Chapter 450 “Experience”

Chapter 450 “Experience”

The winches rotated, the steel cables were taut, and the metal “cage” creaked and rattled as it ran downward, while darkness filled the outside of the cage, and there were yellow gas lamps embedded in the sidewalls of the shaft, dispersing the darkness of the depths of the mine and bringing a limited but necessary sense of security.

Agatha stood at the edge of the elevator, her “eyes” peering through the guardrail down the shaft, the black cloth of the night covering her eyes and most of her expression, making it almost impossible to guess what she was thinking right now.

“It’s so deep in here ……” a voice suddenly broke the calm in the lift, Alice stood behind Duncan nervously, looking up at the gas lights that kept rising up from the walls of the shaft on both sides while saying with a bit of fear, “I feel like we’re almost there,” she said. “I feel like we’re about to fall through the city-state into the sea ……”

“Continuous descent can create that illusion,” Maurice’s voice came from the corner of the cage, the old scholar was curiously observing the inner workings of the large elevator while saying without looking back, “In fact, we should only be about two or three hundred meters down now. ”

“Oh…” Alice’s voice was drawn out, and she didn’t know if she could understand how deep the concept of “two or three hundred meters” was, anyway, the doll’s face revealed “That sounds awesome” expression on the doll’s face.

Duncan didn’t care about the conversation between Alice and Maurice, he stepped forward and came to Agatha, who was standing silently at the edge of the cabin, and turned his head to look at the “Gatekeeper”: “You look preoccupied.”

“…… I just can’t help but have had a lot of thoughts since I went down the well,” Agatha spoke in a complicated tone after two seconds of silence, “It’s said that …… ‘The Other Me’ was standing in this very spot, leading members of the Exploration Force down this shaft into the depths of the Boiling Gold Mine ……”

Her voice was hoarse with a hint of hesitation.

“‘She’ seemed at that time …… to have sensed the truth about what was happening to her, and according to the details described by several of the guardsmen who went down the shaft together at the time, that’s when she took on a strange attitude of determination, but no one knows for Why ……”

“If that ‘fake’ really did restore your mind and memories for the most part, it is not inconceivable that she could perceive her true self,” Duncan said lightly, “Even a replica can possess a tough will and a noble mind.”

Agatha didn’t say anything for a while, seemingly lost in a tumultuous and heavy thought, and after a long time, she suddenly broke the silence, “I was just wondering …… what she was thinking and remembering at that time… …Was she ever afraid, or regretful? She has my memories, but only a few days of real life… does she harbor resentment towards all of this ……?”

Duncan turned his head and gazed at Agatha in silence.

After a few moments of gazing, he spoke slowly, “If it were you, would you harbor resentment, or regret your decision?”

“No.”

“Apparently, neither would she.”

“But ……” added Agatha, immediately afterward, “but …… I suppose I shall still have some regrets, and when I die in the darkness I shall think of the the city-state in the sunlight, and think of the familiar people and things in the city, and if as a clone, I’ll still regret that I couldn’t cross that gate at Bartok, because I don’t know if I have a soul or not, and I ……”

She paused and inhaled softly, a hint of sadness seeming to creep into her tone, “Yes, I would regret it if it were me.”

Duncan looked at her, and after a long moment he withdrew his gaze and turned his head to look at the dimness that was rising all around him and the lights in the dimness, “So would she.”

Agatha was silent for a moment, as if talking to herself, and as if asking softly, “What will we see down there ……”

“I don’t know, that’s why it was necessary for us to come down and confirm the situation.” Duncan said, glancing back at the few figures in the coupe – Alice, Maurice, and Vanna, who was standing in the middle of the lift with her arms wrapped around her closed eyes – there was no one else in the place but the three of them, plus Agatha and himself.

“You didn’t bring any of your men with you, and only called on us out of an abundance of caution?”

“I don’t know what’s going to happen down there, it could be contamination left behind by the ancient gods, it could be ‘truth’ that will spread, and bringing along ordinary guardsmen and priests in a state of uncertainty is just adding to the uncontrollability,” Agatha said matter-of-factly. “You and your followers are obviously not afraid of that.”

Duncan listened, just smiled and said nothing.

Just then, the car’s descent began to slow rapidly, and with the creaking of the automated mechanisms and the final clunk of the “cage” hitting the bottom, the elevator finally reached the bottom of the mine.

“We’re here,” Agatha looked up, glanced outside, and took the lead in opening the grated door and heading out, subconsciously reminding those behind her as she did so, “Be careful, this place has only been preliminarily cleaned up – the emergency response personnel were evacuated hours ago. Emergency responders were evacuated hours ago, and what we’re heading for next is truly the ‘Unknown Deep Darkness’.”

With that, she paused abruptly again, turning her head somewhat awkwardly to Duncan, “Of course, these reminders may be a bit redundant for you ……”

Duncan waved his hand to show that he didn’t care, and at the same time took another look at the situation deeper into the alleyway – there were only a few gas lamps releasing a dim glow in the darkness, making the alleyway ahead more and more shadowed, suspicious piles of objects were everywhere, and hauntingly disturbing and treacherous atmosphere, which couldn’t be said to be any kind of reassuring scene! It was not a reassuring scene.

“Shouldn’t have let Nina back on the ship so early,” he said casually, “It’s just as well she came over when it’s this dark.”

