In Trier, there aren't many people who have artificial eyes, but there are definitely quite a few. Neither Janna nor Franka have ever seen someone who had a quarter of their face transformed into mechanical ones just for the sake of artificial eyes.
But when they thought that the man was probably a monk from the Church of the God of Steam and Machinery, they felt it was normal.
The main characteristic of those people was their obsession with and worship of machines. Holding carbide lamps and wearing white aprons like stonemasons, they entered the tunnel step by step.
The emerald green artificial eye surrounded by numerous gears and springs seemed to have its own life. It sometimes moved to the left and sometimes moved up, scanning the surroundings.
Franca pulled Jenna over, signaling her not to look in the direction of the tunnel anymore and to quickly look away so as not to be noticed by the other party.
The two men shrank deeper into the hiding place, hiding in a place where the light of the calcium carbide lamp could not reach.
The monk of the Church of the God of Steam and Machinery, wearing a grey robe and no hood, walked slowly forward, looking around as he approached the bottom of the deep valley quarry, the area that had collapsed and was buried.
Thanks to the assassin's ability and the protection of darkness and shadows, Janna and Franca were not discovered. They waited until the monk was far away from the tunnel exit, then they quietly poked their heads out and cast their eyes towards each other's backs.
The monk holding the calcium carbide lamp stopped at the side of the collapsed area, stretched out his right palm which reflected the iron-colored metallic light, and grasped a dent.
A clicking sound was heard, as if several huge gears were meshing tightly and turning slowly.
The stone wall cracked, and behind each rock, there were multiple metal chains extending.
Then the rocks blossomed like flowers, revealing a deep, dark cave.
With the help of the light from the monk's calcium carbide lamp and the assassin's eagle-like eyesight, Franka and Janna saw that the cave was filled with a thin white mist.
There, embedded in the rock wall, there were arms and thighs, human arms and human thighs.
Some of them are still fresh, some are already shriveled, but none of them show signs of rotting.
Janna and Franca couldn't help but look at each other, and saw the different degrees of real surprise and fear in each other's eyes.
As the monk walked into the cave and triggered a certain mechanism, the metal chains loosened at the same time, allowing the rocks to return to their original positions and re-form the stone walls, leaving only a few cracks that seemed to symbolize signs of collapse.
So that's how it is. I had a preconceived notion and always believed that this place was on the verge of collapse, and I had no doubts about the cracks.
Franca suddenly realized why she and Janna had not found anything unusual.
She pulled Janna's arm and said in a low voice, "Let's leave here first, and then find a chance to explore."
"Since we have discovered the problem and mastered the method to open the secret cave, there is no need to have a head-on conflict with the monk from the Church of the God of Steam and Machinery. We can come back at another time."
Janna nodded slightly, turned the Ring of Punishment on her finger, crouched down, followed Franca out of the hiding place, and returned to the gate of the Deep Valley Stone Quarry along the tunnel.
Seeing that she was about to open the door and go out, Franca quickly stopped her in a low voice: "Don't worry."
"Why?" Janna looked puzzled.
Franca straightened her back unconsciously and said with a smile: "Just because there is only one monk coming in doesn't mean there is only one monk coming to the quarry."
"Maybe the guy just now left two companions outside to prevent bounty hunters and private detectives from breaking in? If we just walk out like this, we might expose ourselves and be attacked. Besides, the gatekeeper might have woken up."
Jana felt a little ashamed when she heard this: “I understand.”
Franca immediately comforted him, "This is all the product of experience. Now that you know this, you won't make similar mistakes."
As she spoke, she took out a palm-sized mirror and stuffed it into Jana's hand: "Hold it for me while I go out to explore the road. If I am attacked later, you can take the opportunity to hide in the darkness at the door with this mirror and sneak out of the valley."
Guessing that Franca wanted to use the mirror as a substitute, Janna didn't waste time and agreed directly.
After making preparations, Franka carefully opened the wooden door of the deep valley quarry a crack. Outside, there was only the sound of insects chirping and frogs, and no other movement.
The gap in the door became bigger and bigger, and Franka squeezed out and dived into the night that the crimson moonlight could not reach.
Jenna held the mirror tightly, her mind tense and ready to take action at any time.
After more than ten seconds, Franca returned to the door and said in a low voice, "Come out, there are no other monks."
Janna breathed a sigh of relief silently, stepped out, and closed the wooden door again without making any noise.
When the two men left the deep valley quarry, they glanced at the rock hut at the same time and saw that the caretaker was sleeping soundly, but his posture had changed a little.
Franca stared at him for several seconds, and from a distance she discovered that there were red and swollen marks under the doorman's ears.
