I can see experience bars after being transported to another world.

The Inscriber?

A branch of knowledge pathways I've never seen before.

Lu Yuan glanced at it again.

The old man's fingers had many old burn scars.

Following behind him was a young man in his early twenties, carrying a heavy toolbox and panting heavily.

Glock had already gone to meet him. "Is it an Inscription Master? Was he brought in by the branch?"

The old man nodded, his voice hoarse. "It was coordinated by headquarters."

The fact that the branch was invited to handle the inscription project at the level of city wall runes means that this hunchbacked old man is quite capable.

"The mission." The old man pulled a crumpled piece of paper from his robe and handed it to Glock. "Two things."

Glock took it, glanced at it, and then read it aloud.

"First, repair the rune conduction structure on the corroded copper surface around the collapse. Restore the coverage effect of the city wall runes on this area."

"Second..." Glock paused for a moment.

"Inscribe new sealing inscriptions on the edge of the collapse. Extend the suppressive effect of the copper underground."

The first floor was quiet for a moment.

"Extend underground?" Bor repeated, "How?"

The old man didn't even lift his head.

He walked to the map and pointed to the location of the collapse with his cane.

"The cave walls, with inscriptions carved on them, and copper conductive structures extending from the ground to the cave walls and then laid down."

"It's like turning the coverage of the city wall runes from a horizontal plane into a three-dimensional one, covering the top and the sides as well. This makes it impossible for those things to stay safe underground."

Bohr understood.

"Should we go down into the cave?"

"We need to go down into the cave." The old man nodded. "We'll do it during the day and stop at night. I need someone to protect me."

He turned to look at Glock.

"During construction, at least a full-strength squad is needed to guard the area around the tunnel entrance."

Glock looked at Lu Yuan.

Lu Yuan knew what he was thinking.

Ninth Squad.

Frontal positions.

The team most familiar with the cave entrance.

"Okay." Lu Yuan nodded.

The old man raised an eyebrow.

It seems the Night's Watch lives up to its name.

These kinds of tasks can be accepted on a whim.

"However, I have two conditions," Lu Yuan said, changing the subject.

"First, I need more support. People, weapons, anything will do. If we don't have enough manpower, we need to take care of both."

"No problem," Glock readily agreed.

"Headquarters has transferred a batch of supplies and personnel this time, and the teams that take on the escort mission will receive extra supplies."

"Second," Lu Yuan said, looking at the old man, "I need to be there to watch during the inscription process."

The old man looked at Lu Yuan with a curious expression.

"What are you looking at?"

"Inscription." Lu Yuan met his gaze.

The old man's gaze lingered on him for a moment.

That scrutinizing gaze,

"Did you also choose inscription studies as your path to knowledge?"

Lu Yuan did not answer.

The old man didn't ask any further questions.

"Take a look." He turned around and walked towards the door. "If you can understand it, that's your skill."

The young assistant, carrying a toolbox, followed behind. He paused briefly as he passed Lu Yuan, his lips moved slightly, but he ultimately said nothing.

Lu Yuan didn't pay any attention.

They took on this mission not only because the Ninth Squad was most familiar with the cave entrance.

During the time he spent with Laurina, Lu Yuan discovered that even without anyone explaining, as long as someone performed a certain "skill" in front of him, he could gain the corresponding experience points.

He had been interested in inscription literature for a long time.

Moreover, it will most likely enhance one's forbidden arts.

Inscription studies and taboo studies both belong to the realm of knowledge.

Inscriptions are the act of carving knowledge onto material objects to make it effective.

Taboo studies involve embedding knowledge into one's own cognition, thereby bringing about personal change.

If only we could observe the inscription masters' working methods up close...

[Taboo Studies - Seeker of Knowledge: +0.1...12.8/100]

The experience bar jumped slightly. Just thinking about the correlation made it increase by 0.1.

Lu Yuan withdrew his gaze.

Around three o'clock in the afternoon, a horse-drawn carriage came from the direction of the inner city.

It is the standard transport vehicle for the Night Watch.

A young night watchman got off the vehicle, carrying two wooden crates and a leather bag.

"Lu Yuan? Miss Laurena asked me to deliver this."

Lu Yuan took it.

The first box contains medicine.

Four bottles of perfect quality sanity restoration potions.

But at the bottom of the box were three small bottles wrapped in soft cloth: one a potion to attract ghosts, one an invisibility potion, and one a highly effective healing potion.

It was all Laureline's doing.

The second box contained ammunition.

There were three boxes of silver-plated bullets and one box of copper-cased incendiary bombs containing only twelve rounds.

There was a letter inside the bag.

Laurena's handwriting was still as neat and tidy as ever.

But this time it was longer than usual.

