Nick swam forward in silence.
From ti to ti, he could hear the sound of soone walking on the road above him, but that was about it.
All the other sounds were just the liquid sloshing around Nick's body and face.
CRK!
Nick's shin suddenly hit sothing solid, but thanks to his ability, his shin didn't receive any real damage.
The next mont, Nick stopped and used his feet to see what was below him. After all, the liquid was so murky that he couldn't even see further than ten centiters.
Nick's feet found sothing big and stable beneath him.
In fact, Nick could even stand on it, allowing his torso to rise above the murky liquid.
'Wonder what that is,' Nick thought as he continued wading across the stable foothold.
Splash!
But after so seconds, Nick lost his footing and fell forward.
A mont later, Nick shot upward and scrambled back onto the stable foothold.
'It's in my mouth!'
Nick imdiately started retching uncontrollably, and it only stopped over two minutes later.
'Note to self, don't breathe in while walking forward,' Nick thought.
'Anyway, seems like my foothold ended after about ten ters.'
'I guess that's the size of a house.'
A mont later, Nick decided to walk along the edge of the perceived building he was walking on, and within a minute, Nick had mapped out what he was standing on.
'Sure enough, it's a house,' Nick thought.
But then, Nick furrowed his brows. 'However, the form is unusual, and it's made of stone or brick instead of tal.'
'Almost all houses have a slanted roof because of the rainwater, but the roof of this one is perfectly flat.'
'Even more, all the houses above are made of tal.'
'A house made of sothing as luxurious as stone would be far too expensive for the people living in the Dregs. Even the houses in the actual Outer City are mostly made of tal, albeit rust-free.'
That was when Nick rembered what the Parasite had said.
The Parasite had called the sewers ruins at so point.
'Ruins,' Nick thought. 'I guess this stone house is part of the ruins then.'
'But why are there buildings down here?'
'Obviously, no one is living down here. Yet, there are still valuable and functional houses.'
'Even more, the sewers wouldn't have swallowed everything if we had just lived in the houses to begin with.'
'Why did soone build a tallic city above this one?'
'I don't know,' Nick thought after so seconds, 'but one thing is clear.'
'Humans have lived here before.'
Nick looked around a bit.
'I want to know how big the house is.'
The next mont, Nick went to the edge of the house, took a deep breath, and dove down.
Nick's hands grabbed the rough stone of the house and pulled him downward.
Since no one was watching him, Nick easily managed to pull himself downward.
After descending for around ten ters, Nick reached the bottom, but when he felt it, he furrowed his brows in surprise.
'tal?'
'The ground is made of tal here as well?'
The Dregs were buildings made of rusty tal sitting on top of grates and plates of rusty tal.
Below that, Nick imagined a stone house sitting on top of more tal.
'Then, is there even more?'
Nick pulled back and kicked the floor with all his power.
BOOOM!
The ground vibrated, but Nick suddenly felt pain in his leg.
He knew all too well where that pain ca from.
He had hit sothing that was way too hard.
'This feels just as hard as the tal that Wyntor's Containnt Unit is made of! I think he called it steel.'
'A house made of stone on top of a floor made of steel. This sounds way better than the rusty tal of the Dregs.'
Nick thought about this for a while.
'There's not enough information.'
A mont later, Nick shot towards the surface to get a "fresh" breath of air before returning underground.
Over the next few minutes, Nick mapped out the building. He even found the door and so windows.
'Sure enough, it's a residential house,' Nick thought.
By now, Nick had acclimated to the disgusting liquid, and as long as it didn't get into his mouth, he could keep his disgust in check.
As Nick looked down at the house below him, he suddenly got the urge to investigate further.
'Maybe there is so treasure inside?'
'Maybe there are so secrets to uncover?'
But then, Nick felt a bit of crackling from beneath his feet.
The house wasn't breaking apart, but it definitely wasn't stable.
That was when Nick realized sothing crucial.
'That's dumb!'
'There's no way anything valuable would be left! After all, the people who moved here to build the city must have cleared everything out already!'
The next mont, Nick narrowed his eyes.
Then, he rembered when this feeling had actually occurred.
While Nick had been deep below the surface, he had already had the urge to investigate the house.
In fact, the urge had been the strongest when Nick had found the door.
'It's already started.'
The liquid was so incredibly murky that no light reached a depth of even just two ters.
This ant that Nick had been in pure darkness down there.
'The Nightmare.'
The Nightmare's influence could be subtle or noticeable, whichever was more useful.
Naturally, the Nightmare had influenced Nick in a very subtle manner down there, slowly planting ideas into his head of riches and secrets.
If Nick had followed these urges, he would have been in quite a lot of danger.
The house was not stable, and even more, the Nightmare could also warp soone's perception and create illusions.
It could have made Nick move in a different direction than he wanted, and without being able to see or hear down there, Nick wouldn't be able to find his way out.
In the end, he might beco panicked and break through the wall, but then, the house might collapse on top of him.
'The Nightmare has already influenced .'
Nick took a deep breath.
'I have to be careful.'
The next mont, Nick decided to stop investigating the ruins below him.
Without a constant source of light, investigating the ruins was far too dangerous.
'I can look at them at so other ti.'
'For now, I should look for the Drear.'
Reviews
All reviews (0)