New Calendar 1453, October 21st, early morning.
The border mining town, Black Gallows.
The wind here carried the heavy scent of coal dust and rust. Although morning had arrived, the sky remained as dim as ever. In the distance, several abandoned gallows towers stood slanted at the edge of the slope, their wooden beams blackened and iron hooks swaying gently to and fro.
Further ahead was a row of rooftops where cooking smoke had just begun to rise, along with a clock tower, warehouses, night-watch posts, and hitching posts.
Everything looked intact… which was different from the rumors they had heard on the road.
Selena, walking at the very front, pressed her hand against the short blade at her waist and squinted at the town entrance.
She was the squad’s scout, thin-framed and draped in a dust-stained short cloak.
After scanning the surroundings, she whispered, “Something’s wrong.”
A man in heavy armor stepped up behind her, gripping a greatsword. “What’s wrong?”
His name was Elmelo, the captain of this hired squad.
He was a veteran with thirteen years of adventuring experience, two old scars on his face, and a copper task plate freshly exchanged from the Silvervein City Patrol hanging from the edge of his shield. The royal commission was clear: investigate the anomalies in the Black Gallows mining town and confirm the whereabouts of the missing miners and adventurers. If captives could be rescued, there would be an additional bounty.
Elmelo had seen far too many haunted villages, monster dens, and noblemen’s basements.
He categorized the scene before him as the “abnormally quiet” type.
However, Selena shook her head.
“There are still living people here.”
Elmelo looked toward the town entrance and indeed saw several shadows moving along the street.
An old woman was carrying a wooden bucket, two children were crouching in front of a door, the door to a general store was half-ajar, and a figure flashed behind a window.
“Isn’t that a good thing?” Philthali, standing in the back, let out a sigh of relief.
She held an inscribed book in her arms, with several refraction shards hanging from her waist, her eyes shining with the brightness of youth. Behind her, nineteen-year-old Nega clutched a light crossbow and a document bag, his nerves taut and his ears pale from tension.
Selena pointed toward the town entrance.
“It’s too clean.”
At those words, the group fell silent.
A mining town like Black Gallows should be covered in coal dust footprints, spilled coal water, cart tracks, and discarded hemp ropes. Opening the doors in the morning should bring a cacophony of life.
Yet the stone road at the town entrance was spotless, the shop thresholds were free of mud, and not a single speck of slag could be found outside the smoking houses.
The trade routes between the Royal Capital and this place had been cut off. If there were truly living people, they would surely react to an approaching adventure squad.
And yet, there was nothing.
The wind whistled through the street corner, and an old wooden sign swayed gently.
Elmelo raised his hand. “Move in a town-clearing formation. Philthali, hold a trump card ready. Selena, don’t touch anyone yet. Nega, record everything and run if you see something wrong.”
The three answered in unison.
Philthali was proficient in Short-range Transposition. As long as something was within her line of sight, she could swap positions with it using mana.
Furthermore, if she placed coordinates in advance, she could instantly pull herself or her companions back a dozen paces.
Nega was responsible for documenting the scene and safeguarding the commission documents, ensuring the information got out in the worst-case scenario.
As the squad stepped into the town entrance, the people on the street slowly raised their heads. There was no joy, no wariness.
They watched the group quietly, their eyes cloudy and lifeless.
The old woman carrying the bucket stopped in her tracks, the bucket hitting the stone steps with a dull thud.
Philthali stepped forward half a pace, keeping her voice as gentle as possible. “Elder, we are adventurers from the wilderness. We heard something happened here…”
The old woman turned her face stiffly, her cracked lips slightly parted. Her eyes were completely unfocused, and while there were no wounds on her neck, several red lines could be seen faintly crawling beneath her skin.
“Are you here to save people?” she asked.
“Yes, ma’am,” Nega replied.
The old woman let out a breath and glanced to the side.
“Then save my son first,” she said. “He’s still alive, in the cellar.”
Elmelo’s gaze darkened.
This felt very much like a trap.
He gave his team members a look.
Selena circled to the side and peered into the general store.
Sacks, iron nails, and mining lamps were piled behind the door. Half a ledger lay open on the counter.
Below the counter, the wooden door leading to the cellar was slightly ajar. The interior was pitch black, emitting a heavy, fermented, sweet-and-bloody stench of rot.
Philthali pinched her nose.
Elmelo whispered, “Let’s take a look. Philthali, leave an anchor at the street entrance.”
Philthali nodded and flicked her finger. A tiny glass shard silently embedded itself into a crack in the wall across the street.
The faint shimmer of refraction magic flashed and vanished.
With this, they could retreat instantly along the spell path if danger arose.
The group descended the slippery steps into the cellar.
The further down they went, the stronger the sweet, bloody stench became.
The space at the bottom had been forcibly widened.
Thin copper pipes stood in the corners of the newly polished stone walls, and glass bottles hung from the ceiling. A deep red liquid was dripping down through soft tubes. Several narrow beds were arranged on the floor, with three people lying flat on them. Their wrists were tightly entwined with exposed, red blood vessels, and their skin was a deathly, bloodless white.
The youth in the middle suddenly snapped his eyes open.
When he saw Philthali, his throat bobbed, and his lips moved.
“Don’t touch him,” Selena warned immediately.
But Philthali had already knelt down. A pale white detection rune lit up at her fingertip, and the moment it touched the youth’s wrist, those red blood vessels suddenly tightened.
In the next second, the three people on the beds let out throat-tearing screams simultaneously.
Two people who had been lying quietly in the corner also snapped their eyes open.
One of them forcibly snapped his own wrist off the narrow bed, dragging half-severed, stringy flesh and red lines as he lunged straight for Philthali’s face.
Elmelo swung his iron-rimmed tower shield and slammed it forward.
The moment the massive force hit the body, the person and half the stone wall behind them collapsed with a roar.
Bricks, wooden racks, and glass bottles shattered, spraying red liquid everywhere as the ceiling beams groaned violently.
Selena immediately leaped onto a beam, her short blade flashing as she severed all the hanging soft tubes.
Red liquid poured down like a deluge.
The youth continued to scream, the veins in his neck bulging.
“Don’t worry, I’ll use Divine Healing Arts on you right now—” Nega leaned over, the light of a healing spell shining in his hand.
“Sizzle—”
The moment the healing magic made contact, the youth’s body turned red and convulsed before finally dissolving into a wisp of white smoke.
“He… he vanished?”
“Vampires! He had already been turned into a blood servant!” The well-traveled Elmelo’s expression changed drastically. “Get us out of here, fast!”
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