur doubted other people would have done the same.
Arthur continued to move downwards. He looked down underneath him but all he could see was the small area around him that was lit up by the oil lamp. The darkness below was like an ominous abyss that waited for the young man to fall into it.
Arthur turned his focus back to the rock climbing. Everything happened to be moving smoothly. 'Perhaps I'll be able to reach the bottom unharmed.'
Unfortunately, after he took another step downward, the young man heard a sound that made his heart squeeze.
"Brother Ian, did you hear that?" Arthur asked.
Ian who was above, was confused by the sudden question. He moved his ears closer to the hole but he could not hear anything out of the ordinary. He answered, "All I can hear is you. What is it?"
"It sounds like a bell ringing…" Arthur commented but before he could elaborate, a different sound caught his attention. If he was worried earlier, now he was panicking.
Even Ian had heard it because Arthur could hear the man say, "Arthur, be careful. The rocks are sliding! It's a cave in!"
Alas, the warning was of no actual use. There was nothing Arthur could possibly do. What was he supposed to do? Let go?
The rocks were sliding in and out of place. And the wall was vibrating. Arthur tried to move as fast as he could, abandoning caution to the wind.
Unfortunately, the young man was not faster than the movement of the stones. First, a boulder started to dislodge from somewhere above him and it was followed by a landslide. Rocks tumbled and fell around him. Arthur leaned against the wall and held on as hard as he could.
Pebbles and dusts fell on Arthur like rain. Thankfully, he was wearing the helmet.
To make matters worse, Arthur suddenly heard the rock that he was gripping, start to nudge loose. His heart went to his throat. Before he could reach over to grab another spot, the rock loosened and Arthur went down along with it…
AUTORENGEDANKEN 
Lonelytree
Lonelytree Is going to leave for cousin's wedding for a few days but will continue to update with the auto-timer release. That's why i haven't been releasing double chapters. It has been such a busy month for me. Much apologies.
Wöchentlicher Energiestatus
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