Chapter 41: What Lies Between the Starts Sucks
Void pulled in front of Bee. It forced her to stop so as not to kick her master. She looked around and back over her shoulder. Nothing was chasing them yet. The irrational fear had passed, but the very rational and reasonable worries remained. Still, Void was here. She gathered a hold of herself and took a few deep breaths. Okay, I'm good. This chapter is updated by nov(e)(l)biin.com
Void let out a soft conciliatory hum. It seemed to understand that she was scared, but it needed her head in the game. So they silently stood there for a second, listening to the periodic thuds continue every half second above. Then, after a moment, Void turned around and continued down the gentle curving slope of the catacombs. As calm as it seemed, it moved at a slightly faster pace. Not so much faster than Bee couldn't keep up, though, she occasionally had to break into a jog. As she followed, her heart returned to the slightly elevated rate it had been for most of this trip rather than beating out of her chest.
Now that she had a moment to think, Bee was confused. She assumed the mausoleum in the empty chamber was for the hero from the carvings or maybe one of the hero's subordinates that had been buried there. His honor guard must have been buried above or something. She felt like she wasn't familiar with the legends of these people, but it seemed to be what images were implying.
However, this was a trap. Bee had stupidly triggered the trap, judging by how the coffin lid had moved. Still, it didn't seem like something that a hero would do. Maybe it was the presence of all the skeletons over such a long time, but it could just as easily be some massive curse. Whatever it was, it allowed the aura of death to be so strong that things exposed to it slipped back into this world. Perhaps it was done intentionally to protect the tomb, but this so clearly was the resting place of one of humanity's first saviors. However, she doubted that that would include the hero themself as part of that protection. Unless she misunderstood something and it wasn't just an honor thing. So either the setup was to protect something, or the hero stuff was to bait a trap for unwary adventurers. Both were genuine options in her mind.
They continued downward, further into the catacombs. Perhaps there was another way out further in that wouldn't make them go back into whatever Bee had released. Down the spiral pathway, they continued to encounter more skeletons. They steadily grew in size, strength, and number. It helped Bee to level more, but once they started showing up in threes, she wasn't confident in her ability to take them on.
The room was stunning. Bee couldn't find a better way to describe it.
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I rolled under the curtain and stopped. I was not prepared for this new room. I have seen many beautiful things in my time here, but this... Well, I might have a new favorite room. If only it were easier to get to, I could spend much more time here.
First of all, the place was immaculate. Not a speck of the grime from outside stained the floor here. I looked at it. In stark contrast to my other favorite room, this one had a surface made of white glass. It was like obsidian in all but color. Slick and smooth and beautiful. It was even reflective enough for my sensors to pick up my own image. I wished they hadn't. My underside was filthy. Most of the demon oil had been cleaned off when I brushed against the rugs upstairs. However, our trip to the catacombs had also caked it in the dust. Distressed, I turned my vacuum on full and spun around in tight circles. The combined forces of spin and suction let me dislodge some of the mess on me, and my vacuum power didn't let it get very far. Quickly I cleaned myself as much as possible. I was still far from what I would consider a proper cleaning, but it was good enough for now. Looking at my reflection no longer disgusted me.
That taken care of, I felt that I was able to appreciate this room fully. The floor was gently sloped but not so slippery that I couldn't roll up the center mound. And in the middle of the room, I saw a statue. What was it with these designers? They would make a fantastic, gorgeous floor and stick a statue in the center. Why? It just interrupted the flow of everything. If it were just an empty room, free of obstacles, it would be perfect for meditative cleaning. But no, they used it to display a dull statue. At least the statue was made in better taste than the one on the black floor. Where that one was some monster's image, this was of a human. Humans, I at least liked. Putting a statue that looked like a mess maker on such a fantastic floor, in any case... That was just tactless.
Losing interest in the center of the room quickly, I went to explore the edges. As I went, I noticed that there were no shadows in this room. It was pretty interesting. I supposed it was good because it would just detract from perfection. In this chamber, the walls were only a third of the width of the previous rooms. I also noticed no exit besides the way we came in. It seemed like this was the deepest part. We had reached the end and would have to return the way we came. The walls were made of a slightly different white stone material, not glass. I couldn't see that until I got relatively close.
The way it looked, the floor seemed to continue past the wall. It made me question how this was built. As skillfully as the wall joined to the floor, it looked more like it was already there. Maybe the wall was added as an afterthought.
I spent some time just enjoying the pure beauty of the floor and aesthetics here. I couldn't decide which one I enjoyed more: this room or the black one upstairs. But eventually, I knew we needed to move on. It had taken us a very long time to get down here. By my internal count, precisely 13 hours and 15 minutes. Now that I thought about it, this was the time that Beatrice needed to charge. I was fine since I had been topping off my reserves, slowly transmuting the dust I collected. Between that and my reserves, I had no problem keeping my sanitation lamp on to clean everything. But Beatrice would need to charge soon.
I looked around at the beautiful floors. Well, perhaps there were worse places to charge.