Lu had never been as ecstatic as he was in this moment. He leaned against the rough wooden building, flattening his arms against it, holding it in tearful embrace. He ground his face into it, savoring the feeling of literally anything other than mud.
Then he gathered what few scraps of dignity still lingered, and stepped back to inspect the structure properly. It was rather crude in construction; the wooden planks that made up its walls were cut to uneven thicknesses, secured to four tall poles at each corner by some kind of thick black rope. The planks weren’t completely flush with each other, allowing him to peer inside and see that there were only three walls. The side of the structure furthest from him was open, with only a rope ladder ascending upwards to a second floor – or would it be the first floor, and the base just a foundation? The interior was just bare swamp, so-
He shook himself. Lu, the semantics of what counts as a floor aren’t important right now. You’re letting your exhaustion get the better of you, you need to comport yourself! And stop thinking in the third person!
After a few calming breaths, he waded around the structure to approach the ladder. Interestingly, the ladder was made of a different rope than the binding for the walls, being straw-colored. Does that mean something, evidence that this structure is used often enough to be repaired? I wouldn’t think there’d be two different sources of rope in such a barren place; could the world beyond here be full of life?
Lu had to jump to catch the dangling bottom of the ladder, but his legs were up to the task even after weeks of starvation. Although he had dispersed his cultivation, his body had still been reinforced with qi for years; he was at the absolute pinnacle of physical health possible for a mortal to achieve, appearing more like a young eighteen-year-old than his real age of thirty. Well, he had been at the absolute peak of health, before his trek through the swamp.
The ladder was affixed to the edge of a small room, a box about four metres to the side, with open-air windows taking up half the wall space. Or perhaps it would be more accurate to say that the room only had walls half-way to the ceiling? Again, Lu was not particularly knowledgeable about architecture. He was, however, very knowledgeable about interior decorating, which meant he easily identified every piece of furniture in sight.
There was a long table carrying a tall stack of bowls with a single low stool next to it, three shelves filled with scrolls taking up an entire wall, and a large chest. No two pieces were of the same material; the table, stool, and one shelf were of different colored woods, none matching the structure itself; one shelf was an unknown glossy black substance; and the remaining shelf and chest were two different metals. Lu immediately scrambled towards the table and the precious treasure that sat on it.
Food! Lu grabbed the top of the stack, almost toppling them off the table in his haste. He shoved his entire head into the bowl, inhaling the gravy-like sauce pooled at the bottom. When one bowl had been licked clean he moved on to the next, not troubled in the least as the scraps grew older towards the bottom of the pile.
A greasy sauce, vegetable greens, salty meat, the gravy again, grease, greens, meat, gravy… By the time Lu had finished the entire stack – over a dozen bowls in all – he felt bloated and heavy, and the edge of his hunger had dulled. He had also deduced that the structure must have been occupied very recently; the top bowls were fresh.
It probably would have been smarter to pace myself, eat the oldest first and stretch it out as long as possible. There’s no guaranteeing whoever lives here will come back soon. Oh well, he couldn’t take it back now.
With his hunger mostly sated, Lu began examining the rest of the room. He had been excited about the many scrolls, but was disappointed to find they were in a completely foreign alphabet. If I could cast a single translation spell, this would be so much information… The shelves also had some writing supplies. Blank parchment scrolls, and what Lu assumed was a pencil; a rod of black stone with a cloth handle, that made smooth black marks like ink when drawn across the parchment.
The contents of the large chest were more exciting: travelling supplies! There were hard brown-gray bars that Lu assumed were a kind of trail ration, small bottles of liquid, clothing, an empty backpack, even spare boots! And best of all, a map and compass!
This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.
Lu was torn. According to the map, there was a town – well, a cluster of house illustrations with a word written in the middle, which Lu assumed meant a settlement of some sort – right nearby. If he left, he could almost certainly reach it without trouble, but… that would mean stealing supplies from whoever lived here, because he definitely wasn't going back into the swamp without all the supplies he could carry. Lu didn’t think a reasonable person would care about the leftovers he had helped himself to, but just walking into someone’s house – or more likely some kind of guard post or hunter’s stand – and taking all their food would be completely unconscionable. Lu may be in a very extreme situation, but he wasn’t going to turn into an animal! At least, not when there’s evidence of civilization right here. If I escaped the swamp only to be immediately imprisoned for theft… no, that would be entirely too ridiculous! I’ll just stay here until the owner of this fine dwelling returns, and hope I can communicate with them in some way.
