Shadow Novelist
Volume 23: The Game Changes
← Previous chapter: 715 Opening a Door
Several thoughts shot through Nick's mind.
'It's impossible that any human would still be alive down there,' Nick thought as he looked at the cooling hallway.
'Which means that it can only mean that there are Specters in here.'
'The fact that my ability hadn't deactivated after striking the gate the first couple of times also means that it's not easy for the Specters to perceive their surroundings.'
Nick raised an eyebrow.
'Is this some kind of secret location where they keep Specters?' Nick thought.
'A Specter that has actually interacted with the Enlightened Ones.'
'This might be our ticket to learning more about the Enlightened Ones.'
'This Specter must have seen how the Enlightened Ones have used their technology, and it can probably give us important insight.'
Nick slowly stepped forward.
The hallway was still very hot, but Nick's body could resist the heat.
By now, his ability had also reactivated, which proved again that the other party only knew where he was based on the destruction he had unleashed.
The other party couldn't be sure anymore where Nick was, which meant that it was no longer perceiving him.
After Nick stepped through the broken gate, he noted that the walls had become even harder.
The walls of the hospital were made of rank five materials, which meant that Heroes could break them, while the gate was made of rank six materials.
The walls of this underground area were also made of rank six materials.
Making an entire building out of rank six materials was quite extreme.
Sure, Aegis' headquarters was made of rank seven materials, but that was literally the headquarters of the entirety of humanity.
The strongholds were made of rank six materials, but there were only a couple of them.
Meanwhile, this random basement of a random hospital in a random town was also made of rank six materials.
Either the Enlightened Ones had a crazy surplus of Zephyx, or there was something quite important down here that required this level of security.
At that moment, Nick got a thought.
'Is it energy generation? The secret ruins to the north probably need energy, and that energy was probably generated here.'
'If you want to keep an entire facility secret, you can't move tons of Zephyx through the toilets of a hospital. It would make more sense to generate the energy locally.' Ꞧ’
'Although, I can't be sure.'
After a bit, Nick stopped.
BANG!
Then, Nick stomped on the ground with one of his feet.
Some vibrations went through the hallway.
'Ability's still active,' Nick thought.
Nick continued walking and descended some stairs.
He ended up in a pretty big hallway, which connected to two more sets of stairs.
One of them was going down, while the other one was going up.
Nick walked up the other set of stairs, and sure enough, he found an identical gate blocking his way.
'Seems like the hospital wasn't the only building that leads into the underground.'
For now, Nick wouldn't look at the other building.
He wanted to focus on the underground.
He descended the stairs again and also descended the next set of stairs.
The hallway was made of completely grey material, and it was quite obvious that nobody had cared about appearances here.
Eventually, Nick came across a split in the hallway, but before going down one of the hallways, he stomped the ground again.
BANG!
'Nothing,' Nick thought as he went down one of the hallways.
This hallway ended in a single door, which couldn't look simpler.
Yet, its simple appearance was deceiving.
As Nick touched the door, he narrowed his eyes.
He knocked on it lightly.
'Hard,' Nick thought. 'Really hard. Way harder than the gate.'
'I'm not breaking this one.'
'This has to be rank seven material. Only a Shield can break through this.'
Nick looked at the edges of the door.
The door was still intact, and it was obvious that it was extremely advanced.
Nick could see the signs of countless little fail safes and devices in the cracks of the door.
It had probably been surrounded by several Barriers.
'Luckily, this door is so advanced that everyone relied on its technical capabilities so much that they didn't use primitive measures to isolate it.'
In short, there were small gaps around the door, which would have obviously been blocked by several electrical mechanisms.
But without any power, none of these mechanisms worked.
Most likely, there was a backup storage of Zephyx somewhere buried in the wall, which would keep the door running for months, if not years, in case something happened to the power.
But would there be enough Zephyx to let this door keep running for literally thousands of years?
No.
Time had destroyed all but the most primitive defenses…
Hard walls.
Nick turned into mist and squeezed through one of the gaps.
He easily materialized behind the door and looked around.
