Roberion lost the time he and Percival were traveling in the vent. When they were a few meters inside it, the wall closed the hole behind them. It was both relieving and scaring; for one, they were safe inside as far as they knew, but for the other, the vent was a complete unknown; a bunch of undead could show up and try to kill him. Still, he felt hopeful to kill any of them; at least it was a better chance than the behemoths. At least, the side effects of the speed potion are already gone.
I wonder what I will tell Shade; the armored giant hasn't said anything yet. They must be fighting, and fighting that undead behemoth is no joke. Shade may be using me as some sort of lab rat, but better the giant than these undead monsters and that team of armored warriors. If they are here, they aren't good news. Because everything here is the work of that masked bastard!
Anyway, it's complete darkness here. I can't see anything, even Percival. Something or someone closed the hole. I doubt this was some sort of coincidence.
"Percival I will try to use a fireball to light the way. Wait…mushroom. I will use the [Glowing Mushroom], better yet, you will use it and go in front. I think I can move myself; my foot is still wounded, but not enough for me not to crawl", Roberion took out the [Glowing Mushroom] from the bag and handed it to Percival.
"Take good care of it, for all we know about our destination can be in complete darkness, and it's also Shining Crown emergency food. If we find a spacious place, traveling on him can be useful. The big guy is also one of the few we can count on in this hell. Shade didn't call or anything yet, so we need to fend for ourselves."
"Oh, the enormous mechanical being. If I remember correctly, you, sir, said that they were fighting one of the undead behemoths; it must be because of the confrontation.", Percival said, poiting his index finger up as if in realization.
"Yes, I thought that too, but we can't depend on Shade. I think that giant was using me as some sort of lab rat. Shade kept asking me how I felt every time. I doubt that giant cared about my health, and that fizznaults kept talking about religious bullshit, but maybe they didn't want to come here, and that was just an excuse. But if that were the case, if the old couple came here, Kannon, especially Kannon, could have fried these undead behemoths. I doubt even Shade could fight those crazy fiznaults, but there is that whole honored visitor thing too. Dammit, I can't make sense of shit!", Roberion said rapidly and nervously.
"Be calm, sir. We don't have enough information to resolve the situation we are in, unfortunately. This hellish place could be our doom; to doubt our allies in these trying times would be a grave mistake. We need to believe in them as innocent until proven otherwise", Percival said, placating.
"Yeah, yeah, that makes some sense. But I won't; ever since I was born, people have just used me all the time. They have a hidden agenda; I know it," Roberion exhaled, trying to control himself.
"That doesn't make sense, sir. All of them don't seem to be allies. Especially the masked incognito being and the fiznaults people. The unfortunate circumstances seem to be the consequences of the masked individual."
"Alright, yes, the Nulls.", Roberion looked at the illuminated greenish face of Percival, illuminated by the [Glowing Mushroom]. He shook his head, stopping his musings.
"Alright, Percival, time to move; the last thing I want is to waste my time here, unless there is another undead behemoth on the other side."
"Yes, sir.", Percival started to walk, bent over, using the greenish light of the mushroom to guide the way. Roberion waits a few seconds before following the knight. He needed to make some distance; anything that found the knight would take some time to reach him. Roberion will use this distance as a way to confront him and figure out the best way to fight. I just wish we could reach somewhere with loot.
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Roberion and Percival traveled in the vent for more than three hours before finally seeing light at the end. The vent didn't have many curves and didn't have any intersections. That made less sense to Roberion. He didn't know much about vents, but that seemed wrong. The purpose of vents was for ventilation; how would you let the air move if there weren't multiple ways for the air to do it? The more I crawl in this tunnel, the more I regret coming here.
"Alright, Percival, give me back the [Glowing Mushroom] and go there first. Go down the tunnel, and if you find anything weird, yell."
"Sir, what do I do if everything is safe?", Percival asked, giving back the mushroom.
"That is a good question. Alright, you go there. I will deactivate the die and try to summon you back."
Percival nodded with determination. "Understood, sir! If I find a threat, I will yell and fight it. Hum, baiting the beasts away from the tunnel seems like the perfect solution if I find said threats."
"Good idea, Percival. Now go; I'm almost crawling out of this vent, safety be damned. I'm not claustrophobic, but if this new hole closes with me inside, my sanity will go out with it."
Percival didn't dally, afraid of the mental health of his patron. The capybara knight tried to be as silent as possible, trying to muffle the armor sound. The undead beasts had low intellect, but their basic instincts were working. His sound could attract a wave of the maddened beasts.
Roberion saw little by little Percival vanish in the distance. The exit seemed to be a killometer away from him. The path was going straight as an arrow, and the geometry of the vent was perfect; the architect of it must have been a master.
Trying to distract himself as Percival walked out of the vent, Roberion took out the glowing [Glowing Mushroom], and analyzed the walls. During his stay in the research station, only the outside could be seen as part of the old architecture; everything inside had a metallic futuristic look.
All this seems to have been made after the ancient construction. If I take into consideration the temple I was before, the place was enormous; it only makes sense to think here was the same. If I were to bet, most of the inside of it didn't have anything constructed, so the new residents, the Emperor of Cretion's forces, made this place. But that wouldn't make sense. Why create a place inside it? Are they researching the undead? If they are, why are they here? The undead were already here, or were they transported here? By following what the fizznaults said, the undead were here for a long time.
This mystery is crazy; I just wish the place ahead had some answers. I would prefer a bunch of weapons, though. I will get stronger there anyway; it's almost spell time.
Roberion waited a few minutes after putting the mushroom inside his back. Not hearing anything from Percival, he dismissed him and activated the die again. He summoned it three times before Percival showed up.
"Alright, Percival, report."
"Sir, it will be better if you take a look at that confusing place. All I saw were stacked crates on various shelves; they had labels, and some were made of wood and some were metallic. Most of them were stacked haphazardly; some were even broken down. There was a pile of things in one corner; most of the objects seemed to be broken, sadly."
"That doesn't sound like a research and development area. But who knows?! Let's go.".
Percival walked ahead. Roberion followed behind him. The crawling was without any problem, but nearing the end, the null remembered something.
"Percival, did you find any door or—", before he could finish the question, the capybara knight jumped down in the new room.
Roberion was going to ask again but stopped after seeing the place. Percival didn't do justice to the place. The place was enormous, looking more like a warehouse than a normal room. But the knight was right; everywhere he looked, there were boxes.
Curious Roberion jumped, and when his foot touched the floor, the hole behind him was closed. The null looked back with alarm.
"A second late, and I would be inside the vent! Next time, if there is one, I will run as fast as I can from any tunnel, vent, or any small place," Roberion said, already going near one of the shelves.
"Look at these shelves; they are twenty meters high at least; this room is really big; it's really a warehouse.", Roberion looked up with amusement.
"Sir, look at the labels on the crates. I read them, but they didn't make much sense."
"Alright, let me take a look", Roberion approached the nearby shelf, taking a look at the first crate he could get his hand into. "At least they put the label on the front; they stacked four of these boxes here; taking the ones on top to see this one would be a hassle. Alright, let's see. Research Station Omega-34, project 18273, experiment 23, failure."
Roberion got curious and searched the nearby crates; he even walked further and jumped to inspect other crates. After inspecting a dozen, he was assaulted by a revelation.
"I can't get a break; they seem to be all failures. I think we are somewhere these guys from research and development dropped all their junk!"