Chapter 77 - Venturing the Hidden Tunnel: Ruined Dwarven City

Suta POV

There were only a few things Suta could think of that made such a mechanical sound. The idea of something like that existing here somehow seemed more ludicrous than the talking furry animals. But alas, his curious thoughts were correct. The growing rumble came to an impending stop, and a large stone disc arrived at the top of the chasm. Suta had to blink a few times to ensure he wasn’t seeing things.

But there it was. Ascended from the unknown depths, a sizeable stone-shaped disc, swirling dark patterns engraved against its surface. He smoothed his chin, deciding whether it would be the craziest thing in the world to stand on that platform.

“I guess there’s no other option.” He said to himself with an ugly smile. He walked towards the edge and cautiously stepped onto the stone platform. The four fuzzy balls of light trailed him all the way. Suta observed the patterns covering the ground a little more. They reminded him of a tribal sequence wrapped into a circular bubble.

‘Kind of reminds me of one of those rune things.’ He vaguely could see the correlation between those many strange runes drawn in Granny Baba’s books.

Suta heard iron cogs shift, and the clang of heavy machinery groaned through the walls again. A few more moments later, the circular platform began to slowly descend. He watched the walls fall upwards, forced to brace himself from the feeling of weightlessness, which stirred a slight air of nausea through his mind.

The large platform fell quickly until it finally held itself at the bottom of the abyss. By this point, Suta could hardly see anything past the tiny freckle of light surrounding him. ‘It’s almost like I’ve sunk into a sea of darkness.’ He exhaled a relaxed breath before taking a closer look at the dark surroundings. His eyes shifted, noticing a faint trace of silver formed into the shape of an entryway against the wall. Suta scanned the darkness just to be sure there wasn’t anything else he might’ve missed. Once satisfied, he made his way towards it.

A cold air moved through the narrow tunnel. Suta could stretch out his two arms and caress the fleshy, closely aligned walls.

The strange thing about all of this was how everything felt purposeful.

‘Almost as if these things have been made to guide me, or someone at least.’ The four fuzzy balls of light were still dutifully surrounding him, shedding light through the dense smog of darkness wrapped around him.

Thankfully, he quickly noticed the air within the narrow tunnel changing. He felt the cool winds actively moving past him. An open area, or better yet, the outdoors, must be close by. Suta brushed against the wall, and strange glowing dust stained his fingertips. A sudden thought raced through his thoughts.

He closed his two eyes and centred his breathing. He controlled faint wisps of mana from his gut towards the back of his eyes. His vision greyed, and the world became a spectrum of dancing-coloured particles.

Suta gasped slightly upon seeing glowing blue veins crawling against the dark wall and stretching off further into the narrow tunnel. With curiosity fuelled steps he hurried further forward with haste, the fuzzy balls of lights increased their pace and stuck around him. The tunnel almost snaked into a zigzag with noticeable narrow bends. Suta trailed the glowing veins running along the walls. Until he felt a sharp pain between his eyes; he strained his body while trying to purify Mana. Thick sweat rolled off his brow, making Suta furrow his brow out of annoyance.

‘I need to find something to do about this mana core situation. How am I supposed to learn arcane arts if my body can’t even do the basics.’ Being stranded on this island made that truth even more apparent. The number of dangers he engaged in had forced him to run for his life or narrowly find victory by some lucky strike—or sudden weakness bearing fruition through no fault of his own.

‘Just thinking about the surface is making my stomach hurt.’

Continuing his walk Suta suddenly felt a change in the frigid air. A burst of warmth almost filled the tunnel like a dragon had snorted through the narrow hall. Soaking his skin in cold sweats. Before he was given a moment to worry about what had transpired, the narrow tunnel finally ended. His footsteps swiftly came to a halt. Suta stared in awe at the vast open space before his very eyes. From that very moment, he found himself somehow lost in this strange world. Talking Lions and ugly-faced flowers were perhaps the least of his worries these days. There was a small window of thought he carried, one where he somehow imagined the worst of things was seen.

But, of course, his life had transpired up until this point. He learned one valuable thing: there was always a more significant problem, ready to leave his jaw wide open.

