Chương 159: Chapter 155

Ur-Primordial Corpse - Trabeculae Region. Impossible Difficulty. Storefront purchase triggered - A mithril lootbox has been spawned nearby. Wade opened his eyes to nothing but the system messages floating in the darkness. Absolute, total darkness. The kind that pressed against his eyeballs like wet cloth. And while a warm wet cloth on his eyes had been something he'd done to destress during retail, this was unfortunately the tail end of that - blistering cold.

He sucked in a breath, and coughed from the inner chill. There was sound in here too, someone next to him equally breathing in with a rasp.

"Leon?" He called out.

"Play?" He tried to sit up and his forehead cracked against something solid with a dull thud. The impact rang through his skull and he dropped back down, hands shooting to his face, rolling in place like an overturned pillbug.

"I am here. Have hammer and gear you handed too." Leon's voice came from somewhere to his left, near his foot, close enough that Wade could hear the breathing. He'd been holding his ankle back at the warehouse. There was some rustling. Then someone patting metal.

"Oooo suka, is very tight space. Though, I see you learning lesson first."

"Har fucking har, you try clubbing your head on a metal pipe in the pitch black and see if you're still in a mood to joke."

"Skill issue." Play's voice sounded from somewhere above and behind him.

"And for the record, I forgot how much I hate this world. You are one lucky mortal you managed to rope me into this." And further off, was the familiar sound of Eri clicking his jaw. And a greatsword being checked over with a few taps of an undead hand. Wade belatedly realized right after he could simply use Identify and get floating health bars and names above all of them. Which he did and that showed him the general direction of each. All three accounted for. Good. Time to get to work and make a profit.

"Right, so, light first." He reached out blindly, fingers brushing cold pipes above, and then feeling under him on some kind of half-frozen bedding he'd started the round on.

"Somewhere along the wall should be some kind of knob Medy mentioned links the whole bell together and turns the lights on. Every room has one, let's figure out where it's at before we bash our heads in."

"Michael, Michael, Michael~" Play said above him in the darkness, with the kind of voice Wade was sure had a know-it-all head shake attached with it.

"You brought half of LA with you, remember?" Wade's hands stopped blindly grabbing at the darkness around him. Right. He wasn't in the dark ages. He had flashlights in the crate, they were some of the first things he'd put into the wagon, along with a massive bed of metal padlocks to be used for weights and followup damage. Everything else had been piled on top of that bedrock. Plus, he didn't even need to reach into his wagon, he had a flashlight on the phone in his pocket.

The phone screen lit to life and almost made him wince, but he hit the right buttons and the light turned on, illuminating the entire space around him. It was a goddamn submarine. Even Leon looked a little hunched over, although he could still fit.

"All right, I'm getting a feel why they call this the coffin." Wade muttered to himself, aiming the light around to get a quick look at the whole thing. Very steampunk. Lots of metal tubing, and lots of it frozen stiff with a few icicles from ambient water droplets condensing together. And an odd amount of wooden furniture and items. Equally rimed with somewhat thin hoarfrost. Leon's arm reached past Wade and popped the supply crate's latch.

He rummaged for two seconds, produced a camping lantern, and twisted the dial.

"Oh ho, okey we good to go. Step one complete." Warm amber light flooded the compartment, and the lantern was set on the first shelf that would fit it, with the thin sheet of ice under it working well to hold it secure. Wade rotated slowly, phone still raised, cataloguing the space.

"Cozy." He said, checking up on everything available. There was some gear by his bedside on the ground too, free goodies. Identify. Demonic Armor (Low Quality) That would be Bael's armor. His own had been brought back and left in his apartment, since it wasn't exactly useful without a mana source to power up with. But there was something else on the ground here.

A bloody trail of droplets led to the culprit responsible, discarded nearby and forgotten while Medy and Bael had worked to stem the bleeding and ease his suffering during what they'd thought were his final moments. Enchanted Demonic Longblade (High Quality) Good start. Finally had the first bit of loot, and he just had to get stabbed a few times for it. It would be a good weapon for a possible future round when he needed swords. Right now, he had plenty of guns to abuse.

