Thanks to the forge, the blacksmith shop was far from dark; in fact, the flickering, blood-red flas were almost blinding. A bearded, bare-chested blacksmith, clad only in a leather apron, stood before an anvil, swinging a great hamr. Each dull crash seed to hamr down on Jenkins's very heartbeat.
Hearing footsteps, the smith shot Jenkins a sideways glance, rippled his muscles, and then gestured toward a cardboard sign hanging on the wall that listed the terms of trade. The blacksmith didn't just sell wares; like the nun at the church, he also offered quests that would allow Jenkins to earn dice.
But Jenkins ignored the sign. His eyes were fixed on the blacksmith's physique, on the muscles of iron that shone with the distinct brassy sheen of the Difference Engine's alloy. The blacksmith was literally made of iron. This couldn't be the original smith; based on the nature of this Mysterious Realm, there shouldn't be any non-flesh-and-blood creatures here.
"Quite the physique."
As he spoke, Jenkins began backing away, retracing his steps out of the forge. He wouldn't set foot in any place connected to the Difference Engine if he could help it. So, even if the blacksmith was selling a weapon that could destroy the machine, and even if it cost only a single die, he would absolutely refuse to buy it.
He breathed a sigh of relief only once he was clear of the shop, confirming the smith wasn't following him. Then he tossed another die. It landed on an 8. While not an amazing roll, it was enough to get him past the next intersection.
Jenkins chose to turn onto the street where the old town hospital was located. After moving eight flagstones forward, he won a fifty-fifty gamble and landed right in front of one of the hospital's entrances.
The buildings on this side of the street were all part of the hospital complex. At three stories, it was one of the few tall structures in town. This place looked just as dilapidated. The steps were covered in phosphorescent green moss and bloodstains, and so thick with dust that their original color was impossible to discern.
At the top of the steps, on a long, narrow platform parallel to the street, stood several pillars, their carvings long since worn away by ti. Beyond them were the hospital's doorways. Most of the fras were empty, while a few held only half a door, or even less.
Knowing the hospital's importance, Jenkins adjusted his gear again, checking the contents of his pack before slinging his magic sword across his back. With his backpack in hand, he finally stepped onto the stairs. The town itself was already cold, but the temperature plumted the closer he got to the hospital entrance. By the ti Jenkins stood before the doors, it had dropped to around minus ten degrees Celsius.
He exhaled, watching his breath turn to white mist. Even with the missing doors, it was impossible to see anything inside the building from the street. But he could feel it—a stirring in his blood, a sensation that his body was about to lt.
For him, in his current state, this should have been nearly impossible. It could only an one of two things: either the hospital was a vessel for the power of the Scarlet Ephera, or there was sothing even more terrifying than a Beast of Calamity inside.
The premise of this Mysterious Realm was exceedingly strange. If he delved deeper into the town's secrets, the rewards would surely be greater than simply trading items with the townspeople. But Jenkins trusted the bell ringer's warning, and he trusted the friendly reminder from the nun at the church.
Perhaps after he truly ascended to godhood, he would return to uncover the truth here. But not now.
"Whatever's going on in there is none of my business. I just need to find the other door."
He told himself this as he finally crossed the threshold and entered the town hospital.
Although the town seed dilapidated and backward, the state of the streets and the interiors of a few buildings suggested its level of industrial developnt was roughly equivalent to the early days of the Steam Age, similar to the world a century ago in the eighteenth epoch.
It was primitive, but it still had steam pipes. So, when Jenkins entered the hospital and saw the faint glow of gas lamps on the walls, he wasn't particularly surprised.
"Everywhere else is using candles, but this place has working gas lamps. It must be a special building."
Upon entering, he found himself in a lobby. Like any normal hospital, it had a simple service desk and chairs for waiting. Since Jenkins had entered from one end of the building, a single corridor stretched out to his right. But the corridor's ceiling was lower than the lobby's, and the walls seed to slant inward, making it look less like a hallway and more like a man-made tunnel, perhaps a mineshaft.
He stood still, surveying his surroundings. Just as he was about to head down the corridor, soone suddenly rose from behind the rotting wooden service desk.
To call it a person wasn't quite right; it was a ghost. The spirit's form had a normal hue, and it seed to possess its sanity. It took the form of a young woman in a heavy nurse's uniform.
"What are you standing there for, stranger? Are you here to see a doctor?"
