Chương 18: Chapter Seventeen

Things didn't level out past that last huge hill. Nor, in fact, was it located 'about halfway' towards his destination. It took him at least three days to reach the spire, or as close to such as he was able to calculate, given present circumstances. Long, mind-numbing hours spent without break or rest. Just him slowly dragging himself along a sea of subaqueous dunes; the structure ahead ever so slowly growing larger.

He contemplated turning back several times during the journey; only to be dissuaded by the fact that he had nowhere to turn back to. Even if he managed, somehow, to find his way back to the hole in the ceiling; he wouldn't be able to swim up it. Whatever he was made of didn't seem to be naturally buoyant in the first place; much less at whatever depths the floodwaters had dragged him to. Upon finally reaching the monolith, he found himself in awe of its sheer magnitude.

It seemed to stretch endlessly into the distance above him, greatly expanding his previous assumptions on the size of the underwater cavern. Its enormity made even more intimidating by the uncertainty of how much of it still lay buried beneath the sand. Unfortunately, that awe quickly turned to fury and despair when he found the structure utterly devoid of doors, windows or any other apparent entrances.

He lingered in the area briefly, digging around the monolith's edges and peering endlessly upwards in hopes of finding some crack or hole; but eventually he was forced to admit there was nothing he could do there. Staying only a few minutes more to get his bearings before deciding to move on. Feeling slightly despondent and utterly out of options. After that, his wandering became far less… structured. With all the monuments seeming identical, Bob figured aiming for them was largely pointless.

Unfortunately, they were also the only things tall enough for him to see from his current vantage. Thus, he decided to point himself vaguely between two of the spires instead, hoping to come across some of the smaller buildings he'd previously seen littered amongst them. It should be unsurprising, given the preponderance of misfortune he had encountered prior to this, that things did not go quite so well as Bob had planned. In the beginning, he actually managed pull together a bit of enthusiasm for the operation.

He'd witnessed one of his seams restitch itself shortly after leaving the spire, which gave him at least some hope for his long-term continued survival. Added to that was a slowly swelling optimism that these ruins, once found, would prove far more profitable than the lake above them. It was a slim hope to grasp onto, but given that it was the only one on offer, Bob began to hold increasingly tightly to it.

Long hours giving plenty of time to imagine his bag-like body easily slipping past ancient traps meant for human targets. Of stealing away hidden untouched treasures to evolve into greater and more powerful monstrous forms. At one point he'd been planning to go to the lake's deepest parts in search of treasure, after all. And it didn't get much deeper than this. Though at the same time he was concerned it might prove quite a bit more dangerous.

The area was screaming 'high challenge rating' and he very much doubted the grouper were the largest things around. Unfortunately, what hopes he had for acquiring power, wealth or even encountering dangerous monsters began to dwindle by the end of the first 'week'. Slowly ground to nothing by the unchanging scene he was surrounded by. The spires in the distance grew no shorter or taller, no matter how much time he spent dragging himself towards the space between them.

The dunes, similarly, were either identical or ever-changing, depending the state of your mind. In the beginning he would occasionally look back; gauging the distance he'd covered by the size of the monolith he'd left retreating in the background. After a while, however, that too had become pointless; it joining the rest as another static image in a watery sky. He couldn't even make an attempt at gaining more Skills or Class options as a distraction.

While his form seemed to be slowly repairing itself, he was still far from fixed. Which unfortunately left him clinging tenaciously to the two silver coins held in his 'mouth'. Unable to engage in strenuous activity for fear of dropping them. He'd fairly quickly swapped 'Taunt' back out for 'Dodge' near the start of his travels; fearing what creatures he might meet in the deep. But at this point it was almost seeming like a waste of effort. Even the fish avoided him now.

Had done, ever since he'd equipped the title which apparently made him inedible. He knew he'd really started drifting round the bend when he contemplated taking it off, just for the sake of having company. At some point, Bob simply stopped trying to keep track of time. Hours either blurring together or lost and buried in endless daydreams. Each more realistic than the last.

So much so that when he finally did happen upon a building, cresting the rise of one last mountainous dune to find its many-windowed husk looming above the landscape, he wasn't entirely sure it was real. It stood six or seven stories tall above the sand-line, its layout almost reminding him of a residential apartment complex from back on earth. The resemblance played with his mind, fighting against previous sword and sorcery expectations, and for a moment almost had him convinced he was hallucinating.