Plus the enchanted part of it might have some interesting things. He'll need to ask Bael and Medy about it once he made contact. And next to it, was something far more valuable to him. Mithril Lootbox Compass (System Quality) He reached a hand out and yanked the compass off the ground, stuffing it into his fanny pack. That would be the first thing he'd go and do, after he got this bell back into working shape. Wade then pulled his phone out and checked the texts.

Nothing was there, so he pressed the video call button. Against all odds, his System quality phone managed to connect to Play's phone. Wade caught a glimpse of the warehouse's interior before the camera shifted violently. Someone's finger covered half the lens.

"Oh wait, it's upside down!" Medy's voice came through oddly clear. As if the phone speaker was punching far above the weight a tiny thing like this should be able to. The image rotated a full one-eighty degrees before settling on a view of the warehouse ceiling. The view lurched, and Medy's face pressed way too close to the screen in one swift movement, one eye filling the entire frame. Her pupil contracted from the brightness.

"A way from the face." Bael's weary voice filtered through.

"Ohhh! I see! Is this one of those videos from the youtube thing? Wow, Wade looks almost surprised here. Huh. It's so weird seeing mortals without any emotion coming from them, you don't get weirded out by it? Like other people I don't know, I didn't think too much about it, but we know Wade, you know? Isn't it weird to not feel anything at all seeing him?" She tapped the screen, absentmindedly looking back at Bael.

"I'd be real worried if my phone could transmit emotions." Wade said.

"Good to see it's working everywhere else." Medy yelped and jumped away from the phone like a startled cat.

"Bael! You told me people can't hear me when I talked to them! You kept telling me that over and over too!"

"All videos from the youtube section of the phone cannot hear you, or answer your persistent questions." The Satyr answered with clear patience. And behind him Wade could hear snickering from the bomb experts.

"This is not that." If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it's taken without the author's consent. Report it. Medy had been able to adjust to seeing video footage when Wade first showed it. She'd learned it was past video taken, and none of the people or things shown on the video could be interacted with, only observed in high detail.

"It's all so confusing, how can you tell if it's a now video or a past video?? They're both the same thing!"

"You'll learn real soon bestie." Zin said, a hand extending out of frame and tussling her head.

"This might be surprised - actually this really isn't a surprise at all come to think of it, mortals, eh? What can you do. Anyhow, our good old humans, beautiful little special nuts that they are here, are just as dumb as humans back home, so these phones they make are idiot proof. Huge generation out here has the same understanding about modern tech that you got babe, you'll fit right in."

"How do they make something like this if they're dumb?"

"Individual humans are smart. Humanity isn't. You find the smart ones and make deals with them, and you extort the stupid ones out of everything else. Circle of life." The phone moved away from Medy, as if confiscated, and then set down on a crate, where it had a better view of her and Zin. Bael's voice came on the speaker.

"No touching this. Leave it as is, and move into frame instead." The horse-goat demon walked back into view and settled on the couch they had moved over to for the round.

"We're ready." He grunted out. Medy rocked back and forth on the couch, "This is gonna be so fun! We get to see the Arcane realm without being in any danger, no stress, nothing to worry about! Ohhhh I'm actually going to be able to enjoy this!" Behind the two, Wade could see Osmalla leaned against a crate, arms crossed. Chawky was doing something with a toolkit Wade couldn't quite make out.

Macrom stood near the warehouse's side entrance, watching Medy like she was an overcaffeinated kid inconveniently around breakable objects. Which wasn't too far off the mark. They'd passed the last few hours learning about the new demons here, and had equally learned some strong opinions, the hard way. While Bael had passed the rest of the prepare time watching youtube and learning how to use a phone, Medy had done absolutely nothing but be a happy menace. Yes, she was a gorgeous lady to everyone's senses.

No, they had long since stopped noticing because the moment they got distracted, she'd notice and then start doing something. Zin appeared in frame, sliding into the chair opposite Bael with a rocks glass in hand, ice clinked from inside it. He raised the glass toward the camera.

