After continuing forward, Sieg became noticeably more cautious. The Poison-type Pokémon lurking in this place were just too unpredictable and difficult to guard against.
Out in the wild, among all the various abnormal conditions, the one people feared the most was poisoning.
Burns, frostbite, paralysis, sleepiness, those conditions were obvious, and could usually be countered with the right medicine or berries.
But poisoning? That was another story. There were too many kinds, and some types of poison were latent, hiding inside a human's body only to erupt later when it was too late to do anything about it.
There was no way to defend against it properly. That's why Poison-types were considered one of the most dangerous Pokémon to provoke.
Sieg had seen signs of human activity while passing through the tunnels, like a dead campfire in one of the branching paths.
"Hmm? What's this sign?"
As Sieg arrived at another fork, he suddenly noticed a wooden sign planted at the entrance of one of the tunnels.
The tunnel didn't look very deep, and faint light could be seen from the entrance. That same entrance had a sign stuck into the ground.
The writing warned that the tunnel had been temporarily requisitioned as a campsite. Anyone who entered without permission would be attacked and must bear the consequences.
Tunnels like these, already explored and not too deep, were often repurposed as makeshift resting places.
Just as Sieg was about to walk away, a sudden rush of footsteps echoed from within the tunnel. He quickly tightened his grip on his alloy shovel.
Even the flapping of Murkrow's wings grew quieter as its sharp gaze locked onto the tunnel entrance, ready to strike at a moment's notice.
In just a dozen seconds, a middle-aged backpacker slowly emerged. When he saw Sieg, he froze for a moment before hurriedly gripping the shovel in his hand.
Trailing behind him was an Azumarill.
The air between them grew tense, but then the middle-aged man suddenly put on a warm smile and stepped forward, blocking Sieg from entering the tunnel.
"Hey there, kid. That tunnel just collapsed. I suggest you not to go inside."
He pointed to the tunnel he had just exited.
Sieg took two steps back to maintain a safe distance between them.
Just as he was about to leave, Sieg noticed something strange. The man's clothes were soaked.
Water was dripping from his hem, and a faint, metallic scent of blood clung to his body.
Having once drifted through the open sea, Sieg knew that smell all too well, it was the stench of water mixed with blood.
The scent was faint, barely detectable, but when Sieg casually shined his flashlight near the man's boots, he caught sight of a faint trail of blood.
Afraid the man would notice, Sieg quickly shifted the light away, but in his heart, a dark suspicion was already beginning to form.
"That's not Pokémon blood... that's human blood!"
Sieg's heart trembled at the thought.
On the surface, he kept his calm and put on an innocent smile. "Alright then, sir. I'll take another route. Sorry to bother you."
He turned and began walking toward another fork in the tunnel, but as he left, he tried to sneak a glance at the tunnel the man had come from.
The man seemed to catch the movement from the corner of Sieg's eye and quickly stepped sideways, using his body to block Sieg's line of sight into the tunnel.
That instinctive reaction only deepened Sieg's suspicion.
After entering the alternate tunnel, Sieg crouched near a stone wall, his pitch-black eyes shining with a cold glint.
There was no doubt, the backpacker was hiding something.
And that branching tunnel held a secret he didn't want anyone to know.
Sieg didn't rush in to investigate. Instead, he waited quietly in the other tunnel for a long time before returning to the fork where they'd met.
The man was gone, vanished without a trace, as if he had already left the area.
Sieg glanced toward the tunnel the man had tried to hide, then smiled faintly with a glint in his eye. He crept quietly inside.
Not long after Sieg entered, that same middle-aged man stepped out from behind a large rock wall, gazing toward the tunnel Sieg had chosen. A strange glimmer flickered in his eyes.
The innocent expression was gone, replaced with a cruel smile as he tightened his grip on the bloodstained alloy shovel.
"You're the one who walked into your despair, kid... don't blame me."
Sieg followed the faint light deeper inside. Along the way, there were no signs of a cave-in, which only confirmed his suspicion, the man had lied.
After only a few minutes of walking, Sieg reached the end of the tunnel. It opened up into a chamber about the size of a small room.
At first glance, nothing seemed off, aside from a few scraps of trash and signs of human activity in the corners. He looked down at the Eevee beside his feet.
"Eevee, see if there's anything suspicious."
Eevee scrunched its tiny nose and sniffed around. It stopped and pawed at a section of land that was clearly raised.
A sharp glint flashed in Sieg's eyes. He grabbed his shovel and began digging into the mound. It only took a few strikes before he uncovered something shocking...
A severed hand!
Sieg kept digging. In just a few minutes, he had unearthed several incomplete human remains.
"These bones... they piece together into a complete human body!"
Sieg counted quickly. The charred, broken fragments of bone were just enough to form one whole person in his mind.
So this was the truth the middle-aged man had tried so hard to bury.
Was it a dispute over the spoils of a rare ore find?
Or a long-standing grudge that finally ended in blood?
Sieg had no way of knowing the story behind this corpse, nor what kind of love or hate had once existed between the victim and the killer.
He released the Grimer he had captured earlier and ordered it to devour the remains. Only after cleaning up the scene completely did he leave.
Sieg moved through the tunnel with heightened alertness. Just as he stepped out, the middle-aged man was already standing in the center, as if waiting for him.
"You lied to me, sir," Sieg said with a half-smile, staring at the man. "There was no cave-in."
The man scratched his head and continued to act dumb. "Really? Are you sure you didn't take a wrong turn, kid? These tunnels are full of forks, you know."
The two stood silently, eyeing each other with subtle tension as their hands crept toward their belts.
What had been a short distance between them was slowly lengthening.
Eventually, they stood on opposite ends of the tunnel fork. At that moment, the man's amiable smile vanished completely.
His friendly expression transformed into one of cold indifference.
"Kid, did you... see anything in that tunnel?" he asked with a deep voice, eyes locked on Sieg, trying to catch a slip.
Sieg sneered. "I saw quite the show in there."
As he spoke, he lightly tapped his alloy shovel against the ground, flashing a cryptic smile.
The man's heart skipped a beat. His face could no longer maintain composure as he roared, "What exactly did you see?!"
Sieg glanced at the backpack strapped to the man's back.
He was honestly a bit curious, just what could've been so valuable that it led partners to turn on each other?
Even... to the point of murder.