Suta’s expressionless mask gawked at the open space he stumbled upon. It was as large as anything he had found outside the open fields against the surface above. But the things inside here stirred a chilling silence around him.

Across the high raised ceiling above, he saw thick iron pipes running across the cavernous walls. Giant-sized bronze wheels were attached to earthy walls. Below were the ruins of a fallen ancient city, half submerged in strange, murky, dark water. Suta scanned across this vast dark sea filled with remnants of countless buildings coated in bronze and dull gold. He swallowed harshly, torn between the usual feelings he caressed internally, of marvel, and that very intrusive feeling of fear crawling towards his heart.

‘A fallen city? Beneath a strange cave…’ Suta took a lasting look around. With every overturned stone, another class of mysteries sprawled away from the shadows.

Suta felt his thoughts almost frozen mid-thought as he noticed a strange white creature roaming against one of the scattered buildings half sunk into the waters. A pair of white spindly legs with pulsing pink flesh bulging where its ankle and thighs would be. Its upper torso was a strange contortion between a skeletal frame and an insect with large pincers dropping down its side, similar to a praying mantis.

Suta felt goosebumps running down his spine. His eyes widened in the middle of his narrowed gaze, peering across the sea of buildings. He caught something in the near distance—a dull bronze-stoned castle. Surprisingly, floating against the shimmering black waters. He noticed a draw bridge had fallen, half submerged in the dark waters.

This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

An ugly smile tugged the corners of his mouth upwards. If a crown was going to be anywhere, that’s an excellent place to start.

With his first problem somewhat understood, Suta swiftly fell upon his second conundrum. He didn’t trust these murky-looking waters for one single bit. So getting across this sea heavily relied on him scaling across these buildings half drowned in the black sea. Objectively, there were two ways to do this. The path down his left side, which, in truth, looked like the least favourable option. On behalf of that white bony creature skittering along the fallen buildings. Suta carried this sickly feeling that the creature was not something he could quickly deal with.

Which then leaves me with only one other option. He twisted his helm towards his right side. He was gazing at the towering buildings clustered close together. Most of the towers here were monstrous in size, eerily silent to the point they were ghostly looking. He could imagine there was at least one problematic thing lurking there. But objectively speaking. ‘I'd rather deal with the monster I can see than the ones I cannot.’

He looked at the other route, and a slight look of surprise flashed against his face. The strange skeletal creature could actually hop across from building to building.

‘That’s the quickest route to the castle as well.’ His fingertips were getting clammy again, but he understood his choices here were as slim as they could be. Suddenly, he saw the creature using one of its long bone claws to slice the edge away from a monument in its way. The claw cleaved the thick stone like butter and slid away into the black water. Suta swallowed harshly before pressing a glare towards the right side again.

‘I’ll take the ghostly towers route then.’ He decided begrudgingly.

Suta began his dangerous plight. Scaling across the large platforms wedged close together. After he successfully made the first few jumps, a serene calm fell upon his shoulders, and the jumps didn’t seem all that scary anymore. Soon enough, his heels felt like springs, giving him an extra layer of jump whenever he bent his knees and leapt from post to post. By the fifth jump, he was beginning to have some fun, from somersault jumps to attempts to land on a single leg. A childish chuckle birthed free from his mouth after narrowly completing a flip across a wide space between the two hollow stone pillars.

“Hehehe, I'll admit it. That was fun.” He chuckled playfully to himself afterwards.

He patted his dishevelled clothes before pressing his gaze towards the current matters. ‘Right, back to this nightmare.’ He thought to himself. Suta had finally reached the first of a few towering stoned monuments. Layered in front of him, in an earthy heap, was a bronze-stoned walled cathedral. Half submerged into the dark sea, so its squared, thick, tiled roof angled slightly towards him. He measured his standing to the fallen cathedral. Half assured he could make it if he belted full speed at the thing.

But also mindful that he would alert whatever might be awaiting him inside.

‘Here goes nothing.’

“Hyup!” Suta broke into a stride, swiftly picking up his pace and sprinting towards the slanted wall. Just like he envisioned it in his mind, he took a quick step and half leapt up. His foot was planted firmly, and he used the strength he gathered in his legs to vault higher. His body ascended the wall. And he stretched out his hand and caught the edge of the tiled roof just in time. Half hoping it wouldn’t slide away and send him falling.

