The stone tablets recorded nothing but matters related to blood sacrifices.
People used blood sacrifices to obtain all kinds of powerful abilities, and those who gained power would then go to the "beast den" to fight.
And the place referred to as the "beast den" seemed to be the central passage.
As for the humans used in those blood sacrifices, they all came from the ordinary-looking area deep inside the ruins—the place that looked most like it had been meant for normal human life, with farmland and an underground river running through it.
The people who benefited from those blood sacrifices all had blood-red eyes.
In other words, they were members of the Kurta Clan.
Some writings found in the ordinary area also used a term for red-eyed people that Ronin was very familiar with: red-eyed demons.
Only here, that name seemed rather fitting. After all, this was a clan that used people as sacrifices.
Kurapika found it hard to accept.
Even if this branch of the Kurta Clan was different from his own, judging by the information they had gathered so far, this group truly could be called a clan of demons.
Ronin, however, didn't rush to make a judgment.
In his view, everything would have to wait until they entered the central passage and confirmed the situation there.
After all, the situation in the central passage was far too strange.
There was also something else Ronin was curious about: why had these people rather lived underground than try to leave for the outside world?
That was especially true for the ordinary people living in the common area.
There was clearly an underground river there. As long as they followed the water, they should eventually have found a way out, right?
Yet in that ordinary area, there were no traces at all related to leaving or escaping.
No records, no marks left behind from attempts to do so—nothing.
It was as if the people had already accepted that staying there was their best option.
Had the Kurta people brainwashed those ordinary people?
Or, back then, would leaving the underground and going to the surface have led to something even more terrifying than being sacrificed like livestock?
The monsters in the central passage emerged almost as if they were on a timer.
Just after midnight, they surged out all at once.
However, the army had long since prepared. Ammunition poured onto the monsters as if it cost nothing, but even so, the battle did not end until around five or six in the morning.
The ruins were once again filled with the stench of blood.
The soldiers began dismantling and processing the monster corpses. Fur, teeth, and anything else still intact could still be sold for money, while the flesh and blood were transported away and frozen.
If testing by experts showed no issues, they might even enter the market.
There were also many monster corpses inside some of the ruins' inner passages. Those had been wiped out by the exploration teams that remained in the ruins.
Ronin and the group that had gathered did not wait for the soldiers to finish cleaning up the site.
Instead, the moment the fighting stopped, they arrived in front of the central passage, where no more monsters were pouring out.
The whole team had seventeen people in total. Among them, Ronin only recognized Mashur, Vanessa, and the organizer, Benkt.
As the organizer, Benkt was also the team leader. He didn't waste words. After briefly going over a few points they needed to watch out for, he took the lead and entered the passage.
The passage was filled with a sharp, foul odor, but Ronin had already put on a gas mask. The filtered air still wasn't exactly pleasant, but at least it didn't make him want to vomit.
And if things really became unbearable, Ronin had oxygen tanks stored inside the Fun Fun Cloth.
The walls of the passage were covered in claw marks left by all kinds of beasts. After entering, they could even hear beastly roars constantly echoing from deeper inside.
Clearly, the beasts that had left the passage to launch attacks were not all the monsters inside this nest.
The cautious group passed through the long passage, and finally, the view before them opened up.
What they saw was a dense forest within an underground world.
When they looked up, they could see all kinds of stones glowing on the dome above. It was the light cast down by those stones that filled the forest with a fantastical atmosphere.
The beast roars they had heard in the passage had come from within this dense forest.
As the team members emerged from the passage one after another, tiger-like beasts began appearing at the edge of the forest near the passage.
However, their bodies had some traits of arthropods, which made them look even more imposing and aggressive.
They lowered their bodies, bared their teeth, and stared warily at the intruders. Low warning growls rumbled from their throats.
Ronin and the others had seen plenty of these beasts during previous monster tides.
So now that they saw them again, they didn't take them seriously at all. Instead, they turned their attention farther into the distance.
There, a massive scorpion several meters tall seemed to have sensed the abnormality near the passage. The giant scorpion turned around, its pair of central eyes rolling, while its three pairs of side eyes locked firmly onto the passage.
Its huge scorpion legs shifted across the ground. It was clearly preparing to move toward Ronin and the others.
Although no Nen could be detected from it, the sheer size of the scorpion was enough to make quite a few people in the team's expressions change slightly.
During the monster tides, none of them had ever seen anything like this. However, before entering this place, the intelligence Benkt had compiled had mentioned this kind of giant insect.
Perhaps the passage was not large enough for it to pass through. Perhaps there was some other reason.
Whatever the case, this thing guarded the land outside the passage like a guardian deity.
Anyone who invaded this place would definitely be targeted by it.
This was also Ronin's first time seeing such a huge scorpion. What especially interested him was whether the giant scorpion's tail carried venom.
Since Benkt had known about the giant scorpion in advance, he had naturally made preparations to deal with it.
There was no need for Ronin to act. Two people in the team had already stepped forward in the direction from which the giant scorpion was approaching.
One of them held a javelin, while the other carried something like a round disk.
The first to act was the person whose hand had suddenly produced the disk. His method was simple: he threw the disk straight out.
The disk landed in the distance, and a large green net instantly burst open from it, covering the ground the scorpion would have to pass over.
Ronin was slightly surprised.
He hadn't expected this person's Conjuration ability to create traps that could exist separately from the user.
Despite having eight eyes, a scorpion's eyesight was not especially good. Most of the time, it relied more on its senses to locate targets.
And the intelligence of a scorpion really couldn't be considered high.
So even though the trap had been set right in front of it, the scorpion still stepped directly into it.
The moment the trap was triggered, however, Ronin's attention shifted to the man holding the javelin.
~~~
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