Chapter 16: Chapter 16 – Ruins
Nick swam forward in silence.
From time to time, he could hear the sound of someone 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 something solid, but thanks to his ability, his shin didn't receive any real damage.
The next moment, 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 centimeters.
Nick's feet found something 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 some seconds, Nick lost his footing and fell forward.
A moment later, Nick shot upward and scrambled back onto the stable foothold.
'It's in my mouth!'
Nick immediately 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 meters.'
'I guess that's the size of a house.'
A moment 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 metal.'
'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 me are made of metal.'
'A house made of something 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 metal, albeit rust-free.'
That was when Nick remembered what the Parasite had said.
The Parasite had called the sewers ruins at some 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 someone build a metallic city above this one?'
'I don't know,' Nick thought after some 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 moment, 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 meters, Nick reached the bottom, but when he felt it, he furrowed his brows in surprise.
'Metal?'
'The ground is made of metal here as well?'
The Dregs were buildings made of rusty metal sitting on top of grates and plates of rusty metal.
Below that, Nick imagined a stone house sitting on top of more metal.
'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 came from.
He had hit something that was way too hard.
'This feels just as hard as the metal that Wyntor's Containment 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 metal of the Dregs.'
Nick thought about this for a while.
'There's not enough information.'
A moment 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 some 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 some treasure inside?'
'Maybe there are some 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 something 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 moment, Nick narrowed his eyes.
Then, he remembered 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 meters.
This meant 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 someone'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 become panicked and break through the wall, but then, the house might collapse on top of him.
'The Nightmare has already influenced me.'
Nick took a deep breath.
'I have to be careful.'
The next moment, 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 some other time.'
'For now, I should look for the Dreamer.'
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