Thankfully, his body, or Suta’s body, had become accustomed to rigorous, quick movements. He rather impressively held onto the edge of the roof with one hand, then pulled the rest of his body upwards.

He dusted his palms together before observing the cathedral's roof. He cautiously moved along the steep floor, just as he had thought from an initial look. This building was quite old. The stones were almost cobbled; over time, they had actually eroded into this bronze coat he witnessed. Suta carried this strange feeling of familiarity about this place.

‘A cathedral? I don’t imagine them being this uncanny. Unless, is it just all one big coincidence.’

He came across a glaring hole in the middle of the roof, surrounded by a broken pile of tiles. He knelt and observed the hole. It was pitch black inside, with thin vines wrapped in wiry brown weeds pouring out from the hole. It looked as though someone or something had forced their way in. Something big.’ Suta frowned, measuring the hole at least three times his size.

He swallowed his spit harshly. He was foolish to think there would be an easier route here. But very quickly, he regained his focus.

He tried sticking his head through the hole but could only faintly make out the sounds of running water. He massaged his temples before steeling himself. The sooner he was out of this place, the sooner he could return to Verdi.

‘And Demoria.’ God knows how many days had passed since he saw her beaming bright face.

Suta lowered his legs first into the hole. He was kicking at the air, which at first made him feel anxious. Thankfully, the fuzzy ball of lights remained wrapped closely by his side, shedding away the cluster of darkness awaiting him below. He dropped down and waited until the last moment to release his grip.

He free-fell a short distance and landed on a firm surface. Suta instinctively held his balance, he looked down and exhaled a sigh of relief, realizing he landed against a wooden beam. He scanned the dark area and found countless beams crisscrossed along the slanted ceiling. Below were the black waters that had naturally swallowed ¾ of the cathedral. Before he was given a chance to relax, he first heard them before he saw them. Swimming within the waters not so far from where he was standing. A group of smoothed-backed creatures, shaped like dolphins but with noticeable dark hardened coral shells on their backs. They moved with the same lithe movement as sharks. And Suta was suddenly on high alert. Observing the creatures swimming around, he noticed an inky black substance being excreted from their bodies.

‘Odds are that’s poison. And that’s why these waters are this colour.’ A cold shiver traced along his spine upon seeing that, another one of the many dangers to note down to avoid. He shook away his fears before calmly brushing aside one of the fuzzy balls of light away from his view.

Suta peered around the dense fog and surprisingly saw another arch-shaped opening against the other side. Judging from what he saw outside, that probably led to the other tall tower leaning against the cathedral.

‘My best options are to somehow find my way through those towers slanted together. And hopefully, get closer to that castle on the other side.’ He took another look at those creatures swimming in the murky waters, each one as big as a hound. He sucked in his worries and made sure he could caress the crimson dagger glued to his hip.

‘Best case scenario, they kill me quickly or perhaps. They aren’t as ferocious as they seemed. ’

He started his brave walk along the dark air, paying attention to how his feet remained balanced against the centre of the beam. There were about six more of these, and Suta tried to ignore the danger below him. Somehow, the moment he began his walk, he heard those coral-finned creatures thrashing beneath him.

“Calm down, Suta; they can’t reach you from here. Let's take it slow, nice and –“

He was suddenly held in place by the noisy barrage of debris crashing to the side. His gaze darted towards the disturbance. And his body froze instantly. With a narrowed lens, Suta tried to piece together what kind of disaster had fallen through the ceiling just now. The dust cleared, and he stared at a mass of bubbling flesh. Contorting into strange muscles, with misshapen limbs writhing around the fleshy body, or lack of. A small set of eyes multiplied into a dozen closed balls swimming around in its flesh. Suta’s heels creaked nervily against the wooden beam. And much to his uttermost dismay, the sound broke clearly through the frigid darkness as though glass had smashed in a silent room with no furniture.

He blinked a few times and saw a herd of eyeballs glaring his way.

“Yup, time to go.”