"Mr. Wade, amigo, my valued business partner, how's the death trap over there? Feeling a little nippy?"

"It reminding me of abandoned old soviet bunker I visit when teenager." Leon agreed, tapping a frozen pipe with one knuckle.

"Very fun times. Very cold too."

"It's very cold, yeah." Wade said, wedging his phone into his shirt pocket with the camera lens peeking out. The fabric held it secure enough as he'd prepared for.

"We're about to get the heat running, that's step two after the lights."

"Lovely. Don't die before you make me rich, kiddo."

"Wasn't planning on it. Anything we need to know besides find the wheel and get air vented through the mithril vents?" Eri found the light source switch, put a skeletal hand on the knob and pushed mana into the circuit. It was as if the coffin lit back to life with one shuttering breath. Dim yellow light began to glow from small ampules filled with liquid. They started to grow brighter yellow as the skeleton pushed more mana into the system.

When his health bar went down by 2%, the skeleton took his hand off, shook it as if he'd touched something hot, and clicked his jaw. All the mana he could push into the system had been done, it was saturated now.

"That'll last for about four hours of light." Medy said, "After that you just give it another spin cycle through, and it'll turn back on. The light potions there don't need much energy at all, it's just mana passing through them that triggers the effect. Just be careful not to break the glass, air messes with the solution percentages once it starts evaporating and it'll fail."

"You're in the dormitory of the coffin." Bael said, the only one on track.

"Travel out to and to the left, you'll reach the air vents on the side of the wall."

"Well I'm staying right here and waiting for all of this to be over with." Play hissed, floating above.

"I'm not doing any work, a goddess like myself should be worshipped by you mortals instead of being a crewmember. Hmph. I could be back home where I have a legion of human mortals rolling over each other to lick my feet."

"Wait, you already started streaming?" Wade felt a slight chill go through his spine.

"Not yet! But I would have if you hadn't pestered me into all this! I would be swimming in offerings every two minutes, mortals would hand me their hard earned in-game gold and currency for a mere instant of my attention! I had it all planned out!" Ah. He'd saved the world one more day from the blight that was Play, really that should be more rewarded.

"ZINNY! ZINNY, Make sure you complete my Genshin dailies!" Maybe he could even leave her here. Accidentally, of course. Speaking of crewmembers, Wade opened up his quest log and looked through the requirements for the new bellkeeper. Light Systems: Active. Boiler Room: Inactive. Internal Ventilation: Inactive. Internal Heating: -3°C (Min. 20°C) Water Tank: 13% (Min. 4% per Crewmember.) Food Supply: 54% (Min. 2% per Crewmember.) The percentages for water and food had gone up, thanks to the massive amount of supplies Wade had smuggled over into his new base. The MRE's and water bottles were all at the bottom of his crate, right next to the giant box of live insects from the pet store. Those would have to be warmed up before the cold here started killing the insects, and he'd need to make sure they don't start escaping out into the habitat. it had been a gamble to bring them here, but Wade had some good uses for them now.

The problem was the last requirement of the quest. Crew: 2/20 (Min. 5 Crewmembers)"Two? TWO?" Wade looked over to Eri, Leon, and Play. Sure the insects in a box he'd brought don't count as entities, he'd already expected that. But Eri he'd hoped would have counted for one. And the skeleton did not.

"Maybe goddess isn't counted because she not planning to work?" Leon asked, rubbing his chin.

"Of course I'm not going to do work, I'm a goddess~" There were some sparkles in the air following a wink.

"It can't be that." Wade sighed, running the numbers. The quest showed two out of five, despite there being four people in this chamber: Eri, Leon, Play and himself. And three of them were willing to do the work for certain. Eri, MVP that he was, would help out in keeping this base up and running. Of course Wade would handle being in charge of his new real estate acquisition. And Leon had come out of his own round to help Wade, after some discussion with Illy.

She'd be already moving out of Hell anyhow to travel the spirit realm with Selena, since they had to go and free her estate house before it was avisarially claimed by the moonwing political shit-fuckery happening over there. And Selena knew how to travel, so that shouldn't be an issue. On the quest, they couldn't be completely sure if Eri counted or if it was Play causing issues until they found dead miners and brought them back as minions. Wade was mostly certain it was Eri as a minion that didn't count.