“Or maybe she got startled by something in the darkness and a good few thousand degree sneeze blew up the whole mine,” Maurice couldn’t help but chime in, “I don’t really recommend that you take Nina around in any dark, confined spaces- -she’s still young and prone to startling.”

Duncan shrugged, “Kids have to grow up sometime, and she’s almost out of high school.”

The expression on Maurice’s face stiffened a bit for a moment, and the corners of his mouth quivered several times before he spoke while weighing his words, “Captain, under normal circumstances, a child graduating from high school would choose to celebrate their coming of age with a party or a trip, not an adventure through a mine tunnel that has suffered from the erosion of an ancient god as a ‘graduation present ‘ ……”

Duncan smiled pleasantly, and then immediately, as if remembering something, suddenly whipped his head around and asked Vanna again, “How did you spend your seventeenth bar mitzvah?” He was just asking casually, wanting to wait as a reference for when he celebrated Nina’s or Sherry’s bar mitzvahs someday.

Vanna, on the other hand, didn’t expect the focus of the conversation to suddenly fall on her, and the beautiful young strong woman was stunned, with some embarrassment quickly surfacing on her face before she took a step forward while muttering in a low voice, “…… was preparing for a make-up exam for the deferred school year… …”

Duncan: “……”

The atmosphere seems to be a bit awkward, Duncan can only helplessly show his hands, but Agatha, who is walking in front of him, suddenly turns back and seems to be casting an unbelievable “gaze”.

“What’s wrong?” Duncan asked casually.

“…… No matter how many times I’ve seen it, it feels like the way you relate to your own followers is truly marvelous, and the you who has taken back your humanity is really the polar opposite of the legendary you of the past century – I think I can more or less understand why that Captain Lawrence of the White Oak and his men were such an interesting bunch.”

Listening to the other party’s first few words Duncan didn’t have much of a reaction, but when he heard the latter his expression immediately became subtle, and when Agatha’s words fell he spoke, “Again, although the entire crew of the White Oak is considered to be my subordinates I really don’t know them very well ……”

Agatha nodded her head, “Yes, you don’t know them well – you’ve emphasized that before.”

Duncan didn’t hear any seriousness at all in the other party’s tone, and could only sigh helplessly, “How did it all work out in the end? I mean that ‘cargo list’ of Lawrence’s.”

“Frost needs supplies right now, and we never break a contract – the goods, now that they’ve arrived, are followed up by payment, of course,” Agatha said, but then shook her head, “but only part of it. ”

“Oh?”

“The most crucial ‘cargo’, Anomaly 077 is in an out-of-control state and cannot be delivered,” Agatha explained, “What the contract calls for is for the White Oak to deliver the ‘Sailor’ in its sealed state ‘ to be delivered to the Frost Hall of Sacred Artifacts, not a living, breathing, dry corpse ……

“Then again, the dry corpse himself seemed quite eager to be ‘delivered’, and almost cried with joy when he heard that the list of goods to be handed over to Frost included himself – alas, we don’t know what to do with an anomaly that’s in a state of chronic loss of control and can’t be sealed again, it’s better to leave him in your hands to deal with personally.”

“A long-term out-of-control anomaly ah ……”

Duncan muttered subconsciously, craning his head to look beside him.

Alice also twisted her head and realized that the captain was looking at her, and a happy look immediately appeared on the doll lady’s face, “Hehehe ……”

Duncan sighed, “Well, I do have some experience.”

Agatha also subconsciously glanced at Alice, a somewhat complicated look seeming to pass over her face.

To this day, she had already learned the true identity of this “Miss Doll” from Duncan’s mouth, and as a native Frostbite, she certainly knew that it was a very special thing for “Abnormality 099” to move around in Frostbite City in such a big way.

There were countless questions she wanted to ask, intense curiosity and unexplained apprehension stirring in her already cooled chest – but she never found the chance to speak in front of Captain Duncan, who didn’t seem to care much about anything.

“I think ……”

Agatha seemed to finally make up her mind as she broke the silence, yet just as she was about to ask some questions about Alice, a sudden palpitation made her pause violently again.

Almost at the same time, everyone in the group stopped in their tracks.

Agatha turned her head to look into the deepest part of this deep and long alleyway, while under the thick black cloth covering her vision, which had already been sublimated in flames, was shaking, trembling, and twisting, as if an invisible wind was blowing head-on, and there were countless and confusing sounds mixed in that invisible wind, which shocked her perceptions.

She felt that her mind is being disturbed, the depths of the alleyway of some huge existence …… no, strictly speaking should be a huge existence of the residual sound left behind, is resonating with her reason, she can not “see” what is there, but she can feel the …… There is a faint echo in that overwhelming sound.

That faint echo was softly calling her to come over.

“What’s …… over there?”

The blind Goddess Officer opened her mouth to ask, subconsciously reaching out her hand as if to stabilize her somewhat shaky body.

A slightly wider but distinctly feminine-lined hand reached out from the side – Vanna reached out to help Agatha and looked up at the vast darkness at the end of the alleyway.

“It seems to be a hollow,” Vanna whispered, a hint of nervousness in her tone, “a huge …… hollow.”

(Push the book time, from the toad’s new book “multiply the dragon immortal son-in-law”, classical immortal knight-errantry, old soup and old flavor, seedling is very young, milk a mouthful, sacrifice a sky.)
(The end of this chapter)