"The quantity of potions has decreased, not because I'm being lazy. The supply of perfect quality Silver Grass Essence has been cut off, and my inventory is only enough to make two more batches. The transportation lines are currently all being made way for the inner city."

"The situation in the inner city is much more serious than yours. The collapses corresponding to those two pillars of light last night were one below the Old Parliament Square and the other near the waterworks."

"The hole near the old council is more than three times larger than that near the North Textile Factory, and the amount of water gushing out is also several times greater. The waterworks are even more troublesome; if the copper pipes there are completely corroded, half of the inner city's water supply system will be rendered useless."

"Headquarters is sending more personnel and supplies to the outer city, but very few are being allocated alchemy materials. You should be able to get more weapons and ammunition, but I can only do my best with the potions."

"The copper-cased incendiary bombs were borrowed from a dispatcher I know. That's all I have, and I might not be able to get any more next time, so I'm using them sparingly."

The last line of text was written separately at the bottom of the paper, separated from the main text by a distance.

"Remember not to let your rationality slip too low."

Lu Yuan folded the letter and put it into his inner pocket.

Lu Yuan sorted and organized the potions and ammunition, and gave a bottle of perfect quality sanity potion and a box of silver-plated bullets to Bor.

Bor took the item and glanced at the label on the medicine bottle.

"Should we keep the ones with perfect quality?"

"Keep it."

Bohr didn't ask any further questions.

He tucked the medicine into his pocket and loaded the bullets into his ammunition pouch.

Lu Yuan walked to the window.

The sun was beginning to set. The light shifted from gold to orange-red, casting a warm but fleeting glow on the copper trim of the building opposite.

The situation in the inner city was worse than he had imagined.

The Old Parliament Square and the Waterworks Hub are the core areas of Bronze City.

If the inner city cannot hold out, the defense of the outer city becomes meaningless.

He glanced at the faint outline of the city wall in the distance.

The energy of the city wall runes was drained once, and it will take time to recover.

If another attack of the same scale comes tonight, the runes might not be able to light up again.

But the inscriptionists have already begun their work.

The inscription extends underground, propelling the power of bronze into the earth.

This is the only proactive way to attack.

It's not a matter of how many ghouls you kill.

The question is whether or not the leak can be plugged.

Lu Yuan withdrew his gaze.

Outside the window, the inscriptionist's assistant was carrying a toolbox toward the collapse site.

The sunlight cast a warm glow on his young face.

He looked very nervous.

This is stressful.

Because the sun will soon be setting.

And that closed eye will open again.

Lu Yuan turned around and went back to the first floor.

They started loading bullets onto the belt one by one.

The third night is coming.

By the time the sun had set, the nuns were already in place.

Four people stood on a high point behind the position, their white nun's robes swaying slightly in the night breeze.

The one leading the group was the same nun from last night, her face calm.

Her gaze swept across the battlefield, finally landing on Lu Yuan before moving away.

Lu Yuan neither evaded the question nor made any attempt to show off.

What is coming will come

"Ready?" Bor squatted behind the barricades, holding a short-range spray gun in his hand.

"Ready."

Night fell completely.

The runes on the city wall lit up.

It's a bit darker than last night, but it's still running.

Everyone stared at the collapsed area.

I waited for ten minutes.

There was no movement.

I waited another ten minutes.

Still no movement.

Boer glanced back at Lu Yuan.

Lu Yuan shook his head slightly.

Nearly half an hour later, the first roar came from the edge of the cave.

It was faint, as if it came from a very far place.

Then a ghoul crawled out.

It is very small.

The skin is so thin it's almost transparent, and the limbs are long and thin, without any keratinous nails covering them.

It is the lowest-ranking vanguard.

As soon as they emerged from the cave, holy light descended from the nun's side.

It wasn't an aggressive beam of light, but rather a thin layer of golden light covering a 20-meter radius around the collapsed area.

The ghoul's feet stepped on the light membrane, and its skin emitted a slight burning sound.

It hissed and instinctively shrank back, but two more surged out from behind it and pushed it back onto the light membrane.

Bolt raises his gun.

"No rush." ​​Lu Yuan pressed down on his gun barrel.

He was observing.

Last night, when the ghouls surged out, it was as if they were driven by something, rushing forward one after another, regardless of the cost.

But tonight is different.

These vanguard units moved hesitantly and slowly, as if they had been pushed out to test the waters.

Moreover, the quantity is too small.

The first wave only had seven.

The watchmen didn't even need to fire all their weapons.

Two gunners fired in a crossfire, combined with Bor's short bursts of fire, and the area was cleared in less than three minutes.

Then I waited another twenty minutes.

The second wave.

Five.

Fewer than the first wave.

Then came the third wave.

Three.