He was attacked and was now in a state of being knocked unconscious instead of being drugged. Franka frowned and stated her observations.
Jana thought of the monk with the mechanical eye and pointed to the wooden door of the quarry and asked, "Was he knocked unconscious by the one inside?"
Franca nodded slightly: "It's very likely. It seems that he doesn't want the gatekeeper to find out that he has been into the quarry."
"Haha, the janitor must have been knocked unconscious again before he got rid of the effects of the drug."
Hearing this, Janna laughed and said, "When we knocked him out, he might not have been sleeping, but was knocked out by some other method."
Franca was stunned for a moment, and sighed sincerely: "If this is true, I feel a little sympathetic to him. Each wave of people didn't know that the people in front of them had already knocked the gatekeeper unconscious, so they chose to deal with it in their own way. As a result, the gatekeeper continued to faint, again and again."
Janna and Franca did not delay and left the Deep Valley Quarry under the cover of night.
Market Avenue, Breeze Ballroom, Lumian returned to the second floor cafe, ordered a glass of red wine, and sipped it slowly.
After a while, Louis came up and whispered in his ear, "Boss, there are a few bounty hunters causing trouble at the Mill Ballroom, and they seem to want to share some of the spoils."
After the Sting Gang's top leaders were destroyed, some of the remaining members were taken away by the police, some fled to unknown places, some joined other gangs, and some chose to find legitimate jobs.
All those industries were taken over by different forces at low prices. Among them, the Sava Party got the biggest piece of the pie, so that they were short of manpower. Several industries were in a semi-free-range state, and from time to time people made trouble, trying to fill the gap.
Lumian cracked his knuckles and said with a smile, "Send someone to ask them, do you want to be my enemy or my dog?"
He found that after being promoted to an arsonist, he became more belligerent than before. After not fighting with anyone for such a long time, he felt a little itchy.
In addition, among the bounty hunters who dared to cause trouble in the dance hall that nominally belonged to the Sava Party, there might be one or two extraordinary people.
However, Lumian's Shadow Branch lacks the corresponding extraordinary characteristics.
Louis replied excitedly, "Yes, Boss."
He turned around quickly, went downstairs and arranged for his thugs to go to the Mill Ballroom to inquire.
Seeing that the time was almost up, Lumian, who was planning to go back to the Golden Rooster Inn to write a letter to the magician, waited patiently again.
In less than thirty minutes, Louis took a man up two floors. The man was about thirty years old, wearing a cheap suit and a black hat, with brown hair and brown eyes, regular features and a sturdy build. He was the type who could play a positive role in the Old Pigeon Cage Theater.
He smiled as soon as he saw Lumian, took off his hat and said, "Good evening, boss."
"Who are you?" Lumian asked with amusement.
The man replied sternly: "Boss, didn't you ask me to come here and be your dog?"
Even with Lumian's intelligence and wit, he was a little stunned for a moment. He asked those people if they wanted to be dogs, purely to provoke them and see if they could have a fight, which was not a good one.
After a few seconds, Lumian chuckled and said, "I asked you to be a dog, so you really come?"
"This is my chance." The man did not feel ashamed, but rather honored.
"I believe that following you, Boss, I can truly realize my value. In the future, I may even have the opportunity to become your godson."
How young are you? You are softer than the giant Simon.
Lumian asked with interest, "Why do you think I would give you a chance?"
The man did not answer immediately, but looked at Louis and Sakota, as if asking them to step aside.
Lumian, prepared for a fight and not worried about being assassinated, let Louis and Sakota leave the cafe.
He then looked at the man, smiled and asked, "Can you tell me now?"
The man cleared his throat and said, "My name is Lugano Toscano, a Beyonder."
“Which path? Sequence?” Lumian raised an eyebrow.
Lugano smiled again: "I am a farmer, Sequence 9.
The path of the Church of the Earth Mother? Lumian nodded thoughtfully: "Are you from Feynapotter?"
“No, I’m from Leiston Province.” Lugano smiled. “A few years ago, I became bounty hunters with a few friends. We went to Feynaport from time to time and met a Beyonder. Later, he died and I got his belongings.”
Fellow countryman, was that person murdered by you, or did something go wrong and let you get away with it? Lumian motioned for Lugano to continue.
Lugano chuckled and said, "I now have hope of becoming a Sequence 8 physician, but I still need a lot of money to buy the corresponding main ingredients for the potion. I heard about your deeds, Boss, and guessed that you are a powerful Beyonder. I also know that the Savoy Party is short of manpower right now, so I thought of using the incident to come to see you, hoping to become your assistant, help you manage an industry, and earn some hard-earned money."
Doctors are very useful, both to ordinary people and extraordinary people.