Play was a little shithead, but if it counted for his quest, that directly led to him getting stronger. She's a gamer, she'd do the optimal thing even if it meant working. The alternative is that she was being very careful not to involve herself further, in case the enemy god would match. But that was more long-term thinking. Wade had a different theory: That the quest didn't count him as part of the crew requirements. It was about getting a crew, and he'd be the leader of it.

They could still continue on the main track of getting the rest of the checkmarks done, heat the bell up, and get the boiler room running. But this quest would require some fenangling to get done right. Regardless, "Heating next, because Jesus I can't feel my fingertips already." Wade shivered, climbing out of the bed.

"Let's get to work people." They split a set of plans on how to handle the tasks and got to work. Leon and Eri went out to scout the entire bell and report what they found. Specifically they were looking for an armory and the Arcanaut suits. If those were still there, they might be able to leave the habitat. If they weren't, the two would need to come up with some MacGyver'ed solution to getting outside, and it would probably involve Blackrot and some mithril chains.

The coordiors of the arcane diving bell were just as spartan and cold as the bunk beds here.

"There's usually two or three different vents to use up." Medy said over the speaker as he walked through the now lit and somewhat alive base.

"Just keep looking for a wheel somewhere on the walls." He didn't need to explore more of the creepy abandoned base. The very first corridor had a completely unlabeled wooden wheel. Flat out in the open corridor, as if anyone passing by might as well give it a few cranks.

"So I just turn this?"

"Yeah, but make sure you look down the viewport there, it's a set of mirrors that gives you a view on the mithril heat sinks themselves." Medy said.

"Once you start to see them glow red, you stop turning the wheel." Wade looked down at the small open hole right by the wheel and looked down. Nothing but darkness on the other end. He started turning the wheel. At first it was stuck, but Bael mentioned that would be the ice and he should give it a harder push. The demon was correct, Wade heard the crunch of something beyond the wall, and then the wheel started turning easily enough.

He had to crank it quite a few times before he saw even a hint of red down the mirror.

"That'll keep it running for some time." Bael nodded in the video feed.

"What will happen next is the noise."

"The noise? What noise?"

"Metal expands when warmed. This entire bell is built with metal and wood. Everything will push and pull in different ways. It will be hard to spot, but easy to hear. Believe me. You will not miss it." Not even a moment later, he heard an almost ratchet-like sound. A low thunking, fast paced. And then the sound intensified. As if someone was taking a metal bar and slowly bending it past the point it should somewhere outside of the wall ahead. Thankfully that sound ended just as soon as it started. Wade exhaled.

"Well, that was proper terrify-" The entire bell started to groan all over, as if in deep pain. The sound didn't stop either, it kept going. And it was everywhere. Like this was some kind of sinking ship, holding together for dear life. Wade was sure this was it, he'd fucked something up and the entire bell was going to implode on him.

"Oh yeah, that's normal, don't worry about it." Medy said over the speakers as the terrifying sound continued. He almost couldn't hear her over it.

"It sounds a lot worse than it actually is!" The groaning remained, a hair-raising sound that occasionally ratchet up as if some critical part somewhere had finally snapped in half. Wade was outright glued to one side of the wall as if he could hide here from the coming implosion. Feeling the sound vibrating even his bones occasionally.

"Wade!" Leon's voice called out across the groaning.

"Is bell breaking down?!"

"You'll get used to it!" Medy said over the video feed. Wade took a breath of the cold air, "Medy and Bael said it's fine! Just... really terrifying."

"I mean it usually isn't this bad, but sometimes the local gravekeeper gets lazy and forgets to crank the heating wheel every few hours, and things start to contract again so it sounds like that." Medy shrugged.

"It's just a regular part of the whole thing. Anyhow, the bell should heat up in an hour or two, so welcome to the mines! This is going to be a lot of fun now that nobody needs to worry about dying!" Wade gulped. What an absolutely cursed way to start the round.