Chapter 430: Reminisce (2)

"Bah! This leads nowhere!" The young master of the Davenmere family exclaimed with frustration, sloping back on his chair. Even as they watched the scene with a faster than normal playback, so far there was nothing worthwhile in the peasant boy's memories to be interested about.

Although his much more keen and sensitive hearing and sight was an interesting trait to such a small teenager… It would, at best, make him a talented scout. The rest of the group was also pretty boring. Although he found it strange that most of the faces were blurry and not clear, with even their voices sounding as if they were speaking from under the water, there was nothing of interest in the recount so far.

Sir Arthur and for that matter, the rest of the present 'investigators', were silently focusing on the screen. Unlike the bored and frustrated Young Noble, they seemed to be deep in thought, and even slightly bothered by something. Their forehead wrinkled, their faces were contorted to deep frowns as they were pondering and processing all the small clues they have picked up so far.

Although the vision kept on playing, showing how the group continued exploring the tunnels, nobody was focusing on it. Eventually, after a minute of silent thinking, Sir Arthur sighed, and put the device down on the desk, and looked over at his peers sitting in.

"What do you think? Is it really possible?" He asked with a helpless sigh, grabbing his temples and rubbing it as if he was trying to massage all the problems away from it.

"Could be. After all, our knowledge of these matters is very limited Arthur." The General sitting at side responded, his eyes resting on the closed-eyed boy who, as if unaware of what was happening, kept transferring his prepared memories to the smaller device in his hand.

"This is getting us nowhere." Captain John sighed, adding his thoughts into the ensuing debate. "However, we still need to understand the circumstances before we could move on."

"Would it matter at this point? We should just move on to the captive instead and try to pry the info out of him directly. It's clear that these visions are just a waste of time…" Sir Arthur sighed, feeling the ensuing troubles if this matter would get out of the walls of this room. He glanced over to the bored-looking blonde teen, whilst his gaze also swayed over at the two firmly standing guards at the door.

Eventually, he could only sigh and lament in silence, not sure of what would be the right thing to do. 

"If I may…" The so-far silent elderly butler, Sebas' aged voice interrupted the discussion. With a nonchalant, polite smile, he pointed their attention towards the screen. "Although it's clear that some method was used to corrupt parts of the playback. It doesn't necessarily mean that what we see is fake. Also, I highly doubt that a young man such as this gentleman could have possibly had such a method at his disposal to accomplish a feat that not even the best of our country can do." 

Giving a light cough, he continued on. "My theory, if I may rudely throw it onto the table, is that perhaps something… happened during the day that had an effect on the youngsters. If that's the case, our foreign friend here…" He glanced at the chained captive, with a look that sent the stubborn, resolute-looking bearded man to look back with a shocked, wide-eyed. There was something behind the butler's smile, his dark grey eyes that sent shivers down his spine…

"Yes… This Sir here might be right. We shouldn't dismiss everything based on our initial assumptions." Captain John nodded agreeing with the elderly butler's words. 

"I…" Sir Arthur pondered for a bit, before nodding at their words. His troubled face shifted back to a neutral outlook, he reached for the device once again. "However we don't need to see every little, irrelevant detail. Let's speed things up a bit."

He said, placing his right thumb over the crystal at the back and injecting more of his own energy into it. His eyes flashed with a mysterious light for a brief moment as focused on the display. 

Suddenly, the image shifted, as the playback of tunnel exploration sped up to a lightning-fast speed. They quickly skimmed through the whole scene, only slowing down for a brief moment when the group has finally found the cause of the disruption. They eventually came face to face with a nightmarish entity, a giant eel-like monster that made a home in the depths below the city.

After a long and atrocious battle, the group did manage to carve a victory for themselves, and with it, it seemed the strange mental block on their sensory skills was also finally uplifted.

Although the creature seemed to be similar to the horrific legends about the Aboleths… But the description didn't truly fit what they could see. For one, Aboleths were usually over 20 feet in length, not just around the size of an average human. For two, these tubular-bodied giant worms weren't existences that would make their home in such places. 

After a bit of further thinking, Sir Arthur thought that the creature was probably some sort of Wyrm that underwent some sort of strange mutation. Glancing over to the General, his scowling, frowning expression only supported this theory. After all, this old dog always had a nose to spot the mutated monsters for some reason.

After that, the group seemed to take an hour-long rest, to recoup some of their spent stamina before continuing their venture even further to the depths. After that point, as if the monster was some sort of guardian, the routes finally opened up. Several subsections, turns, and junctions met the group, who kept traversing as much as they could. 

One thing that Sir Arthur found strange, was that although it wasn't brazenly apparent, it was still strange how easily the group could trace their steps back, no matter how deep they were when they found the dead ends.

They skimmed over most of the daily events, ignoring the many small battles they took with oversized rats, gruesome slimes, or even the strange, unknown creatures that looked to be bipedal, matching the size of the skinks but with patches of dark brown hairs and several disgusting blisters on their bodies. They also looked closer to frogs than the reptilians, the large leathery vocal sac's under their mouths were constantly swelling as they cried.

Ultimately they seemed to cross over the monstrous section of the maze and entered into a much cleaner section of the sprawling underground tunnel system. Even the sewage that was a constant denominator of where they were was nowhere to be found, showing further proof that wherever they were, was no longer part of the sewage system but some ancient, forgotten ruins…

As they stepped into this new, unknown part of what was beneath the city, Sir Arthur slowed down the playback to a normal pace. Even the blonde young noble's interest was piqued as the peasant group found something that could actually turn out to be a worthy investment for his family later on…

The group of investigators watched with apt silence as the group of youngsters slowly, cautiously made their way towards a particular direction where strange, faint noises could be heard…