"Clang, clang, clang..."
The knocking sound rang out again.
Chunks of ore fell down.
At some point, the Coiling Mountain Beast, unable to hold on any longer, stopped. It glanced at the Calamity Beast around it that were beginning to rest, hesitated for a moment, and then turned around and sat down against the rock wall.
He was breathing heavily.
After it had calmed its breathing slightly, it turned its head and looked around.
In my field of vision, a few were still resting, but a few had already started digging again.
There was nothing else.
There were no Calamity Beast, but they seemed to want to speak.
Not only here, but also in the noisy surroundings, there were only breathing sounds and mining sounds, nothing else.
Is it... that I can't speak?
Coiling Mountain Beast pondered for a moment, then slowly withdrew its gaze.
However, as he looked away, his gaze suddenly paused, lingering on his left arm.
Previously, it hadn't noticed due to issues with its state of mind, lighting, and angle.
I just realized that there seems to be something carved on my arm.
It raised its hand, pointing it towards the light source.
Then, I could see it more clearly.
On one side of the arm, there were drawings of unknown shapes, some square and some long and thin, the meaning of which was completely incomprehensible.
The other side is simpler.
Although it also has pictures engraved on it, at least you can tell that it seems to be telling some story.
The top line is...
A circle, then several vertical lines below, and a horizontal line below that; then, past, is something that seems to be pointing...
The Coiling Mountain Beast looked back in that direction, and there it was...
Hmm... a house?
The Coiling Mountain Beast, somewhat uncertain, continued to look back.
After the house, there is something identical to the second one mentioned earlier, seemingly used as a reference point;
Then, next to it, there are the same circular lines as the first one, except that this time the circular lines don't have horizontal lines underneath; instead, they are completely enclosed by a large concave area.
The Coiling Mountain Beast looked at this line with some confusion, then paused for a moment before continuing to look downwards.
The second line seems much easier to understand.
It's a large circle, and inside it are many Calamity Beast that aren't drawn very well, but are still barely recognizable.
They are... doing something I don't know.
The Coiling Mountain Beast continued to look down.
The next line contains three new pictures.
One image shows a house with a circle kneeling there, and around the circle are several '??' characters that I don't understand, and then there's a ''.
The second picture is of Sun? Then below that, trees? Then, the moon? Then below that, the trees are twisted?
The third image is a series of incomprehensible, winding lines, and below that, it seems to have been smeared over? So densely packed that you can't see anything. Then, there's that big circle again, and then...
oh--!
The Coiling Mountain Beast figured it out.
That circle seemed to be a place with mountains inside, and water gushed out from one of the mountains, seemingly flooding many areas. In the areas that weren't flooded, I saw many Calamity Beast.
Upon seeing this, the Coiling Mountain Beast paused for a moment and looked upwards.
In the top row, in the last image, outside the circle, there's a roughly similar circle.
So, is this diagram showing that the circled line is over there?
Coiling Mountain Beast pondered for a moment, then looked ahead again.
So, that circular line in front, and then the line below it—meaning the circular line, in another place, then moves into a new place?
What is that house in the middle?
The Coiling Mountain Beast looked at the house in the middle with some confusion.
It paused, looked down, found the spot it had just been looking at, and then continued looking down.
Beyond that, there was a large circle, with a moon on top. Below the moon was a grove of Distortion trees, and in the middle of the trees, there was an empty space where the circular lines reappeared, along with... a vortex?
There were several '!!!' characters next to it, I don't know what they mean.
The Coiling Mountain Beast glanced at it, then looked towards the last line.
The last row has fewer pictures than the previous rows; it only has one picture.
On one side, something unknown was soaring high; on the other side, there were circular lines.
Beside it, there was a question mark that wasn't too big or too small.
The Coiling Mountain Beast looked at the drawings with some confusion.
Its intuition told it that these things were important, but it didn't really understand what they meant.
Just as I was thinking this...
Suddenly, a commotion arose from the side.
The Coiling Mountain Beast turned its head and looked over.
One by one, the Calamity Beast near the top stood up in a panic.
Before it could even react...
I saw a figure disappear into the darkness of the tunnel, slowly walking down from the end of the tunnel.
That's Black Rat.
The Coiling Mountain Beast paused, and before anyone could notice it, it hurriedly stood up.
My body hasn't fully recovered to its best condition yet, but at this point, I can't worry about that.
The clanging sound echoed once again in the narrow mine shaft.
The Black Rat walked past one Calamity Beast after another.
A day passed by so quickly.
As evening approached.
The Coiling Mountain Beast, dragging the ore mined that day, walked wearily outwards.
After handing over the ore and receiving the food, we headed back.
Only then did the beast herd, which had been silent for a day, regain some of its vitality, and some of the Calamity Beast began to talk to each other.
But there were only some conversations.
More often than not, they dragged their weary steps forward, taking one step at a time.
The Coiling Mountain Beast, too, dragged its weary steps forward.
My mind was still filled with doubts.
What am I, really? Coiling Mountain Beast? But why Intuition I'm not Coiling Mountain Beast? But if I'm not Coiling Mountain Beast, then what am I?
One question after another surfaced in my mind.
The Coiling Mountain Beast returned to the place it had been in that morning, then lay down and began to devour the bloodless corpse.
Suddenly, without anyone noticing, the sound of arguing broke out from the side.
"Those two guys are really energetic..."
"Yeah, mining is so tiring every day, and yet..."
"..."
Complaints and criticisms could be heard from the side.
The Coiling Mountain Beast glanced at it and looked in that direction.
It was too far away to see the specifics, but I could vaguely hear that two guys were fighting over something.
The Coiling Mountain Beast paused, then turned its gaze to the side.
In my field of vision, a dark figure was flying towards me from afar.