CHAPTER 89: ANCIENT RIVER

Although he really wasn’t entirely happy. He had managed to kill that beast but hadn’t raised his level one iota.

This dungeon was a failure for him.

She stared at him for ten seconds before grabbing his hand to stand up.

"Thank you." She spoke.

"It’s nothing. Thanks to your poison, we were finally able to win."

"How did you know?"

He smiled. "There was something that was dispersing our fire before this one activated. Only water could do that, so I figured that would be the connection."

She finally understood. "I see... so the water here was special." She said, moving closer to pry.

Louis pulled out the faucet. "Yes. When the key was on the bottom, you couldn’t drown inside it. But when I grabbed it, it became a pretty aggressive one. The currents that form this lake come from some rushing river."

"Maybe the Ancient River forms it."

"Ancient River?"

"Yes, it’s a river that... Hmm, it’s strange but very present in the first 50 floors."

"In 50 floors?" He asked with great surprise.

"Haha, I understand your surprise. But yes, it is present everywhere. In fact, it is on the first nine floors; it’s just that looking for it is complicated."

"How is that possible?" He frowned.

Where does the logic come from that a river can be on 50 floors?

50, you know!

"I don’t know. I don’t understand it either. But it’s true, I’ve seen it in all the floors I’ve been through."

"And where does that river start?"

"I don’t know. The people who go up the floors don’t usually reveal much information about it. All I know is that on the 30th Floor, the part of the Ancient River that we should see is a place of mysticism and magic."

’What a strange thing.’ Louis could not correctly understand the concept, but his interest in seeing that river was uncovered.

Even more, to understand how a river could be present on 50 floors. Were the floors just parts of the same world? Or is it a river going to different worlds?

There were too many questions and not enough answers, but he was sure that as he kept climbing, he would find them.

"Well, I’d like to see that river, but for now let’s focus on what we need to do." He replied.

They both agreed, took some potions to recover, and left the cave.

As they were leaving, they didn’t see a single bat. They had fled as fast as they could and hid.

Eventually, they would return to this place. The dungeon itself would attract them as it had to recover, but for that, it had to first restore the river. Although Louis was also interested in knowing the restoration mechanism that this dungeon would use, he could not stay, as it would not activate until everyone was out.

So they decided not to waste any more time.

"Are we going to the castle, or are we resting?" Laura asked, noting that it was still early.

"Let’s go to the castle. It’s still early."

"Very well. We must go back to the river first to guide ourselves, since the Castle is just behind Red Rock Mountain."

"Right."

They walked back to the river, going over everything they knew about the Castle, reloading weapons, and making sure everything was in order.

Once at the river, they walked back upstream to cross Red Rock Mountain, which did not take long.

Once they reached the top of the mountain, about 2 kilometers away, among green and dry trees, among red and brown rocks, they could see a castle rising even higher than the trees.

It was pretty far away, but they could see it clearly.

When they reached the top of the mountain and saw it, Laura stopped under a tree and took out two things to see in the distance. Antique binoculars.

Very old, should say Louis!

The design was similar to the first portable binoculars ever created on Earth.

Louis looked at her, in shock.

"What the hell are you doing?" he asked, confused.

"Hm? Obviously, reconnoitering the terrain. It’s the first thing we must do in these dungeons that allow us to do it." She replied.

"Oh." He nodded and looked. She was handing him one of the binoculars. He grabbed it and went to use it, but first, he looked at Laura to see what she was doing.

She ignored what he was doing; she just stared at the castle.

He then did the same and understood why she was doing it.

The castle looked spooky. From a distance, a strange darkened energy that was almost imperceptible could be seen, but it floated up and out from the ground.

The ground around it was also darkened, as if it were stained with charcoal.

While the walls seemed to have a play of colors between charcoal black and blood red.

Looking at it carefully, darkened energy seemed to emerge from the black rocks that the walls were constructed of, and it was intermingled with red energy.

"It looks like up close, that smells like blood and charcoal." He spoke.

She smiled, "You’re not that far off the mark. I hear the smell of blood is intense there. But dark energy doesn’t smell like anything, or so they say."

"I understand. It looks like it’s going to be a tricky dungeon, " he said and frowned. "Hm? Was that a spirit?" he asked, seeing something strange cross the castle and come through a window.

It was floating and he couldn’t see it that well, but... It didn’t seem to have a body.

"Yeah... right? So the spirits in this place can be seen a little, huh." Even she was confused.

"Haha..."

It really was going to be a complicated dungeon.

That was why the two of them decided to rest in that place for a while, while they studied the terrain.

After more than 1 hour resting, they resumed their way back to the castle.

When they reached the vicinity, they could see more clearly.

"Those spirits are almost imperceptible to the human eye." Laura said and looked at Louis. "Can you see them?" She asked.

He could see things she couldn’t.

But he shook his head.

"No. But if I concentrate, I can see a lot of threads moving and twisting all over the place."

"Even up?"

"Up and down. This is the first time I’ve seen them, so I have to assume they have something to do with spirits."

"Surely. The Logic Mesh can’t move in all directions."

"True. Then I must say there are many spirits... Many more than you think."