It took actually crawling through one of the empty windows for Bob to believe the building wasn't a delusion. After which point he found himself, if anything, even more shattered than before. It was obvious even before stepping inside that nothing within had survived. The building was a shell. All that remained being those pieces of structural importance. Walls, floors, roof, support beams, and a stairway which wound up along its inside edge.

Conspicuously, these structures also had identical sigils carved along them at set distances. Parts of Bob's brain couldn't help but wonder if these runic inscriptions, or whatever energy was imbued in them, were what had kept the structure intact after however many years it had been stuck down here. The rest of him couldn't really give a shit. Too busy dwelling on the loss of what little hope he'd been clinging to. Not that it was even much hope, he was beginning to realize.'

Even if it was full of treasure, what then? Would that help me get out of this place? Would it help me get out of this world?' The thought made Bob hesitate. Made him aware he was running dangerously low on drive and purpose and all the other little incidentals needed to keep a person going. He had no illusions about getting back to his own world; his final moments there making it very clear that wasn't an option.

He'd kept pressing onward, however, in the belief that any life – even one as alien and inhuman as this – was better than no life at all. The last however-many days had begun to wear on that belief, however. With Bob being concerned this latest disappointment had come dangerously close to breaking it altogether. Deciding a better view of his surroundings might improve his perspective, Bob made his way towards the stairs.

Hoping none of the building's former inhabitants had sprung for durability magic to be placed on any doors along the way. Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings. The journey up the steps was a slog, but no worse of one than the trek to get here. The building being as destroyed as it was allowed him to witness his surroundings expand around him as he ascended, the horizon of endless dunes slowly broadening out as he passed row after row of windows.

To reveal further endless dunes. The edges of the cave system still nowhere in sight. He kept expecting to see them appear at the top of each rise, or for him to at least come within view of the cavern's ceiling; but it never happened. Not even as he pulled himself onto the building's roof. In the distance he could immediately see the silhouettes of three structures standing out along the ridgeline of distant dunes.

The sight, having spent so much time in search of them, filling him with a slight burst of excitement. This, despite him knowing they were likely in the same condition as the one he'd just dragged himself through. What he couldn't see, strangely enough, was any hint of the location he'd originally entered the cavern from. He wasn't sure how long the fish had been swimming with him in its mouth – time being a very relative thing at that particular moment – but apparently it had been long enough.

Either that or the fish in question had been abnormally quick. Because he didn't see any other way for a literal mountain of sand to have disappeared from view. It was a strange thing to be distressed by. He'd already reasoned with himself that returning there was useless. But still, as he swept his eye across the endless sandy horizon, Bob couldn't help but feel that at least knowing what direction not to go in would have been appreciated. He stood on top of the ruined structure for some time.

Gazing out into the far distance as if some new, better option would eventually reveal itself. When he finally did move, hours later, it was less of an authoritative decision and more as simply something to do. Randomly choosing one of the three buildings in the distance and marking its location in his mind before beginning to trudge back down the stairs. Deciding it was preferable to have something to be aiming for during his travels. With this, at least, he had a goal he could set for himself.

Something he could keep his mind focused on, so it didn't wander back out into the dark and uncomfortable waters it had been wading into previously. The fundamental nature of his situation hadn't changed, after all. Even if the situation itself had become, somehow, decidedly more unpleasant. He was still choosing whether to give up or press forward. And, for the moment, he was choosing to press forward. His best option for doing so being to follow the buildings.

They at least gave him a higher vantage point from which to see some sort of exit or side-tunnel. When the next structure he'd dragged himself to was an equally sandblasted ruin, he didn't give himself time to be upset. He simply pulled himself to its roof, chose his next target and pressed on. He didn't allow himself to think past the next building. Since the first, he'd happened upon over a dozen of them.

All of them, unlike the monuments, seemingly built independently; with design varying from structure to structure. Vague similarities from earth were occasionally repeated, but just as often he found the building's design and purpose utterly alien to him. Unfortunately, despite the general disparity and occasional otherworldliness of the structures, there was one thing they'd so far all had in common. They were empty. Each and every one sitting like sun-bleached skulls in some endless desert.

Whatever objects or adornments might once have filled or covered them now long-since ground to nothing by time and the uncaring current. Or at least the floors above the sand-line were. Not that those below were in any better shape. Anything beneath 'ground level' tending to be cemented shut with centuries of accumulated silt and sand. Stairways down only noticeable because those were the areas where peerlessly smooth stone became pockmarked and unlevel.