Nick was in a small room with almost no furniture.
However, based on the small piles of dust, there probably used to be a bit of furniture here.
The most interesting part was the big pile of dust in the middle of the room.
There was an implant in the pile of dust, which meant that this used to be a human.
However, this was not the only thing that was left.
Nick saw a gleaming sword half-buried in the ashes.
When he saw it, he felt some terror appearing inside of him.
This thing felt very similar to that strange force in the biological machine.
He readied himself and became extremely careful.
Then, Nick stepped forward and grabbed the sword.
'Oof!' Nick thought as he tried to lift the sword.
This thing was heavy!
Like, really heavy!
Nick squatted down and used his entire body to lift the sword.
It wasn't easy, but Nick managed to lift one end of the sword.
'Shit!' Nick thought in panic as the sword slid forward.
BANG!
The sword slid into the pile of dust before stopping, its hilt sticking out of the ground.
Nick took a while to compose himself.
'Did this sword just cut through the ground just because I changed its angle?!'
The sword was fully submerged in the floor, and only its guard was keeping it from falling through it.
This entire room was made of rank seven material!
Only a Shield could break into this room!
And yet, this sword cut through the ground just by touching it!
It was clear that the owner of this sword had not been just a random Extractor!
With his ability active, Nick had about as much physical power as a Peak Hero.
He couldn't even properly lift this sword, and since this was a weapon, this meant that its old user felt that this weight was comfortable for swinging around!
On top of that, based on its size and the shape of its hilt, it was a one-handed sword!
'Even if this thing weighed a tenth of its current weight, I wouldn't be able to comfortably swing it with one hand. I could slowly swing it around with two, but not enough to properly use it as a weapon,' Nick thought.
'That means, even as a Peak Protector, I wouldn't be able to use this properly in a fight.'
'The owner of this sword must have been a Shield and not just an Initial Shield.'
'I estimate that it only becomes usable as a weapon when the wielder has the physical power of a Mid Shield.'
'However, that is just the lower edge.'
'Most likely, the wielder was stronger.'
'Was this a Late Shield or even Peak Shield?'
'Or was it…?'
Nick shook his head.
'No, this couldn't have belonged to a level nine Extractor. There must have been some kind of huge battle before the Enlightened Ones were killed. A level nine Extractor would be able to join the final battle, but since this person died in this isolated room, it probably meant that this person wasn't strong enough to fight in the final battle.'
'It was probably someone who was trying to become a level nine Extractor to join the last battle, but the era of the Enlightened Ones ended before they could reach that level.'
Nick became nervous.
If this was truly what this person was here for, then…
Nick remembered how his ability had deactivated.
'Was this a double fake-out?!'
'People would believe that the faculty to the north was the secret of this place when the true secret was in a random office along the way.'
'Then, the Specter contained here…'
Nick turned into mist and covered the edges of the room.
There was no second exit.
However, if Nick was right, there had to be another exit!
As Nick kept searching, he noticed something.
'There's something on the ground beneath the pile of dust.'
Nick moved the pile of dust to the side, revealing the spot where the sword was stuck in the ground.
'Writing!'
There were a couple of words cut into the floor!
Luckily, Nick knew the language of the Enlightened Ones.
The words translated to:
"We failed"
"X"
"8 to 9"
"Key"
Nick knew what this meant.
Without hesitation, Nick grabbed the hilt of the sword and lifted as much as he could.
He managed to lift the sword a bit, revealing the space beneath to his advanced senses.
Nick dropped the sword again.
What he had just seen below him was very familiar to him.
'A locker room,' Nick thought.
Even the Enlightened Ones had locker rooms before Containment Units.
In the short moment in which Nick had been able to look through the gap, he had also seen a completely black gate.
The material of this gate was even more powerful than the material of this office.
'It's impossible that there's a hidden Eternal in this world,' Nick thought.
'However, Peak Adversaries can also be used to become a level nine Extractor.'
'This material has to be rank eight material, and inside there…'
'Has to be a Peak Adversary.'
'Something as powerful as Death!'