She greeted Jenkins with a casual familiarity.
"I took an injection of the blood the townsfolk provided," Jenkins began, deciding to test the waters. "I feel like I'm more susceptible to body-morphing curses now. Is there a cure for that?"
"We used to be able to treat that. The blood the townsfolk provide is low-grade. A transfusion with superior blood would be enough to suppress the effects."
"No, it wasn't just the old won's blood. I also took the nun's."
"That wouldn't have mattered either, though the process would have been more complex. But we can't treat it now. That was all in the past."
The ghost nurse spoke with a touch of lancholy. It was remarkably human. If not for her spectral form, she would be indistinguishable from a living person. This was almost impossible; the sanity of a soul was fundantally different from that of a human. Jenkins had never heard of an undead spirit like this.
"You said you *used* to be able to treat it?"
"Yes, in the past. The hospital is abandoned now. Can't you see that?"
The ghost gestured strangely at the dilapidated surroundings. The walls were covered in glowing moss, the floor thick with dust. Chairs were piled in a corner, and an IV stand lay across the entrance to the corridor. The oil paintings on the walls were gone, replaced with bloody patterns that were both incomprehensible and deeply unsettling.
"Stranger, can you really not see all this?"
Of course Jenkins could see it, but the townspeople he'd t had treated it as normal. He had assud this was just how the town was.
"I... Never mind. I don't care what happened to the hospital, but why are you still here?"
He didn't ask directly about the hidden door, worried it might provoke an unwanted reaction.
"?"
The ghost considered for a mont.
"I have nowhere else to live in town, so I have to stay here. It also lets tell everyone that the hospital is completely abandoned. See? I'm telling you right now, aren't I?"
The nurse's ghost seed lucid, but Jenkins couldn't shake the feeling that sothing was off about her.
"Alright then. I'm a stranger here."
"I know."
"..."
Jenkins looked at the ghost who had cut him off. Seeing she had nothing else to add, he continued.
"I want to leave this place."
"Every stranger wants that."
"In that case, do you know where to find the other door in the hospital? The one that leads to another street?"
"Oh! You know about that? Did the town beggars tell you?"
"Yes. So, do you know about the door?"
This conversation was getting tireso, Jenkins thought.
"Of course I do."
Jenkins didn't press further, simply staring at the ghost. She stared back. After a few dozen seconds, she seed to finally catch on.
"Oh, you want to tell you where the door is, don't you?"
She blinked at Jenkins, expectantly awaiting his reply.
"Yes."
"Alright then. I can tell you, but you have to do sothing for first."
She blinked at him again, not so much in anticipation of his agreent, but as if she were simply waiting for him to speak.
"Fine. That's fair."
Jenkins replied, and the ghost imdiately lit up, as if she'd just received a gift.
The ghost nurse might have seed a little unhinged, but at least she was friendly and willing to answer his questions.
Her request was for Jenkins to defeat the monster lurking on the third floor of the hospital. He wouldn't have to worry about mistaking it for another; while the hospital was ho to many monsters, there was only one on the third floor.
"It's so powerful that nothing else dares go up there,"
the ghost explained.
As for why the hospital was abandoned, the nurse didn't know many details. All she knew was that on the day it was abandoned, it was well and truly abandoned. But during their conversation, even without Jenkins asking, the ghost unintentionally revealed the town's most terrifying secret.
"The most frightening thing in this town is, of course, the townspeople. Aside from outsiders like who stay here to perform a certain duty, the original inhabitants are the ones this town was ant to seal away."
The ghost spoke of this with the sa casual air one might use to discuss dinner.
"Every towns person possesses terrifying power. They may look human, but in reality, they are all parts of so ancient evil—I don't know its na—that together form a single entity. They were sealed here, at this intersection of chaotic ti and space, by so incredibly powerful being. To suppress their power, the town periodically draws 'blood' from the material world to satisfy their desires. And the town's hospital provided the so-called blood therapy to constantly weaken them."
"But the hospital is abandoned now."
"Yes, but what does it matter? After so many years, the townspeople and the town have rged into one. They can't leave, and they don't want to leave, so the blood therapy has lost its aning. Unless so madman decides to shatter the town itself, this place will remain peaceful forever, until all things perish..."
Hearing this, a grim thought crossed Jenkins's mind. The Difference Engine could certainly be considered a madman. And if it knew the truth of this place, it would almost certainly try to use the town's own power to defeat him.
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