It had gotten to the point where he barely even glanced around as he made his way to the roof of whatever building he was in. Once there, he only stayed long enough to pick his next destination before – in what had distressingly become the highlights of his week – flinging himself to the ground below. An act which, while admittedly a bit macabre, was both the quickest way to descend each structure as well as an excellent form of stress relief.

It also no longer posed any danger towards Bob losing his coins, his body fully finished repairing itself some four or five buildings back. His last journey had been a long one. The dunes in this stretch of the cavern seeming to grow larger and larger as he pressed on; extending his travel time past the three-day mark. At least according to the crude calculations he was becoming increasingly better at making in his head. Or, more likely, was simply making up.

Either way, he had finally reached his destination, as depressing a sight as it might be. The building in question was mostly consumed by a mountainous dune of sand. One so massive that Bob nearly believed he'd reached the end of the cavern upon first seeing it. His target being lucky to have been built on the straggling borders of the thing. The structure looked in worse shape than most of the others he'd encountered, with barely four stories sticking up above the sand-line.

Well, four and a half, he supposed; if you counted the bit that was only mostly buried. Though Bob wasn't sure he felt like being that generous. He was about to make his way towards it, expecting yet another mind-numbing search followed by a quick departure, when he noticed something strange in the distance. Far past the building's rooftop, in the direction of the dune's almost mesa-like peak. Fish hadn't been absent during his long trek through the empty city, but neither had they been prolific.

Little seemed to grow on the constantly shifting sands of this dead place; leaving not much to work with in terms of creating an active ecosystem. Which was why it was so strange to see near-schools of them swimming, from all directions, towards the top of the dune hidden from his sight. Especially when, after a few minutes of patient observation, none of them seemed to come back down again. Had Bob a heart, it would have skipped a beat in his chest.

He tried not to let himself get overly excited, but couldn't help but be struck by memories of a similar scene in the lake. Of fish basking in the cast-offs of human habitation. Of bright lights and potential exits from the Dungeon. He tried push such thoughts aside, fully realizing how absurd it would be to expect anything of the sort here, potentially thousands of feet below the surface. As he was making the attempt, however, something happened which utterly erased his ability to do so.

He had been continuing to inch his way along while observing the fish above him, not having much time to waste, given his abysmal pace. And just as he was approaching the first rising edges of the dune, he felt the slightest pull of something. Something which made him instantly freeze. Something which had been absent in his life since his decent into the lost city. A current. So far, as he'd traveled, the waters had been as dead as the civilization surrounding him.

Whatever event had caused his unfortunate arrival here seeming to be an anomaly, rather than the normal state of affairs. Besides, this current bore zero resemblance to the catastrophe which had raged through the lake. Or even to its normal everyday ebbs and flows. As he felt them gently tug at his fringe and tassel, the waters here seemed almost… welcoming. Seemed to coax him onward. To wherever it was the current led to. And Bob gladly accepted their invitation.

The sudden surge of excitement as he began to crawl up the dune's banks, utterly ignoring the building he'd spent days traveling towards, was almost drug-like when it hit him. He was shocked to realized how empty and emotionless his life had become in the last… weeks? Months? It was honestly impossible to tell time in this unchanging, monochrome world, no matter how much he deluded himself. But Bob didn't care about that anymore. Because he was here now. And potentially about to find a path to someplace else.

To someplace with enough food and life to attract thousands of fish to swarm towards it. To someplace that wasn't a dead and desolate city. The climb was grueling. The mass of sand seemed to tower infinitely upwards through the water. But despite the numerous setbacks, he only found himself growing ever-more driven and excited as he pulled himself up the mountainous dune; the current almost seeming to help tug him forward. It was a trait that the fish above seemed to share with him.

The closer he got, the more he noticed how desperate and focused they seemed to be. Each appearing to fight for position as they rushed towards their unknown goal. It took hours, constantly facing the need to back-track and change course when the gradient became too steep. Something which became ever more necessary the higher he climbed. Especially as he came closer to the top. Where he was shocked to find sand occasionally replaced by towering cliffs of stone.

Eventually however, after an enormous amount of effort and undue suffering, Bob finally managed to ascend the dune's peak. And for once, the view did not leave him wanting. Though, admittedly, it was one he almost unable to partake in. Spotting the ledge mere moments before he nearly threw himself over it, the shock leaving him frozen. Though, not due to the chasm which had so suddenly appeared before him, but instead by what lay within it.

By the lush, untouched and almost alive seeming city-scape cradled in its embrace.