With his mind made up, Lu dragged the stool over to the nearest shelf and sat down to try and memorize the local alphabet. I, Lu of the Steadfast Heart, have comprehended hundreds of (first realm) spells! A single mortal language is child’s play!
----------------------------------------
Lu lasted three hours before boredom changed his mind. But it wasn’t his fault! The scrolls were just too boring! They were almost exactly identical! Why would anyone write almost the same sentence over and over, on dozens of scrolls? I thought I could piece together something, but there’s barely twenty words altogether.
And so, Lu packed everything that would fit into the backpack – he had to leave most of the clothing and the boots, which were each large enough he could have fit his entire head inside – and began to shakily descend the ladder. The bottom dangled well out of reach of the water, so when Lu hit the final rung he could only brace himself for impact, and let himself drop. I really, REALLY hope this backpack is waterproof…
He hit the water, but something was wrong. It was far deeper than it had been before climbing the ladder, and Lu was dragged down by the heavy weight on his back. He tried to shuck himself out of the pack, but didn’t manage it before something else took his attention: something had wrapped around his ankles, and was dragging him deeper.
He looked down through what little light could pierce the murky water, and beheld a terrible demon.
It was shaped like a man, and yet there was no mistaking it for a human being. It was like a child’s crude clay doll had been transmuted into flesh; its head was a lump protruding directly from the thing’s body, said body bloated with massive rolls of fat. Its limbs were grotesquely thick, well beyond any human’s; a person with that level of bulk would have an absurdly small range of motion, yet the demon had no trouble gripping Lu’s ankles in its huge paws. It was dressed in only a loincloth, leaving bare its translucent, vivid blue skin. Most horrifying of all was the face; the nose was a huge flat thing with slitted nostrils like fish gills, the mouth was wider around than Lu’s torso and filled with massive blocky teeth, and its eyes were small black pits far to the sides of its head.
Lu screamed, and immediately regretted it as rancid water filled his lungs. He kicked and thrashed, but the demon massively outweighed him and continued to drag him down.
He reached down and scratched at its fat fingers, but they were like iron manacles chaining him. Even his teeth failed to break the thing’s skin. He desperately tried to cast a spell, but his cultivation failed to miraculously return.
Lu could only struggle helplessly as the demon dragged him down into the underworld, his movements becoming gradually less coherent as he drowned.
----------------------------------------
Bo’s trap had worked perfectly! He had been really nervous when the creature was right on top of him, but it hadn’t sensed him at all. Bo couldn’t really sense it either, which was confusing, but he had plenty of time to quietly dig a hole down while it was in his tower. The wait had been boring, but it was an exciting sort of boring so Bo put up with it.
And now that the creature was in front of him, he was glad he had decided to capture it, since it wasn’t a creature at all! It was a man, wearing pants and everything. As he tied him up, Bo thought about all the questions he would ask. Like, Where did our patrols go and Why did you come here all alone and What kind of fabric are these pants made of, because these are really nice. Bo was giddy, he had never done an interrogation before, always being stuck watching the border. Not that he disliked lookout duty, it was very important! But this was a chance to do something important that was also interesting.
Bo splashed some more water on the man’s face, trying to wake him up. He hadn’t died had he? No, he was still breathing, Bo had made sure. Bo just needed to be patient.
Eventually, the man coughed up a little water and opened his eyes, and Bo confidently got up in his face and screamed “WHERE DID YOU GET THESE PANTS?”
The man’s eyes bulged out of their sockets, and everything was silent. Eventually, he opened his mouth and began babbling a stream of sounds that Bo didn’t understand at all.
Oh, he thought as the man continued to make nonsense words, interrogation is a lot more complicated than I thought.