Then, the cave entrance became quiet.

Lu Yuan did not relax.

Bohr obviously didn't either.

He moved the muzzle of the short-range shotgun away from the direction of the hole and began to inspect the dark corners on the left and right sides.

"Too few," Bor said in a low voice. "At least forty or fifty came out at the same time last night."

Lu Yuan did not respond.

He was counting the time.

Nearly forty minutes have passed since the last ghoul was killed.

The cave entrance was deathly silent.

Just as everyone's nerves began to relax, the ground shook.

It's not very big.

But everyone sensed it.

A short tremor came from the bronze ground beneath my feet, as if something extremely heavy was moving underground.

The spent cartridge on the sandbag bounced slightly.

"What..." Bor didn't finish his sentence.

A sound came from inside the cave.

It is a low, continuous vibrating sound.

It was as if something was slowly rising from the deepest depths, crushing the rock walls and soil along the way with a dull echo.

The flames of the marching lights all veered in one direction at the same time.

The wind direction has changed.

Previously, the flow was weak, moving from the ground towards the cave entrance.

But now, a stream of air is gushing out of the hole.

It's an aura.

A strong, rotten smell wafted towards us, almost tangibly.

Lu Yuan's vision twitched violently at the edges.

[Environmental Sensing: High-risk pollution source detected... Move away immediately...]

His hand was already on the revolver.

The edges of the opening began to change.

Something didn't crawl out.

It was the cave walls themselves that were moving.

To be precise, it was the saprophytic fungi clinging to the cave walls that were moving.

Those gray-green fungal layers that were cleared during the day but spread back at night.

At this moment, it seemed to be activated by some force, expanding outward from the edge of the hole at a speed visible to the naked eye.

The tips of the hyphae curl up, like countless tiny tentacles, stretching towards the front line.

The speed is more than ten times faster than during the day.

"Holy Light!" Lu Yuan shouted.

The nuns reacted almost simultaneously.

The light in the lead nun's palm suddenly intensified, and a wave of holy light emanated from above, covering an area of ​​thirty meters in front of the cave entrance.

The saprophytic fungi curled up and withered extensively the moment they came into contact with the holy light, emitting a dense hissing sound. The grayish-white spores were evaporated by the high temperature, forming a thin cloud of smoke.

Expansion has been temporarily halted.

But the tremors inside the cave did not stop.

It actually got louder.

Then...

A claw emerged from the edge of the hole.

too big.

Each of the five fingers is as thick as an adult's forearm, and strong veins can be seen pulsating beneath the grayish-red skin.

The nails are dark brown with serrated edges and keratinized growths.

It gripped the copper ground at the edge of the hole.

The copper plate made a squeaking sound as it was gripped.

Bohr's face turned pale.

"Large..."

Before he could finish speaking, his second paw flipped up as well.

The entire edge of the opening sagged slightly under its weight.

Everyone's guns were pointed at those two claws.

Lu Yuan's thumb was already on the hammer.

But he did not fire.

He is waiting.

Wait until it reveals more.

one second.

two seconds.

The two claws gripped the edge of the hole, their knuckles exerting force as if they were pushing upwards.

A huge outline can be vaguely seen rising slowly below the cave entrance.

Everyone on the position stared at the cave entrance with pounding hearts.

Then it stopped.

The movement of the two claws suddenly froze.

It's like... being stopped by something.

Then the claws slowly loosened.

Five enormous fingers detached one by one from the edge of the copper plate, leaving deep scratches and deformed metal.

A dull thud came from deep within the cave entrance.

further and further.

The tremors then subsided.

The cave entrance returned to silence.

Only the ring of copper coins that it had twisted and deformed remained, silently proving that what had just happened was not an illusion.

No one spoke on the position.

After a long while, Bor finally let out a breath.

"What the hell is that?"

Lu Yuan did not answer.

He looked in the direction of the nun.

The lead nun stood on a high place, the light from the book in her hand still steady, but her expression was not as wary as it had been the previous two nights.

She was listening intently.

They weren't listening to the sound of the ground.

They were listening to something underground.

Lu Yuan looked in the direction of her gaze.

Her gaze traveled through the collapse, extending downwards, as if she could see something deeper through the soil and rock layers.

Then she frowned slightly.

Lu Yuan couldn't discern what she had sensed.

But that frown convinced him of one thing.

The ghouls don't not want to come out.

That big guy isn't unable to climb up.

Something called them back.

No sound came from the cave entrance for the rest of the night.

Even the roars disappeared.

It was as if something underground suddenly retracted all its claws.

Its daybreak.

The third night thus came to an end.

There were no casualties.

They didn't even use much ammunition.

This should have been good news.

But none of the Night's Watchmen standing on the position showed any signs of relaxation.