Chapter 41
Still, his body was tired so he didn't want to go alone. The goblins were too uncontrollable and the dwarves had too much muscle so they wouldn't fit. There was only one girl near the hole that was small enough to fit that likely wouldn't be a liability. She had a pinkish skin tone and was a bit shorter than the goblins. There were also two nubs that seemed to be horns on the top of her head.
Gren walked over to her. "Hey." The girl looked behind her, thinking that he was talking to someone else. "I'm talking to you with the little horns. What's your name?"
"Impa." She seemed to be worried about what Gren wanted from her.
"Want to go help me explore what's on the other side of the hole, Impa?" Impa nodded but Gren didn't realize that she thought of it as an order. The slaves that were owned previously were rarely ever given a chance to have their own opinion.
Gren decided to store a bunch of food in his pocket dimension just to be safe after asking Impa to wait for him. The last time he went through a hole he wished that he had brought food with him. Maybe he'd find something interesting through the hole just like the last time.
Ready to go, Gren helped Impa onto the rock before climbing some of the remaining rubble to get next to her. Gren brought out the light and pressed the b.u.t.ton to turn it on before tying it to one of the metal rings at the bottom of his chainmail. "Okay, let's go."
Gren squeezed through the hole first. The light almost got caught but thankfully Impa noticed it and held it to one side so he wouldn't get stuck. Impa was smaller than him and wasn't wearing anything besides the hooded traveling cloak so she was able to fit without a problem.
The first thing that Gren noticed was the smell--there was a musty smell similar to that of a wet dog. There was a small ledge on the other side of the rock that Gren had hopped down from. It wasn't enough of a distance to hurt him but it did look like it'd be difficult to climb back up without a ladder or at least a step stool. He had the system so he could just buy either one of those; there was nothing to worry about.
Gren looked around and was impressed with the size of this underground structure. The newly-revealed area was much more open than the pa.s.sage he was more familiar with. There was an opening in the middle of the wide room and Gren could
Thanks to the properties of the magic light, they could see the entire room in a dim light. There were some doors on the upper level that Gren and Impa were on and Gren wanted to check them out. One side of the walkway was completely collapsed--crushed by a fallen portion of the support pillar next to it--so there was only one way to go if he wanted to continue.
Impa stuck close to Gren as the two went forward. Gren tried to open the door but it was either stuck or too heavy to be pulled open with his strength alone. "Come, help me with this door." Impa tried to help but the two of them still weren't strong enough to open it. "I guess we'll have to wait to see what's in there. There are still a couple of rooms and another pa.s.sage we can check out. Come on."
Gren decided to save the pa.s.sage for after they had checked the remaining doors. In the end there was only one door that they could open. "It seems like there's nothing of value here." There were some tables and chairs but many of the tables collapsed, likely from their own weight. The people that once inhabited this place must have been huge since the chairs looked like they were made for people around Ahk's height; maybe even a little taller. Well, Gren had expected this since all of the pa.s.sages and doors were made for people that size.
Gren was a bit disappointed that he didn't find anything interesting but he felt that the bulk of the fun was in the journey. "There's nothing here. Should we head down the other pa.s.sage?" Impa didn't give an answer but Gren pulled her along anyways.
There were two more doors and a staircase leading down before the pa.s.sage came to a dead end; blocked by another pile of rubble. The door across from the staircase was left partially open with the rubble preventing it from opening all the way. Gren looked down the stairs and noticed that there was a section of the steps that were missing; leaving only the railing to connect the two floors.
Gren wasn't surprised that the door that wasn't opened was impossible for Impa and him to open; it seemed like this place wasn't used in a long time. Gren couldn't squeeze into the open door so he sent Impa in alone while holding the light through the door. "Do you see anything?"
"There's a pool of water in here. It smells really bad!" Gren could hear Impa wretching. Perhaps this is what was causing the terrible smell in this area.
"If you can't handle the smell then get out of there for now." Impa rushed out of the room, knocking into Gren. His grip on the light was released as it went flying from his hand, falling down the staircase and landing on the floor below. "Ah! The light!"
Impa seemed afraid. "I'm sorry, it was an accident. Please don't hurt me." She curled up in a ball, holding her head.
Gren put his hand on her head; noticing that she flinched when he touched her. "Don't worry about it. I got it for free and it doesn't seem to be broken. We can just go get it. Everything will be fine." Impa looked up at Gren and nodded, tears still in her eyes.
Gren carefully moved to the staircase and looked down. It seems like the light fell on top of the collapsed stairs. It was too dangerous to jump down without a clear platform to land on so Gren would need to climb down using the railing. The gauntlet and s.h.i.+eld would get in the way so he handed them over to Impa. "Hold on to these for me and wait here. I'll go get it."
The railing was a bit slippery but Gren was able to get down it by moving slowly. There was a small jump down from the railing to the ground; his landing was a bit loud so the sound echoed. Gren just had to climb the collapsed stairs and get the light and then the two of them could return to the hole they came from. He had already explored the parts of the upper floor that he had access to and didn't want to go too far in during his adventure.
The wet dog smell was even worse down on the bottom floor. Perhaps it wasn't coming from that pool of water after all. The noise from the work that the women were doing was quieter than it was upstairs so Gren was able to hear other things more clearly. There was the sound of water running gently like it was coming from a stream and with it there was an irregular wet slapping sound against the stone.
Gren climbed up onto the collapsed steps and grabbed the light. Sure enough, nothing was broken. The noises and the feeling of isolation were creeping him out so he chose to leave. Gren turned back towards the base of the stairs to return to the upper floor but noticed something different.
There was a large grey ma.s.s of fur. Sniffing sounds could be heard as the beast looked for its prey. Its nose led it to its target: Gren. The light s.h.i.+ned down on the beast and caused its eyes to glow. The beast gave off a loud squeak and in reply several dozens more squeaks reached Gren's ears from the distance. It looks like there was something to worry about after all.