Going Down the Well

"Is everything okay?"

　　As Han Dong had just walked back into the alley, a spider shadow fell from above.

　　When the spider shadow landed on the ground, it immediately changed into Mia who had a slim figure while wearing half a mask.

　　"It's nothing, just some side effects brought out from the Destiny Space. How is your examination going? Did you find anything around the stone well?"

　　"There's, there's a lot of hair."

　　"What do you mean?"

　　"Just come over here and see."

　　Mia tried to take Han Dong's hand, but then thought about some of the over-the-top things Han Dong had said on the wagon earlier and took her palm back.

　　By the time she stepped out of the alley, the clearing had been turned over by the team, pushing out a layer of soil in the area.

　　In the lower layer of soil, 'growing' was an abundance of black hair, rooted in the soil like seedlings, which would grow out of the ground after another event.

　　It wasn't just the well water that was affected by the hair.

　　Even the area around the stone well was affected, indicating that things were even more serious than what the mission had described.

　　Staring at the large amount of strange black hair that was rooted between the soil, like plant seedlings, scared Blacksmith Wendy to the point where she had to stay with her teammates and never let her shoes touch the black hair to death.

　　At that moment, Dempsey, who was crouching in the corner, used a unique magic method to perfectly pull out a black hair with a length of about half a meter from between the soil and spread it on the white paper he was holding.

　　A magical formation was used to resolve the black hair.

　　As the small formation on the white paper activated, a strand of filth originating from the hair was extracted, followed by the hair disintegrating.

　　"What was hidden under the well should be a middle or even high-level evil filth."

　　Abel's eyebrows furrowed, "Intermediate or high-grade evil filth? Also, it requires us to travel to the lair, which is indeed worthy of a three-star difficulty.

　　Moreover, an 'evil filth' like this one formed with hair as its root should be a rare species, right?"

　　Dempsey pushed his brass wire glasses up and nodded.

　　"Rarely, with such corpse evil filth, mostly white bones! Hair is extremely rare and may be related to something else. Going down there recklessly until we know for sure what's going on in the well could result in contamination of the whole thing."

　　Abel turned his head and looked at Han Dong and Mia who had just returned.

　　"Miss Mia, please make sure to make a sufficient amount of the cleansing potion, the team will probably use it in large quantities next."

　　Immediately following, Abel looked at Han Dong.

　　"Nicholas, are you feeling well?"

　　"All right."

　　"That's good, Excuse me, I'm a little confused.

　　Why do we need to start with this highly difficult basic task? You should be able to tell that I have a relationship with Aunt Bardot and can totally get her to reserve all the tasks for us.

　　Just to be on the safe side, wouldn't it be better if we took the least difficult scarecrow task first to acclimatize and warm up, and then we'll touch this difficult task later?"

　　It could be seen from Abel's question that he had some doubts about this choice Han Dong had made.

　　"Ahem." Han Dong cleared his throat a little and began to explain his choice.

　　"Because, I believe that there is a more likely connection between the stone well and the basement of our residence.

　　I would even speculate that there is a mature, sound and well-developed underground system throughout the entire Stuart Grand Manor, in addition to this superficial series of wheat fields, towns and areas such as the old castle in the hills.

　　The ultimate goal of this "training" is to decipher the truth about the manor, and it's hard to get to the source if we're just wandering around on the surface.

　　Since our house is connected to the strange "corpse cellar", our exploration of the manor should also be done in the same way.

　　Our exploration of the manor should also try to focus on the underground area.

　　If we can gradually go deeper and touch the origin of the underground area, we will be able to uncover the secrets of the manor faster.

　　Since I'm the one who set this mission, I'll go down to the well as the "Scout" first and conduct a preliminary exploration.

　　When it is confirmed that there is no danger and the contamination is under control, you will come down in turn."

　　Abel immediately retorted, "It's not appropriate for you to be alone, is it?"

　　"When I introduced myself before, I didn't introduce my 'Pollution Tolerance Level', I should have a higher [Sense Value] than all of you.

　　Don't worry, I won't joke with my own life, so everyone just wait for my news up there."

　　Just as Han Dong made his decision, Mia immediately and strongly demanded.

　　"I'll be with you! What if the space beneath the stone well can shield the signal and not transmit the message?

　　I'll tie an origin spider silk with enough toughness to the outside, and if there's any danger, we can both rely on the spider silk to get back out of the well quickly."

　　Abe thought that was a good idea, "Good, it's better to be safe, let

Miss Mia go down with you."

　　"Hmm."

　　Han Dong did not reject Mia this time.

　　The reason for this was due to the effects of the previous hallucination.

　　The Joker's warning words had influenced Han Dong's decision to a certain extent.

　　Even though he was immune to contamination, there might be dangerous situations that he couldn't handle on his own.

　　With the assistance of Mia, who was also a similar kind, the danger would be greatly reduced.

　　"Great!" Mia stared and leaned towards Han Dong with a smirk, "When do we leave?"

　　"Now."

　　Click, click, click!

　　The people worked together to pry open the wooden planks that sealed the well.

　　The more the planks below, the more severely they decayed, and the amount of black hair became denser.

　　Ka!

　　The last layer of planks fell directly into the well as they were pried off.

　　But there was no sound of falling water, it was as if something had swallowed it up, and the danger was obvious.

　　"Throw a small kerosene lantern down there and try it."

　　Wendy handed the captain the spare kerosene lantern in her pack.

　　As everyone watched, the kerosene lamp fell into the shaft.

　　First it reflected the damp walls attached with black hair.

　　It descended to a depth of almost seven meters, just reflecting the pool of water at the lower end, as the eye fell to the surface.

　　Swish!

　　A shadow skimmed over it and the kerosene lamp disappeared.

　　"What the hell?"

　　The excessive speed combined with the limited lighting range meant that almost none of the rest of the squad could see clearly, However, Han Dong's little magic eye caught some information.

　　"Can't get any more information standing up here, prepare to go down the well."

　　Hissing.

　　A spider silk that was as thin as a finger spat out of Mia's mouth.

　　It was grabbed by the strongest one in the team, Wendy, and with Wendy's strength she could easily pull the two back.

　　The other end of the spider silk dangled into the deep well, and it was only a matter of climbing down the spider silk.

　　"Watch out! If the sound doesn't come out, tug hard on the lines!" Abel instructed.

　　"Okay, don't worry."

　　Han Dong was the first to grab hold of this soft and more frictional spider silk and slowly slid down.

　　When his body went over the well, a dampness overflowed all over his body.

　　"Huh?!"

　　The black hair on the surrounding stone wall squirmed slightly, as if it had some idea of what Han Dong, the intruder, was up to.

　　[Eyes Opened]

　　The little devil's eye was fully open.

　　For a moment, the black hair that was originally covering the stone wall retreated back down the well on its own like the tide.

　　Hehehe.

　　The sound of a woman's laughter from down the well also went away.

　　Han Dong's assumption was correct, the well had a relatively spacious underground space.

　　The first investigation mission, officially opened.