"Everything doubled, Saro Jin, what's going on...?" Swain, who had been anxiously waiting with Arendi, shook the unconscious Saro Jin, attempting to rouse him.
"Alright, stop shaking him. Saro Jin must have suddenly awakened his psychic powers, and the excessive use of them caused him to fall unconscious," Swain interjected, stopping Arendi.
"The Tower's reaction is indeed a bit strange," Swain mused, though he wasn't entirely surprised by their demands. After all, it had come to this.
Saro Jin had most likely awakened his psychic powers suddenly due to intense emotional stimulation, without any prior signs. Using such abilities without guidance is extremely dangerous.
The Warp is a powerful force originating from a dimension of the same name. Highly powerful psykers can even destroy planets. However, while psykers gain immense power, they also face equally great dangers.
The more powerful a psyker's psychic abilities, the clearer their projection in the Warp becomes. The Warp creatures, filled with malice toward intelligent life, will whisper in the psyker's ear. These constant whispers will continuously torment them, eventually driving them mad, at which point Chaos Daemons will seize the opportunity to possess them. It can be said that psykers can at any time become a bridge connecting the Warp and the physical universe—a ticking time bomb for Chaos to invade the physical world.
Especially for someone like Saro Jin, who awakened psychic powers directly due to strong emotional stimulation without any prior signs, and then used them without guidance, this situation is extremely perilous. It can only be said that Saro Jin is indeed the future Shadow Blademaster of the Dark Raven Guard; his application of Shadow Power is unmatched by anyone except Corax. His "Ghostly Steps" technique once caused a group of Imperial Sons to cry out in agony.
"Find two people to take Saro Jin back for a good rest. We'll go to the northern mine shaft. I need to explore the adamantium vein's reserves from another direction and find the most abundant area," Swain assigned a new task to Arendi. After this incident, Saro Jin wouldn't be able to mine for the next few days, which meant the already strained labor shortage became even more severe.
The only fortunate thing was that when they set out today, Swain had already instructed An to take people to exchange all the minerals in the warehouse, which was a great fortune in misfortune. But similarly, this also meant that The Savior Camp's ore warehouse was so empty that horses could run through it.
"Fortunately, I had foresight. An and his team should have successfully brought the exchanged food back to the camp by now," Swain marveled at his own foresight.
Just as Swain and Arendi were preparing to further explore the mineral deposits, an unexpected event suddenly occurred.
"Swain, it's bad! The team that went to exchange supplies was attacked! Several brethren died, and Medan is severely injured!" Two miners, supporting a blood-spitting companion, stumbled towards the mining area. Upon seeing Swain, they cried out as if they had seen a savior.
"What happened?!" Swain rushed to their side in a few strides, anxiously asking his companion who had gone to exchange supplies that morning.
"Swain, the raiders from the west attacked us! When I came to report, several people had already sacrificed their lives, and several others were severely injured. An is also severely injured," the companion who came to report said with a choked voice.
"What about the supplies? What was the damage to the supplies?" Swain asked anxiously.
"The supplies are fine. Fortunately, Nef provided us with some people, so we managed to hold out until other companions from the camp arrived as reinforcements," said the other person supporting the injured companion.
"It's good that the supplies are fine. You take him back. I'll go back to the camp first to check the situation," Swain instructed. He could only go ahead.
"Since you seek death, then prepare to die!" Swain, heading towards his camp, spoke his decision in an incredibly cold tone at that moment. At this point, only solution remained!
Since his dimensional travel, Swain had been holed up in his camp, not getting too involved with outside matters. But now, with his companions, with whom he had spent day and night, being attacked and killed, and even the seemingly foolish An severely injured, this time he was completely enraged. The blood shed by his companions could only be compensated with the blood of more enemies!
The mine's train only transported miners back from various locations along the tracks when it was bringing ore up or down. At other times, if anything happened, the miners on Lycaeus could only walk back on their own two feet, which was why he chose to return first. Otherwise, with an injured person, there was no telling how long it would take.
"Hoo... ha..."
Swain controlled his speed and breathing to maintain his condition, continuously running towards his camp. After about 20 minutes, Swain, who had been running continuously, finally saw the familiar buildings of his camp and his companions who had begun to prepare for defense.
"Swain! Swain is back! Open the gate quickly!" A sharp-eyed fellow hurriedly told the others. The heavy stone gate groaned piercingly as everyone struggled to open a gap just wide enough for one person to pass through.
"You all continue to be on guard. I'll go check on An and the others first," Swain passed through the gate and rushed towards the medical room. Then the thick stone gate closed tightly again.
The medical room, despite having "medical" in its name, was very simple inside, with a stone bed placed in a prominent position. A few paint-peeling instruments were on the stone wall by the wall, but these instruments were more symbolic than practical, as they had long been broken. These instruments, whose age was unknown, were older than all the miners here.
"How is Medan?" Swain strode into the treatment room, asking anxiously.
"Lord Swain, An is quite severely injured. I've already used up the last of our anti-inflammatory medicine and adrenaline in stock. Now, it can only depend on his own will to survive!" Dr. Selek, the camp's doctor, looked at Swain with a troubled expression.
At the same time, he pulled open the white curtain used to block the view. The burly An was lying on the stone bed in the medical room. A massive wound ran through his entire chest, appearing to have been caused by a large cold weapon like a mountain-cleaving saber. A trickle of fresh blood occasionally seeped from the stitched wound. The once mighty and robust man now had a deathly pale face and incredibly weak breathing.
"As long as you did your best, I believe in them." After examining the other party's injuries, Swain instructed Dr. Selek and then silently walked out of the medical room.
At this moment, the killing intent in his heart could no longer be suppressed. The team that went to exchange supplies consisted of over a hundred people. Now, 16 were dead, 10 were injured, including 6 severely injured and 4 lightly injured. This meant the camp had instantly lost 26 able-bodied laborers, and it was still uncertain what would happen to those severely injured.