"So what are you looking for?" The heat of the lamp flame rose along with the black smoke of the bad oil, and the palms of his fingers faintly tingled through the thick calluses. Kupu shrank his hand and raised it above shoulder height with a lifting gesture as far away from the flames as possible.
, so that the flames can shine to the steps at Kraft's feet in front.
"Frankly, I don't know."
Kraft slowly walked down the spiral corridor. Small stone bricks formed the front half of it, and arches were used to hold up the small space in the soil. Taller people need to stand in the middle and pay attention to lowering their heads to avoid bumping into it.
A slight amount of unavoidable seepage seeps out from between the cracks of the bricks and accumulates into droplets hanging on the wet arc roof. The dissolved soil ash gives it a mixed yellow color, which looks like a slowly growing and pulsating egg sac under limited light.
This masonry load-bearing structure has a depth of thirty or forty steps. It is so monotonous that it does not have any words or patterns to express its purpose. It is only practical.
At the end of the descent, a large brick with the Holy Emblem engraved on it was embedded in the wall, polished and polished by moisture and repeated caressing. Afterwards, a wider square passage replaced the brick arch corridor.
It was not because he suddenly understood the cement technology that he could directly bond stone bricks. Rather than "building", perhaps it is more appropriate to use "drilling" to describe it. The channel has passed through the deep soil and continues to move forward in the rock formation.
The very geometric rock wall retains straight cutting lines, running vertically or horizontally, slightly concave or protruding, and progressing in sections, showing its former identity as a quarry.
Continuing forward, the width of the passage becomes more and more considerable, allowing two people to walk side by side. On both sides, hollowed-out square chambers expand to the sides, which may have been used for transit and stone processing.
The need to build a large number of above-ground buildings drives people to continuously quarry stones from the ground and expand the space in the rock formations. The stone here seems to be solid, and there is no need to worry about collapse problems, allowing free play.
Among the arranged cutting lines, you can also find some shallow patterns carved into the corners, which seem to have been done by the masons in their spare time at that time.
This underground space is meaningless most of the time. The difficult air circulation underground and the lighting problem seriously limit the imagination of the use of the quarry. After all, anyone with a normal mind will never be willing to stay here for more than a day.
; The humid environment also makes it unsuitable for warehousing.
But it turns out that nothing in the world is completely useless.
Some strange structures were revealed. They were stone niches parallel to the ground. They were rough long strips with messy and obtuse corners. They were completely opposite to the straight traces formed by quarrying. They were directly hewn in a sloppy rush.
Only fine waste rock will be produced.
They are arranged like a honeycomb and are embedded in the stone wall, with several floors above and below. They are similar to closet shelves for storing items, except they are wider and more numerous. They are not the same size as the sieve holes that have been eaten away by the hardwood. They extend from the range of lighting to the depths of the passage.
Coop followed Kraft into the section of the "closet" and looked curiously at the long stone pits. They were less than an arm's length deep, and it was easy to distinguish the things accumulated in them under the light of the lamp.
The shelf is supported by yellowing and decaying strips with a dirty gray background, covered with brittle and weathered textile remnants that look like cobwebs. Some of the rot is adsorbed and hung on the ribs that have not been completely scattered, tangled in
Lost filling in joint gaps.
The skull shell without cervical vertebra support rolled inside the broken bones, opening up a dark hole leading to the dark interior. The multi-legged long insect was frightened by the sound and fire, and crawled out of the cavernous sinus with shaking joints and jumped into another area.
dark.
Even though the concentration brought by the experience caused his heart to contract for only a moment before returning to a steady state, he still subconsciously reached out and rubbed his facial features to drive away the illusory itching.
"Pull the lamp over here." Kraft waved nonchalantly, straightened his mask and covered his mouth and nose tightly, then moved closer to the bones in the stone niche, as if an experienced tomb robber accidentally discovered some rare and valuable funerary object.
He pointed to a spread out spine, "Look at this, it should have been there before you were alive, and its location is also very typical."
After observing carefully for a while, Kupp realized that what Kraft was referring to was a section of the spine, which had damage that did not look like weathering or collision. It looked like something had spread and eaten away at one side of the vertebrae, forming a defect that penetrated into the intervertebral space.
.
"A case of bone tuberculosis in the spine is very typical. Most of the people buried here are patients with infectious diseases, so there must be a lot of tuberculosis. This location and shape are basically correct."
"But isn't tuberculosis in the lungs?" It's a bit beyond common understanding. As far as Kupp's limited understanding is concerned, they all come to the doctor because of coughing.
"Mostly, but not necessarily, it can go wherever it wants, but most of the time it stays in the lungs." Kraft rubbed his hands excitedly and fumbled in his pockets, but he didn't bring the tools he needed in his casual clothes.
"Is this what you're looking for?"
"That's not true." He took out his hand from his pocket in disappointment and controlled the desire to flip through it. "It's just that I haven't seen it before. It's the first time I saw it today."
Then why does it look so familiar? Coop suppressed the question, not intending to pursue the contradiction in his words, "You didn't plan to take it back, right?"
"This really isn't what I'm looking for."
Considering that funding the gravekeeper was already suspicious enough, it just didn't make sense to take anything away. After making a decision that was not very difficult, Kraft chose to bid farewell to the tuberculosis deceased for the time being and continue his aimless search.
The light of fire and the sound of knocking came from a stone room passing by. It was the group of people walking in front. They were trying to widen a stone niche so that they could stuff the corpses they brought into it.
When they saw someone passing by, they nervously stopped what they were doing, gripped the Holy Emblem pendant on their collars, and murmured something. They relaxed a little after recognizing the new and bright clothes, but still did not let go of the Holy Emblem.
My attempt to say hello only received a reluctant response. Probably, meeting a stranger you have never seen before in a place like this would inevitably give you a sense of horror and indistinguishability. I only made a sound when I saw the two of them continuing to move forward.
Be warned not to go too far into the side roads.
"Thank you, don't worry, I won't get lost." Kraft responded with a kind smile. This sentence seemed not to have the desired effect, but instead effectively increased the tension.
When he figured out where his speech was inappropriate, he had already walked a long way along the passage.
The niche expanded to occupy the entire cave wall, and the bones were no longer placed in the form of separate tools, but became the building materials themselves.
Relics of the Great Plague.
The strong long bones of the limbs were stacked one by one like firewood in the castle's winter warehouse, with neatly embedded skulls placed on the upper level. It's not that the builders didn't want to pile them up randomly, but it was just that they couldn't fit such a huge number without using the space as rationally as possible.
's remains.
The content behind the bones, worldly dignity, fear of death, religious beliefs, and humanistic feelings are all stripped away and dissipated, returning to their material essence, something that is not fundamentally different from everything else in the world.
Use bricks and stack them up without distinguishing each other. After the initial impact, it enters a state of numbness or some kind of ethereal state.
Kraft, who was leading the way, turned around without warning and held Coop's shoulder. The latter understood and slowed down his pace to listen. It was the echo of footsteps that did not belong to him, and it was particularly obvious to the ears of those who had experience paying attention to it.